State of the Nation immediately after the Revolution…..
Account of the new Ministry….. The Convention converted
into a Parliament….. Mutiny in the Army….. The
Coronation, and abolition of Hearth-money….. The Commons
vote a Sum of Money to indemnify the Dutch….. William’s
Efforts in Favour of the Dissenters….. Act for a
Toleration….. Violent disputes about the Bill for a
Comprehension….. The Commons address the King to summon a
Convocation of the Clergy….. Settlement of the
Revenue….. The King takes Umbrage at the Proceedings of
the Whig-party….. Heats and Animosities about the Bill of
Indemnity recommended by the King….. Birth of the Duke of
Gloucester….. Affairs of the Continent….. War declared
against France….. Proceedings in the Convention of
Scotland, of which the Duke of Hamilton is chosen
President….. Letters to the Convention from King William
and King James….. They recognise the authority of King
William….. They vote the Crown vacant, and pass an Act of
settlement in favour of William and Mary….. They appoint
Commissioners to make a Tender of the Crown to William, who
receives it on the conditions they propose….. Enumeration
of their Grievances….. The Convention is declared a
Parliament, and the Duke of Hamilton King’s
Commissioner….. Prelacy abolished in that Kingdom….. The
Scots dissatisfied with the King’s Conduct….. Violent
disputes in the Scotch Parliament….. which is
adjourned….. A Remonstrance presented to the King—The
Castle of Edinburgh besieged and taken-The Troops of King
William defeated at Killycrankie….. King James cordially
received by the French King….. Tyrconnel temporizes with
King William….. James arrives in Ireland….. Issues five
Proclamations at Dublin….. Siege of Londonderry….. The
Inhabitants defend themselves with surprising Courage and
Perseverance….. Cruelty of Rosene, the French General…..
The Place is relieved by Kirke….. The Inniskilliners
defeat and take General Maccarty….. Meeting of the Irish
Parliament….. They repeal the Act of Settlement….. Pass
an Act of Attainder against Absentees….. James coins base
Money….. The Protestants of Ireland cruelly oppressed…..
Their Churches are seized by the Catholics, and they are
forbid to assemble on pain of Death….. Admiral Herbert
worsted by the French Fleet in an Engagement near Ban-try-
bay….. Divers Sentences and Attainders reversed in
Parliament….. Inquiry into the Cause of Miscarriages in
Ireland….. Bills passed in this Session of Parliament.

STATE OF THE NATION IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE REVOLUTION.

1689

The constitution of England had now assumed a new aspect. The maxim of
hereditary indefeisible right was at length renounced by a free
parliament. The power of the crown was acknowledged to flow from no other
fountain than that of a contract with the people. Allegiance and
protection were declared reciprocal ties depending upon each other. The
representatives of the nation made a regular claim of rights in behalf of
their constituents; and William III. ascended the throne in consequence of
an express capitulation with the people. Yet, on this occasion, the zeal
of the parliament towards their deliverer seems to have overshot their
attachment to their own liberty and privileges: or at least they neglected
the fairest opportunity that ever occurred, to retrench those prerogatives
of the crown to which they imputed all the late and former calamities of
the kingdom. Their new monarch retained the old regal power over
parliaments in its full extent. He was left at liberty to convoke,
adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve them at his pleasure. He was enabled to
influence elections, and oppress corporations. He possessed the right of
choosing his own council; of nominating all the great officers of the
state, and of the household, of the army, the navy, and the church. He
reserved the absolute command of the militia: so that lie remained master
of all the instruments and engines of corruption and violence, without any
other restraint than his own moderation, and prudent regard to the claim
of rights, and principle of resistance on which the revolution was
founded. In a word, the settlement was finished with some precipitation,
before the plan had been properly digested and matured; and this will be
the case in every establishment formed upon a sudden emergency in the face
of opposition. It was observed, that the king, who was made by the people,
had it in his power to rule without them; to govern jure divino
though he was created jure humano: and that, though the change
proceeded from a republican spirit, the settlement was built upon tory
maxims; for the execution of his government continued still independent of
his commission, while his own person remained sacred and inviolable. The
prince of Orange had been invited to England by a coalition of parties,
united by a common sense of danger; but this tie was no sooner broken than
they flew asunder and each resumed its original bias. Their mutual
jealousy and rancour revived, and was heated by dispute into intemperate
zeal and enthusiasm. Those who at first acted from principles of
patriotism were insensibly warmed into partizans; and king William soon
found himself at the head of a faction. As he had been bred, a Calvinist,
and always expressed an abhorrence of spiritual persecution, the
presbyter-ians, and other protestant dissenters, considered him as their
peculiar protector, and entered into his interests with the most zealous
fervour and assiduity. For the same reasons the friends of the church
became jealous of his proceedings, and employed all their influence, first
in opposing his elevation to the throne, and afterwards in thwarting his
measures. Their party was espoused by all the friends of the lineal
succession; by the Roman catholics; by those who were personally attached
to the late king; and by such as were disgusted by the conduct and
personal deportment of William since his arrival in England. They
observed, That, contrary to his declaration, he had plainly aspired to the
crown; and treated his father-in-law with insolence and rigour; that his
army contained a number of foreign papists, almost equal to that of the
English Roman catholics whom James had employed; that the reports so
industriously circulated about the birth of the prince of Wales, the
treaty with France for enslaving England, and the murder of the earl of
Essex-reports countenanced by the prince of Orange-now appeared to be
without foundation; that the Dutch troops remained in London, while the
English forces were distributed in remote quarters; that the prince
declared the first should be kept about his person, and the latter sent to
Ireland; that the two houses out of complaisance to William, had denied
their late sovereign the justice of being heard in his own defence; and
that the Dutch had lately interfered with the trade of London, which was
already sensibly diminished. These were the sources of discontent, swelled
up by the resentment of some noblemen and other individuals, disappointed
in their hopes of profit and preferment.

ACCOUNT OF THE NEW MINISTRY.

William began his reign with a proclamation, for confirming all
protestants in the offices which they enjoyed on the first day of
December; then he chose the members of his council, who were generally
staunch to his interest, except the archbishop of Canterbury and the earl
of Nottingham, and these were admitted in complaisance to the
church-party, which it was not thought adviseable to provoke. 001
[See note A, at the end of this Vol.] Nottingham and Shrewsbury
were appointed secretaries of state; the privy-seal was bestowed upon the
marquis of Halifax; the earl of Danby was created president of the
council. These two noblemen enjoyed a good share of the king’s confidence,
and Nottingham was considerable as head of the church-party: but the chief
favourite was Bentinck, first commoner on the list of privy-counsellors,
as well as groom of the stole and privy purse. D’Averquerque was made
master of the horse, Zuylestein of the robes, and Sehomberg of the
ordnance: the treasury, admiralty, and chancery were put in commission;
twelve able judges were chosen;* and the diocese of Salisbury being
vacated by the death of Dr. Ward, the king of his own free motion filled
it with Burnet, who had been a zealous stickler for his interest; and in a
particular manner instrumental in effecting the revolution. Sancroft,
archbishop of Canterbury, refused to consecrate this ecclesiastic, though
the reasons of his refusal are not specified; but, being afraid of
incurring the penalties of a premunire, he granted a commission to the
bishop of London, and three other suffragans, to perform that ceremony.
Burnet was a prelate of some parts, and great industry; moderate in his
notions of church discipline, inquisitive, meddling, vain, and credulous.
In consequence of having incurred the displeasure of the late king, he had
retired to the continent and fixed his residence in Holland, where he was
naturalized, and attached himself to the interest of the prince of Orange,
who consulted him about the affairs of England. He assisted in drawing up
the prince’s manifesto, and wrote some other papers and pamphlets in
defence of his design. He was demanded of the States by the English
ambassador as a British fugitive, outlawed by king James, and excepted in
the act of indemnity. Nevertheless, he came over with William in quality
of his chaplain; and, by his intrigues, contributed in some measure to the
success of that expedition. The principal individuals that composed this
ministry have been characterized in the history of the preceding reigns.
We have had occasion to mention the fine talents, the vivacity, the
flexibility of Halifax; the plausibility, the enterprising genius, the
obstinacy of Danby; the pompous eloquence, the warmth, and ostentation of
Nottingham; the probity and popularity of Shrewsbury. Godolphin, now
brought into the treasury, was modest, silent, sagacious, and upright.
Mordaunt, appointed first commissioner of that board, and afterwards
created earl of Monmouth, was open, generous, and a republican in his
principles. Delamere, chancellor of the exchequer, promoted in the sequel
to the rank of earl of Warrington, was close and mercenary.
Obsequiousness, fidelity, and attachment to his master, composed the
character of Bentinck, whom the king raised to the dignity of earl of
Portland. The English favourite, Sidney, was a man of wit and pleasure,
possessed of the most engaging talents for conversation and private
friendship, but rendered unfit for public business by indolence and
inattention. He was ennobled, and afterwards created earl of Romney; a
title which he enjoyed with several successive posts of profit and
importance. The stream of honour and preferment ran strong in favour of
the whigs, and this appearance of partiality confirmed the suspicion and
resentment of the opposite party.

* Sir John Holt was appointed lord chief justice of the king’s
bench, and Sir Henry Pollexfen of the common pleas: the
earl of Devonshire was made lord steward of the
household, and the earl of Dorset lord
chamberlain.—Ralph.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THE CONVENTION CONVERTED INTO A PARLIAMENT.

The first resolution taken in the new council was to convert the
convention into a parliament, that the new settlement might be
strengthened by a legal sanction, which was now supposed to be wanting, as
the assembly had not been convoked by the king’s writ of summons. The
experiment of a new election was deemed too hazardous; therefore the
council determined that the king should, by virtue of his own authority,
change the convention into a parliament, by going to the house of peers
with the usual state of a sovereign, and pronouncing a speech from the
throne to both houses. This expedient was accordingly practised. 002
[See note B, at the end of this Vol.] He assured them he should
never take any step that would diminish the good opinion they had
conceived of his integrity. He told them that Holland was in such a
situation as required their immediate attention and assistance; that the
posture of affairs at home likewise demanded their serious consideration;
that a good settlement was necessary, not only for the establishment of
domestic peace, but also for the support of the protestant interest
abroad: that the affairs of Ireland were too critically situated to admit
the least delay in their deliberations; he therefore begged they would be
speedy and effectual in concerting such measures as should be judged
indispensably necessary for the welfare of the nation. The commons
returning to their house, immediately passed a vote of thanks to his
majesty, and made an order that his speech should be taken into
consideration. After the throne had been declared vacant by a small
majority of the peers, those who opposed that measure had gradually
withdrawn themselves from the house, so that very few remained but such as
were devoted to the new monarch. These therefore brought in a bill for
preventing all disputes concerning the present parliament. In the
meantime, Mr. Hambden, in the lower house, put the question, Whether a
king elected by the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons
assembled at Westminster, coming to and consulting with the said lords
and commons, did not make as complete a parliament and legislative power
and authority as if the said king should cause new elections to be made by
writ? Many members affirmed that the king’s writ was as necessary as his
presence to the being of a legal parliament, and as the convention was
defective in this particular, it could not be vested with a parliamentary
authority by any management whatsoever. The whigs replied, That the
essence of a parliament consisted in the meeting and co-operation of the
king, lords, and commons; and that it was not material whether they were
convoked by writ or by letter: they proved this assertion by examples
deduced from the history of England: they observed that a new election
would be attended with great trouble, expense, and loss of time; and that
such delay might prove fatal to the protestant interest in Ireland, as
well as to the allies on the continent. In the midst of this debate the
bill was brought down from the lords, and being read, a committee was
appointed to make some amendments. These were no sooner made than the
commons sent it back to the upper house, and it immediately received the
royal assent. By this act the lords and commons assembled at Westminster
were declared the two houses of parliament to all intents and purposes: it
likewise ordained, That the present act, and all other acts to which the
royal assent should be given before the next prorogation, should be
understood and adjudged in law to begin on the thirteenth day of February:
that the members, instead of the old oaths of allegiance and supremacy,
should take the new oath incorporated in this act under the ancient
penalty; and that the present parliament should be dissolved in the usual
manner. Immediately after this transaction a warm debate arose in the
house of commons about the revenue, which the courtiers alleged had
devolved with the crown upon William, at least during the life of James,
for which term the greater part of it had been granted. The members in the
opposition affirmed that these grants were vacated with the throne; and at
length it was voted, That the revenue had expired. Then a motion was made,
That a revenue should be settled on the king and queen; and the house
resolved it should be taken into consideration. While they deliberated on
this affair they received a message from his majesty, importing that the
late king had set sail from Brest with an armament to invade Ireland. They
forthwith resolved to assist his majesty with their lives and fortunes;
they voted a temporary aid of four hundred and twenty thousand pounds, to
be levied by monthly assessments, and both houses waited on the king to
signify this resolution. But this unanimity did not take place till
several lords spiritual as well as temporal had, rather than take the
oaths, absented themselves from parliament. The nonjuring prelates were
Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury; Turner, bishop of Ely; Lake, of
Chichester; Ken, of Bath and Wells; White, of Peterborough; Lloyd, of
Norwich; Thomas, of Worcester; and Frampton, of Gloucester. The temporal
peers who refused the oath were the duke of Newcastle; the earls of
Clarendon, Litchfield, Exeter, Yarmouth, and Stafford; the lords Griffin
and Stawel. Five of the bishops withdrew themselves from the house at one
time; but before they retired one of the number moved for a bill of
toleration, and another of comprehension, by which moderate dissenters
might be reconciled to the church, and admitted into ecclesiastical
benefices. Such bills were actually prepared and presented by the earl of
Nottingham, who received the thanks of the house for the pains he had
taken. From this period the party averse to the government of William were
distinguished by the appellation of Nonjurors. They rejected the notion of
a king de facto, as well as all other distinctions and limitations;
and declared for the absolute power and divine hereditary indefeisible
right of sovereigns.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

MUTINY IN THE ARMY.

This faction had already begun to practise against the new government. The
king having received some intimation of their designs from intercepted
letters, ordered the earl of Arran, sir Robert Hamilton, and some other
gentlemen of the Scottish nation, to be apprehended and sent prisoners to
the Tower. Then he informed the two houses of the step he had taken, and
even craved their advice with regard to his conduct in such a delicate
affair which had compelled him to trespass upon the law of England. The
lords thanked him for the care he took of their liberties, and desired he
would secure all disturbers of the peace: but the commons empowered him by
a bill to dispense with the habeas-corpus act till the seventeenth
day of April next ensuing. This was a stretch of confidence in the crown
which had not been made in favour of the late king, even while Argyle and
Monmouth were in open rebellion. A spirit of discontent had by this time
diffused itself through the army, and become so formidable to the court,
that the king resolved to retain the Dutch troops in England and send over
to Holland in their room such regiments as were most tinctured with
disaffection. Of these the Scottish regiment of Dumbarton, commanded by
mareschal Schomberg, mutinied on its march to Ipswich, seized the military
chest, disarmed the officers who opposed their design, declared for king
James, and with four pieces of cannon began their march for Scotland.
William, being informed of this revolt, ordered general Ginckel to pursue
them with three regiments of Dutch dragoons, and the mutineers surrendered
at discretion. As the delinquents were natives of Scotland, which had not
yet submitted in form to the new government, the king did not think proper
to punish them as rebels, but ordered them to proceed for Holland
according to his first intention. Though this attempt proved abortive, it
made a strong impression upon the ministry, who were divided among
themselves and wavered in their principles. However, they used this
opportunity to bring in a bill for punishing mutiny and desertion, which
in a little time passed both houses and received the royal assent.

CORONATION—ABOLITION OF HEARTH-MONEY.

The coronation oath 003 [See note C, at the end of this Vol.]
being altered and explained, that ceremony was performed on the eleventh
day of April, the bishop of London officiating, at the king’s desire, in
the room of the metropolitan, who was a malcontent; and next day the
commons in a body waited on the king and queen at Whitehall, with an
address of congratulation. William, with a view to conciliate the
affections of his new subjects, and check the progress of clamour and
discontent, signified in a solemn message to the house of commons, his
readiness to acquiesce in any measure they should think proper to take for
a new regulation or total suppression of the hearth-money, which he
understood was a grievous imposition on his subjects; and this tax was
afterwards abolished. He was gratified with an address of thanks, couched
in the warmest expressions of duty, gratitude, and affection, declaring
they would take such measures in support of his crown, as would convince
the world that he reigned in the hearts of his people.

THE COMMONS VOTE MONEY TO INDEMNIFY THE DUTCH.

He had, in his answer to their former address, assured them of his
constant regard to the rights and prosperity of the nation: he had
explained the exhausted state of the Dutch; expatiated upon the zeal of
that republic for the interests of Britain, as well as the maintenance of
the protestant religion; and expressed his hope that the English
parliament would not only repay the sums they had expended in his
expedition, but likewise further support them to the utmost of their
ability against the common enemies of their liberties and religion. He had
observed that a considerable army and fleet would be necessary for the
reduction of Ireland and the protection of Britain, and he desired they
would settle the revenue in such a manner that it might be collected
without difficulty and dispute. The sum total of the money expended by the
states-general in William’s expedition amounted to seven millions of
guilders, and the commons granted six hundred thousand pounds for the
discharge of this debt, incurred for the preservation of their rights and
religion. They voted funds for raising and maintaining an army of
two-and-twenty thousand men, as well as for equipping a numerous fleet:
but they provided for no more than half a year’s subsistence of the
troops, hoping the reduction of Ireland might be finished in that term;
and this instance of frugality the king considered as a mark of their
diffidence of his administration. The whigs were resolved to supply him
gradually, that he might be the more dependent upon their zeal and
attachment; but he was not at all pleased with their precaution.

WILLIAM’S EFFORTS IN FAVOUR OF DISSENTEES.

William was naturally biassed to Calvinism, and averse to persecution.
Whatever promises he had made, and whatever sentiments of respect he had
entertained for the church of England, he seemed now in a great measure
alienated from it by the opposition he had met with from its members,
particularly from the bishops who had thwarted his measures. By absenting
themselves from parliament, and refusing the oath, they had plainly
disowned his title and renounced his government. He therefore resolved to
mortify the church, and gratify his own friends at the same time, by
removing the obstacles affixed to nonconformity, that all protestant
dissenters should be rendered capable of enjoying and exercising civil
employments. When he gave his assent to the bill for suspending the habeas-corpus
act, he recommended the establishment of a new oath in lieu of those of
allegiance and supremacy: he expressed his hope that they would leave room
for the admission of all his protestant subjects who should be found
qualified for the service; he said, such a conjunction would unite them
the more firmly among themselves, and strengthen them against their common
adversaries. In consequence of this hint, a clause was inserted in the
bill for abrogating the old and appointing the new oaths, by which the
sacramental test was declared unnecessary in rendering any person capable
of enjoying any office or employment. It was, however, rejected by a great
majority in the house of lords. Another clause for the same purpose,
though in different terms, was proposed by the king’s direction, and met
with the same fate, though in both cases several noblemen entered a
protest against the resolution of the house. These fruitless efforts in
favour of dissenters augmented the prejudice of the churchmen against king
William, who would have willingly compromised the difference by excusing
the clergy from the oaths, provided the dissenters might be exempted from
the sacramental test: but this was deemed the chief bulwark of the church,
and therefore the proposal was rejected. The church party in the house of
lords moved, That instead of inserting a clause obliging the clergy to
take the oaths, the king should be empowered to tender them; and, in case
of their refusal, they should incur the penalty, because deprivation, or
the apprehensions of it, might make them desperate and excite them to form
designs against the government. This argument had no weight with the
commons, who thought it was indispensably necessary to exact the oaths of
the clergy, as their example influenced the kingdom in general, and the
youth of the nation were formed under their instructions. After a long and
warm debate, all the mitigation that could be obtained was a clause
empowering the king to indulge any twelve clergymen, deprived by virtue of
this act, with a third part of their benefices during pleasure. Thus the
ancient oaths of allegiance and supremacy were abrogated: the declaration
of non-resistance in the act of uniformity was repealed: the new oath of
allegiance was reduced to its primitive simplicity, and the
coronation-oath rendered more explicit. The clergy were enjoined to take
the new oaths before the first day of August, on pain of being suspended
from their office for six months, and of entire deprivation, in case they
should not take them before the expiration of this term. They generally
complied, though with such reservations and distinctions as were not much
for the honour of their sincerity.

ACT FOR A TOLERATION.

The king, though baffled in his design against the sacramental test,
resolved to indulge the dissenters with a toleration; and a bill for this
purpose being prepared by the earl of Nottingham, was, after some debate,
passed into a law, under the title of an act for exempting their
majesties’ protestant subjects, dissenting from the church of England,
from the penalties of certain laws. It enacted, That none of the penal
laws should be construed to extend to those dissenters who should take the
oaths to the present government, and subscribe the declaration of the
thirtieth year of the reign of Charles II. provided that they should hold
no private assemblies or conventicles with the doors shut; that nothing
should be construed to exempt them from the payment of tithes or other
parochial duties: that, in case of being chosen into the office of
constable, churchwarden, overseer, &c. and of scrupling to take the
oaths annexed to such offices, they should be allowed to execute the
employment by deputy: that the preachers and teachers in congregations of
dissenting protestants who should take the oaths, subscribe the
declaration, together with all the articles of religion, except the
thirty-fourth and the two succeeding articles, and part of the twentieth,
should be exempted from the penalties decreed against non-conformists, as
well as from serving upon juries, or acting in parish offices: yet all
justices of the peace were empowered to require such dissenters to
subscribe the declaration and take the oaths; and, in case of refusal, to
commit them to prison without bail or mainprize. The same indulgence was
extended to anabaptists, and even to quakers, on their solemn promise
before God to be faithful to the king and queen, and their assenting by
profession and asseveration to those articles which the others ratified
upon oath: they were likewise required to profess their belief in the
Trinity and the Holy Scriptures. Even the papists felt the benign
influence of William’s moderation in spiritual matters: he rejected the
proposal of some zealots, who exhorted him to enact severe laws against
popish recusants. Such a measure, he observed, would alienate all the
papists of Europe from the interests of England, and might produce a new
Catholic league which would render the war a religious quarrel; besides,
he would not pretend to screen the protestants of Germany and Hungary,
while he himself should persecute the Catholics of England. He therefore
resolved to treat them with lenity; and though they were not comprehended
in the act, they enjoyed the benefit of the toleration.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

VIOLENT DISPUTES ABOUT THE BILL FOR A COMPREHENSION.

We have observed that, in consequence of the motion made by the bishops
when they withdrew from parliament, a bill was brought into the house of
lords for uniting their majesties’ protestant subjects. This was extremely
agreeable to the king, who had the scheme of comprehension very much at
heart. In the progress of the bill a warm debate arose about the posture
of kneeling at the sacrament, which was given up in favour of the
dissenters. Another no less violent ensued upon the subsequent question,
“Whether there should be an addition of laity in the commission to be
given by the king to the bishops and others of the clergy, for preparing
such a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs as might be the means of
healing divisions, and correcting whatever might be erroneous or defective
in the constitution.” A great number of the temporal lords insisted warmly
on this addition, and when it was rejected four peers entered a formal
protest. Bishop Burnet was a warm stickler for the exclusion of the laity;
and, in all probability, manifested this warmth in hopes of ingratiating
himself with his brethren, among whom his character was very far from
being popular. But the merit of this sacrifice was destroyed by the
arguments he had used for dispensing with the posture of kneeling at the
sacrament; and by his proposing in another proviso of the bill, that the
subscribers, instead of expressing assent or consent, should only submit
with a promise of conformity.

THE COMMONS ADDRESS THE KING TO SUMMON A CONVOCATION.

The bill was with difficulty passed in the house of lords, but the commons
treated it with neglect. By this time a great number of malcontent
members, who had retired from parliament, were returned with a view to
thwart the administration, though they could not prevent the settlement.
Instead of proceeding with the bill they presented an address to the king,
thanking him for his gracious declaration and repeated assurances that he
would maintain the church of England as by law established; a church whose
doctrine and practice had evinced its loyalty beyond all contradiction.
They likewise humbly besought his majesty to issue writs for calling a
convocation of the clergy, to be consulted in ecclesiastical matters
according to the ancient usage of parliaments; and they declared they
would forthwith take into consideration proper methods for giving ease to
protestant dissenters. Though the king was displeased at this address, in
which the lords also had concurred, he returned a civil answer by the
mouth of the earl of Nottingham, professing his regard for the church of
England, which should always be his peculiar care, recommending the
dissenters to their protection, and promising to summon a convocation as
soon as such a measure should be convenient. This message produced no
effect in favour of the bill which lay neglected on the table. Those who
moved for it had no other view than that of displaying their moderation:
and now they excited their friends to oppose it with all their interest.
Others were afraid of espousing it lost they should be stigmatized as
enemies to the church; and a great number of the most eminent
presbyterians wore averse to a scheme of comprehension, which diminished
their strength and weakened the importance of the party. Being therefore
violently opposed on one hand, and but faintly supported on the other, no
wonder it miscarried. The king however was so bent upon the execution of
his design, that it was next session revived in another form though with
no better success.

SETTLEMENT OF THE REVENUE.

The next object that engrossed the attention of the parliament was the
settlement of a revenue for the support of the government. Hitherto there
had been no distinction of what was allotted for the king’s use, and what
was assigned for the service of the public; so that the sovereign was
entirely master of the whole supply. As the revenue in the late reigns had
been often embezzled and misapplied, it was now resolved that a certain
sum should be set apart for the maintenance of the king’s household and
the support of his dignity; and that the rest of the public money should
be employed under the inspection of parliament. Accordingly, since this
period, the commons have appropriated the yearly supplies to certain
specified services; and an account of the application has been constantly
submitted to both houses at the next session. At this juncture the
prevailing party, or the whigs, determined that the revenue should be
granted from year to year, or at least for a small term of years; that the
king might find himself dependent upon the parliament, and merit the
renewal of the grant by a just and popular administration. In pursuance of
this maxim, when the revenue fell under consideration, they, under
pretence of charges and anticipations which they had not time to examine,
granted it by a provisional act for one year only. The civil list was
settled at six hundred thousand pounds, chargeable with the appointments
of the queen dowager, the prince and princess of Denmark, the judges, and
mareschal Schomberg, to whom the parliament had already granted one
hundred thousand pounds, in consideration of his important services to the
nation. The commons also voted that a constant revenue of twelve hundred
thousand pounds should be established for the support of the crown in time
of peace.

THE KING TAKES UMBRAGE AT THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE WHIG PARTY.

The king took umbrage at these restraints laid upon the application of the
public money, which were the most salutary fruits of the revolution. He
considered them as marks of diffidence by which he was distinguished from
his predecessors; and thought them an ungrateful return for the services
he had done the nation. The tories perceived his disgust, and did not fail
to foment his jealousy against their adversaries, which was confirmed by a
fresh effort of the whigs in relation to a militia. A bill was brought
into the house for regulating it in such a manner as would have rendered
it in a great measure independent both of the king and the
lords-lieutenants of counties. These being generally peers, the bill was
suffered to lie neglected on the table, but the attempt confirmed the
suspicion of the king, who began to think himself in danger of being
enslaved by a republican party. The tories had, by the channel of
Nottingham, made proffers of service to his majesty; but complained at the
same time that as they were in danger of being prosecuted for their lives
and fortunes, they could not, without an act of indemnity, exert
themselves in favour of the crown, lest they should incur a persecution
from their implacable enemies.

HEATS AND ANIMOSITIES ABOUT THE BILL OF INDEMNITY.

These remonstrances made such an impression on the king, that he sent a
message to the house by Mr. Hambden, recommending a bill of indemnity as
the most effectual means for putting an end to all controversies,
distinctions, and occasions of discord. He desired it might be prepared
with all convenient expedition, and with such exceptions only as should
seem necessary for the vindication of public justice, the safety of him
and his consort, and the settlement and welfare of the nation. An address
of thanks to his majesty was unanimously voted. Nevertheless, his design
was frustrated by the backwardness of the whigs, who proceeded so slowly
on the bill that it could not be brought to maturity before the end of the
session. They wanted to keep the scourge over the heads of their enemies
until they should find a proper opportunity for revenge; and, in the
meantime, restrain them from opposition by the terror of impending
vengeance. They affected to insinuate that the king’s design was to raise
the prerogative as high as it had been in the preceding reigns; and that
he for this purpose pressed an act of indemnity, by virtue of which he
might legally use the instruments of the late tyranny. The earls of
Monmouth and Warrington industrously infused these jealousies into the
minds of their party: on the other hand, the earl of Nottingham inflamed
William’s distrust of his old friends: both sides succeeded in kindling an
animosity, which had like to have produced confusion, notwithstanding the
endeavours used by the earls of Shrewsbury and Devonshire, to allay those
heats and remove the suspicions that mutually prevailed.

BIRTH OF THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTER.

It was now judged expedient to pass an act for settling the succession of
the crown according to the former resolution of the convention. A bill for
this purpose was brought into the lower house, with a clause disabling
papists from succeeding to the throne: to this the lords added, “Or such
as should marry papists,” absolving the subject in that case from
allegiance, The bishop of Salisbury, by the king’s direction, proposed
that the princess Sophia, duchess of Hanover, and her posterity, should be
nominated in the act of succession as the next protestant heirs, failing
issue of the king and Anne princess of Denmark. These amendments gave rise
to warm debates in the lower house, where they were vigorously opposed,
not only by those who wished well in secret to the late king and the
lineal succession, but likewise by the republican party, who hoped to see
monarchy altogether extinguished in England by the death of the three
persons already named in the bill of succession. The lords insisted upon
their amendments, and several fruitless conferences were held between the
two houses. At length the bill was dropt for the present in consequence of
an event which in a great measure dissipated the fears of a popish
successor. This was the delivery of the princess Anne, who, on the
twenty-seventh day of July, brought forth a son, christened by the name of
William, and afterwards created duke of Gloucester.

AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.

In the midst of these domestic disputes, William did not neglect the
affairs of the continent. He retained all his former influence in Holland,
as his countrymen had reason to confide in his repeated assurances of
inviolable affection. The great scheme which he had projected of a
confederacy against France began at this period to take effect. The
princes of the empire assembled in the diet, solemnly exhorted the emperor
to declare war against the French king, who had committed numberless
infractions of the treaties of Munster, Osnabruck, Nimeguen, and the
truce, invaded their country without provocation, and evinced himself an
inveterate enemy of the holy Roman empire. They therefore besought his
imperial majesty to conclude a treaty of peace with the Turks, who had
offered advantageous terms, and proceed to an open rupture with Louis, in
which case they would consider it as a war of the empire, and support
their head in the most effectual manner. The states-general published a
declaration against the common enemy, taxing him with manifold infractions
of the treaty of commerce; with having involved the subjects of the
republic in the persecution which he had raised against the protestants;
with having cajoled and insulted them with deceitful promises and insolent
threats; with having plundered and oppressed the Dutch merchants and
traders in France; and, finally, with having declared war against the
states without any plausible reason assigned. The elector of Brandenburg
denounced war against France as a power whose perfidy, cruelty, and
ambition, it was the duty of every prince to oppose. The marquis de
Castanaga, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, issued a counter
declaration to that of Louis, who had declared against his master. He
accused the French king of having laid waste the empire, without any
regard to the obligations of religion and humanity, or even to the laws of
war; of having countenanced the most barbarous acts of cruelty and
oppression; and of having intrigued with the enemies of Christ for the
destruction of the empire. The emperor negotiated an alliance offensive
and defensive with the states-general, binding the contracting parties to
co-operate with their whole power against France and her allies. It was
stipulated that neither side should engage in a separate treaty on any
pretence whatsoever; that no peace should be admitted until the treaties
of Westphalia, Osnabruck, Minister, and the Pyrenees, should have been
vindicated; that, in case of a negotiation for a peace or truce, the
transactions on both sides should be communicated bona fide; and
that Spain and England should be invited to accede to the treaty. In a
separate article, the contracting powers agreed, that, in case of the
Spanish king’s dying without issue, the states-general should assist the
emperor with all their forces to take possession of that monarchy: that
they should use their friendly endeavours with the princes electors, their
allies, towards elevating his son Joseph to the dignity of king of the
Romans, and employ their utmost force against France should she attempt to
oppose his elevation.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

WAR DECLARED AGAINST FRANCE.

William, who was the soul of this confederacy, found no difficulty in
persuading the English to undertake a war against their old enemies and
rivals. On the sixteenth day of April, Mr. Hambden made a motion for
taking into consideration the state of the kingdom with respect to France,
and foreign alliances; and the commons unanimously resolved, that, in case
his majesty should think fit to engage in a war with France, they would,
in a parliamentary way, enable him to carry it on with vigour. An address
was immediately drawn up and presented to the king, desiring that he would
seriously consider the destructive methods taken of late years by the
French king against the trade, quiet, and interest of the nation,
particularly his present invasion of Ireland, and supporting the rebels in
that kingdom. They did not doubt but the alliances already made, and those
that might hereafter be concluded by his majesty, would be sufficient to
reduce the French king to such a condition, that it should not be in his
power to violate the peace of Christendom, nor prejudice the trade and
prosperity of England; in the mean time they assured his majesty he might
depend upon the assistance of his parliament, according to the vote which
had passed in the house of commons. This was a welcome address to king
William. He assured them that no part of the supplies which they might
grant for the prosecution of the war should be misapplied; and, on the
seventh day of May, he declared war against the French monarch. On this
occasion, Louis was charged with having ambitiously invaded the
territories of the emperor, and denounced war against the allies of
England, in violation of the treaties confirmed under the guarantee of the
English crown; with having encroached upon the fishery of Newfoundland,
invaded the Caribbee Islands, taken forcible possession of New-York and
Hudson’s-bay, made depredations on the English at sea, prohibited the
importation of English manufactures, disputed the right of the flag,
persecuted many English subjects on account of religion, contrary to
express treaties and the law of nations, and sent an armament to Ireland,
in support of the rebels of that kingdom.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVENTION.

Having thus described the progress of the revolution in England, we shall
now briefly explain the measures that were prosecuted in Scotland, towards
the establishment of William on the throne of that kingdom. The meeting of
the Scottish convention was fixed for the fourteenth day of March; and
both parties employed all their interest to influence the election of
members. The duke of Hamilton, and all the presbyterians, declared for
William. The duke of Gordon maintained the castle of Edinburgh for his old
master; but, as he had neglected to lay in a store of provisions, he
depended entirely upon the citizens for subsistence. The partisans of
James were headed by the earl of Balcarras, and Graham viscount Dundee,
who employed their endeavours to preserve union among the individuals of
their party; to confirm the duke of Gordon, who began to waver in his
attachment to their sovereign; and to manage their intrigues in such a
manner as to derive some advantage to their cause from the transactions of
the ensuing session. When the lords and commons assembled at Edinburgh,
the bishop of that diocese, who officiated as chaplain to the convention,
prayed for the restoration of king James. The first dispute turned upon
the choice of a president. The friends of the late king set up the marquis
of Athol in opposition to the duke of Hamilton; but this last was elected
by a considerable majority; and a good number of the other party, finding
their cause the weakest, deserted it from that moment. The earls of
Lothian and Tweedale were sent as deputies, to require the duke of Gordon,
in the name of the estates, to quit the castle in four-and-twenty hours,
and leave the charge of it to the protestant officer next in command. The
duke, though in himself irresolute, was animated by Dundee to demand such
conditions as the convention would not grant. The négociation proving
ineffectual, the states ordered the heralds, in all their formalities, to
summon him to surrender the castle immediately, on pain of incurring the
penalties of high treason; and he refusing to obey their mandate, was
proclaimed a traitor. All persons were forbid, under the same penalties,
to aid, succour, or correspond with him; and the castle was blocked up
with the troops of the city.

LETTERS TO THE CONVENTION FROM KING WILLIAM AND KING JAMES.

Next day an express arrived from London, with a letter from king William
to the estates; and, at the same time, another from James was presented by
one Crane, an English domestic of the abdicated queen. William observed
that he had called a meeting of their estates at the desire of the
nobility and gentry of Scotland assembled at London, who requested that he
would take upon himself the administration of their affairs. He exhorted
them to concert measures for settling the peace of the kingdom upon a
solid foundation; and to lay aside animosities and factions, which served
only to impede that salutary settlement. He professed himself sensible of
the good effects that would arise from an union of the two kingdoms; and
assured them he would use his best endeavours to promote such a coalition.
A committee being appointed to draw up a respectful answer to these
assurances, a debate ensued about the letter from the late king James.
This they resolved to favour with a reading, after the members should have
subscribed an act, declaring that notwithstanding any thing that might be
contained in the letter for dissolving the convention, or impeding their
procedure, they were a free and lawful meeting of the states; and would
continue undissolved until they should have settled and secured the
protestant religion, the government, laws, and liberties of the kingdom.
Having taken this precaution, they proceeded to examine the letter of the
late sovereign, who conjured them to support his interest as faithful
subjects, and eternize their names by a loyalty suitable to their former
professions. He said he would not fail to give them such a speedy and
powerful assistance as would enable them to defend themselves from any
foreign attempt; and even to assert his right against those enemies who
had depressed it by the blackest usurpations and unnatural attempts, which
the Almighty God would not allow to pass unpunished. He offered pardon to
all those who should return to their duty before the last day of the
month; and threatened to punish rigorously such as should stand out in
rebellion against him and his authority.

THE CONVENTION RECOGNIZE THE AUTHORITY OF KING WILLIAM.

This address produced very little effect in favour of the unfortunate
exile, whose friends were greatly outnumbered in this assembly. His
messenger was ordered into custody, and afterwards dismissed with a pass
instead of an answer. James, foreseeing this contempt, had, by an
instrument dated in Ireland, authorised the archbishop of Glasgow, the
earl of Balcarras, and the viscount Dundee, to call a convention of the
estates at Stirling. These three depended on the interest of the marquis
of Athol and the earl of Mar, who professed the warmest affection for the
late king; and they hoped a secession of their friends would embarrass the
convention, so as to retard the settlement of king William. Their
expectations, however, were disappointed. Athol deserted their cause; and
Mar suffered himself to be intercepted in his retreat. The rest of their
party were, by the vigilance of the duke of Hamilton, prevented from
leaving the convention, except the viscount Dundee, who retreated to the
mountains with about fifty horse, and was pursued by order of the estates.
This design being frustrated, the convention approved and recognized, by a
solemn act, the conduct of the nobility and gentlemen who had entreated
the king of England to take upon him the administration. They acknowledged
their obligation to the prince of Orange, who had prevented the
destruction of their laws, religion, and fundamental constitution; they
besought his highness to assume the reins of government for that kingdom;
they issued a proclamation requiring all persons, from sixteen to sixty,
to be in readiness to take arms when called upon for that purpose; they
conferred the command of their horse-militia upon sir Patrick Hume, who
was formerly attainted for having been concerned in Argyle’s insurrection;
they levied eight hundred men for a guard to the city of Edinburgh, and
constituted the earl of Leven their commander; they put the militia all
over the kingdom into the hands of those on whom they could rely; they
created the earl of Mar governor of Stirling-castle; they received a
reinforcement of five regiments from England under the command of Mac-kay,
whom they appointed their general; and they issued orders for securing all
disaffected persons. Then they dispatched lord Ross with an answer to king
William’s letter, professing their gratitude to their deliverer, and
congratulating him upon his success. They thanked him for assuming the
administration of their affairs, and assembling a convention of their
estates.

They declared they would take effectual and speedy measures for securing
the protestant religion, as well as for establishing the government, laws,
and liberties of the kingdom. They assured him they would, as much as lay
in their power, avoid disputes and animosities; and desired the
continuance of his majesty’s care and protection.

CROWN VOTED VACANT, AND AN ACT OF SETTLEMENT PASSED.

After the departure of lord Ross, they appointed a committee, consisting
of eight lords, eight knights, and as many burgesses, to prepare the plan
of a new settlement: but this resolution was not taken without a vigorous
opposition from some remaining adherents of the late king, headed by the
archbishop of Glasgow; all the other prelates, except he of Edinburgh,
having already deserted the convention. After warm debates, the committee
agreed in the following vote:—“The estates of the kingdom of
Scotland find and declare, That king James VII. being a profest papist,
did assume the royal power, and act as a king, without ever taking the
oath required by law; and had, by the advice of evil and wicked
counsellors, invaded the fundamental constitution of this kingdom, and
altered it from a legal and limited monarchy to an arbitrary despotic
power, and had governed the same to the subversion of the protestant
religion, and violation of the laws and liberties of the nation, inverting
all the ends of government; whereby he had forfaulted the right of the
crown, and the throne was become vacant.” When this vote was reported, the
bishop of Edinburgh argued strenuously against it, as containing a charge
of which the king was innocent; and he proposed that his majesty should be
invited to return to his Scottish dominions. All his arguments were
defeated or overruled, and the house confirmed the vote, which was
immediately enacted into a law by a great majority. The lord president
declared the throne vacant, and proposed that it might be filled with
William and Mary, king and queen of England. The committee was ordered to
prepare an act for settling the crown upon their majesties, together with
an instrument of government for securing the subjects from the grievances
under which they laboured.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THE CROWN TENDERED TO WILLIAM.

On the eleventh day of April, this act, with the conditions of
inheritance, and the instrument, were reported, considered, unanimously
approved, and solemnly proclaimed at the market-cross of Edinburgh, in
presence of the lord president, assisted by the lord provost and
magistracy of the city, the duke of Queensbury, the marquisses of Athol
and Douglas, together with a great number of the nobility and gentry. At
the same time they published another proclamation, forbidding all persons
to acknowledge, obey, assist, or correspond with the late king James; or
by word, writing, or sermon, to dispute or disown the royal authority of
king William and queen Mary; or to misconstrue the proceedings of the
estates, or create jealousies or misapprehensions with regard to the
transactions of the government, on pain of incurring the most severe
penalties. Then, having settled the coronation oath, they granted a
commission to the earl of Argyle for the lords, to sir James Montgomery
for the knights, and to sir John Dalrymple for the boroughs, empowering
them to repair to London, and invest their majesties with the government.
This affair being discussed, the convention appointed a committee to take
care of the public peace, and adjourned to the twenty-first day of May. On
the eleventh day of that month, the Scottish commissioners being
introduced to their majesties at Whitehall, presented first a preparatory
letter from the estates, then the instrument of government, with a paper
containing a recital of the grievances of the nation; and an address
desiring his majesty to convert the convention into a parliament. The king
having graciously promised to concur with them in all just measures for
the interest of the kingdom, the coronation oath was tendered to their
majesties by the earl of Argyle. As it contained a clause, importing that
they should root out heresy, the king declared, that he did not mean by
these words that he should be under an obligation to act as a persecutor:
the commissioners replying that such was not the meaning or import of the
oath, he desired them, and others present, to bear witness to the
exception he had made.

THE CONVENTION STATE THEIR GRIEVANCES.

In the meantime lord Dundee exerted himself with uncommon activity in
behalf of his master. He had been summoned by a trumpet to return to the
convention, refused to obey the citation on pretence that the whigs had
made an attempt upon his life; and that the deliberations of the estates
were influenced by the neighbourhood of English troops, under the command
of Mackay. He was forthwith declared a fugitive, outlaw, and rebel. He was
rancorously hated by the pres-byterians, on whom he had exercised some
cruelties as an officer under the former government: and for this reason
the states resolved to inflict upon him exemplary punishment. Parties were
detached in pursuit of him and Balcarras. This last fell into their hands,
and was committed to a common prison; but Dundee fought his way through
the troops that surrounded him, and escaped to the Highlands, where he
determined to take arms in favour of James, though that prince had forbid
him to make any attempt of this nature until he should receive a
reinforcement from Ireland. While this officer was employed in assembling
the clans of his party, king William appointed the duke of Hamilton
commissioner to the convention parliament. The post of secretary for
Scotland was bestowed upon lord Melvil, a weak and servile nobleman, who
had taken refuge in Holland from the violence of the late reigns: but the
king depended chiefly for advice upon Dalrymple lord Stair, president of
the college of justice, an old crafty fanatic, who for forty years had
complied in all things with all governments. Though these were rigid
pres-byterians, the king, to humour the opposite party, admitted some
individuals of the episcopal nobility to the council-board; and this
intermixture, instead of allaying animosities, served only to sow the
seeds of discord and confusion. The Scottish convention, in their detail
of grievances, enumerated the lords of the articles; the act of parliament
in the reign of Charles II. by which the king’s supremacy was raised so
high that he could prescribe any mode of religion according to his
pleasure; and the superiority of any office in the church above that of
presbyters. The king in his instructions to the lord commissioner,
consented to the regulation of the lords of the articles, though he would
not allow the institution to be abrogated; he was contented that the act
relating to the king’s supremacy should be rescinded, and that the church
government should be established in such a manner as would be most
agreeable to the inclinations of the people.

PRELACY ABOLISHED IN SCOTLAND.

On the seventeenth day of June, duke Hamilton opened the Scottish
parliament, after the convention had assumed this name, in consequence of
an act passed by his majesty’s direction; but the members in general were
extremely chagrined when they found the commissioners so much restricted
in the affair of the lords of the articles, which they considered as their
chief grievance. 008 [See note D, at the end of this Vol.]
The king permitted that the estates should choose the lords by their own
suffrages, and that they should be at liberty to reconsider any subject
which the said lords might reject. He afterwards indulged the three
estates with the choice of eleven delegates each, for this committee, to
be elected monthly, or oftener if they should think fit: but even these
concessions proved unsatisfactory while the institution itself remained.
Their discontents were not even appeased by the passing of an act
abolishing prelacy. Indeed their resentment was inflamed by another
consideration, namely, that of the king’s having given seats in the
council to some individuals attached to the hierarchy. They manifested
their sentiments on this subject by bringing in a bill excluding from any
public trust, place, or employment under their majesties, all such as had
been concerned in the encroachments of the late reign, or had discovered
disaffection to the late happy change, or in any way retarded or
obstructed the designs of the convention. This measure was prosecuted with
great warmth; and the bill passed through all the forms of the house, but
proved ineffectual for want of the royal assent.

DISPUTES IN THE PARLIAMENT.

Nor were they less obstinate in the affair of the judges whom the king had
ventured to appoint by virtue of his own prerogative. The malcontents
brought in a bill declaring the bench vacant, as it was at the
restoration; asserting their own right to examine and approve those who
should appointed to fill it; providing that if in time to come any such
total vacancy should occur, the nomination should be in the king or queen,
or regent for the time being, and the parliament retain the right of
approbation; and that all the clauses in the several acts relating to the
admission of the ordinary lords of session, and their qualifications for
that office, should be ratified and confirmed for perpetual observation.
Such was the interest of this party, that the bill was carried by a great
majority, notwithstanding the opposition of the ministers, who resolved to
maintain the king’s nomination even in defiance of a parliamentary
resolution. The majority, exasperated at this open violation of their
privileges, forbade the judges whom the king had appointed to open their
commissions, or hold a session until his majesty’s further pleasure should
be known: on the other hand they were compelled to act by the menaces of
the privy-council. The dispute was carried on with great acrimony on both
sides, and produced such a ferment, that before the session opened, the
ministry thought proper to draw a great number of forces into the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh to support the judges in the exercise of their
functions.

SCOTCH PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED.

The lord commissioner, alarmed at this scene of tumult and confusion,
adjourned the house till the eighth day of October; a step which, added to
the other unpopular measures of the court, incensed the opposition to a
violent degree. They drew up a remonstrance to the king, complaining of
this adjournment while the nation was yet unsettled, recapitulating the
several instances in which they had expressed their zeal and affection for
his majesty; explaining their reasons for dissenting from the ministry in
some articles; beseeching him to consider what they had represented, to
give his royal assent to the acts of parliament which they had prepared,
and take measures for redressing all the other grievances of the nation.
This address was presented to the king at Hampton-court. William was so
touched with the reproaches it implied, as if he had not fulfilled the
conditions on which he accepted the crown of Scotland, that he, in his own
vindication, published his instructions to the commissioner; and by these
it appeared that the duke might have proceeded to greater lengths in
obliging his countrymen. Before the adjournment, however, the parliament
had granted the revenue for life; and raised money for maintaining a body
of forces, as well as for supporting the incidental expense of the
government for some months; yet part of the troops in that kingdom were
supplied and subsisted by the administration of England. In consequence of
these disputes in the Scottish parliament, their church was left without
any settled form of government; for, though the hierarchy was abolished,
the presbyterian discipline was not yet established, and ecclesiastical
affairs were occasionally regulated by the privy-council, deriving its
authority from that very act of supremacy, which, according to the claim
of rights, ought to have been repealed.

THE CASTLE OF EDINBURGH BESIEGED.

The session was no sooner adjourned than sir John Lanier converted the
blockade of Edinburgh castle into a regular siege, which was prosecuted
with such vigour that in a little time the fortifications were ruined, and
the works advanced at the foot of the walls, in which the besiegers had
made several large breaches. The duke of Gordon, finding his ammunition
expended, his defences destroyed, his intelligence entirely cut off, and
despairing of relief from the adherents of his master, desired to
capitulate, and obtained very favourable terms for his garrison; but he
would not stipulate any conditions for himself, declaring that he had so
much respect for all the princes descended from king James VI. that he
would not affront any of them so far as to insist upon terms for his own
particular: he therefore, on the thirteenth day of June, surrendered the
castle and himself at discretion. All the hopes of James and his party
were now concentred in the viscount Dundee, who had assembled a body of
Highlanders, and resolved to attack Mackay, on an assurance he had
received by message, that the regiment of Scottish dragoons would desert
that officer, and join him in the action. Mackay having received
intimation of this design, decamped immediately, and by long marches
retired before Dundee, until he was reinforced by Ramsey’s dragoons, and
another regiment of English infantry: then he faced about, and Dundee in
his turn retreated into Lochaber. Lord Murray, son of the marquis of
Athol, assembled his vassals, to the number of twelve hundred men, for the
service of the regency; but he was betrayed by one of his own dependents,
who seized the castle of Blair for Dundee, and prevailed upon the Athol
men to disperse, rather than fight against James their lawful sovereign.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

KING WILLIAM’S TROOPS DEFEATED.

The viscount was by this time reduced to great difficulty and distress.
His men had not for many weeks tasted bread or salt, or any drink but
water: instead of five hundred infantry, three hundred horse, with a
supply of arms, ammunition, and provision, which James had promised to
send from Ireland, he received a reinforcement of three hundred naked
recruits; but the transports with the stores fell into the hands of the
English. Though this was a mortifying disappointment, he bore it without
repining; and, far from abandoning himself to despair, began his march to
the castle of Blair, which was threatened with a seige by general Mackay.
When he reached this fortress, he received intelligence that the enemy had
entered the pass of Killycrankie, and he resolved to give them battle
without delay. He accordingly advanced against them, and a furious
engagement ensued, though it was not of long duration. The Highlanders
having received and returned the fire of the English, fell in among them
sword in hand with such impetuosity, that the foot were utterly broke in
seven minutes. The dragoons fled at the first charge in the utmost
consternation. Dundee’s horse, not exceeding one hundred, broke through
Mackay’s own regiment; the earl of Dumbarton, at the head of a few
volunteers, made himself master of the artillery: twelve hundred of
Mackay’s forces were killed on the spot, five hundred taken prisoners, and
the rest fled with great precipitation for some hours, until they were
rallied by their general, who was an officer of approved courage, conduct,
and experience. Nothing could be more complete or decisive than the
victory which the Highlanders obtained; yet it was clearly purchased with
the death of their beloved chieftain the viscount Dundee, who fell by a
random shot in the engagement, and his fate produced such confusion in his
army as prevented all pursuit. He possessed an enterprising spirit,
undaunted courage, inviolable fidelity, and was peculiarly qualified to
command the people who fought under his banner. He was the life and soul
of that cause which he espoused, and after his death it daily declined
into ruin and disgrace. He was succeeded in command by colonel Cannon, who
landed the reinforcement from Ireland; but all his designs miscarried; so
that the clans, wearied with repeated misfortunes, laid down their arms by
degrees, and took the benefit of a pardon which king William offered to
those who should submit within the time specified in his proclamation.

KING JAMES CORDIALLY RECEIVED BY THE FRENCH KING.

After this sketch of Scottish affairs, it will be necessary to take a
retrospective view of James, and relate the particulars of his expedition
to Ireland. That unfortunate prince and his queen were received with the
most cordial hospitality by the French monarch, who assigned the castle of
St. Germain for the place of their residence, supported their household
with great magnificence, enriched them with presents, and undertook to
re-establish them on the throne of England. James, however, conducted
himself in such a manner as conveyed no favourable idea of his spirit and
understanding. He seems to have been emasculated by religion: he was
deserted by that courage and magnanimity for which his youth had been
distinguished. He did not discover great sensibility at the loss of his
kingdom. All his faculties were swallowed up in bigotry. Instead of
contriving plans for retrieving his crown, he held conferences with the
Jesuits on topics of religion. The pity which his misfortunes excited in
Louis was mingled with contempt. The pope supplied him with indulgencies,
while the Romans laughed at him in pasquinades: “There is a pious man,
(said the archbishop of Rheims ironically,) who has sacrificed three
crowns for a mass.” In a word, he subjected himself to the ridicule and
raillery of the French nation.

TYRCONNEL TEMPORIZES WITH WILLIAM.

All the hope of re-ascending the British throne depended upon his friends
in Scotland and Ireland. Tyr-connel, who commanded in this last kingdom,
was confirmed in his attachment to James by the persuasions of Hamilton,
who had undertaken for his submission to the prince of Orange.
Nevertheless, he disguised his sentiments, and temporized with William,
until James should be able to supply him with reinforcements from France,
which he earnestly solicited by private messages. In the meantime, with a
view to cajole the protestants of Ireland, and amuse king William with
hope of his submission, he persuaded the lord Mountjoy, in whom the
protestants chiefly confided, and baron Rice, to go in person with a
commission to James, representing the necessity of yielding to the times,
and of waiting a fitter opportunity to make use of his Irish subjects.
Mountjoy, on his arrival at Paris, instead of being favoured with an
audience by James, to explain the reasons which Tyrconnel had suggested
touching the inability of Ireland to restore his majesty, was committed
prisoner to the Bastile, on account of the zeal with which he had espoused
the protestant interest. Although Louis was sincerely disposed to assist
James effectually, his intentions were obstructed by the disputes of his
ministry. Louvois possessed the chief credit in council; but Seignelai
enjoyed a greater share of personal favour, both with the king and madame
de Maintenon, the favourite concubine. To this nobleman, as secretary for
marine affairs, James made his chief application; and he had promised the
command of the troops destined for his service to Latisun, whom Louvois
hated. For these reasons this minister thwarted his measures, and retarded
the assistance which Louis had promised towards his restoration.

JAMES ARRIVES IN IRELAND.

Yet notwithstanding all his opposition, the succours were prepared and the
fleet ready to put to sea by the latter end of February. The French king
is said to have offered an army of fifteen thousand natives of France to
serve in this expedition; but James replied, that he would succeed by the
help of his own subjects, or perish in the attempt. Accordingly, he
contented himself with about twelve hundred British subjects, 010
[See note E, at the end of this Vol.] and a good number of French
officers, who were embarked in the fleet at Brest, consisting of fourteen
ships of the line, seven frigates, three fire-ships, with a good number of
transports. The French king also supplied him with a considerable quantity
of arms for the use of his adherents in Ireland; accommodated him with a
large sum of money, superb equipages, store of plate, and necessaries of
all kinds for the camp and the household. At parting he presented him with
his own cuirass, and embracing him affectionately, “The best thing I can
wish you (said he) is, that I may never see you again.” On the seventh day
of March, James embarked at Brest, together with the count D’Avaux, who
accompanied him in quality of ambassador, and his principal officers. He
was detained in the harbour by contrary winds till the seventeenth day of
the month, when he set sail, and on the twenty-second landed at Kinsale in
Ireland. By this time, king William perceiving himself amused by
Tyrconnel, had published a declaration, requiring the Irish to lay down
their arms and submit to the new government. On the twenty-second day of
February, thirty ships of war had been put in commission, and the command
of them conferred upon admiral Herbert; but the armament was retarded in
such a manner by the disputes of the council and the king’s attention to
the affairs of the continent, that the admiral was not in a condition to
sail till the beginning of April, and then with part of his fleet only.
James was received with open arms at Kinsale, and the whole country seemed
to be at his devotion; for although the protestants in the North had
declared for the new government, their strength and number was deemed
inconsiderable when compared with the power of Tyrconnel. This minister
had disarmed all the other protestant subjects in one day, and assembled
an army of thirty thousand foot, and eight thousand cavalry, for the
service of his master.

ISSUES FIVE PROCLAMATIONS AT DUBLIN.

In the latter end of March, James made his public entry into Dublin,
amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. He was met at the castle-gate
by a procession of popish bishops and priests in their pontificals,
bearing the host, which he publicly adored. He dismissed from the
council-board the lord Granard, judge Keating, and other protestants, who
had exhorted the lord lieutenant to an accommodation with the new
government. In their room he admitted the French ambassador, the bishop of
Chester, colonel Darrington, and, by degrees, the principal noblemen who
accompanied him in the expedition. On the second day after his arrival in
Dublin, he issued five proclamations: the first recalled all the subjects
of Ireland who had abandoned the kingdom, by a certain time, on pain of
outlawry and confiscation, and requiring all persons to join him against
the prince of Orange. The second contained expressions of acknowledgement
to his catholic subjects for their vigilance and fidelity, and an
injunction to such as were not actually in his service, to retain and lay
up their arms until it should be found necessary to use them for his
advantage. By the third he invited the subjects to supply his army with
provisions; and prohibited the soldiers to take anything without payment.
By the fourth he raised the value of the current coin; and in the fifth he
summoned a parliament to meet on the seventh day of May, at Dublin.
Finally, he created Tyrconnel a duke, in consideration of his eminent
services.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

SIEGE OF LONDONDERRY.

The adherents of James in England pressed him to settle the affairs of
Ireland immediately, and bring over his army either to the north of
England, or the west of Scotland, where it might be joined by his party,
and act without delay against the usurper; but his council dissuaded him
from complying with their solicitations, until Ireland should be totally
reduced to obedience. On the first alarm of an intended massacre, the
protestants of Londonderry had shut their gates against the regiment
commanded by the earl of Antrim, and resolved to defend themselves against
the lord lieutenant. They transmitted this resolution to the government of
England, together with an account of the danger they incurred by such a
vigorous measure, and implored immediate assistance. They were accordingly
supplied with some arms and ammunition, but did not receive any
considerable reinforcement till the middle of April, when two regiments
arrived in Loughfoyl, under the command of Cunningham and Richards. By
this time king James had taken Coleraine, invested Killmore, and was
almost in sight of Londonderry. George Walker, rector of Donaghmore, who
had raised a regiment for the defence of the protestants, conveyed this
intelligence to Lundy the governor. This officer directed him to join
colonel Grafton, and take post at the Long-causey, which he maintained a
whole night against the advanced guard of the enemy; until being
overpowered by numbers, he retreated to Londonderry and exhorted the
governor to take the field, as the army of king James was not yet
completely formed. Lundy assembling a council of war, at which Cunningham
and Richards assisted; they agreed, that as the place was not tenable, it
would be imprudent to land the two regiments, and that the principal
officers should withdraw themselves from Londonderry, the inhabitants of
which would obtain the more favourable capitulation in consequence of
their retreat. An officer was immediately dispatched to king James with
proposals of a negotiation; and lieutenant-general Hamilton agreed that
the army should halt at the distance of four miles from the town.
Notwithstanding this preliminary, James advanced at the head of his
troops; but met with such a warm reception from the besieged, that he was
fain to retire to St. John’s Town in some disorder. The inhabitants and
soldiers in garrison at Londonderry were so incensed at the members of the
council of war, who had resolved to abandon the place, that they
threatened immediate vengeance. Cunningham and Richards retired to their
ships, and Lundy locked himself in his chamber. In vain did Walker and
major Baker exhort him to maintain his government. Such was his cowardice
or treachery, that he absolutely refused to be concerned in the defence of
the place, and he was suffered to escape in disguise with a load of match
upon his back; but he was afterwards apprehended in Scotland, from whence
he was sent to London to answer for his perfidy or misconduct.

COURAGEOUS DEFENCE.

After his retreat, the townsmen chose Mr. Walker and major Baker for their
governors, with joint authority; but this office they would not undertake
until it had been offered to colonel Cunningham, as the officer next in
command to Lundy. He rejected the proposal, and with Richards returned to
England, where they were immediately cashiered. The two new governors,
thus abandoned to their fate, began to prepare for a vigorous defence;
indeed their courage seems to have transcended the bounds of discretion,
for the place was very ill fortified; their cannon, which did not exceed
twenty pieces, were wretchedly mounted; they had not one engineer to
direct their operations; they had a very small number of horse; the
garrison consisted of people unacquainted with military discipline; they
wore destitute of provisions; they were besieged by a king in person, at
the head of a formidable army, directed by good officers, and supplied
with all the necessary implements for a siege or battle. This town was
invested on the twentieth day of April; the batteries were soon opened,
and several attacks were made with great impetuosity; but the besiegers
were always repulsed with considerable loss. The townsmen gained divers
advantages in repeated sallies, and would have held their enemies in the
utmost contempt, had they not been afflicted with a contagious distemper,
as well as reduced to extremity by want of provisions. They were even
tantalized in their distress; for they had the mortification to see some
ships which had arrived with supplies from England, prevented from sailing
up the river by the batteries the enemy had raised on both sides, and a
boom with which they had blocked up the channel. At length a reinforcement
arrived in the Lough, under the command of general Kirke, who had deserted
his master and been employed in the service of king William. He found
means to convey intelligence to Walker, that he had troops and provisions
on board for their relief, but found it impracticable to sail up the
river: he promised, however, that he would land a body of forces at the
Inch, and endeavour to make a diversion in their favour-, when joined by
the troops at Inniskilling, which amounted to five thousand men, including
two thousand cavalry. He said he expected six thousand men from England,
where they were embarked before he set sail. He exhorted them to persevere
in their courage and loyalty, and assured them he would come to their
relief at all hazards. These assurances enabled them to bear their
miseries a little longer, though their numbers daily diminished. Major
Baker dying, his place was filled with colonel Michel-burn, who now acted
as colleague to Mr. Walker.

CRUELTY OF ROSENE.

King James having returned to Dublin to be present at the parliament, the
command of his army devolved to the French general Rosene, who was
exasperated at such an obstinate opposition by a handful of half-starved
militia. He threatened to raze the town to its foundations, and destroy
the inhabitants without distinction of age or sex, unless they would
immediately submit themselves to their lawful sovereign. The governors
treated his menaces with contempt, and published an order that no person,
on pain of death, should talk of surrendering. They had now consumed the
last remains of their provisions, and supported life by eating the flesh
of horses, dogs, cats, rats, mice, tallow, starch, and salted hides, and
even this loathsome food began to fail. Rosene, finding him deaf to all
his proposals, threatened to wreak his vengeance on all the protestants of
that country, and drive them under the walls of Londonderry, where they
should be suffered to perish by famine. The bishop of Meath being informed
of this design, complained to king James of the barbarous intention,
entreating his majesty to prevent its being put in execution. That prince
assured him that he had already ordered Rosene to desist from such
proceeding: nevertheless, the Frenchman executed his threats with the
utmost rigour. Parties of dragoons were detached on this cruel service:
after having stripped all the protestants for thirty miles round, they
drove these unhappy people before them like cattle, without even sparing
the enfeebled old men, nurses with infants at their breasts, tender
children, women just delivered, and some even in the pangs of labour.
Above four thousand of these miserable objects were driven under the walls
of Londonderry. This expedient, far from answering the purpose of Rosene,
produced quite a contrary effect. The besieged were so exasperated at this
act of inhumanity, that they resolved to perish rather than submit to such
a barbarian. They erected a gibbet in sight of the enemy, and sent a
message to the French general, importing that they would hang all the
prisoners they had taken during the siege, unless the protestants whom
they had driven under the walls should be immediately dismissed. This
threat produced a negotiation, in consequence of which the protestants
were released after they had been detained three days without tasting
food. Some hundreds died of famine or fatigue; and those who lived to
return to their own habitations, found them plundered and sacked by the
papists, so that the greater number perished for want, or were murdered by
the straggling parties of the enemy; yet these very people had for the
most part obtained protections from king James, to which no respect was
paid by his general.

THE PLACE IS RELIEVED BY KIRKE

The garrison of Londonderry was now reduced from seven to five thousand
seven hundred men, and these were driven to such extremity of distress,
that they began to talk of killing the popish inhabitants and feeding on
their bodies. In this emergency Kirke, who had hitherto lain inactive,
ordered two ships laden with provisions to sail up the river under convoy
of the Dartmouth frigate. One of them, called the Mountjoy, broke the
enemy’s boom; and all the three, after having sustained a very hot fire
from both sides of the river, arrived in safety at the town to the
inexpressible joy of the inhabitants. The army of James were so dispirited
by the success of this enterprise, that they abandoned the siege in the
night and retired with precipitation, after having lost about nine
thousand men before the place. Kirke no sooner took possession of the
town, than Walker was prevailed upon to embark for England with an address
of thanks from the inhabitants to their majesties for the seasonable
relief they had received.

THE INNISKILLINEES DEFEAT AND TAKE GENERAL MACARTY.

The Inniskilliners were no less remarkable than the people of Londonderry
for the valour and perseverance with which they opposed the papists. They
raised twelve companies, which they regimented under the command of
Gustavus Hamilton, whom they chose for their governor. They proclaimed
William and Mary on the eleventh day of March, and resolved in a general
council to maintain their title against all opposition. The lord Gilmoy
invested the castle of Groin belonging to the protestants in the
neighbourhood of Inniskilling, the inhabitants of which threw succours
into the place, and compelled Gilmoy to retire to Belturbet. A detachment
of the garrison, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Lloyd, took and
demolished the castle of Aughor, and they gained the advantage in several
skirmishes with the enemy. On the day that preceded the relief of
Londonderry, they defeated six thousand Irish papists at a place called
Newton-Butler, and took their commander Macarty, commonly called lord
Moncashel.

MEETING OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

The Irish parliament being assembled at Dublin, according to the
proclamation of king James, he, in a speech from the throne, thanked them
for the zeal, courage, and loyalty they had manifested; extolled the
generosity of the French king, who had enabled him to visit them in
person; insisted upon executing his design of establishing liberty of
conscience as a step equally agreeable to the dictates of humanity and
discretion, and promised to concur with them in enacting such laws as
would contribute to the peace, affluence, and security of his subjects.
Sir Richard Neagle, being chosen speaker of the commons, moved for an
address of thanks to his majesty, and that the count D’Avaux should be
desired to make their acknowledgments to the most christian king for the
generous assistance he had given to their sovereign. These addresses being
drawn up with the concurrence of both houses, a bill was brought in to
recognize the king’s title, to express their abhorence of the usurpation
by the prince of Orange, as well as of the defection of the English. Next
day James published a declaration, complaining of the calumnies which his
enemies had spread to his prejudice; expatiating upon his own impartiality
in preferring his protestant subjects; his care in protecting them from
their enemies, in redressing their grievances, and in granting liberty of
conscience; promising that he would take no step but with the approbation
of parliament; offering a free pardon to all persons who should desert his
enemies and join with him in four-and-twenty days after his landing in
Ireland, and charging all the blood that might be shed upon those who
should continue in rebellion.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT REPEALED.

His conduct, however, very ill agreed with this declaration; nor can it be
excused on any other supposition but that of his being governed, in some
cases against his own inclination, by the count D’Avaux and the Irish
catholics, on whom his whole dependence was placed. As both houses were
chiefly filled with members of that persuasion, we ought not to wonder at
their bringing in a bill for repealing the act of settlement, by which the
protestants of the kingdom had been secured in the possession of their
estates. These were by this law divested of their lands, which reverted to
the heirs of those catholics to whom they belonged before the rebellion.
This iniquitous bill was framed in such a manner, that no regard was paid
to such protestant owners as had purchased estates for valuable
considerations; no allowance was made for improvements, nor any provision
for protestant widows; the possessor, and tenants were not even allowed to
remove their stock and corn. When the bill was sent up to the lords, Dr.
Dopping, bishop of Meath, opposed it with equal courage and ability, and
an address in behalf of the purchasers under the act of settlement was
presented to the king by the earl of Granard; but notwithstanding these
remonstrances, it received the royal assent, and the protestants of
Ireland were mostly ruined.

THEY PASS AN ACT OF ATTAINDER.

Yet in order to complete their destruction, an act of attainder was passed
against all protestants, whether male or female, whether of high or low
degree, who were absent from the kingdom, as well as against all those who
retired into any part of the three kingdoms, which did not own the
authority of king James, or corresponded with rebels, or were any ways
aiding, abetting, or assisting them, from the first day of August in the
preceding year. The number of protestants attainted by name in this act
amounted to about three thousand, including two archbishops, one duke,
seventeen earls, seven countesses, as many bishops, eighteen barons,
three-and-thirty baronets, one-and-fifty knights, eighty-three clergymen,
who were declared traitors, and adjudged to suffer the pains of death and
forfeiture. The individuals subjected to this dreadful proscription, were
even cut off from all hope of pardon and all benefit of appeal; for by a
clause in the act, the king’s pardon was deemed null unless enrolled
before the first day of December. A subsequent law was enacted, declaring
Ireland independent of the English parliament. This assembly passed
another act, granting twenty thousand pounds per annum out of the
forfeited estates to Tyrconnel, in acknowledgment of his signal services:
they imposed a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month for the service of
the king: the royal assent was given to an act for liberty of conscience;
they enacted that the tithes payable by papists should be delivered to
priests of that communion: the maintenance of the protestant clergy in
cities and corporations was taken away; and all dissenters were exempted
from ecclesiastical jurisdictions. So that the established church was
deprived of all power and prerogative, notwithstanding the express promise
of James, who had declared, immediately after his landing, that he would
maintain the clergy in their rights and privileges.

JAMES COINS BASE MONEY.

Nor was the king less arbitrary in the executive part of his government,
if we suppose that he countenanced the grievous acts of oppression that
were daily committed upon the protestant subjects of Ireland; but the
tyranny of his proceedings may be justly imputed to the temper of his
ministry, consisting of men abandoned to all sense of justice and
humanity, who acted from the dictates of rapacity and revenge, inflamed
with all the acrimony of religious rancour. Soldiers were permitted to
live upon free quarter; the people were robbed and plundered; licenses and
protections were abused in order to extort money from the trading part of
the nation. The king’s old stores were ransacked; the shops of tradesmen
and the kitchens of burghers were pillaged, to supply the mint with a
quantity of brass, which was converted into current coin for his majesty’s
occasions; an arbitrary value was set upon it, and all persons were
required and commanded to take it in payment under the severest penalties,
though the proportion between its intrinsic worth and currency was nearly
as one to three hundred. A vast sum of this counterfeit coin was issued in
the course of one year, and forced upon the protestants in payment of
merchandize, provision, and necessaries for the king’s service. James, not
content with the supply granted by parliament, imposed, by his own
authority, a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month on chattels, as the
former was laid upon lands. This seems to have been a temporary expedient
during the adjournment of the two houses, as the term of the assessment
was limited to three months; it was however levied by virtue of a
commission under the seals, and seems to have been a stretch of
prerogative the less excusable, as he might have obtained the money in a
parliamentary way. Understanding that the protestants had laid out all
their brass money in purchasing great quantities of hides, tallow, wool,
and corn, he assumed the despotic power of fixing the prices of these
commodities, and then bought them for his own use. One may see his
ministers were bent upon the utter destruction of those unhappy people.

PROTESTANT CHURCHES SEIZED BY THE CATHOLICS.

All vacancies in public schools were supplied with popish teachers. The
pension allowed from the exchequer to the university of Dublin was cut
off; the vice-provost, fellows, and scholars, were expelled: their
furniture, plate, and public library were seized without the least shadow
or pretence, and in direct violation of a promise the king had made to
preserve their privileges and immunities. His officers converted the
college into a garrison, the chapel into a magazine, and the apartments
into prisons; a popish priest was appointed provost; one Maccarty, of the
same persuasion, was made library-keeper, and the whole foundation was
changed into a catholic seminary. When bishoprics and benefices in the
gift of the crown became vacant, the king ordered the profits to be lodged
in the exchequer, and suffered the cures to be totally neglected. The
revenues were chiefly employed in the maintenance of Romish bishops and
priests, who grew so insolent under this indulgence, that in several
places they forcibly seized the protestant churches. When complaint was
made of this outrage, the king promised to do justice to the injured, and
in some places actually ordered the churches to be restored; but the
popish clergy refused to comply with this order, alleging, that in
spirituals they owed obedience to no earthly power but the holy see, and
James found himself unable to protect his protestant subjects against a
powerful body which he durst not disoblige. Some ships appearing in the
bay of Dublin, a proclamation was issued forbidding the protestants to
assemble in any place of worship, or elsewhere, on pain of death. By a
second, they were commanded to bring in their arms on pain of being
treated as rebels and traitors. Luttrel, governor of Dublin, published an
ordinance by beat of drum, requiring the farmers to bring in their corn
for his majesty’s horses within a certain day, otherwise he would order
them to be hanged before their own doors. Brigadier Sarsfield commanded
all protestants of a certain district to retire to the distance of ten
miles from their habitations on pain of death; and in order to keep up the
credit of the brass money, the same penalty was denounced, in a
proclamation, against any person who should give more than one pound
eighteen shillings for a guinea.

ENLARGE

ACTION WITH THE FRENCH FLEET.

All the revenues of Ireland, and all the schemes contrived to bolster up
the credit of the base coin, would have proved insufficient to support the
expenses of the war, had not James received occasional supplies from the
French monarch. After the return of the fleet which had conveyed him to
Ireland, Louis sent another strong squadron, commanded by Chateau Benault,
as a convoy to some transports laden with arms, ammunition, and a large
sum of money for the use of king James. Before they sailed from Brest,
king William, being informed of their destination, detached admiral
Herbert from Spithead with twelve ships of the line, one fire-ship, and
four tenders, in order to intercept the enemy. He was driven by stress of
weather into Mil-ford-haven, from whence he steered his course to
Kin-sale, on the supposition that the French fleet had sailed from Brest,
and that in all probability he should fall in with them on the coast of
Ireland. On the first day of May he discovered them at anchor in
Bantry-bay, and stood in to engage them, though they were greatly superior
to him in number. They no sooner perceived him at day-break, than they
weighed, stood out to windward, formed their line, bore down, and began
the action, which was maintained for two hours with equal valour on both
sides, though the English fleet sustained considerable damage from the
superior fire of the enemy. Herbert tacked several times in hope of
gaining the weather-gage; but the French admiral kept his wind with
uncommon skill and perseverance. At length the English squadron stood off
to sea, and maintained a running fight till five in the afternoon, when
Chateau Renault tacked about and returned into the bay, content with the
honour he had gained. The loss of men was inconsiderable on both sides;
and where the odds were so great, the victor could not reap much glory.
Herbert retired to the isles of Scilly, where he expected a reinforcement;
but being disappointed in this expectation, he returned to Portsmouth in
very ill humour, with which his officers and men were infected. The common
sailors still retained some attachment to James, who had formerly been a
favourite among them; and the officers complained that they had been sent
upon this service with a force so much inferior to that of the enemy. King
William, in order to appease their discontent, made an excursion to
Portsmouth, where he dined with the admiral on board the ship Elizabeth,
declared his intention of making him an earl in consideration of his good
conduct and services, conferred the honour of knighthood on the captains
Ashby and Shovel, and bestowed a donation of ten shillings on every
private sailor.

DIVERS SENTENCES REVERSED.

The parliament of England thought it incumbent upon them not only to raise
supplies for the maintenance of the war in which the nation was involved,
but also to do justice with respect to those who had been injured by
illegal or oppressive sentences in the late reigns. The attainders of lord
Russel, Algernon Sidney, alderman Cornish, and lady Lisle, were now
reversed. A committee of privileges was appointed by the lords to examine
the case of the earl of Devonshire, who in the late reign had been fined
thirty thousand pounds for assaulting colonel Culpepper in the
presence-chamber. They reported that the court of king’s bench, in
overruling the earl’s plea of privilege of parliament, had committed a
manifest breach of privilege; that the fine was excessive and exhorbitant,
against the great charter, the common right of the subject, and the law of
the realm. The sentence pronounced upon Samuel Johnson, chaplain to lord
Russel, in consequence of which he had been degraded, fined, scourged, and
set in the pillory, was now annulled, and the commons recommended him to
his majesty for some ecclesiastical preferment. He received one thousand
pounds in money, with a pension of three hundred pounds for his own life
and that of his son, who was moreover gratified with a place of one
hundred pounds a year; but the father never obtained any ecclesiastical
benefice. Titus Oates seized this opportunity of petitioning the house of
lords for a reversal of the judgments given against him on his being
convicted of perjury. The opinions of all the judges and counsel at the
bar were heard on this subject, and a bill of reversal passed the commons;
but the peers having inserted some amendments and a proviso, a conference
was demanded, and violent heats ensued. Oates, however, was released from
confinement, and the lords, with the consent of the commons, recommended
him to his majesty for a pardon, which he obtained, together with a
comfortable pension. The committee appointed to inquire into the cases of
the state-prisoners, found sir Robert Wright, late lord chief justice, to
have been concerned in the cruelties committed in the west after the
insurrection of Monmouth; as also one of the ecclesiastical commissioners,
and guilty of manifold enormities. Death had by this time delivered
Jefferies from the resentment of the nation. Graham and Burton had acted
as solicitors in the illegal prosecutions carried on against those who
opposed the court in the reign of Charles II.; these were now reported
guilty of having been instrumental in taking away the lives and estates of
those who had suffered the loss of either under colour of law for eight
years last past; of having, by malicious indictments, informations, and
prosecutions of quo warranto, endeavoured the subversion of the
protestant religion, and the government of the realm; and of having wasted
many thousand pounds of the public revenue in the course of their infamous
practices.

INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSE OF MISCARRIAGES IN IRELAND.

Nor did the misconduct of the present ministry escape the animadversion of
the parliament. The lords having addressed the king to put the Isle of
Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, Scilly, Dover-castle, and the other fortresses of
the kingdom, in a posture of defence, and to disarm the papists, empowered
a committee to inquire into the miscarriages in Ireland, which were
generally imputed to the neglect of the marquisses of Cærmarthan and
Halifax. They presented an address to the king, desiring the minute-book
of the committee for Irish affairs might be put into their hands; but his
majesty declined gratifying them in this particular: then the commons
voted that those persons who had advised the king to delay this
satisfaction were enemies to the kingdom. William, alarmed at this
resolution, allowed them to inspect the book, in which they found very
little for their purpose. The house resolved, that an address should be
presented to his majesty, declaring that the succour of Ireland had been
retarded by unnecessary delays; that the transports prepared were not
sufficient to convey the forces to that kingdom; and that several ships
had been taken by the enemy, for want of proper convoy. At the same time
the question was put, whether or not they should address the king against
the marquis of Halifax. But it was carried in the negative by a small
majority. Before this period, Howe, vice-chamberlain to the queen, had
moved for an address against such counsellors as had been impeached in
parliament, and betrayed the liberties of the nation. This motion was
levelled at Cæmarthen and Halifax, the first of whom had been formerly
impeached of high treason, under the title of earl of Danby; and the other
was charged with all the misconduct of the present administration. Warm
debates ensued, and in all probability the motion would have been carried
in the affirmative, had not those who spoke warmly in behalf it suddenly
cooled in the course of the dispute. Some letters from king James to his
partisans being intercepted, and containing some hints of an intended
invasion, Mr. Hambden, chairman of the committee of the whole house,
enlarged upon the imminent danger to which the kingdom was exposed, and
moved for a further supply to his majesty. In this unexpected motion he
was not seconded by one member. The house, however, having taken the
letters into consideration, resolved to draw up an address to the king,
desiring him to secure and disarm all papists of note; and they brought in
a bill for attainting several persons in rebellion against their
majesties; but it was not finished during this session.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

BILLS PASSED IN THIS SESSION.

Another bill being prepared in the house of lords, enjoining the subjects
to wear the woollen manufacture at certain seasons of the year, a petition
was presented against it by the silk-weavers of London and Canterbury,
assembled in a tumultuous manner at Westminster. The lords refused their
petition, because this was an unusual manner of application. They were
persuaded to return to their respective places of abode; precautions were
taken against a second riot; and the bill was unanimously rejected in the
upper house. This parliament passed an act, vesting in the two
universities the presentations belonging to papists: those of the southern
counties being given to Oxford; and those of the northern to Cambridge, on
certain specified conditions, Courts of conscience were erected at
Bristol, Gloucester, and Newcastle; and that of the marches of Wales was
abolished as an intolerable oppression. The protestant clergymen, who had
been forced to leave their benefices in Ireland, were rendered capable of
holding any living in England, without forfeiting their title to their
former preferment, with the proviso that they should resign their English
benefices when restored to ‘those they had been obliged to relinquish. The
statute of Henry IV. against multiplying gold and silver was now repealed;
the subjects were allowed to melt and refine metals and ores, and extract
gold and silver from them, on condition that it should be brought to the
Mint, and converted into money, the owners receiving its full value in
current coin. These, and several other bills of smaller importance being
passed, the two houses adjourned to the twentieth clay of September, and
afterwards to the nineteenth day of October.

CHAPTER II.

Duke of Schomberg lands with an Army in Ireland….. The
Inniskilliners obtain a Victory over the Irish…..
Schomberg censured for his Inactivity….. The French
worsted at Walcourt….. Success of the Confederates in
Germany….. The Turks defeated at Pacochin, Nissa, and
Widen….. Death of Pope Innocent XI….. .King William
becomes unpopular….. A good Number of the Clergy refuse to
take the Oaths….. The King grants a Commission for
reforming Church Discipline….. Meeting of the
Convocation….. Their Session discontinued by repeated
Prorogations….. Proceedings in Parliament….. The Whigs
obstruct the Bill of Indemnity….. The Commons resume the
Inquiry into the Cause of the Miscarriages in Ireland…..
King William irritated against the Whigs….. Plot against
the Government by Sir James Montgomery discovered by Bishop
Burnet….. Warm Debates in Parliament about the Corporation
Bills….. The King resolves to finish the Irish War in
Person ….. General Ludlow arrives in England, but is
obliged to withdraw….. Efforts of the Jacobites in
Scotland….. The Court Interest triumphs over all
Opposition in that Country….. The Tory Interest prevails
in the New Parliament of England….. Bill for recognising
their Majesties….. Another violent Contest about the Bill
of Abjuration….. King William lands in Ireland….. King
James marches to the Boyne….. William resolves to give him
battle….. Battle of the Boyne….. Death and Character of
Schomberg….. James embarks for France….. William enters
Dublin and publishes his Declaration….. The French obtain
a Victory over the English and Dutch Fleets off Beachy-
head….. Torrington committed Prisoner to the Tower…..
Progress of William in Ireland….. He Invests Limerick; but
is obliged to raise the Siege, and returns to England…..
Cork and Kinsale reduced by the Earl of Marlborough …..
Lausun and the French Forces quit Ireland….. The Duke of
Savoy joins the Confederacy….. Prince Waldeck defeated at
Fleurus….. The Archduke Joseph elected King of the
Romans….. Death of the Duke of Lorrain….. Progress of
the War against the Turks….. Meeting of the
Parliament….. The Commons comply with all the King’s
Demands….. Petition of the Tories in the City of
London….. Attempt against the Marquis of Cærmarthen…..
The King’s Voyage to Holland….. He assists at a
Congress….. Returns to England.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

SCHOMBERG LANDS WITH AN ARMY.

Though the affairs of Ireland were extremely pressing, and the protestants
of that country had made repeated application for relief, the succours
were retarded either by disputes among the ministers, or the neglect of
those who had the management of the expedition, in such a manner that king
James had been six months in Ireland before the army was embarked for that
kingdom. At length eighteen regiments of infantry, and five of dragoons,
being raised for that service, a train of artillery provided, and
transports prepared, the duke of Sehomberg, on whom king William had
conferred the chief command of this armament, set out for Chester, after
he had in person thanked the commons for the uncommon regard they had paid
to his services, and received assurances from the house, that they would
pay particular attention to him and his army. On the thirteenth day of
August he landed in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus with about ten
thousand foot and dragoons, and took possession of Belfast, from whence
the enemy retired at his approach to Carrickfergus, where they resolved to
make a stand. The duke having refreshed his men, marched thither, and
invested the place; the siege was carried on till the twenty-sixth clay of
the month, when the breaches being practicable, the besieged capitulated,
on condition of marching out with their arms, and as much baggage as they
could carry on their backs; and of their being conducted to the next Irish
garrison, which was at Newry. During this siege the duke was joined by the
rest of his army from England; but he had left orders for conveying the
greater part of the artillery and stores from Chester directly to
Carlingford. He now began his march through Lisburne and Hillsborough, and
encamped at Drummore, where the protestants of the north had been lately
routed by Hamilton; thence he proceeded to Loughbrillane, where he was
joined by the horse and dragoons of Inniskilling. Then the enemy abandoned
Newry and Dundalk, in the neighbourhood of which Sehomberg encamped on a
low damp ground, having the town and river on the south, and surrounded on
every other part by hills, bogs, and mountains.

THE INNISKILLINERS OBTAIN A VICTORY.

His army, consisting chiefly of new-raised men little inured to hardship,
began to flag under the fatigue of marching, the inclemency of the
weather, and scarcity of provisions. Here he was reinforced by the
regiments of Kirke, Hanmer, and Stuart; and would have continued his march
to Drogheda, where he understood Rosene lay with about twenty thousand
men, had he not been obliged to wait for the artillery, which was not yet
arrived at Carlingford. King James, having assembled all his forces,
advanced towards Schomberg, and appeared before his intrenchments in order
of battle; but the duke, knowing they were greatly superior in number of
horse, and that his own army was undisciplined, and weakened by death and
sickness, restrained his men within the lines, and in a little time the
enemy retreated. Immediately after their departure, a conspiracy was
discovered in the English camp, hatched by some French papists, who had
insinuated themselves into the protestant regiments. One of these, whose
name was Du Plessis, had written a letter to the ambassador D’Avaux,
promising to desert with all the papists of the three French regiments in
Schomberg’s army. This letter being found, Du Plessis and five accomplices
were tried by a court-martial, and executed. About two hundred and fifty
papists being discovered in the French regiments, they were sent over to
England, from thence to Holland. While Schomberg remained in this
situation, the Inniskilliners made excursions in the neighbourhood, under
the command of colonel Lloyd; and on the twenty-seventh day of September
they obtained a complete victory over five times their number of the
Irish. They killed seven hundred on the spot, and took O’Kelly their
commander, with about fifty officers, and a considerable booty of cattle.
The duke was so pleased with their behaviour on this occasion, that they
received a very honourable testimony of his approbation.

SCHOMBERG CENSURED.

Meanwhile, the enemy took possession of James-Town, and reduced Sligo, one
of the forts of which was gallantly defended by St. Sauver, a French
captain, and his company of grenadiers, until he was obliged to capitulate
for want of water and provisions. A contagious distemper still continued
to rage in Schomberg’s camp, and swept off a great number of officers and
soldiers; so that in the beginning of next spring, not above half the
number of those who went over with the general remained alive. He was
censured for his inactivity, and the king, in repeated letters, desired
him to hazard an engagement, provided any opportunity should occur; but he
did not think proper to run the risk of a battle, against an enemy that
was above thrice his number, well disciplined, healthy, and conducted by
able officers. Nevertheless, he was certainly blameable for having chosen
such an unwholesome situation. At the approach of winter he retired into
quarters, in hopes of being reinforced with seven thousand Danes, who had
already arrived in Britain. These auxiliaries were stipulated in a treaty
which William had just concluded with the king of Denmark. The English
were not more successful at sea than they had proved in their operations
by land. Admiral Herbert, now created earl of Torrington, having sailed to
Ireland with the combined squadrons of England and Holland, made a
fruitless attempt upon Cork, and lost a great number of seamen by
sickness, which was imputed to bad provisions. The Dartmouth ship of war
fell into the hands of the enemy, who infested the channel with such a
number of armed ships and privateers, that the trade of England sustained
incredible damage.

THE FRENCH WORSTED AT WALCOURT.

The affairs of France wore but a gloomy aspect on the continent, where all
the powers of Europe seemed to have conspired her destruction. King
William had engaged in a new league with the states-general, in which
former treaties of peace and commerce were confirmed. It was stipulated,
that in case the king of Great Britain should be attacked, the Dutch
should assist him with six thousand infantry, and twenty ships of the
line; and that, provided hostilities should be committed against the
states-general, England should supply them with ten thousand infantry, and
twenty ships of war. This treaty was no sooner ratified, than king William
dispatched the lord Churchill, whom he had by this time created earl of
Marlborough, to Holland, in order to command the British auxiliaries in
that service to the number of eleven thousand, the greater part of which
had been in the army of king James when the prince of Orange landed in
England. The earl forthwith joined the Dutch army, under the command of
prince Waldeck, who had fixed his rendezvous in the county of Liege, with
a view to act against the French army commanded by the mareschal
D’Humieres; while the prince of Vaudemont headed a little army of
observation, consisting of Spaniards, Dutch, and Germans, to watch the
motions of Calvo in another part of the Low-Countries. The city of Liege
was compelled to renounce the neutrality, and declare for the allies.
Mareschal D’Humieres attacked the foragers belonging to the army of the
states at Walcourt, in the month of August; an obstinate engagement
ensued, and the French were obliged to retreat in confusion, with the loss
of two thousand men, and some pieces of artillery. The army of observation
levelled part of the French lines on the side of Courtray, and raised
contributions on the territories of the enemy.

SUCCESS OF THE CONFEDERATES IN GERMANY.

The French were almost entire masters of the three ecclesiastical
electorates of Germany. They possessed Mentz, Triers, Bonne, Keiserswaert,
Philipsburgh, and Landau. They had blown up the castle of Heildelberg, in
the Palatinate, and destroyed Manheim. They had reduced Worms and Spiers
to ashes; and demolished Frankendahl, together with several other
fortresses. These conquests, the fruits of sudden invasion, were covered
with a numerous army, commanded by the mareschal de Duras; and all his
inferior generals were officers of distinguished courage and ability.
Nevertheless, he found it difficult to maintain his ground against the
different princes of the empire. The duke of Lorraine, who commanded the
imperial troops, invested Mentz, and took it by capitulation; the elector
of Brandenburgh, having reduced Keiserswaert, undertook the siege of
Bonne, which the garrison surrendered after having made a long and
vigorous defence. Nothing contributed more to the union of the German
princes than their resentment of the shocking barbarity with which the
French had plundered, wasted, and depopulated their country. Louis having,
by his intrigues in Poland and at Constantinople, prevented a pacification
between the emperor and the Ottoman Porte, the campaign was opened in
Croatia, where five thousand Turks were defeated by a body of Croates
between Vihitz and Novi. The prince of Baden, who commanded the
imperialists on that side, having thrown a bridge over the Morava at
Passarowitz, crossed that river, and marched in quest of a Turkish army
amounting to fifty thousand men, headed by a seraskier. On the thirteenth
day of August he attacked the enemy in their intrenchments near Patochin,
and forced their lines, routed them with great slaughter, and took
possession of their camp, baggage, and artillery. They returned to Nissa,
where the general finding them still more numerous than the imperialists,
resolved to make a stand, and encamped in a situation that was
inaccessible in every part except the rear, which he left open for the
convenience of a retreat. Through this avenue he was, on the twenty-fourth
day of September, attacked by the prince of Baden, who, after a desperate
resistance, obtained another complete victory, enriched his troops with
the spoil of the enemy, and entered Nissa without opposition. There he
found above three thousand horses and a vast quantity of provisions.
Having reposed his army for a few days in this place, he resumed his march
against the Turks, who had chosen an advantageous post at Widen, and
seemed ambitious of retrieving the honour they had lost in the two former
engagements. The Germans attacked their lines without hesitation; and
though the Musselmen fought with incredible fury, they were a third time
defeated with great slaughter. This defeat was attended with the loss of
Widen, which being surrendered to the victor, he distributed his troops in
winter quarters, and returned to Vienna covered with laurels.

DEATH OF POPE INNOCENT XI.

The French were likewise baffled in their attempt upon Catalonia, where
the duke de Noailles had taken Campredon in the month of May. Leaving a
garrison in this place, he retreated to the frontiers of France, while the
duke de Villa Hermosa, at the head of a Spanish army, blocked up the place
and laid Rousillon under contribution. He afterwards undertook the siege
in form, and Noailles marched to its relief; but he was so hard pressed by
the Spaniards that he withdrew the garrison, dismantled the place, and
retreated with great precipitation. The French king hoped to derive some
considerable advantage from the death of Pope Innocent XL which happened
on the twelfth day of August. That pontiff had been an inveterate enemy to
Louis ever since the affair of the franchises, and the seizure of Avignon.
016
[See note F, at the end of this Vol.] Cabals were immediately
formed at Eome by the French faction against the Spanish and Imperial
interest. The French cardinals, de Bouillon and Bonzi, accompanied by
Furstemberg, repaired to Eome with a large sum of money. Peter Ottoboni, a
Venetian, was elected pope, and assumed the name of Alexander VIII. The
duke de Chaulnes, ambassador from France, immediately signified in the
name of his master, that Avignon should be restored to the patrimony of
the church; and Louis renounced the franchises in a letter written by his
own hand to the pontiff. Alexander received these marks of respect with
the warmest acknowledgments; but when the ambassador and Furstemberg
besought him to re-examine the election of the bishop of Cologne, which
had been the source of so much calamity to the empire, he lent a deaf ear
to their solicitations. He even confirmed the dispensations granted by his
predecessor to the prince of Bavaria, who was thus empowered to take
possession of the electorate, though he had not yet attained the age
required by the canons. Furstemberg retired in disgust to Paris, where
Louis immediately gratified him with the abbey of St. Germains.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

KING WILLIAM BECOMES UNPOPULAR.

King William found it an easier task to unite the councils of Europe
against the common enemy than to conciliate and preserve the affections of
his own subjects, among whom he began visibly to decline in point of
popularity. Many were dissatisfied with his measures; and a great number
even of those who exerted themselves for his elevation had conceived a
disgust from his personal deportment, which was very unsuitable to the
manners and disposition of the English people. Instead of mingling with
his nobility in social amusements and familiar conversation, he maintained
a disagreeable reserve which had all the air of sullen pride; he seldom or
never spoke to his courtiers or attendants, he spent his time chiefly in
the closet retired from all communication; or among his troops in a camp
he had formed at Hounslow; or in the exercise of hunting, to which he was
immoderately addicted. This had been prescribed to him by physicians as
necessary to improve his constitution, which was naturally weak, and by
practice had become so habitual that he could not lay it aside. His ill
health co-operating with his natural aversion to society, produced a
peevishness which could not fail of being displeasing to those who were
near his person: this was increased by the disputes in his cabinet, and
the opposition of those who were professed enemies to his government, as
well as by the alienation of his former friends. As he could not breathe
without difficulty in the air of London, he resided chiefly at
Hampton-court, and expended considerable sums in beautifying and enlarging
that palace; he likewise purchased the house at Kensington of the earl of
Nottingham; and such profusion in the beginning of an expensive war gave
umbrage to the nation in general. Whether he was advised by his
counsellors, or his own sagacity pointed out the expediency of conforming
with the English humour, he now seemed to change his disposition, and in
some measure adopt the manners of his predecessors. In imitation of
Charles II. he resorted to the races at Newmarket; he accepted an
invitation to visit Cambridge, where he behaved himself with remarkable
affability to the members of the university; he afterwards dined with the
lord-mayor of London, accepted the freedom of the city, and condescended
so far as to become sovereign-master of the company of grocers.

A GOOD NUMBER OF THE CLERGY REFUSE TO TAKE THE OATHS.

While William thus endeavoured to remove the prejudices which had been
conceived against his person, the period arrived which the parliament had
prescribed for taking the oaths to the new government. Some individuals of
the clergy sacrificed their benefices to their scruples of conscience, and
absolutely refused to take oaths that were contrary to those they had
already sworn in favour of their late sovereign. These were distinguished
by the epithet of nonjurors: but their number bore a very small proportion
to that of others, who took them with such reservations and distinctions
as redounded very little to the honour of their integrity. Many of those
who had been the warmest advocates for non-resistance and passive
obedience, made no scruple of renouncing their allegiance to king James,
and complying with the present act, after having declared that they took
the oaths in no other sense than that of a peaceable submission to the
powers that were. They even affirmed that the legislature itself had
allowed the distinction between a king de facto and a king de
jure, as they had dropped the word “rightful” when the form was under
debate. They alleged that as prudence obliged them to conform to the
letter of the oath, so conscience required them to give it their own
interpretation. Nothing could be more infamous and of worse tendency than
this practice of equivocating in the most sacred of all obligations. It
introduced a general disregard of oaths, which hath been the source of
universal perjury and corruption. Though this set of temporizers were
bitterly upbraided both by the nonjurors and the papists, they all
concurred in representing William as an enemy to the church; as a prince
educated in the doctrines of Calvin, which he plainly espoused, by
limiting his favour and preferment to such as were latitudinarians in
religion, and by his abolishing episcopacy in Scotland. The presbyterians
in that kingdom now tyrannized in their turn. They were headed by the earl
of Crawford, a nobleman of a violent temper and strong prejudices. He was
chosen president of the parliament by the interest of Melvil, and
oppressed the episcopalians in such a manner that the greater part of them
from resentment became well-wishers to king James. Every circumstance of
the hardships they underwent was reported in England; and the earl of
Clarendon, as well as the suspended bishops, circulated these particulars
with great assiduity. The oaths being rejected by the archbishop of
Canterbury, the bishops of Ely, Chichester, Bath and Wells, Peterborough
and Gloucester, they were suspended from their functions, and threatened
with deprivation. Lake of Chichester, being seized with a dangerous
distemper, signed a solemn declaration, in which he professed his
adherence to the doctrine of non-resistance and passive obedience, which
he believed to be the distinguishing characteristic of the church of
England. After his death this paper was published, industriously
circulated, and extolled by the party as an inspired oracle pronounced by
a martyr to religious truth and sincerity.

THE KING GRANTS A COMMISSION FOR REFORMING CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

All the clamour that was raised against the king could not divert him from
prosecuting the scheme of comprehension. He granted a commission under the
great seal to ten bishops and twenty dignitaries of the church,
authorizing them to meet from time to time in the Jerusalem chamber, to
prepare such alterations of the liturgy and the canons, and such proposals
for the reformation of ecclesiastical courts as might most conduce to the
good order, edification, and uniting of the church, and tend to reconcile
all religious differences among the protestant subjects of the kingdom. A
cry was immediately raised against this commission, as an ecclesiastical
court illegal and dangerous. At their first meeting the authority of the
commission was questioned by Sprat, bishop of Rochester, who retired in
disgust, and was followed by Mew of Winchester, and the doctors Jane and
Aldrich. These were averse to any alteration of the forms and constitution
of the church in favour of an insolent and obstinate party, which ought to
have been satisfied with the toleration they enjoyed. They observed that
an attempt to make such alteration would divide the clergy, and bring the
liturgy into disesteem with the people, as it would be a plain
acknowledgment that it wanted correction. They thought they should violate
the dignity of the church by condescending to make offers which the
dissenters were at liberty to refuse; and they suspected some of their
colleagues of a design to give up episcopal ordination—a step
inconsistent with their honour, duty, oaths, and subscriptions.

MEETING OF THE CONVOCATION.

The commissioners, notwithstanding this secession, proceeded to debate
with moderation on the abuses of which the dissenters had complained, and
corrected every article that seemed liable to any just objection; but the
opposite party employed all their art and industry to inflame the minds of
the people. The two universities declared against all alterations, and
those who promoted them. The king himself was branded as an enemy to the
hierarchy; and they bestirred themselves so successfully in the election
of members for the convocation, that they procured a very considerable
majority. At their first meeting the friends of the comprehension scheme
proposed Dr. Tillotson, clerk of the closet to his majesty, as prolocutor;
but the other party carried it in favour of Dr. Jane, who was counted the
most violent churchman in the whole Assembly. In a Latin speech to the
bishop of London as president, he, in the name of the lower house,
asserted that the liturgy of England needed no amendment, and concluded
with the old declaration of the barons, “Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari.
We will not suffer the laws of England to be changed.” The bishop, in his
reply, exhorted them to moderation, charity, and indulgence towards their
brethren the dissenters, and to make such abatements in things indifferent
as might serve to open a door of salvation to multitudes of straying
christians. His injunctions, however, produced no favourable effect; the
lower house seemed to be animated by a spirit of opposition. Next day the
president prorogued them, on pretence that the royal commission, by which
they were to act, was defective for want of being sealed, and that a
prorogation was necessary until that sanction should be obtained. In this
interval means were used to mollify their non-compliant tempers, but all
endeavours proved ineffectual. When they met again, the earl of Nottingham
delivered the king’s commission to both houses, with a speech of his own,
and a message from his majesty, importing that he had summoned them out of
a pious zeal to do every thing that might tend to the best establishment
of the church of England, which should always enjoy his favour and
protection. He exhorted them to lay aside all prejudice, and consider
calmly and impartially whatever should be proposed: he assured them he
would offer nothing but what should be for the honour, peace, and
advantage of the protestant religion in general, and particularly of the
church of England.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THEIR SESSION PROROGUED.

The bishops adjourning to the Jerusalem chamber, prepared a zealous
address of thanks to his majesty, which, being sent to the lower house for
their concurrence, met with violent opposition. Amendments were proposed;
a conference ensued, and, after warm debates, they agreed upon a cold
address, which was accordingly presented. The majority of the lower house,
far from taking any measures in favour of dissenters, converted all their
attention to the relief of their nonjuring brethren. Zealous speeches were
made in behalf of the suspended bishops; and Dr. Jane proposed that
something might be done to qualify them to sit in the convocation. This,
however, was such a dangerous point as they would not venture to discuss;
yet, rather than proceed upon the business for which they had been
assembled, they began to take cognizance of some pamphlets lately
published, which they conceived to be of dangerous consequence to the
christian religion. The president and his party, perceiving the
disposition of the house, did not think proper to communicate any proposal
touching the intended reformation, and the king suffered the session to be
discontinued by repeated prorogations.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

The parliament meeting on the nineteenth day of October, the king, in a
speech of his own composing, explained the necessity of a present supply
to carry on the war. He desired that they might be speedy in their
determinations on this subject, for these would in a great measure
influence the deliberations of the princes and states concerned in the war
against France, as a general meeting of them was appointed to be held next
month at the Hague, to settle the operations of the ensuing campaign. He
concluded with recommending the dispatch of a bill of indemnity, that the
minds of his subjects might be quieted, and that they might unanimously
concur in promoting the honour and welfare of the kingdom. As several
inflammatory bills and disputes, which had produced heats and animosities
in the last session, were still depending, the king, after having
consulted both houses, resolved to put an end to those disputes by a
prorogation. He accordingly went to the house of lords and prorogued the
parliament till the twenty-first day of October, by the mouth of the new
speaker, sir Robert Atkins; the marquis of Halifax having resigned that
office. When they re-assembled, the king referred them to his former
speech: then the commons unanimously resolved to assist his majesty in
reducing Ireland, and in joining with his allies abroad for a vigorous
prosecution of the war against France: for these purposes they voted a
supply of two millions.

THE WHIGS OBSTRUCT THE INDEMNITY BILL.

During this session the whigs employed all their influence and intrigues
in obstructing the bill of indemnity, which they knew would open a door
for favour and preferment to the opposite party, which began to gain
ground in the king’s good graces. With this view they revived the
prosecution of the state prisoners. A committee was appointed to prepare a
charge against Burton and Graham. The commons resolved to impeach the
earls of Peterborough, Salisbury, and Castlemain, sir Edward Hales, and
Obadiah Walker, of high treason, for having been reconciled to the church
of Rome, contrary to the laws of the realm. A bill was ordered to be
brought in to declare the estate of the late lord chancellor Jefferies
forfeited to the crown, and attaint his blood; but it met with such
opposition that the measure was dropped: the house however agreed, that
the pecuniary penalties incurred by those persons who had exercised
offices contrary to the laws against popish recusants, should be speedily
levied and applied to the public service. The lord Griffin being detected
in maintaining a correspondence with king James and his partizans, was
committed to the Tower; but as no other evidence appeared against him than
written letters, found in the false bottom of a pewter bottle, they could
not help consenting to his being released upon bail, as they had lately
resolved that Algernon Sidney was unjustly condemned in the reign of
Charles II. because nothing but writings had been produced against him at
his trial. The two houses concurred in appointing a committee to inquire
who were the advisers and prosecutors in taking away the lives of lord
Russel, colonel Sydney, sir Thomas Armstrong, alderman Cornish, and
others; and who were chiefly concerned in the arbitrary practices touching
the writs of quo warranto, and the surrender of charters. This
inquiry was levelled at the marquis of Halifax, who had concurred with the
ministry of Charles in all these severities. Though no proof appeared upon
which votes or addresses could be founded, that nobleman saw it was
necessary for him to withdraw himself from the administration; he
therefore resigned the privy-seal, which was put in commission, and
reconciled himself to the tories, of whom he became the patron and
protector.

INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSE OF THE MISCARRIAGES IN IRELAND RESUMED.

The commons likewise resumed the examination of the miscarriages in
Ireland, and desired the king would appoint commissioners to go over and
inquire into the condition of the army in that kingdom. Schomberg,
understanding that he had been blamed in the house of commons for his
inactivity, transmitted to the king a satisfactory vindication of his own
conduct; and it appeared that the miscarriages in Ireland were wholly
owing to John Shales, purveyor-general to the army. The commons
immediately presented an address to his majesty, praying that Shales might
be taken into custody; that all his papers, accounts, and stores, should
be secured; and that duke Schomberg might be empowered to fill his place
with a more able purveyor. The king gave them to understand that he had
already sent orders to the general for that purpose. Nevertheless, they in
another petition requested his majesty to name those who had recommended
Shales to his service, as he had exercised the same office under king
James, and was suspected of treasonable practices against the government.
William declined gratifying their request; but he afterwards sent a
message to the house, desiring them to recommend a certain number of
commissioners to superintend such provisions and preparations as might be
necessary for that service, as well as to nominate certain persons to go
over and examine the state of the army in Ireland. The commons were so
mollified by this instance of his condescension, that they left the whole
affair to his own direction, and proceeded to examine other branches of
misconduct. Instances of mismanagement appeared so numerous and so
flagrant, that they resolved upon a subsequent address, to explain the ill
conduct and success of his army and navy; to desire he would find out the
author of these miscarriages, and for the future intrust unsuspected
persons with the management of affairs. They ordered the victuallers of
the fleet to be taken into custody, on suspicion of their having furnished
the navy with unwholesome provisions, and new commissioners were
appointed. Bitter reproaches were thrown out against the ministry. Mr.
Hambden expressed his surprise that the administration should consist of
those very persons whom king James had employed, when his affairs were
desperate, to treat with the prince of Orange, and moved that the king
should be petitioned in an address to remove such persons from his
presence and councils. This was a stroke aimed at the earl of Nottingham,
whose office of secretary Hambden desired to possess; but his motion was
not seconded, the court-members observing that James did not depute these
lords to the prince of Orange because they were attached to his own
interest, but for a very different reason, namely, that they were well
known to disapprove of his measures, and therefore would be the more
agreeable to his highness. The house however voted an address to the king,
desiring that the authors of the miscarriages might be brought to condign
punishment.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

WILLIAM IRRITATED AGAINST THE WHIGS.

In the sequel, the question was proposed, Whether a placeman ought to have
a seat in the house? and a very warm debate ensued: but it was carried in
the affirmative, on the supposition that by such exclusion the
commonwealth would be deprived of some of the ablest senators of the
kingdom. But what chiefly irritated William against the whigs was their
backwardness in promoting the public service, and their disregard of the
earnest desire he expressed to see his revenue settled for life. He said
his title was no more than a pageant, and the worst of all governments was
that of a king without treasure. Nevertheless, they would not grant the
civil list for a longer term than one year. They began to think there was
something arbitrary in his disposition. His sullen behaviour in all
probability first infused this opinion, which was strengthened and
confirmed by the insinuations of his enemies. The Scots who had come up to
London to give an account of the proceedings in their parliament, were
infected with the same notion. One Simpson, a presbyterian of that
country, whom the earl of Portland employed as a spy, had insinuated
himself into the confidence of Nevil Payne, an active and intelligent
partisan and agent of king James; by which means he supplied the earl with
such intelligence as raised him to some degree of credit with that
minister. This he used in prepossessing the earl against the king’s best
friends, and infusing jealousies which were soon kindled into mutual
distrust and animosity.

PLOT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.

Sir James Montgomery, who had been a warm advocate for the revolution,
received advice that the court suspected him and others of disaffection,
and was employed in seeking evidence by which they might be prosecuted.
They were equally alarmed and incensed at this intimation, and Payne
seized the opportunity of seducing them into a correspondence with the
exiled king. They demanded the settlement of the presbytery in Scotland,
and actually engaged in a treaty for his restoration. They reconciled
themselves to the duke of Queensbury, and the other noblemen of the
episcopal party: they wrote to James for a supply of money, arms, and
ammunition, together with a reinforcement of three thousand men from
Dunkirk. Montgomery had acquired great interest among the whigs of
England, and this he-employed in animating them against the king and the
ministry. He represented them as a set of wicked men, who employed
infamous spies to insnare and ruin the fast friends of the government, and
found means to alienate them so much from William, that they began to
think in earnest of recalling their banished prince The duke of Bolton and
the earl of Monmouth were almost persuaded into a conspiracy for this
purpose; they seemed to think James was now so well convinced of his
former errors, that they might trust him without scruple. Montgomery and
Payne were the chief managers of the scheme, and they admitted Ferguson
into their councils, as a veteran in the arts of treason. In order to
blast William’s credit in the city, they circulated a report that James
would grant a full indemnity, separate himself entirely from the French
interest, and be contented with a secret connivance in favour of the Roman
catholics. Montgomery’s brother assured the bishop of Salisbury that a
treaty with king James was absolutely concluded, and an invitation
subscribed by the whole cabal. He said this paper would be sent to Ireland
by the way of France, as the direct communication was difficult; and he
proposed a method for seizing it before it should be conveyed out of the
kingdom. Williamson, the supposed bearer of it, had obtained a pass for
Flanders, and a messenger being sent in pursuit of him, secured his
clothes and portmanteau; but after a very strict examination nothing
appeared to justify the intelligence. Williamson had previously delivered
the papers to Simpson, who hired a boat at Deal, and arrived in safety at
France. He returned with large assurances, and twelve thousand pounds were
remitted to the Scottish undertakers. Montgomery the informer seeing his
intelligence falsified, lost his credit with the bishop, and dreading the
resentment of the other party, retired to the continent. The conspirators
loudly complained of the false imputations they had incurred. The
pretended discoveries were looked upon as fictions of the ministry, and
the king on this occasion suffered greatly in the opinion of his subjects.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

DEBATES ABOUT THE CORPORATION BILLS.

The tories still continued to carry on a secret negotiation with the
court. They took advantage of the ill-humour subsisting between the king
and the whigs; and promised large supplies of money provided this
parliament should be dissolved and another immediately convoked. The
opposite party, being apprized of their intention, brought a bill into the
house of commons for restoring corporations to their ancient rights and
privileges. They knew their own strength at elections consisted in these
corporations; and they inserted two additional severe clauses against
those who were in any shape concerned in surrendering charters. The whole
power of the tories was exerted against this clause; and now the whigs
vied with them in making court to his majesty, promising to manifest the
most submissive obedience should this bill be enacted into a law. The
strength of the tories was now become so formidable to the house, that
they out-voted the other party, and the clauses were rejected; but the
bill passed in its original form. The lords debated upon the point,
Whether a corporation could be forfeited or surrendered? Lord chief
justice Holt and two other judges declared their opinion in the
affirmative: the rest thought otherwise, as no precedents could be
produced farther back than the reign of Henry VIII. when the abbeys were
surrendered; and this instance seemed too violent to authorize such a
measure in a regular course of administration. The bill, however, passed
by one voice only. Then both parties quickened their applications to the
king, who found himself so perplexed and distracted between two factions
which he equally feared, that he resolved to leave the government in the
queen’s hands and retire to Holland. He communicated this design to the
marquis of Carmarthen, the earl of Shrewsbury, and some other noblemen,
who pressed him to lay aside his resolution, and even mingled tears with
their remonstrances.

THE KING RESOLVES TO FINISH THE IRISH WAR IN PERSON.

He at length complied with their request, and determined to finish the
Irish war in person. This design was far from being agreeable to the
parliament. His friends dreaded the climate of that country, which might
prove fatal to his weak constitution. The well-wishers of James were
afraid of that prince’s being hard pressed, should William take the field
against him in person.

Both houses, therefore, began to prepare an address against this
expedition. In order to prevent this remonstrance, the king went to the
parliament, and formally signified his resolution. After his speech they
were prorogued to the second day of April. On the sixth day of February
they were dissolved by proclamation, and a new parliament was summoned to
meet on the twentieth day of March. During this session, the commons, in
an address to the king, desired that a revenue of fifty thousand pounds
might be settled upon the prince and princess of Denmark, out of the civil
list; and his majesty gratified them in this particular: yet the warmth
and industry with which the friends of the princess exerted themselves in
promoting the settlement, produced a coldness and misunderstanding between
the two sisters; and the subsequent disgrace of the earl of Marlborough
was imputed to the part which his wife acted on the occasion. She was lady
of the bed-chamber, and chief confidant to the princess, whom she
strenuously advised to insist upon the settlement rather than depend upon
the generosity of the king and queen.

LUDLOW ARRIVES IN ENGLAND, BUT IS OBLIGED TO WITHDRAW.

About this period general Ludlow, who at the restoration had been excepted
from the act of indemnity, as one of those who sat in judgment upon
Charles I. arrived in England, and offered his service in reducing
Ireland, where he had formerly commanded. Though a rigid republican, he
was reputed a conscientious man, and a good officer. He had received some
encouragement to come over, and probably would have been employed had not
the commons interposed. Sir Edward Seymour, who enjoyed by grant an estate
in Wiltshire which had formerly belonged to Ludlow, began to be in pain
for his possession. He observed in the house, that the nation would be
disgraced should one of the J parricides be suffered to live in the
kingdom. An address was immediately presented to the king, desiring a
proclamation might be issued promising a reward for apprehending general
Ludlow. This was accordingly published; but not before he had landed in
Holland, from whence he returned to Vevay in Switzerland, where he wrote
the memoirs of his life, and died after an exile of thirty years.

EFFORTS OF THE JACOBITES IN SCOTLAND.

While king William fluctuated between two parties in England, his interest
in Scotland had well nigh given way to a coalition between the original
Jacobites and Montgomery’s party of discontented presbyterians. Colonel
Cannon, who succeeded the viscount Dundee in command, after having made
several unsuccessful efforts in favour of the late king’s interest,
retired into Ireland; and the highlanders chose sir Hugh Cameron for their
leader. Under him they renewed their incursions with the better prospect
of success, as several regiments of the regular troops had been sent to
reinforce the army of Schomberg. James assisted them with clothes, arms,
and ammunition, together with some officers, amongst whom was colonel
Bucan, appointed to act as their chief commander. This officer, at the
head of fifteen hundred men, advanced into the shire of Murray, in hopes
of being joined by other malcontents; but he was surprised and routed by
sir Thomas Livingstone, while major Ferguson destroyed the places they
possessed in the Isle of Mull; so that the highlanders were obliged to
retire and conceal themselves among their hills and fastnesses. The
friends of James, despairing of doing any thing effectual for his service
in the field, converted all their attention to the proceedings in
parliament; where they imagined their interest was much stronger than it
appeared to be upon trial. They took the oaths without hesitation, and
hoped, by the assistance of their new allies, to embroil the government in
such a manner that the majority of the people would declare for a
restoration. But the views of these new cemented parties were altogether
incompatible, and their principles diametrically opposite. Notwithstanding
their concurrence in parliament, the earl of Melvil procured a small
majority. The opposition was immediately discouraged: some individuals
retracted, rather than fall with a sinking cause; and mutual jealousies
began to prevail. The leaders of the coalition treated separately with
king James; made inconsistent demands; reciprocally concealed their
negotiations; in a word, they distrusted and hated one another with the
most implacable resentment.

THE COURT INTEREST PREVAILS.

The earls of Argyle, Annandale, and Breadalbane, withdrew from their
councils and repaired to England. Montgomery, terrified at their
defection, went privately to London, after he had hinted something of the
plot to Melvil, and solicited a pass from the queen, which was refused.
Annandale, having received information that Montgomery had disclosed all
the particulars of the negotiation, threw himself upon the queen’s mercy,
and discovered all he knew of the conspiracy. As lie had not treated with
any of the malcontents in England, they remained secure from his evidence;
but he informed against Nevil Payne, who had been sent down as their agent
to Scotland, where he now resided. He was immediately apprehended by the
council of that kingdom, in consequence of a letter from the earl of
Nottingham; and twice put to the torture, which he resolutely bore,
without discovering his employers. Montgomery still absconded in London,
soliciting a pardon; but finding he could not obtain it, except on
condition of making a full discovery, he abandoned his country, and chose
to die in exile rather than betray his confederates. This disunion of the
conspirators, and discovery of the plot, left the earl of Melvil in
possession of a greater majority; though even this he was fain to secure
by overstraining his instructions in the articles of patronage, and the
supremacy of the crown, which he yielded up to the fury of the fanatic
presbyterians, contrary to the intention of king William. In lieu of
these, however, they indulged him with the tax of chimney or hearth-money;
as well as with a test to be imposed upon all persons in office or
parliament, declaring William and Mary their lawful sovereigns, and
renouncing the pretended title of king James. All the laws in favour of
episcopacy were repealed. Threescore of the presbyterian ministers, who
had been ejected at the restoration, were still alive; and these the
parliament declared the only sound part of the church. The government of
it was lodged in their hands; and they were empowered to admit such as
they should think proper to their assistance. A few furious fanatics being
thus associated, proceeded with ungovernable violence to persecute the
episcopal party, exercising the very same tyranny against which they
themselves had so loudly exclaimed.

THE TORY INTEREST PREVAILS IN THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

While the presbyterian interest thus triumphed in Scotland, the two
parties that divided England employed their whole influence and attention
in managing the elections for a new parliament; and the tories obtained
the victory. The king seemed gradually falling into the arms of this
party. They complained of their having been totally excluded from the
lieutenancy of London at the king’s accession to the crown; and now a
considerable number of the most violent tories in the city were admitted
into the commission by the interest and address of the bishop of London,
the marquis of Carmarthen, and the earl of Nottingham. To gratify that
party, the earls of Monmouth and Warrington were dismissed from their
employments; nay, when the parliament met on the twentieth day of March,
the commons chose for their speaker sir John Trevor, a violent partisan of
that faction, who had been created master of the rolls by the late king.
He was a bold artful man, and undertook to procure a majority to be at the
devotion of the court, provided he should be supplied with the necessary
sums for the purposes of corruption. William, finding there was no other
way of maintaining his administration in peace, thought proper to
countenance the practice of purchasing votes, and appointed Trevor first
commissioner of the great seal. In his speech to the new parliament, he
gave them to understand that he still persisted in his resolution of going
in person to Ireland. He desired they would make a settlement of the
revenue, or establish it for the present as a fund of credit, upon which
the necessary sums for the service of government might be immediately
advanced; he signified his intention of sending to them an act of grace,
with a few exceptions, that he might manifest his readiness to extend his
protection to all his subjects, and leave no colour of excuse for raising
disturbances in his absence, as he knew how busy some ill-affected men
were in their endeavours to alter the established government; he
recommended an union with Scotland, the parliament of which had appointed
commissioners for that purpose; he told them he should leave the
administration in the hands of the queen, and desired they would prepare
an act to confirm her authority; he exhorted them to dispatch the business
for which they were assembled, to avoid debates, and expressed his hope
that they should soon meet again to finish what might be now left
imperfect.

BILL FOR RECOGNISING THEIR MAJESTIES.

The commons, in compliance with his request, voted a supply of twelve
hundred thousand pounds, one million of that sum to be raised by a clause
of credit in the revenue bills; but he could not prevail upon them to
settle the revenue for life. They granted, however, the hereditary excise
for that term, but the customs for four years only. They considered this
short term as the best security the kingdom could have for frequent
parliaments; though this precaution was not at all agreeable to their
sovereign. A poll-bill was likewise passed, other supplies were granted,
and both parties seemed to court his majesty by advancing money on those
funds of credit. The whigs, however, had another battery in reserve. They
produced, in the upper house, a bill for recognising their majesties as
the rightful and lawful sovereign of these realms, and for declaring all
the acts of the last parliament to be good and valid. The tories were now
reduced to a very perplexed situation. They could not oppose the bill
without hazarding the interest they had so lately acquired, nor assent to
it without solemnly renouncing their former arguments and distinctions.
They made no great objections to the first part, and even proposed to
enact, That those should be deemed good laws for the time to come; but
they refused to declare them valid for that which was past. After a long
debate, the bill was committed; yet the whigs lost their majority on the
report; nevertheless, the bill was recovered, and passed with some
alteration in the words; in consequence of a nervous spirited protest,
signed Bolton, Macclesfield, Stamford, Newport, Bedford, Her bert,
Suffolk, Monmouth, Delamere, and Oxford. The whole interest of the court
was thrown into the scale with this bill, before it would preponderate
against the tories; the chiefs of whom, with the earl of Nottingham at
their head, protested in their turn. The same party in the house of
commons were determined upon a vigorous opposition; and in the mean time
some trifling objections were made, that it might be committed for
amendment; but their design was prematurely discovered by one of their
faction, who chanced to question the legality of the convention, as it was
not summoned by the king’s writ. This insinuation was answered by Somers
the solicitor general, who observed, that if it was not a legal
parliament, they who were then met, and who had taken the oaths enacted by
that parliament, were guilty of high treason; the laws repealed by it were
still in force: it was their duty therefore to return to king James; and
all concerned in collecting and paying the money levied by the acts of
that parliament were highly criminal. The tories were so struck with these
arguments that the bill passed without further opposition, and immediately
received the royal assent. Thus the settlement was confirmed by those very
people who had so loudly exclaimed against it as illegal; but the whigs,
with all their management, would not have gained their point had not the
court been interested in the dispute.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

ANOTHER VIOLENT CONTEST.

There was another violent contest between the two parties, on the import
of a bill requiring all subjects in office to abjure king James on pain of
imprisonment. Though the clergy were at first exempted from this test, the
main body of the tories opposed it with great vehemence; while the whigs,
under countenance of the ministry, supported it with equal vigour. It
produced long and violent debates; and the two factions seemed pretty
equally balanced. At length the tories represented to the king that a
great deal of precious time would be lost in fruitless altercation; that
those who declared against the bill would grow sullen and intractable, so
as to oppose every other motion that might be made for the king’s service;
that, in case of its being carried, his majesty must fall again into the
hands of the whigs, who would renew their former practices against the
prerogative; and many individuals, who were now either well affected to
him, or at least neutral, would become Jacobites from resentment. These
suggestions had such weight with king William, that he sent an intimation
to the commons, desiring they would drop the debate and proceed to matters
that were more pressing. The whigs in general were disgusted at this
interposition; and the earl of Shrewsbury, who had interested himself
warmly in behalf of the bill, resented it so deeply that he insisted on
resigning his office of secretary of state. The king, who revered his
talents and integrity, employed Dr. Tillotson and others, who were
supposed to have credit with the earl, to dissuade him from quitting his
employment; but he continued deaf to all their remonstrances, and would
not even comply with the request of his majesty, who pressed him to keep
the seals until he should return from Ireland. Long debates were likewise
managed in the house of lords upon the bill of abjuration, or rather an
oath of special fidelity to William, in opposition to James. The tories
professed themselves willing to enter into a negative engagement against
the late king and his adherents; but they opposed the oath of abjuration
with all their might: and the house was so equally divided that neither
side was willing to hazard a decision, so that all the fruit of their
debates was a prolongation of the session.

KING WILLIAM LANDS IN IRELAND.

An act was prepared for investing the queen with the administration during
the king’s absence; another for reversing the judgment on a quo
warranto against the city of London, and restoring it to its ancient
rights and privileges; at length the bill of indemnity so cordially
recommended by the king passed both houses. 021 [See note G, at the
end of this Vol.] On the twenty-first day of May, the king closed the
session with a Short speech, in which he thanked them for the supplies
they had granted, and recommended to them a punctual discharge of their
duties in their respective counties, that the peace of the nation might
not be interrupted in his absence. The houses were adjourned to the
seventh day of July, when the parliament was prorogued and adjourned
successively. As a further security for the peace of the kingdom, the
deputy-lieutenants were authorized to raise the militia in case of
necessity. All papists were prohibited to stir above five miles from their
respective places of abode; a proclamation was published for apprehending
certain disaffected persons; sir John Cochran and Ferguson were actually
arrested on suspicion of treasonable practices. On the fourth day of June
the king set out for Ireland, attended by prince George of Denmark, the
duke of Ormond, the earls of Oxford, Scarborough, Manchester, and many
other persons of distinction: on the fourteenth day of the month he landed
at Carrickfergus, from whence he immediately proceeded to Belfast, where
he was met by the duke of Schomberg, the prince of Wirtemberg,
major-general Kirke, and other officers. By this time colonel Wolsey, at
the head of a thousand men, had defeated a strong detachment of the enemy
near Belturbat; sir John Lanier had taken Bedloe castle; and that of
Charlemont, a strong post of great importance, together with Balingary
near Cavan, had been reduced. King William having reposed himself for two
or three days at Belfast, visited the duke’s head-quarters at Lis-burne;
then advancing to Hillsborough, published an order against pressing
horses, and committing violence on the country people. When some of his
general officers proposed cautious measures, he declared he did not come
to Ireland to let the grass grow under his feet. He ordered the army to
encamp and be reviewed at Loughbrilland, where he found it amount to
six-and-thirty thousand effective men, well appointed. Then he marched to
Dundalk; and afterwards advanced to Ardee, which the enemy had just
abandoned.

JAMES MARCHES TO THE BOYNE.

King James trusted so much to the disputes in the English parliament, that
he did not believe his son-in-law would be able to quit that kingdom; and
William had been six days in Ireland before he received intimation of his
arrival. This was no sooner known than he left Dublin under the guard of
the militia commanded by Luttrel, and with a reinforcement of six thousand
infantry, which he had lately received from France, joined the rest of his
forces, which now almost equalled William’s army in number, exclusive of
about fifteen thousand men who remained in different garrisons. He
occupied a very advantageous post on the bank of the Boyne, and, contrary
to the advice of his general officers, resolved to stand battle. They
proposed to strengthen their garrisons and retire to the Shannon to wait
the effect of the operations at sea. Louis had promised to equip a
powerful armament against the English fleet, and send over a great number
of small frigates to destroy William’s transports, as soon as their convoy
should be returned to England. The execution of this scheme was not at all
difficult, and must have proved fatal to the English army; for their
stores and ammunition were still on board; the ships sailed along the
coast as the troops advanced in their march; and there was not one secure
harbour into which they could retire on any emergency. James, however, was
bent upon hazarding an engagement; and expressed uncommon confidence and
alacrity. Besides the river which was deep, his front was secured by a
morass and a rising ground, so that the English army could not attack him
without manifest disadvantage.

WILLIAM RESOLVES TO GIVE HIM BATTLE

King William marched up to the opposite bank of the river, and, as he
reconnoitred their situation, was exposed to the fire of some field-pieces
which the enemy purposely planted against his person. They killed a man
and two horses close by him; and the second bullet, rebounding from the
earth, grazed upon his right shoulder so as to carry off part of his
clothes and skin, and produce a considerable contusion. This accident,
which he bore without the least emotion, created some confusion among his
attendants, which the enemy perceiving, concluded he was killed, and
shouted aloud in token of their joy. The whole camp resounded with
acclamation; and several squadrons of their horse were drawn down towards
the river as if they had intended to pass it immediately and attack the
English army. The report was instantly communicated from place to place
until it reached Dublin; from thence it was conveyed to Paris, where,
contrary to the custom of the French court, the people were encouraged to
celebrate the event with bonfires and illuminations. William rode along
the line to show himself to the army after this narrow escape. At night he
called a council of war, and declared his resolution to attack the enemy
in the morning. Schomberg at first opposed his design; but finding the
king determined, he advised that a strong detachment of horse and foot
should that night pass the Boyne at Slane-bridge, and take post between
the enemy and the pass of Duleck, that the action might be the more
decisive. This council being rejected, the king determined that early in
the morning lieutenant-general Douglas, with the right wing of infantry,
and young Schomberg, with the horse, should pass at Slane-bridge, while
the main body of foot should force their passage at Old-bridge, and the
left at certain fords between the enemy’s camp and Drogheda. The duke,
perceiving his advice was not relished by the Dutch generals, retired to
his tent, where the order of battle being brought to him, he received it
with an air of discontent, saying, It was the first that had ever been
sent him in that manner. The proper dispositions being made, William rode
quite through the army by torchlight, and then retired to his tent, after
having given orders for the soldiers to distinguish themselves from the
enemy by wearing green boughs in their hats during the action.

BATTLE OF THE BOYNE.

At six o’clock in the morning, general Douglas, with young Schomberg, the
earl of Portland, and Auverquerque, marched towards Slane-bridge, and
passed the river with very little opposition. When they reached the
farther bank, they perceived the enemy drawn up in two lines, to a
considerable number of horse and foot, with a morass in their front, so
that Douglas was obliged to wait for a reinforcement. This being arrived,
the infantry was led on to the charge through the morass, while count
Schomberg rode round it with his cavalry to attack the enemy in flank. The
Irish, instead of waiting the assault, faced about and retreated towards
Duleck with some precipitation; yet not so fast but that Schomberg fell in
among their rear and did considerable execution. King James however soon
reinforced his left wing from the centre; and the count was in his turn
obliged to send for assistance. At this juncture, king William’s main
body, consisting of the Dutch guards, the French regiments, and some
battalions of English, passed the river, which was waist high, under a
general discharge of artillery. King James had imprudently removed his
cannon from the other side; but he had posted a strong body of musqueteers
along the bank, behind hedges, houses, and some works raised for the
occasion. These poured in a close fire upon the English troops before they
reached the shore; but it produced very little effect: then the Irish gave
way; and some battalions landed without further opposition. Yet, before
they could form, they were charged with great impetuosity by a squadron of
the enemy’s horse; and a considerable body of their cavalry and foot,
commanded by general Hamilton, advanced from behind some little hillocks
to attack those that were landed, as well as to prevent the rest from
reaching the shore. His infantry turned their backs and fled immediately;
but the horse charged with incredible fury, both upon the bank and in the
river, so as to put the unformed regiments in confusion. Then the duke of
Schomberg, passing the river in person, put himself at the head of the
French protestants, and pointing to the enemy, “Gentlemen,” said he,
“those are your persecutors;” with these words he advanced to the attack,
where he himself sustained a violent onset from a party of the Irish horse
which had broke through one of the regiments, and were now on their
return. They were mistaken for English, and allowed to gallop up to the
duke, who received two severe wounds in the head; but the French regiments
being now sensible of their mistake, rashly threw in their fire upon the
Irish while they were engaged with the duke, and instead of saving, shot
him dead upon the spot. The fate of this general had well nigh proved
fatal to the English army, which was immediately involved in tumult and
disorder; while the infantry of king James rallied, and returned to their
posts with a face of resolution. They were just ready to fall upon the
centre, when king William having passed with the left wing, composed of
the Danish, Dutch, and Inniskilling horse, advanced to attack them on the
right. They were struck with such a panic at his appearance that they made
a sudden halt, and then facing about, retreated to the village of Dunore.
There they made such a vigorous stand that the Dutch and Danish horse,
though headed by the king in person, recoiled; even the Inniskillmers gave
way; and the whole wing would have been routed, had not a detachment of
dragoons, belonging to the regiment of Cunningham and Livison, dismounted,
and lined the hedges on each side of the defile through which the
fugitives were driven. There they did such execution upon the pursuers as
soon checked their ardour. The horse, which were broken, had now time to
rally, and returning to the charge, drove the enemy before them in their
turn. In this action general Hamilton, who had been the life and soul of
the Irish during the whole engagement, was wounded and taken—an
incident which discouraged them to such a degree, that they made no
further efforts to retrieve the advantage they had lost. He was
immediately brought to the king, who asked him if he thought the Irish
would make any further resistance; and he replied, “Upon my honour, I
believe they will; for they have still a good body of horse entire.”
William, eyeing him with a look of disdain, repeated, “Your honour! your
honour!” but took no other notice of his having acted contrary to his
engagement, when he was permitted to go to Ireland on promise of
persuading Tyrconnel to submit to the new government. The Irish now
abandoned the field with precipitation; but the French and Swiss troops,
that acted as their auxiliaries under Lausun, retreated in good order,
after having maintained the battle for some time with intrepidity and
perseverance.

DEATH OF SCHOMBERG.

As king William did not think proper to pursue the enemy, the carnage was
not great. The Irish lost fifteen hundred men, and the English about
one-third of that number; though the victory was dearly purchased,
considering the death of the gallant duke of Schomberg, who fell in the
eighty-second year of his age, after having rivalled the best generals of
the time in military reputation. He was descended of a noble family in the
Palatinate, and his mother was an English woman, daughter of lord Dudley.
Being obliged to leave his country on account of the troubles by which it
was agitated, he commenced a soldier of fortune, and served successively
in the armies of Holland, England, France, Portugal, and Brandenburgh. He
attained to the dignities of mareschal in France, grandee in Portugal,
generalissimo in Prussia, and duke in England. He professed the protestant
religion; was courteous and humble in his deportment; cool, penetrating,
resolute, and sagacious; nor was his probity inferior to his courage. This
battle likewise proved fatal to the brave Caillemote, who had followed the
duke’s fortunes, and commanded one of the protestant regiments. After
having received a mortal wound, he was carried back through the river by
four soldiers, and though almost in the agonies of death, he with a
cheerful countenance encouraged those who were crossing to do their duty,
exclaiming, “A la gloire, mes enfans; à la gloire. To glory, my
lads; to glory!” The third remarkable person who lost his life on this
occasion was Walker the clergyman, who had so valiantly defended
Londonderry against the whole army of king James. He had been very
graciously received by king William, who gratified him with a reward of
five thousand pounds, and a promise of further favour; but his military
genius still predominating, he attended his royal patron in this battle,
and being shot in the belly, died in a few minutes. The persons of
distinction who fell on the other side were the lords Dongan and
Carlingford, sir Neile O’Neile, and the marquis of Hoequincourt. James
himself stood aloof during the action on the hill of Dunmore, surrounded
with some squadrons of horse; and seeing victory declare against him,
retired to Dublin without having made the least effort to re-assemble his
broken forces. Had he possessed either spirit or conduct, his army might
have been rallied, and reinforced from his garrisons, so as to be in a
condition to keep the field, and even act upon the offensive; for his loss
was inconsiderable, and the victor did not attempt to molest his troops in
their retreat—an omission which has been charged upon him as a
flagrant instance of misconduct. Indeed, through the whole of this
engagement, William’s personal courage was much more conspicuous than his
military skill.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

JAMES EMBARKS FOR FRANCE.

King James no sooner arrived at Dublin than he assembled the magistrates
and council of the city, and in a short speech resigned them to the
fortune of the victor. He complained of the cowardice of the Irish;
signified his resolution of leaving the kingdom immediately; forbade them,
on their allegiance, to burn or plunder the city after his departure; and
assured them, that, though he was obliged to yield to force, he would
never cease to labour for their deliverance. Next day he set out for
Waterford, attended by the duke of Berwick, Tyrconnel, and the marquis of
Powis. He ordered all the bridges to be broken down behind him, and
embarked in a vessel which had been prepared for his reception. At sea he
fell in with the French squadron, commanded by the Sieur de Foran, who
persuaded him to go on board one of his frigates, which was a prime
sailer. In this he was safely conveyed to France, and returned to the
place of his former residence at St. Germain’s. He had no sooner quitted
Dublin than it was also abandoned by all the papists. The protestants
immediately took possession of the arms belonging to the militia, under
the conduct of the bishops of Meath and Limerick. A committee was formed
to take charge of the administration; and an account of these transactions
was transmitted to king William, together with a petition that he would
honour the city with his presence.

WILLIAM ENTERS DUBLIN.

On the morning after the battle of the Boyne, William sent a detachment of
horse and foot, under the command of M. Mellionere, to Drogheda, the
governor of which surrendered the place without opposition. The king at
the head of the army began his march for Dublin, and halted the first
night at Bally-Breghan; where, having received advice of the enemy’s
retreat from the capital, he sent the duke of Ormond with a body of horse
to take possession. These were immediately followed by the Dutch guards,
who secured the castle. In a few days the king encamped at Finglas, in the
neighbourhood of Dublin, where he was visited by the bishops of Meath and
Limerick, at the head of the protestant clergy, whom he assured of his
favour and protection. Then he published a declaration of pardon to all
the common people who had served against him, provided they should return
to their dwellings and surrender their arms by the first day of August.
Those that rented lands of popish proprietors who had been concerned in
the rebellion, were required to retain their rents in their own hands
until they should have notice from the commissioners of the revenue to
whom they should be paid. The desperate leaders of the rebellion, who had
violated the laws of the kingdom, called in the French, authorized the
depredations which had been committed upon protestants, and rejected the
pardon offered to them on the king’s first proclamation, were left to the
event of war, unless by evident demonstrations of repentance they should
deserve mercy, which would never be refused to those who were truly
penitent. The next step taken by king William was to issue a proclamation
reducing the brass money to nearly its intrinsic value. In the meantime,
the principal officers in the army of James, after having seen him embark
at Waterford, returned to their troops, determined to prosecute the war as
long as they could be supplied with means to support their operations.

VICTORY GAINED BY THE FRENCH.

During these transactions, the queen, as regent, found herself surrounded
with numberless cares and perplexities. Her council was pretty equally
divided into whigs and tories, who did not always act with unanimity. She
was distracted between her apprehensions for her father’s safety and her
husband’s life: she was threatened with an invasion by the French from
abroad, and with an insurrection by the Jacobites at home. Nevertheless
she disguised her fears, and behaved with equal prudence and fortitude.
Advice being received that a fleet was ready to sail from Brest, lord
Torrington hoisted his flag in the Downs, and sailed round to St. Helen’s,
in order to assemble such a number of ships as would enable him to give
them battle. The enemy being discovered off Plymouth on the twentieth day
of June, the English admiral, reinforced with a Dutch squadron, stood out
to sea with a view to intercept them at the back of the Isle of Wight,
should they presume to sail up the channel, not that he thought himself
strong enough to cope with them in battle. Their fleet consisted of
seventy-eight ships of war, and two-and-twenty fire-ships; whereas, the
combined squadrons of England and Holland did not exceed six-and-fifty;
but he had received orders to hazard an engagement if he thought it might
be done with any prospect of success. After the hostile fleets had
continued five days in sight of each other, lord Torrington bore down upon
the enemy off Beachy-head, on the thirtieth day of June, at day-break. The
Dutch squadron, which composed the van, began the engagement about nine in
the morning; in about half an hour the blue division of the English were
close engaged with the rear of the French; but the red, which formed the
centre, under the command of Torrington in person, did not fill the line
till ten o’clock, so that the Dutch were almost surrounded by the enemy,
and, though they fought with great valour, sustained considerable damage.
At length the admiral’s division drove between them and the French, and in
that situation the fleet anchored about five in the afternoon, when the
action was interrupted by a calm. The Dutch had suffered so severely, that
Torrington thought it would be imprudent to renew the battle; he therefore
weighed anchor in the night, and with the tide of flood retired to the
eastward. The next day the disabled ships were destroyed, that they might
not be retarded in their retreat. They were pursued as far as Rye; an
English ship of seventy guns being stranded near Winchelsea, was set on
fire and deserted by the captain’s command. A Dutch ship of sixty-four
guns met with the same accident, and some French frigates attempted to
burn her; but the captain defended her so vigorously that they were
obliged to desist, and he afterwards found means to carry her safe to
Holland. In this engagement the English lost two ships, two sea-captains,
and about four hundred men; but the Dutch were more unfortunate: six of
their great ships were destroyed. Dick and Brackel, rear-admirals, were
slain, together with a great number of inferior officers and seamen.
Torrington retreated without further interruption into the mouth of the
Thames; and, having taken precaution against any attempts of the enemy in
that quarter, returned to London, the inhabitants of which were
overwhelmed with consternation.

TORRINGTON COMMITTED TO THE TOWER.

The government was infected with the same panic. The ministry pretended to
believe that the French acted in concert with the malcontents of the
nation; that insurrections in the different parts of the kingdom had been
projected by the Jacobites; and that there would be a general revolt in
Scotland. These insinuations were circulated by the court agents in order
to justify, in the opinion of the public, the measures that were deemed
necessary at this juncture; and they produced the desired effect. The
apprehensions thus artfully raised among the people inflamed their
aversion to nonjurors and Jacobites. Addresses were presented to the queen
by the Cornish tinners, by the lieutenancy of Middlesex, and by the mayor,
aldermen, and lieutenancy of London, filled with professions of loyalty
and promises of supporting their majesties as their lawful sovereigns,
against all opposition. The queen at this crisis exhibited remarkable
proofs of courage, activity, and discretion. She issued out proper orders
and directions for putting the nation in a posture of defence, as well as
for refitting and augmenting the fleet; she took measures for appeasing
the resentment of the states-general, who exclaimed against the earl of
Torrington for his behaviour in the late action. He was deprived of his
command, and sent prisoner to the Tower; and commissioners were appointed
to examine the particular circumstances of his conduct. A camp was formed
in the neighbourhood of Torbay, where the French seemed to threaten a
descent. Their fleet, which lay at anchor in the bay, cannonaded a small
village called Teign-mouth. About a thousand of their men landed without
opposition, set fire to the place, and burned a few coasting vessels; then
they re-embarked and returned to Brest, so vain of this achievement that
they printed a pompous account of their invasion. Some of the whig
partizans published pamphlets and diffused reports, implying that the
suspended bishops were concerned in the conspiracy against the government;
and these arts proved so inflammatory among the common people, that the
prelates thought it necessary to print a paper, in which they asserted
their innocence in the most solemn protestations. The court seems to have
harboured no suspicion against them, otherwise they would not have escaped
imprisonment. The queen issued a proclamation for apprehending the earls
of Litchfield, Aylesbury, and Castlemain; viscount Preston; the lords
Montgomery and Bellasis; sir Edward Hales, sir Robert Tharold, sir Robert
Hamilton, sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, colonel Edward Sackville, and some
other officers. These were accused of having conspired with other
disaffected persons to disturb and destroy the government, and of a design
to concur with her majesty’s enemies in the intended invasion. The earl of
Torrington continued a prisoner in the Tower till next session, when he
was brought into the house of commons and made a speech in his own
defence. His case produced long debates in the upper house, where the form
of his commitment was judged illegal: at length he was tried by a
court-martial appointed by the commissioners of the admiralty, though not
before an act had passed, declaring the power of a lord high-admiral
vested in those commissioners. The president of the court was sir Ralph
Délavai, who had acted as vice-admiral of the blue in the engagement. The
earl was acquitted, but the king dismissed him from the service; and the
Dutch exclaimed against the partiality of his judges.

PROGRESS OF WILLIAM IN IRELAND.

William is said to have intercepted all the papers of his father-in-law
and Tyrconnel, and to have learned from them not only the design projected
by the French to burn the English transports, but likewise the undertaking
of one Jones, who engaged to assassinate king William. No such attempt
however was made, and in all probability the whole report was a fiction,
calculated to throw an odium on James’ character. On the ninth day of
July, William detached general Douglas with a considerable body of horse
and foot towards Athlone, while he himself, having left Trelawny to
command at Dublin, advanced with the rest of his army to Inchiquin in his
way to Kilkenny. Colonel Grace, the governor of Athlone for king James,
being summoned to surrender, fired a pistol at the trumpeter, saying,
“These are my terms.” Then Douglas resolved to undertake the siege of the
place, which was naturally very strong, and defended by a resolute
garrison. An inconsiderable breach was made, when Douglas, receiving
intelligence that Sarsfield was on his march to the relief of the
besieged, abandoned the enterprise after having lost above four hundred
men in the attempt. The king continued his march to the westward; and, by
dint of severe examples, established such order and discipline in his
army, that the peasants were secure from the least violence. At Carlow he
detached the duke of Ormond to take possession of Kilkenny, where that
nobleman regaled him in his own castle, which the enemy had left
undamaged. While the army encamped at Carrick, major-general Kirke was
sent to Waterford, the garrison of which, consisting of two regiments,
capitulated upon condition of marching out with their arms and baggage,
and being conducted to Mallow. The fort of Duncannon was surrendered on
the same terms. Here the lord Dover and the lord George Howard were
admitted to the benefit of the king’s mercy and protection.

HE INVESTS LIMERICK; IS OBLIGED TO RAISE THE SIEGE.

On the first day of August, William being at Chapel-Izard, published a
second declaration of mercy, confirming the former, and even extending it
to persons of superior rank and station, whether natives or foreigners,
provided they would, by the twenty-fifth day of the month, lay down their
arms and submit to certain conditions. This offer of indemnity produced
very little effect, for the Irish were generally governed by their
priests, and the news of the victory which the French fleet had obtained
over the English and Dutch, was circulated with such exaggerations as
elevated their spirits, and effaced all thoughts of submission. The king
had returned to Dublin with a view to embark for England, but receiving
notice that the designs of his domestic enemies were discovered and
frustrated, that the fleet was repaired, and the French navy retired to
Brest, he postponed his voyage and resolved to reduce Limerick; in which
Monsieur Boisseleau commanded as governor, and the duke of Berwick and
colonel Sarsfield acted as inferior officers. On the ninth day of August,
the king having called in his detachment and advanced into the
neighbourhood of the place, summoned the commander to deliver the town;
and Boisseleau answered, that he imagined the best way to gain the good
opinion of the prince of Orange, would be a vigorous defence of the town
which his majesty had committed to his charge. Before the place was fully
invested, colonel Sarsfield, with a body of horse and dragoons, passed the
Shannon in the night, intercepted the king’s train of artillery on its way
to the camp, routed the troops that guarded it, disabled the cannon,
destroyed the carriages, waggons, and ammunition, and returned in safety
to Limerick. Notwithstanding this disaster, the trenches were opened on
the seventeenth day of the month, and a battery was raised with some
cannon brought from Waterford. The siege was carried on with vigour, and
the place defended with great resolution. At length the king ordered his
troops to make a lodgment in the covered way or counterscarp, which was
accordingly assaulted with great fury; but the assailants met with such a
warm reception from the besieged, that they were repulsed with the loss of
twelve hundred men either killed on the spot or mortally wounded. This
disappointment, concurring with the badness of the weather, which became
rainy and unwholesome, induced the king to renounce his undertaking. The
heavy baggage and cannon being sent away, the army decamped and marched
towards Clonmel. William having constituted the lord Sydney and Thomas
Coningsby lords justices of Ireland, and left the command of the army with
count Solmes, embarked at Duncannon with prince George of Denmark on the
fifth of September, and next day arrived in King road, near Bristol, from
whence he repaired to Windsor.

CORK AND KINSALE REDUCED.

About the latter end of this month the earl of Marlborough arrived in
Ireland with five thousand English troops, to attack Cork and Kinsale in
conjunction with a detachment from the great army, according to a scheme
he had proposed to king William. Having landed his soldiers without much
opposition in the neighbourhood of Cork, he was joined by five thousand
men under the prince of Wirtemberg, between whom and the earl a dispute
arose about the command; but this was compromised by the interposition of
La Mellionere. The place being invested, and the batteries raised, the
besiegers proceeded with such rapidity that a breach was soon effected.
Colonel Mackillicut the governor demanded a parley, and hostages were
exchanged; but he rejected the conditions that were offered, and
hostilities recommenced with redoubled vigour. The duke of Grafton, who
served on this occasion as a volunteer, was mortally wounded in one of the
attacks, and died regretted as a youth of promising talents. Preparations
being made for a general assault, the besieged thought proper to
capitulate, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Besides the
governor and colonel Bicaut, the victor found the earls of Clancarty and
Tyrone among the individuals of the garrison. Marlborough having taken
possession of Cork, detached brigadier Villiers with a body of horse and
dragoons to summon the town and forts of Kinsale, and next day advanced
with the rest of the forces. The old fort was immediately taken by
assault; but sir Edward Scott, who commanded the other, sustained a
regular siege until the breach was practicable, and then obtained an
honourable capitulation. These maritime places being reduced, all
communication between France and the enemy on this side of the island was
cut off, and the Irish were confined to Ulster, where they could not
subsist without great difficulty. The earl of Marlborough having finished
this expedition in thirty days, returned with his prisoners to England,
where the fame of this exploit added greatly to his reputation.

THE FRENCH FORCES QUIT IRELAND.

During these transactions count de Lausan, commander of the French
auxiliaries in Ireland, lay inactive in the neighbourhood of Galway, and
transmitted such a lamentable account of his situation to the court of
France, that transports were sent over to bring home the French forces. In
these he embarked with his troops, and the command of the Irish forces
devolved to the duke of Berwick, though it was afterwards transferred to
M. St. Ruth. Lausan was disgraced at Versailles for having deserted the
cause before it was desperate: Tyrconnel, who accompanied him in his
voyage, solicited the French court for a further supply of officers, arms,
clothes, and ammunition for the Irish army, which he said would continue
firm to the interest of king James if thus supported. Meanwhile they
formed themselves into separate bodies of freebooters, and plundered the
country, under the appellation of rapparees: while the troops of king
William either enjoyed their ease in quarters, or imitated the rapine of
the enemy; so that between both the poor people were miserably harassed.

SAVOY JOINS THE CONFEDERACY.

The affairs of the continent had not yet undergone any change of
importance, except in the conduct of the duke of Savoy, who renounced his
neutrality, engaged in an alliance with the emperor and king of Spain;
and, in a word, acceded to the grand confederacy. He had no sooner
declared himself, than Catinat the French general entered his territories
at the head of eighteen thousand men, and defeated him in a pitched battle
near Saluces, which immediately surrendered to the conqueror. Then he
reduced Savillana, Villa Franca, with several other places, pursued the
duke to Carignan, surprised Suza, and distributed his forces in winter
quarters, partly in Provence and partly in the duchy of Savoy, which St.
Ruth had lately reduced under the dominion of France. The duke finding
himself disappointed in the succours he expected from the emperor and the
king of Spain, demanded assistance of the states-general and king William:
to this last he sent an ambassador, to congratulate him upon his accession
to the throne of England. The confederates in their general congress at
the Hague, had agreed that the army of the states under prince Waldeck
should oppose the forces of France, commanded by the duke of Luxembourg in
Flanders; while the elector of Brandenburgh should observe the marquis de
Boufflers on the Moselle: but before the troops of Brandenburgh could be
assembled, Boufflers encamped between the Sambre and the Mouse, and
maintained a free communication with Luxembourg.

PRINCE WALDECK DEFEATED.

Prince Waldeck understanding that this general intended to cross the
Sambre between Namur and Charleroy, in order to lay the Spanish
territories under contribution, decamped from the river Piéton, and
detached the count of Berlo with a great body of horse to observe the
motions of the enemy. He was encountered by the French army near Fleuras,
and slain: and his troops, though supported by two other detachments, were
hardly able to rejoin the main body, which continued all night in order of
battle. Next day they were attacked by the French, who were greatly
superior to them in number: after a very obstinate engagement the allies
gave way, leaving about five thousand men dead upon the field of battle.
The enemy took about four thousand prisoners, and the greatest part of
their artillery; but the victory was dearly bought. The Dutch infantry
fought with surprising resolution and success. The duke of Luxembourg
owned with surprise, that they had surpassed the Spanish foot at the
battle of Rocroy. “Prince Waldeck, said he, ought always to remember the
French horse; and I shall never forget the Dutch infantry.” The Dutch
general exerted himself with such activity, that the French derived very
little advantage from their victory. The prince being reinforced with the
five English regiments, nine thousand Hanoverians, ten thousand from the
bishopric of Liege and Holland, joined the elector of Brandenburgh; so
that the confederate army amounted to five-and-fifty thousand men, and
they marched by the way of Genap to Bois-Seigneur-Isaac. They were now
superior to Luxembourg, who thought proper to fortify his camp, that he
might not be obliged to fight except with considerable advantage.
Nevertheless, prince Waldeck would have attacked him in his intrenchments,
had he not been prohibited from hazarding another engagement by an
express order of the states-general; and when this restriction was
removed, the elector would not venture a battle.

ARCHDUKE JOSEPH ELECTED KING.

By this time the emperor’s son Joseph was by the electoral college chosen
king of the Romans; but his interest sustained a rude shock in the death
of the gallant duke of Lorraine, who was suddenly seized with a quin-sey
at a small village near Lintz, and expired, not without suspicion of
having fallen a sacrifice to the fears of the French king, against whom he
had formerly declared war as a sovereign prince unjustly expelled from his
territories. He possessed great military talents, and had threatened to
enter Lorraine at the head of forty thousand men, in the course of the
ensuing summer. The court of France, alarmed at this declaration, is said
to have had recourse to poison, for preventing the execution of the duke’s
design. At his death the command of the imperial army was conferred upon
the elector of Bavaria. This prince having joined the elector of Saxony,
advanced against the Dauphin, who had passed the Rhine at Fort-Louis with
a considerable army, and intended to penetrate into Wirtemberg; but the
duke of Bavaria checked his progress, and he acted on the defensive during
the remaining part of the campaign. The emperor was less fortunate in his
efforts against the Turks, who rejected the conditions of peace he had
offered, and took the field under a new vizier. In the month of August,
count Tekeli defeated a body of imperialists near Cronstadt, in
Transylvania; then convoking the states of that province at Albajulia, he
compelled them to elect him their sovereign; but his reign was of short
duration. Prince Louis of Baden, having taken the command of the Austrian
army, detached four regiments into Belgrade, and advanced against Tekeli,
who retired into Valachia at his approach. Meanwhile the grand vizier
invested Belgrade, and carried on his attacks with surprising resolution.
At length a bomb falling upon a great tower in which the powder magazine
of the besieged was contained, the place blew up with a dreadful
explosion. Seventeen hundred soldiers of the garrison were destroyed; the
walls and ramparts were overthrown; the ditch was filled up, and so large
a breach was opened that the Turks entered by squadrons and battalions,
cutting in pieces all that fell in their way. The fire spread from
magazine to magazine until eleven were destroyed; and in the confusion the
remaining part of the garrison escaped to Peterwaradin. By this time the
imperialists were in possession of Transylvania, and cantoned at Cronstadt
and Clausinburgh. Tekeli undertook to attack the province on one side,
while a body of Turks should invade it on the other: these last were
totally dispersed by prince Louis of Baden; but prince Augustus of
Hanover, whom he had detached against the count, was slain in a narrow
defile, and his troops were obliged to retreat with precipitation. Tekeli
however did not improve this advantage: being apprized of the fate of his
allies, and afraid of seeing his retreat cut off by the snow that
frequently chokes up the passes of the mountains, he retreated again to
Valachia, and prince Louis returned to Vienna.

MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT.

King William having published a proclamation requiring the attendance of
the members on the second day of October, both houses met accordingly, and
he opened the session with a speech to the usual purport. He mentioned
what he had done towards the reduction of Ireland; commended the behaviour
of the troops; told them the supplies were not equal to the necessary
expense; represented the danger to which the nation would be exposed
unless the war should be prosecuted with vigour; conjured them to clear
his revenue, which was mortgaged for the payment of former debts, and
enable him to pay off the arrears of the army; assured them that the
success of the confederacy abroad would depend upon the vigour and
dispatch of their proceedings; expressed his resentment against those who
had been guilty of misconduct in the management of the fleet; recommended
unanimity and expedition; and declared, that whoever should attempt to
divert their attention from those subjects of importance which he had
proposed, could neither be a friend to him nor a well-wisher to his
country. The late attempt of the French upon the coast of England, the
rumours of a conspiracy by the Jacobites, the personal valour which
William had displayed in Ireland, and the pusillanimous behavour of James,
concurred in warming the resentment of the nation against the adherents of
the late king, and in raising a tide of loyalty in favour of the new
government. Both houses presented separate addresses of congratulation to
the king and queen, upon his courage and conduct in the field, and her
fortitude and sagacity at the helm in times of danger and disquiet. The
commons, pursuant to an estimate laid before them of the next year’s
expenses, voted a supply of four millions for the maintenance of the army
and navy, and settled the funds for that purpose.

COMMONS COMPLY WITH THE KING’S DEMANDS.

They proposed to raise one million by the sale of forfeited estates in
Ireland: they resolved that a bill should be brought in for confiscating
those estates, with a clause, empowering the king to bestow a third part
of them on those who had served in the war, as well as to grant such
articles and capitulations to those who were in arms, as he should think
proper. This clause was rejected; and a great number of petitions were
offered against the bill, by creditors and heirs who had continued
faithful to the government. These were supposed to have been suggested by
the court, in order to retard the progress of the bill; for the estates
had been already promised to the king’s favourites: nevertheless, the bill
passed the lower house, and was sent up to the lords, among whom it was
purposely delayed by the influence of the ministry. It was at this
juncture that lord Torrington was tried and acquitted, very much to the
dissatisfaction of the king, who not only dismissed him from the service,
but even forbade him to appear in his presence. When William came to the
house of lords to give the royal assent to a bill for doubling the excise,
he told the parliament that the posture of affairs required his presence
at the Hague; that, therefore, they ought to lose no time in perfecting
such other supplies as were still necessary for the maintenance of the
army and navy; and he reminded them of making some provision for the
expense of the civil government. Two bills were accordingly passed for
granting to their majesties the duties of goods imported, for five years;
and these, together with the mutiny-bill, received the royal assent: upon
which occasion the king observed, that if some annual provision could be
made for augmenting the navy, it would greatly conduce to the honour and
safety of the nation. In consequence of this hint, they voted a
considerable supply for building additional ships of war,* and proceeded
with such alacrity and expedition, as even seemed to anticipate the king’s
desires. This liberality and dispatch were in a great measure owing to the
management of lord Godolphin, who was now placed at the head of the
treasury, and sir John Somers, the solicitor-general. The place of
secretary of state, which had remained vacant since the resignation of the
earl of Shrewsbury, was now filled with lord Sidney; and sir Charles
Porter was appointed one of the justices of Ireland in the room of this
nobleman.

* This supply was raised by the additional duties upon beer,
ale, and other liquors. They also provided in the bill,
that the impositions on wines, vinegar, and tobacco,
should be made a fund of credit: that the surplus of the
grants they had made, after the current service was
provided for, should be applicable to the payment of the
debts contracted by the war: and, that it should be
lawful for their majesties to make use of five hundred
thousand pounds out of the said grants, on condition of
that sum being repaid from the revenue.—Ralph.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

PETITION OF THE TORIES.

Notwithstanding the act for reversing the proceedings against the city
charter, the whigs had made shift to keep possession of the magistracy:
Pilkington continued mayor, and Eobinson retained the office of
chamberlain. The tories of the city, presuming upon their late services,
presented a petition to the house of commons, complaining, That the intent
of the late act of parliament, for reversing the judgment on the quo
warranto, was frustrated by some doubtful expression; so that the old
aldermen elected by commission under the late king’s great seal still
acted by virtue of that authority: that sir Thomas Pilkington was not duly
returned as mayor by the common-hall: and, that he and the aldermen had
imposed Mr. Leonard Eobinson upon them as chamberlain, though another
person was duly elected into that office: that divers members of the
common-council were illegally excluded, and others, duly elected, were
refused admittance. They specified other grievances, and petitioned for
relief. Pilkington and his associates undertook to prove that those
allegations were either false or frivolous; and presented the petition as
a contrivance of the Jacobites to disturb the peace of the city, that the
supply might be retarded and the government distressed. In the late panic
which overspread the nation, the whigs had appeared to be the monied men,
and subscribed largely for the security of the settlement they had made,
while the tories kept aloof with a suspicious caution. For this reason the
court now interposed its influence in such a manner, that little or no
regard was paid to their remonstrance.

ATTEMPT AGAINST CARMARTHEN.

The marquis of Cærmarthen, lord president, who was at the head of the tory
interest in the ministry, and had acquired great credit with the king and
queen, now fell under the displeasure of the opposite faction: and they
resolved if possible to revive his old impeachment. The earl of
Shrewsbury, and thirteen other leading men, had engaged in this design. A
committee of lords was appointed to examine precedents, and inquire
whether impeachments continued in statu quo from parliament to parliament.
Several such precedents were reported; and violent debates ensued: but the
marquis eluded the vengeance of his enemies in consequence of the
following question: “Whether the earls of Salisbury and Peterborough, who
had been impeached in the former parliament for being reconciled to the
church of Rome, shall be discharged from their bail?” The house resolved
in the affirmative, and several lords entered a protest. The commons
having finished a bill for appointing commissioners to take and state the
public accounts, and having chosen the commissioners from among their own
members, sent it up to the house of lords. There the earl of Rochester
moved, That they should add some of their number to those of the commons:
they accordingly chose an equal number by ballot; but Rochester himself
being elected, refused to act: the others followed his example, and the
bill passed without alteration. On the fifth day of January, the king put
an end to the session with a speech, in which he thanked them for the
repeated instances they had exhibited of their affection to his person and
government. He told them, it was high time for him to embark for Holland:
recommended unanimity; and assured them of his particular favour and
protection. Then lord chief baron Atkins signified his majesty’s pleasure,
that the two houses should adjourn themselves to the thirty-first day of
March.*

* In this year the English planters repossessed themselves
of part of the inland of St. Christopher, from which they
had been driven by the French.

THE KING’S VOYAGE TO HOLLAND.

William, having settled the affairs of the nation, set out for Margate on
the sixth day of January; but the ship in which he proposed to embark
being detained by an easterly wind and hard frost, he returned to
Kensington. On the sixteenth, however, he embarked at Gravesend with a
numerous retinue, and set sail for Holland under convoy of twelve ships of
war commanded by admiral Rooke. Next day, being informed by a fisherman
that he was within a league and a half of Goree, he quitted the yacht and
went into an open boat, attended by the duke of Ormond, the earls of
Devonshire, Dorset, Portland, and Monmouth, with Auverquerque and
Zuylestcin, Instead of landing immediately, they lost sight of the fleet,
and, night coming on, were exposed in very severe weather to the danger of
the enemy and the sea, which ran very high for eighteen hours, during
which the king and all his attendants were drenched with sea-water. When
the sailors expressed their apprehensions of perishing, the king asked if
they were afraid to die in his company? At day-break, he landed on the
isle of Goree, where he took some refreshment in a fisherman’s hut; then
he committed himself to the boat again, and was conveyed to the shore in
the neighbourhood of Masslandsluys. A deputation of the states received
him at Hounslardyke: about six in the evening he arrived at the Hague,
where he was immediately complimented by the states-general, the states of
Holland, the council of state, the other colleges, and the foreign
ministers. He afterwards, at the request of the magistrates, made his
public entry with surprising magnificence; and the Dutch celebrated his
arrival with bonfires, illuminations, and other marks of tumultuous joy.
He assisted at their different assemblies; informed them of his successes
in England and Ireland; and assured them of his constant zeal and
affection for his native country.

HE ASSISTS AT A CONGRESS.

At a solemn congress of the confederate princes, he represented in a set
speech the dangers to which they were exposed from the power and ambition
of France; and the necessity of acting with vigour and dispatch. He
declared he would spare neither his credit, forces, nor person, in
concurring with their measures; and that in the spring he would come at
the head of his troops to fulfil his engagements. They forthwith resolved
to employ two hundred and twenty-two thousand men against France in the
ensuing campaign. The proportions of the different princes and states were
regulated; and the king of England agreed to furnish twenty thousand. He
supplied the duke of Savoy so liberally, that his affairs soon assumed a
more promising aspect. The plan of operations was settled, and they
transacted their affairs with such harmony that no dispute interrupted
their deliberations. In the beginning of March, immediately after the
congress broke up, the siege of Mons was undertaken by the French king in
person, accompanied by the Dauphin, the dukes of Orleans and Chartres. The
garrison consisted of about six thousand men, commanded by the prince of
Bergue: but the besiegers carried on their works with such rapidity as
they could not withstand. King William no sooner understood that the place
was invested, than he ordered prince Waldeck to assemble the army,
determined to march against the enemy in person. Fifty thousand men were
soon collected at Halle, near Brussels: but when he went thither, he found
the Spaniards had neglected to provide carriages, and other necessaries
for the expedition. Meanwhile, the burghers of Mons, seeing their town in
danger of being utterly destroyed by the bombs and cannon of the enemy,
pressed the governor to capitulate, and even threatened to introduce the
besiegers: so that he was forced to comply, and obtained very honourable
conditions. William, being apprized of this event, returned to the Hague,
embarked for England, and arrived at Whitehall on the thirteenth day of
April.*

* A few days before his arrival, great part of the palace of
Whitehall was consumed by fire, through the negligence of
a female servant.

CHAPTER III.

Conspiracy against the Government by Lord Preston and
others….. The King fills up the vacant Bishoprics…..
Affairs of Scotland….. Campaign in Flanneitt….. Progress
of the Trench in Piedmont….. Election of a New Pope….The
Emperor’s Success against the Turks….. Affairs of
Ireland….. General Ginckel reduces Athlone….. Defeats
the Irish at Aghrim….. Undertakes the Siege of
Limerick….. The French and Irish obtain an honourable
Capitulation….. Twelve Thousand Irish Catholics are
transported to France….. Meeting of the English
Parliament….. Discontent of the Nation….. Transactions
in Parliament….. Disputes concerning the Bill for
regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason….. The English
and Dutch Fleets baffled by the French….. The King
disobliges the Presbyterians of Scotland….. The Earl of
Breadalbane undertakes for the Submission of the
Highlanders….. Massacre of Glencoe….. Preparations for a
Descent upon England….. Declaration of King James…..
Efforts of his Friends in England….. Precautions taken by
the Queen for the Defence of the Nation….. Admiral Russel
puts to Sea….. He obtains a complete Victory over the
French Fleet off La Bogue….. Troops embarked at St.
Helen’s for a Descent upon France….. The Design laid
aside….. The Troops landed at Ostend….. The French King
takes Namur in sight of King William….. The Allies are
defeated at Steenkirk….. Extravagant rejoicings in France
on Account of this Victory….. Conspiracy against the Life
of King William, hatched by the French Ministry…..
Miscarriage of a Design upon Dunkirk….. The Campaign is
inactive on the Rhine and in Hungary….. The Duke of Savoy
invades Dauphiné….. The Duke of Hanover created an Elector
of the Empire.

A CONSPIRACY.

A conspiracy against the government had been lately discovered. In the
latter end of December, the master of a vessel who lived at Barking, in
Essex, informed the marquis of Carmarthen that his wife had let out one of
his boats to carry over some persons to France, and that they would embark
on the thirteenth day of the month. This intelligence being communicated
to the king and council, an order was sent to captain Billop to watch the
motion of the vessel and secure the passengers. He accordingly boarded her
at Gravesend, and found in the hold lord Preston, Mr. Ashton, a servant of
the late queen, and one Elliot. He likewise seized a bundle of papers,
some of which were scarce intelligible; among the rest, two letters
supposed to be written by Turner, bishop of Ely, to king James and his
queen, under fictitious names. The whole amounted to an invitation to the
French king to assist king James in re-ascending the throne upon certain
conditions, while William should be absent from the kingdom; but the
scheme was ill laid, and countenanced but by a very few persons of
consideration, among whom the chiefs were the earl of Clarendon, the
bishop of Ely, lord Preston, his brother Mr. Graham, and Penn the famous
quaker. Notwithstanding the outcries which had been made against the
severities of the late government, Preston and his accomplice Ashton were
tried at the Old Bailey for compassing the death of their majesties king
William and queen Mary; and their trials were hurried on without any
regard to their petitions for delay. Lord Preston alleged in his defence
that the treasons charged upon him were not committed in the county of
Middlesex, as laid in the indictment; that none of the witnesses declared
he had any concern in hiring the vessel; that the papers were not found
upon him; that there ought to be two credible witnesses to every fact,
whereas the whole proof against him rested on similitude of hands and mere
supposition. He was, nevertheless, found guilty. Ashton behaved with great
intrepidity and composure. He owned his purpose of going to France in
pursuance of a promise he had made to general Worden, who, on his
death-bed, conjured him to go thither and finish some affairs of
consequence which he had left there depending, as well as with a view to
recover a considerable sum of money due to himself. He denied that he was
privy to the contents of the papers found upon him; he complained of his
having been denied time to prepare for his trial; and called several
persons to prove him a protestant of exemplary piety and irreproachable
morals. These circumstances had no weight with the court. He was
brow-beaten by the bench, and found guilty by the jury, as he had the
papers in his custody; yet there was no privity proved; and the whig party
themselves had often expressly declared, that of all sorts of evidence
that of finding papers in a person’s possession is the weakest, because no
man can secure himself from such danger. Ashton suffered with equal
courage and decorum. In a paper which he delivered to the sheriff, he
owned his attachment to king James; he witnessed to the birth of the
prince of Wales; denied his knowledge of the contents of the papers that
were committed to his charge; complained of the hard measure he had met
with from the judges and the jury, but forgave them in the sight of
heaven. This man was celebrated by the nonjurors as a martyr to loyalty;
and they boldly affirmed, that his chief crime in the eyes of the
government was his having among his baggage an account of such evidence as
would have been convincing to all the world concerning the birth of the
prince of Wales, which by a great number of people was believed
supposititious.* Lord Preston obtained a pardon; Elliot was not tried,
because no evidence appeared against him; the earl of Clarendon was sent
to the Tower, where he remained some months, and he was afterwards
confined to his own house in the country—an indulgence which he owed
to his consanguinity with the queen, who was his first cousin. The bishop
of Ely, Graham, and Penn, absconded; and a proclamation was issued for
apprehending them as traitors.

* To one of the pamphlets published on this occasion, is
annexed a petition to the present government in the name of
king James’s adherents, importing, that some grave and
learned person should be authorized to compile a treatise,
showing the grounds of William’s title; and declaring, that
in case the performance should carry conviction along with
it, they would submit to that title, as they had hitherto
opposed it from a principle of conscience. The best answer
that could be made to this summons was Locke’s book upon
government, which appeared at this period.—Ralph.

THE KING FILLS UP THE BISHOPRICS.

This prelate’s being concerned in a conspiracy, furnished the king with a
plausible pretence for filling up the vacant bishoprics. The deprived
bishops had been given to understand, that an act of parliament might be
obtained to excuse them from taking the oaths, provided they would perform
their episcopal functions; but as they declined this expedient, the king
resolved to fill up their places at his return from Holland. Accordingly,
the archbishopric of Canterbury was conferred upon Dr. Tillotson,* one of
the most learned, moderate, and virtuous ecclesiastics of the age, who did
not accept of this promotion without great reluctance, because he foresaw
that he should be exposed to the slander and malevolence of that party
which espoused the cause of his predecessor. The other vacant Sees were
given to divines of unblemished character; and the public in general
seemed very well satisfied with this exertion of the king’s supremacy. The
deprived bishops at first affected all the meekness of resignation. They
remembered those shouts of popular approbation by which they had been
animated in the persecution they suffered under the late government; and
they hoped the same cordial would support them in their present
affliction; but finding the nation cold in their concern, they determined
to warm it by argument and declamation. The press groaned with the efforts
of their learning and resentment, and every essay was answered by their
opponents. The nonjurors affirmed that Christianity was a doctrine of the
cross; that no pretence whatever could justify an insurrection against the
sovereign; that the primitive christians thought it their indispensable
duty to be passive under every invasion of their rights; and that
non-resistance was the doctrine of the English church, confirmed by all
the sanctions that could be derived from the laws of God and man. The
other party not only supported the natural rights of mankind, and
explained the use that might be made of the doctrine of non-resistance in
exciting fresh commotions, but they also argued that if passive obedience
was right in any instance, it was conclusively so with regard to the
present government; for the obedience required by scripture was
indiscriminate. “The powers that be are ordained of God—let every
soul be subject to the higher powers.” From these texts they inferred that
the new oaths ought to be taken without scruple, and that those who
refused them concealed party under the cloak of conscience. On the other
hand, the fallacy and treachery of this argument were demonstrated. They
said, it levelled all distinctions of justice and duty; that those who
taught such doctrines attached themselves solely to possession, however
unjustly acquired; that if twenty different usurpers should succeed one
another, they would recognize the last, notwithstanding the allegiance
they had so solemnly sworn to his predecessor, like the fawning spaniel
that followed the thief who mounted his master’s horse after having
murdered the right owner. They also denied the justice of a
lay-deprivation, and with respect to church government started tire same
distinctions “De jure and de facto” which they had formerly made in
the civil administration. They had even recourse to all the bitterness of
invective against Tillotson and the new bishops, whom they reviled as
intruders and usurpers; their acrimony was chiefly directed against Dr.
Sherlock, who had been one of the most violent sticklers against the
revolution, but thought proper to take the oaths upon the retreat of king
James from Ireland. They branded him as an apostate who had betrayed his
cause, and published a review of his whole conduct, which proved a severe
satire upon his character. Their attacks upon individuals were mingled
with their vengeance against the government; and indeed the great aim of
their divines, as well as of their politicians, was to sap the foundation
of the new settlement. In order to alienate the minds of the people from
the interests of the reigning prince, they ridiculed his character;
inveighed against his measures; they accused him of sacrificing the
concerns of England to the advantage of his native country; and drew
invidious comparisons between the wealth, the trade, the taxes, of the
last and of the present reign. To frustrate these efforts of the
malcontents, the court employed their engines to answer and recriminate;
all sorts of informers were encouraged and caressed; in a proclamation
issued against papists and other disaffected persons, all magistrates were
enjoined to make search, and apprehend those who should, by seditious
discourses and libels, presume to defame the government. Thus the
revolutioners commenced the professed enemies of those very arts and
practices which had enabled them to bring their scheme to perfection.

* Beveridge was promoted to the See of Bath and Wells,
Fowler to that of Gloucester, Cumberland to Peterborough,
Moor to Norwich, Grove to Chicester, and Patrick to Ely.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

AFFAIRS-OF SCOTLAND.

The presbyterians in Scotland acted with such folly, violence, and
tyranny, as rendered them equally odious and contemptible. The
transactions in their general assembly were carried on with such
peevishness, partiality, and injustice, that the king dissolved it by an
act of state, and convoked another for the month of November in the
following year. The episcopal party promised to enter heartily into the
interests of the new government, to keep the highlanders quiet, and induce
the clergy to acknowledge and serve king William, provided he would
balance the power of Melvil and his partisans in such a manner as would
secure them from violence and oppression; provided the episcopal ministers
should be permitted to perform their functions among those people by whom
they were beloved; and’ that such of them as were willing to mix with the
presbyterians in their judicatories should be admitted without any severe
imposition in point of opinion. The king, who was extremely disgusted at
the presbyterians, relished the proposal, and young Dalrymple, son of lord
Stair, was appointed joint secretary of state with Melvil. He undertook to
bring over the majority of the Jacobites, and a great number of them took
the oaths; but at the same time they maintained a correspondence with the
court of St. Germains, by the connivance of which they submitted to
William that they might be in a condition to serve James the more
effectually. The Scottish parliament was adjourned by proclamation to the
sixteenth day of September. Precautions were taken to prevent any
dangerous communication with the continent; a committee was appointed to
put the kingdom in a posture of defence; to exercise the powers of the
regency in securing the enemies of the government; and the earl of Home,
with sir Peter Fraser and sir Æneas Macpherson, were apprehended and
imprisoned.

CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS.

The king having settled the operations of the ensuing campaign in Ireland,
where general Ginckel exercised the supreme command, manned his fleet by
dint of pressing sailors, to the incredible annoyance of commerce; then
leaving the queen as before at the helm of government in England, he
returned to Holland accompanied by lord Sidney, secretary of state, the
earls of Marlborough and Portland, and began to make preparations for
taking the field in person. On the thirtieth day of May, the duke of
Luxembourg having passed the Scheld at the head of a large army, took
possession of Halle, and gave it up to plunder in sight of the
confederates, who were obliged to throw up intrenchments for their
preservation. At the same time the marquis de Boufflers, with a
considerable body of forces, intrenched himself before Liege with a view
to bombard that city. In the beginning of June, king William took upon
himself the command of the allied army, by this time reinforced in such a
manner as to be superior to the enemy. He forthwith detached the count de
Tilly with ten thousand men to the relief of Liege, which was already
reduced to ruins and desolation by the bombs, bullets, and repeated
attacks of Boufflers, who now thought proper to retreat to Dinant. Tilly
having thus raised the siege, and thrown a body of troops into Huy,
rejoined the confederate army, which had been augmented ever since his
departure with six thousand men from Brandenburgh, and ten thousand
Hessians commanded by the landgrave in person. Such was the vigilance of
Luxembourg, that William could not avail himself of his superiority. In
vain he exhausted his invention in marches, counter-marches, and
stratagems, to bring on a general engagement; the French marshal avoided
it with such dexterity as baffled all his endeavours. In the course of
this campaign the two armies twice confronted each other; but they were
situated in such a manner that neither could begin the attack without a
manifest disadvantage. While the king lay encamped at Court-sur-heure, a
soldier, corrupted by the enemy, set fire to the fusees of several bombs,
the explosion of which might have blown up the whole magazine and produced
infinite confusion in the army, had not the mischief been prevented by the
courage of the men who guarded the artillery; even while the fusees were
burning, they disengaged the waggons from the line, and overturned them
down the side of a hill, so that the communication of the fire was
intercepted. The person who made this treacherous attempt being
discovered, owned he had been employed for this purpose by the duke of
Luxembourg. He was tried by a court-martial and suffered the death of a
traitor. Such perfidious practices not only fix an indelible share of
infamy on the French general, but prove how much the capacity of William
was dreaded by his enemies. King William, quitting Court-sur-heure,
encamped upon the plain of St. Girard, where he remained till the fourth
day of September, consuming the forage and exhausting the country. Then he
passed the Sambre near Jemeppe, while the French crossed it at La Busiere,
and both armies marched towards Enghien. The enemy, perceiving the
confederates were at their heels, proceeded to Gramont, passed the Lender,
and took possession of a strong camp between Aeth and Oudenarde; William
followed the same route, and encamped between Aeth and Leuse. While he
continued in his post, the Hessian forces and those of Liege, amounting to
about eighteen thousand men, separated from the army and passed the Meuse
at Naimir; then the king returned to the Hague, leaving the command to
prince Waldeck, who forthwith removed to Leuse, and on the twentieth day
of the month began his march to Cambron. Luxembourg, who watched his
motions with a curious eye, found means to attack him in his retreat so
suddenly that his rear was surprised and defeated, though the French were
at last obliged to retire. The prince continued his route to Cambron, and
in a little time both armies retired into winter quarters. In the
meantime, the Duke de Noailles besieged and took Urgel in Catalonia, while
a French squadron, commanded by the count d’Etrées, bombarded Barcelona
and Alicant.

The confederates had proposed to act vigorously in Italy against the
French; but the season was far advanced before they were in a condition to
take the field. The emperor and Spain had undertaken to furnish troops to
join the duke of Savoy; and the maritime powers contributed their
proportion in money. The elector of Bavaria was nominated to the supreme
command of the imperial forces in that country; the marquis de Leganez,
governor of the Milanese, acted as trustee for the Spanish monarch; duke
Schomberg, son of that groat general who lost his life at the Boyne,
lately created duke of Leinster, managed the interest of William, as king
of England and stadtholder, and commanded a body of the Vaudois paid by
Great Britain. Before the German auxiliaries arrived, the French had made
great progress in their conquests. Catinat besieged and took Villa-Franca,
Nice, and some other fortifications; then he reduced Villana and
Carmagnola, and detached the marquis de Feuquieres to invest Coni, a
strong fortress garrisoned by the Vaudois and French refugees. The duke of
Savoy was now reduced to the brink of ruin. He saw almost all his places
of strength in the possession of the enemy; Coni was besieged; and La
Hoguette, another French general, had forced the passes of the valley of
Aoste, so that he had free admission into the Verceillois, and the
frontiers of the Milanese. Turin was threatened with a bombardment; the
people were dispirited and clamorous, and their sovereign lay with his
little army encamped on the hill of Montcallier, from whence he beheld his
towns taken, and his palace of Rivoli destroyed. Duke Schomberg exhorted
him to act on the offensive, and give battle to Catinat while that
officer’s army was weakened by detachments, and prince Eugene* supported
his remonstrance; but this proposal was vehemently opposed by the marquis
de Leganez, who foresaw that if the duke should be defeated, the French
would penetrate into the territories of Milan. The relief of Coni,
however, was undertaken by prince Eugene, who began his march for that
place with a convoy guarded by two-and-twenty hundred horse; at Magliano
he was reinforced by five thousand militia; Bulonde, who commanded at the
siege, no sooner heard of his approach than he retired with the utmost
precipitation, leaving behind some pieces of cannon, mortars, bombs, arms,
ammunition, tents, provisions, utensils, with all his sick and wounded.
When he joined Catinat he was immediately put under arrest, and afterwards
cashiered with disgrace. Hoguette abandoned the valley of Aoste;
Feuquieres was sent with a detachment to change the garrison of Casal; and
Catinat retired with his army towards Villa Nova d’Aste.

* Prince Eugene of Savoy, who in the sequel rivalled the
fame of the greatest warriors of antiquity, was descended on
the father’s side from the house of Savoy, and on the
mother’s from the family of Soissons, a branch of the house
of Bourbon. His father was Eugene Maurice, of Savoy, count
of Soissons, colonel of the Switzers, and governor of
Champagne and Brie: his mother was the celebrated Olimpia de
Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarine. Eugene finding himself
neglected at the court of France, engaged as a soldier of
fortune in the service of the emperor, and soon
distinguished himself by his great military talents: he
was, moreover, an accomplished gentleman, learned, liberal,
mild, and courteous; an unshaken friend; a generous enemy;
an invincible captain; a consummate politician.

ELECTION OF A NEW POPE.

The miscarriage of the French before Coni affected Louvois, the minister
of Louis, so deeply, that he could not help shedding tears when he
communicated the event to his master, who told him with great composure
that he was spoiled by good fortune. But the retreat of the French from
Piedmont had a still greater influence over the resolutions of the
conclave at Rome, then sitting for the election of a new pope in the room
of Alexander VIII., who died in the beginning of February. Notwithstanding
the power and intrigues of the French faction headed by cardinal d’Etrées,
the affairs of Piedmont had no sooner taken this turn than the Italians
joined the Spanish and Imperial interest, and cardinal Pignatelli, a
Neapolitan, was elected pontiff. He assumed the name of Innocent, in
honour of the last pope known by that appellation, and adopted all his
maxims against the French monarch. When the German auxiliaries arrived
under the command of the elector of Bavaria, the confederates resolved to
give battle to Catinat; but he repassed the Po, and sent couriers to
Versailles to solicit a reinforcement. Then prince Eugene invested
Carmagnola, and carried on the siege with such vigour that in eleven days
the garrison capitulated. Meanwhile the marquis de Hoquincourt undertook
the conquest of Montmelian, and reduced the town without much resistance.
The castle, however, made such a vigorous defence that Catinat marched
thither in person; and, notwithstanding all his efforts, the place held
out till the second day of December, when it surrendered on honourable
conditions.

THE EMPEROR’S SUCCESS AGAINST THE TURKS.

This summer produced nothing of importance on the Rhine. The French
endeavoured to surprise Mentz, by maintaining a correspondence with one of
the emperor’s commissioners; but this being discovered, their design was
frustrated. The imperial army, under the elector of Saxony, passed the
Rhine in the neighbourhood of Manheim; and the French, crossing the same
river at Philipsburgh, reduced the town of Portzheim in the marquisate of
Baden-Dourlach. The execution of the scheme projected by the emperor for
this campaign, was prevented by the death of his general, the elector of
Saxony, which happened on the second day of September. His affairs wore a
more favourable aspect in Hungary, where the Turks were totally defeated
by prince Louis of Baden on the banks of the Danube. The imperialists
afterwards undertook the siege of Great Waradin in Translyvania; bitt this
was turned into a blockade, and the place was not surrendered till the
following spring. The Turks were so dispirited by the defeat, by which
they had lost the grand vizier, that the emperor might have made peace
upon very advantageous terms; but his pride and ambition overshot his
success. He was weak, vain, and superstitious; he imagined that now the
war of Ireland was almost extinguished, king William, with the rest of his
allies, would be able to humble the French power, though he himself should
not co-operate with heretics, whom he abhorred; and that, in the meantime,
he should not only make an entire conquest of Transylvania, but also carry
his victorious arms to the gates of Constantinople, according to some
ridiculous prophecy by which his vanity had been flattered. The Spanish
government was become so feeble, that the ministry, rather than be at the
expense of defending the Netherlands, offered to deliver the whole country
to king William, either as monarch of England, or stadtholder of the
United Provinces. He declined this offer, because he knew the people would
never be reconciled to a protestant government; but he proposed that the
Spaniards should confer the administration of Flanders upon the elector of
Bavaria, who was ambitious of signalizing his courage, and able to defend
the country with his own troops and treasure. This proposal was relished
by the court of Spain; the emperor imparted it to the elector, who
accepted the office without hesitation; and he was immediately declared
governor of the Low Countries by the council of state at Madrid. King
William, after his return from the army, continued some time at the Hague
settling the operations of the ensuing campaign. That affair being
discussed, he embarked in the Maese, and landed in England on the
nineteenth day of October.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

Before we explain the proceedings in parliament, it will be necessary to
give a detail of the late transactions in Ireland. In the beginning of the
season, the French king had sent a large supply of provisions, clothes,
and ammunition, for the use of the Irish at Limerick, under the conduct of
Monsieur St. Ruth, accompanied by a great number of French officers
furnished with commissions from king James, though St. Kuth issued all his
orders in the name of Louis. Tyrconnel had arrived in January with three
frigates and nine vessels, laden with succours of the same nature;
otherwise the Irish could not have been so long kept together. Nor indeed
could these supplies prevent them from forming separate and independent
bands of rapparees, who plundered the country, and committed the most
shocking barbarities. The lords justices, in conjunction with general
Ginckel, had taken every step their prudence could suggest to quiet the
disturbances of the country, and prevent such violence and rapine, of
which the soldiers in king William’s army were not entirely innocent. The
justices had issued proclamations denouncing severe penalties against
those who should countenance or conceal such acts of cruelty and
oppression: they promised to protect all papists who should live quietly
within a certain frontier line; and Ginckel gave the catholic rebels to
understand that he was authorized to treat with them, if they were
inclined to return to their duty. Before the armies took the field,
several skirmishes had been fought between parties; and these had always
turned out so unfortunate to the enemy, that their spirits were quite
depressed, while the confidence of the English rose in the same
proportion.

St. Euth and Tyrconnel were joined by the rapparees, and general Ginckel
was reinforced by Mackay, with those troops which had reduced the
highlanders in Scotland. Thus strengthened, he, in the beginning of June,
marched from Mullingar to Ballymore, which was garrisoned by a thousand
men under colonel Bourke, who, when summoned to surrender, returned an
evasive answer. But, when a breach was made in the place, and the
besiegers began to make preparations for a general assault, his men laid
down their arms and submitted at discretion. The fortifications of this
place being repaired and augmented, the general left a garrison for its
defence, and advanced to Athlone, situated on the other side of the
Shannon, and supported by the Irish army encamped almost under its walls.
The English town on the hither side of the river was taken sword in hand,
and the enemy broke down an arch of the bridge in their retreat. Batteries
were raised against the Irish town, and several unsuccessful attempts were
made to force the passage of the bridge, which was defended with great
vigour. At length it was resolved, in a council of war, that a detachment
should pass at a ford a little to the left of the bridge, though the river
was deep and rapid, the bottom foul and stony, and the pass guarded by a
ravelin, erected for that purpose. The forlorn hope consisted of sixty
grenadiers in armour, headed by captain Sandys and two lieutenants. They
were seconded by another detachment, and this was supported by six
battalions of infantry. Never was a more desperate service, nor was ever
exploit performed with more valour and intrepidity. They passed twenty
a-breast in the face of the enemy, through an incessant shower of balls,
bullets, and grenades. Those who followed them took possession of the
bridge, and laid planks over the broken arch. Pontoons were fixed at the
same time, that the troops might pass in different places. The Irish were
amazed, confounded, and abandoned the town in the utmost consternation; so
that in half an hour it was wholly secured by the English, who did not
lose above fifty men in this attack. Mackay, Tetteau, and Ptolemache,
exhibited proofs of the most undaunted courage in passing the river; and
general Ginckel, for his conduct, intrepidity, and success on this
occasion, was created earl of Athlone. When St. Ruth was informed, by
express, that the English had entered the river, he said, it was
impossible they should pretend to take a town which he covered with his
army, and that he would give a thousand pistoles if they would attempt to
force a passage. Sarsfield insisted upon the truth of the intelligence,
and pressed him to send succours to the town; he ridiculed this officer’s
fears, and some warm expostulation passed between them. Being at length
convinced that the English were in possession of the place, he ordered
some detachments to drive them out again; but the cannon of their own
works being turned against them, they found the task impracticable, and
that very night their army decamped. St. Ruth, after a march of ten miles,
took post at Aghrim; and having, by drafts from garrisons, augmented his
army to five-and-twenty thousand men, resolved to hazard a decisive
engagement.

Ginckel, having put Athlone in a posture of defence, passed the Shannon
and marched up to the enemy, determined to give them battle, though his
forces did not exceed eighteen thousand, and the Irish were posted in a
very advantageous situation. St. Ruth had made an admirable disposition,
and taken every precaution that military skill could suggest. His centre
extended along a rising ground, uneven in many places, intersected with
banks and ditches, joined by lines of communication, and fronted by a
large bog almost impassable. His right was fortified with intrenchments,
and his left secured by the castle of Aghrim. He harangued his army in the
most pathetic strain, conjuring them to exert their courage in defence of
their holy religion, in the extirpation of heresy, in recovering their
ancient honours and estates, and in restoring a pious king to the throne,
from whence he had been expelled by an unnatural usurper. He employed the
priests to enforce his exhortations; to assure the men that they might
depend upon the prayers of the church; and that, in case they should fall
in battle, the saints and angels would convey their souls to heaven. They
are said to have sworn upon the sacrament that they would not desert their
colours, and to have received an order that no quarter should be given to
the French heretics in the army of the prince of Orange. Ginckel had
encamped on the Roscommon side of the river Sue, within three miles of the
enemy: after having reconnoitred their posture, he resolved, with the
advice of a council of war, to attack them on Sunday the twelfth day of
July. The necessary orders being given, the army passed the river at two
fords and a stone bridge, and, advancing to the edge of the great bog,
began about twelve o’clock to force the two passages, in order to possess
the ground on the other side. The enemy fought with surprising fury, and
the horse were several times repulsed; but at length the troops upon the
right carried their point by moans of some field pieces. The day was now
so far advanced, that the general determined to postpone the battle till
next morning; but perceiving some disorder among the enemy, and fearing
they would decamp in the night, he altered his resolution and ordered the
attack to be renewed. At six o’clock in the evening the left wing of the
English advanced to the right of the Irish, from whom they met with such a
warm and obstinate reception, that it was not without the most surprising
efforts of courage and perseverance that they at length obliged them to
give ground; and even then they lost it by inches. St. Ruth, seeing them
in danger of being overpowered, immediately detached succours to them from
his centre and left wing. Mackay no sooner perceived them weakened by
these detachments, then he ordered three battalions to skirt the bog and
attack them on the left, while the centre advanced through the middle of
the morass, the men wading up to the waist in mud and water. After they
had reached the other side, they found themselves obliged to ascend a
rugged hill fenced with hedges and ditches; and these were lined with
musqeteers, supported at proper intervals with squadrons of cavalry. They
made such a desperate resistance, and fought with such impetuosity, that
the assailants were repulsed into the middle of the bog with great loss,
and St. Ruth exclaimed—“Now will I drive the English to the gates of
Dublin.” In this critical conjuncture Ptolemache came tip with a fresh
body to sustain them, rallied the broken troops, and renewed the charge
with such vigour that the Irish gave way in their turn, and the English
recovered the ground they had lost, though they found it impossible to
improve their advantage. Mackay brought a body of horse and dragoons to
the assistance of the left wing, and first turned the tide of battle in
favour of the English. Major-general Rouvigny, who had behaved with great
gallantry during the whole action, advanced with five regiments of cavalry
to support the centre; when St. Kuth, perceiving his design, resolved to
fall upon him in a dangerous hollow way which he was obliged to pass. For
this purpose he began to descend Kircommodon-hill with his whole reserve
of horse; but in his way was killed by a cannon-ball. His troops
immediately halted, and his guards retreated with his body. His fate
dispirited the troops, and produced such confusion as Sarsfield could not
remedy; for though he was next in command, he had been at variance with
St. Ruth since the affair at Athlone, and was ignorant of the plan he had
concerted. Rouvigny having passed the hollow way without opposition,
charged the enemy in flank, and bore down all before him with surprising
impetuosity; the centre redoubled their efforts and pushed the Irish to
the top of the hill, and then the whole line giving way at once from right
to left threw down their arms. The foot fled towards a bog in their rear,
and their horse took the route by the highway to Loughneagh; both were
pursued by the English cavalry, who for four miles made a terrible
slaughter. In the battle, which lasted two hours, and in the pursuit,
above four thousand of the enemy were slain and six hundred taken,
together with all their baggage, tents, provisions, ammunition, and
artillery, nine-and-twenty pair of colours, twelve standards, and almost
all the arms of the infantry. In a word, the victory was decisive, and not
above eight hundred of the English were killed upon the field of battle.
The vanquished retreated in great confusion to Limerick, where they
resolved to make a final stand in hope of receiving such succours from
France as would either enable them to retrieve their affairs, or obtain
good terms from the court of England. There Tyrconnel died of a broken
heart, after having survived his authority and reputation. He had incurred
the contempt of the French, as well as the hatred of the Irish, whom he
had advised to submit to the new government rather than totally ruin
themselves and their families.

Immediately after the battle detachments were sent to reduce Portumny,
Bonnachar, and Moorcastle, considerable passes on the Shannon, which were
accordingly secured. Then Ginckel advanced to Galway, which he summoned to
surrender; but he received a defiance from lord Dillon and general
D’Ussone who commanded the garrison. The trenches were immediately opened;
a fort which commanded the approaches to the town was taken by assault;
six regiments of foot and four squadrons of horse passed the river on
pontoons, and the place being wholly invested, the governor thought proper
to capitulate. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and was
allowed safe conduct to Limerick. Ginckel directed his march to the same
town, which was the only post of consequence that now held out for king
James. Within four miles of the place he halted until the heavy cannon
could be brought from Athlone. Hearing that Luttrel had been seized by the
French general D’Ussone, and sentenced to be shot for having proposed to
surrender, he sent a trumpet to tell the commander that if any person
should be put to death for such a proposal, he would make retaliation on
the Irish prisoners. On the twenty-fifth day of August the enemy were
driven from all their advanced posts: captain Cole, with a squadron of
ships, sailed up the Shannon, and his frigates anchored in sight of the
town. On the twenty-sixth day of the month the batteries were opened, and
a line of contra-vallation was formed; the Irish army lay encamped on the
other side of the river, on the road to Killalow, and the fords were
guarded with four regiments of their dragoons. On the fifth day of
September, after the town had been almost laid in ruins by the bombs, and
large breaches made in the wails by the battering cannon, the guns were
dismounted, the out-forts evacuated, and such other motions made as
indicated a resolution to abandon the siege. The enemy expressed their joy
in loud acclamations; but this was of short continuance. In the night the
besiegers began to throw a bridge of pontoons over the river about a mile
higher up than the camp, and this work was finished before morning. A
considerable body of horse and foot had passed when the alarm was given to
the enemy, who were seized with such consternation, that they threw down
their arms and betook themselves to flight, leaving behind them their
tents, baggage, two pieces of cannon, and one standard. The bridge was
immediately removed nearer the town and fortified; all the fords and
passes were secured, and the batteries continued firing incessantly till
the twenty-second day of the month, when Ginckel passed over with a
division of the army and fourteen pieces of cannon. About four in the
afternoon the grenadiers attacked the forts that commanded Thomond-bridge,
and carried them sword in hand after an obstinate resistance. The garrison
had made a sally from the town to support them; and this detachment was
driven back with such precipitation, that the French officer on command in
that quarter, fearing the English would enter pell-mell with the
fugitives, ordered the bridge to be drawn up, leaving his own men to the
fury of a victorious enemy. Six hundred were killed, two hundred taken
prisoners, including many officers, and a great number were drowned in the
Shannon.

THE FRENCH AND IRISH OBTAIN AN HONOURABLE CAPITULATION.

Then the English made a lodgement within ten paces of the bridge-foot; and
the Irish, seeing themselves surrounded on all sides, determined to
capitulate. General Sarsfield and colonel Wahop signified their resolution
to Scrvenmore and Rouvigny; hostages were exchanged; a negotiation was
immediately begun, and hostilities ceased on both sides of the river. The
lords justices arrived in the camp on the first day of October, and on the
fourth the capitulation was executed, extending to all the places in the
kingdom that were still in the hands of the Irish. The Roman catholics
were restored to the enjoyment of such liberty in the exercise of religion
as was consistent with the laws of Ireland, and conformable with that
which they possessed in the reign of Charles II. All persons whatever were
entitled to the protection of these laws, and restored to the possession
of their estates, privileges, and immunities, upon their submitting to the
present government, and taking the oath of allegiance to their majesties
king William and queen Mary, excepting however certain persons who were
forfeited or exiled. This article even extended to all merchants of
Limerick, or any other garrison possessed by the Irish, who happened to be
abroad, and had not borne arms since the declaration in the first year of
the present reign, provided they should return within the term of eight
months. All the persons comprised in this and the forgoing article were
indulged with a general pardon of all attainders, outlawries, treasons,
misprisons of treason, premunires, felonies, trespasses, and other crimes
and misdemeanors whatsoever, committed since the beginning of the reign of
James II.; and the lords justices promised to use their best endeavours
towards the reversal of such attainders and outlawries as had passed
against any of them in parliament. In order to allay the violence of party
and extinguish private animosities, it was agreed that no person should be
sued or impleaded on either side for any trespass, or made accountable for
the rents, tenements, lands, or houses he had received or enjoyed since
the beginning of the war. Every nobleman and gentleman comprised in these
articles was authorized to keep a sword, a case of pistols, and a gun, for
his defence or amusement. The inhabitants of Limerick and other garrisons
were permitted to remove their goods and chattels, without search,
visitation, or payment of duty. The lords justices promised to use their
best endeavours that all persons comprehended in this capitulation should
for eight months be protected from all arrests and executions for debt or
damage; they undertook that their majesties should ratify these articles
within the space of eight months, and use their endeavours that they might
be ratified and confirmed in parliament. The subsequent article was
calculated to indemnify colonel John Brown, whose estate and effects had
been seized for the use of the Irish army by Tyrconnel and Sarsfield,
which last had been created Lord Lucan by king James, and was now
mentioned by that title. All persons were indulged with free leave to
remove with their families and effects to any other country except England
and Scotland. All officers and soldiers in the service of king James,
comprehending even the rapparees, willing to go beyond sea, were at
liberty to inarch in bodies to the places of embarkation, to be conveyed
to the continent with the French officers and troops. They were furnished
with passports, convoys, and carriages by land and water; and general
Gluckel engaged to provide seventy ships, if necessary, for their
transportation, with two men of war for the accommodation of their
officers, and to serve as a convoy to the fleet. It was stipulated, That
the provisions and forage for their subsistence should be paid for on
their arrival in France; that hostages should be given for this
indemnification, as well as for the return of the ships; that all the
garrisons should march out of their respective towns and fortresses with
the honours of war; that the Irish should have liberty to transport nine
hundred horses; that those who should choose to stay behind might dispose
of themselves according to their own fancy, after having surrendered their
arms to such commissioners as the general should appoint; that all
prisoners of war should be set at liberty on both sides; that the general
should provide two vessels to carry over two different persons to France
with intimation of this treaty; and that none of those who were willing to
quit the kingdom should be detained on account of debt, or any other
pretence.—This was the substance of the famous treaty of Limerick,
which the Irish Roman catholics considered as the great charter of their
civil and religious liberties. The town of Limerick was surrendered to
Ginckel; but both sides agreed that the two armies should intrench
themselves till the Irish could embark, that no disorders might arise from
a communication.

TWELVE THOUSAND IRISH CATHOLICS ARE TRANSPORTED TO FRANCE.

The protestant subjects of Ireland were extremely disgusted at these
concessions made in favour of vanquished rebels, who had exercised such
acts of cruelty and rapine. They complained, That they themselves, who had
suffered for their loyalty to king William, were neglected, and obliged to
sit down with their losses; while their enemies, who had shed so much
blood in opposing his government, were indemnified by the articles of the
capitulation, and even favoured with particular indulgencies. They were
dismissed with the honours of war; they were transported at the
government’s expense, to fight against the English in foreign countries;
an honourable provision was made for the rapparees, who were professed
banditti; the Roman catholic interest in Ireland obtained the sanction of
regal authority; attainders were overlooked, forfeitures annulled, pardons
extended, and laws set aside, in order to effect a pacification. Ginckel
had received orders to put an end to the war at any rate, that William
might convert his whole influence and attention to the affairs of the
continent. When the articles of capitulation were ratified, and hostages
exchanged for their being duly executed, about two thousand Irish foot,
and three hundred horse, began their march for Cork, where they proposed
to take shipping for France, under the conduct of Sarsfield; but three
regiments refusing to quit the kingdom, delivered up their arms and
dispersed to their former habitations. Those who remained at Limerick
embarked on the seventh day of November, in French transports; and sailed
immediately to France, under the convoy of a French squadron which had
arrived in the bay of Dangle immediately after the capitulation was
signed. Twelve thousand men chose to undergo exile from their native
country rather than submit to the government of king William. When they
arrived in France they were welcomed by a letter from James, who thanked
them for their loyalty, assured them they should still serve under his
commission and command, and that the king of France had already given
orders for their being new clothed and put into quarters of refreshment.

MEETING OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT.

The reduction of Ireland being thus completed, baron Ginckel returned to
England, where he was solemnly thanked by the house of commons for his
great services, after he had been created earl of Athlone by his majesty.
When the parliament met on the twenty-second day of October, the king in
his speech insisted upon the necessity of sending a strong fleet to sea
early in the season, and of maintaining a considerable army to annoy the
enemy abroad, as well as to protect the kingdom from insult and invasion;
for which purposes, he said, sixty-five thousand men would be barely
sufficient. Each house presented an address of congratulation upon his
majesty’s safe return to England, and on the reduction of Ireland: they
promised to assist him to the utmost of their power, in prosecuting the
war with France; and, at the same time, drew up addresses to the queen,
acknowledging her prudent administration during his majesty’s absence.
Notwithstanding this appearance of cordiality and complaisance, a spirit
of discontent had insinuated itself into both houses of parliament, and
even infected great part of the nation.

A great number of individuals who wished well to their country, could not,
without anxiety and resentment, behold the interest of the nation
sacrificed to foreign connexions, and the king’s favour so partially
bestowed upon Dutchmen in prejudice to his English subjects. They
observed, that the number of forces he demanded was considerably greater
than that of any army which had ever been paid by the public, even when
the nation was in the most imminent danger; that instead of contributing
as allies to the maintenance of the war upon the continent, they had
embarked as principals and bore the greatest part of the burden, though
they had the least share of the profit. They even insinuated that such a
standing army was more calculated to make the king absolute at home, than
to render him formidable abroad; and the secret friends of the late king
did not fail to enforce these insinuations. They renewed their
animadversions upon the disagreeable part of his character; they dwelt
upon his proud reserve, his sullen silence, his imperious disposition, and
his base ingratitude, particularly to the earl of Marlborough, whom he had
dismissed from all his employments immediately after the signal exploits
he had performed in Ireland. The disgrace of this nobleman was partly
ascribed to the freedom with which he had complained of the king’s
undervaluing his services, and partly to the intrigues of his wife, who
had gained an ascendancy over the princess Anne of Denmark, and is said to
have employed her influence in fomenting a jealousy between the two
sisters. The malcontents of the whiggish faction, enraged to find their
credit declining at court, joined in the cry which the Jacobites had
raised against the government. They scrupled not to say, that the arts of
corruption were shamefully practised to secure a majority in parliament;
that the king was as tender of the prerogative as any of his predecessors
had ever been; and that he even ventured to admit Jacobites into his
council, because they were known tools of arbitrary power. These
reflections alluded to the earls of Rochester and Kanelagh, who, with sir
Edward Seymour, had been lately created privy-counsellors. Rochester
entertained very high notions of regal authority; he proposed severity as
one of the best supports of government; was clear in his understanding,
violent in his temper, and incorrupt in his principles. Ranelagh was a man
of parts and pleasure, who possessed the most plausible and winning
address; and was capable of transacting the most important and intricate
affairs, in the midst of riot and debauchery. He had managed the revenue
of Ireland in the reign of Charles II.; he enjoyed the office of paymaster
in the army of King James, and now maintained the same footing under the
government of William and Mary. Sir Edward Seymour was the proudest
commoner in England, and the boldest orator that ever filled the speaker’s
chair. He was intimately acquainted with the business of the house, and
knew every individual member so exactly, that with one glance of his eye
he could prognosticate the fate of every motion. He had opposed the court
with great acrimony, questioned the king’s title, censured his conduct,
and reflected upon his character. Nevertheless, he now became a proselyte,
and was brought into the treasury.

TRANSACTIONS IN PARLIAMENT.

The commons voted three millions, four hundred and eleven thousand, six
hundred and seventy-five pounds, for the use of the ensuing year: but the
establishment of funds for raising these supplies was retarded, partly by
the ill-humour of the opposition, and partly by intervening affairs that
diverted the attention of the commons. Several eminent merchants presented
a petition to the house against the East-India company, charging them with
manifold abuses; at the same time, a counter-petition was delivered by the
company, and the affair referred to the examination of a committee
appointed for that purpose. After a minute inquiry into the nature of the
complaints, the commons voted certain regulations with respect to the
stock and the traffic; and resolved to petition his majesty, that,
according to the said regulations, the East-India company should be
incorporated by charter. The committee was ordered to bring in a bill for
this establishment; but divers petitions being presented against it, and
the company’s answers proving unsatisfactory, the house addressed the king
to dissolve it, and grant a charter to a new company. He said it was an
affair of great importance to the trade of the kingdom; therefore, he
would consider the subject, and in a little time return a positive answer.
The parliament was likewise amused by a pretended conspiracy of the
papists in Lancashire, to raise a rebellion and restore James to the
throne. Several persons were seized, and some witnesses examined: but
nothing appeared to justify the information. At length one Fuller, a
prisoner in the king’s bench, offered his evidence, and was brought to the
bar of the house of commons, where he produced some papers. He obtained a
blank pass from the king for two persons, who he said would come from the
continent to give evidence. He was afterwards examined at his own
lodgings, where he affirmed that colonel Thomas Délavai and James Hayes
were the witnesses for whom he had procured the pass and the protection.
Search was made for them according to his direction, but no such persons
were found. Then the house declared Fuller a notorious impostor, cheat,
and false accuser. He was, at the request of the commons, prosecuted by
the attorney-general, and sentenced to stand in the pillory; a disgrace
which he accordingly underwent.

A bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason having been laid
aside by the lords in the preceding session, was now again brought upon
the carpet, and passed the lower house. The design of this bill was to
secure the subject from the rigours to which he had been exposed in the
late reigns: it provided, That the prisoner should be furnished with a
copy of his indictment, as also of the panel, ten days before his trial;
and, that his witnesses should be examined upon oath as well as those of
the crown. The lords, in their own behalf, added a clause enacting, That
upon the trials of any peer or peeress, for treason or misprison of
treason, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in parliament,
should be duly summoned to assist at the trial; that this notice should be
given twenty days before the trial; and that every peer so summoned, and
appearing, should vote upon the occasion. The commons rejected this
amendment; and a free conference ensued. The point was argued with great
vivacity on both sides, which served only to inflame the dispute, and
render each party the more tenacious of their own opinion. After three
conferences that produced nothing but animosity, the bill was dropped; for
the commons resolved to bear the hardships of which they complained,
rather than be relieved at the expense of purchasing a new privilege to
the lords; and without this advantage, the peers would not contribute to
their relief.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH FLEETS BAFFLED BY THE FRENCH.

The next object that engrossed the attention of the lower house, was the
miscarriage of the fleet during the summer’s expedition. Admiral Russel,
who commanded at sea, having been joined by a Dutch squadron, sailed in
quest of the enemy; but as the French king had received undoubted
intelligence that the combined squadrons were superior to his navy in
number of ships and weight of metal, he ordered Tourville to avoid an
engagement. This officer acted with such vigilance, caution, and
dexterity, as baffled all the endeavours of Russel, who was moreover
perplexed with obscure and contradictory orders. Nevertheless, he cruised
all summer either in the channel or in soundings, for the protection of
the trade, and in particular secured the homeward-bound Smyrna fleet, in
which the English and Dutch had a joint concern amounting to four millions
sterling. Having scoured the channel, and sailed along great part of the
French coast, he returned to Torbay in the beginning of August, and
received fresh orders to put to sea again, notwithstanding his repeated
remonstrances against exposing large ships to the storms that always blow
about the time of the equinox. He therefore sailed back to soundings,
where he continued cruising till the second day of September, when he was
overtaken by a violent tempest, which drove him into the channel, and
obliged him to make for the port of Plymouth. The weather being hazy, he
reached the Sound with great difficulty: the Coronation, a second-rate,
foundered at anchor off the Ram-head; the Harwich, a third-rate, bulged
upon the rocks and perished; two others ran ashore, but were got off with
little damage; but the whole fleet was scattered and distressed. The
nation murmured at the supposed misconduct of the admiral, and the commons
subjected him to an inquiry: but when they examined his papers, orders,
and instructions, they perceived he had adhered to them with great
punctuality, and thought proper to drop the prosecution out of tenderness
to the ministry. Then the house took into consideration some letters which
had been intercepted in a French ship taken by sir Ralph Delaval. Three of
these are said to have been written by king James, and the rest sealed
with his seal. They related to the plan of an insurrection in Scotland,
and in the northern parts of England: Legge, lord Dartmouth, with one
Crew, being mentioned in them as agents and abettors in the design,
warrants were immediately issued against them; Crew absconded, but lord
Dartmouth was committed to the Tower. Lord Preston was examined touching
some ciphers which they could not explain, and, pretending ignorance, was
imprisoned in Newgate, from whence however he soon obtained his release.
The funds for the supplies of the ensuing year being established, and
several acts* passed relating to domestic regulations, the king on the
twenty-fourth day of February closed the session with a short speech,
thanking the parliament for their demonstrations of affection in the
liberal supplies they had granted, and communicating his intention of
repairing speedily to the continent. Then the two houses, at his desire,
adjourned themselves to the twelfth day of April, and the parliament was
afterwards prorogued to the twenty-ninth day of May, by proclamation. 035
[See note H, at the end of this Vol.]

* The laws enacted in this session were those: an act for
abrogating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing
other oaths; an act for taking away clergy from some
offenders, and bringing others to punishment; an act against
deer-stealing; an act for repairing the highways, and
settling the rates of carriage of goods; an act for the
relief of creditors against fraudulent devices; an act for
explaining and supplying the defects of former laws for the
settlement of the poor; an act for the encouragement of the
breeding and feeding of cattle; and an act for ascertaining
the tithes of hemp and flax.

THE KING DISOBLIGES THE PRESBYTERIANS OF SCOTLAND.

The king had suffered so much in his reputation by his complaisance to the
presbyterians of Scotland, and was so displeased with the conduct of that
stubborn sect of religionists, that he thought proper to admit some
prelatists into the administration. Johnston, who had been sent envoy to
the elector of Brandenburgh was recalled, and with the master of Stair,
made joint secretary of Scotland; Melvil, who had declined in his
importance, was made lord privy-seal of that kingdom; Tweedale was
constituted lord chancellor; Crawford retained the office of president of
the council; and Lothian was appointed high commissioner to the general
assembly. The parliament was adjourned to the fifteenth day of April,
because it was not yet compliant enough to be assembled with safety; and
the episcopal clergy were admitted to a share of the church government.
These measures, instead of healing the divisions, served only to inflame
the animosity of the two parties. The episcopalians triumphed in the
king’s favour, and began to treat their antagonists with insolence and
scorn: the presbyterians were incensed to see their friends disgraced, and
their enemies distinguished by the royal indulgence. They insisted upon
the authority of the law, which happened to be upon their side: they
became more than ever sour, surly, and implacable; they refused to concur
with the prelatists or abate in the least circumstances of discipline; and
the assembly was dissolved without any time or place assigned for the next
meeting. The presbyterians pretended an independent right of assembling
annually, even without a call from his majesty; they therefore adjourned
themselves, after having protested against the dissolution. The king
resented this measure as an insolent invasion of the prerogative, and
conceived an aversion to the whole sect, who in their turn began to lose
all respect for his person and government.

As the highlanders were not yet totally reduced, the earl of Breadalbane
undertook to bring them over, by distributing sums of money among their
chiefs; and fifteen thousand pounds were remitted from England for this
purpose. The clans being informed of this remittance, suspected that the
earl’s design was to appropriate to himself the best part of the money,
and when he began to treat with them made such extravagant demands that he
found his scheme impracticable. He was therefore obliged to refund the sum
he had received; and he resolved to wreak his vengeance with the first
opportunity on those who had frustrated his intention. He who chiefly
thwarted his negotiation was Macdonald of Glencoe, whose opposition rose
from a private circumstance which ought to have had no effect upon a
treaty that regarded the public weal. Macdonald had plundered the lands of
Breadalbane during the course of hostilities; and this nobleman insisted
upon being indemnified for his losses, from the other’s share of the money
which he was employed to distribute. The highlander not only refused to
acquiesce in these terms, but, by his influence among the clans, defeated
the whole scheme, and the earl in revenge devoted him to destruction. King
William had by proclamation offered an indemnity to all those who had been
in arms against him, provided they would submit and take the oaths by a
certain day; and this was prolonged to the close of the present year, with
a denunciation of military execution against those who should hold out
after the end of December. Macdonald, intimidated by this declaration,
repaired on the very last day of the month to Fort-William, and desired
that the oaths might be tendered to him by colonel Hill, governor of that
fortress. As this officer was not vested with the power of a civil
magistrate, he refused to administer them; and Macdonald set out
immediately for Inverary, the county-town of Argyle. Though the ground was
covered with snow, and the weather intensely cold, he travelled with such
diligence, that the term prescribed by the proclamation was but one day
elapsed when he reached the place, and addressed himself to sir John
Campbell, sheriff of the county, who, in consideration of his
disappointment at Fort-William, was prevailed upon to administer the oaths
to him and his adherents. Then they returned to their own habitations in
the valley of Glencoe, in full confidence of being protected by the
government to which they had so solemnly submitted.

MASSACRE OF GLENCOE.

Breadalbane had represented Macdonald at court as an incorrigible rebel,
as a ruffian inured to bloodshed and rapine, who would never be obedient
to the laws of his country, nor live peaceably under any sovereign. He
observed, that he had paid no regard to the proclamation, and proposed
that the government should sacrifice him to the quiet of the kingdom, in
extirpating him with his family and dependents by military execution. His
advice was supported by the suggestions of the other Scottish ministers;
and the king, whose chief virtue was not humanity, signed a warrant for
the destruction of those unhappy people, though it does not appear that he
knew of Macdonald’s submission. An order for this barbarous execution,
signed and countersigned by his majesty’s own hand, being transmitted to
the master of Stair, secretary for Scotland, this minister sent particular
directions to Livingstone, who commanded the troops in that kingdom, to
put the inhabitants of Glencoe to the sword, charging him to take no
prisoners, that the scene might be more terrible. In the month of
February, captain Campbell of Glenlyon, by virtue of an order from major
Duncanson, marched into the valley of Glencoe with a company of soldiers
belonging to Argyle’s regiment, on pretence of levying the arrears of the
land-tax and hearth-money. When Macdonald demanded whether they came as
friends or enemies, he answered, as friends, and promised upon his honour
that neither he nor his people should sustain the least injury. In
consequence of this declaration, he and his men were received with the
most cordial hospitality, and lived fifteen days with the men of the
valley in all the appearance of the most unreserved friendship. At length
the fatal period approached. Macdonald and Campbell having passed the day
together, parted about seven in the evening, with mutual professions of
the warmest affection. The younger Macdonald, perceiving the guards
doubled, began to suspect some treachery, and communicated his suspicion
to his brother; but neither he nor the father would harbour the least
doubt of Campbell’s sincerity: nevertheless the two young men went forth
privately to make further observations. They overheard the common soldiers
say they liked not the work; that though they would have willingly fought
the Macdonalds of the Glen fairly in the field, they held it base to
murder them in cool blood, but that their officers were answerable for the
treachery. When the youths hastened back to apprize their father of the
impending danger, they saw the house already surrounded; they heard the
discharge of muskets, the shrieks of women and children; and, being
destitute of arms, secured their own lives by immediate flight. The savage
ministers of vengeance had entered the old man’s chamber, and shot him
through the head. He fell down dead in the arms of his wife, who died next
day distracted by the horror of her husband’s fate. The laird of
Auchintrincken, Macdonald’s guest, who had, three months before this
period, submitted to the government, and at this very time had a
protection in his pocket, was put to death without question. A boy of
eight years, who fell at Campbell’s feet imploring mercy, and offering to
serve him for life, was stabbed to the heart by one Drummond a subaltern
officer. Eight-and-thirty persons suffered in this manner, the greater
part of whom were surprised in their beds, and hurried into eternity
before they had time to implore the divine mercy. The design was to
butcher all the males under seventy that lived in the valley, the number
of whom amounted to two hundred; but some of the detachments did not
arrive soon enough to secure the passes; so that one hundred and sixty
escaped. Campbell having perpetrated this cruel massacre, ordered all the
houses to be burned, made a prey of all the cattle and effects that were
found in the valley, and left the helpless women and children, whose
fathers and husbands he had murdered, naked and forlorn, without covering,
food, or shelter, in the midst of the snow that covered the whole face of
the country, at the distance of six long miles from any inhabited place.
Distracted with grief and horror, surrounded with the shades of night,
shivering with cold, and appalled with the apprehension of immediate death
from the swords of those who had sacrificed their friends and kinsmen,
they could not endure such a complication of calamities, but generally
perished in the waste, before they could receive the least comfort or
assistance. This barbarous massacre, performed under the sanction of king
William’s authority, answered the immediate purpose of the court by
striking terror into the hearts of the Jacobite high-landers; but at the
same time excited the horror of all those who had not renounced every
sentiment of humanity, and produced such an aversion to the government, as
all the arts of a ministry could never totally surmount. A detail of the
particulars was published at Paris, with many exaggerations, and the
Jacobites did not fail to expatiate on every circumstance, in domestic
libels and private conversation. The king, alarmed at the outcry which was
raised upon this occasion, ordered an inquiry to be set on foot, and
dismissed the master of Stair from his employment of secretary: he
likewise pretended that he had subscribed the order amidst a heap of other
papers, without knowing the purport of it; but as he did not severely
punish those who had made his authority subservient to their own cruel
revenge, the imputation stuck fast to his character; and the highlanders,
though terrified into silence and submission, were inspired with the most
implacable resentment against his person and administration.

PREPARATIONS FOR A DESCENT UPON ENGLAND.

A great number in both kingdoms waited impatiently for an opportunity to
declare in behalf of their exiled monarch, who was punctually informed of
all these transactions, and endeavoured to make his advantage of the
growing discontent. King William having settled the domestic affairs of
the nation, and exerted uncommon care and assiduity in equipping a
formidable fleet, embarked for Holland on the fifth day of March, and was
received by the states-general with expressions of the most cordial
regard. While he was here employed in promoting the measures of the grand
confederacy, the French king resolved to invade England in his absence,
and seemed heartily engaged in the interest of James, whose emissaries in
Britain began to bestir themselves with uncommon assiduity in preparing
the nation for his return. One Lant, who was imprisoned on suspicion of
distributing his commissions, had the good fortune to be released, and the
papists of Lancashire dispatched him to the court of St. Germain’s with an
assurance that they were in a condition to receive their old sovereign. He
returned with advice that king James would certainly land in the spring;
and that colonel Parker and other officers should be sent over with full
instructions, touching their conduct at and before the king’s arrival.
Parker accordingly repaired to England, and made the Jacobites acquainted
with the whole scheme of a descent, which Louis had actually concerted
with the late king. He assured them that their lawful sovereign would once
more visit his British dominions, at the head of thirty thousand effective
men, to be embarked at La Hogue; that the transports were already
prepared, and a strong squadron equipped for their convoy; he therefore
exhorted them to be speedy and secret in their preparation, that they
might be in readiness to take arms and co-operate in effecting his
restoration. This officer, and one Johnson a priest, are said to have
undertaken the assassination of king William; but before they could
execute their design his majesty set sail for Holland.

DECLARATION OF KING JAMES.

Meanwhile James addressed a letter to several lords who had been formerly
members of his council, as well as to divers ladies of quality and
distinction, intimating the pregnancy of his queen, and requiring them to
attend as witnesses at the labour. He took notice of the injury his family
and honour had sustained, from the cruel aspersions of his enemies
concerning the birth of his son, and as Providence had now favoured him
with an opportunity of refuting the calumny of those who affirmed that the
queen was incapable of child-bearing, he assured them in the name of his
brother the French king, as well as upon his own royal word, that they
should have free leave to visit his court and return after the labour.*

* The letter was directed not only for privy counsellors,
but also to the duchesses of Somerset and Beaufort, the
marchioness of Halifax, the countesses of Derby, Mulgrave,
Rutland, Brooks, Nottingham, Lumley, and Danby, the ladies
Fitzharding and Fretchville, those of sir John Trevor,
speaker of the house of commons, sir Edward Seymour, sir
Christopher Musgrave, the wives of sir Thomas Stamford,
lord-mayor of London, sir William Ashhurst and sir Richard
Levert, the sheriffs, and, lastly, to Dr. Chamberlain, the
famous practitioner in midwifery.

This invitation however no person would venture to accept. He afterwards
employed his emissaries in circulating a printed declaration, importing
that the king of France had enabled him to make another effort to retrieve
his crown; and that although he was furnished with a number of troops
sufficient to untie the hands of his subjects, he did not intend to
deprive them of their share in the glory of restoring their lawful king
and their ancient government. He exhorted the people to join his standard.
He assured them that the foreign auxiliaries should behave with the most
regular discipline, and be sent back immediately after his
re-establishment. He observed, that when such a number of his subjects
were so infatuated as to concur with the unnatural design of the prince of
Orange, he had chosen to rely upon the fidelity of his English army, and
refused considerable succours that were offered to him by his most
christian majesty; that when he was ready to oppose force with force, he
nevertheless offered to give all reasonable satisfaction to his subjects
who had been misled, and endeavoured to open their eyes with respect to
the vain pretences of his adversary, whose aim was not the reformation but
the subversion of the government; that when he saw himself deserted by his
army, betrayed by his ministers, abandoned by his favourites, and even his
own children, and at last rudely driven from his own palace by a guard of
insolent foreigners, he had for his personal safety taken refuge in
France: that his retreat from the malice and cruel designs of the usurper
had been construed into an abdication, and the whole constitution of the
monarchy destroyed by a set of men illegally assembled, who, in fact, had
no power to alter the property of the meanest subject. He expressed his
hope that by this time the nation had fairly examined the account, and
from the losses and enormous expense of the three last years, were
convinced that the remedy was worse than the disease; that the beginning,
like the first years of Nero’s reign, would in all probability be found
the mildest part of the usurpation, and the instruments of the new
establishment live to suffer severely by the tyranny they had raised; that
even though the usurpation should continue during his life, an
indisputable title would survive in his issue, and expose the kingdom to
all the miseries of a civil war. He not only solicited but commanded his
good subjects to join him, according to their duty and the oaths they had
taken. He forbade them to pay taxes or any part of the revenue to the
usurper. He promised pardon, and even rewards, to all those who should
return to their duty, and to procure in his first parliament an act of
indemnity, with an exception of certain persons * whom he now enumerated.

* Those excepted were the duke of Ormond, the marquis of
Winchester, the earls of Sunderland, Bath, Danhy, and
Nottingham; the lords Newport, Delamere, Wiltshire,
Colchester, Cornhury, Dunblain, and Churchill; the bishops
of London and St. Asaph; sir Robert Howard, sir John Worden,
sir Samuel Grimstone, sir Stephen Fox, sir George Treby, sir
Basil Dixwell, sir James Oxenden; Dr. John Tillotson, Dr.
Gilbert Burnet; Francis Russel, Richard Lovison, John
Trenchard, Charles Duncomb, citizens of London; Edwards,
Stapleton, and Hunt, fishermen, and all others who had
offered personal indignities to him at Feyersham; or had
been concerned in the barbarous murder of John Ashton Cross,
or any other who had suffered death for their loyalty; and
all spies, or such as had betrayed his council during his
late absence from England.

He declared that all soldiers who should quit the service of the usurper
and enlist under his banners, might depend upon receiving their pardon and
arrears; and that the foreign troops, upon laying clown their arms, should
be paid and transported to their respective countries. He solemnly
protested that he would protect and maintain the church of England, as by
law established, in all her rights, privileges, and possessions: he
signified his resolution to use his influence with the parliament for
allowing liberty of conscience to all his subjects, as an indulgence
agreeable to the spirit of the christian religion, and conducive to the
wealth and prosperity of the nation. He said his principal care should be
to heal the wounds of the late distractions; to restore trade by observing
the act of navigation, which had been lately so much violated in favour of
strangers; to put the navy in a flourishing condition; and to take every
step that might contribute to the greatness of the monarchy and the
happiness of the people. He concluded with professions of resignation to
the Divine Will, declaring that all who should reject his offers of mercy,
and appear in arms against him, would be answerable to Almighty God for
all the blood that should be spilt, and all the miseries in which these
kingdoms might be involved by their desperate and unreasonable opposition.

While this declaration operated variously on the minds of the people,
colonel Parker, with some other officers, enlisted men privately for the
service of James, in the counties of York, Lancaster, and in the bishopric
of Durham: at the same time, Fountaine and Holeman were employed in
raising two regiments of horse at London, that they might join their
master immediately after his landing. His partisans sent captain Lloyd
with an express to lord Melfoot, containing a detail of these particulars,
with an assurance that they had brought over rear-admiral Carter to the
interest of his majesty. They likewise transmitted a list of the ships
that composed the English fleet, and exhorted James to use his influence
with the French king, that the count do Tourville might be ordered to
attack them before they should be joined by the Dutch squadron. It was in
consequence of this advice that Louis commanded Tourville to fall upon the
English fleet, even without waiting for the Toulon squadron commanded by
the marquis D’Etrees. By this time James had repaired to La Hogue, and was
ready to embark with his army, consisting of a body of French troops,
together with some English and Scotch refugees, and the regiments which
had been transported from Ireland by virtue of the capitulation of
Limerick.

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN BY THE QUEEN FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE NATION.

The ministry of England was informed of all these particulars, partly by
some agents of James who betrayed his cause, and partly by admiral Carter,
who gave the queen to understand he had been tampered with; and was
instructed to amuse the Jacobites with a negotiation. King William no
sooner arrived in Holland than he hastened the naval preparations of the
Dutch, so that their fleet was ready for sea sooner than was expected; and
when he received the first intimation of the projected descent, he
detached general Ptolemache with three of the English regiments from
Holland. These, reinforced with other troops remaining in England, were
ordered to encamp in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. The queen issued a
proclamation, commanding all papists to depart from London and
Westminster: the members of both houses of parliament were required to
meet on the twenty-fourth day of May, that she might avail herself of
their advice in such a perilous conjuncture. Warrants were expedited for
apprehending divers disaffected persons; and they withdrawing themselves
from their respective places of abode, a proclamation was published for
discovering and bringing them to justice. The earls of Scarsdale,
Litchfield, and Newburgh; the lords Griffin, Forbes, sir John Fenwick, sir
Theophilus Oglethorpe, and others, found means to elude the search. The
earls of Huntingdon and Marlborough were sent to the Tower; Edward Ridley,
Knevitt, Hastings, and Robert Ferguson, were imprisoned in Newgate. The
bishop of Rochester was confined to his own house; the lords Brudenal and
Fanshaw were secured; the earls of Dunmore, Middleton, and sir Andrew
Forrester, were discovered in a quaker’s house, and committed to prison
with several other persons of distinction. The trainbands of London and
Westminster were armed by the queen’s direction, and she reviewed them in
person: admiral Russell was ordered to put to sea with all possible
expedition; and Carter, with a squadron of eighteen sail, continued to
cruise along the French coast to observe the motions of the enemy.

ADMIRAL RUSSEL PUTS TO SEA.

On the eleventh day of May, Russel sailed from Rye to St. Helen’s, where
he was joined by the squadron under Delaval and Carter. There he received
a letter from the earl of Nottingham, intimating that a report having been
spread of the queen’s suspecting the fidelity of the sea-officers, her
majesty had ordered him to declare in her name that she reposed the most
entire confidence in their attachment, and believed the report was raised
by the enemies of the government. The flag-officers and captains forthwith
drew up a very loyal and dutiful address, which was graciously received by
the queen, and published for the satisfaction of the nation. Russel, being
reinforced by the Dutch squadrons commanded by Allemonde, Callemberg, and
Vandergoes, set sail for the coast of France on the eighteenth day of May,
with a fleet of ninety-nine ships of the line, besides frigates and
fire-ships. Next day, about three o’clock in the morning, he discovered
the enemy under the count de Tour-ville, and threw out the signal for the
line of battle, which by eight o’clock was formed in good order, the Dutch
in the van, the blue division in the rear, and the red in the centre. The
French fleet did not exceed sixty-three ships of the line, and as they
were to windward Tourville might have avoided an engagement; but he had
received a positive order to fight, on the supposition that the Dutch and
English squadrons had not joined. Louis indeed was apprised of their
junction before they were descried by his admiral, to whom he dispatched a
countermanding order by two several vessels; but one of them was taken by
the English, and the other did not arrive till the day after the
engagement.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

ENLARGE

HE OBTAINS A COMPLETE VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

Tourville therefore, in obedience to the first mandate, bore down
alongside of Russel’s own ship, which he engaged at a very small distance.
He fought with great fury till one o’clock, when his rigging and sails
being considerably damaged, his ship, the Rising-Sun, which carried one
hundred and four cannon, was towed out of the line in great disorder.
Nevertheless the engagement continued till three, when the fleets were
parted by a thick fog: when this abated, the enemy were descried flying to
the northward, and Russel made the signal for chasing. Part of the blue
squadron came up with the enemy about eight in the evening, and engaged
them half an hour, during which admiral Carter was mortally wounded.
Finding himself in extremity, he exhorted his captain to fight as long as
the ship could swim, and expired with great composure. At length the
French bore away for Conquet road, having lost four ships in this day’s
action. Next day, about eight in the morning, they were discovered
crowding away to the westward, and the combined fleets chased with all the
sail they could carry, until Russel’s foretopmast came by the board.
Though he was retarded by this accident, the fleet still continued the
pursuit, and anchored near Cape La Hogue. On the twenty-second of the
month, about seven in the morning, part of the French fleet was perceived
near the Race of Alderney, some at anchor, and some driving to the
eastward with the tide of flood. Russel and the ships nearest him
immediately slipped their cables and chased. The Rising Sun having lost
her masts, ran ashore near Cherbourg, where she was burned by sir Ralph
Delaval, together with the Admirable, another first-rate, and the
Conquérant of eighty guns. Eighteen other ships of their fleet ran into La
Hogue, where they were attacked by sir George Rooke, who destroyed them
and a great number of transports laden with ammunition, in the midst of a
terrible fire from the enemy, and in sight of the Irish camp. Sir John
Ashby, with his own squadron and some Dutch ships, pursued the rest of the
French fleet, which escaped through the Race of Alderney by such a
dangerous passage as the English could not attempt without exposing their
ships to the most imminent hazard. This was a very mortifying defeat to
the French king, who had been so long flattered with an uninterrupted
series of victories; it reduced James to the lowest ebb of despondence, as
it frustrated the whole scheme of his embarkation, and overwhelmed his
friends in England with grief and despair. Some historians allege that
Russel did not improve his victory with all advantages that might have
been obtained before the enemy recovered their consternation. They say his
affection to the service was in a great measure cooled by the disgrace of
his friend the earl of Marlborough; that he hated the earl of Nottingham,
by whose channel he received his orders; and that he adhered to the letter
rather than to the spirit of his instructions. But this is a malicious
imputation, and a very ungrateful return for his manifold services to the
nation. He acted in this whole expedition with the genuine spirit of a
British admiral. He plied from the Nore to the Downs with a very scanty
wind through the dangerous sands, contrary to the advice of all his
pilots; and by this bold passage effected a junction of the different
squadrons, which otherwise the French would have attacked singly and
perhaps defeated. He behaved with great gallantry during the engagement,
and destroyed about fifteen of the enemy’s capital ships; in a word, he
obtained such a decisive victory, that during the remaining part of the
war the French would not hazard another battle by sea with the English.

Russel having ordered Sir John Ashby and the Dutch admiral Callemberg to
steer towards Havre de Grace, and endeavour to destroy the remainder of
the French fleet, sailed back to St. Helen’s that the damaged ships might
be refitted, and the fleet furnished with fresh supplies of provisions and
ammunition; but his principal motive was to take on board a number of
troops provided for a descent upon France, which had been projected by
England and Holland, with a view to alarm and distract the enemy in their
own dominions. The queen was so pleased with the victory that she ordered
thirty thousand pounds to be distributed among the sailors. She caused
medals to be struck in honour of the action; and the bodies of admiral
Carter and captain Hastings, who had been killed in the battle, to be
interred with great funeral pomp. In the latter end of July seven thousand
men, commanded by the duke of Leinster, embarked on board transports to be
landed at St. Maloes, Brest, or Rochefort, and the nation conceived the
most sanguine hopes of this expedition. A council of war, consisting of
land and sea officers, being held on board the Breda to deliberate upon
the scheme of the ministry, the members unanimously agreed that the season
was too far advanced to put it in execution. Nevertheless, the admiral
having detached sir John Ashby with a squadron to intercept the remains of
the French fleet in their passage from St. Maloes to Brest, set sail for
La Hogue with the rest of the fleet and transports; but in a few days the
wind shifting, lie was obliged to return to St. Helen’s.

The queen immediately dispatched the marquis of Carmarthen, the earls of
Devonshire, Dorset, Nottingham, and Rochester, together with the lords
Sidney and Cornwallis, to consult with the admiral, who demonstrated the
impracticability of making an effectual descent upon the coast of France
at that season of the year. The design was therefore laid aside, and the
forces were transported to Flanders. The higher the hopes of the nation
had been raised by this armament, the deeper they felt their
disappointment. A loud clamour was raised against the ministry as the
authors of this miscarriage. The people complained that they were
plundered and abused; that immense sums were extorted from them by the
most grievous impositions; that, by the infamous expedient of borrowing
upon established funds, their taxes were perpetuated; that their burdens
would daily increase; that their treasure was either squandered away in
chimerical projects or expended in foreign connexions, of which England
was naturally independent. They were the more excusable for exclaiming in
this manner, as their trade had suffered grievously by the French
privateers which swarmed in the Channel. In vain the merchants had
recourse to the Admiralty, which could not spare particular convoys while
large fleets were required for the defence of the nation. The French king
having nothing further to apprehend from the English armament, withdrew
his troops from the coast of Normandy; and James returned in despair to
St. Germain’s, where his queen had been in his absence delivered of a
daughter, who was born in the presence of the archbishop of Paris, the
keeper of the seals, and other persons of distinction.

THE FRENCH TAKE NAMUR IN SIGHT OF KING WILLIAM.

Louis had taken the field in the latter end of May. On the twentieth day
of that month he arrived at his camp in Flanders with all the effeminate
pomp of an Asiatic emperor, attended by his women and parasites, his band
of music, his dancers, his opera, and, in a word, by all the ministers of
luxury and sensual pleasure. Having reviewed his army, which amounted to
about one hundred and twenty thousand men, he undertook the siege of
Namur, which he invested on both sides of the Sambre with about one-half
of his army, while the other covered the siege under the command of
Luxembourg. Namur is situated on the conflux of the Meuse and the Sambre.
The citadel was deemed one of the strongest forts in Flanders,
strengthened with a new work contrived by the famous engineer Coehorn, who
now defended it in person. The prince de Barbason commanded the garrison,
consisting of nine thousand men. The place was well supplied, and the
governor knew that king William would make strong efforts for its relief,
so that the besieged were animated with many concurring considerations.
Notwithstanding these advantages, the assailants carried on their attacks
with such vigour that in seven days after the trenches were opened, the
town capitulated and the garrison retired into the citadel. King William,
being joined by the troops of Brandenburgh and Liege, advanced to the
Mehaigne at the head of one hundred thousand effective men, and encamped
within cannon shot of Luxembourg’s army, which lay on the other side of
the river. That general however had taken such precautions, that the king
of England could not interrupt the siege nor attack the French lines
without great disadvantage. The besiegers, encouraged by the presence of
their monarch, and assisted by the superior abilities of Vau-ban their
engineer, repeated their attacks with such impetuosity that the fort of
Cohorn was surrendered after a very obstinate defence, in which he himself
had been dangerously wounded. The citadel being thus left exposed to the
approaches of the enemy, could not long withstand the violence of their
operations; the two covered ways were taken by assault. On the twentieth
of May the governor capitulated, to the unspeakable mortification of king
William, who saw himself obliged to lie inactive at the head of a powerful
army, and be an eye-witness of the loss of the most important fortress in
the Netherlands. Louis having taken possession of the place, returned in
triumph to Versailles, where he was flattered with all the arts of
adulation; while William’s reputation suffered a little from his
miscarriage, and the prince of Barbason incurred the suspicion of
treachery or misconduct.

THE ALLIES DEFEATED AT STEENKIRK.

Luxembourg having placed a strong garrison in Namur, detached Bounders
with a body of troops to La Bassiere, and with the rest of his army
encamped at Soignies. The king of England sent off detachments towards
Liege and Ghent; and on the sixth day of July posted himself at Genap,
resolved to seize the first opportunity of retrieving his honour by
attacking the enemy. Having received intelligence that the French general
was in motion and intended to take post between Steenkirk and Enghien, he
passed the river Senne in order to anticipate his purpose; but in spite of
all his diligence Luxembourg gained his point, and William encamped at
Lembecq, within six miles of the French army. Here he resolved in a
council of war to attack the enemy, and every disposition was made for
that purpose. The heavy baggage he ordered to be conveyed to the other
side of the Senne; and one Millevoix, a detected spy, was compelled by
menaces to mislead Luxembourg with false intelligence, importing that he
need not be alarmed at the motions of the allies, who intended the next
day to make a general forage. On the twenty-fourth day of July, the army
began to move from the left in two columns, as the ground would not admit
of their marching in an extended front. The prince of Wirtemberg began the
attack on the right of the enemy at the head of ten battalions of English,
Danish, and Dutch infantry; he was supported by a considerable body of
British horse and foot, commanded by lieutenant-general Mackay. Though the
ground was intersected by hedges, ditches, and narrow defiles, the prince
marched with such diligence that he was in a condition to begin the battle
about two in the afternoon, when he charged the French with such
impetuosity that they were driven* from their posts, and their whole camp
became a scene of tumult and confusion. Luxembourg, trusting to the
intelligence he had received, allowed himself to be surprised, and it
required the full exertion of his superior talents to remedy the
consequences of his neglect. He forthwith forgot a severe indisposition
under which he then laboured; he rallied his broken battalions; he drew up
his forces in order of battle, and led them to the charge in person. The
duke de Chartres, who was then in the fifteenth year of his age, the dukes
of Bourbon and Vendôme, the prince of Conti, and a great number of
volunteers of the first quality, put themselves at the head of the
household troops, and fell with great fury upon the English, who were very
ill supported by count Solmes, the officer who commanded the centre of the
allies. The prince of Wirtemberg had taken one of the enemies’ batteries,
and actually penetrated into their lines; but finding himself in danger of
being overpowered by numbers, he sent an aidecamp twice to demand succours
from Solmes, who derided his distress, saying, “Let us see what sport
these English bull-dogs will make.” At length, when the king sent an
express order commanding him to sustain the left wing, he made a motion
with his horse, which could not act while his infantry kept their ground,
and the British troops, with a few Dutch and Danes, bore the whole brunt
of the engagement. They fought with surprising courage and perseverance
against dreadful odds; and the event of the battle continued doubtful,
until Bouflîers joined the French army with a great body of dragoons. The
allies could not sustain the additional weight of this reinforcement,
before which they gave way, though the retreat was made in tolerable
order, and the enemy did not think proper to prosecute the advantage they
had gained. In this action the confederates lost the earl of Angus,
general Mackay, sir John Lanier, sir Robert Douglas, and many other
gallant officers, together with about three thousand men left dead on the
spot, the same number wounded or taken, a great many colours and
standards, and several pieces of cannon.

EXTRAVAGANT REJOICINGS IN FRANCE.

The French however reaped no solid advantage from this victory, which cost
them about three thousand men, including the prince of Turenne, the
marquis de Bellefond, Tilladet, and Fernacon, with many officers of
distinction: as for Millevoix the spy, he was hanged on a tree on the
right wing of the allied army. King William retired unmolested to his own
camp; and notwithstanding all his overthrows, continued a respectable
enemy, by dint of invincible fortitude and a genius fruitful in resources.
That he was formidable to the French nation, even in the midst of his ill
success, appears from divers undeniable testimonies, and from none more
than from the extravagance of joy expressed by the people of France on the
occasion of this unimportant victory. When the princes who served in the
battle returned to Paris, the roads through which they passed were almost
blocked up with multitudes; and the whole air resounded with acclamation.
All the ornaments of the fashion peculiar to both sexes adopted the name
of Steenkirk: every individual who had been personally engaged in the
action was revered as a being of a superior species, and the transports of
the women rose almost to a degree of frenzy.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE LIFE OF WILLIAM.

The French ministry did not entirely depend upon the fortune of the war
for the execution of their revenge against king William, They likewise
employed assassins to deprive him of life in the most treacherous manner.

When Louvois died, his son the marquis de Barbesieux, who succeeded him in
his office of secretary, found among his papers the draft of a scheme for
this purpose, and immediately revived the design by means of the chevalier
de Grandval, a captain of dragoons in the service. He and colonel Parker
engaged one Dumont, who undertook to assassinate king William. Madame de
Maintenon, and Paparel, paymaster to the French army, were privy to the
scheme, which they encouraged: the conspirators are said to have obtained
an audience of king James, who approved of their undertaking, and assured
them of his protection; but that unfortunate monarch was unjustly charged
with the guilt of countenancing the intended murder, as they communicated
nothing to him but an attempt to seize the person of the prince of Orange.
Dumont actually enlisted in the confederate army, that he might have the
better opportunity to shoot the king of England when he should ride out to
visit the linos, while Grandval and Parker repaired to the French camp,
with orders to Luxembourg to furnish them with a party of horse for the
rescue of Dumont, after the blow should be struck. Whether this man’s
heart failed him, or he could not find the opportunity he desired, after
having resided some weeks in the camp of the allies, he retired to
Hanover; but still corresponded with Grandval and Barbesieux. This last
admitted one Leofdale, a Dutch baron, into the secret, and likewise
imparted it to monsieur Chanlais, quarter-master general of the French
army, who animated Grandval and Leefdale with the promise of a
considerable reward, and promised to cooperate with Parker for bringing
off Dumont, for this assassin still persisted in his undertaking. Leefdale
had been sent from Holland on purpose to dive to the bottom of this
conspiracy, in consequence of advice given by the British envoy at
Hanover, where Dumont had dropped some hints that alarmed his suspicion.
The Dutchman not only insinuated himself into the confidence of the
conspirators, but likewise inveigled Grandval to Eyndhoven, where he was
apprehended. Understanding that Dumont had already discovered the design
to the duke of Zell, and that he himself had been betrayed by Leefdale, he
freely confessed all the particulars without enduring the torture; and,
being found guilty by a court-martial, was executed as a traitor.

About this period the duke of Leinster arrived at Ostend, with the troops
which had been embarked at St. Helen’s. He was furnished with cannon sent
down the Meuse from Maestricht, and reinforced by a large detachment from
the king’s camp at Gramont, under the command of general Ptolemache. He
took possession of Furnes, was joined by the earl of Portland and M.
d’Auverquerque, and a disposition was made for investing Dunkirk; but on
further deliberation the enterprise was thought very dangerous, and
therefore laid aside. Furnes and Dixmuyde, lately reduced by brigadier
Ramsay, were strengthened with new works, and secured by strong garrisons.
The cannon were sent back, and the troops returning to Ostend, re-embarked
for England. This fruitless expedition, added to the inglorious issue of
the campaign, increased the ill humour of the British nation. They taxed
William with having lain inactive at Gramont with an army of one hundred
thousand men, while Luxembourg was posted at Courtray with half that
number. They said, if he had found the French lines too strong to be
forced, he might have passed the Scheld higher up, and not only laid the
enemy’s conquests under contribution, but even marched into the bowels of
France; and they complained that Furnes and Dixmuyde were not worth the
sums expended in maintaining their garrisons. On the twenty-sixth day of
September king William left the army under the command of the elector of
Bavaria, and repaired to his house at Loo: in two days after his departure
the camp at Gramont was broke up; the infantry marched to Marienkerke, and
the horse; to Caure. On the sixteenth day of October, the king receiving
intelligence that Boufflers had invested Charleroy, and Luxembourg taken
post in the neighbourhood of Condé, ordered the troops to be instantly
reassembled between the village of Ixells and Halle, with design to raise
the siege, and repaired to Brussels, where he held a council of war, in
which the proper measures were concerted. He then returned to Holland,
leaving the command with the elector of Bavaria, who forthwith began his
march for Charleroy. At his approach Boufflers abandoned the siege, and
moved towards Philip-ville. The elector having reinforced the place, and
thrown supplies into Aeth, distributed his forces into winter-quarters.
Then Luxembourg, who had cantoned his army between Condé, Leuzet, and
Tournay, returned to Paris, leaving Boufflers to command in his absence.

THE CAMPAIGN INACTIVE ON THE RHINE AND IN HUNGARY.

The allies had been unsuccessful in Flanders, and they were not fortunate
in Germany. The landgrave of Hesse Cassol undertook the siege of
Eberemburgh, which, however, he was obliged to abandon. The duke de
Lorges, who commanded the French forces on the Rhine, surprised, defeated,
and took the duke of Wirtemberg, who had posted himself with four thousand
horse near Ridelsheim, to check the progress of the enemy. Count Tallard
having invested Rhinefield, the landgrave marched to its relief with such
expedition that the French wore obliged to desist and retreat with
considerable damage. The elector of Saxony had engaged to bring an army
into the field; but he complained that the emperor left the burden of the
war with France upon the princes, and converted his chief power and
attention to the campaign in Hungary. A jealousy and misunderstanding
ensued: Schoning the Saxon general, in his way to the hot baths at Dablitz
in Bohemia, was seized by the emperor’s order on suspicion of having
maintained a private correspondence with the enemy, and very warm
expostulations on this subject passed between the courts of Vienna and
Dresden. Schoning was detained two years in custody; and at length
released on condition that he should never be employed again in the
empire. The war in Hungary produced no event of importance. The ministry
of the Ottoman Porte was distracted by factions, and the seraglio
threatened with tumults. The people were tired of maintaining an
unsuccessful war; the vizier was deposed; and in the midst of this
confusion, the garrison of great Waradin, which had been blocked up by the
imperialists during the whole winter, surrendered on capitulation. Lord
Paget, the English ambassador at Vienna, was sent to Constantinople with
powers to mediate a peace; but the terms offered by the emperor were
rejected at the Porte: the Turkish army lay upon the defensive, and the
season was spent in a fruitless negotiation.

THE DUKE INVADES DAUPHINE.

The prospect of affairs in Piedmont was favourable for the allies; but the
court of France had brought the pope to an accommodation, and began to
tamper with the duke of Savoy. M. Chanlais was sent to Turin with
advantageous proposals, which however the duke would not accept, because
he thought himself entitled to better terms, considering that the allied
army in Piedmont amounted to fifty thousand effective men, while Catinat’s
forces were not sufficient to defend his conquests in that country. In the
month of July the duke marched into Dauphiné, where he plundered a number
of villages, and reduced the fortress of Guillestre; then passing the
river Darance, he invested Ambrun, which, after a siege of nine days,
surrendered on capitulation: he afterwards laid all the neighbouring J
towns under contribution. Here duke Schomberg, who commanded the
auxiliaries in the English pay, published a declaration in the name of
king William, inviting the people to join his standard, assuring them that
his master had no other design in ordering his troops to invade France,
but that of restoring the noblesse to their ancient splendour, their
parliaments to their former authority, and the people to their just
privileges. He even offered his protection to the clergy, and promised to
use his endeavours for reviving the edict of Nantes, which had been
guaranteed by the kings of England. These offers, however, produced little
effect; and the Germans ravaged the whole country in revenge for the
cruelties which the French had committed in the Palatinate. The allied
army advanced from Ambrun to Gap, on the frontiers of Provence, and this
place submitted without opposition. The inhabitants of Grenoble, the
capital of Dauphiné, and even of Lyons, were overwhelmed with
consternation; and a fairer opportunity of humbling France could never
occur, as that part of the kingdom had been left almost quite defenceless;
but this was fatally neglected, either from the spirit of dissension which
began to prevail in the allied army, or from the indisposition of the duke
of Savoy, who was seized with the small-pox in the midst of this
expedition; or, lastly, from his want of sincerity, which was shrewdly
suspected. He is said to have maintained a constant correspondence with
the court of Versailles, in complaisance to which he retarded the
operations of the confederates. Certain it is, he evacuated all his
conquests, and about the middle of September quitted the French
territories, after having pillaged and laid waste the country through
which he had penetrated.* In Catalonia the French attempted nothing of
importance during this campaign, and the Spaniards were wholly inactive in
that province.

* At this period queen Mary, understanding that the
protestant Vaudois were destitute of ministers to preach or
teach the gospel, established a fund from her own privy
purse to maintain ten preachers, and as many schoolmasters,
in the valleys of Piedmont.

THE DUKE OF HANOVER CREATED AN ELECTOR OF THE EMPIRE.

The protestant interest in Germany acquired an accession of strength by
the creation of a ninth electorate in favour of Ernest Augustus, duke of
Hanover. He had by this time renounced all his connexions with France, and
engaged to enter heartily into the interest of the allies, in
consideration of his obtaining the electoral dignity. King William exerted
himself so vigorously in his behalf at the court of Vienna, that the
emperor agreed to the proposal, in case the consent of the other electors
could be procured. This assent, however, was extorted by the importunities
of the king of England, whom he durst not disoblige. Leopold was blindly
bigotted to the religion of Rome, and consequently averse to a new
creation that would weaken the catholic interest in the electoral college.
He therefore employed his emissaries to thwart the duke’s measures. Some
protestant princes opposed him from motives of jealousy, and the French
king used all his artifice and influence to prevent the elevation of the
house of Hanover. When the duke had surmounted all this opposition, so far
as to gain over a majority of the electors, new objections were started.
The emperor suggested that another popish electorate should be created to
balance the advantage which the Lutherans would reap from that of Hanover;
and he proposed that Austria should be raised to the same dignity; but
violent opposition was made to this expedient, which would have vested the
emperor with a double vote in the electoral college. At length, after a
tedious negotiation, the duke of Hanover, on the nineteenth day of
December, was honoured with the investiture as elector of Brunswick;
created great marshal of the empire, and did homage to the emperor:
nevertheless, he was not yet admitted into the college, because he had not
been able to procure the unanimous consent of all the electors.*

* In the beginning of September the shock of an earthquake
was felt in London, and many other parts of England, as well
as in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Violent
agitations of the same kind had happened about two months
before in Sicily and Malta; and the town of Port-Royal in
Jamaica was almost totally ruined by the earthquake: the
place was so suddenly overflowed, that about fifteen hundred
persons perished.

CHAPTER IV.

False Information against the Earl of Marlborough, the
Bishop of Rochester, and others….. Sources of National
Discontent….. Dissension between the Queen and the
Prince’s Anne of Denmark….. The House of Lords vindicate
their Privileges in behalf of their imprisoned Members…..
The Commons present Addresses to The King and Queen…..
They acquit Admiral Russel, and resolve to advise his
Majesty….. They comply with all the Demands of the
Ministry….. The Lords present an Address of Advice to the
King….. The Dispute between the Lords and Commons
concerning Admiral Russel….. The Commons address the
King….. They establish the Land tax and other
Impositions….. Burnet’s Pastoral Letter burned by the
Hangman….. Proceedings of the Lower House against the
Practice of kidnapping Men for the Service….. The two
Houses address the King on the Grievances of Ireland …..
An Account of the Place-bill, and that for triennial
Parliaments….. The Commons petition his Majesty that he
would dissolve the East India Company….. Trial of Lord
Mohan for Murder….. Alterations in the Ministry….. The
king repairs to the Continent, and assembles the Confederate
Army in Flanders….. The French reduce Huy….. Luxembourg
resolves to attack the Allies….. who are defeated at
Landen….. Charleroy is besieged and taken by the
Enemy….. Campaign on the Rhine….. The Duke of Savoy is
defeated by Catinat in the Plain of Marsaglia…..
Transactions in Hungary and Catalonia….. Naval
Affairs….. A Fleet of Merchant Ships under Convoy of Sir
George Rooke attacked, and partly destroyed by the French
Squadrons ….. Wheeler’s Expedition to the West Indies…..
Benbow bombards St. Maloes….. The French King has recourse
to the Mediation of Denmark….. Severity of the Government
against the Jacobites….. Complaisance of the Scottish
Parliament….. The King returns to England, makes some
Changes in the Ministry, and opens the Session of
Parliament….. Both Houses inquire into the Miscarriages by
Sea….. The Commons grant a vast Sum for the Services of
the ensuing Year….. The King rejects the Bill against free
and impartial Proceedings in Parliament; and the Lower House
remonstrates on this Subject….. Establishment of the Bank
of England….. The East India Company obtain a now
Charter….. Bill for a general Naturalization dropped…..
Sir Francis Wheeler perishes in a Storm….. The English
attempt to make a Descent in Camaret Bay, but are repulsed
with Loss….. They bombard Dieppe, Havre-de-Grace, Dunkirk,
and Calais….. Admiral Russel sails for the Mediterranean,
relieves Barcelona, and winters at Cadiz….. Campaign in
Flanders….. The Allies reduce Huy….. The Prince of Baden
passes the Rhine, but is obliged to repass that River…..
Operations in Hungary….. Progress of the French in
Catalonia….. State of the War in Piedmont….. The King
returns to England….. The Parliament meets….. The Bill
for Triennial Parliaments receives the Royal Assent…..
Death of Archbishop Tillotson and of Queen Mary…..
Reconciliation between the King and the Princess of
Denmark.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

THE EARL OF MARLBOROUGH, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, &c, FALSELY ACCUSED.

While king William seemed wholly engrossed by the affairs of the
continent, England was distracted by domestic dissension, and overspread
with vice, corruption, and profaneness. Over and above the Jacobites,
there was a set of malcontents whose number daily increased. They not only
murmured at the grievances of the nation, but composed and published
elaborate dissertations upon the same subject. These made such impressions
upon the people, already irritated by heavy burdens, distressed in their
trade, and disappointed in their sanguine expectations, that the queen
thought it necessary to check the progress of those writers by issuing out
a proclamation offering a reward to such as would discover seditious
libellers. The earl of Marlborough had been committed to the Tower on the
information of one Robert Young, a prisoner in Newgate, who had forged
that nobleman’s hand-writing, and contrived the scheme of an association
in favour of king James, to which he affixed the names of the earls of
Marlborough and Salisbury, Sprat, bishop of Rochester, the lord Cornbury,
and sir Basil Firebrace. One of his emissaries had found means to conceal
this paper in a certain part of the bishop’s house at Bromley in Kent,
where it was found by the king’s messengers, who secured the prelate in
consequence of Young’s information. But he vindicated himself to the
satisfaction of the whole council; and the forgery of the informer was
detected by the confession of his accomplice. The bishop obtained his
release immediately and the earl of Marlborough was admitted to bail in
the court of king’s bench.

SOURCES OF NATIONAL DISCONTENT.

So many persons of character and distinction had been imprisoned during
this reign upon the slightest suspicion, that the discontented part of the
nation had some reason to insinuate they had only exchanged one tyrant for
another. They affirmed that the habeas-corpus act was either
insufficient to protect the subject from false imprisonment, or had been
shamefully misused. They expatiated upon the loss of ships, which had
lately fallen a prey to the enemy; the consumption of seamen; the neglect
of the fisheries; the interruption of commerce, in which the nation was
supplanted by her allies, as well as invaded by her enemies; the low ebb
of the kingdom’s treasure, exhausted in hiring foreign bottoms, and paying
foreign troops to fight foreign quarrels; and the slaughter of the best
and bravest of their countrymen, whose blood had been lavishly spilt in
support of connexions with which they ought to have had no concern. They
demonstrated the mischiefs that necessarily arose from the unsettled state
of the nation. They observed that the government could not be duly
established until a solemn declaration should confirm the legality of that
tenure by which their majesties possessed the throne; that the structure
of parliaments was deficient in point of solidity, as they existed
entirely at the pleasure of the crown, which would use them no longer than
they should be found necessary in raising supplies for the use of the
government. They exclaimed against the practice of quartering soldiers in
private houses contrary to the ancient laws of the land, the petition of
rights, and the subsequent act on that subject passed in the reign of the
second Charles. They enumerated among their grievances the violation of
property, by pressing transport ships into the service without settling
any fund of payment for the owners; the condition of the militia, which
was equally burdensome and useless; the flagrant partiality in favour of
allies, who carried on an open commerce with France, and supplied the
enemy with necessaries, while the English laboured under the severest
prohibitions, and were in effect the dupes of those very powers whom they
protected. They dwelt upon the ministry’s want of conduct, foresight, and
intelligence, and inveighed against their ignorance, insolence, and
neglect, which were as pernicious to the nation as if they had formed a
design of reducing it to the lowest ebb of disgrace and destruction. By
this time, indeed, public virtue was become the object of ridicule, and
the whole kingdom was overspread with immorality and corruption; towards
the increase of which many concurring circumstances happened to
contribute. The people were divided into three parties, namely, the
Williamites, the Jacobites, and the discontented Revolutioners; these
factions took all opportunities to thwart, to expose, and to ridicule the
measures and principles of each other, so that patriotism was laughed out
of doors as an hypocritical pretence. This contention established a belief
that every man consulted his own private interest at the expense of the
public, a belief that soon grew into a maxim almost universally adopted.
The practice of bribing a majority in parliament had a pernicious
influence upon the morals of all ranks of people, from the candidate to
the lowest borough elector. The expedient of establishing funds of credit
for raising supplies to defray the expenses of government, threw large
premiums and sums of money into the hands of low sordid usurers, brokers,
and jobbers, who distinguished themselves by the name of the monied
interest. Intoxicated by this flow of wealth, they affected to rival the
luxury and magnificence of their superiors; but being destitute of
sentiment and taste to conduct them in their new career, they ran into the
most absurd and illiberal extravagancies. They laid aside all decorum;
became lewd, insolent, intemperate, and riotous. Their example was caught
by the vulgar. All principle, and even decency, was gradually banished;
talent lay uncultivated, and the land was deluged with a tide of ignorance
and profligacy.

DISSENSION BETWEEN THE QUEEN AND PRINCESS ANNE.

King William having ascertained the winter quarters of the army, and
concerted the operations of the ensuing campaign with the states-general
and the ministers of the allies, set sail for England on the fifteenth day
of October; on the eighteenth landed at Yarmouth, was met by the queen at
Newhall, and passed through the city of London to Kensington amidst the
acclamations of the populace. He received a congratulatory address from
the lord-mayor and aldermen, with whom he dined in public by invitation. A
day of thanksgiving was appointed for the victory obtained at sea. The
lustring company was established by patent, and the parliament met on the
fourth day of November. The house of lords was deeply infected with
discontent, which in some measure proceeded from the dissension between
the queen and her sister, the princess of Denmark, which last underwent
every mortification which the court could inflict. Her guards were taken
away; all honours which had been paid to her rank by the magistrates of
Bath, where she sometimes resided, and even by the ministers of the church
where she attended at divine service, were discontinued by the express
order of his majesty. Her cause was naturally espoused by those noblemen
who had adhered to her in her former contest with the king about an
independent settlement; and these were now reinforced by all the friends
of the earl of Marlborough, united for a double tie; for they resented the
disgrace and confinement of that lord, and thought it their duty to
support the princess Anne under a persecution incurred by an attachment to
his countess. The earl of Shrewsbury lived in friendship with Marlborough,
and thought he had been ungratefully treated by the king; the marquis of
Halifax befriended him from opposition to the ministry; the earl of
Mulgrave for an opportunity to display his talents, and acquire that
consideration which he thought due to his merit. Devonshire, Montague, and
Bradford, joined in the same cause from principle; the same pretence was
used by the earls of Stamford, Monmouth, Warrington, and other whigs,
though in effect they were actuated by jealousy and resentment against
those by whom they had been supplanted. As for the Jacobites, they gladly
contributed their assistance to promote any scheme that had a tendency to
embroil the administration.

THE LORDS VINDICATE THEIR PRIVILEGES.

The king, in his speech to parliament, thanked them for their last
supplies, congratulated them upon the victory obtained at sea, condoled
them on the bad success of the campaign by land, magnified the power of
France, represented the necessity of maintaining a great force to oppose
it, and demanded subsidies equal to the occasion. He expressed his
reluctance to load them with additional burdens, which he said could not
be avoided, without exposing his kingdom to inevitable destruction. He
desired their advice towards lessening the inconveniences of exporting
money for the payment of the forces. He intimated a design of making a
descent upon France; declared he had no aim but to make his subjects a
happy people; and that he would again cheerfully expose his life for the
welfare of the nation. The lords, after an adjournment of three days,
began with great warmth to assert their privileges, which they conceived
had been violated in the cases of the earl of Marlborough and the other
noblemen who had been apprehended, committed to prison, and afterwards
admitted to bail by the court of king’s-bench. These circumstances being
fully discussed in a violent debate, the house ordered lord Lucas,
constable of the Tower, to produce the warrants of commitment, and the
clerk of the king’s-bench to deliver the affidavit of Aaron Smith, the
court solicitor, upon which the lords had been remanded to prison. At the
same time the whole affair was referred to a committee, empowered to send
for persons, papers, and records. The judges were ordered to attend: Aaron
Smith was examined touching the evidence against the committed lords. The
committee reported their general resolution, which produced a vehement
dispute. The opinion of the judges was unsatisfactory to both parties; the
debate was referred to a committee of the whole house, in which it was
resolved and declared, as the sense of that assembly, that in pursuance of
the habeas-corpus act, it was the duty of the judges and
gaol-delivery to discharge the prisoner on bail if committed for high
treason, unless it be made appear, upon oath, that there are two witnesses
against the said prisoner, who cannot be produced in that term, session,
or general gaol-delivery. They likewise resolved it was the intention of
the said statute, that in case there should be more than one prisoner to
be bailed or remanded, there must be oath made that there are two
witnesses against each prisoner, otherwise he cannot be remanded to
prison. These resolutions were entered in the books as standing directions
to all future-judges, yet not without great opposition from the court
members. The next debate turned upon the manner in which the imprisoned
lords should be set at liberty. The contest became so warm that the
courtiers began to be afraid, and proposed an expedient which was put in
practice. The house adjourned to the seventeenth day of the month, and at
its next meeting was given to understand that the king had discharged the
imprisoned noblemen. After another warm debate, a formal entry was made in
the journals, importing, That the house being informed of his majesty’s
having given directions for discharging the lords under bail in the
king’s-bench, the debate about that matter ceased. The resentment of the
peers being thus allayed, they proceeded to take his majesty’s speech into
consideration.

THE COMMONS PRESENT ADDRESSES TO THE KING AND QUEEN.

The commons having voted an address of thanks, and another, praying that
his majesty’s foreign alliances should be laid before them, determined on
a bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason. They passed a vote
of thanks to admiral Russel, his officers and seamen, for the victory they
had obtained, and then proceeded to an inquiry, Why that victory had not
been pursued? why the descent had not been made? and why the trade had not
been better protected from the enemy’s cruisers? The admiral having
justified his own conduct, they commanded the lords of the admiralty to
produce copies of all the letters and orders which had been sent to the
admiral; they ordered Russel to lay before them his answers; and the
commissioners of the transports, victuallers, and office of ordnance, to
deliver in an account of their proceedings. They then presented addresses
to the king and queen, acknowledging the favour of God in restoring him to
his people; congratulating him upon his deliverance from the snares of his
open and secret enemies; and assuring him they would, according to his
majesty’s desire in his most gracious speech, be always ready to advise
and assist him in the support of his government. The queen was thanked for
her gracious and prudent administration during his majesty’s absence; they
congratulated her on their signal deliverance from a bold and cruel design
formed for their destruction, as well as on the glorious victory which her
fleet had gained; and they assured her that the grateful sense they had of
their happiness under her government, should always be manifested in
constant returns of duty and obedience.

After this formal compliment, the house, instead of proceeding to the
supplies, insisted upon perusing the treaties, public accounts, and
estimates, that they might be in a condition to advise as well as to
assist his majesty. Being indulged with those papers, they passed a
previous vote that a supply should be given; then they began to concert
their articles of advice. Some of the members loudly complained of
partiality to foreign generals, and particularly reflected upon the
insolence of count Solmes, and his misconduct at Steenkirk. After some
warm altercation, the house resolved one article of their advice should
be, that his majesty would be pleased to fill up the vacancies that should
happen among the general officers, with such only as were natives of his
dominions, and that the commander-in-chief of the English should be an
Englishman. Their next resolution implied, that many of the great affairs
of the government having been for some time past unsuccessfully managed,
the house should advise his majesty to prevent such mischiefs for the
future, by employing men of knowledge, ability, and integrity. Individual
members inveighed bitterly against cabinet councils, as a novelty in the
British system of government by which the privy-council was jostled out of
its province. They complained that all the grievances of the nation
proceeded from the vicious principles of the ministry: they observed, that
he who opposed the establishment could not be expected to support it with
zeal. The earl of Nottingham was mentioned by name, and the house resolved
that his majesty should be advised to employ in his councils such persons
only whose principles obliged them to support his rights against the late
king, and all other pretenders. Marlborough’s interest still predominated
among the commons. His friend Russel acquitted himself to the satisfaction
of the house, and shifted the blame of the miscarriage upon his enemy the
earl of Nottingham, by declaring that twenty days elapsed between his
first letter to that nobleman and his lordship’s answer. The earl’s
friends, of whom there was a great number in the house, espoused his cause
with great vigour, and even recriminated upon Russel; so that a very
violent debate ensued. Both parties agreed that there had been
mismanagement in the scheme of a descent. It was moved, that one cause of
the miscarriage was the want of giving timely and necessary orders, by
those to whom the management of the affair was committed. The house
divided, and it was carried in the affirmative by one voice only. At the
next sitting of the committee, sir Richard Temple proposed they should
consider how to pay the forces abroad, by means of English manufactures,
without ex porting money. They resolved that the house should be moved to
appoint a committee to take this expedient into consideration. Sir Francis
Wilmington was immediately called upon to leave the chair, and the speaker
resumed his place. All that had been done was now void, as no report had
been made; and the committee was dissolved. The house however revived it,
and appointed a day for its sitting; but before it could resume its
deliberations, admiral Russel moved for its being adjourned, and all its
purposes were defeated.

The court agents had by this time interposed, and secured a majority by
the infamous arts of corruption. The commons no longer insisted upon their
points of advice. Their whole attention was now centered in the article of
assistance. They granted about two millions for the maintenance of
three-and-thirty thousand seamen, the building of some additional ships of
war, and the finishing of Plymouth dock; and seven hundred and fifty
thousand pounds to supply the deficiency of the quarterly poll. The
estimates of the land-service were not discussed without tedious debates
and warm disputes. The ministry demanded fifty-four thousand men, twenty
thousand of whom should be kept at home for the defence of the nation,
while the rest should serve abroad in the allied army. Many members
declared their aversion to a foreign war, in which the nation had no
immediate concern and so little prospect of success. Others agreed that
the allies should be assisted on the continent with a proportion of
British forces; but that the nation should act as an auxiliary, not as a
principal, and pay no more than what the people would cheerfully
contribute to the general expense. These reflections, however, produced no
other effect than that of prolonging the debate. Ministerial influence had
surmounted all opposition. The house voted the number of men demanded.
Such was their servile complaisance, that when they examined the treaties
by which the English and Dutch contracted equally with the German princes,
and found that, notwithstanding these treaties, Britain bore two-thirds of
the expense, they overlooked this flagrant instance of partiality, and
enabled the king to pay the proportion. Nay, their maxims were so much
altered, that, instead of prosecuting their resentment against foreign
generals, they assented to a motion that the prince of Wirtemberg, the
major-generals Tetteau and La Forest, who commanded the Danish troops in
the pay of the states-general, should be indulged with such an addition to
their appointments as would make up the difference between the pay of
England and that of Holland. Finally, they voted above two millions for
the subsistence of the land forces, and for defraying extraordinary
expenses attending the war upon the continent, including subsidies to the
electors of Saxony and Hanover.

THE LORDS PRESENT AN ADDRESS OF ADVICE TO THE KING.

The house of lords meanwhile was not free from animosity and contention.
The Marlborough faction exerted themselves with great vivacity. They
affirmed, it was the province of their house to advise the sovereign: like
the commons, they insisted upon the king’s having asked their advice
because he had mentioned that word in his speech, though he never dreamed
that they would catch at it with such eagerness. They moved, that the task
of digesting the articles of advice should be undertaken by a joint
committee of both houses; but all the dependents of the court, including
the whole bench of bishops, except Watson of St. David’s, were marshalled
to oppose this motion, which was rejected by a majority of twelve; and
this victory was followed with a protest of the vanquished.
Notwithstanding this defeat, they prosecuted their scheme of giving
advice; and after much wrangling and declamation, the house agreed in an
address of remonstrance, advising and beseeching his majesty, That the
commanding officer of the British forces should be an Englishman; that
English officers might take rank of those in the confederate armies, who
did not belong to crowned heads; that the twenty thousand men to be left
for the defence of the kingdom should be all English, and commanded by an
English general; that the practice of pressing men for the fleet should be
remedied; that such officers as were guilty of this practice should be
cashiered and punished; and, lastly, that no foreigners should sit at the
board of ordnance. This address was presented to the king, who received it
coldly, and said he would take it into consideration.

Then the lords resolved to inquire into the miscarriage of the purposed
descent, and called for all the papers relating to that affair; but the
aim of the majority was not so much to rectify the errors of the
government, as to screen Nottingham, and censure Russel. That nobleman
produced his own book of entries, together with the whole correspondence
between him and the admiral, whom he verbally charged with having
contributed to the miscarriage of the expedition. This affair was referred
to a committee. Sir John Ashby was examined. The house directed the earl
to draw up the substance of his charge; and these papers were afterwards
delivered to a committee of the commons, at a conference by the
lord-president, and the rest of the committee above. They were offered for
the inspection of the commons, as they concerned some members of that
house, by whom they might be informed more fully of the particulars they
contained. At another conference which the commons demanded, their
committee declared, in the name of the house, That they had read and well
considered the papers which their lordships had sent them, and which they
now returned: that finding Mr. Russel, one of their members, often
mentioned in the said papers, they had unanimously resolved, that admiral
Russel, in his command of the fleets during the last summer’s expedition,
had behaved with fidelity, courage, and conduct. The lords irritated at
this declaration, and disappointed in their resentment against Russel,
desired a free conference between the committees of both houses. The earl
of Rochester told the commons, he was commanded by the house of lords to
inform them that their lordships looked upon the late vote and proceeding
of the lower house, in returning their papers, to be irregular and
unparliamentary, as they had not communicated to their lordships the
lights they had received, and the reason upon which their vote was
founded. A paper to the same purport was delivered to colonel Granville,
who promised to present it to the commons, and make a faithful report of
what his lordship had said. Thus the conference ended, and the inquiry was
discontinued.

THE COMMONS ADDRESS THE KINO.

The lower house seemed to be as much exasperated against the earl of
Nottingham as the lords were incensed at Russel. A motion was made that
his majesty should be advised to appoint such commissioners of the board
of admiralty as were of known experience in maritime affairs. Although
this was overruled, they voted an address to the king, praying, that for
the future, all orders for the engagement of the fleet might pass through
the hands of the said commissioners; a protest by implication against the
conduct of the secretary. The consideration of ways and means was the next
object that engrossed the attention of the lower house. They resolved that
a rate of four shillings in the pound, for one year, should be charged
upon all lands according to their yearly value; as also upon all personal
estates, and upon all offices and employments of profit, other than
military offices in the army and navy. The act founded on this resolution
empowered the king to borrow money on the credit of it, at seven per cent.
They further enabled him to raise one million on the general credit of the
exchequer, by granting annuities. They laid several new duties on a
variety of imports. They renewed the last quarterly poll, providing that
in case it should not produce three hundred thousand pounds, the
deficiencies might be made up by borrowing on the general credit of the
exchequer. They continued the impositions on wine, vinegar, tobacco, and
sugar, for five years; and those on East-India goods for four years. They
laid a new imposition of eight per cent, on the capital stock of the
East-India company, estimated at seven hundred and forty-four thousand
pounds; of one per cent, on the African; of five pounds on every share of
the stock belonging to the Hudson’s Bay company; and they empowered his
majesty to borrow five hundred thousand pounds on these funds, which were
expressly established for maintaining the war with vigour.*

* The French king hearing how liberally William was
supplied, exclaimed, with some emotion, “My little cousin
the prince of Orange is fixed in the saddle—but, no matter,
the last Louis d’or must carry it.”

BURNET’S PASTORAL LETTER BURNED.

The money-bills were retarded in the upper house by the arts of Halifax,
Mulgrave, and other malcontents. They grafted a clause on the land-tax
bill, importing, that the lords should tax themselves. It was adopted by
the majority, and the bill sent with this amendment to the commons, by
whom it was unanimously rejected as a flagrant attempt upon their
privileges. They demanded a conference, in which they declared that the
clause in question was a notorious encroachment upon the right the commons
possessed, of regulating all matters relating to supplies granted by
parliament. When this report was debated in the house of lords, the earl
of Mulgrave displayed uncommon powers of eloquence and argument, in
persuading the house, that, by yielding to this claim of the commons, they
would divest themselves of their true greatness, and nothing would remain
but the name and shadow of a peer, which was but a pageant.
Notwithstanding all his oratory, the lords relinquished their clause,
declaring, at the same time, that they had agreed to pass the bill without
alteration, merely in regard to the present urgent state of affairs, as
being otherwise of opinion that they had a right to insist upon their
clause. A formal complaint being made in the house of commons against the
pamphlet entitled, “King William and Queen Mary Conquerors,” as containing
assertions of dangerous consequence to their majesties, to the liberty of
the subject, and the peace of the kingdom, the licenser and printer were
taken into custody. The book being examined, resolved that it should be
burned by the hands of the common hangman, and that the king should be
moved to dismiss the licenser from his employment. The same sentence they
pronounced upon a pastoral letter of bishop Burnet, in which this notion
of conquest had been at first asserted. The lords, in order to manifest
their sentiments on the same subject, resolved, That such an assertion was
highly injurious to their majesties, inconsistent with the principles on
which the government was founded, and tending to the subversion of the
rights of the people. Bohun the licenser was brought to the bar of the
house, and discharged upon his own petition, after having been reprimanded
on his knees by the speaker.

Several members having complained that their servants had been kidnapped
and sent to serve as soldiers in Flanders, the house appointed a committee
to inquire into the abuses committed by press-masters; and a suitable
remonstrance was presented to the king, who expressed his indignation at
this practice, and assured the house that the delinquents should be
brought to exemplary punishment. Understanding however in the sequel, that
the methods taken by his majesty for preventing this abuse had not proved,
effectual, they resumed their inquiry, and proceeded with, uncommon vigour
on the information they received. A great number of persons who had been
pressed were discharged by order of the house; and captain Winter, the
chief undertaker for this method of recruiting the army, was carried by
the sergeant before the lord chief justice, that he might be prosecuted
according to law.

THE TWO HOUSES ADDRESS THE KING.

Before the heats occasioned by this unpopular expedient were allayed, the
discontent of the nation was further inflamed by complaints from Ireland,
where lord Sidney was said to rule with despotic authority. These
complaints were exhibited by sir Francis Brewster, sir William Gore, sir
John Macgill, lieutenant Stafford, Mr. Stone, and Mr. Kerne. They were
examined at the bar of the house, and delivered an account of their
grievances in writing. Both houses concurred in this inquiry; which, being
finished, they severally presented addresses to the king. The lords
observed, That there had been great abuses in disposing of the forfeited
estates; that protections had been granted to the Irish not included in
the articles of Limerick; so that protestants were deprived of the benefit
of the law against them; that the quarters of the army had not been paid
according to the provision made by parliament; that a mayor had been
imposed upon the city of Dublin for two years successively, contrary to
the ancient privileges and charter; that several persons accused of murder
had been executed without proof; and one Sweetman, the most guilty,
discharged without prosecution. The commons spoke more freely in their
address; they roundly explained the abuses and mismanagement of that
government, by exposing the protestant subjects to the free quarter and
violence of a licentious army; by recruiting the troops with Irish papists
who had been in open rebellion against his majesty; by granting
protections to Irish Roman-catholics, whereby the course of the law was
stopped; by reversing outlawries for high treason not comprehended in the
articles of Limerick; by letting the forfeited estates at undervalue, to
the prejudice of his majesty’s revenue; by embezzling the stores left in
the towns and garrisons by the late king James, as well as the effects
belonging to the forfeited estates, which might have been employed for the
better preservation of the kingdom; and, finally, by making additions to
the articles of Limerick after the capitulation was signed and the place
surrendered. They most humbly besought his majesty to redress these
abuses, which had greatly encouraged the papists, and weakened the
protestant interest in Ireland. The king graciously received both
addresses, and promised to pay a particular regard to all remonstrances
that should come from either house of parliament; but no material step was
taken against the lords Sidney, Athlone, and Coningsby, who appeared to
have engrossed great part of the forfeitures by grants from the crown; and
even commissioner Culliford, who had been guilty of the most grievous acts
of oppression, escaped with impunity.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

ACCOUNT OF THE PLACE AND TRIENNIAL PARLIAMENT BILLS.

The old whig principle was not yet wholly expelled from the lower house.
The undue influence of the court was exerted in such an open scandalous
manner, as gave offence to the majority of the commons. In the midst of
all their condescension, sir Edward Hussey, member for Lincoln, brought in
a bill touching free and impartial proceedings in parliament. It was
intended to disable all members of parliament from enjoying places of
trust and profit, and particularly levelled against the officers of the
army and navy, who had insinuated themselves into the house in such
numbers, that this was commonly called the officers’ parliament. The bill
passed the house of commons, and was sent up to the lords, by whom it was
read a second time and committed; but the ministry employing their whole
strength against it, on the report it was thrown out by a majority of two
voices. The earl of Mulgrave again distinguished himself by his elocution,
in a speech that was held in great veneration by the people; and, among
those who entered a protest in the journals of the house when the majority
rejected the bill, was prince George of Denmark, duke of Cumberland. The
court had not collected themselves from the consternation produced by such
a vigorous opposition, when the earl of Shrewsbury produced another bill
for triennial parliaments, providing that there should be an annual
session; that if, at the expiration of three years, the crown should not
order the writs to be issued, the lord chancellor, or keeper, or
commissioner of the great seal, should issue them ex officio, and
by authority of this act, under severe penalties. The immediate object of
this bill was the dissolution of the present parliament, which had already
sat three sessions, and began to be formidable to the people from its
concessions to the ministry. The benefits that would accrue to the
constitution from the establishment of triennial parliaments were very
well understood, as these points had been frequently discussed in former
reigns. The courtiers now objected, that frequent elections would render
the free-holders proud and insolent, encourage faction among the electors,
and entail a continual expense upon the member, as he would find himself
obliged, during the whole time of the sitting, to behave like a candidate,
conscious how soon the time of election would revolve. In spite of the
ministerial interest in the upper house, the bill passed, and contained a
proviso that the present parliament should not continue any longer than
the month of January next ensuing. The court renewed its efforts against
it in the house of commons, where nevertheless it was carried, with some
alterations which the lords approved. But all these endeavours were
frustrated by the prerogative of the king, who, by refusing his assent,
prevented its being enacted into a law.

It was at the instigation of the ministry that the commons brought in a
bill for continuing and explaining certain temporary laws then expiring or
expired. Among these was an act for restraining the liberty of the press,
which owed its original to the reign of Charles II., and had been revived
in the first year of the succeeding reign. The bill passed the lower house
without difficulty, but met with warm opposition in the house of lords; a
good number of whom protested against it, as a law that subjected all
learning and true information to the arbitrary will of a mercenary, and
perhaps ignorant licenser, destroyed the properties of authors, and
extended the evil of monopolies. The bill for regulating trials was
dropped, and, in lieu of it, another produced for the preservation of
their majesties’ sacred persons and government; but this too was rejected
by the majority in consequence of the ministry’s secret management. The
East India company narrowly escaped dissolution. Petitions and
counter-petitions were delivered into the house of commons; the
pretensions on both sides were carefully examined; a committee of the
whole house resolved, that there should be a new subscription of a joint
stock, not exceeding two millions five hundred thousand pounds, to
continue for one-and-twenty years. The report was made and received, and
the public expected to see the affair brought to a speedy issue; but the
company had recourse to the same expedients which had lately proved so
successful in the hands of the ministry. Those who had been the most warm
in detecting their abuses suddenly cooled; and the prosecution of the
affair began to languish. Not but that the house presented an address to
his majesty, praying that he would dissolve the company upon three years’
warning, according to the condition of their charter. He told them he
would consider their address, and they did not further urge their
remonstrance. The bill for ascertaining the commissions and salaries of
the judges, to which the king had refused the royal assent in the last
session, was revived, twice read, and rejected; and another for preventing
the exportation and melting of the coin, they suffered to lie neglected on
the table. On the fourteenth day of March the king put an end to the
session, after having thanked the parliament for so great testimonies of
their affection, and promised the supplies should not be misapplied. He
observed that the posture of affairs called him abroad, but that he would
leave a sufficient number of troops for the security of the kingdom; he
assured them he would expose his person upon all occasions for the
advantage of these kingdoms; and use his utmost endeavours to make them a
flourishing nation. 046 [See note I, at the end of this Vol.]

TRIAL OF LORD MOHUN—ALTERATIONS IN THE MINISTRY.

During the course of this session, lord Mohun was indicted and tried by
the peers in Westminster-hall, as an accomplice in the murder of one
Montford a celebrated comedian, the marquis of Carmarthen acting as
lord-steward upon this occasion. The judges having been consulted, the
peers proceeded to give their judgments seriatim, and Mohun was
acquitted by a great majority. The king, who from his first accession to
the throne had endeavoured to trim the balance between the whigs and
tories, by mingling them together in his ministry, made some alterations
at this period that savoured of the same policy. The great seal, with the
title of lord keeper, was bestowed upon sir John Somers, who was well
skilled in the law, and in many other branches of polite and useful
literature. He possessed a remarkable talent for business, in which he
exerted great patience and assiduity; was gentle, candid, and equitable; a
whig in principles, yet moderate, pacific, and conciliating. Of the same
temper was sir John Trenchard, now appointed secretary of state. He had
been concerned with the duke of Monmouth, and escaped to the continent,
where he lived some years; was calm, sedate, well acquainted with foreign
affairs, and considered as a leading man in his party. These two are said
to have been promoted at the recommendation of the earl of Sunderland, who
had by this time insinuated himself into the king’s favour and confidence;
though his success confirmed the opinion which many entertained of his
having betrayed his old master. The leaders of the opposition were sir
Edward Seymour, again become a malcontent, and sir Christopher Mus-grave,
a gentleman of Cumberland, who though an extravagant tory from principle,
had refused to concur with all the designs of the late king. He was a
person of a grave and regular deportment, who had rejected many offers of
the ministry, which he opposed with great violence; yet on some critical
occasions his patriotism gave way to his avarice, and he yielded up some
important points in consideration of large sums which he received from the
court in secret. Others declared war against the administration, because
they thought their own talents were not sufficiently considered. Of these
the chief were Paul Foley and Robert Harley. The first was a lawyer of
good capacity, extensive learning, and virtuous principles; but peevish,
obstinate, and morose. He entertained a very despicable opinion of the
court; and this he propagated with equal assiduity and success. Harley
possessed a good fund of learning; was capable of uncommon application,
particularly turned to politics. He knew the forms of parliament, had a
peculiar dexterity at protracting and perplexing debates; and cherished
the most aspiring ambition. Admiral Russel was created treasurer of the
household; but the command of the fleet was vested in the hands of
Killigrew, Délavai, and Shovel. Sir George Rooke was declared vice-admiral
of the red, and John lord Berkeley of the blue division; their
rear-admirals were Matthew Aylmer and David Mitchel.

THE KING ASSEMBLES THE CONFEDERATE ARMY IN FLANDERS.

The king having visited the fleet and fortifications at Portsmouth, given
instructions for annoying the enemy by sea, and left the administration in
the hands of the queen, embarked on the last day of March, near Gravesend,
and arrived in Holland on the third of April. The troops of the
confederates were forthwith ordered to assemble: but while he was employed
in making preparations for the campaign, the French king actually took the
field, attended by madame de Maintenon, and all the court ladies. His
design was supposed to be upon some town in Brabant: his army amounted to
one hundred and twenty thousand men, completely armed, and abundantly
supplied with all necessaries for every sort of military operation. King
William immediately took possession of the strong camp at Parke near
Lou-vain, a situation which enabled him to cover the places that were most
exposed. Understanding that the French emissaries had sown the seeds of
dissension between the bishop and chapter of Liege, he sent the duke of
Wirtemberg thither, to reconcile the different parties, and concert
measures for the further security of the place. He reinforced the garrison
with nine battalions; and the elector palatine lay with his troops in
readiness to march to its relief. William likewise threw reinforcements
into Maestricht, Huy, and Char-leroy; and he himself resolved to remain on
the defensive, at the head of sixty thousand men, with a numerous train of
artillery.

THE FRENCH REDUCE HUY.

Louis having reviewed his army at Gemblours, and seen his designs upon
Brabant defeated by the diligence of his antagonist, detached Boufflers
with twenty thousand men to the Upper Rhine to join the dauphin, who
commanded in that quarter; then leaving the conduct of his forces in the
Netherlands to the duke de Luxembourg, he returned with his court to
Versailles. Immediately after his departure, Luxembourg fixed his
head-quarters at Mildert; and king William strengthened his camp on that
side with ten battalions and eight-and-twenty pieces of cannon. The
enemy’s convoys were frequently surprised by detachments from the garrison
of Charleroy; and a large body of horse, foot, and dragoons, being drafted
out of Liege and Maestricht, took post at Huy, under the command of the
count de Tilly, so as to straiten the French in their quarters. These
however were dislodged by Luxembourg in person, who obliged the count to
pass the Jaar with precipitation, leaving behind three squadrons and all
his baggage, which fell into the hands of the enemy. This check however
was balanced by the success of the duke of Wirtemberg, who, at the head of
thirteen battalions of infantry and twenty squadrons of horse, forced the
French lines between the Scheldt and the Lys, and laid the whole country
as far as Lisle under contribution. On that very day, which was the
eighteenth of July, Luxembourg marched towards Huy, which was next morning
invested by M. de Villeroy. The other covered the siege, and secured
himself from the allies by lines of contravallation. Before their
batteries began to play, the town capitulated. On the twenty-third day of
the month the garrison mutined, the castles were surrendered, the governor
remained a prisoner, and his men were conducted to Liege. The confederate
army advanced in order to relieve the town; but the king being apprised of
its fate, detached ten battalions to reinforce the garrison of Liege, and
next day returned to Neer-Hespen.

THE DUKE OF LUXEMBOURG RESOLVES TO ATTACK THE ALLIES.

Luxembourg made a motion towards Liege as if he had intended to besiege
the place; and encamped at Hellecheim, about seven leagues from the
confederates. Knowing how much they were weakened by the different
detachments which had been made from their army, he resolved to attack
them in their camp, or at least fall upon their rear should they retreat
at his approach. On the twenty-eighth day of July he began his march in
four columns, and passed the Jaar near its source, with an army superior
to the allies by five-and-thirty thousand men. The king of England at
first looked upon this motion as a feint to cover the design upon Liege;
but receiving intelligence that their whole army was in full march to
attack him in his camp, he resolved to keep his ground, and immediately
drew up his forces in order of battle. His general officers advised him to
repass the Geete; but he chose to risk a battle, rather than expose the
rear of his army in repassing that river. His right wing extended as far
as Neer-Winden, along the Geete, covered with hedges, hollow ways, and a
small rivulet; the left reached to Neer-Landen; and these two villages
were joined by a slight intrenchment which the king ordered to be thrown
up in the evening. Brigadier Ramsay, with the regiments of O’Farrel,
Mackay, Lauder, Leven and Monroe, were ordered to the right of the whole
army, to line some hedges and hollow ways on the farther side of the
village of Lare. Six battalions of Brandenburgh were posted to the left of
this village; and general Dumont, with the Hanoverian infantry, possessed
the village of Neer-Winden, which covered part of the camp, between the
main body and the right wing of the cavalry. Neer-Landen, on the left, was
secured by six battalions of English, Danes, and Dutch. The remaining
infantry was drawn up in one line behind the intrenchment. The dragoons
upon the left guarded the village of Donnai upon the brook of Beck, and
from thence the left wing of horse extended to Neer-Landen, where it was
covered by this rivulet.

The king having visited all the posts on horseback, and given the
necessary orders, reposed himself about two hours in his coach; and early
in the morning sent for his chaplain, whom he joined in prayer with great
devotion. At sun-rising the enemy appeared drawn up in order of battle;
and the allies began to play their cannon with good success. About eight
in the morning they attacked the villages of Lare and Neer-Winden with
great fury; and twice made themselves masters of these posts, from whence
they were as often repulsed.

The allies still kept their ground; and the duke of Berwick was taken by
his uncle brigadier Churchill. Then the French made an attack upon the
left wing of the confederates at Neer-Landen; and after a very obstinate
dispute, were obliged to give way, though they still kept possession of
the avenues. The prince of Conti, however, renewed the charge with the
flower of the French infantry; and the confederates being overpowered,
retreated from the village, leaving the camp in that part exposed.
Villeroy marching this way with a body of horse, was encountered and
repulsed by the count D’Arco, general of the Bavarian cuirassiers; and the
duke de Chartres narrowly escaped being taken. Meanwhile Luxembourg, the
prince of Conti, the count de Marsin, and the marshal de Joyeuse, charged
on the right, and in different parts of the line with such impetuosity as
surmounted all resistance. The camp of the confederates was immediately
filled with French troops: the villages of Lare and Neer-Winden were taken
after a long and desperate dispute. The Hanoverian and Dutch horse being
broken, the king in person brought the English cavalry to their
assistance. They fought with great gallantry; and for some time retarded
the fate of the day. The infantry were rallied, and stood firm until all
their ammunition was expended. In a word, they were scarce able to sustain
the weight of such a superiority in point of number, when the marquis
D’Harcourt joined the enemy from Huy, with two-and-twenty fresh squadrons,
which immediately turned the scale in their favour. The elector of
Bavaria, after having made extraordinary efforts, retreated with great
difficulty over the bridge to the other side of the river, where he
rallied the troops in order to favour the retreat of those who had not
passed. The king seeing the battle lost, and the whole army in confusion,
retired with the infantry to Dormul on the brook of Beck, where the
dragoons of the left wing were posted, and then ordered the regiments of
Wyndham, Lumley, and Calway, to cover his retreat over the bridge at
Neer-Hespen, which he effected with great difficulty. Now all was tumult,
rout, and consternation; and a great number of the fugitives threw
themselves into the river, where they were drowned. This had like to have
been the fate of the brave earl of Athlone; the duke of Ormond was wounded
in several places, and taken prisoner by the enemy; and the count de
Solmes was mortally wounded. Ptolemache brought off the greater part of
the English infantry with great gallantry and conduct; as for the baggage,
it had been sent to Liege before the engagement; but the confederates lost
sixty pieces of cannon, and nine mortars, a great number of standards and
colours,* with about seven thousand men killed and wounded in the action.
It must be owned that the allies fought with great valour and
perseverance; and that king William made prodigious efforts of courage and
activity to retrieve the fortune of the day. He was present in all parts
of the battle; he charged in person both on horseback and on foot, where
the danger was most imminent. His peruke, the sleeve of his coat, and the
knot of his scarf, were penetrated by three different musket bullets; and
he saw a great number of soldiers fall on every side of him. The enemy
bore witness to his extraordinary valour. The prince of Conti, in a letter
to his princess which was intercepted, declared that he saw the prince of
Orange exposing himself to the greatest dangers; and that such valour
richly deserved the peaceable possession of the crown he wore. Yet here,
as in every other battle he fought, his conduct and disposition were
severely censured. Luxembourg having observed the nature of his situation
immediately before the engagement, is said to have exclaimed, “Now I
believe Waldeck is really dead;” alluding to that general’s known sagacity
in choosing ground for an encampment. Be that as it will, he paid dear for
his victory. His loss in officers and men exceeded that of the allies; and
he reaped no solid advantage from the battle. He remained fifteen days
inactive at Waren, while king William recalled the duke of Wirtemberg, and
drafting troops from Liege and other garrisons, was in a few days able to
hazard another engagement.

* The duke of Luxembourg sent such a number of standards and
ensigns to Paris during the course of this war, that the
prince of Conti called him the Upholsterer of Notre Dame, a
church in which those trophies were displayed.

CHARLEBOY TAKEN BY THE ENEMY.

Nothing remarkable happened during the remaining part of the Campaign,
until Luxembourg, being rejoined by Boufflers with a strong reinforcement
from the Rhine, invested Charleroy. He had taken his measures with such
caution and dexterity, that the allies could not frustrate his operations,
without attacking his lines at a great disadvantage. The king detached the
elector of Bavaria and the duke of Wirtemberg, with thirty battalions and
forty squadrons, to make a diversion in Flanders; but they returned in a
few days without having attempted any thing of consequence. The garrison
of Charleroy defended the place with surprising valour, from the tenth of
September to the eleventh of October, during which period they had
repulsed the assailants in several attacks; but at length despairing of
relief, the governor capitulated on the most honourable conditions: the
reduction of the place was celebrated with a Te Deum, and other
rejoicings at Paris. Louis however, in the midst of all his glory, was
extremely mortified when he reflected what little advantage he had reaped
from all his late victories. The allies had been defeated successively at
Fleurus, Steenkirk, and Landen; yet in a fortnight after each of those
battles William was always in a condition to risk another engagement.
Formerly Louis had conquered half of Holland, Flanders, and Franche-Comté,
without a battle; whereas, now he could not with his utmost efforts, and
after the most signal victories, pass the frontiers of the United
Provinces. The conquest of Charleroy concluded the campaign in the
Netherlands, and both armies went into winter-quarters.

CAMPAIGN ON THE RHINE.

The French army on the Rhine, under De Lorges, passed that river in the
month of May at Philipsburgh, and invested the city of Heidelberg, which
they took, plundered, and reduced to ashes. This general committed
numberless barbarities in the Palatinate, which he ravaged without even
sparing the tombs of the dead. The French soldiers on this occasion seem
to have been actuated by the most brutal inhumanity. They butchered the
inhabitants, violated the women, plundered the houses, rifled the
churches, and murdered the priests at the altar. They broke open the
electoral vault, and scattered the ashes of that illustrious family about
the streets. They set fire to different quarters of the city; they
stripped about fifteen thousand of the inhabitants, without distinction of
age or sex, and drove them naked into the castle, that the garrison might
be the sooner induced to capitulate. There they remained like cattle in
the open air, without food or covering, tortured between the horrors of
their fete and the terrors of a bombardment. When they were set at
liberty, in consequence of the fort’s being surrendered, a great number of
them died along the banks of the Neckar, from cold, hunger, anguish, and
despair. These enormous cruelties, which would have disgraced the arms of
a Tartarian freebooter, were acted by the express command of Louis XIV. of
France, who has been celebrated by so many venal pens, not only as the
greatest monarch, but also as the most polished prince of Christendom. De
Lorges advanced towards the Neckar against the prince of Baden, who lay
encamped on the other side of the river; but in attempting to pass, he was
twice repulsed with considerable damage. The dauphin joining the army,
which now amounted to seventy thousand men, crossed without opposition;
but found the Germans so advantageously posted, that he would not hazard
an attack; having therefore repassed the river, he secured Stutgard with a
garrison, sent detachments into Flanders and Piedmont, and returned in
August to Versailles. In Piedmont the allies were still more unfortunate.
The duke of Savoy and his confederates seemed bent upon driving the French
from Casal and Pignerol. The first of these places was blocked up, and the
other actually invested. The fort of St. Bridget that covered the place
was taken, and the town bombarded. Meanwhile Catinat being reinforced,
descended into the plains. The duke was so apprehensive of Turin that he
abandoned the siege of Pignerol, after having blown up the fort, and
marched in quest of the enemy to the plain of Mar-saglia, in the
neighbourhood of his capital. On the fourth day of October, the French
advanced upon them from the hills between Orbasson and Prosasque, and a
desperate engagement ensued. The enemy charged the left wing of the
confederates sword in hand with incredible fury; though they were once
repulsed, they renewed the attack with such impetuosity that the
Neapolitan and Milanese horse were obliged to give way, and disordered the
German cavalry. These falling upon the foot, threw the whole wing into
confusion. Meanwhile the main body and the other wing sustained the charge
without flinching, until they were exposed in flank by the defeat of the
cavalry; then the whole front gave way. In vain the second line was
brought up to sustain them; the horse turned their backs, and the infantry
was totally routed. In a word, the confederates were obliged to retire
with precipitation, leaving their cannon and about eight thousand men
killed or wounded on the field of battle. The duke of Schomberg having
been denied the post which was his due, insisted upon fighting at the head
of the troops maintained by the king of Great Britain, who were posted in
the centre, and behaved with great gallantry under the eye of their
commander. When the left wing was defeated, the count de los Torres
desired he would take upon him the command, and retreat with the infantry
and right wing; but he refused to act without the order of his highness,
and said things were come to such a pass that they must either conquer or
die. He continued to animate his men with his voice and example, until he
received a shot in the thigh. His valet seeing him fall, ran to his
assistance, and called for quarter, but was killed by the enemy before he
could be understood. The duke being taken at the same instant, was
afterwards dismissed upon his parole, and in a few days died at Turin,
universally lamented on account of his great and amiable qualities. The
earl of Warwick and Holland, who accompanied him as a volunteer, shared
his fate in being wounded and taken prisoner; but he soon recovered his
health and liberty. This victory was as unsubstantial as that of Landen,
and almost as dear in the purchase; for the confederates made an obstinate
defence, and yielded solely to superior number. The duke of Savoy
retreated to Moncalier, and threw a reinforcement into Coni, which Catinat
would not venture to besiege, so severely had he been handled in the
battle. He therefore contented himself with laying the country under
contribution, reinforcing the garrisons of Casal, Pignerol, and Suza, and
making preparations for repassing the mountains. The news of this victory
no sooner reached Paris, than Louis dispatched M. de Chanlais to Turin,
with proposals for detaching the duke of Savoy from the interest of the
allies; and the pope, who was now become a partisan of France, supported
the negotiation with his whole influence; but the French king had not yet
touched upon the right string. The duke continued deaf to all his
addresses.

TRANSACTIONS in HUNGARY and CATALONIA.

France had been alike successful in her intrigues at the courts of Rome
and Constantinople. The vizier at the Porte had been converted into a
pensionary and creature of Louis; but the war in which the Turks had been
so long and unsuccessfully engaged, rendered him so odious to the people,
that the grand seignor deposed him in order to appease their clamours. The
English and Dutch ambassadors at Constantinople forthwith renewed their
mediation for a peace with the emperor; but the terms they proposed were
still rejected with disdain. In the meantime general Heusler, who
commanded the imperialists at Transylvania, reduced the fortresses of Jeno
and Villaguswar. In the beginning of July the duc de Croy assumed the
chief command of the German army, passed the Danube and the Saave, and
invested Belgrade. The siege was carried on for some time with great
vigour, but at length abandoned at the approach of the vizier, who obliged
the imperialists to repass the Saave, and sent out parties which made
incursions into Upper-Hungary. The power of France had never been so
conspicuous as at this juncture, when she maintained a formidable navy at
sea, and four great armies in different parts of Europe. Exclusive of the
operations in Flanders, Germany, and Piedmont, the count de Noailles
invested Eoses in Catalonia, about the latter end of May, while at the
same time it was blocked up by the French fleet under the command of the
count D’Etrées. In a few days the place was surrendered by capitulation,
and the castle of Ampurias met with the same fate. The Spanish power was
reduced to such a degree, that Noailles might have proceeded in his
conquests without interruption, had he not been obliged to detach part of
his army to reinforce Catinat in Piedmont.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

NAVAL AFFAIRS.

Nothing could be more inglorious for the English than their operations by
sea in the course of this summer. The king had ordered the admirals to use
all possible despatch in equipping the fleets, that they might block up
the enemy in their own ports and protect the commerce, which had suffered
severely from the French privateers. They were however so dilatory in
their proceedings, that the squadrons of the enemy sailed from their
harbours before the English fleet could put to sea. About the middle of
May it was assembled at St. Helen’s, and took on board five regiments
intended for a descent on Brest; but this enterprise was never attempted.
When the English and Dutch squadrons joined, so as to form a very numerous
fleet, the public expected they would undertake some expedition of
importance; but the admirals were divided in opinion, nor did their orders
warrant their executing any scheme of consequence. Killigrew and Délavai
did not escape the suspicion of being disaffected to the service; and
France was said to have maintained a secret correspondence with the
malcontents in England. Louis had made surprising efforts to repair the
damage which his navy had sustained. He had purchased several large
vessels and converted them into ships of war; he had laid an embargo on
all the shipping of his kingdom until his squadrons were manned; he had
made a grand naval promotion to encourage the officers and seamen; and
this expedient produced a wonderful spirit of activity and emulation. In
the month of May his fleet sailed to the Mediterranean in three squadrons,
consisting of seventy-one capital ships, besides bomb-ketches, fire-ships,
and tenders.

In the beginning of June, the English and Dutch fleets sailed down the
channel. On the sixth, sir George Rooke was detached to the Straits with a
squadron of three-and-twenty ships as convoy to the Mediterranean trade.
The grand fleet returned to Torbay, while he pursued his voyage, having
taken under his protection about four hundred merchant ships belonging to
England, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Hamburgh, and Flanders. On the
sixteenth his scouts discovered part of the French fleet under Cape St.
Vincent; next day their whole navy appeared, to the amount of eighty sail.
Sixteen of these plied up to the English squadron, while the vice-admiral
of the white stood off to sea to intercept the ships under convoy. Sir
George Rooke, by the advice of the Dutch vice-admiral Vandergoes, resolved
if possible to avoid an engagement, which could only tend to their
absolute ruin. He forthwith sent orders to the small ships that were near
the land to put into the neighbouring ports of Faro, St. Lucar, and Cadiz,
while he himself stood off with an easy sail for the protection of the
rest. About six in the evening, ten sail of the enemy came up with two
Dutch ships of war commanded by the captains Schrijver and Vander-Poel,
who seeing no possibility of escaping, tacked in shore, and, thus drawing
the French after them, helped to save the rest of the fleet. When attacked
they made a most desperate defence, but at last were overpowered by
numbers and taken. An English ship of war and a rich pinnace were burned;
nine-and-twenty merchant vessels were taken, and about fifty destroyed by
the counts de Tourville and D’Etrées. Seven of the largest Smyrna ships
fell into the hands of M. de Cotlegon, and four he sunk in the bay of
Gibraltar. The value of the loss sustained on this occasion amounted to
one million sterling. Meanwhile Rooke stood off with a fresh gale, and on
the nineteenth sent home the Lark ship of war with the news of his
misfortune; then he bore away for the Madeiras, where having taken in wood
and water, he set sail for Ireland, and on the third day of August arrived
at Cork with fifty sail, including ships of war and trading vessels. He
detached captain Fairborne to Kinsale with all his squadron except six
ships of the line, with which, in pursuance of orders, he joined the great
fleet then cruising in the chops of the channel. On the twenty-fifth day
of August they returned to St. Helen’s, and the four regiments were
landed. On the nineteenth day of September, fifteen Dutch ships of the
line and two frigates set sail for Holland; and twenty-six sail, with
seven fire-ships, were assigned as guard-ships during the winter.

EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES.

The French admirals, instead of pursuing Rooke to Madeira, made an
unsuccessful attempt upon Cadiz, and bombarded Gibraltar, where the
merchants sunk their ships that they might not fall into the hands of the
enemy. Then they sailed along the coast of Spain, destroyed some English
and Dutch vessels at Malaga, Alicant, and other places, and returned in
triumph to Toulon. About this period sir Francis Wheeler returned to
England with his squadron from an unfortunate expedition in the West
Indies. In conjunction with colonel Codrington, governor of the Leeward
Islands, he made unsuccessful attempts upon the islands of Martinique and
Dominique. Then he sailed to Boston in New England with a view to concert
an expedition against Quebec, which was judged impracticable. He
afterwards steered for Placentia in Newfoundland, which he would have
attacked without hesitation; but the design was rejected by a majority of
voices in the council of war. Thus disappointed, he set sail for England,
and arrived at Portsmouth in a very shattered condition, the greater part
of his men having died in the course of this voyage.

BENBOW BOMBARDS ST. MALOES.

In November another effort was made to annoy the enemy. Commodore Benbow
sailed with a squadron of twelve capital ships, four bomb-ketches, and ten
brigantines, to the coast of St. Maloes, and anchoring within half a mile
of the town, cannonaded and bombarded it for three days successively. Then
his men landed on an island where they burned a convent. On the nineteenth
they took the advantage of a dark night, a fresh gale, and a strong tide,
to send in a fire-ship of a particular contrivance, styled the Infernal,
in order to burn the town; but she struck upon a rock before she arrived
at the place, and the engineer was obliged to set her on fire and retreat.
She continued burning for some time, and at last blew up with such an
explosion as shook the whole town like an earthquake, unroofed three
hundred houses, and broke all the glass and earthenware for three leagues
around. A capstan that weighed two hundred pounds was transported into the
place, and falling upon a house, levelled it to the ground; the greatest
part of the wall towards the sea tumbled down; and the inhabitants were
overwhelmed with consternation, so that a small number of troops might
have taken possession without resistance, but there was not a soldier on
board. Nevertheless the sailors took and demolished Quince-fort, and did
considerable damage to the town of St. Maloes, which had been a nest of
privateers that infested the English commerce. Though this attempt was
executed with great spirit and some success, the clamours of the people
became louder and louder. They scrupled not to say that the councils of
the nation were betrayed; and their suspicions rose even to the
secretary’s office. They observed, that the French were previously
acquainted with all the motions of the English, and took their measures
accordingly for their destruction. They collected and compared a good
number of particulars that seemed to justify their suspicion of treachery.
But the misfortunes of the nation in all probability arose from a motley
ministry divided among themselves, who, instead of acting in concert for
the public good, employed all their influence to thwart the views and
blacken the reputations of each other. The people in general exclaimed
against the marquis of Carmarthen, the earls of Nottingham and Rochester,
who had acquired great credit with the queen, and, from their hatred to
the whigs, betrayed the interests of the nation.

THE FRENCH KING HAS RECOURSE TO THE MEDIATION OF DENMARK.

But if the English were discontented, the French were miserable in spite
of all their victories. That kingdom laboured under a dreadful famine,
occasioned partly from unfavourable seasons, and partly from the war,
which had not left hands sufficient to cultivate the ground.
Notwithstanding all the diligence and providence of their ministry in
bringing supplies of corn from Sweden and Denmark, their care in
regulating the price and furnishing the markets, their liberal
contributions for the relief of the indigent, multitudes perished of want,
and the whole kingdom was reduced to poverty and distress. Louis pined in
the midst of his success. He saw his subjects exhausted by a ruinous war,
in which they had been involved by his ambition. He tampered with the
allies apart, in hopes of dividing and detaching them from the grand
confederacy; he solicited the northern crowns to engage as mediators for a
general peace. A memorial was actually presented by the Danish minister to
king William, by which it appears that the French king would have been
contented to purchase a peace with some considerable concessions; but the
terms were rejected by the king of England, whose ambition and revenge
were not yet gratified, and whose subjects, though heavily laden, could
still bear additional burdens.

The Jacobites had been very attentive to the progress of dissatisfaction
in England, which they fomented with their usual assiduity. The late
declaration of king James had been couched in such imperious terms as gave
offence even to some of those who favoured his interest. The earl of
Middleton therefore, in the beginning of the year, repaired to St.
Germain’s and obtained another, which contained the promise of a general
pardon without exception, and every other concession that a British
subject could demand of his sovereign. About the latter end of May, two
men named Canning and Dormer were apprehended for dispersing copies of
this paper, tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty of not only dispersing
but also of composing a false and seditious libel, sentenced to pay five
hundred marks a-piece, to stand three times in the pillory, and find
sureties for their good behaviour. But no circumstance reflected more
disgrace on this reign than the fate of Anderton, the supposed printer of
some tracts against the government. He was brought to trial for high
treason; he made a vigorous defence in spite of the insults and
discouragement he sustained from a partial bench. As nothing but
presumptions appeared against him, the jury scrupled to bring in a verdict
that would affect his life, until they were reviled and reprimanded by
judge Treby, then they found him guilty. In vain recourse was had to the
queen’s mercy; he suffered death at Tyburn, and left a paper protesting
solemnly against the proceedings of the court, which he affirmed was
appointed not to try but to convict him, and petitioning heaven to forgive
his penitent jury. The severity of the government was likewise exemplified
in the case of some adventurers, who having equipped privateers to cruise
upon the English, under joint commissions from the late king James and
Louis XIV., happened to be taken by the English ships of war. Dr. Oldys,
the king’s advocate, being commanded to proceed against them as guilty of
treason and piracy, refused to commence the prosecution; and gave his
opinion in writing that they were neither traitors nor pirates. He
supported his opinion by arguments before the council; these were answered
by Dr. Littleton, who succeeded him in the office from which he was
dismissed; and the prisoners were executed as traitors. The Jacobites did
not fail to retort those arts upon the government which their adversaries
had so successfully practised in the late reign. They inveighed against
the vindictive spirit of the administration, and taxed it with encouraging
informers and false witnesses—a charge for which there was too much
foundation.

The friends of James in Scotland still continued to concert designs in his
favour; but their correspondence was detected, and their aims defeated, by
the vigilance of the ministry in that kingdom. Secretary Johnston not only
kept a watchful eye over all their transactions, but by a dexterous
management of court liberality and favour, appeased the discontents of the
presbyterians so effectually, that the king ran no risk in assembling the
parliament. Some offices were bestowed upon the leaders of the kirk party,
and the duke of Hamilton, being reconciled to the government, was
appointed commissioner. On the eighteenth day of April the session was
opened, and the king’s letter, replete with the most cajoling expressions,
being read, the parliament proceeded to exhibit undeniable specimens of
their good humour. They drew up a very affectionate answer to his
majesty’s letter; they voted an addition of six new regiments to the
standing forces of the kingdom; they granted a supply of above one hundred
and fifty thousand pounds sterling to his majesty; they enacted a law for
levying men to serve on board the royal navy; they fined all absentees,
whether lords or commons, and vacated the seats of all those commissioners
who refused to take the oath of assurance, which was equivalent to an
abjuration of king James; they set on foot an inquiry about an intended
invasion; they published some intercepted letters supposed to be written
to king James by Nevil Payne, whom they committed to prison and threatened
with a trial for high treason; but he eluded the danger by threatening in
his turn to impeach those who had made their peace with the government;
they passed an act for the comprehension of such of the episcopal clergy
as should condescend to take the oaths by the tenth day of July. All that
the general assembly required of them was, an offer to subscribe the
confession of faith, and to acknowledge presbytery as the only government
of the Scottish church; but they neither submitted to these terms, nor
took the oaths within the limited time, so that they forfeited all legal
right to their benefices. Nevertheless they continued in possession, and
even received private assurances of the king’s protection. It was one of
William’s political maxims to court his domestic enemies; but it was never
attended with any good effect. This indulgence gave offence to the
presbyterians, and former distractions began to revive.

THE KING RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

The king having prevailed upon the states-general to augment their land
forces and navy for the service of the ensuing campaign, embarked for
England, and arrived at Kensington on the thirtieth day of October.
Finding the people clamorous and discontented, the trade of the nation
decayed, the affairs of state mismanaged, and the ministers recriminating
upon one another, he perceived the necessity of changing hands, and
resolved to take his measures accordingly. Sunderland, his chief
counsellor, represented that the tories were averse to the continuance of
a war which had been productive of nothing but damage and disgrace;
whereas, the whigs were much more tractable, and would bleed freely,
partly from the terror of invasion and popery, partly from the ambition of
being courted by the crown, and partly from the prospect of advantage, in
advancing money to the government on the funds established by parliament;
for that sort of traffic which obtained the appellation of the monied
interest was altogether a whig-gish institution. The king revolved these
observations in his own mind; and, in the meantime, the parliament met on
the seventh day of November, pursuant to the last prorogation. In his
speech, he expressed his resentment against those who were the authors of
the miscarriages at sea; represented the necessity of increasing the land
forces and the navy; and demanded a suitable supply for these purposes. In
order to pave the way to their condescension, he had already dismissed
from his council the earl of Nottingham, who, of all his ministers, was
the most odious to the people. His place would have been immediately
filled with the earl of Shrewsbury; but that nobleman suspecting this was
a change of men rather than of measures, stood aloof for some time, until
he received such assurances from the king as quieted his scruples, and
then he accepted the office of secretary. The lieutenancy for the city of
London, and all other commissions over England, were altered with a view
to favour the whig interest; and the individuals of that party were
indulged with many places of trust and profit; but the tories were too
powerful in the house of commons to be exasperated, and therefore a good
number of them were retained in office.

BOTH HOUSES INQUIRE INTO THE MISCARRIAGES BY SEA.

On the sixth day of the session, the commons unanimously resolved to
support their majesties and their government; to inquire into
miscarriages; and to consider of means for preserving the trade of the
nation. The Turkey company was summoned to produce the petitions they had
delivered to the commissioners of the Admiralty for convoy: lord Falkland,
who sat at the head of that board, gave in copies of all the orders and
directions sent to sir George Rooke concerning the Straits fleet, together
with a list of all the ships at that time in commission. It appeared, in
the course of this inquiry, that the miscarriage of Rooke’s fleet was in a
great measure owing to the misconduct of the admirals, and the neglect of
the victualling-office; but they were screened by a majority. Mr. Harley,
one of the commissioners for taking and stating the public accounts,
delivered a report, which contained a charge of peculation against lord
Falkland. Rainsford, receiver of the rights and perquisites of the navy,
confessed that he had received and paid more money than that which was
charged in the accounts; and, in particular, that he had paid four
thousand pounds to lord Falkland by his majesty’s order. This lord had
acknowledged before the commissioners, that he had paid one half of the
sum, by the king’s order, to a person who was not a member of either
house; and that the remainder was still in his hands. Rainsford owned he
had the original letter which he received from Falkland, demanding the
money; and this nobleman desiring to see it, detained the voucher; a
circumstance that incensed the commons to such a degree, that a motion was
made for committing him to the Tower, and debated with great warmth, but
was at last over-ruled by the majority. Nevertheless, they agreed to make
him sensible of their displeasure, and he was reprimanded in his place.
The house of lords having also inquired into the causes of the
miscarriages at sea, very violent debates arose, and at length the
majority resolved, that the admirals had done well in the execution of the
orders they had received. This was a triumph over the whig lords, who had
so eagerly prosecuted the affair, and now protested against the resolution
not without great appearance of reason. The next step of the lords was to
exculpate the earl of Nottingham, as the blame seemed to lie with him on
the supposition that the admirals were innocent. With a view therefore to
transfer this blame to Trenchard, the whiggish secretary, the earl gave
the house to understand that he had received intelligence from Paris in
the beginning of June, containing a list of the enemy’s fleet and the time
of their sailing; that this was communicated to a committee of the
council, and particularly imparted to secretary Trenchard, whose province
it was to transmit instructions to the admirals. Two conferences passed on
this subject between the lords and commons. Trenchard delivered in his
defence in writing; and was in his turn screened by the whole efforts of
the ministry, in which the whig influence now predominated. Thus an
inquiry of such national consequence, which took its rise from the king’s
own expression of resentment against the delinquents, was stifled by the
arts of the court, because it was likely to affect one of its creatures;
for, though there was no premeditated treachery in the case, the interest
of the public was certainly sacrificed to the mutual animosity of the
ministers. The charge of lord Falkland being resumed in the house of
commons, he appeared to have begged and received of the king the remaining
two thousand pounds of money which had been paid by Rainsford: he was
therefore declared guilty of a high misdemeanor and breach of trust, and
committed to the Tower; from whence however he was in two days discharged
upon his petition.

VAST SUMS GRANTED FOR THE SERVICES OF THE ENSUING YEAR.

Harley, Foley, and Harcourt, presented to the house a state of the
receipts and issues of the revenue, together with two reports from the
commissioners of accounts concerning sums issued for secret services, and
to members of parliament. This was a discovery of the most scandalous
practices in the mystery of corruption, equally exercised on the
individuals of both parties, in occasional bounties, grants, places,
pensions, equivalents, and additional salaries. The malcontents therefore
justly observed, the house of commons was so managed that the king could
baffle any bill, quash all grievances, stifle accounts, and rectify the
articles of Limerick. When the commons took into consideration the
estimates and supplies of the ensuing year, the king demanded forty
thousand men for the navy, and above one hundred thousand for the purposes
of the land service. Before the house considered these enormous demands,
they granted four hundred thousand pounds by way of advance, to quiet the
clamours of the seamen, who were become mutinous and desperate for want of
pay, upwards of one million being due to them for wages. Then the commons
voted the number of men required for the navy; but they were so ashamed of
that for the army, that they thought it necessary to act in such a manner
as should imply that they still retained some regard for their country.
They called for all the treaties subsisting between the king and his
allies; they examined the different proportions of the troops furnished by
the respective powers; they considered the intended augmentations, and
fixed the establishment of the year at four-score and three thousand, one
hundred, and twenty-one men, including officers. For the maintenance of
these they allotted the sum of two millions, five hundred and thirty
thousand, five hundred and nine pounds. They granted two millions for the
navy, and about five hundred thousand pounds, to make good the
deficiencies of the annuity and poll bills; so that the supplies for the
year amounted to about five millions and a half, raised by a land-tax of
four shillings in the pound, by two more lives in the annuities, a further
excise on beer, a new duty on salt, and a lottery.

Though the malcontents in parliament could not withstand this torrent of
profusion, they endeavoured to distress the court interest, by reviving
the popular bills of the preceding session; such as that for regulating
trials in cases of high treason, the other for the more frequent calling
and meeting of parliaments, and that concerning free and impartial
proceedings in parliament. The first was neglected in the house of lords;
the second was rejected; the third was passed by the commons, on the
supposition that it would be defeated in the other house. The lords
returned it with certain amendments, to which the commons would not agree:
a conference ensued; the peers receded from their corrections, and passed
the bill, to which the king however refused his assent. Nothing could be
more unpopular and dangerous than such a step at this juncture. The
commons, in order to recover some credit with the people, determined to
disapprove of his majesty’s conduct. The house formed itself into a
committee, to take the state of the kingdom into consideration. They
resolved, that whoever advised the king to refuse the royal assent to that
bill, was an enemy to their majesties and the kingdom. They likewise
presented an address, expressing their concern that he had not given his
consent to the bill; and beseeching his majesty to hearken for the future
to the advice of his parliament, rather than to the counsels of particular
persons, who might have private interests of their own, separate from
those of his majesty and his people. The king thanked them for their zeal,
professed a warm regard for their constitution, and assured them he would
look upon all parties as enemies who should endeavour to lessen the
confidence subsisting between the sovereign and the people. The members in
the opposition were not at all satisfied with this general reply. A day
being appointed to take it into consideration, a warm debate was
maintained with equal eloquence and acrimony. At length the question being
put that an address should be made for a more explicit answer, it passed
in the negative by a great majority.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

The city of London petitioned that a parliamentary provision should be
made for the orphans, whose fortunes they had scandalously squandered
away. Such an application had been made in the preceding session, and
rejected with disdain, as an imposition on the public; but now those
scruples were removed, and the house passed a bill for this purpose,
consisting of many clauses, extending to different charges on the city
lands, aqueducts, and personal estates; imposing duties on binding
apprentices, constituting freemen, as also upon wines and coals imported
into London. On the twenty-third day of March these bills received the
royal assent; and the king took that opportunity of recommending despatch,
as the season of the year was far advanced, and the enemy diligently
employed in making preparations for an early campaign. The scheme of a
national bank, like those of Amsterdam and Genoa, had been recommended to
the ministry as an excellent institution, as well for the credit and
security of the government, as the increase of trade and circulation. One
project was invented by Dr. Hugh Chamberlain, proposing the circulation of
tickets on land security; but William Paterson was author of that which
was carried into execution, by the interest of Michael Godfrey and other
active projectors. The scheme was founded on the motion of a transferable
fund, and a circulation by bill on the credit of a large capital. Forty
merchants subscribed to the amount of five hundred thousand pounds, as a
fund of ready money, to circulate one million at eight per cent, to be
lent to the government; and even this fund of ready money bore the same
interest. When it was properly digested in the cabinet, and a majority in
parliament secured for its reception, the undertakers for the court
introduced it into the house of commons, and expatiated upon the national
advantages that would accrue from such a measure. They said it would
rescue the nation out of the hands of extortioners and usurers, lower
interest, raise the value of land, revive and establish public credit,
extend circulation, consequently improve commerce, facilitate the annual
supplies, and connect the people the more closely with the government. The
project was violently opposed by a strong party, who affirmed that it
would become a monopoly, and engross the whole money of the kingdom; that,
as it must infallibly be subservient to government views, it might be
employed to the worst purposes of arbitrary power; that instead of
assisting it would weaken commerce, by tempting people to withdraw their
money from trade and employ it in stock-jobbing; that it would produce a
swarm of brokers and jobbers to prey upon their fellow-creatures,
encourage fraud and gaming, and further corrupt the morals of the nation.
Notwithstanding these objections, the bill made its way through the two
houses, establishing the funds for the security and advantage of the
subscribers; empowering their majesties to incorporate them by the name of
the governor and company of the bank of England, under a proviso, that at
any time after the first day of August, in the year one thousand seven
hundred and five, upon a year’s notice, and the repayment of the twelve
hundred thousand pounds, the said corporation should cease and determine.
The bill likewise contained clauses of appropriation for the services of
the public. The whole subscription was filled in ten clays after its being
opened; and the court of directors completed the payment before the
expiration of the time prescribed by the act, although they did not call
in more than seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds of the money
subscribed. All these funds proving inadequate to the estimates, the
commons brought in a bill to impose stamp duties upon all vellum,
parchment, and paper, used in almost every kind of intercourse between man
and man; and they crowned the oppression of the year with another grievous
tax upon carriages, under the name of a bill for licensing and regulating
hackney and stage coaches.

EAST INDIA COMPANY’S CHArTER.

The commons, in a clause of the bill for taxing several joint-stocks,
provided, that in case of a default in the payment of that tax, within the
time limited by the act, the charter of the company so failing should be
deemed void and forfeited. The East India company actually neglected their
payment, and the public imagined the ministry would seize this opportunity
of dissolving a monopoly against which so many complaints had been made;
but the directors understood their own strength; and, instead of being
broken, obtained the promise of a new charter. This was no sooner known,
than the controversy between them and their adversaries was revived with
such animosity, that the council thought proper to indulge both parties
with a hearing. As this produced no resolution, the merchants who opposed
the company petitioned, that, in the meanwhile, the new charter might be
suspended. Addresses of the same kind were presented by a great number of
clothiers, linen-drapers, and other dealers. To these a written answer was
published by the company; the merchants printed a reply, in which they
undertook to prove that the company had been guilty of unjust and
unwarrantable actions, tending to the scandal of religion, the dishonour
of the nation, the reproach of our laws, the oppression of the people, and
the ruin of trade. They observed, that two private ships had exported in
one year three times as many cloths as the company had exported in three
years. They offered to send more cloth and English merchandise to the
Indies in one year than the company had exported in five; to furnish the
government with five hundred tons of saltpetre for less than one half of
the usual price; and they represented, that the company could neither load
the ships they petitioned for in England, nor reload them in the East
Indies. In spite of all these remonstrances, the new charter passed the
great seal; though the grants contained in it were limited in such a
manner that they did not amount to an exclusive privilege, and subjected
the company to such alterations, restrictions, and qualifications, as the
king should direct before the twenty-ninth day of September. This
indulgence, and other favours granted to the company, were privately
purchased of the ministry, and became productive of a loud outcry against
the government. The merchants published a journal of the whole
transaction, and petitioned the house of commons that their liberty of
trading to the East Indies might be confirmed by parliament. Another
petition was presented by the company, praying that their charter might
receive a parliamentary sanction. Both parties employed all their address
in making private application to the members. The house having examined
the different charters, the book of their new subscriptions, and every
particular relating to the company, resolved that all the subjects of
England had an equal right to trade to the East Indies unless prohibited
by act of parliament.

WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.

GENERAL NATURALIZATION BILL.

But nothing engrossed the attention of the public more than a bill which
was brought into the house for a general naturalization of all foreign
protestants. The advocates for this measure alleged, That great part of
the lands of England lay uncultivated; that the strength of a nation
consisted in the number of inhabitants; that the people were thinned by
the war and foreign voyages, and required an extraordinary supply; that a
great number of protestants, persecuted in France and other countries,
would gladly remove to a land of freedom, and bring along with them their
wealth and manufactures; that the community had been largely repaid for
the protection granted to those refugees who had already settled in the
kingdom. They had introduced several new branches of manufacture, promoted
industry, and lowered the price of labour; a circumstance of the utmost
importance to trade, oppressed as it was with taxes, and exposed to
uncommon hazard from the enemy. The opponents of the bill urged with great
vehemence, That it would cheapen the birthright of Englishmen; that the
want of culture was owing to the oppression of the times; that foreigners
being admitted into the privileges of the British trade, would grow
wealthy at the expense of their benefactors, and transfer the fortunes
they had gained into their native country; that the reduction in the price
of labour would be a national grievance, while so many thousands of
English manufacturers were starving for want of employment, and the price
of provisions continued so high that even those who were employed could
scarce supply their families with bread; that the real design of the bill
was to make such an accession to the dissenters as would render them an
equal match in the body politic for those of the church of England; to
create a greater dependence on the crown, and, in a word, to supply a
foreign head with foreign members. Sir John Knight, a member of the house,
in a speech upon this subject, exaggerated the bad consequences that would
attend such a bill, with all the wit and virulence of satire: it was
printed and dispersed through the kingdom, and raised such a flame among
the people as had not appeared since the revolution. They exclaimed, that
all offices would be conferred upon Dutchmen, who would become lord-danes,
and prescribe the modes of religion and government; and they extolled sir
John Knight as the saviour of the nation. The courtiers, incensed at the
progress of this clamour, complained in the house of the speech which had
been printed; and sir John was threatened with expulsion and imprisonment.
He therefore thought proper to disown the paper, which was burned by the
hands of the common hangman. This sacrifice served only to increase the
popular disturbance, which rose to such a height of violence, that the
court party began to tremble; and the bill was dropped for the present.

Lord Coningsby and Mr. Porter had committed the most flagrant acts of
oppression in Ireland. These had been explained during the last session by
the gentlemen who appealed against the administration of lord Sidney, but
they were screened by the ministry; and therefore the earl of Bellamont
now impeached them in the house of commons, of which he and they were
members. After an examination of the articles exhibited against them, the
commons, who were by this time at the devotion of the court, declared,
that, considering the state of affairs in Ireland, they did not think them
fit grounds for an impeachment.—In the course of this session, the
nation sustained another misfortune in the fate of sir Francis Wheeler,
who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean squadron.
He received instructions to take under his convoy the merchant ships bound
to Turkey, Spain, and Italy; to cruise thirty days in a certain latitude
for the protection of the Spanish plate-fleet homeward bound; to leave
part of his squadron at Cadiz as convoy to the trade for England; to
proceed with the rest to the Mediterranean; to join the Spanish fleet in
his return; and to act in concert with them, until he should be joined by
the fleet from Turkey and the Straits, and accompany them back to England.
About the latter end of October he set sail from Saint Helen’s, and in
January arrived at Cadiz with the ships under his convoy. There leaving
rear-admiral Hopson, he proceeded for the Mediterranean. In the bay of
Gibraltar he was overtaken by a dreadful tempest, under a lee-shore, which
he could not possibly weather, and where the ground was so foul that no
anchor would hold. This expedient however was tried. A great number of
ships were driven ashore, and many perished. The admiral’s ship foundered
at sea, and he and all his crew were buried in the deep, except two Moors
who were miraculously preserved. Two other ships of the line, three
ketches, and six merchant ships were lost. The remains of the fleet were
so much shattered, that, instead of prosecuting their voyage, they
returned to Cadiz in order to be refitted, and sheltered from the attempts
of the French squadrons, which were still at sea under the command of
Chateau-Renaud and Cabaret. On the twenty-fifth day of April, the
king-closed the session with a speech in the usual style, and the
parliament was prorogued to the eighteenth day of September. 053
[See note K, at the end of this Vol.]

THE ENGLISH ATTEMPT TO MAKE A DESCENT IN CAMARET-BAY.

Louis of France being tired of the war, which had impoverished his
country, continued to tamper with the duke of Savoy, and, by the canal of
the pope, made some offers to the king of Spain, which were rejected.
Meanwhile he resolved to stand upon the defensive during the ensuing
campaign, in every part but Catalonia, where his whole naval force might
co-operate with the count de Noailles, who commanded the land army. King
William having received intelligence of the design upon Barcelona,
endeavoured to prevent the junction of the Brest and Toulon squadrons, by
sending Russel to sea as early as the fleet could be in a condition to
sail; but before he arrived at Portsmouth, the Brest squadron had quitted
that harbour. On the third day of May the admiral sailed from St. Helen’s
with the combined squadrons of England and Holland, amounting to ninety
ships of the line, besides frigates, fire-ships, and tenders. He detached
captain Pritchard of the Monmouth with two fire-ships, to destroy a fleet
of French merchant ships near Conquet-bay; and this service being
performed, he returned to St. Helen’s, where he had left Adm. Cloudesley
Shovel with a squadron, to take on board a body of land forces intended
for a descent upon the coast of France. These being embarked under the
command of general Ptolemache, the whole fleet sailed again on the
twenty-ninth of May. The land and sea officers, in a council of war,
agreed that part of the fleet designed for this expedition should separate
from the rest and proceed to Camaret-bay, where the forces should be
landed. On the fifth day of June, lord Berkeley, who commanded this
squadron, parted with the grand fleet, and on the seventh anchored between
the bays of Camaret and Bertaume. Next day the marquis of Carmarthen,
afterwards duke of Leeds, who served under Berkeley as rear-admiral of the
blue, entered Camaret-bay with two large ships and six frigates, to cover
the troops in landing. The French had received intelligence of the design,
and taken such precautions, under the conduct of the celebrated engineer
Vauban, that the English were exposed to a terrible fire from new erected
batteries, as well as from a strong body of troops, and though the ships
cannonaded them with great vigour, the soldiers could not maintain any
regularity in landing. A good number were killed in the open boats before
they reached the shore; and those who landed were soon repulsed, in spite
of all the endeavours of general Ptolemache, who received a wound in the
thigh, which proved mortal. Seven hundred soldiers are said to have been
lost on this occasion, besides those who were killed on board of the
ships. The Monk ship of war was towed off with great difficulty; but a
Dutch frigate of thirty guns fell into the hands of the enemy.

After this unfortunate attempt, lord Berkeley, with the advice of a
council of war, sailed back for England, and at St. Helen’s received
orders from the queen to call a council, and deliberate in what manner the
ships and forces might be best employed. They agreed to make some attempt
upon the coast of Normandy. With this view they set sail on the fifth day
of July. They bombarded Dieppe, and reduced the greatest part of the town
to ashes. Thence they steered to Havre-de-Grace, which met with the same
fate. They harassed the French troops who marched after them along shore.
They alarmed the whole coast, and filled every town with such
consternation that they would have been abandoned by the inhabitants had
not they been detained by military force. On the twenty-sixth of July,
lord Berkeley returned to St. Helen’s, where he quitted the fleet, and the
command devolved upon sir Cloudesley Shovel. This officer having received
instructions to make an attempt upon Dunkirk, sailed round to the Downs,
where he was joined by M. Meesters, with six-and-twenty Dutch pilots. On
the twelfth of September he appeared before Dunkirk; and next day sent in
the Charles galley, with two bomb-ketches, and as many of the machines
called infernals. These were set on fire without effect, and the design
miscarried; then Shovel steered to Calais, which having bombarded with
little success, he returned to the coast of England; and the bomb-ketches
and machines were sent into the river Thames.

ADMIRAL RUSSEL RELIEVES BARCELONA.

During these transactions, admiral Russel with the grand fleet sailed for
the Mediterranean; and being joined by rear-admiral Neville from Cadiz,
together with Callemberg and Evertzen, he steered towards Barcelona, which
was besieged by the French fleet and army. At his approach, Tourville
retired with precipitation into the harbour of Toulon; and Noailles
abandoned his enterprise. The Spanish affairs were in such a deplorable
condition, that without this timely assistance the kingdom must have been
undone. While he continued in the Mediterranean, the French admiral durst
not venture to appear at sea, and all his projects were disconcerted.
After having asserted the honour of the British flag in those seas during
the whole summer, he sailed in the beginning of November to Cadiz, where,
by an express order of the king, he passed the winter, during which he
took such precautions for preventing Tourville from passing the Straits,
that he did not think proper to risk the passage.

CAMPAIGN IN FLANDERS.

It will now be necessary to describe the operations on the continent. In
the middle of May king William arrived in Holland, where he consulted with
the states-general. On the third day of June he repaired to Beth-lem-abbey
near Louvain, the place appointed for the rendezvous of the army; and
there he was met by the electors of Bavaria and Cologn. In a few days a
numerous army was assembled, and every thing seemed to promise an active
campaign. On the third day of June the dauphin assumed the command of the
French forces, with which Luxembourg had taken post between Mons and
Maubeuge; and passing the Sambre, encamped at Fleuras, but on the
eighteenth he removed from thence, and took up his quarters between St.
Tron and Wanheim; while the confederates lay at Roosbeck. On the eleventh
of July, the dauphin marched in four columns to Oerle upon the Jaar, where
he pitched his camp. On the twenty-second the confederates marched to
Romale; then the dauphin took the route to Vignamont, where he secured his
army by entrenchments, as his forces were inferior in number to those of
the allies; and as he had been directed by his father to avoid an
engagement. In this situation both armies remained till the fifteenth day
of August, when king William sent the heavy baggage to Louvain; and on the
eighteenth made a motion to Sombref. This was no sooner known to the enemy
than they decamped; and having marched all night, posted themselves
between Temploux and Masy, within a league and a half of the confederates.
The king of England resolved to pass the Scheld, and with this view
marched by the way of Nivelle and Soignes to Chievres; from thence he
detached the duke of Wirtemberg, with a strong body of horse and foot, to
pass the river at Oudenarde, while the elector of Bavaria advanced with
another detachment to pass it at Pont de Espieres. Notwithstanding all the
expedition they could make, their purpose was anticipated by Luxembourg,
who being apprised of their route had detached four thousand horse, with
each a foot soldier behind the trooper, to reinforce M. de Valette who
commanded that part of the French line. These were sustained by a choice
body of men, who travelled with great expedition without observing the
formalities of a march. Mareschal de Villeroy followed the same route with
all the cavalry of the right wing, the household troops, and twenty
field-pieces; and the rest of the army was brought up by the dauphin in
person. They marched with such incredible diligence, that the elector of
Bavaria could scarce believe his own eyes when he arrived in sight of the
Scheld and saw them intrenching themselves on the other side of the river.
King William having reconnoitred their disposition, thought it
impracticable to pass at that place; and therefore marched down the river
to Oudenarde, where a passage had been already effected by the duke of
Wirtemberg. Here the confederates passed the Scheld on the twenty-seventh
day of the month; and the king fixed his head-quarters at Wanneghem. His
intention was to have taken possession of Courtray, and established
winter-quarters for a considerable part of his army in that district; but
Luxembourg having posted himself between that place and Menin, extended
his lines in such a manner that the confederates could not attempt to
force them, nor even hinder him from subsisting his army at the enginse
(expense ?) of the castellany of Courtray, during the remainder of the
campaign. This surprising march was of such importance to the French king,
that he wrote with his own hand a letter of thanks to his army; and
ordered that it should be read to every particular squadron and battalion.

THE ALLIES REDUCE HUY.

The king of England, though disappointed in his scheme upon Courtray,
found means to make some advantage of his superiority in number. He
drafted troops from the garrison of Liege and Maestricht; and on the third
day of September reinforced his body with a large detachment from his own
camp, conferring the command upon the duke of Holstein-Ploen, with orders
to undertake the siege of Huy. Next day the whole confederate forces
passed the Lys, and encamped at Wouterghem. From thence the king with a
part of the army marched to Roselsær; this diversion obliged the dauphin
to make considerable detachments for the security of Ypres and Menin on
the one side, and to cover Furnes and Dunkirk on the other. At this
juncture, a Frenchman, being seized in the very act of setting fire to one
of the ammunition waggons in the allied army, confessed he had been
employed for this purpose by some of the French generals, and suffered
death as a traitor. On the sixteenth day of the month the duke of
Holstein-Ploen invested Huy, and earned on the siege with such vigour that
in ten days the garrison capitulated. The king ordered Dixmuyde, Deynse,
Ninove, and Tirelemont, to be secured for winter quarters to part of the
army; the dauphin returned to Versailles; William quitted the camp on the
last day of September; and both armies broke up about the middle of
October.

The operations on the Rhine were preconcerted between king William and the
prince of Baden, who had visited London in the winter. The dispute between
the emperor and the elector of Saxony was compromised; and this young
prince dying during the negotiation, the treaty was perfected by his
brother and successor, who engaged to furnish twelve thousand men yearly,
in consideration of a subsidy from the court of Vienna. In the beginning
of June, mareschal de Lorges passed the Rhine at Philipsburgh, in order to
give battle to the imperialists encamped at Halibron. The prince of Baden,
who was not yet joined by the Saxons, Hessians, nor by the troops of
Munster and Paderborn, dispatched couriers to quicken the march of these
auxiliaries, and advanced to Eppingen, where he proposed to wait till they
should come up; but on the fifteenth, receiving undoubted intelligence
that the enemy were in motion towards him, he advanced to meet them in
order of battle. De Lorges concluded that this was a desperate effort, and
immediately halted to make the necessary preparations for an engagement.
This pause enabled prince Louis to take possession of a strong pass near
Sintzheim, from which he could not easily be dislodged. Then the mareschal
proceeded to Viseloch, and ravaged the adjacent country, in hopes of
drawing the imperialists from their intrenchments. The prince being joined
by the Hessians, resolved to beat up the quarters of the enemy; and the
French general being apprised of his design, retreated at midnight with
the utmost precipitation. Having posted himself at Ruth, he sent his heavy
baggage to Philipsburgh; then he moved to Gonsbergh in the neighbourhood
of Manheim, repassed the Rhine, and encamped between Spires and Worms. The
prince of Baden being joined by the allies, passed the river by a bridge
of boats near Hagenbach, in the middle of September; and laid the country
of Alsace under contribution. Considering the advanced season of the year
this was a rash undertaking; and the French general resolved to profit by
his enemy’s temerity. He forthwith advanced against the imperialists,
foreseeing that should they be worsted in battle, their whole army would
be ruined. Prince Louis, informed of his intention, immediately passed the
Rhine; and this retreat was no sooner effected than the river swelled to
such a degree that the island in the middle, and a great part of the camp
he had occupied, was overflowed. Soon after this incident both armies
retired into winter-quarters. The campaign in Hungary produced no event of
importance. It was opened by the new vizier, who arrived at Belgrade in
the middle of August: and about the same time Caprara assembled the
imperial army in the neighbourhood of Peterwaraden. The Turks passed the
Saave in order to attack their camp, and carried on their approaches with
five hundred pieces of cannon; but made very little progress. The
imperialists received reinforcements; the season wasted away; a feud arose
between the vizier and the chain of the Tartars; and the Danube being
swelled by heavy rains, so as to interrupt the operations of the Turks,
their general decamped in the night of the first of October. They
afterwards made an unsuccessful attempt upon Titul, while the imperial
general made himself master of Giula. In the course of this summer the
Venetians, who were also at war with the Turks, reduced Cyclut, a place of
importance on the river Naranta, and made a conquest of the island of Scio
in the Archipelago.

PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH.

We have already observed that the French king had determined to act
vigorously in Catalonia. In the beginning of May, the duke de Noailles
advanced at the head of eight and twenty thousand men to the river Ter, on
the opposite bank of which the viceroy of Catalonia was encamped with
sixteen thousand Spaniards. The French general passed the river in the
face of this army, and attacked their intrenchments with such impetuosity,
that in less than an hour they were totally defeated. Then he marched to
Palamos, and undertook the siege of that place, while at the same time it
was blocked up by the combined squadrons of Brest and Toulon. Though the
besieged made an obstinate defence, the town was taken by storm, the
houses were pillaged, and the people put to the sword, without distinction
of age, sex, or condition. Then he invested Gironne, which in a few days
capitulated. Ostalric met with the same fate, and Noailles was created
viceroy of Catalonia by the French king. In the beginning of August he
distributed his forces into quarters of refreshment along the river
Ter-dore, resolving to undertake the siege of Barcelona, which was saved
by the arrival of admiral Russel. The war languished in Piedmont, on
account of a secret negotiation between the king of France and the duke of
Savoy; notwithstanding the remonstrances of Rouvigny earl of Galway, who
had succeeded the duke of Schomberg in the command of the British forces
in that country. Casal was closely blocked up by the reduction of Fort St.
George, and the Vaudois gained the advantage in some skirmishes in the
valley of Ragclas; but no design of importance was executed.*

* In the course of this year, M. du Casse, governor of St.
Domingo, made an unsuccessful attempt upon the Island of
Jamaica; and M. St. Clair, with four men of war, formed a
design against St. John’s, Newfoundland; but he was repulsed
with loss by the valour of the inhabitants.

England had continued very quiet under the queen’s administration, if we
except some little commotions occasioned by the practices, or pretended
practices, of the Jacobites. Prosecutions were revived against certain
gentlemen of Lancashire and Cheshire, for having been concerned in the
conspiracy formed in favour of the late king’s projected invasion from
Normandy. These steps were owing to the suggestions of infamous informers,
whom the ministry countenanced. Colonel Parker and one Crosby were
imprisoned, and bills of treason found against them; but Parker made his
escape from the Tower, and was never retaken, though a reward of four
hundred pounds was set upon his head. The king having settled the affairs
of the confederacy at the Hague, embarked for England on the eighth of
November, and next day landed at Margate. On the twelfth he opened the
session of parliament with a speech, in which he observed that the posture
of affairs was improved both by sea and land since they last parted; in
particular, that a stop was put to the progress of the French arms. He
desired they would continue the act of tonnage and poundage, which would
expire at Christmas; he reminded them of the debt for the transport ships
employed in the reduction of Ireland; and exhorted them to prepare some
good bill for the encouragement of seamen. A majority in both houses was
already secured; and in all probability he bargained for their
condescension by agreeing to the bill for triennial parliaments. This Mr.
Harley brought in by order of the lower house immediately after their
first adjournment; and it kept pace with the consideration of the
supplies. The commons having examined the estimates and accounts, voted
four millions, seven hundred sixty-four thousand, seven hundred and twelve
pounds, for the service of the army and navy. In order to raise this sum
they continued the land tax; they renewed the subsidy of tonnage and
poundage for five years, and imposed new duties on different commodities.*
The triennial bill enacted, that a parliament should be held once within
three years at least; that within three years at farthest after the
dissolution of the parliament then subsisting, and so from time to time
for ever after, legal writs under the great seal should be issued by the
direction of the crown for calling, assembling, and holding another new
parliament; that no parliament should continue longer than three years at
farthest, to be accounted from the first day of the first session; and
that the parliament then subsisting should cease and determine on the
first day of November next following, unless their majesties should think
fit to dissolve it sooner. The duke of Devonshire, the marquis of Halifax,
the earls of Weymouth and Aylesbury, protested against this bill, because
it tended to the continuance of the present parliament longer than, as
they apprehended, was agreeable to the constitution of England.

* They imposed certain rates and duties upon marriages,
births, and burials, bachelors, and widows. They passed an
act for laying additional duties upon coffee, tea, and
chocolate, towards paying the debt due for the transport
ships: and another, imposing duties on glass ware, stone,
and earthen bottles, coal, and culm.

DEATH OF ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON AND OF QUEEN MARY

While this bill was depending, Dr. John Tillotson, archbishop of
Canterbury, was seized with a fit of the dead palsy in the chapel of
Whitehall, and died on the twenty-second day of November, deeply regretted
by the king and queen, who shed tears of sorrow at his decease; and
sincerely lamented by the public, as a pattern of elegance, ingenuity,
meekness, charity, and moderation. These qualities he must be allowed to
have possessed, notwithstanding the invectives of his enemies, who accused
him of puritanism, flattery, and ambition; and charged him with having
conduced to a dangerous schism in the church, by accepting the
archbishopric during the life of the deprived Sancroft. He was succeeded
in the metropolitan See by Dr. Tennison, bishop of Lincoln, recommended by
the whig-party which now predominated in the cabinet. The queen did not
long survive her favourite prelate. In about a month after his decease she
was taken ill of the smallpox, and the symptoms proving dangerous, she
prepared herself for death with great composure. She spent some time in
exercises of devotion and private conversation with the new archbishop;
she received the sacrament with all the bishops who were in attendance;
and expired on the twenty-eighth day of December, in the thirty-third year
of her age, and in the sixth of her reign, to the inexpressible grief of
the king, who for some weeks after her death could neither see company nor
attend to the business of state. Mary was in her person tall and
well-proportioned, with an oval visage, lively eyes, agreeable features, a
mild aspect, and an air of dignity. Her apprehension was clear, her memory
tenacious, and her judgment solid. She was a zealous protestant,
scrupulously exact in all the duties of devotion, of an even temper, and
of a calm and mild conversation. She was ruffled by no passion, and seems
to have been a stranger to the emotions of natural affection; for she
ascended without compunction the throne from which her father had been
deposed, and treated her sister as an alien to her blood. In a word, Mary
seems to have imbibed the cold disposition and apathy of her husband; and
to have centered all her ambition in deserving the epithet of an humble
and obedient wife. 056 [See note L, at the end of this Vol.]

RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE KING AND THE PRINCESS OF DENMARK.

The princess Anne being informed of the queen’s dangerous indisposition,
sent a lady of her bed-chamber to desire she might be admitted to her
majesty; but this request was not granted. She was thanked for her
expression of concern; and given to understand, that the physicians had
directed that the queen should be kept as quiet as possible. Before her
death, however, she sent a forgiving message to her sister; and after her
decease, the earl of Sunderland effected a reconciliation between the king
and the princess, who visited him at Kensington, where she was received
with uncommon civility. He appointed the palace of St. James for her
residence, and presented her with the greater part of the queen’s jewels.
But a mutual jealousy and disgust subsisted under these exteriors of
friendship and esteem. The two houses of parliament waited on the king at
Kensington, with consolatory addresses on the death of his consort; their
example was followed by the regency of Scotland, the city and clergy of
London, the dissenting ministers, and almost all the great corporations in
England.*

* The earls of Rochester and Nottingham are said to have
started a doubt, whether the parliament was not dissolved by
the queen’s death; but this dangerous motion met with no
countenance.

ENLARGE

CHAPTER V. WILLIAM.

Account of the Lancashire Plot….. The Commons inquire
into the Abuses which had crept into the Army….. They
expel and prosecute some of their own Members for Corruption
in the Affair of the East India Company….. Examination of
Cooke, Acton, and others….. The Commons impeach the Duke
of Leeds….. The Parliament is prorogued….. Session of
the Scottish Parliament….. They inquire into the Massacre
of Glencoe….. They pass an Act for erecting a Trading
Company to Africa and the Indies….. Proceedings in the
Parliament of Ireland….. Disposition of the Armies in
Flanders….. King William undertakes the Siege of
Namur….. Famous Retreat of Prince Vaudemont….. Brussels
is bombarded by Villeroy….. Progress of the Siege of
Namur….. Villeroy attempts to relieve it….. The
Besiegers make a desperate Assault….. The Place
capitulates….. Boufflers is arrested by order of King
William….. Campaign on the Rhine and in Hungary….. The
Duke of Savoy takes Casal….. Transactions in
Catalonia….. The English Fleet bombard’s St. Maloes and
other places on the Coast of France….. Wilmot’s expedition
to the West Indies….. A new Parliament….. They pass the
Bill for regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason…..
Resolutions with respect to the new Coinage….. The Commons
address the King to recall a Grant he had made to the Earl
of Portland….. Another against the new Scottish
Company….. Intrigues of the Jacobites….. Conspiracy
against the life of William….. Design of an Invasion
defeated….. The two Houses engage in an Association for
the Defence of his Majesty….. Establishment of a Land
Bank….. Trial of the Conspirators….. The Allies burn the
Magazine at Civet….. Louis the Fourteenth makes Advances
towards a Peace with Holland….. He detaches the Duke of
Savoy from the Confederacy….. Naval Transactions…..
Proceedings in the Parliaments of Scotland and Ireland…..
Zeal of the English Commons in their Affection to the
King….. Resolutions touching the Coin and the support of
Public Credit….. Enormous Impositions….. Sir John Fen-
wick is apprehended….. A Bill of Attainder being brought
into the House against him produces violent Debates….. His
Defence….. The Bill passes….. Sir John Fenwick is
beheaded….. The Earl of Monmouth sent to the Tower…..
Inquiry into Miscarriages by Sea….. Negotiations at
Ryswick….. The French take Barcelona….. Fruitless
Expedition of Admiral Neville to the West Indies….. The
Elector of Saxony is chosen King of Poland….. Peter the
Czar of Muscovy travels in Disguise with his own Ambassadors
….. Proceedings in the Congress at Ryswick….. The
Ambassadors of England, Spain, and Holland, sign the
Treaty….. A general Pacification.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

ACCOUNT OF THE LANCASHIRE PLOT.

THE kingdom now resounded with the complaints of the papists and
malcontents, who taxed the ministry with subornation of perjury in the
case of the Lancashire gentlemen who had been persecuted for the
conspiracy. One Lunt, an Irishman, had informed sir John Trench-ard,
secretary of state, that he had been sent from Ireland with commissions
from king James to divers gentlemen in Lancashire and Cheshire; that he
had assisted in buying arms and enlisting men to serve that king in his
projected invasion of England; that he had been twice despatched by those
gentlemen to the court of St. Germain’s, assisted many Jacobites in
repairing to France, helped to conceal others that came from that kingdom;
and that all those persons told him they were furnished with money by sir
John Friend, to defray the expense of their expeditions. His testimony was
confirmed by other infamous emissaries, who received but too much
countenance from the government. Blank warrants were issued, and filled up
occasionally with such names as the informers suggested. These were
delivered to Aaron Smith, solicitor to the treasury, who with messengers
accompanied Lunt and his associates to Lancashire, under the protection of
a party of Dutch horse-guards commanded by one captain Baker. They were
empowered to break open houses, seize papers, and apprehend persons,
according to their pleasure; and they committed many acts of violence and
oppression. The persons against whom these measures were taken, being
apprized of the impending danger, generally retired from their own
habitations. Some, however, were taken and imprisoned; a few arms were
secured; and in the house of Mr. Standish, at Standish-hall, they found
the draft of a declaration to be published by king James at his landing.
As this prosecution seemed calculated to revive the honour of a stale
conspiracy, and the evidences were persons of abandoned characters, the
friends of those who were persecuted found no great difficulty in
rendering the scheme odious to the nation. They even employed the pen of
Ferguson, who had been concerned in every plot that was hatched since the
Rye-house conspiracy. This veteran, though appointed housekeeper to the
excise-office, thought himself poorly recompensed for the part he had
acted in the revolution, became dissatisfied, and upon this occasion
published a letter to sir John Trenchard on the abuse of power. It was
replete with the most bitter invectives against the ministry, and
contained a great number of flagrant instances in which the court had
countenanced the vilest corruption, perfidy, and oppression. This
production was in every body’s hand, and had such an effect upon the
people, that when the prisoners were brought to trial at Manchester, the
populace would have put the witnesses to death had they not been prevented
by the interposition of those who were friends of the accused persons, and
had already taken effectual measures for their safety. Lunt’s chief
associate in the mystery of information was one Taaffe, a wretch of the
most profligate principles, who, finding himself disappointed in his hope
of reward from the ministry, was privately gained over by the agents for
the prisoners. Lunt, when desired in court to point out the persons whom
he had accused, committed such a mistake as greatly invalidated his
testimony; and Taaffe declared before the bench, that the pretended plot
was no other than a contrivance between himself and Lunt in order to
procure money from the government. The prisoners were immediately
acquitted, and the ministry incurred a heavy load of popular odium, as the
authors or abettors of knavish contrivances to insnare the innocent. The
government, with a view to evince their abhorrence of such practices,
ordered the witnesses to be prosecuted for a conspiracy against the lives
and estates of the gentlemen who had been accused; and at last the affair
was brought into the house of commons. The Jacobites triumphed in their
victory. They even turned the battery of corruption upon the evidence for
the crown, not without making a considerable impression. But the cause was
now debated before judges who were not at all propitious to their views.
The commons having set on foot an inquiry, and examined all the papers and
circumstances relating to the pretended plot, resolved that there was
sufficient ground for the prosecution and trials of the gentlemen at
Manchester; and that there was a dangerous conspiracy against the king and
government. They issued an order for taking Mr. Standish into custody; and
the messenger reporting that he was not to be found, they presented an
address to the king, desiring a proclamation might be published offering a
reward for apprehending his person. The peers concurred with the commons
in their sentiments of this affair; for complaints having been laid before
their house also by the persons who thought themselves aggrieved, the
question was put whether the government had cause to prosecute them, and
carried in the affirmative, though a protest was entered against this vote
by the earls of Rochester and Nottingham. Notwithstanding these decisions,
the accused gentlemen prosecuted Lunt and two of his accomplices for
perjury at the Lancaster assizes, and all three were found guilty. They
were immediately indicted by the crown for a conspiracy against the lives
and liberties of the persons they had accused. The intention of the
ministry in laying this indictment was to seize the opportunity of
punishing some of the witnesses for the gentlemen who had prevaricated in
giving their testimony; but their design being discovered, the Lancashire
men refused to produce their evidence against the informers; the
prosecution dropped of consequence, and the prisoners were discharged.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

INQUIRY INTO THE ABUSES IN THE ARMY.

When the commons were employed in examining the state of the revenue, and
taking measures for raising the necessary supplies, the inhabitants of
Royston presented a petition, complaining that the officers and soldiers
of the regiment belonging to colonel Hastings, which was quartered upon
them, exacted subsistence-money, even on pain of military execution. The
house was immediately kindled into a flame by this information. The
officers and Pauncefort, agent for the regiment, were examined: then it
was unanimously resolved that such a practice was arbitrary, illegal, and
a violation of the rights and liberties of the subject. Upon further
inquiry, Pauncefort and some other agents were committed to the custody of
the sergeant, for having neglected to pay the subsistence money they had
received for the officers and soldiers. He was afterwards sent to the
Tower, together with Henry Guy, a member of the house and secretary to the
treasury, the one for giving and the other for receiving a bribe to obtain
the king’s bounty. Pauncefort’s brother was likewise committed for being
concerned in the same commerce. Guy had been employed, together with
Trevor the speaker, as the court-agent for securing a majority in the
house of commons; for that reason he was obnoxious to the members in the
opposition, who took this opportunity to brand him, and the courtiers
could not with any decency screen him from their vengeance. The house
having proceeded in this inquiry, drew up an address to the king,
enumerating the abuses which had crept into the army, and demanding
immediate redress. He promised to consider the remonstrance and redress
the grievances of which they complained. Accordingly, he cashiered colonel
Hastings; appointed a council of officers to sit weekly and examine all
complaints against any officer and soldier; and published a declaration
for the maintenance of strict discipline, and the due payment of quarters.
Notwithstanding these concessions, the commons prosecuted their
examinations: they committed Mr. James Craggs, one of the contractors for
clothing the army, because he refused to answer upon oath to such
questions as might be put to him by the commissioners of accounts. They
brought in a bill for obliging him and Mr. Richard Harnage, the other
contractor, together with the two Paunceforts, to discover how they had
disposed of the sums paid into their hands on account of the army, and for
punishing them in case they should persist in their refusal. At this
period they received a petition against the commissioners for licensing
hackney-coaches. Three of them, by means of an address to the king, were
removed with disgrace for having acted arbitrarily, corruptly, and
contrary to the trust reposed in them by act of parliament.

Those who encouraged this spirit of reformation, introduced another
inquiry about the orphans’ bill, which was said to have passed into an act
by virtue of undue influence. A committee being appointed to inspect the
chamberlain’s books, discovered that bribes had been given to sir John
Trevor, speaker of the house, and Mr. Hungerford, chairman of the grand
committee. The first being voted guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor,
abdicated the chair, and Paul Foley was appointed speaker in his room.
Then sir John and Hungerford were expelled the house: one Nois, a
solicitor for the bill, was taken into custody because he had scandalized
the commons, in pretending he was engaged to give great sums to several
members, and denying this circumstance on his examination. The reformers
in the house naturally concluded that the same arts had been practised in
obtaining the new charter of the East India company, which had been
granted so much against the sense of the nation. Their books were
subjected to the same committee that carried on the former inquiry, and a
surprising scene of venality and corruption was soon disclosed. It
appeared that the company, in the course of the preceding year, had paid
near ninety thousand rounds in secret services, and that sir Thomas Cooke,
one of the directors, and a member of the house, had been the chief
managers of this infamous commerce. Cooke, refusing to answer, was
committed to the Tower, and a bill of pains and penalties brought in
obliging him to discover how the sum mentioned in the report of the
committee had been distributed. The bill was violently opposed in the
upper house by the duke of Leeds, as being contrary to law and equity, and
furnishing a precedent of a dangerous nature. Cooke, agreeably to his own
petition, being brought to the bar of the house of lords, declared that he
was ready and willing to make a full discovery, in case he might be
favoured with an indemnifying vote to secure him against all actions and
suits, except those of the East India company which he had never injured.
The lords complied with his request and passed a bill for this purpose, to
which the commons added a penal clause, and the former was laid aside.

EXAMINATION OF COOKE, ACTON, AND OTHERS.

When the king went to the house to give the royal assent to the
money-bills, he endeavoured to discourage this inquiry by telling the
parliament that the season of the year was far advanced, and the
circumstances of affairs extremely pressing, he therefore desired they
would despatch such business as they should think of most importance to
the public, as he should put an end to the session in a few days.
Notwithstanding this shameful interposition, both houses appointed a joint
committee to lay open the complicated scheme of fraud and iniquity. Cooke,
on his first examination, confessed that he had delivered tallies for ten
thousand pounds to Francis Tyssen, deputy-governor, for the special
service of the company; an equal sum to Richard Acton, for employing his
interest in preventing a new settlement, and endeavouring to establish the
old company; besides two thousand pounds by way of interest and as a
further gratuity; a thousand guineas to colonel Fitzpatrick, five hundred
to Charles Bates, and three hundred and ten to Mr. Molinenx, a merchant,
for the same purpose; and he owned that sir Basil Firebrace had received
forty thousand pounds on various pretences. He said he believed the ten
thousand pounds paid to Tyssen had been delivered to the king by sir
Josiah Child, as a customary present which former kings had received, and
that the sums paid to Acton were distributed among some members of
parliament. Firebrace being examined, affirmed that he had received the
whole forty thousand pounds for his own use and benefit; but that Bates
had received sums of money, which he understood were offered to some
persons of the first quality. Acton declared that ten thousand pounds of
the sum which he had received was distributed among persons who had
interest with members of parliament, and that great part of the money
passed through the hands of Craggs, who was acquainted with some colonels
in the house and northern members. Bates owned he had received the money
in consideration of using his interest with the duke of Leeds in favour of
the company; that this nobleman knew of the gratuity; and that the sum was
reckoned by his grace’s domestic, one Robart, a foreigner, who kept it in
his possession until this inquiry was talked of, and then it was returned.
In a word, it appeared by this man’s testimony, as well as by that of
Firebrace on his second examination, that the duke of Leeds was not free
from corruption, and that sir John Trevor was a hireling prostitute.

THE DUKE OF LEEDS IMPEACHED.

The report of the committee produced violent altercations, and the most
severe strictures upon the conduct of the lord president. At length the
house resolved that there was sufficient matter to impeach Thomas, duke of
Leeds, of high crimes and misdemeanors, and that he should be impeached
thereupon. Then it was ordered that Mr. comptroller Wharton should impeach
him before the lords in the name of the house and of all the commons in
England. The duke was actually in the middle of a speech for his own
justification, in which he assured the house, upon his honour, that he was
not guilty of the corruptions laid to his charge, when one of his friends
gave him intimation of the votes which had passed in the commons. He
concluded his speech abruptly, and repairing to the lower house, desired
he might be indulged with a hearing. He was accordingly admitted, with the
compliment of a chair, and leave to be covered. After having sat a few
minutes, he took off his hat and addressed himself to the commons in very
extraordinary terms. Having thanked them for the favour of indulging him
with a hearing, he said that house would not have been then sitting but
for him. He protested his own innocence with respect to the crime laid to
his charge. He complained that this was the effect of a design which had
been long formed against him. He expressed a deep sense of his being under
the displeasure of the parliament and nation, and demanded speedy justice.
They forthwith drew up the articles of impeachment, which being exhibited
at the bar of the upper house, he pleaded not guilty, and the commons
promised to make good their charge; but by this time such arts had been
used as all at once checked the violence of the prosecution. Such a number
of considerable persons were involved in this mystery of corruption, that
a full discovery was dreaded by both parties. The duke sent his domestic
Robart out of the kingdom, and his absence furnished a pretence for
postponing the trial. In a word, the inquiry was dropped; but the scandal
stuck fast to the duke’s character.

In the midst of these deliberations, the king went to the house on the
third day of May, when he thanked the parliament for the supplies they had
granted; signified his intention of going abroad; assured them he would
place the administration of affairs in persons of known care and fidelity;
and desired that the members of both houses would be more than ordinarily
vigilant in preserving the public peace. The parliament was then prorogued
to the eighteenth of June. 058 [See note M, at the end of this Vol.]
The king immediately appointed a regency to govern the kingdom in his
absence; but neither the princess of Denmark nor her husband were
intrusted with any share in the administration—a circumstance that
evinced the king’s jealousy, and gave offence to a great part of the
nation. 059
[See note N, at the end of this Vol.]

THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

A session of parliament was deemed necessary in Scotland, to provide new
subsidies for the maintenance of the troops of that kingdom, which had
been so serviceable in the prosecution of the war. But as a great outcry
had been raised against the government on account of the massacre of
Glencoe, and the Scots were tired of contributing towards the expense of a
war from which they could derive no advantage, the ministry thought proper
to cajole them with the promise of some national indulgence. In the
meantime, a commission passed the great seal for taking a precognition of
the massacre, as a previous step to the trial of the persons concerned in
that perfidious transaction. On the ninth day of May, the session was
opened by the marquis of Tweedale, appointed commissioner, who, after the
king’s letter had been read, expatiated on his majesty’s care and concern
for their safety and welfare; and his firm purpose to maintain the
presbyterian discipline in the church of Scotland. Then he promised, in
the king’s name, that if they would pass an act for establishing a colony
in Africa, America, or any other part of the world where a colony might be
lawfully planted, his majesty would indulge them with such rights and
privileges as he had granted in like cases to the subjects of his other
dominions. Finally, he exhorted them to consider ways and means to raise
the necessary supplies for maintaining their land forces, and for
providing a competent number of ships of war to protect their commerce.
The parliament immediately voted an address of condolence to his majesty
on the death of the queen; and they granted one hundred and twenty
thousand pounds sterling for the service of the ensuing year, to be raised
by a general poll-tax, a land-tax, and an additional excise.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

THEY INQUIRE INTO THE MASSACRE OF GLENCOE.

Their next step was to desire the commissioner would transmit their humble
thanks to the king for his care to vindicate the honour of the government
and the justice of the nation, in ordering a precognition to be taken with
respect to the slaughter of Glencoe. A motion was afterwards made that the
commissioners should exhibit an account of their proceedings in this
affair; accordingly a report, consisting of the king’s instructions,
Dalrymple’s letters, the depositions of witnesses, and the opinion of the
committee, was laid before the parliament. The motion is said to have been
privately influenced by secretary Johnston, for the disgrace of Dalrymple,
who was his rival in power and interest. The written opinion of the
commissioners, who were creatures of the court, imported, That Macdonald
of Glencoe had been perfidiously murdered; that the king’s instructions
contained nothing to warrant the massacre; and that secretary Dalrymple
had exceeded his orders. The parliament concurred with this report. They
resolved, That Livingston was not to blame for having given the orders
contained in his letters to lieutenant-colonel Hamilton; that this last
was liable to prosecution; that the king should be addressed to give
orders, either for examining major Duncanson in Flanders, touching his
concern in this affair, or for sending him home to be tried in Scotland;
as also, that Campbell of Glenlyon; captain Drummond, lieutenant Lindsey,
ensign Lundy, and sergeant Barber, should be sent to Scotland, and
prosecuted according to law, for the parts they had acted in that
execution. In consequence of these resolutions, the parliament drew up an
address to the king, in which they laid the whole blame of the massacre
upon the excess in the master of Stair’s letters concerning that
transaction. They begged that his majesty would give such orders about
him, as he should think fit for the vindication of his government; that
the actors in that barbarous slaughter might be prosecuted by the king’s
advocate according to law; and that some reparation might be made to the
men of Glencoe who escaped the massacre, for the losses they had sustained
in their effects upon that occasion, as their habitations had been
plundered and burned, their lands wasted, and their cattle driven away; so
that they were reduced to extreme poverty. Notwithstanding this address of
the Scottish parliament, by which the king was so solemnly exculpated, his
memory is still loaded with the suspicion of having concerted,
countenanced, and enforced this barbarous execution, especially as the
master of Stair escaped with impunity, and the other actors of the
tragedy, far from being punished, were preferred in the service. While the
commissioners were employed in the inquiry, they made such discoveries
concerning the conduct of the earl of Breadalbane, as amounted to a charge
of high treason; and he was committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh;
but it seems he had dissembled with the highlanders by the king’s
permission, and now sheltered himself under the shadow of a royal pardon.

THEY PASS AN ACT FOR ERECTING A TRADING COMPANY.

The committee of trade, in pursuance of the powers granted by the king to
his commissioner, prepared an act for establishing a company trading to
Africa and the Indies, empowering them to plant colonies, hold cities,
towns, or forts, in places uninhabited, or in others with the consent of
the natives; vesting them with an exclusive right, and an exemption for
one-and-twenty years from all duties and impositions. This act was
likewise confirmed by letters patent under the great seal, directed by the
parliament, without any further warrant from the crown. Paterson, the
projector, had contrived the scheme of a settlement upon the isthmus of
Darien, in such a manner as to carry on a trade in the South Sea as well
as in the Atlantic; nay, even to extend it as far as the East Indies: a
great number of London merchants, allured by the prospect of gain, were
eager to engage in such a company, exempted from all manner of imposition
and restriction. The Scottish parliament likewise passed an act in favour
of the episcopal clergy, decreeing, That those who should enter into such
engagements to the king as were by law required, might continue in their
benefices under his majesty’s protection, without being subject to the
power of presbytery. Seventy of the most noted ministers of that
persuasion took the benefit of this indulgence. Another law was enacted,
for raising nine thousand men yearly to recruit the Scottish regiments
abroad; and an act for erecting a public bank; then the parliament was
adjourned to the seventh day of November.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

Ireland began to be infected with the same factions which had broke out in
England since the revolution: lord Capel, lord-deputy, governed in a very
partial manner, oppressing the Irish papists without any regard to equity
or decorum. He undertook to model a parliament in such a manner that they
should comply with all the demands of the ministry; and he succeeded in
his endeavours by making such arbitrary changes in offices as best suited
his purpose. These precautions being taken, he convoked a parliament for
the twenty-seventh day of August, when he opened the session with a
speech, expatiating upon their obligations to king-William, and exhorting
them to make suitable returns to such a gracious sovereign. He observed,
that the revenue had fallen short of the establishment; so that both the
civil and military lists were greatly in debt; that his majesty had sent
over a bill for an additional excise, and expected they would find ways
and means to answer the demands of the service. They forthwith voted an
address of thanks, and resolved to assist his majesty to the utmost of
their power, against all his enemies, foreign and domestic. They passed
the bill for an additional excise, together with an act for taking away
the writ “De heretico comburendo;” another annulling all attainders
and acts passed in the late pretended parliament of king James; a third to
prevent foreign education; a fourth for disarming papists; and a fifth for
settling the estates of intestates. Then they resolved, That a sum not
exceeding one hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred and
twenty-five pounds, should be granted to his majesty; to be raised by a
poll-bill, additional customs, and a continuation of the additional
excise. Sir Charles Porter, the chancellor, finding his importance
diminished, if not entirely destroyed, by the assuming disposition and
power of the lord-deputy, began to court popularity by espousing the cause
of the Irish against the severity of the administration, and actually
formed a kind of tory interest which thwarted lord Capel in all his
measures. A motion was made in parliament to impeach the chancellor for
sowing discord and division among his majesty’s subjects; but being
indulged with a hearing by the house of commons, he justified himself so
much to their satisfaction, that he was voted clear of all imputation by a
great majority. Nevertheless, they, at the end of the session, sent over
an address, in which they bore testimony to the mild and just
administration of their lord-deputy.

DISPOSITION OF THE ARMIES.

King William having taken such steps as were deemed necessary for
preserving the peace of England in his absence, crossed the sea to Holland
in the middle of May, fully determined to make some great effort in the
Netherlands that might aggrandize his military character, and humble the
power of France which was already on the decline. That kingdom was
actually exhausted in such a manner that the haughty Louis found himself
obliged to stand upon the defensive against enemies over whom he had been
used to triumph with uninterrupted success. He heard the clamours of his
people which he could not quiet; he saw his advances to peace rejected;
and to crown his misfortunes, he sustained an irreparable loss in the
death of Francis de Montmorency, duke of Luxembourg, to whose military
talents he owed the greatest part of his glory and success. That great
officer died in January at Versailles, in the sixty-seventh year of his
age; and Louis lamented his death the more deeply, as he had not another
general left in whose understanding he could confide. The conduct of the
army in Flanders was intrusted to mareschal Villeroy, and Boufflers
commanded a separate army though subject to the other’s orders. As the
French king took it for granted that the confederates would have a
superiority of numbers in the field, and was well acquainted with the
enterprising genius of their chief, he ordered a new line to be drawn
between Lys and the Scheld; he caused a disposition to be made for
covering Dunkirk, Ypres, Tournay, and Namur; and laid injunctions on his
general to act solely on the defensive. Meanwhile, the confederates formed
two armies in the Netherlands. The first consisted of seventy battalions
of infantry, and eighty-two squadrons of horse and dragoons, chiefly
English and Scots, encamped at Ærseele, Caneghem, and Wouterghem, between
Thield and Deynse, to be commanded by the king in person, assisted by the
old prince of Vaudemont. The other army, composed of sixteen battalions of
foot and one hundred and thirty squadrons of horse, encamped at Zellich
and Hamme, on the road from Brussels to Dendermonde, under the command of
the elector of Bavaria, seconded by the duke of Holstein-Ploen.
Major-general Ellemberg was posted near Dixmuyde with twenty battalions
and ten squadrons; and another body of Brandenburg and Dutch troops, with
a reinforcement from Liege, lay encamped on the Mehaigne, under the
conduct of the baron de Heyden, Lieutenant-general of Brandenburgh, and
the count de Berlo, general of the Liege cavalry. King-William arrived in
the camp on the fifth clay of July, and remained eight days at Ærseele.
Then he marched to Bekelar, while Villeroy retired behind his lines
between Menin and Ypres, after having detached ten thousand men to
reinforce Boufflers, who had advanced to Pont d’Espieres; but he too
retreating within his lines, the elector of Bavaria passed the Scheld and
took post at Kirkhoven; at the same time the body under Heyden advanced
towards Namur.

WILLIAM UNDERTAKES THE SIEGE OF NAMUR.

The king of England having by his motions drawn the forces of the enemy on
the side of Flanders, directed the baron de Heyden and the earl of
Athlone, who commanded forty squadrons from the camp of the elector of
Bavaria, to invest Namur, and this service was performed on the third day
of July; but as the place was not entirely surrounded, mareschal Boufflers
threw himself into it with such a reinforcement of dragoons as augmented
the garrison to the number of fifteen thousand chosen men. King William
and the elector brought up the rest of the forces, which encamped on both
sides of the Sambre and the Mose, and the lines of circumvallation were
begun on the sixth day of July under the direction of the celebrated
engineer, general Coehorn. The place was formerly very strong, both by
situation and art; but the French, since its last reduction, had made such
additional works that both the town and citadel seemed impregnable.
Considering the number of the garrison and the quality of the troops,
commanded by a mareschal of France distinguished by his valour and
conduct, the enterprise was deemed an undeniable proof of William’s
temerity. On the eleventh the trenches were opened, and next day the
batteries began to play with incredible fury. The king receiving
intelligence of a motion made by a body of French troops with a view to
intercept the convoys, detached twenty squadrons of horse and dragoons to
observe the enemy.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

FAMOUS RETREAT OF PRINCE VAUDEMONT.

Prince Vaudemont, who was left at Roselsær with fifty battalions, and the
like number of squadrons, understanding that Villeroy had passed the Lys
in order to attack him, took post with his left near Grammen, his right by
Ærseele and Caneghem, and began to fortify his camp with a view to expect
the enemy. Their vanguard appearing on the evening of the thirteenth at
Dentreghem, he changed the disposition of his camp, and intrenched himself
on both sides. Next day, however, perceiving Villeroy’s design was to
surround him by means of another body of troops commanded by M. Montai,
who had already passed the Scheld for that purpose, he resolved to avoid
an engagement, and effected a retreat to Ghent, which is celebrated as one
of the most capital efforts of military conduct. He forthwith detached
twelve battalions and twelve pieces of cannon to secure Newport, which
Villeroy had intended to invest; but that general now changed his
resolution, and undertook the siege of Dixmuyde, garrisoned by eight
battalions of foot and a regiment of dragoons, commanded by major-general
Ellemberg, who in six-and-thirty hours after the trenches were opened,
surrendered himself and his soldiers prisoners of war. This scandalous
example was followed by colonel O’Farrel, who yielded up Deynse on the
same shameful conditions, even before a battery was opened by the
besiegers. In the sequel, they were both tried for their misbehaviour;
Ellemberg suffered death, and O’Farrel was broke with infamy. The prince
of Vaudemont sent a message to the French general, demanding the garrisons
of those two places, according to a cartel which had been settled between
the powers at war; but no regard was paid to this remonstrance. Villeroy,
after several marches and countermarches, appeared before Brussels on the
thirteenth day of August, and sent a letter to the prince of Berghem,
governor of that city, importing that the king his master had ordered him
to bombard the town, by way of making reprisals for the damage done by the
English fleet to the maritime towns of France; he likewise desired to know
in what part the electress of Bavaria resided, that he might not fire into
that quarter. After this declaration, which was no more than an unmeaning
compliment, he began to bombard and cannonade the place with red-hot
bullets, which produced conflagrations in many different parts of the
city, and frightened the electress into a miscarriage. On the fifteenth,
the French discontinued their firing, and retired to Enghein.

During these transactions, the siege of Namur was prosecuted with great
ardour under the eye of the king of England; while the garrison defended
the place with equal spirit and perseverance. On the eighteenth day of
July, major-general Ramsay and lord Cutis, at the head of five battalions,
English, Scots, and Dutch, attacked the enemy’s advanced works on the
right of the counterscarp. They were sustained by six English battalions
commanded by brigadier-general Fitzpatrick; while eight foreign regiments,
with nine thousand pioneers, advanced on the left under major-general
Salish. The assault was desperate and bloody, the enemy maintaining their
ground for two hours with undaunted courage; but at last they were obliged
to give way, and were pursued to the very gates of the town, though not
before they had killed or wounded twelve hundred men of the confederate
army. The king was so well pleased with the behaviour of the British
troops, that during the action he laid his hand upon the shoulder of the
elector of Bavaria, and exclaimed with emotion, “See, my brave English.”
On the twenty-seventh the English and Scots, lander Ramsay and Hamilton,
assaulted the counterscarp, where they met with prodigious opposition from
the fire of the besieged. Nevertheless, being sustained by the Dutch, they
made a lodgement on the foremost covered-way before the gate of St.
Nicholas, as also upon part of the counterscarp. The valour of the
assailants on this occasion was altogether unprecedented, and almost
incredible; while on the other hand the courage of the besieged was worthy
of praise and admiration. Several persons were killed in the trenches at
the side of the king, and among these Mr. Godfrey, deputy-governor of the
bank of England, who had come to the camp to confer with his majesty about
remitting money for the payment of the army. On the thirtieth day of July
the elector of Bavaria attacked Vauban’s line that surrounded the works of
the castle. General Coehorn was present in this action, which was
performed with equal valour and success. They not only broke the line, but
even took possession of Coehorn’s fort, in which however they found it
impossible to effect a lodgement. On the second day of August, lord Cutts,
with four hundred English and Dutch grenadiers, attacked the salient angle
of a demi-bastion, and lodged himself on the second counterscarp. The
breaches being now practicable, and preparations made for a general
assault, count Guiscard the governor capitulated for the town on the
fourth of August; and the French retired into the citadel, against which
twelve batteries played upon the thirteenth. The trenches meanwhile were
carried on with great expedition, notwithstanding all the efforts of the
besieged, who fired without ceasing, and exerted amazing diligence and
intrepidity in defending and repairing the damage they sustained. At
length the annoyance became so dreadful from the unintermitting showers of
bombs and red-hot bullets, that Boufflers, after having made divers
furious sallies, formed a scheme for breaking through the confederate camp
with his cavalry. This however was prevented by the extreme vigilance of
king William.

After the bombardment of Brussels, Villeroy, being-reinforced with all the
troops that could be drafted from garrisons, advanced towards Namur with
an army of ninety thousand men; and prince Vaudemont, being joined by the
prince of Hesse with a strong body of forces from the Rhine, took
possession of the strong camp at Masy, within five English miles of the
besieging army. The king understanding that the enemy had reached Fleurus,
where they discharged ninety pieces of cannon as a signal to inform the
garrison of their approach, left the conduct of the siege to the elector
of Bavaria, and took upon himself the command of the covering army, in
order to oppose Villeroy, who being further reinforced by a detachment
from Germany, declared that he would hazard a battle for the relief of
Namur. But when he viewed the posture of the allies near Masy, he changed
his resolution and retired in the night without noise. On the thirtieth
day of August, the besieged were summoned to surrender, by count Horn, who
in a parley with the count de Lamont, general of the French infantry, gave
him to understand that mareschal Villeroy had retired towards the
Mehaigne; so that the garrison could not expect to be relieved. No
immediate answer being returned to this message, the parley was broke off,
and the king resolved to proceed without delay to a general assault, which
he had already planned with the elector and his other generals. Between
one and two in the afternoon, lord Cutts, who desired the command though
it was not his turn of duty, rushed out of the trenches of the second
line, at the head of three hundred grenadiers, to make a lodgement in the
breach of Terra-nova, supported by the regiments of Coulthorp, Buchan,
Hamilton, and Mackay; while colonel Marselly with a body of Dutch, the
Bavarians, and Brandenburghers, attacked at two other places. The
assailants met with such a warm reception, that the English grenadiers
were repulsed, even after they had mounted the breach, lord Cutts being
for some time disabled by a shot in the head. Marselly was defeated,
taken, and afterwards killed by a. cannon ball from the batteries of the
besiegers. The Bavarians by mistaking their way were exposed to a terrible
fire, by which their general count Rivera, and a great number of their
officers, were slain: nevertheless, they fixed themselves on the outward
intrenchment on the point of the Coehorn next to the Sambre, and
maintained their ground with amazing fortitude. Lord Cutts, when his wound
was dressed, returned to the scene of action, and ordered two hundred
chosen men of Mackay’s regiment, commanded by lieutenant Cockle, to attack
the face of the salient angle next to the breach sword in hand, while the
ensigns of the same regiment should advance and plant their colours on the
pallisadoes. Coekle and his detachment executed the command he had
received with admirable intrepedity. They broke through the pallisadoes,
drove the French from the covered way, made a lodgement in one of the
batteries, and turned the cannon against the enemy. The Bavarians being
thus sustained, made their post good. The major-generals La Cave and
Schwerin lodged themselves at the same time on the covered way; and though
the general assault did not succeed in its full extent, the confederates
remained masters of a very considerable lodgement, nearly an English mile
in length. Yet this was dearly purchased with the lives of two thousand
men, including many officers of great rank and reputation. During the
action the elector of Bavaria signalised his courage in a very remarkable
manner, riding from place to place through the hottest of the fire, giving
his directions with notable presence of mind, according to the emergency
of circumstances, animating the officers with praise and promise of
preferment, and distributing handfuls of gold among the private soldiers.

On the first day of September, the besieged having obtained a cessation of
arms that their dead might be buried, the count de Guiscard appearing on
the breach, desired to speak with the elector of Bavaria. His highness
immediately mounting the breach, the French governor offered to surrender
the fort of Cohorn; but was given to understand, that if he intended to
capitulate, he must treat for the whole. This reply being communicated to
Boufflers, he agreed to the proposal: the cessation was prolonged, and
that very evening the capitulation was finished. Villeroy, who lay
encamped at Gemblours, was no sooner apprised of this event by a triple
discharge of all the artillery, and a running fire along the lines of the
confederate army, than he passed the Sambre near Charleroy with great
precipitation; and having reinforced the garrison of Dinant, retreated
towards the lines in the neighbourhood of Mons. On the fifth day of
September the French garrison, which was now reduced from fifteen to five
thousand five hundred men, evacuated the citadel of Namur. Boufflers, in
marching out, was arrested in name of his Britannic majesty, by way of
reprisal for the garrisons of Dixmuyde and Deynse, which the French king
had detained contrary to the cartel subsisting between the two nations.
The mareschal was not a little discomposed at this unexpected incident,
and expostulated warmly with Mr. Dyckvelt, who assured him that the king
of Great Britain entertained a profound respect for his person and
character. William even offered to set him at liberty, provided he would
pass his word that the garrisons of Dixmuyde and Deynso should be sent
back, or that he himself would return in a fortnight. He said that he
could not enter into any such engagement, as he did not know his master’s
reasons for detaining the garrisons in question. He was therefore
reconveyed to Namur; from thence removed to Maestricht, and treated with
great reverence and respect, till the return of an officer whom he had
despatched to Versailles with an account of his captivity. Then he engaged
his word, that the garrisons of Dixmuyde and Deynse should be sent back to
the allied army. He was immediately released and conducted in safety to
Dinant. When he repaired to Versailles, Louis received him with very
extraordinary marks of esteem and affection. He embraced him in public
with the warmest expressions of regard; declared himself perfectly well
satisfied with his conduct; created him a duke and peer of France; and
presented him with a very large sum, in acknowledgment of his signal
services.

CAMPAIGN ON THE RHINE.

After the reduction of Namur, which greatly enhanced the military
character of king William, he retired to his house at Loo, which was his
favourite place of residence, leaving the command to the elector of
Bavaria; and about the latter end of September both armies began to
separate. The French forces retired within their lines. A good number of
the allied troops were distributed in different garrisons; and a strong
detachment marched towards Newport, under the command of the prince of
Wirtemberg, for the security of that place. Thus ended the campaign in the
Netherlands. On the Rhine nothing of moment was attempted by either army.
The mareschal de Lorges, in the beginning of June, passed the Rhine at
Philipsburgh; and posting himself at Brucksal, sent out parties to ravage
the country. On the eleventh of the same month the prince of Baden joined
the German army at Steppach, and on the eighth day of July was reinforced
by the troops of the other German confederates, in the neighbourhood of
Wiselock. On the nineteenth the French retired without noise, in the
night, towards Manheim, where they repassed the river without any
interruption from the imperial general; then he sent off a large
detachment to Flanders. The same step was taken by the prince of Baden;
and each army lay inactive in their quarters for the remaining part of the
campaign. The command of the Germans in Hungary was conferred upon the
elector of Saxony; but the court of Vienna was so dilatory in their
preparations, that he was not in a condition to act till the middle of
August. Lord Paget had been sent ambassador from England to the Ottoman
Porte, with instructions relating to a pacification; but before he could
obtain an audience the sultan died, and was succeeded by his nephew
Mustapha, who resolved to prosecute the war in person. The warlike genius
of this new emperor afforded but an uncomfortable prospect to his people,
considering that Peter, the czar of Muscovy, had taken the opportunity of
the war in Hungary, to invade the Crimea and besiege Azoph; so that the
Tartars were too much employed at home to spare the succours which the
sultan demanded. Nevertheless, Mustapha and his vizier took the field
before the imperialists could commence the operations of the campaign,
passed the Danube, took Lippa and Titul by assault, stormed the camp of
general Veterani, who was posted at Lugos with seven thousand men, and who
lost his life in the action. The infantry were cut to pieces, after having
made a desperate defence; but the horse retreated to Caronsebes, under the
conduct of general Trusches. The Turks after this exploit retired to
Orsowa. Their navy meanwhile surprised the Venetian fleet at Scio, where
several ships of the republic were destroyed, and they recovered that
island, which the Venetians thought proper to abandon; but in order to
balance this misfortune, these last obtained a complete victory over the
pacha of Negropont in the Morea.

THE DUKE OF SAVOY TAKES CASAL.

The French king still maintained a secret negotiation with the duke of
Savoy, whose conduct had been for some time mysterious and equivocal.
Contrary to the opinion of his allies, he undertook the siege of Casal,
which was counted one of the strongest fortifications in Europe, defended
by a numerous garrison, abundantly supplied with ammunition and
provisions. The siege was begun about the middle of May; and the place was
surrendered by capitulation in about fourteen days, to the astonishment of
the confederates, who did not know that this was a sacrifice by which the
French court obtained the duke’s forbearance during the remaining part of
the campaign. The capitulation imported, that the place should be restored
to the duke of Mantua, who was the rightful proprietor; that the
fortifications should be demolished at the expense of the allies; that the
garrison should remain in the fort till that work should be completed; and
hostages were exchanged for the performance of these conditions. The duke
understood the art of procrastination so well, that September was far
advanced before the place was wholly dismantled; and then he was seized
with an ague, which obliged him to quit the army.

TRANSACTIONS IN CATALONIA.

In Catalonia the French could hardly maintain the footing they had gained.
Admiral Russel, who wintered at Cadiz, was created admiral,
chief-commander, and captain general of all his majesty’s ships employed,
or to be employed, in the narrow-seas and in the Mediterranean. He was
reinforced by four thousand five hundred soldiers, under the command of
brigadier-general Stewart; and seven thousand men, Imperialists as well as
Spaniards, were drafted from Italy for the defence of Catalonia. These
forces were transported to Barcelona under the convoy of admiral Nevil,
detached by Russel for that purpose. The affairs of Catalonia had already
changed their aspect. Several French parties had been defeated. The
Spaniards had blocked up Ostalric and Castel-Follit: Noailles had been
recalled, and the command devolved to the duke de Vendôme, who no sooner
understood that the forces from Italy were landed, than he dismantled
Ostalric and Castel-Follit, and retired to Palamos. The viceroy of
Catalonia and the English admiral having resolved to give battle to the
enemy and reduce Palamos, the English troops were landed on the ninth day
of August, and the allied army advanced to Palamos. The French appeared in
order of battle; but the viceroy declined an engagement. Far from
attacking the enemy he withdrew his forces, and the town was bombarded by
the admiral. The miscarriage of this expedition was in a great measure
owing to a misunderstanding between Russel and the court of Spain. The
admiral complained that his catholic majesty had made no preparations for
the campaign; that he had neglected to fulfil his engagements with respect
to the Spanish squadron which ought to have joined the fleets of England
and Holland; that he had taken no care to provide tents and provisions for
the British forces. On the twenty-seventh day of August he sailed for the
coast of Provence, where the fleet was endangered by a terrible tempest;
then he steered down the Straits, and toward the latter end of September
arrived in the bay of Cadiz. There he left a number of ships under the
command of sir David Mitchel, until he should be joined by sir George
Rooke who was expected from England, and returned home with the rest of
the combined squadrons.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

THE ENGLISH FLEET BOMBARDS ST. MALOES, &c.

While admiral Russel asserted the British dominion in the Mediterranean,
the French coasts were again insulted in the channel by a separate fleet
under the command of lord Berkeley of Stratton, assisted by the Dutch
admiral Allemonde. On the fourth day of July they anchored before St.
Maloes, which they bombarded from nine ketches covered by some frigates,
which sustained more damage than was done to the enemy. On the sixth,
Granville underwent the same fate, and then the fleet returned to
Portsmouth. The bomb vessels being refitted, the fleet sailed round to the
Downs, where four hundred soldiers were embarked for an attempt upon
Dunkirk, under the direction of Meesters the famous Dutch engineer, who
had prepared his infernals and other machines for the service. On the
first day of August the experiment was tried without success. The bombs
did some execution; but two smoke ships miscarried. The French had secured
the Ris-bank and wooden forts with piles, bombs, chains, and floating
batteries, in such a manner that the machine-vessels could not approach
near enough to produce any effect. Besides, the councils of the assailants
were distracted by violent animosities. The English officers hated
Meesters, because he was a Dutchman, and had acquired some credit with the
king; he on the other hand treated them with disrespect. He retired with
his machines in the night, and refused to co-operate with lord Berkeley in
his design upon Calais, which was now put in execution. On the sixteenth
he brought his batteries to bear upon this place, and set fire to it in
different quarters; but the enemy had taken such precautions as rendered
his scheme abortive.

EXPEDITION TO THE WEST INDIES.

A squadron had been sent to the West Indies under the joint-command of
captain Robert Wilmot and colonel Lilingston, with twelve hundred land
forces. They had instructions to co-operate with the Spaniards in
Hispaniola, against the French settlements on that island, and to destroy
their fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland in their return. They were
accordingly joined by seventeen hundred Spaniards raised by the president
of St. Domingo; but instead of proceeding against Petit-Guavas, according
to the directions they had received, Wilmot took possession of Port
François, and plundered the country for his own private advantage,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of Lilingston, who protested against his
conduct. In a word, the sea and land officers lived in a state of
perpetual dissension; and both became extremely disagreeable to the
Spaniards, who soon renounced all connexion with them and their designs.
In the beginning of September the commodore set sail for England, and lost
one of his ships in the gulph of Florida. He himself died in his passage;
and the greater part of the men being swept off by an epidemical
distemper, the squadron returned to Britain in a most miserable condition.
Notwithstanding the great efforts the nation had made to maintain such a
number of different squadrons for the protection of commerce, as well as
to annoy the enemy, the trade suffered severely from the French
privateers, which swarmed in both channels and made prize of many rich
vessels. The marquis of Cærmarthen, being stationed with a squadron off
the Scilly islands, mistook a fleet of merchant ships for the Brest fleet,
and retired with precipitation to Milford-Haven. In consequence of this
retreat, the privateers took a good number of ships from Barbadoes, and
five from the East-Indies, valued at a million sterling. The merchants
renewed their clamour against the commissioners of the Admiralty, who
produced their orders and instructions in their own defence. The marquis
of Cærmarthen had been guilty of flagrant misconduct on this occasion; but
the chief source of those national calamities was the circumstantial
intelligence transmitted to France from time to time by the malcontents of
England; for they were actuated by a scandalous principle which they still
retain, namely, that of rejoicing in the distress of their country.

A NEW PARLIAMENT.

King William, after having conferred with the states of Holland and the
elector of Brandenburgh who met him at the Hague, embarked for England on
the nineteenth day of October, and arrived in safety at Margate, from
whence he proceeded to London, where he was received as a conqueror,
amidst the rejoicings and acclamations of the people. On the same day he
summoned a council at Kensington, in which it was determined to convoke a
new parliament. While the nation was in good humour, it was supposed that
they would return such members only as were well affected to the
government; whereas the present parliament might proceed in its inquiries
into corruption and other grievances, and be the less influenced by the
crown, as their dependence was of such short duration. The parliament was
therefore dissolved by proclamation, and a new one summoned to meet at
Westminster on the twenty-second day of November. While the whole nation
was occupied in the elections, William, by the advice of his chief
confidants, laid his own disposition under restraint in another effort to
acquire popularity. He honoured the diversions of Newmarket with his
presence, and there received a compliment of congratulation from the
university of Cambridge. Then he visited the earls of Sunderland,
Northampton, and Montague, at their different houses in the country; and
proceeded with a splendid retinue to Lincoln, from whence he repaired to
Welbeck, a seat belonging to the duke of Newcastle in Nottinghamshire,
where he was attended by Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, and his clergy. He
lodged one night with lord Brooke at Warwick castle, dined with the duke
of Shrewsbury at Ryefort, and by the way of Woodstock, made a solemn entry
into Oxford, having been met at some distance from the city by the duke of
Or-mond, as chancellor of the university, the vice-chancellor, the doctors
in their habits, and the magistrates in their formalities. He proceeded
directly to the theatre, where he was welcomed in an elegant Latin speech;
he received from the chancellor on his knees the usual presents of a large
English Bible, and book of Common-Prayer, the cuts of the university, and
a pair of gold-fringed gloves. The conduits ran with wine, and a
magnificent banquet was prepared; but an anonymous letter being found in
the street, importing that there was a design to poison his majesty,
William refused to eat or drink in Oxford, and retired immediately to
Windsor. Notwithstanding this abrupt departure, which did not savour much
of magnanimity, the university chose sir William Trumball, secretary of
state, as one of their representatives in parliament.

BILL FOR REGULATING TRIALS IN CASES OF HIGH-TREASON.

The whig interest generally prevailed in the elections, though many even
of that party were malcontents; and when the parliament met, Foley was
again chosen speaker of the commons. The king in his first speech extolled
the valour of the English forces; expressed his concern at being obliged
to demand such large supplies from his people; observed that the funds had
proved very deficient, and the civil list was in a precarious condition;
recommended to their compassion the miserable situation of the French
protestants; took notice of the bad state of the coin; desired they would
form a good bill for the encouragement and increase of seamen; and
contrive laws for the advancement of commerce. He mentioned the great
preparations which the French were making for taking the field early; in
treated them to use despatch; expressed his satisfaction at the choice
which his people had made of their representatives in the house of
commons; and exhorted them to proceed with temper and unanimity. Though
the two houses presented addresses of congratulation to the king upon his
late success, and promised to assist him in prosecuting the war with
vigour, the nation loudly exclaimed against the intolerable burdens and
losses to which they were subjected by a foreign scheme of politics,
which, like an unfathomable abyss, swallowed up the wealth and blood of
the kingdom. All the king’s endeavours to cover the disgusting side of his
character had proved ineffectual; he was still dry, reserved, and
forbidding; and the malcontents inveighed bitterly against his behaviour
to the princess Anne of Denmark. When the news of Namur’s being reduced
arrived in England, this lady congratulated him upon his success in a
dutiful letter, to which he would not deign to send a reply, either by
writing or message, nor had she or her husband been favoured with the
slightest mark of regard since his return to England. The members in the
lower house, who had adopted opposing maxims either from principle or
resentment, resolved that the crown should purchase the supplies with some
concession in favour of the people. They therefore brought in the so long
contested bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason, and
misprison of treason; and considering the critical juncture of affairs,
the courtiers were afraid of obstructing such a popular measure. The lords
inserted a clause, enacting, that a peer should be tried by the whole
peerage; and the commons at once assented to this amendment. The bill
provided, that persons indicted for high treason, or misprison of treason,
should be furnished with a copy of the indictment five days before the
trial; and indulged with council to plead in their defence; that no person
should be indicted but upon the oaths of two lawful witnesses swearing to
overt-acts; that in two or more distinct treasons of divers kinds, alleged
in one bill of indictment, one witness to one, and another witness to
another, should not be deemed two witnesses; that no person should be
prosecuted for any such crime, unless the indictment be found within three
years after the offence committed, except in case of a design or attempt
to assassinate or poison the king, where this limitation should not take
place; that persons indicted for treason, or misprison of treason, should
be supplied with copies of the panel of the jurors, two days at least
before the trial, and have process to compel their witnesses to appear;
that no evidence should be admitted of any overt-act not expressly laid in
the indictment; that this act should not extend to any impeachment, or
other proceeding in parliament; nor to any indictment for counterfeiting
his majesty’s coin, his great seal, privy seal, sign manual, or signet.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

RESOLUTIONS WITH RESPECT TO A NEW COINAGE.

This important affair being discussed, the commons proceeded to examine
the accounts and estimates, and voted above five millions for the service
of the ensuing year. The state of the coin was by this time become such a
national grievance as could not escape the attention of parliament. The
lords prepared an address to the throne, for a proclamation to put a stop
to the currency of diminished coin; and to this they desired the
concurrence of the commons. The lower house, however, determined to take
this affair under their own inspection. They appointed a committee of the
whole house to deliberate on the state of the nation with respect to the
currency. Great opposition was made to a recoinage, which was a measure
strenuously recommended and supported by Mr. Montague, who acted on this
occasion by the advice of the great mathematician sir Isaac Newton. The
enemies of this expedient argued, that should the silver coin be called
in, it would be impossible to maintain the war abroad, or prosecute
foreign trade, inasmuch as the merchant could not pay his bills of
exchange, nor the soldier receive his subsistence; that a stop would be
put to all mutual payment; and this would produce universal confusion and
despair. Such a reformation could not be effected without some danger and
difficulty; but it was become absolutely necessary, as the evil daily
increased, and in a little time must have terminated in national anarchy.
After long and vehement debates, the majority resolved to proceed with all
possible expedition to a new coinage. Another question arose, Whether the
new coin, in its different denominations, should retain the original
weight and purity of the old; or the established standard be raised in
value? The famous Locke engaged in this dispute against Mr. Lowndes, who
proposed that the standard should be raised; the arguments of Mr. Locke
were so convincing, that the committee resolved the established standard
should be preserved with respect to weight and fineness. They likewise
resolved, that the loss accruing to the revenue from clipped money, should
be borne by the public. In order to prevent a total stagnation, they
further resolved, that after an appointed day no clipped money should pass
in payment, except to the collectors of the revenue and taxes, or upon
loans or payments into the exchequer; that after another day to be
appointed, no clipped money of any sort should pass in any payment
whatsoever; and that a third day should be fixed for all persons to bring
in their clipped money to be recoined, after which they should have no
allowance upon what they might offer. They addressed the king to issue a
proclamation agreeably to these resolutions; and on the nineteenth day of
December it was published accordingly. Such were the fears of the people,
augmented and inflamed by the enemies of the government, that all payment
immediately ceased, and a face of distraction appeared through the whole
community. The adversaries of the bill seized this opportunity to
aggravate the apprehensions of the public. They inveighed against the
ministry as the authors of this national grievance; they levelled their
satire particularly at Montague; and it required uncommon fortitude and
address to avert the most dangerous consequences of popular discontent.
The house of commons agreed to the following resolutions: that twelve
hundred thousand pounds should be raised by a duty on glass windows, to
make up the loss on the clipped money; that the recompence for supplying
the deficiency of clipped money should extend to all silver coin, though
of a coarser alloy than the standard; that the collectors and receivers of
his majesty’s aids and revenues should be enjoined to receive all such
monies; that a reward of five per cent, should be given to all such
persons as should bring in either milled or broad undipped money, to be
applied in exchange of the clipped money throughout the kingdom; that a
reward of threepence per ounce should be given to all persons who should
bring wrought plate to the mint to be coined; that persons might pay in
their whole next year’s land-tax in clipped money, at one convenient time
to be appointed for that purpose; that commissioners should be appointed
in every county to pay and distribute the milled and broad undipped money,
and the new coined money in lieu of that which was diminished. A bill
being prepared agreeably to these determinations, was sent up to the house
of lords, who made some amendments which the commons rejected; but in
order to avoid cavils and conferences, they dropped the bill and brought
in another without the clauses which the lords had inserted. They were
again proposed in the upper house and over-ruled by the’ majority; and on
the twenty-first day of January the bill received the royal assent, as did
another bill enlarging the time for purchasing annuities and continuing
the duties on low wines. At the same time the king passed the bill of
trials for high treason, and an act to prevent mercenary elections. Divers
merchants and traders petitioned the house of commons that the losses in
their trade and payments, occasioned by the rise of guineas, might be
taken into consideration. A bill was immediately brought in for taking off
the obligation and encouragement for coining guineas for a certain time;
and then the commons proceeded to lower the value of this coin, a task in
which they met with great opposition from some members, who alleged that
it would foment the popular disturbances. At length, however, the majority
agreed that a guinea should be lowered from thirty to eight-and-twenty
shillings, and afterwards to six-and-twenty. At length a clause was
inserted in the bill for encouraging people to bring plate to the mint,
settling the price of a guinea at two-and-twenty shillings, and it
naturally sunk to its original value of twenty shillings and sixpence.
Many persons, however, supposing that the price of gold would be raised
the next session, hoarded up their guineas; and upon the same supposition,
encouraged by the malcontents, the new coined silver money was reserved,
to the great detriment of commerce. The king ordered mints to be erected
in York, Bristol, Exeter, and Chester, for the purpose of the re-coinage,
which was executed with unexpected success, so that in less than a year
the currency of England, which had been the worst, became the best coin in
Europe.

At this period the attention of the commons was diverted to an object of a
more private nature. The earl of Portland, who enjoyed the greatest share
of the king’s favour, had obtained a grant of some lordships in
Derbyshire. While the warrant was depending, the gentlemen of that county
resolved to oppose it with all their power. In consequence of a petition,
they were indulged with a hearing by the lords of the treasury. Sir
William Williams, in the name of the rest, alleged that the lordships in
question were the ancient demesnes of the prince of Wales, absolutely
unalienable; that the revenues of those lordships supported the government
of Wales in paying the judges and other salaries; that the grant was of
too large an extent for any foreign subject; and that the people of the
county were too great to be subject to any foreigner. Sundry other
substantial reasons were used against the grant, which, notwithstanding
all their remonstrances, would have passed through the offices, had not
the Welsh gentlemen addressed themselves by petition to the house of
commons. Upon this occasion, Mr. Price, a member of the house, harangued
with great severity against the Dutch in general, and did not even abstain
from sarcasms upon the king’s person, title, and government. The
objections started by the petitioners being duly considered, were found so
reasonable that the commons presented an address to the king, representing
that those manors had been usually annexed to the principality of Wales,
and settled on the princes of Wales for their support; that many persons
in those parts held their estates by royal tenure under great and valuable
compositions, rents, royal payments, and services to the crown and princes
of Wales; and enjoyed great privileges and advantages under such tenure.
They therefore besought his majesty to recall the grant which was in
diminution of the honour and interest of the crown; and prayed that the
said manors and lands might not be alienated without the consent of
parliament. This address met with a cold reception from the king, who
promised to recall the grant which had given such offence to the commons,
and said he would find some other way of showing his favour to the earl of
Portland.

The people in general entertained a national aversion to this nobleman:
the malcontents inculcated a notion that he had made use of his interest
and intelligence to injure the trade of England, that the commerce of his
own country might flourish without competition. To his suggestions they
imputed the act and patent in favour of the Scottish company, which was
supposed to have been thrown in as a bone of contention between the two
kingdoms. The subject was first started in the house of lords, who invited
the commons to a conference; a committee was appointed to examine into the
particulars of the act for erecting the Scottish company; and the two
houses presented a joint address against it, as a scheme that would
prejudice all the subjects concerned in the wealth and trade of the
English nation. They represented, that in consequence of the exemption
from taxes and other advantages granted to the Scottish company, that
kingdom would become a free port for all East and West India commodities;
that the Scots would be enabled to supply all Europe at a cheaper rate
than the English could afford to sell their merchandise for, therefore
England would lose the benefit of its foreign trade; besides, they
observed that the Scots would smuggle their commodities into England, to
the great detriment of his majesty and his customs. To this remonstrance
the king replied that he had been ill served in Scotland; but that he
hoped some remedies would be found to prevent the inconveniencies of which
they were apprehensive. In all probability he had been imposed upon by the
ministry of that kingdom; for in a little time he discarded the marquis of
Tweedale, and dismissed both the Scottish secretaries of state, in lieu of
whom he appointed lord Murray, son to the marquis of Athol.
Notwithstanding the king’s answer, the committee proceeded on the inquiry,
and, in consequence of their report confirming a petition from the East
India company, the house resolved that the directors of the Scottish
company were guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor in administering and
taking an oath de fideli in this kingdom, and that they should be
impeached for the same. Meanwhile, Roderick Mackenzie, from whom they had
received their chief information, began to retract his evidence, and was
ordered into custody; but he made his escape and could not be retaken,
although the king at their request issued a proclamation for that purpose.
The Scots were extremely incensed against the king when they understood he
had disowned their company, from which they had promised themselves such
wealth and advantage. The settlement of Darien was already planned and
afterwards put in execution, though it miscarried in the sequel, and had
like to have produced abundance of mischief.

INTRIGUES OF THE JACOBITES.

The complaints of the English merchants who had suffered by the war were
so loud at this juncture, that the commons resolved to take their case
into consideration. The house resolved itself into a committee to consider
the state of the nation with regard to commerce, and having duly weighed
all circumstances, agreed to the following resolutions: that a council of
trade should be established by act of parliament, with powers to take
measures for the more effectual preservation of commerce; that the
commissioners should be nominated by parliament, but none of them have
seats in the house; that they should take an oath acknowledging the title
of king William as rightful and lawful; and abjuring the pretensions of
James, or any other person. The king considered these resolutions as an
open attack upon his prerogative, and signified his displeasure to the
earl of Sunderland, who patronised this measure; but it was so popular in
the house, that in all probability it would have been put in execution,
had not the attention of the commons been diverted from it at this period
by the detection of a new conspiracy. The friends of king James had, upon
the death of queen Mary, renewed their practices for effecting a
restoration of that monarch, on the supposition that the interest of
William was considerably weakened by the decease of his consort. Certain
individuals, whose zeal for James overshot their discretion, formed a
design to seize the person of king William, and convey him to France, or
put him to death in case of resistance. They had sent emissaries to the
court of St. Germain’s to demand a commission for this purpose, which was
refused. The earl of Aylesbury, lord Montgomery, son to the marquis of
Powis, sir John Fenwick, sir John Friend, captain Charnock, captain
Porter, and one Mr. Goodman, were the first contrivers of this project.
Charnock was detached with a proposal to James, that he should procure a
body of horse and foot from France to make a descent in England, and they
would engage not only to join him at his landing, but even to replace him
on the throne of England.

These offers being declined by James, on pretence that the French king
could not spare such a number of troops at that juncture, the earl of
Aylesbury went over in person, and was admitted to a conference with
Louis, in which the scheme of an invasion was actually concerted. In the
beginning of February the duke of Berwick repaired privately to England,
where he conferred with the conspirators, assured them that king James was
ready to make a descent with a considerable number of French forces,
distributed commissions, and gave directions for providing men, arms, and
horses, to join him at his arrival. When he returned to France, he found
every thing prepared for the expedition. The troops were drawn down to the
sea-side; a great number of transports were assembled at Dunkirk; monsieur
Gabaret had advanced as far as Calais with a squadron of ships, which,
when joined by that of Du Bart at Dunkirk, was judged a sufficient convoy;
and James had come as far as Calais in his way to embark. Meanwhile the
Jacobites in England were assiduously employed in making preparations for
a revolt. Sir John Friend had very near completed a regiment of horse;
considerable progress was made in levying another by sir William Perkins;
sir John Fenwick had enlisted four troops; colonel Tempest had undertaken
for one regiment of dragoons; colonel Parker was preferred to the command
of another; Mr. Curzon was commissioned for a third; and the malcontents
intended to raise a fourth in Suffolk, where their interest chiefly
prevailed.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE LIFE OF WILLIAM.

While one part of the Jacobites proceeded against William in the usual way
of exciting an insurrection, another, consisting of the most desperate
conspirators, had formed a scheme of assassination. Sir George Barclay, a
native of Scotland, who had served as an officer in the army of James, a
man of undaunted courage, a furious bigot in the religion of Rome, yet
close, circumspect, and determined, was landed with other officers in
Romneymarsh, by one captain Gill, about the beginning of January, and is
said to have undertaken the task of seizing or assassinating king William.
He imparted his design to Harrison, alias Johnston, a priest,
Char-nock, Porter, and sir William Perkins, by whom it was approved; and
he pretended to have a particular commission for this service. After
various consultations, they resolved to attack the king on his return from
Richmond, where he commonly hunted on Saturdays; and the scene of their
intended ambuscade was a lane between Brentford and Turnham-Green. As it
would be necessary to charge and disperse the guards that attended the
coach, they agreed that their number should be increased to forty
horsemen, and each conspirator began to engage proper persons for the
enterprise. When their complement was full, they determined to execute
their purpose on the fifteenth day of February. They concerted the manner
in which they should meet in small parties without suspicion, and waited
with impatience for the hour of action. In this interval some of the
underling actors, seized with horror at the reflection of what they had
undertaken, or captivated with the prospect of reward, resolved to prevent
the execution of the design by a timely discovery. On the eleventh day of
February, one Fisher informed the earl of Portland of the scheme, and
named some of the conspirators; but his account was imperfect. On the
thirteenth however he returned with a circumstantial detail of all the
particulars. Next day the earl was accosted by one Pendergrass, an Irish
officer, who told his lordship he had just come from Hampshire at the
request of a particular friend, and understood that he had been called up
to town with a view of engaging him in a design to assassinate king
William. He said, he had promised to embark in the undertaking, though he
detested it in his own mind, and took this first opportunity of revealing
the secret, which was of such consequence to his majesty’s life. He owned
himself a Roman catholic, but declared that he did not think any religion
could justify such a treacherous purpose. At the same time he observed,
that as he lay under obligations to some of the conspirators, his honour
and gratitude would not permit him to accuse them by name; and that he
would upon no consideration appear as an evidence. The king had been so
much used to fictitious plots and false discoveries, that he paid little
regard to the informations until they were confirmed by the testimony of
another conspirator called La Rue, a Frenchman, who communicated the same
particulars to brigadier Levison, without knowing the least circumstance
of the other discoveries. Then the king believed there was something real
in the conspiracy; and Pendergrass and La Rue were severally examined in
his presence. He thanked Pendergrass in particular for this instance of
his probity; but observed that it must prove ineffectual unless he would
discover the names of the conspirators; for, without knowing who they
were, he should not be able to secure his life against their attempts. At
length Pendergrass was prevailed upon to give a list of those he knew, yet
not before the king had solemnly promised that he should not be used as an
evidence against them, except with his own consent. As the king did not go
to Richmond on the day appointed, the conspirators postponed the execution
of their design till the Saturday following. They accordingly met at
different houses on the Friday, when every man received his instructions.
There they agreed, that after the perpetration of the parricide, they
should ride in a body as far as Hammersmith, and then dispersing, enter
London by different avenues. But on the morning, when they understood that
the guards were returned to their quarters, and the king’s coaches sent
back to the Mews, they were seized with a sudden damp, on the suspicion
that their plot was discovered. Sir George Barclay withdrew himself, and
every one began to think of providing for his own safety. Next night,
however, a great number of them were apprehended, and then the whole
discovery was communicated to the privy council. A proclamation was issued
against those that absconded; and great diligence was used to find sir
George Barclay, who was supposed to have a particular commission from
James for assassinating the prince of Orange; but he made good his
retreat, and it was never proved that any such commission had been
granted.

DESIGN OF AN INVASION DEFEATED.

This design and the projected invasion proved equally abortive. James had
scarce reach Calais when the duke of Wirtemberg despatched his aidecamp
from Flanders to king William, with an account of the purposed descent.
Expresses with the same tidings arrived from the elector of Bavaria and
the prince de Vaude-mont. Two considerable squadrons being ready for sea,
admiral Russel embarked at Spithead and stood over to the French coast
with about fifty sail of the line. The enemy were confounded at his
appearance, and hauled in their vessels under the shore, in such shallow
water that he could not follow and destroy them; but he absolutely ruined
their design, by cooping them up in their harbours. King James, after
having tarried some weeks at Calais, returned to St. Germain’s. The forces
were sent back to the garrisons from which they had been drafted; the
people of France exclaimed, that the malignant star which ruled the
destiny of James had blasted this and every other project formed for his
restoration. By means of the reward offered in the proclamation, the
greater part of the conspirators were betrayed or taken. George Harris,
who had been sent from France with orders to obey sir George Barclay,
surrendered himself to sir William Trumball, and confessed the scheme of
assassination in which he had been engaged. Porter and Pendergrass were
apprehended together. This last insisted upon the king’s promise that he
should not be compelled to give evidence; but when Porter owned himself
guilty, the other observed he was no longer bound to be silent, as his
friend had made a confession; and they were both admitted as evidences for
the crown.

THE TWO HOUSES FORM AN ASSOCIATION FOR THE DEFENCE OF HIS MAJESTY.

After their examination, the king, in a speech to both houses,
communicated the nature of the conspiracy against his life, as well as the
advices he had received touching the invasion; he explained the steps he
had taken to defeat the double design, and professed his confidence in
their readiness and zeal to concur with him in every thing that should
appear necessary for their common safety. That same evening the two houses
waited upon him at Kensington in a body, with an affectionate address, by
which they expressed their abhorrence of the villanous and barbarous
design which had been formed against his sacred person, of which they
besought him to take more than ordinary care. They assured him they would
to their utmost defend his life, and support his government against the
late king James and all other enemies; and declared, that in case his
majesty should come to a violent death, they would revenge it upon his
adversaries and their adherents. He was extremely well pleased with this
warm address, and assured them in his turn he would take all opportunities
of recommending himself to the continuance of their loyalty and affection.
The commons forthwith empowered him by bill to secure all persons
suspected of conspiring against his person and government. They brought in
another, providing, that in case of his majesty’s death, the parliament
then being should continue until dissolved by the next heir in succession
to the crown, established by act of parliament; that if his majesty should
chance to die between two parliaments, that which had been last dissolved
should immediately re-assemble, and sit for the despatch of national
affairs. They voted an address to desire that his majesty would banish by
proclamation all papists to the distance of ten miles from the cities of
London and Westminster; and give instructions to the judges going on the
circuits to put the laws in execution against Roman catholics and
nonjurors. They drew up an association, binding themselves to assist each
other in support of the king and his government, and to revenge any
violence that should be committed on his person. This was signed by all
the members then present; but as some had absented themselves on frivolous
pretences, the house ordered, that in sixteen days the absentees should
either subscribe or declare their refusal. Several members neglecting to
comply with this injunction within the limited time, the speaker was
ordered to write to those who were in the country, and demand a peremptory
answer; and the clerk of the house attended such as pretended to be ill in
town. The absentees finding themselves pressed in this manner, thought
proper to sail with the stream, and sign the association, which was
presented to the king by the commons in a body, with a request that it
might be lodged among the records in the Tower, as a perpetual memorial of
their loyalty and affection. The king received them with uncommon
complacency; declared that he heartily entered into the same association;
that he should be always ready to venture his life with his good subjects
against all who should endeavour to subvert the religion, laws, and
liberties of England; and he promised that this and all other associations
should be lodged among the records of the Tower of London. Next day the
commons resolved, that whoever should affirm an association was illegal,
should be deemed a promoter of the designs of the late king James, and an
enemy to the laws and liberties of the kingdom. The lords followed the
example of the lower house in drawing up an association; but the earl of
Nottingham, sir Edward Seymour, and Mr. Finch, objected to the words
rightful and lawful as applied to his majesty. They said as the crown and
its prerogatives were vested in him, they would yield obedience, though
they could not acknowledge him as their rightful and lawful king.

Nothing could be more absurd than this distinction, started by men who had
actually constituted part of the administration; unless they supposed that
the right of king William expired with queen Mary. The earl of Rochester
proposed an expedient in favour of such tender consciences, by altering
the words that gave offence; and this was adopted accordingly. Fifteen of
the peers, and ninety-two commoners, signed the association with
reluctance. It was, however, subscribed by all sorts of people in
different parts of the kingdom; and the bishops drew up a form for the
clergy, which was signed by a great majority. The commons brought in a
bill, declaring all men incapable of public trust, or of sitting in
parliament, who would not engage in this association. At the same time the
council issued an order for renewing all the commissions in England, that
those who had not signed it voluntarily should be dismissed from the
service as disaffected persons.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A LAND-BANK.

After these warm demonstrations of loyalty, the commons proceeded upon
ways and means for raising the supplies. A new bank was constituted as a
fund, upon which the sum of two millions five hundred and sixty-four
thousand pounds should be raised; and it was called the land-bank, because
established on land securities. This scheme, said to have been projected
by the famous Dr. Chamberlain, was patronised by the earl of Sunderland,
and managed by Foley and Harley; so that it seemed to be a tory plan which
Sunderland supported, in order to reconcile himself to that party. 067
[See note O, at the end of this Vol.] The bank of England
petitioned against this bill, and were heard by their counsel; but their
representations produced no effect, and the bill having passed through
both houses, received the royal assent. On the twenty-seventh day of April
the king closed the session with a short but gracious speech; and the
parliament was prorogued to the sixteenth day of June.

Before this period some of the conspirators had been brought to trial. The
first who suffered was Robert Charnock, one of the two fellows of
Magdalen-college, who, in the reign of James, had renounced the protestant
religion; the next were lieutenant King and Thomas Keys, which last had
been formerly a trumpeter, but of late servant to captain Porter. They
were found guilty of high treason, and executed at Tyburn. They delivered
papers to the sheriff, in which they solemnly declared, that they had
never seen or heard of any commission from king James for assassinating
the prince of Orange; Charnock in particular observed, that he had
received frequent assurances of the king’s having rejected such proposals
when they had been offered; and that there was no other commission but
that for levying war in the usual form. Sir John Friend and sir William
Perkins were tried in April. The first, from mean beginnings, had acquired
great wealth and credit, and always firmly adhered to the interests of
king James. The other was likewise a man of fortune, violently attached to
the same principles, though he had taken the oaths to the present
government as one of the six clerks in chancery. Porter and Blair, another
evidence, deposed, that sir John Friend had been concerned in levying men
under a commission from king James, and that he knew of the assassination
plot, though not engaged in it as a personal actor. He endeavoured to
invalidate the testimony of Blair, by proving him guilty of the most
shocking ingratitude. He observed that both the evidences were reputed
papists. The curate of Hackney, who officiated as chaplain in the
prisoner’s house, declared upon oath, that after the revolution he used to
pray for king William, and that he had often heard sir John Friend say
that though he could not comply with the present government, he would live
peaceably under it, and never engage in any conspiracy. Mr. Hoadley,
father of the present bishop of Winchester, added, that the prisoner was a
good protestant, and frequently expressed his detestation of king-killing
principles. Friend himself owned he had been with some of the conspirators
at a meeting in Leadenhall-street, but heard nothing of raising men, or
any design against the government. He likewise affirmed that a
consultation to levy war was not treason; and that his being at a
treasonable consult could amount to no more than a misprison of treason.
Lord chief justice Holt declared, that although a bare conspiracy, or
design to levy war, was not treason within the statute of Edward III., yet
if the design or conspiracy be to kill, or depose, or imprison the king,
by the means of levying war, then the consultation and conspiracy to levy
war becomes high treason though no war be actually levied. The same
inference might have been drawn against the authors and instruments of the
revolution. The judge’s explanation influenced the jury, who, after some
deliberation, found the prisoner guilty. Next day sir William Perkins was
brought to the bar, and upon the testimony of Porter, Ewebank, his own
groom, and Haywood, a notorious informer, was convicted of having been
concerned not only in the invasion, but also in the design against the
king’s life. The evidence was scanty, and the prisoner having been bred to
the law, made an artful and vigorous defence: but the judge acted as
counsel for the crown; and the jury decided by the hints they received
from the bench. He and sir John Friend underwent the sentence of death,
and suffered at Tyburn on the third day of April. Friend protested before
God that he knew of no immediate descent purposed by king James, and
therefore had made no preparations; that he was utterly ignorant of the
assassination scheme; that he died in the communion of the church of
England, and laid down his life cheerfully in the cause for which he
suffered. Perkins declared, upon the word of a dying man, that the tenour
of the king’s commission which he saw was general, directed to all his
loving subjects, to raise and levy war against the prince of Orange and
his adherents, and to seize all forts, castles, &c, but that he
neither saw nor heard of any commission particularly levelled against the
person of the prince of Orange. He owned, however, that he was privy to
the design; but believed it was known to few or none but the immediate
undertakers. These two criminals were in their last moments attended by
Collier, Snatt, and Cook, three nonjuring clergymen, who absolved them in
the view of the populace, with an imposition of hands; a public insult on
the government which did not pass unnoticed. Those three clergyman were
presented by the grand jury for having countenanced the treason by
absolving the traitors, and thereby encouraged other persons to disturb
the peace of the kingdom. An indictment being preferred against them, Cook
and Snatt were committed to Newgate; but Collier absconded, and published
a vindication of their conduct, in which he affirmed that the imposition
of hands was the general practice of the primitive church. On the other
hand, the two metropolitans and twelve other bishops subscribed a
declaration, condemning the administration of absolution without a
previous confession made, and abhorrence expressed, by the prisoners of
the heinous crimes for which they suffered.

In the course of the same month, Rookwood, Cranborne, and Lowick, were
tried as conspirators by a special commission in the king’s-bench, and
convicted on the joint testimony of Porter, Harris, La Rue, Bertram,
Fisher, and Pendergrass. Some favourable circumstances appeared in the
case of Lowick. The proof of his having been concerned in the design
against the king’s life was very defective; many persons of reputation
declared he was an honest, good natured, inoffensive man; and he himself
concluded his defence with the most solemn protestation of his own
innocence. Great intercession was made for his pardon by some noblemen;
but all their interest proved ineffectual. Cranborne died in a transport
of indignation, leaving a paper which the government thought proper to
suppress. Lowick and Rookwood likewise delivered declarations to the
sheriff, the contents of which as being less inflammatory were allowed to
be published. Both solemnly denied any knowledge of a commission from king
James to assassinate the prince of Orange; the one affirming that he was
incapable of granting such an order; and the other asserting that he, the
best of kings, had often rejected proposals of that nature. Lowick owned
that he would have joined the king at his landing; but declared he had
never been concerned in any bloody affair during the whole course of his
life. On the contrary, he said he had endeavoured to prevent bloodshed as
much as lay in his power; and that he would not kill the most miserable
creature in the world, even though such an act would save his life,
restore his sovereign, and make him one of the greatest men in England.
Rookwood alleged he was engaged by his immediate commander, whom he
thought it was his duty to obey, though the service was much against his
judgment and inclination. He professed his abhorrence of treachery even to
an enemy. He forgave all mankind, even the prince of Orange, who as a
soldier, he said, ought to have considered his case before he signed his
death warrant; he prayed God would open his eyes, and render him sensible
of the blood that was from all parts crying against him, so as he might
avert a heavier execution than that which he now ordered to be inflicted.
The next person brought to trial was Mr. Cooke, son of sir Miles Cooke,
one of the six clerks in chancery. Porter and Goodman deposed that he had
been present at two meetings at the King’s-head tavern in
Leadenhall-street, with the lords Aylesbury and Montgomery, sir William
Perkins, sir John Fenwick, sir John Friend, Charnock, and Porter. The
evidence of Goodman was invalidated by the testimony of the landlord and
two drawers belonging to the tavern, who swore that Goodman was not there
while the noblemen were present. The prisoner himself solemnly protested,
that he was ever averse to the introduction of foreign forces; that he did
not so much as hear of the intended invasion until it became the common
topic of conversation; and that he had never seen Goodman at the
King’s-head. He declared his intention of receiving the blessed sacrament,
and wished he might perish in the instant if he now spoke untruth. No
respect was paid to these asseverations. The solicitor-general Hawles, and
lord chief-justice Treby, treated him with great severity in the
prosecution and charge to the jury, by whom he was capitally convicted.
After his condemnation, the court-agents tampered with him to make further
discoveries; and after his fate had been protracted by divers short
reprieves, he was sent into banishment. From the whole tenour of these
discoveries and proceedings, it appears that James had actually meditated
an invasion; that his partisans in England had made preparations for
joining him on his arrival; that a few desperadoes of that faction had
concerted a scheme against the life of king William; that in prosecuting
the conspirators, the court had countenanced informers; that the judges
had strained the law, wrested circumstances, and even deviated from the
function of their office, to convict the prisoners; in a word, that the
administration had used the same arbitrary and unfair practices against
those unhappy people, which they themselves had in the late reigns
numbered among the grievances of the kingdom.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

THE ALLIES BURN THE MAGAZINE AT GIVET.

The warmth, however, manifested on this occasion may have been owing to
national resentment of the purposed invasion. Certain it is, the two
houses of parliament and the people in general were animated with
extraordinary indignation against France at this juncture. The lords
besought his majesty in a solemn address to appoint a day of thanksgiving
to Almighty God for having defeated the barbarous purpose of his enemies;
and this was observed with uncommon zeal and devotion. Admiral Russel,
leaving a squadron for observation on the French coast, returned to the
Downs; but sir Cloudesley Shovel, being properly prepared for the
expedition, subjected Calais to another bombardment, by which the town was
set on fire in different parts, and the inhabitants were overwhelmed with
consternation. The generals of the allied army in Flanders resolved to
make some immediate retaliation upon the French for their unmanly design
upon the life of king William, as they took it for granted that Louis was
accessary to the scheme of assassination. That monarch, on the supposition
that a powerful diversion would be made by the descent on England, had
established a vast magazine at Givet, designing, when the allies should be
enfeebled by the absence of the British troops, to strike some stroke of
importance early in the campaign. On this the confederates now determined
to wreak their vengeance. In the beginning of March the carl of Athlone
and monsieur de Coehorn, with the concurrence of the duke of
Holstein-Ploen, who commanded the allies, sent a strong detachment of
horse, drafted from Brussels and the neighbouring garrisons, to amuse the
enemy on the side of Charleroy, while they assembled forty squadrons,
thirty battalions, with fifteen pieces of cannon, and six mortars, in the
territory of Namur. Athlone with a part of this body invested Dinant,
while Coehorn with the remainder advanced to Givet. He forthwith began to
batter and bombard the place, which in three hours was on fire, and by
four in the afternoon wholly destroyed, with the great magazine it
contained. Then the two generals joining their forces returned to Namur
without interruption. Hitherto the republic of Venice had deferred
acknowledging king William; but now they sent an extraordinary embassy for
that purpose, consisting of signiors Soranzo and Venier, who arrived in
London, and on the first day of May had a public audience. The king on
this occasion knighted Soranzo as the senior ambassador, and presented him
with the sword according to custom. On that day, too, William declared in
council that he had appointed the same regency which had governed the
kingdom during his last absence, and embarking on the seventh at Margate,
arrived at Orange-Polder in the evening, under convoy of vice-admiral
Aylmer. This officer had been ordered to attend with a squadron, as the
famous Du Bart still continued at Dunkirk, and some attempt of importance
was apprehended from his enterprising genius.*

* Some promotions were made before the king left England.
George Hamilton, third son of the duke of that name, was for
his military services in Ireland and Flanders created earl
of Orkney. Sir John Lowther was ennobled by the title of
baron Lowther and viscount Lonsdale; sir John Thompson made
baron of Haversham; and the celebrated John Locke appointed
one of the commissioners of trade and plantation.

LOUIS MAKES ADVANCES TOWARDS A PEACE WITH HOLLAND.

The French had taken the field before the allied army could be assembled;
but no transaction of consequence distinguished this campaign either upon
the Rhine or in Flanders. The scheme of Louis was still defensive on the
side of the Netherlands, while the active plans of king William were
defeated by want of money. All the funds for this year proved defective:
the land-bank failed, and the national bank sustained a rude shock in its
credit. The loss of the nation upon the recoinage, amounted to two
millions two hundred thousand pounds; and though the different mints were
employed without interruption, they could not for some months supply the
circulation, especially as great part of the new money was kept up by
those who received it in payment, or disposed of it at an unreasonable
advantage. The French king having exhausted the wealth and patience of his
subjects, and greatly diminished their number in the course of this war,
began to be diffident of his arms, and employed all the arts of private
negotiation. While his minister D’Avaux pressed the king of Sweden to
offer his mediation, he sent Callieres to Holland with proposals for
settling the preliminaries of a treaty.

He took it for granted that as the Dutch were a trading people, whose
commerce had greatly suffered in the war, they could not be averse to a
pacification; and he instructed his emissaries to tamper with the
malcontents of the republic, especially with the remains of the Louvestein
faction, which had always opposed the schemes of the stadtholder.
Callieres met with a favourable reception from the states, which began to
treat with him about the preliminaries, though not without the consent and
concurrence of king William and the rest of the allies. Louis, with a view
to quicken the effect of this negotiation, pursued offensive measures in
Catalonia, where his general the duke de Vendome attacked and worsted the
Spaniards in their camp near Ostalrick, though the action was not
decisive; for that general was obliged to retreat after having made
vigorous efforts against their intrenchments. On the twentieth day of
June, mareschal de Lorges passed the Rhine at Philips-burg and encamped
within a league of Eppingen, where the Imperial troops were obliged to
intrench themselves, under the command of the prince of Baden, as they
were not yet joined by the auxiliary forces. The French general after
having faced him about a month, thought proper to repass the river. Then
he detached a body of horse to Flanders, and cantoned the rest of his
troops at Spires, Franckendahl, Worms, and Ostofen. On the last day of
August the prince of Baden retaliated the insult, by passing the Rhine at
Mentz and Cocsheim. On the tenth he was joined by general Thungen, who
commanded a separate body, together with the militia of Suabia and
Franconia, and advanced to the camp of the enemy, who had reassembled; but
they were posted in such a manner that he would not hazard an attack.
Having therefore cannonaded them for some days, scoured the adjacent
country by detached parties, and taken the little castle of Wiezengen, he
repassed the river at Worms on the seventh day of October: the French
likewise crossed at Philipsburgh in hopes of surprising general Thungen,
who had taken post in the neighbourhood of Strasbourg; but he retired to
Eppingen before their arrival, and in a little time both armies were
distributed in winter quarters. Peter, the czar of Muscovy, carried on the
siege of Azoph with such vigour, that the garrison was obliged to
capitulate after the Russians had defeated a great convoy sent to its
relief. The court of Vienna forthwith engaged in an alliance with the
Muscovite emperor; but they did not exert themselves in taking advantage
of the disaster which the Turks had undergone. The Imperial army,
commanded by the elector of Saxony, continued inactive on the river
Marosch till the nineteenth day of July, then they made a feint of
attacking Temiswaer; but they inarched towards Betzkerch, in their route
to Belgrade, on receiving advice that the grand seignor intended to
besiege Titul. On the twenty-first day of August, the two armies were in
sight of each other. The Turkish horse attacked the Imperialists in a
plain near the river Begue, but were repulsed. The Germans next day made a
show of retreating, in hopes of drawing the enemy from their
intrenchments. The stratagem succeeded. On the twenty-sixth the Turkish
army was in motion. A detachment of the Imperialists attacked them in
flank as they marched through a wood. A very desperate action ensued, in
which the generals Heusler and Poland, with many other gallant officers,
lost their lives. At length the Ottoman horse were routed; but the Germans
were so roughly handled, that on the second day after the engagement they
retreated at midnight, and the Turks remained quiet in their
intrenchments.

In Piedmont the face of affairs underwent a strange alteration. The duke
of Savoy, who had for some time been engaged in a secret negotiation with
France, at length embraced the offers of that crown, and privately signed
a separate treaty of peace at Loretto, to which place he repaired on a
pretended pilgrimage. The French king engaged to present him with four
millions of livres by way of reparation for the damage he had sustained,
to assist him with a certain number of auxiliaries against all his
enemies, and to effect a marriage between the duke of Burgundy and the
princess of Piedmont, as soon as the parties should be marriageable. The
treaty was guaranteed by the pope and the Venetians, who were extremely
desirous of seeing the Germans driven out of Italy. King William being
apprized of this negotiation, communicated the intelligence to the earl of
Galway, his ambassador at Turin, who expostulated with the duke upon this
defection; but he persisted in denying any such correspondence, until the
advance of the French army enabled him to avow it without fearing the
resentment of the allies whom he had abandoned. Catinat marched into the
plains of Turin at the head of fifty thousand men, an army greatly
superior to that of the confederates. Then the duke imparted to the
ministers of the allies the proposals which France had made; represented
the superior strength of her army; the danger to which he was exposed;
and, finally, his inclination to embrace her offers. On the twelfth of
July a truce was concluded for a month, and afterwards prolonged till the
fifteenth of September. He wrote to all the powers engaged in the
confederacy, except King William, expatiating on the same topics, and
soliciting their consent. Though each in particular refused to concur, he
on the twenty-third day of August signed the treaty in public which he had
before concluded in private. The emperor was no sooner informed of his
design, than he took every step which he thought could divert him from his
purpose. He sent the count Mansfeldt to Turin with proposals for a match
between the king of the Romans and the princess of Savoy, as well as with
offers to augment his forces and his subsidy; but the duke had already
settled his terms with France, from which he would not recede. Prince
Eugene, though his kinsman, expressed great indignation at his conduct.
The young prince de Commercy was so provoked at his defection that he
challenged him to single combat, and the duke accepted of his challenge;
but the quarrel was compromised by the intervention of friends, and they
parted in an amicable manner. He had concealed the treaty until he should
receive the remaining part of the subsidies due to him from the
confederates. A considerable sum had been remitted from England to Genoa
for his use; but lord Galway no sooner received intimation of his new
engagement, than he put a stop to the payment of this money, which he
employed in the Milanese for the subsistence of those troops that were in
the British service. King William was encamped at Gemblours when the
duke’s envoy notified the separate peace which his master had concluded
with the king of France. Though he was extremely chagrined at the
information, he dissembled his anger and listened to the minister without
the least emotion. One of the conditions of this treaty was, that within a
limited time the allies should evacuate the duke’s dominions, otherwise
they should be expelled by the joint forces of France and Savoy. A
neutrality was offered to the confederates; and this being rejected, the
contracting powers resolved to attack the Milanese. Accordingly when the
truce expired, the duke, as generalissimo of the French king, entered that
duchy and undertook the siege of Valentia; so that in one campaign he
commanded two contending armies. The garrison of Valentia, consisting of
seven thousand men, Germans, Spaniards, and French protestants, made an
obstinate defence; and the duke of Savoy prosecuted the siege with
uncommon impetuosity. But after the trenches had been open for thirteen
days, a courier arrived from Madrid with an account of his catholic
majesty’s having agreed to the neutrality for Italy. This agreement
imported that there should be a suspension of arms until a general peace
could be effected; and that the Imperial and French troops should return
to their respective countries. Christendom had well nigh been embroiled
anew by the death of John Sobieski, king of Poland, who died at the age of
seventy in the course of this summer, after having survived his faculties
and reputation. As the crown was elective, a competition arose for the
succession. The kingdom was divided by factions; and the different powers
of Europe interested themselves warmly in the contention.

NAVAL TRANSACTIONS.

Nothing of consequence had been lately achieved by the naval force of
England. When the conspiracy was first discovered, sir George Rooke had
received orders to return from Cadiz, and he arrived in the latter end of
April. While he took his place at the board of admiralty, lord Berkeley
succeeded to the command of the fleet, and in the month of June set sail
towards Ushant in order to insult the coast of France. He pillaged and
burned the villages on the islands Grouais, Houat, and Hey die; made prize
of about twenty vessels; bombarded St. Martin’s on the isle of Ehé, and
the town of Olonne, which was set on fire in fifteen different places with
the shells and carcasses. Though these appear to have been enterprises of
small import, they certainly kept the whole coast of France in perpetual
alarm. The ministry of that kingdom were so much afraid of invasion, that
between Brest and Goulet they ordered above one hundred batteries to be
erected, and above sixty thousand men were continually in arms for the
defence of the maritime places. In the month of May rear-admiral Benbow
sailed with a small squadron in order to block up Du Bart in the harbour
of Dunkirk; but that famous adventurer found means to escape in a fog, and
steering to the eastward attacked the Dutch fleet in the Baltic under a
convoy of five frigates. These last he took, together with half the number
of the trading ships; but falling in with the outward bound fleet convoyed
by thirteen ships of the line, he was obliged to burn four of the
frigates, turn the fifth adrift, and part with all his prizes except
fifteen, which he carried into Dunkirk.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE PARLIAMENTS OF SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

The parliament of Scotland met on the eighth day of September, and lord
Murray, secretary of state, now earl of Tullibardine, presided as king’s
commissioner. Though that kingdom was exhausted by the war and two
successive bad harvests, which had driven a great number of the
inhabitants into Ireland, there was no opposition to the court measures.
The members of parliament signed an association like that of England. They
granted a supply of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds for maintaining
their forces by sea and land. They passed an act for securing their
religion, lives, and properties, in case his majesty should come to an
untimely death. By another they obliged all persons in public trust to
sign the association, and then the parliament was adjourned to the eighth
day of December. The disturbances of Ireland seemed now to be entirely
appeased. Lord Capel dying in May, the council, by virtue of an act passed
in the reign of Henry VIII., elected the chancellor, sir Charles Porter,
to be lord justice and chief governor of that kingdom, until his majesty’s
pleasure should be known. The parliament met in June: the commons expelled
Mr. Sanderson, the only member of that house who had refused to sign the
association, and adjourned to the fourth day of August. By that time sir
Charles Porter and the earls of Montrath and Drogheda were appointed lords
justices, and signified the king’s pleasure that they should adjourn. In
the beginning of December the chancellor died of an apoplexy.

ZEAL OF THE ENGLISH COMMONS IN THEIR AFFECTION TO THE KING.

King William being tired of an inactive campaign, left the army under the
command of the elector of Bavaria, and about the latter end of August
repaired to his palace at Loo, where he enjoyed his favourite exercise of
stag-hunting. He visited the court of Brandenburgh at Cleves; conferred
with the states of Holland at the Hague; and, embarking for England,
landed at Margate on the sixth day of October. The domestic economy of the
nation was extremely perplexed at this juncture from the sinking of public
credit, and the stagnation that necessarily attended a recoinage. These
grievances were with difficulty removed by the clear apprehension, the
enterprising genius, the unshaken fortitude of Mr. Montague, chancellor of
the exchequer, operating upon a national spirit of adventure, which the
monied interest had produced. The king opened the session of parliament on
the twentieth day of October, with a speech importing that overtures had
been made for a negotiation, but that the best way of treating with France
would be sword in hand. He therefore desired they would be expeditious in
raising the supplies for the service of the ensuing year, as well as for
making good the funds already granted. He declared that the civil list
could not be supported without their assistance. He recommended the
miserable condition of the French protestants to their compassion. He
desired they would contrive the best expedients for the recovery of the
national credit. He observed that unanimity and despatch were now more
than ever necessary, for the honour, safety, and advantage of England. The
commons having taken this speech into consideration, resolved that they
would support his majesty and his government, and assist him in the
prosecution of the war; that the standard of gold and silver should not be
altered; and that they would make good all parliamentary funds. Then they
presented an address in a very spirited strain, declaring, that
notwithstanding the blood and treasure of which the nation had been
drained, the commons of England would not be diverted from their firm
resolutions of obtaining by war a safe and honourable peace. They
therefore renewed their assurances that they would support his majesty
against all his enemies at home and abroad. The house of lords delivered
another to the same purpose, declaring that they would never be wanting or
backward on their parts in what might be necessary to his majesty’s
honour, the good of his kingdoms, and the quiet of Christendom. The
commons, in the first transports of their zeal, ordered two seditious
pamphlets to be burned by the hands of the common hangman. They
deliberated upon the estimates, and granted above six millions for the
service of the ensuing-year. They resolved that a supply should be granted
for making good the deficiency of parliamentary funds, and appropriated
several duties for this purpose.

RESOLUTIONS TOUCHING THE COIN, &c.

With respect to the coin they brought in a bill repealing an act for
taking off the obligation and encouragement of coining guineas for a
certain time, and for importing and coining guineas and half guineas, as
the extravagant price of those coins which occasioned this act was now
fallen. They passed a second bill for remedying the ill state of the coin;
and a third, explaining an act in the preceding session for laying duties
on low wines and spirits of the first extraction. In order to raise the
supplies of the year, they resolved to tax all persons according to the
true value of their real and personal estates, their stock upon land and
in trade, their income by offices, pensions, and professions. A duty of
one penny per week for one year was laid upon all persons not receiving
alms. A further imposition of one farthing in the pound per week was fixed
upon all servants receiving four pounds per annum as wages, and upwards to
eight pounds a-year inclusive. Those who received from eight to sixteen
pounds were taxed at one halfpenny per pound. An aid of three shillings in
the pound for one year was laid upon all lands, tenements, and
hereditaments, according to their true value. Without specifying the
particulars of those impositions, we shall only observe that, in the
general charge, the commons did not exempt one member of the commonwealth
that could be supposed able to bear any part of the burden. Provision was
made that hammered money should be received in payment of these duties at
the rate of five shillings and eightpence per ounce. All the deficiencies
on annuities and monies borrowed on the credit of the exchequer, were
transferred to this aid. The treasury was enabled to borrow a million and
a half at eight per cent, and to circulate exchequer bills to the amount
of as much more. To cancel these debts the surplus of all the supplies,
except the three-shilling-aid, was appropriated. The commons voted one
hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds for making good the deficiency in
recoining the hammered money, and the recompence for bringing in plate to
the mint. This sum was raised by a tax or duty upon wrought plate, paper,
pasteboard, vellum, and parchment, made or imported. Taking into
consideration the services and the present languishing state of the bank,
whose notes were at twenty per cent, discount, they resolved that it
should be enlarged by new subscriptions, made by four-fifths in tallies
struck on parliamentary funds, and one-fifth in bank-bills or notes; that
effectual provision should be made by parliament for paying the principal
of all such tallies as should be subscribed into the bank, out of the
funds agreed to be continued; that an interest of eight per cent, should
be allowed on all such tallies; and that the continuance of the bank
should be prolonged to the first day of August, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and ten. That all assignments of orders or tallies
subscribed into the bank should be registered in the exchequer; that
before the day should be fixed for the beginning of the new subscriptions,
the old should be made one hundred per cent., and what might exceed that
value should be divided among the old members; that all the interest due
on those tallies which might be subscribed into the bank-stock, at that
time appointed for subscriptions, to the end of the last preceding quarter
on each tally, should be allowed as principal; that liberty should be
given by parliament to enlarge the number of bank-bills to the value of
the sum that should be so subscribed over and above the twelve hundred
thousand pounds, provided they should be obliged to answer such bills on
demand, and in default thereof be answered by the exchequer out of the
first money due to them; that no other bank should be erected or allowed
by act of parliament during the continuance of the bank of England; that
this should be exempted from all tax or imposition; that no act of the
corporation should forfeit the particular interest of any person concerned
therein; that provision should be made to prevent the officers of the
exchequer, and all other officers and receivers of the revenue, from
diverting, delaying, or obstructing the course of payments to the bank;
that care should be taken to prevent the altering, counterfeiting, or
forging any bank bills or notes; that the estates and interest of each
member in the stock of the corporation should be made a personal estate;
that no contract made for any bank stock to be bought or sold, should be
valid in law or equity unless actually registered in the bank books within
seven days, and actually transferred within fourteen days after the
contract should be made. A bill upon these resolutions was brought in
under the direction of the chancellor of the exchequer: it related to the
continuation of tonnage and poundage upon wine, vinegar, and tobacco, and
comprehended a clause for laying an additional duty upon salt for two
years and three quarters. All the several branches constituted a general
fund, since known by the name of the general mortgage, without prejudice
to their former appropriations. The bill also provided that the tallies
should bear eight per cent, interest; that from the tenth of June for five
years they should bear no more than six per cent, interest; and that no
premium or discount upon them should be taken. In case of the general
funds proving insufficient to pay the whole interest, it was provided that
every proprietor should receive his proportion of the product, and the
deficiency be made good from the next aid; but should the fund produce
more than the interest, the surplus was destined to operate as a sinking
fund for the discharge of the principal. In order to make up a deficiency
of above eight hundred thousand pounds occasioned by the failure of the
land-bank, additional duties were laid upon leather; the time was enlarged
for persons to come in and purchase the annuities payable by several
former acts, and to obtain more certain interest in such annuities.

Never were more vigorous measures taken to support the credit of the
government; and never was the government served by such a set of
enterprising undertakers. The commons having received a message from the
king touching the condition of the civil list, resolved that a sum not
exceeding five hundred and fifteen thousand pounds should be granted for
the support of the civil list for the ensuing year, to be raised by a malt
tax and additional duties upon mum sweets, cyder, and perry. They likewise
resolved that an additional aid of one shilling in the pound should be
laid upon land, as an equivalent for the duty of ten per cent, upon mixed
goods. Provision was made for raising one million four hundred thousand
pounds by a lottery. The treasury was empowered to issue an additional
number of exchequer bills to the amount of twelve hundred thousand pounds,
every hundred pounds bearing interest at the rate of fivepence a-day, and
ten per cent, for circulation; finally, in order to liquidate the
transport-debt, which the funds established for that purpose had not been
sufficient to defray, a money-bill was brought in to oblige pedlars and
hawkers to take out licenses, and pay for them at certain stated prices.
One cannot without astonishment reflect upon the prodigious efforts that
were made upon this occasion, or consider without indignation the enormous
fortunes that were raised up by usurers and extortioners from the
distresses of their country. The nation did not seem to know its own
strength, until it was put to this extraordinary trial; and the experiment
of mortgaging funds succeeded so well, that later ministers have proceeded
in the same system, imposing burden upon burden, as if they thought the
sinews of the nation could never be overstrained.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

SIR JOHN FENWICK IS APPREHENDED, CONDEMNED, AND BEHEADED.

The public credit being thus bolstered up by the singular address of Mr.
Montague, and the bills passed for the supplies of the ensuing year, the
attention of the commons was transferred to the case of sir John Fen-wick,
who had been apprehended in the month of June at New Romney, in his way to
France. He had when taken written a letter to his lady by one Webber, who
accompanied him; but this man being seized, the letter was found,
containing such a confession as plainly evinced him guilty. He then
entered into a treaty with the court for turning evidence, and delivered a
long information in writing, which was sent abroad to his majesty. He made
no discoveries that could injure any of the Jacobites, who, by his
account, and other concurring testimonies, appeared to be divided into two
parties, known by the names of compounders and non-com-pounders. The
first, headed by the earl of Middleton, insisted upon receiving security
from king James that the religion and liberties of England should be
preserved; whereas the other party, at the head of which was the earl of
Melfort, resolved to bring him in without conditions, relying upon his own
honour and generosity. King William having sent over an order for bringing
Fenwick to trial, unless he should make more material discoveries, the
prisoner, with a view to amuse the ministry until he could take other
measures for his own safety, accused the earls of Shrewsbury, Marlborough,
and Bath, the lord Godolphin, and admiral Russel, of having made their
peace with king James, and engaged to act for his interest. Meanwhile his
lady and relations tampered with the two witnesses, Porter and Goodman.
The first of these discovered those practices to the government; and one
Clancey, who acted as agent for lady Fenwick, was tried, convicted of
subornation, fined, and set in the pillory; but they had succeeded better
in their attempts upon Goodman, who disappeared; so that one witness only
remained, and Fenwick began to think his life was out of danger. Admiral
Russel acquainted the house of commons that he and several persons of
quality had been reflected upon in some informations of sir John Fenwick;
he therefore desired that he might have an opportunity to justify his own
character. Mr. secretary Trumball produced the papers, which having been
read, the commons ordered that sir John Fenwick should be brought to the
bar of the house. There he was exhorted by the speaker to make an ample
discovery; which, however, he declined, except with the proviso that he
should first receive some security that what he might say should not
prejudice himself. He was ordered to withdraw until they should have
deliberated on his request. Then he was called in again, and the speaker
told him that he might deserve the favour of the house by making a full
discovery. He desired he might be indulged with a little time to recollect
himself, and promised to obey the command of the house. This favour being
denied, he again insisted upon having security; which they refusing to
grant, he chose to be silent, and was dismissed from the bar. The house
voted that his informations reflecting upon the fidelity of several
noblemen, members of the house, and others, upon hearsay, were false and
scandalous, contrived to undermine the government, and create jealousies
between the king and his subjects in order to stifle the conspiracy.

A motion being made for leave to bring in a bill to attaint him of high
treason, a warm debate ensued, and the question being put, was carried in
the affirmative by a great majority. He was furnished with a copy of the
bill, and allowed the use of pen, ink, paper, and counsel. When he
presented a petition praying that his counsel might be heard against
passing the bill, they made an order that his counsel should be allowed to
make his defence at the bar of the house; so that he was surprised into an
irregular trial, instead of being indulged with an opportunity of offering
objections to their passing the bill of attainder. He was accordingly
brought to the bar of the house; and the bill being read in his hearing,
the speaker called upon the king’s counsel to open the evidence. The
prisoner’s counsel objected to their proceeding to trial, alleging that
their client had not received the least notice of their purpose, and
therefore could not be prepared for his defence; but that they came to
offer their reasons against the bill. The house, after a long debate,
resolved, that he should be allowed further time to produce witnesses in
his defence; that the counsel for the king should likewise be allowed to
produce evidence to prove the treasons of which he stood indicted; and an
order was made for his being brought to the bar again in three days. In
pursuance of this order he appeared, when the indictment which had been
found against him by the grand jury was produced; and Porter was examined
as an evidence. Then the record of Clancey’s conviction was read; and one
Roe testified that Deighton, the prisoner’s solicitor, had offered him an
annuity of one hundred pounds to discredit the testimony of Goodman. The
king’s counsel moved, that Goodman’s examination, as taken by Mr. Vernon,
clerk of the council, might be read. Sir J. Powis and sir Bartholomew
Shower, the prisoner’s counsel, warmly opposed this proposal; they
affirmed that a deposition taken when the party affected by it was not
present to cross-examine the deposer, could not be admitted in a case of
five shillings value; that though the house was not bound by the rules of
inferior courts, it was nevertheless bound by the eternal and unalterable
rules of justice; that no evidence, according to the rules of law, could
be admitted in such a case but that of living witnesses; and that the
examination of a person who is absent was never read to supply his
testimony. The dispute between the lawyers on this subject gave rise to a
very violent debate among the members of the house. Sir Edward Seymour,
sir Richard Temple, Mr. Harley, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Manly, sir Christopher
Musgrave, and all the leaders of the tory party, argued against the
hardship and injustice of admitting this information as an evidence. They
demonstrated that it would be a step contrary to the practice of all
courts of judicature, repugnant to the common notions of justice and
humanity, diametrically opposite to the last act for regulating trials in
cases of high treason, and of dangerous consequences to the lives and
liberties of the people. On the other hand, lord Cutts, sir Thomas
Lyttleton, Mr. Montague, Mr. Smith of the treasury, and Trevor the
attorney-general, affirmed that the house was not bound by any form of law
whatsoever; that this was an extraordinary case in which the safety of the
government was deeply concerned; that though the common law might require
two evidences in cases of treason, the house had a power of deviating from
those rules in extraordinary cases; that there was no reason to doubt of
sir John Fenwick’s being concerned in the conspiracy; that he or his
friends had tampered with Porter; and that there were strong presumptions
to believe the same practices had induced Goodman to abscond. In a word,
the tories, either from party or patriotism, strenuously asserted the
cause of liberty and humanity by those very arguments which had been used
against them in the former reigns; while the wings, with equal violence
and more success, espoused the dictates of arbitrary power and oppression,
in the face of their former principles, with which they were now
upbraided. At length the question was put, whether or not the information
of Goodman should be read? and was carried in the affirmative by a
majority of seventy-three voices. Then two of the grand jury who had found
the indictment, recited the evidence which had been given to them by
Porter and Goodman; lastly, the king’s counsel insisted upon producing the
record of Cooke’s conviction, as he had been tried for the same
conspiracy. The prisoner’s counsel objected, that if such evidence was
admitted, the trial of one person in the same company would be the trial
of all; and it could not be expected that they who came to defend sir John
Fenwick only, should be prepared to answer the charge against Cooke. This
article produced another vehement debate among the members; and the whigs
obtained a second victory. The record was read, and the king’s counsel
proceeded to call some of the jury who served on Cooke’s trial to affirm
that he had been convicted on Goodman’s evidence. Sir Bartholomew Shower
said he would submit it to the consideration of the house, whether it was
just that the evidence against one person should conclude against another
standing at a different bar, in defence of his life? The parties were
again ordered to withdraw; and from this point arose a third debate, which
ended as the two former to the disadvantage of the prisoner. The jury
being examined, Mr. Sergeant Gould moved, that Mr. Vernon might be desired
to produce the intercepted letter from sir John Fenwick to his lady. The
prisoner’s counsel warmly opposed this motion, insisting upon their
proving it to be his hand writing before it could be used against him; and
no further stress was laid on this evidence. When they were called upon to
enter on his defence, they pleaded incapacity to deliver matters of such
importance after they had been fatigued with twelve hours’ attendance. The
house resolved to hear such evidence as the prisoner had to produce that
night. His counsel declared that they had nothing then to produce but the
copy of a record; and the second resolution was, that he should be brought
up again next day at noon. He accordingly appeared at the bar, and sir J.
Powis proceeded on his defence. He observed that the bill under
consideration affected the lives of the subjects; and such precedents were
dangerous; that sir John Fenwick was forthcoming in order to be tried by
the ordinary methods of justice; that he was actually under process, had
pleaded, and was ready to stand trial; that if there was sufficient clear
evidence against him, as the king’s sergeant had declared, there was no
reason for his being deprived of the benefit of such a trial as was the
birthright of every British subject; and if there was a deficiency of
legal evidence, he thought this was a very odd reason for the bill. He
took notice that even the regicides had the benefit of such a trial; that
the last act for regulating trials in cases of treason proved the great
tenderness of the laws which affected the life of the subject; and he
expressed his surprise that the very parliament which had passed that law
should enact another for putting a person to death without any trial at
all. He admitted that there had been many bills of attainder, but they
were generally levelled at outlaws and fugitives; and some of them had
been reversed in the sequel as arbitrary and unjust. He urged that this
bill of attainder did not allege or say that sir John Fenwick was guilty
of the treason for which he had been indicted; a circumstance which
prevented him from producing witnesses to that and several matters upon
which the king’s counsel had expatiated. He said they had introduced
evidence to prove circumstances not alleged in the bill, and defective
evidence of those that were; that Porter was not examined upon oath; that
nothing could be more severe than to pass sentence of death upon a man,
corrupt his blood, and confiscate his estate, upon parole evidence;
especially of such a wretch who, by his own confession, had been engaged
in a crime of the blackest nature, not a convert to the dictates of
conscience, but a coward, shrinking from the danger by which he had been
environed, and even now drudging for a pardon. He invalidated the evidence
of Goodman’s examination. He observed that the indictment mentioned a
conspiracy to call in a foreign power; but as this conspiracy had not been
put in practice, such an agreement was not a sufficient overt-act of
treason, according to the opinion of Hawles the solicitor-general,
concerned in this very prosecution. So saying, he produced a book of
remarks which that lawyer had published on the cases of lord Russel,
colonel Sidney, and others, who had suffered death in the reign of Charles
II. This author, said he, takes notice, that a conspiracy or agreement to
levy war is not treason without actually levying war; a sentiment in which
he concurred with lord Coke, and lord chief-justice Hales. He concluded
with saying, “We know at present on what ground we stand; by the statute
of Edward III. we know what treason is; by the two statutes of Edward VI.
and the late act, we know what is proof; by the Magna Charta we know we
are to be tried per legem terræ el per judicium parium, by the law
of the land and the judgment of our peers; but if bills of attainder come
into fashion, we shall neither know what is treason, what is evidence, nor
how nor where we are to be tried.” He was seconded by sir Bartholomew
Shower, who spoke with equal energy and elocution; and their arguments
were answered by the king’s counsel. The arguments in favour of the bill
imported that the parliament would not interpose except in extraordinary
cases; that here the evidence necessary in inferior courts being
defective, the parliament, which was not tied down by legal evidence, had
a right to exert their extraordinary power in punishing an offender, who
would otherwise escape with impunity; that as the law stood, he was but a
sorry politician that could not ruin the government, and yet elude the
statute of treason; that if a plot, after being discovered, should not be
thoroughly prosecuted, it would strengthen and grow upon the
administration, and probably at length subvert the government; that it was
notorious that parties were forming for king James; persons were plotting
in every part of the kingdom, and an open invasion was threatened;
therefore this was a proper time for the parliament to exert their
extraordinary power; that the English differed from all other nations in
bringing the witnesses and the prisoner face to face, and requiring two
witnesses in cases of treason; nor did the English law itself require the
same proof in some cases as in others, for one witness was sufficient in
felony, as well as for the treason of coining; that Fenwick was
notoriously guilty, and deserved to feel the resentment of the nation;
that he would have been brought to exemplary punishment in the ordinary
course of justice, had he not eluded it by corrupting evidence and
withdrawing a witness. If this reasoning be just, the house of commons has
a right to act in diametrical opposition to the laws in being; and is
vested with a despotic power over the lives and fortunes of their
constituents, for whose protection they are constituted. Let us therefore
reflect upon the possibility of a parliament debauched by the arts of
corruption into servile compliance with the designs of an arbitrary
prince, and tremble for the consequence. The debate being finished, the
prisoner was, at the desire of admiral Russel, questioned with regard to
the imputations he had fixed upon that gentleman and others from hearsay;
but he desired to be excused on account of the risk he ran while under a
double prosecution, if any thing which should escape him might be turned
to his prejudice.

After he was removed from the bar, Mr. Vernon, at the desire of the house,
recapitulated the arts and practices of sir John Fenwick and his friends
to procrastinate the trial. The bill was read a second time; and the
speaker asking, If the question should be put for its being committed? the
house was immediately kindled into a new flame of contention. Hawles, the
solicitor-general, affirmed that the house in the present case should act
both as judge and jury. Mr. Harcourt said he knew of no trial for treason
but what was confirmed by Magna Charta, by a jury, the birthright
and darling privilege of an Englishman, or per legem terræ, which
includes impeachments in parliament; that it was a strange trial where the
person accused had a chance to be hanged, but none to be saved; that he
never heard of a juryman who was not on his oath, nor of a judge who had
not power to examine witnesses upon oath, and who was not empowered to
save the innocent as well as to condemn the guilty. Sir Thomas Lyttleton
was of opinion that the parliament ought not to stand upon little niceties
and forms of other courts when the government was at stake. Mr. Howe
asserted that to do a thing of this nature, because the parliament had
power to do it, was a strange way of reasoning; that what was justice and
equity at Westminster-hall, was justice and equity every where; that one
bad precedent in parliament was of worse consequence than an hundred in
Westminster-hall, because personal or private injuries did not foreclose
the claims of original right; whereas the parliament could ruin the nation
beyond redemption, because it could establish tyranny by law. Sir Richard
Temple, in arguing against the bill, observed that the power of parliament
is to make any law, but the jurisdiction of parliament is to govern itself
by the law; to make a law, therefore, against all the laws in England was
the ultimum remedium et pessimum, never to be used but in case of
absolute necessity. He affirmed that by this precedent the house overthrew
all the laws of England; first, in condemning a man upon one witness;
secondly, in passing an act without any trial. The commons never did nor
can assume a jurisdiction of trying any person: they may for their own
information hear what can be offered; but it is not a trial where
witnesses are not upon oath. All bills of attainder have passed against
persons that were dead or fled, or without the compass of the law: some
have been brought in after trials in Westminster-hall; but none of those
have been called trials, and they were generally reversed. He denied that
the parliament had power to declare anything treason which was not treason
before. When inferior courts were dubious, the case might be brought
before parliament to judge whether it be treason or felony; but then they
must judge by the laws in being, and this judgment was not in the
parliament by bill but only in the house of lords. Lord Digby, Mr. Harley,
and colonel Granville, spoke to the same purpose. But their arguments and
remonstrances had no effect upon the majority, by whom the prisoner was
devoted to destruction. The bill was committed, passed, and sent up to the
house of lords, where it produced the longest and warmest debates which
had been known since the Restoration. Bishop Burnet signalized his zeal
for the government by a long speech in favour of the bill, contradicting
some of the fundamental maxims which he had formerly avowed in behalf of
the liberties of the people. At length it was carried by a majority of
seven voices; and one-and-forty lords, including eight prelates, entered a
protest couched in the strongest terms against the decision.

When the bill received the royal assent, another act of the like nature
passed against Barclay, Holmes, and nine other conspirators who had fled
from justice, in case they should not surrender themselves on or before
the twenty-fifth day of March next ensuing. Sir John Fenwick solicited the
mediation of the lords in his behalf, while his friends implored the royal
mercy. The peers gave him to understand that the success of his suit would
depend upon the fulness of his discoveries. He would have previously
stipulated for a pardon, and they insisted upon his depending on their
favour. He hesitated some time between the fears of infamy and the terrors
of death, which last he at length chose to undergo rather than incur the
disgraceful character of an informer. He was complimented with the axe in
consideration of his rank and alliance with the house of Howard, and
suffered on Tower-hill with great composure. In the paper which he
delivered to the sheriff, he took God to witness that he knew not of the
intended invasion until it was the common subject of discourse, nor was he
engaged in any shape for the service of king James. He thanked those noble
and worthy persons who had opposed his attainder in parliament; protested
before God that the information he gave to the ministry he had received in
letters and messages from France; and observed that he might have expected
mercy from the prince of Orange, as he had been instrumental in saving his
life by preventing the execution of a design which had been formed against
it—a circumstance which in all probability induced the late
conspirators to conceal their purpose of assassination from his knowledge.
He professed his loyalty to king James, and prayed heaven for his speedy
restoration.

EARL OF MONMOUTH SENT TO THE TOWER.

While Fenwick’s affair was in agitation, the earl of Monmouth had set on
foot some practices against the duke of Shrewsbury. One Matthew Smith,
nephew to sir William Perkins, had been entertained as a spy by this
nobleman, who finding his intelligence of very little use or importance,
dismissed him as a troublesome dependent. Then he had recourse to the earl
of Monmouth, into whom he infused unfavourable sentiments of the duke,
insinuating that he had made great discoveries which from sinister motives
were suppressed. Monmouth communicated those impressions to the earl of
Portland, who enlisted Smith as one of his intelligencers. Copies of the
letters he had sent to the duke of Shrewsbury were delivered to secretary
Trumball sealed up for the perusal of his majesty at his return from
Flanders. When Fenwick mentioned the duke of Shrewsbury in his
discoveries, the earl of Monmouth resolved to seize the opportunity of
ruining that nobleman. He, by the channel of the duchess of Norfolk,
exhorted lady Fenwick to prevail upon her husband to persist in his
accusation, and even dictated a paper of directions. Fenwick rejected the
proposal with disdain, as a scandalous contrivance; and Monmouth was so
incensed at his refusal that when the bill of attainder appeared in the
house of lords, he spoke in favour of it with peculiar vehemence. Lady
Fenwick, provoked at this cruel outrage, prevailed upon her nephew the
earl of Carlisle to move the house that sir John might be examined
touching any advices that had been sent to him with relation to his
discoveries. Fenwick being interrogated accordingly, gave an account of
all the particulars of Monmouth’s scheme, which was calculated to ruin the
duke of Shrewsbury by bringing Smith’s letters on the carpet. The duchess
of Norfolk and a confidant were examined and confirmed the detection. The
house called for Smith’s letters, which were produced by sir William
Trumball. The earl of Monmouth was committed to the Tower and dismissed
from all his employments. He was released however at the end of the
session, and the court made up all his losses in private lest he should be
tempted to join the opposition.

INQUIRY INTO MISCARRIAGES BY SEA.

The whigs, before they were glutted with the sacrifice of Fenwick, had
determined to let loose their vengeance upon sir George Rooke, who was a
leader in the opposite interest. Sir Cloudesley Shovel had been sent with
a squadron to look into Brest, where, according to the intelligence which
the government had received, the French were employed in preparing for a
descent upon England; but this information was false. They were busy in
equipping an armament for the West Indies, under the command of M.
Pointis, who actually sailed to the coast of New Spain and took the city
of Carfehagena. Rooke had been ordered to intercept the Toulon squadron in
its way to Brest; but his endeavours miscarried. The commons in a
committee of the whole house resolved to inquire why this fleet was not
intercepted; Rooke underwent a long examination, and was obliged to
produce his journal, orders, and letters. Shovel and Mitchel were likewise
examined; but nothing appearing to the prejudice of the admiral, the house
thought proper to desist from their prosecution. After they had determined
on the fate of Fenwick, they proceeded to enact several laws for
regulating the domestic economy of the nation; among others they passed an
act for the more effectual relief of creditors in cases of escape, and for
preventing abuses in prisons and pretended privileged places. Ever since
the reformation certain places in and about the city of London, which had
been sanctuaries during the prevalence of the popish religion, afforded
asylum to debtors, and were become receptacles of desperate persons who
presumed to set the law at defiance. One of these places called
White-friars was filled with a crew of ruffians, who every day committed
acts of violence and outrage; but this law was so vigorously put in
execution that they were obliged to abandon the district, which was soon
filled with more creditable inhabitants. On the sixteenth day of April the
king closed the session with a short speech, thanking the parliament for
the great supplies they had so cheerfully granted, and expressed his
satisfaction at the measures they had taken for retrieving the public
credit. Before he quitted the kingdom he ventured to produce upon the
scene the earl of Sunderland, who had hitherto promoted his councils
behind the curtain. That politician was now sworn of the privy council,
and gratified with the office of lord-chamberlain, which had been resigned
by the earl of Dorset, a nobleman of elegant talents and invincible
indolence, severe and poignant in his writings and remarks upon mankind in
general, but humane, good-natured, and generous to excess, in his commerce
with individuals.

NEGOTIATIONS AT RYSWICK.

William having made some promotions * and appointed a regency, embarked on
the twenty-sixth day of April for Holland, that he might be at hand to
manage the negotiation for a general peace.

* Somers was created a baron, and appointed lord-chancellor
of England; admiral Russel was dignified with the title of
earl of Orford. In February the earl of Aylesbury, who had
been committed on account of the conspiracy, was released
upon bail; but this privilege was denied to lord Montgomery,
who had been imprisoned in Newgate on the same account.

By this time the preliminaries were settled between Callieres the French
minister, and Mr. Dykvelt in behalf of the states-general, who resolved,
in consequence of the concessions made by France, that, in concert with
their allies, the mediation of Sweden might be accepted. The emperor and
the court of Spain, however, were not satisfied with those concessions;
yet his imperial majesty declared he would embrace the proffered
mediation, provided the treaty of Westphalia should be re-established; and
provided the king of Sweden would engage to join his troops with those of
the allies, in case France should break through the stipulation. This
proposal being delivered, the ministers of England and Holland at Vienna
presented a joint memorial, pressing his imperial majesty to accept the
mediation without reserve, and name a place at which the congress might be
opened. The emperor complied with reluctance. On the fourteenth day of
February all the ministers of the allies, except the ambassador of Spain,
agreed to the proposal; and next day signified their assent in form to M.
Lillienroot, the Swedish plenipotentiary. Spain demanded, as a
preliminary, that France should agree to restore all the places mentioned
in a long list which the minister of that crown presented to the assembly.
The emperor proposed that the congress should be held at Aix-la-Chapelle,
or Franckfort, or some other town in Germany. The other allies were more
disposed to negotiate in Holland. At length the French king suggested,
that no place would be more proper than a palace belonging to king William
called Newbourg-house, situated between the Hague and Delft, close by the
village of Ryswick; and to this proposition the ministers agreed. Those of
England were the earl of Pembroke, a virtuous, learned, and popular
nobleman, the lord Villiers, and sir Joseph Williamson: France sent Harlay
and Crecy to the assistance of Callieres. Louis was not only tired of the
war, on account of the misery in which it had involved his kingdom; but in
desiring a peace he was actuated by another motive. The king of Spain had
been for some time in a very ill state of health, and the French monarch
had an eye to the succession: this aim could not be accomplished while the
confederacy subsisted; therefore he eagerly sought a peace, that he might
at once turn his whole power against Spain as soon as Charles should
expire. The emperor harboured the same design upon the Spanish crown, and
for that reason interested himself in the continuance of the grand
alliance. Besides, he foresaw he should in a little time be able to act
against France with an augmented force. The czar of Muscovy had engaged to
find employment for the Turks and Tartars. He intended to raise the
elector of Saxony to the throne of Poland; and he had made some progress
in a negotiation with the circles of the Rhine for a considerable body of
auxiliary troops. The Dutch had no other view but that of securing a
barrier in the Netherlands. King William insisted upon the French king’s
acknowledging his title; and the English nation wished for nothing so much
as the end of a ruinous war. On the tenth day of February, Callieres, in
the name of his master, agreed to the following preliminaries: That the
treaties of Westphalia and Nimeguen should be the basis of this
negotiation; that Strasbourg should be restored to the empire, and
Luxembourg to the Spaniards, together with Mons, Charleroy, and all places
taken by the French in Catalonia since the treaty of Nimeguen; that Dinant
should be ceded to the bishop of Liege, and all reunion since the treaty
of Nimeguen be made void; that the French king should make restitution of
Lorraine, and, upon conclusion of the peace, acknowledge the prince of
Orange as king of Great Britain, without condition or reserve. The
conferences were interrupted by the death of Charles XI. king of Sweden,
who was succeeded by his son Charles, then a minor: but the queen and five
senators, whom the late king had by will appointed administrators of the
government, resolved to pursue the mediation, and sent a new commission to
Lillienroot for that purpose. The ceremonials being regulated with the
consent of all parties, the plenipotentiaries of the emperor delivered
their master’s demands to the mediator on the twenty-second day of May,
and several German ministers gave in the pretensions the respective
princes whom they represented.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

THE FRENCH TAKE BARCELONA.

Meanwhile the French king, in the hope of procuring more favourable terms,
resolved to make his last effort against the Spaniards in Catalonia and in
the Netherlands, and to elevate the prince of Conti to the throne of
Poland; an event which would have greatly improved the interest of France
in Europe. Louis had got the start of the confederates in Flanders, and
sent thither a very numerous army commanded by Catinat, Villeroy, and
Boufflers. The campaign was opened with the siege of Aeth, which was no
sooner invested than king William, having recovered of an indisposition,
took the field, and had an interview with the duke of Bavaria, who
commanded a separate body. He did not think proper to interrupt the enemy
in their operations before Aeth, which surrendered in a few days after the
trenches were opened; but contented himself with taking possession of an
advantageous camp, where he covered Brussels, which Villeroy and Boufflers
had determined to besiege. In Catalonia the duke of Vendôme invested
Barcelona, in which there was a garrison of ten thousand regular soldiers,
besides five thousand burghers who had voluntarily taken arms on this
occasion. The governor of the place was the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt,
who had served in Ireland; and been vested with the command of the
Imperial troops which were sent into Spain. The French general being
reinforced from Provence and Languedoc, carried on his approaches with
surprising impetuosity; and was repulsed in several attacks by the valour
of the defendants. At length the enemy surprised and routed the viceroy of
Catalonia; and flushed with this victory, stormed the outworks, which had
been long battered with their cannon. The dispute was very bloody and
obstinate; but the French, by dint of numbers, made themselves masters of
the covered-way and two bastions. There they erected batteries of cannon
and mortars, and fired furiously on the town, which however the prince of
Hesse resolved to defend to the last extremity. The court of Madrid,
however, unwilling to see the place entirely ruined, as in all probability
it would be restored at the peace, despatched an order to the prince to
capitulate; and he obtained very honourable terms, after having made a
glorious defence for nine weeks; in consideration of which he was
appointed viceroy of the province. France was no sooner in possession of
this important place, than the Spaniards became as eager for peace as they
had been before averse to a negotiation.

EXPEDITION OF ADMIRAL NEVIL TO THE WEST INDIES.

Their impatience was not a little inflamed by the success of Pointis in
America, where he took Carthagena, in which he found a booty amounting to
eight millions of crowns. Having ruined the fortifications of the place,
and received advice that an English squadron under admiral Nevil had
arrived in the West Indies, with a design to attack him in his return, he
bore away for the straits of Bahama. On the twenty-second day of May he
fell in with the English fleet, and one of his fly-boats was taken; but
such was his dexterity, or good fortune, that he escaped after having been
pursued five days, during which the English and Dutch rear-admirals sprang
their fore-top-masts and received other damage, so that they could not
proceed. Then Nevil steered to Carthagena, which he found quite abandoned
by the inhabitants, who after the departure of Pointis had been rifled a
second time by the buccaneers, on pretence that they had been defrauded of
their share of the plunder. This was really the case; they had in a great
measure contributed to the success of Pointis, and were very ill rewarded.
In a few days the English admiral discovered eight sail of their ships,
two of which were forced on the shore and destroyed, two taken and the
rest escaped. Then he directed his course to Jamaica, and by the advice of
the governor, sir William Beeston, detached rear-admiral Meeze with some
ships and forces to attack Petit-Guavas, which he accordingly surprised,
burned, and reduced to ashes. After this small expedition, Nevil proceeded
to the Havannah on purpose to take the galleons under his convoy for
Europe, according to the instructions he had received from the king; but
the governor of the place, and the general of the plate-fleet, suspecting
such an offer, would neither suffer him to enter the harbour, nor put the
galleons under his protection. He now sailed through the gulf of Folrida
to Virginia, where he died of chagrin, and the command of the fleet
devolved on captain Dilkes, who arrived in England on the twenty-fourth
day of October, with a shattered squadron half manned, to the unspeakable
mortification of the people, who flattered themselves with the hopes of
wealth and glory from this expedition. Pointis steering to the banks of
Newfoundland, entered the bay of Conceptione, at a time when a stout
English squadron, commanded by commodore Norris, lay at anchor in the bay
of St. John. This officer being informed of the arrival of a French fleet,
at first concluded that it was the squadron of M. Nesmond come to attack
him, and exerted his utmost endeavours to put the place in a posture of
defence; but afterwards understanding that it was Pointis returning with
the spoil of Carthagena, he called a council of war, and proposed to go
immediately in quest of the enemy. He was however over-ruled by a
majority, who gave it as their opinion that they should remain where they
were without running unnecessary hazard. By virtue of this scandalous
determination, Pointis was permitted to proceed on his voyage to Europe;
but he had not yet escaped every danger. On the fourteenth day of August
he fell in with a squadron under the command of captain Harlow, by whom he
was boldly engaged till night parted the combatants. He was pursued next
day; but his ships sailing better than those of Harlow, he accomplished
his escape, and on the morrow entered the harbour of Brest. That his
ships, which were foul, should out-sail the English squadron, which had
just put to sea, was a mystery which the people of England could not
explain. They complained of having been betrayed through the whole course
of the West Indian expedition. The king owned he did not understand marine
affairs, the entire conduct of which he abandoned to Russel, who became
proud, arbitrary, and unpopular, and was supposed to be betrayed by his
dependents. Certain it is, the service was greatly obstructed by faction
among the officers, which with respect to the nation had all the effects
of treachery and misconduct.

THE ELECTOR OF SAXONY IS CHOSEN KING OF POLAND.

The success of the French in Catalona, Flanders, and the West Indies, was
balanced by their disappointment in Poland. Louis encouraged by the
remonstrance of the abbé de Polignac, who managed the affairs of France in
that kingdom, resolved to support the prince of Conti as a candidate for
the crown, and remitted great sums of money which wore distributed among
the Polish nobility. The emperor had at first declared for the son of the
late king; but finding the French party too strong for his competitor, he
entered into a negotiation with the elector of Saxony, who agreed to
change his religion, to distribute eight millions of florins among the
Poles, to confirm their privileges, and advance with his troops to the
frontiers of that kingdom. Having performed these articles, he declared
himself a candidate, and was publicly espoused by the Imperialists. The
duke of Lorraine, the prince of Baden, and don Livio Odeschalchi, nephew
to pope Innocent, were likewise competitors; but finding their interest
insufficient, they united their influence with that of the elector, who
was proclaimed king of Poland. He forthwith took the oath required,
procured an attestation from the Imperial court of his having changed his
religion, and marched with his army to Cracow, where he was crowned with
the usual solemnity. Louis persisted in maintaining the pretensions of the
prince of Conti, and equipped a fleet at Dunkirk for his convoy to
Dantzick in his way to Poland. But the magistrates of that city, who had
declared for the new king, would not suffer his men to land, though they
offered to admit himself with a small retinue. He therefore went on shore
at Marien-burgh, where he was met by some chiefs of his own party; but the
new king Augustus acted with such vigilance, that he found it
impracticable to form an army; besides he suspected the fidelity of his
own Polish partizans; he therefore refused to part with the treasure he
had brought, and in the beginning of winter returned to Dunkirk.

THE CZAR OF MUSCOVY TrAVELS IN DISGUISE.

The establishment of Augustus on the throne of Poland was in some measure
owing to the conduct of Peter the czar of Muscovy, who having formed great
designs against the Ottoman Porte, was very unwilling to see the crown of
Poland possessed by a partizan of France, which was in alliance with the
grand seignor. He therefore interested himself warmly in the dispute, and
ordered his general to assemble an army on the frontiers of Lithuania,
which by over-awing the Poles that were in the interest of the prince of
Conti, considerably influenced the election. This extraordinary
legislator, who was a strange compound of heroism and barbarity, conscious
of the defects in his education, and of the gross ignorance that
overspread his dominions, resolved to extend his ideas, and improve his
judgment by travelling; and that he might be the less restricted by forms,
or interrupted by officious curiosity, he determined to travel in
disguise. He was extremely ambitious of becoming a maritime power, and in
particular of maintaining a fleet in the Black-sea; and his immediate aim
was to learn the principles of ship-building. He appointed an embassy for
Holland, to regulate some points of commerce with the states-general.
Having intrusted the care of his dominions to persons in whom he could
confide, he now disguised himself, and travelled as one of their retinue.
He first disclosed himself to the elector of Brandenburgh in Prussia, and
afterwards to king William, with whom he conferred in private at Utrecht.
He engaged himself as a common labourer with a ship-carpenter in Holland,
whom he served for some months with wonderful patience and assiduity. He
afterwards visited England, where he amused himself chiefly with the same
kind of occupation. From thence he set out for Vienna, where receiving
advices from his dominions, that his sister was concerned in managing
intrigues against his government, he returned suddenly to Moscow, and
found the machinations of the conspirators were already baffled by the
vigilance and fidelity of the foreigners to whom he had left the care of
the administration. His savage nature, however, broke out upon this
occasion; he ordered some hundreds to be hanged all round his capital; and
a good number were beheaded, he himself with his own hands performing the
office of executioner.

CONGRESS AT RYSWICK.

The negotiations at Ryswick proceeded very slowly for some time. The
Imperial minister demanded, that Franco should make restitution of all the
places and dominions she had wrested from the empire since the peace of
Munster, whether by force of arms or pretence of right. The Spaniards
claimed all they could demand by virtue of the peace of Nimeguen and the
treaty of the Pyrenees. The French affirmed, that if the preliminaries
offered by Callieres were accepted, these propositions could not be taken
into consideration. The Imperialists persisted in demanding a
circumstantial answer, article by article. The Spaniards insisted upon the
same manner of proceeding, and called upon the mediator and Dutch
ministers to support their pretensions. The plenipotentiaries of France
declared, they would not admit any demand or proposition contrary to the
preliminary articles; but were willing to deliver in a project of peace in
order to shorten the negotiations, and the Spanish ambassadors consented
to this expedient. During these transactions the earl of Portland held a
conference with mareschal Boufflers near Halle, in sight of the two
opposite armies, which was continued in five successive meetings. On the
second day of August they retired together to a house in the suburbs of
Halle, and mutually signed a paper, in which the principal articles of the
peace between France and England were adjusted. Next day king William
quitted the camp, and retired to his house at Loo, confident of having
taken such measures for a pacification as could not be disappointed. The
subject of this field negotiation is said to have turned upon the interest
of king James, which the French monarch promised to abandon; others
however suppose that the first foundation of the partition treaty was laid
in this conference. But in all probability, William’s sole aim was to put
an end to an expensive and unsuccessful war, which had rendered him very
unpopular in his own dominions, and to obtain from the court of France an
acknowledgment of his title, which had since the queen’s death become the
subject of dispute. He perceived the emperor’s backwardness towards a
pacification, and foresaw numberless difficulties in discussing such a
complication of interests by the common method of treating; he therefore
chose such a step as he thought would alarm the jealousy of the allies,
and quicken the negotiation at Ryswick. Before the congress was opened,
king James had published two manifestoes, addressed to the catholic and
protestant princes of the confederacy, representing his wrongs, and
craving redress; but his remonstrances being altogether disregarded, he
afterwards issued a third declaration, solemnly protesting against all
that might or should be negotiated, regulated, or stipulated with the
usurper of his realms, as being void of all rightful and lawful authority.
On the twentieth day, of July the French ambassadors produced their
project of a general peace, declaring at the same time that should it not
be accepted before the last day of August, France would not hold herself
bound for the conditions she now offered; but Caunitz, the emperor’s
plenipotentiary, protested he would pay no regard to this limitation. On
the thirtieth of August, however, he delivered to the mediators an
ultimatum, importing that he adhered to the treaties of Westphalia and
Nimeguen, and accepted of Strasbourg with its appurtenances; that he
insisted upon the restitution of Lorraine to the prince of that name; and
demanded that the church and chapter of Liege should be re-established in
the possession of their incontestable rights. Next day the French
plenipotentiaries declared that the month of August being now expired, all
their offers were vacated; that therefore the king of France would reserve
Strasbourg, and unite it with its dependencies to his crown for ever; that
in other respects he would adhere to the project, and restore Barcelona to
the crown of Spain; but that these terms must be accepted in twenty days,
otherwise he should think himself at liberty to recede. The ministers of
the electors and princes of the empire joined in a written remonstrance to
the Spanish plenipotentiaries, representing the inconveniencies and
dangers that would accrue to the Germanic body from France being in
possession of Luxembourg, and exhorting them in the strongest terms to
reject all offers of an equivalent for that province. They likewise
presented another to the states-general, requiring them to continue the
war according to their engagements, until France should have complied with
the preliminaries. No regard however was paid to either of these
addresses. Then the Imperial ambassadors demanded the good offices of the
mediator on certain articles; but all that he could obtain of France was,
that the term for adjusting the peace between her and the emperor should
be prolonged till the first day of November, and in the meantime an
armistice be punctually observed. Yet even these concessions were made on
condition that the treaty with England, Spain, and Holland, should be
signed on that day, even though the emperor and empire should not concur.

THE AMBASSADORS SIGN THE TREATY.

Accordingly on the twentieth day of September, the articles were
subscribed by the Dutch, English, Spanish, and French ambassadors, while
the Imperial ministers protested against the transaction, observing this
was the second time that a separate peace had been concluded with France;
and that the states of the empire, who had been imposed upon through their
own credulity, would not for the future be so easily persuaded to engage
in confederacies. In certain preparatory articles settled between England
and France, king William promised to pay a yearly pension to queen Mary
D’Esté, of fifty thousand pounds, or such sum as should be established for
that purpose by act of parliament. The treaty itself consisted of
seventeen articles. The French king engaged, that he would not disturb or
disquiet the king of Groat Britain in the possession of his realms or
government; nor assist his enemies, nor favour conspiracies against his
person. This obligation was reciprocal. A free commerce was restored.
Commissaries were appointed to meet at London and settle the pretensions
of each crown to Hudson’s bay, taken by the French during the late peace,
and retaken by the English in the course of the war; and to regulate the
limits of the places to be restored, as well as the exchanges to be made.
It was likewise stipulated, that, in case of a rupture, six months should
be allowed to the subjects of each power for removing their effects; that
the separate articles of the treaty of Nimeguen, relating to the
principality of Orange, should be entirely executed; and that the
ratifications should be exchanged in three weeks from the day of signing.
The treaty between France and Holland imported a general armistice, a
perpetual amity, a mutual restitution, a reciprocal renunciation of all
pretensions upon each other, a confirmation of the peace of Savoy, a
re-establishment of the treaty concluded between France and Brandenburgh
in the year I one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine, a comprehension
of Sweden, and all those powers that should be named before the
ratification, or in six months after the conclusion of the treaty.
Besides, the Dutch ministers concluded a treaty of commerce with France,
which was immediately put in execution. Spain had great reason to be
satisfied with the pacification, by which the recovered Gironne, Eoses,
Barcelona, Luxembourg, Charleroy, Mons, Courtray, and all the towns,
fortresses, and territories taken by the French in the province of
Luxembourg, Namur, Brabant, Flanders, and Hainault, except eighty-two
towns and villages claimed by the French; this dispute was left to the
decision of commissaries; or in case they should not agree, to the
determination of the states-general. A remonstrance in favour of the
French protestant refugees in England, Holland, and Germany, was delivered
by the earl of Pembroke to the mediators, in the name of the protestant
allies, on the day that preceded the conclusion of the treaty; but the
French plenipotentiaries declared in the name of their master, that as he
did not pretend “to prescribe rules to king William about the English
subjects, he expected the same liberty with respect to his own.” No other
effort was made in behalf of those conscientious exiles; the treaties were
ratified, and the peace proclaimed at Paris and London.

A GENERAL PACIFICATION.

The emperor still held out, and perhaps was encouraged to persevere in his
obstinacy by the success of his arms in Hungary, where his general, prince
Eugene of Savoy, obtained a complete victory at Zenta over the forces of
the grand seignor, who commanded his army in person. In this battle, which
was fought on the eleventh day of September, the grand vizier, the aga of
the janissaries, seven-and-twenty pachas, and about thirty thousand men,
were killed or drowned in the river Theysse six thousand were wounded or
taken, together with all their artillery, tents, baggage, provisions, and
ammunition, the grand seignor himself escaping with difficulty; a victory
the more glorious and acceptable, as the Turks had a great superiority in
point of number, and as the Imperialists did not lose a thousand men
during the whole action. The emperor perceiving that the event of this
battle had no effect in retarding the treaty, thought proper to make use
of the armistice, and continue the negotiation after the forementioned
treaties had been signed. This was likewise the case with the princes of
the empire; though those of the protestant persuasion complained that
their interest was neglected. In one of the articles of the treaty, it was
stipulated that in the places to be restored by France, the Roman catholic
religion should continue as it had been re-established. The ambassadors of
the protestant princes joined in a remonstrance, demanding that the
Lutheran religion should be restored in those places where it had formerly
prevailed; but this demand was rejected, as being equally disagreeable to
France and the emperor. Then they refused to sign the treaty, which was
now concluded between France, the emperor, and the catholic princes of the
empire. By this pacification, Triers, the Palatinate, and Lorraine, were
restored to their respective owners. The countries of Spanheim and
Valdentz, together with the duchy of Deux Ponts, were ceded to the king of
Sweden. Francis Louis Palatine was confirmed in the electorate of Cologn;
and cardinal Furstemberg restored to all his rights and benefices. The
claims of the duchess of Orleans upon the Palatinate were referred to the
arbitration of France and the emperor; and in the meantime the elector
Palatine agreed to supply her highness with an annuity of one hundred
thousand florins. The ministers of the protestant princes published a
formal declaration against the clause relating to religion, and afterwards
solemnly protested against the manner in which the negotiation had been
conducted. Such was the issue of a long and bloody war, which had drained
England of her wealth and people, almost entirely ruined her commerce,
debauched her morals, by encouraging venality and corruption, and entailed
upon her the curse of foreign connexions, as well as a national debt which
was gradually increased to an intolerable burden. After all the blood and
treasure which had been expended, William’s ambition and revenge remained
unsatisfied. Nevertheless, he reaped the solid advantage of seeing himself
firmly established on the English throne; and the confederacy, though not
successful in every instance, accomplished their great aim of putting a
stop to the encroachments of the French monarch. They mortified his
vanity, they humbled his pride and arrogance, and compelled him to
disgorge the acquisitions which, like a robber, he had made in violation
of public faith, justice, and humanity. Had the allies been true to one
another; had they acted from genuine zeal for the common interests of
mankind; and prosecuted with vigour the plan which was originally
concerted, Louis would in a few campaigns have been reduced to the most
abject state of disgrace, despondence, and submission; for he was
destitute of true courage and magnanimity. King William having finished
this important transaction, returned to England about the middle of
November, and was received in London amidst the acclamations of the
people, who now again hailed him as their deliverer from a war, by the
continuance of which they must have been infallibly beggared.

CHAPTER VI.

State of Parties….. Characters of the Ministers….. The
Commons reduce the Number of standing Forces to Ten
Thousand….. They establish the Civil list; and assign
Funds for paying the National Debts….. They take
Cognisance of fraudulent Endorsements of Exchequer
Bills….. Anew East-India Company constituted by act of
parliament….. .Proceedings against a Book written by
William Molineux of Dublin, and against certain Smugglers of
Alamodes and Lustrings from France….. Society for the
Reformation of Manners….. The Earl of Portland resigns his
Employments….. The King disowns the Scottish Trading
Company….. He embarks for Holland….. First Treaty of
Partition….. Intrigues of France at the Court of
Madrid….. King William is thwarted by his now
Parliament….. He is obliged to send away his Dutch
Guards….. The Commons address the King against the
Papists….. The Parliament prorogued….. The Scottish
Company make a Settlement on the Isthmus of Darien; which
however they are compelled to abandon….. Remonstrances of
the Spanish Court against the Treaty of Partition ….. The
Commons persist in their Resolutions to mortify the
King….. Inquiry into the Expedition of Captain Kidd….. A
Motion made against Burnet, bishop of Sarum….. Inquiry
into the Irish Forfeitures….. The Commons pass a Bill of
Resumption, and a severe Bill against Papists….. The old
East-India Company re-established….. Dangerous Ferment in
Scotland….. lord Homers dismissed from his
Employments….. Second Treaty of Partition….. Death of
the Duke of Gloucester….. The King sends a Fleet into the
Baltic, to the Assistance of the Swedes….. The second
Treaty of Partition generally disagreeable to the European
Powers….. The French Interest prevails at the Court of
Spain….. King William finds means to allay the heats in
Scotland ….. The King of Spain dies, after having
bequeathed his Dominions by Will to the Duke of Anjou…..
The French King’s Apology for accepting the Will ….. The
States-general owns Philip as King of Spain….. Anew
Ministry and a new Parliament….. The Commons unpropitious
to the Court—-The Lords are more condescending….. An
intercepted Letter from the Earl of Melfort to his
Brother….. Succession of the Crown settled upon the
Princess Sophia, Elect ress Dowager of Hanover, and the
Protestant Heirs of her Body….. The Duchess of Savoy
protests against this Act….. Ineffectual Negotiation with
France….. Severe Addresses from both Houses, in relation
to the Partition Treaty….. William is obliged to
acknowledge the King of Spain….. The two Houses seem to
enter into the King’s Measures….. The Commons resolve to
wreak their Vengeance on the old Ministry….. The earls of
Portland and Oxford, the Lords Sotners and Halifax, are
impeached….. Disputes between the two Houses….. The
House of Peers acquits the impeached Lords ….. Petition of
Kent….. Favourable end of the Session….. Progress of
Prince Eugene in Italy….. Sketch of the Situation of
Affairs in Europe….. Treaty of Alliance between the
Emperor and the maritime Powers….. Death of King
James….. The French King owns the pretended Prince of
Wales as King of England….. Addresses to King William on
that subject….. New Parliament….. The King’s last Speech
to both Houses received with great Applause….. Great
Harmony between the King and Parliament….. The two Houses
pass the Bill of Abjuration….. The Lower House justifies
the Proceedings of the Commons in the preceding
Parliament….. Affairs of Ireland ….. The King recommends
an Union of the two Kingdoms….. He falls from his
Horse….. His Death….. And Character.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

WHEN the king opened the session of parliament on the third day of
December, he told them the war was brought to the end they all proposed,
namely, an honourable peace. He gave them to understand there was a
considerable debt on account of the fleet and army; that the revenues of
the crown had been anticipated. He expressed his hope that they would
provide for him during his life, in such a manner as would conduce to his
own honour and that of the government. He recommended the maintenance of a
considerable navy; and gave it as his opinion, that for the present
England could not be safe without a standing army. He promised to rectify
such corruptions and abuses as might have crept into any part of the
administration during the war; and effectually to discourage profaneness
and immorality. Finally, he assured them that as he had rescued their
religion, laws, and liberties, when they were in the extremest danger, so
he should place the glory of his reign in preserving and leaving them
entire to latest posterity. To this speech the commons replied in an
address, by a compliment of congratulation upon the peace, and an
assurance, that they would be ever ready to assist and support his
majesty, who had confirmed them in the quiet possession of their rights
and liberties, and by putting an end to the war fully completed the work
of their deliverance. Notwithstanding these appearances of good humour,
the majority of the house, and indeed the whole nation, were equally
alarmed and exasperated at a project for maintaining a standing army,
which was countenanced at court, and even recommended by the king in his
speech to the parliament. William’s genius was altogether military. He
could not bear the thought of being a king without power. He could not
without reluctance dismiss those officers who had given so many proofs of
their courage and fidelity. He did not think himself safe upon the naked
throne, in a kingdom that swarmed with malcontents who had so often
conspired against his person and government. He dreaded the ambition and
known perfidy of the French king, who still retained a powerful army. He
foresaw that a reduction of the forces would lessen his importance both at
home and abroad; diminish the dependence upon his government; and disperse
those foreigners in whose attachment he chiefly confided. He communicated
his sentiments on this subject to his confidant, the earl of Sunderland,
who knew by experience the aversion of the people to a standing army;
nevertheless he encouraged him with hope of success, on the supposition
that the commons would see the difference between an army raised by the
king’s private authority, and a body of veteran troops maintained by
consent of parliament for the security of the kingdom. This was a
distinction to which the people paid no regard. All the jealousy of former
parliaments seemed to be roused by the bare proposal; and this was
inflamed by a national prejudice against the refugees, in whose favour the
king had betrayed repeated marks of partial indulgence. They were
submissive, tractable, and wholly dependent upon his will and generosity.
The Jacobites failed not to cherish the seeds of dissatisfaction, and
reproach the whigs who countenanced this measure. They branded that party
with apostacy from their former principles. They observed that the very
persons who in the late reigns endeavoured to abridge the prerogative, and
deprive the king of that share of power which was absolutely necessary to
actuate the machine of government, were now become advocates for
maintaining a standing army in time of peace; nay, and impudently avowed,
that their complaisance to the court in this particular was owing to their
desire of excluding from all share in the administration a faction
disaffected to his majesty, which might mislead him into more pernicious
measures. The majority of those who really entertained revolution
principles, opposed the court from apprehension that a standing army, once
established, would take root and grow into an habitual maxim of
government; that should the people be disarmed and the sword left in the
hands of mercenaries, the liberties of the nation must be entirely at the
mercy of him by whom these mercenaries should be commanded. They might
overawe elections, dictate to parliaments, and establish a tyranny, before
the people could take any measures for their own protection. They could
not help thinking it was possible to form a militia, that, with the
concurrence of a fleet, might effectually protect the kingdom from the
dangers of an invasion. They firmly believed that a militia might be
regularly trained to arms, so as to acquire the dexterity of professed
soldiers; and they did not doubt they would surpass those hirelings in
courage, considering that they would be animated by every concurring
motive of interest, sentiment, and affection. Nay, they argued, that
Britain, surrounded as it was by a boisterous sea, secured by floating
bulwarks, abounding with stout and hardy inhabitants, did not deserve to
be free if her sons could not protect their liberties without the
assistance of mercenaries, who were indeed the only slaves of the kingdom.
Yet among the genuine friends of their country, some individuals espoused
the opposite maxims. They observed that the military system of every
government in Europe was now altered, that war was become a trade, and
discipline a science not to be learned but by those who made it their sole
profession; that therefore, while France kept up a large standing army of
veterans ready to embark on the opposite coast, it would be absolutely
necessary for the safety of the nation to maintain a small standing force,
which should be voted in parliament from year to year. They might have
suggested another expedient which in a few years would have produced a
militia of disciplined men. Had the soldiers of this small standing army
been enlisted for a term of years, at the expiration of which they might
have claimed their discharge, volunteers would have offered themselves
from all parts of the kingdom, even from the desire of learning the use
and exercise of arms, the ambition of being concerned in scenes of actual
service, and the chagrin of little disappointments or temporary disgusts,
which yet would not have impelled them to enlist as soldiers on the common
terms of perpetual slavery. In consequence of such a succession, the whole
kingdom would soon have been stocked with members of a disciplined
militia, equal if not superior to any army of professed soldiers. But this
scheme would have defeated the purpose of the government, which was more
afraid of domestic foes than of foreign enemies; and industriously avoided
every plan of this nature, which could contribute to render the
malcontents of the nation more formidable.

CHARACTERS OF THE MINISTERS.

Before we proceed to the transactions of parliament in this session, it
may not be amiss to sketch the outlines of the ministry as it stood at
this juncture. The king’s affection for the earl of Portland had begun to
abate in proportion as his esteem for Sunderland increased, together with
his consideration for Mrs. Villiers, who had been distinguished by some
particular marks of his majesty’s favour. These two favourites are said to
have supplanted Portland, whose place in the king’s bosom was now filled
by Van Keppel, a gentleman of Guelderland who had first served his majesty
as a page, and afterwards acted as private secretary. The earl of Portland
growing troublesome, from his jealousy of this rival, the king resolved to
send him into honourable exile, in quality of an ambassador-extraordinary
to the court of France; and Trumball, his friend and creature, was
dismissed from the office of secretary, which the king conferred upon
Vernon, a plodding man of business who had acted as under-secretary to the
duke of Shrewsbury. This nobleman rivalled the earl of Sunderland in his
credit at the council-board, and was supported by Somers, lord chancellor
of England, by Russel now earl of Orford, first lord of the admiralty, and
Montague, chancellor of the exchequer. Somers was an upright judge, a
plausible statesman, a consummate courtier, affable, mild, and
insinuating. Orford appears to have been rough, turbulent, factious, and
shallow. Montague had distinguished himself early by his poetical genius;
but he soon converted his attention to the cultivation of more solid
talents. He rendered himself remarkable for his eloquence, décemment, and
knowledge of the English constitution. To a delicate taste he united an
eager appetite for political studies. The first catered for the enjoyments
of fancy; the other was subservient to his ambition. He at the same time
was the distinguished encourager of the liberal arts, and the professed
patron of projectors. In his private deportment he was liberal, easy, and
entertaining; as a statesman, bold, dogmatical, and aspiring.

THE NUMBER OF STANDING FORCES REDUCED TO TEN THOUSAND.

The terrors of a standing army had produced such an universal ferment in
the nation, that the dependents of the court in the house of commons durst
not openly oppose the reduction of the forces; but they shifted the
battery, and employed all their address in persuading the house to agree
that a very small number should be retained. When the commons voted, That
all the forces raised since the year one thousand six hundred and eighty
should be disbanded, the courtiers desired the vote might be re-committed,
on pretence that it restrained the king to the old tory regiments, on
whose fidelity he could not rely. This motion however was overruled by a
considerable majority. Then they proposed an amendment, which was
rejected, and afterwards moved, That the sum of five hundred thousand
pounds per annum should be granted for the maintenance of guards and
garrisons. This provision would have maintained a very considerable
number; but they were again disappointed, and fain to embrace a
composition with the other party, by which three hundred and fifty
thousand pounds were allotted for the maintenance of ten thousand men; and
they afterwards obtained an addition of three thousand marines. The king
was extremely mortified at these resolutions of the commons; and even
declared to his particular friends, that he would never have intermeddled
with the affairs of the nation had he foreseen they would make such
returns of ingratitude and distrust. His displeasure was aggravated by the
resentment against Sunderland, who was supposed to have advised the
unpopular measure of retaining a standing army. This nobleman dreading the
vengeance of the commons, resolved to avert the fury of the impending
storm, by resigning his office and retiring from court, contrary to the
entreaties of his friends, and the earnest desire of his majesty.

CIVIL LIST ESTABLISHED, &c.

The house of commons, in order to sweeten the unpalatable cup they had
presented to the king, voted the sum of seven hundred thousand pounds per
annum for the support of the civil list, distinct from all other services.
Then they passed an act prohibiting the currency of silver hammered coin,
including a clause for making out new exchequer-bills, in lieu of those
which were or might be filled up with endorsements; they framed another to
open the correspondence with France, under a variety of provisos; a third
for continuing the imprisonment of certain persons who had been concerned
in the late conspiracy; a fourth, granting further time for administering
oaths with respect to tallies and orders in the exchequer and bank of
England. These bills having received the royal assent, they resolved to
grant a supply, which, together with the funds already settled for that
purpose, should be sufficient to answer and cancel all exchequer-bills, to
the amount of two millions seven hundred thousand pounds. Another supply
was voted for the payment and reduction of the army, including half-pay to
such commission officers as were natural born subjects of England. They
granted one million four hundred thousand pounds, to make good
deficiencies. They resolved, That the sum of two millions three hundred
and forty-eight thousand one hundred and two pounds, was necessary to pay
off arrears, subsistence, contingencies, general-officers, guards, and
garrisons; of which sum eight hundred and fifty-five thousand five hundred
and two pounds, remained in the hands of the pay-master. Then they took
into consideration the subsidies due to foreign powers, and the sums owing
to contractors for bread and forage. Examining further the debts of the
nation, they found the general debt of the navy amounted to one million
three hundred and ninety-two thousand seven hundred and forty-two pounds.
That of the ordnance was equal to two hundred and four thousand one
hundred and fifty-seven pounds. The transport debt contracted for the
reduction of Ireland and other services, did not fall short of four
hundred and sixty-six thousand four hundred and ninety-three pounds; and
they owed nine-and-forty thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine pounds, for
quartering and clothing the army which had been raised by one act of
parliament in the year 1677, and disbanded by another in the year 1679. As
this enormous load of debt could not be discharged at once, the commons
passed a number of Arotes for raising sums of money, by which it was
considerably lightened; and settled the funds for those purposes by the
continuation of the land tax, and other impositions. With respect to the
civil list, it was raised by a new subsidy of tonnage and poundage, the
hereditary and temporary excise, a weekly portion from the revenue of the
post-office, the first-fruits and tenths of the clergy, the fines in the
alienation office, and post-fines, the revenue of the wine-license, money
arising by sheriffs, proffers, and compositions in the exchequer; and
seizures, the income of the duchy of Cornwall, the rents of all other
crown lands in England or Wales, and the duty of four and a half per cent,
upon specie from Barbadoes and the Leeward-islands. The bill imported,
That the overplus arising from these funds should be accounted for to
parliament. Six hundred thousand pounds of this money was allotted for the
purposes of the civil list: the rest was granted for the jointure of fifty
thousand pounds per annum, to be paid to queen Mary d’Esté, according to
the stipulation at Ryswick; and to maintain a court for the duke of
Gloucester, son of the princess Anne of Denmark, now in the ninth year of
his age; but the jointure was never paid; nor would the king allow above
fifteen thousand pounds per annum for the use of the duke of Gloucester,
to whom Burnet, bishop of Salisbury, was appointed preceptor.

COGNIZANCE TAKEN OF FRAUDULENT ENDORSEMENTS OF EXCHEQUER BILLS.

The commons having discussed the ways and means for raising the supplies
of the ensuing year, which rose almost to five millions, took cognizance
of some fraudulent endorsements of exchequer bills, a species of forgery
which had been practised by a confederacy, consisting of Charles Duncomb,
receiver-general of the excise, Bartholomew Burton, who possessed a place
in that branch of the revenue, John Knight, treasurer of the customs, and
Reginald Marriot, a deputy-teller of the exchequer. This last became
evidence, and the proof turning out very strong and full, the house
resolved to make examples of the delinquents. Duncomb and Knight, both
members of parliament, were expelled and committed to the Tower; Burton
was sent to Newgate; and bills of pains and penalties were ordered to be
brought in against them. The first, levelled at Duncomb, passed the lower
house, though not without great opposition, but was rejected in the house
of lords by the majority of one voice. Duncomb, who was extremely rich, is
said to have paid dear for his escape. The other two bills met with the
same fate. The peers discharged Duncomb from his confinement; but he was
recommitted by the commons, and remained in custody till the end of the
session. While the commons were employed on ways and means, some of the
members in the opposition proposed, that one fourth part of the money
arising from improper grants of the crown, should be appropriated to the
service of the public; but this was a very unpalatable expedient, as it
affected not only the whigs of king William’s reign, but also the tories
who had been gratified by Charles II. and his brother. A great number of
petitions were presented against this measure, and so many difficulties
raised, that both parties agreed to lay it aside. In the course of this
inquiry, they discovered that one Railton held a grant in trust for Mr.
Montague, chancellor of the exchequer. A motion was immediately made, that
he should withdraw; but passed in the negative by a great majority. Far
from prosecuting this minister, the house voted it was their opinion, That
Mr. Montague, for his good services to the government, did deserve his
majesty’s favour.

A NEW EAST INDIA COMPANY CONSTITUTED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT.

This extraordinary vote was a sure presage of success in the execution of
a scheme which Montague had concerted against the East India company. They
had been sounded about advancing a sum of money for the public service, by
way of loan, in consideration of a parliamentary settlement; and they
offered to raise seven hundred thousand pounds on that condition: but
before they formed this resolution, another body of merchants, under the
auspices of Mr. Montague, offered to lend two millions at eight per cent,
provided they might be gratified with an exclusive privilege of trading to
the East Indies. This proposal was very well received by the majority in
the house of commons. A bill for this purpose was brought in, with
additional clauses of regulation. A petition was presented by the old
company, representing their rights and claims under so many royal
charters; the regard due to the property of above a thousand families
interested in the stock; as also to the company’s property in India,
amounting to forty-four thousand pounds of yearly revenue. They alleged
they had expended a million in fortifications; that during the war they
had lost twelve great ships, worth fifteen hundred thousand pounds; that
since the last subscription they had contributed two hundred and
ninety-five thousand pounds to the customs, with above eighty-five
thousand pounds in taxes; that they had furnished six thousand barrels of
gunpowder on a very pressing occasion: and eighty thousand pounds for the
circulation of exchequer bills, at a very critical juncture, by desire of
the lords of the treasury; who owned that their compliance was a very
important service to the government. No regard being paid to their
remonstrances, they undertook to raise the loan of two millions, and
immediately subscribed two hundred thousand pounds as the first payment.
The two proposals being compared and considered by the house, the majority
declared for the bill, which was passed, and sent up to the house of
lords. There the old company delivered another petition, and was heard by
counsel; nevertheless the bill made its way, though not without
opposition, and a formal protestation by one-and-twenty lords, who thought
it was a hardship upon the present company; and doubted whether the
separate trade allowed in the bill, concurrent with a joint stock, might
not prove such an inconsistency as would discourage the subscription. This
act, by which the old company was dissolved, in a great measure blasted
the reputation of the whigs, which had for some time been on the decline
with the people. They had stood up as advocates for a standing army; they
now unjustly superseded the East India company; they were accused of
having robbed the public by embezzling the national treasure, and amassing
wealth by usurious contracts, at the expense of their fellow subjects
groaning under the most oppressive burdens. Certain it is, they were at
this period the most mercenary and corrupt undertakers that had ever been
employed by any king or administration since the first establishment of
the English monarchy.

The commons now transferred their attention to certain objects in which
the people of Ireland were interested. Colonel Michelburn, who had been
joint governor of Londonderry with Dr. Walker during the siege of that
place, petitioned the house in behalf of himself, his officers, and
soldiers, to whom a considerable sum of money was due for subsistence; and
the city itself implored the mediation of the commons with his majesty,
that its services and sufferings might be taken into consideration. The
house having examined the allegations contained in both petitions,
presented an address to the king, recommending the citizens of Londonderry
to his majesty’s favour; that they might no longer remain a ruinous
spectacle to all, a scorn to their enemies, and a discouragement to well
affected subjects: they likewise declared that the governor and garrison
did deserve some special marks of royal favour, for a lasting monument to
posterity. To this address the king replied, that he would consider them
according to the desire of the commons. William Molineux, a gentleman of
Dublin, having published a book to prove that the kingdom of Ireland was
independent of the parliament of England, the house appointed a committee
to inquire into the cause and nature of this performance. An address was
voted to the king, desiring he would give directions for the discovery and
punishment of the author. Upon the report of the committee, the commons in
a body presented an address to his majesty, representing the dangerous
attempts which had been lately made by some of his subjects in Ireland, to
shake off their subjection and dependence upon England; attempts which
appeared not only from the bold and pernicious assertions contained in a
book lately published, but more fully and authentically by some votes and
proceedings of the commons in Ireland. These had, during their last
session, transmitted an act for the better security of his majesty’s
person and government, whereby an English act of parliament was pretended
to be re-enacted with alterations obligatory on the courts of justice and
the great seal of England. The English commons, therefore, besought his
majesty to give effectual orders for preventing any such encroachments for
the future, and the pernicious consequences of what was past, by punishing
those who had been guilty thereof: that he would take care to see the laws
which direct and restrain the parliament of Ireland punctually observed,
and discourage everything which might have a tendency to lessen the
dependence of Ireland upon England. This remonstrance was graciously
received, and the king-promised to comply with their request.

The jealousy which the commons entertained of the government in Ireland,
animated them to take other measures that ascertained the subjection of
that kingdom. Understanding that the Irish had established divers woollen
manufactures, they in another address entreated his majesty to take
measures for discouraging the woollen manufactures in Ireland, as they
interfered with those of England, and promote the linen manufacture, which
would be profitable to both nations. At the same time, receiving
information the French had seduced some English manufacturers, and set up
a great work for cloth-making in Picardy, they brought in a bill for
explaining and better executing former acts for preventing the exportation
of wool, fullers earth, and scouring clay; and this was immediately passed
into a law. A petition being presented to the house by the lustring
company, against certain merchants who had smuggled alamodes and lustrings
from France, even during the war; the committee of trade was directed to
inquire into the allegations, and all the secrets of this traffic were
detected. Upon the report the house resolved, That the manufacture of
alamodes and lustrings set up in England had been beneficial to the
kingdom; that there had been a destructive and illegal trade carried on
during the war, for importing these commodities, by which the king had
been defrauded of his customs, and the English manufactures greatly
discouraged; that, by the smuggling vessels employed in this trade,
intelligence had been carried into France during the war, and the enemies
of the government conveyed from justice. Stephen Seignoret Rhene, Baudoin,
John Goodet, Nicholas Santini, Peter de Hearse, John Pierce, John
Dumaitre, and David Barreau, were impeached at the bar of the house of
lords; and, pleading guilty, the lords imposed fines upon them according
to their respective circumstances. They were in the meantime committed to
Newgate until those fines should be paid; and the commons addressed the
king, that the money might be appropriated to the maintenance of Greenwich
hospital. The house having taken cognizance of this affair, and made some
new regulations in the prosecution of the African trade, presented a
solemn address to the king, representing the general degeneracy and
corruption of the age, and beseeching his majesty to command all his
judges, justices, and magistrates, to put the laws in execution against
profaneness and immorality. The king professed himself extremely well
pleased with this remonstrance, promised to give immediate directions for
a reformation, and expressed his desire that some more effectual provision
might be made for suppressing impious books, containing doctrines against
the Trinity; doctrines which abounded at this period, and took their
origin from the licentiousness and profligacy of the times.

SOCIETY FOR THE REFOrMATION OF MANNERS.

In the midst of such immorality, Dr. Thomas Bray, an active divine, formed
a plan for propagating the gospel in foreign countries. Missionaries,
catechisms, liturgies, and other books for the instruction of ignorant
people, were sent to the English colonies in America. This laudable design
was supported by voluntary contribution; and the bill having been brought
into the house of commons for the better discovery of estates given to
superstitious uses, Dr. Bray presented a petition, praying that some part
of these estates might be set apart for the propagation of the reformed
religion in Maryland, Virginia, and the Leeward islands. About this
period, a society for the reformation of manners was formed under the
king’s countenance and encouragement. Considerable collections were made
for maintaining clergymen to read prayers at certain hours in places of
public worship, and administer the sacrament every Sunday. The members of
this society resolved to inform the magistrates of all vice and immorality
that should fall under their cognizance; and with that part of the fines
allowed by law to the informer, constitute a fund of charity. The business
of the session being terminated, the king on the third day of July
prorogued the parliament, after having thanked them in a short speech for
the many testimonies of their affection he had received; and in two days
after the prorogation it was dissolved.*

* On the fifth day of January, a fire breaking out at
Whitehall through the carelessness of a laundress, the whole
body of the palace, together with the new gallery, council-
chamber, and several adjoining apartments were entirely
consumed; but the banqueting-house was not affected.

THE EARL OF PORTLAND RESIGNS.

In the month of January the earl of Portland had set out on his embassy to
France, where he was received with very particular marks of distinction.
He made a public entry into Paris with such magnificence as is said to
have astonished the French nation. He interceded for the protestants in
that kingdom, against whom the persecution had been renewed with redoubled
violence: he proposed that king James should be removed to Avignon, in
which case his master would supply him with an honourable pension; but his
remonstrances on both subjects proved ineffectual. Louis, however, in a
private conference with him at Marli, is supposed to have communicated his
project of the partition-treaty. The earl of Portland, at his return to
England, finding himself totally eclipsed in the king’s favour by Keppel,
now created earl of Albemarle, resigned his employments in disgust; nor
could the king’s solicitations prevail upon him to resume any office in
the household, though he promised to serve his majesty in any other shape,
and was soon employed to negotiate the treaty of partition. If this
nobleman miscarried in the purposes of his last embassy at the court of
Versailles, the agents of France were equally unsuccessful in their
endeavours to retrieve their commerce with England which the war had
interrupted. Their commissary, sent over to London with powers to regulate
the trade between the two nations, met with insuperable difficulties. The
parliament had burdened the French commodities with heavy duties which
were already appropriated to different uses; and the channel of trade was
in many respects entirely altered. The English merchants supplied the
nation with wines from Italy, Spain, and Portugal; with linen from Holland
and Silesia; and manufactures of paper, hats, stuffs, and silks, had been
set up and successfully carried on in England by the French refugees.

THE KING DISOWNS THE SCOTTISH TRADING COMPANY.

By this time a ferment had been raised in Scotland by the opposition and
discouragements their new company had sustained. They had employed agents
in England, Holland, and Hamburgh, to receive subscriptions. The
adventurers in England were intimidated by the measures which had been
taken in parliament against the Scottish company. The Dutch East India
company took the alarm, and exerted all their interest to prevent their
countrymen from subscribing; and the king permitted his resident at
Hamburgh to present a memorial against the Scottish company to the senate
of that city. The parliament of Scotland being assembled by the earl of
Marchmont as king’s commissioner, the company presented it with a
remonstrance containing a detail of their grievances, arising from the
conduct of the English house of commons, as well as from the memorial
presented by the king’s minister at Hamburgh, in which he actually
disowned the act of parliament and letters patent which had passed in
their favour, and threatened the inhabitants of that city with his
majesty’s resentment in case they should join the Scots in their
undertaking. They represented that such instances of interposition had put
a stop to the subscriptions in England and Hamburgh, hurt the credit of
the company, discouraged the adventurers, and threatened the entire ruin
of a design in which all the most considerable families of the nation were
deeply engaged. The parliament having taken their case into consideration,
sent an address to his majesty representing the hardships to which the
company had been exposed, explaining how far the nation in general was
concerned in the design, and entreating that he would take such measures
as might effectually vindicate the undoubted rights and privileges of the
company. This address was seconded by a petition from the company itself,
praying that his majesty would give some intimation to the senate of
Hamburgh, permitting the inhabitants of that city to renew the
subscriptions they had withdrawn; that, as a gracious mark of his royal
favour to the company, he would bestow upon them two small frigates then
lying useless in the harbour of Burnt Island; and that, in consideration
of the obstructions they had encountered, he would continue their
privileges and immunities for such longer time as should seem reasonable
to his majesty. Though the commissioner was wholly devoted to the king,
who had actually resolved to ruin this company, he could not appease the
resentment of the nation; and the heats of parliament became so violent
that he was obliged to adjourn it to the fifth day of November. In this
interval the directors of the company, understanding from their agent at
Hamburgh that the address of the parliament and their own petition had
produced no effect in their favour, wrote a letter of complaint to the
lord Seafield, secretary of state, observing that they had received
repeated assurances of the king’s having given orders to his resident at
Hamburgh touching their memorial, and entreating the interposition of his
lordship that justice might be done to the company. The secretary in his
answer promised to take the first convenient opportunity of representing
the affair to his majesty; but he said this could not be immediately
expected, as the king was much engaged in the affairs of the English
parliament. This declaration the directors considered, as it really was, a
mere evasion, which helped to alienate the minds of that people from the
king’s person and government.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

HE EMBARKS FOR HOLLAND.

King William at this time revolved in his own mind a project of far
greater consequence to the interest of Europe—namely, that of
settling the succession to the throne of Spain, which in a little time
would be vacated by the death of Charles IL, whose constitution was
already exhausted. He had been lately reduced to extremity, and his
situation was no sooner known in France than Louis detached a squadron
towards Cadiz, with orders to intercept the plate fleet, in case the king
of Spain should die before its arrival. William sent another fleet to
protect the galleons; but it arrived too late for that service, and the
nation loudly exclaimed against the tardiness of the equipment. His
catholic majesty recovered from his disorder, contrary to the expectation
of his people; but continued in such an enfeebled and precarious state of
health, that a relapse was every moment apprehended. In the latter end of
July king William embarked for Holland, on pretence of enjoying a recess
from business which was necessary to his constitution. He was glad of an
opportunity to withdraw himself for some time from a kingdom in which he
had been exposed to such opposition and chagrin. But the real motive of
his voyage was a design of treating with the French king remote from the
observation of those who might have penetrated into the nature of his
negotiation. He had appointed a regency to govern the kingdom in his
absence; and, as one of the number, nominated the earl of Marlborough, who
had regained his favour and been constituted governor of the duke of
Gloucester. At his majesty’s departure, sealed orders were left with the
ministry directing that sixteen thousand men should be retained in the
service, notwithstanding the vote of the commons by which the standing
army was limited to ten thousand. He alleged that the apprehension of
troubles which might arise at the death of king Charles induced him to
transgress this limitation; and he hoped that the new parliament would be
more favourable. His enemies, however, made a fresh handle of this step to
depreciate his character in the eyes of the people.

FIRST TREATY OF PARTITION.

Having assisted at the assembly of the states-general, and given audience
to divers ambassadors at the Hague, he repaired to his house at Loo,
attended by the earls of Essex, Portland, and Selkirk. There he was
visited by count Tallard the French minister, who had instructions to
negotiate the treaty concerning the Spanish succession. The earl of
Portland, by his majesty’s order, had communicated to Secretary Vernon the
principal conditions which the French king proposed; he himself wrote a
letter to lord chancellor Somers, desiring his advice with regard to the
propositions, and full powers under the great seal, with blanks to be
filled up occasionally, that he might immediately begin the treaty with
count Tallard. At the same time he strictly enjoined secrecy. The purport
of Portland’s letter was imparted to the duke of Shrewsbury and Mr.
Montague, who consulted with the chancellor and Vernon upon the subject,
and the chancellor wrote an answer to the king as the issue of their joint
deliberation; but before it reached his majesty, the first treaty of
partition was signed by the earl of Portland and sir Joseph Williamson.
The contracting powers agreed, that in case the king of Spain should die
without issue, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, with the places depending
on the Spanish monarchy, and situated on the coast of Tuscany or the
adjacent islands; the marquisate of Final, the province of Guipuscoa, all
places on the French side of the Pyrenees, or the other mountains of
Navarre, Alva, or Biscay, on the other side of the province of Guipuscoa,
with all the ships, vessels, and stores,—should devolve upon the
dauphin in consideration of his right to the crown of Spain, which, with
all its other dependencies, should descend to the electoral prince of
Bavaria, under the guardianship of his father; that the duchy of Milan
should he settled on the emperor’s second son, the archduke Charles; that
this treaty should be communicated to the emperor and the elector of
Bavaria, by the king of England and the states-general; that if either
should refuse to agree to this partition, his proportion should remain in
sequestration until the dispute should be accommodated; that in case the
electoral prince of Bavaria should die before his father, then the elector
and his other heirs should succeed him in those dominions; and should the
archduke reject the duchy of Milan, they agreed that it should be
sequestered and governed by the prince of Vaudemont. It may be necessary
to observe that Philip IV., father to the present king of Spain, had
settled his crown by will on the emperor’s children; that the dauphin was
son to Maria-Theresa, daughter of the same monarch, whose right to the
succession Louis had renounced in the most solemn manner; as for the
electoral prince of Bavaria, he was grandson to a daughter of Spain. This
treaty of partition was one of the most impudent schemes of encroachment
that tyranny and injustice ever planned. Louis, who had made a practice of
sacrificing all ties of honour and good faith to the interest of his
pride, vanity, and ambition, foresaw that he should never be able to
accomplish his designs upon the crown of Spain while William was left at
liberty to form another confederacy against them. He therefore resolved to
amuse him with a treaty, in which he would seem to act as umpire in the
concerns of Europe. He knew that William was too much of a politician to
be restricted by notions of private justice; and that he would make no
scruple to infringe the laws of particular countries, or even the rights
of a single nation, when the balance of power was at stake. He judged
right in this particular. The king of England lent a willing ear to his
proposals, and engaged in a plan for dismembering a kingdom in despite of
the natives, and in violation of every law human or divine.

INTRIGUES OF FRANCE AT THE COURT OF MADRID.

While the French king cajoled William with this negotiation, the marquis
d’Harcourt, his ambassador to Spain, was engaged in a game of a different
nature at Madrid. The queen of Spain, suspecting the designs of France,
exerted all her interest in behalf of the king of the Romans, to whom she
was nearly related. She new-modelled the council, bestowed the government
of Milan on prince Vaudemont, and established the prince of Hesse
Darmstadt as viceroy of Catalonia. Notwithstanding all her efforts, she
could not prevent the French minister from acquiring some influence in the
Spanish councils. He was instructed to procure the succession of the crown
for one of the dauphin’s sons, or at least to hinder it from devolving
upon the emperor’s children. With a view to give weight to his
negotiations, the French king ordered an army of sixty thousand men to
advance towards the frontiers of Catalonia and Navarre, while a great
number of ships and galleys cruised along the coast, and entered the
harbours of Spain. Harcourt immediately began to form his party; he
represented that Philip IV. had no power to dispose of his crown against
the laws of nature and the constitution of the realm; that, by the order
of succession, the crown ought to descend to the children of his daughter
in preference to more distant relations; that if the Spaniards would
declare in favour of the dauphin’s second son, the duke of Anjou, they
might train him up in the manners and customs of their country. When he
found them averse to this proposal, he assured them that his master would
approve of the electoral prince of Bavaria rather than consent to the
succession’s devolving upon a son of the emperor. Nay, he hinted that if
they would choose a sovereign among themselves, they might depend upon the
protection of his most christian majesty, who had no other view than that
of preventing the house of Austria from becoming too formidable to the
liberties of Europe. The queen of Spain, having discovered the intrigues
of this minister, conveyed the king to Toledo, on pretence that the air of
Madrid was prejudicial to his health. Harcourt immediately took the alarm.
He supposed her intention was to prevail upon her husband in his solitude
to confirm the last will of his father; but his doubts were all removed
when he understood that the count de Harrach, the Imperial ambassador, had
privately repaired to Toledo. He forthwith took the same road, pretending
to have received a memorial from his master with a positive order to
deliver it into the king’s own hand. He was given to understand that the
management of foreign affairs had been left to the care of cardinal
Corduba at Madrid, and that the king’s health would not permit him to
attend to business. The purport of the memorial was, an offer of French
forces to assist in raising the siege of Ceuta in Barbary, which the Moors
had lately undertaken; but this offer was civilly declined. Harcourt, not
yet discouraged, redoubled his efforts at Madrid, and found means to
engage cardinal Portocarrcro in the interests of his master. In the
meantime Louis concluded an alliance with Sweden, under the pretext of
preserving and securing the common peace by such means as should be
adjudged most proper and convenient. During these transactions king
William was not wanting in his endeavours to terminate the war in Hungary,
which had raged fifteen years without intermission. About the middle of
August, lord Paget and Mr. Colliers, ambassadors from England and Holland,
arrived in the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and a conference being opened
under their mediation, the peace of Carlowitz was signed on the
twenty-sixth day of January By this treaty, the emperor remained in
possession of all his conquests; Caminieck was restored to the Poles; all
the Morea, with several fortresses in Dalmatia, were ceded to the
Venetians; and the czar of Muscovy retained Azoph during a truce of two
years: so that the Turks by this pacification lost great part of their
European dominions. The cardinal primate of Poland, who had strenuously
adhered to the prince of Conti, was prevailed upon to acknowledge
Augustus; and the commotions in Lithuania being appeased, peace was
established through all Christendom.

In the beginning of December the king arrived in England, where a new
parliament had been chosen and prorogued on account of his majesty’s
absence, which was prolonged by contrary winds and tempestuous weather.
His ministry had been at very little pains to influence the elections,
which generally fell upon men of revolution-principles, though they do not
seem to have been much devoted to the person of their sovereign; yet their
choice of sir Thomas Lyttleton for speaker, seemed to presage a session
favourable to the ministry. The two houses being convened on the sixth day
of December, the king in his speech observed that the safety, honour, and
happiness of the kingdom would in a great measure depend upon the strength
which they should think proper to maintain by sea and land. He desired
they would make some further progress in discharging the national debt;
contrive effectual expedients for employing the poor; pass good bills for
the advancement of trade, and the discouragement of profaneness; and act
with unanimity and despatch. The commons of this new parliament were so
irritated at the king’s presuming to maintain a greater number of troops
than their predecessors had voted, that they resolved he should feel the
weight of their displeasure. They omitted the common compliment of an
address; they resolved that all the forces of England, in English pay,
exceeding seven thousand men, should be forthwith disbanded; as also those
in Ireland exceeding twelve thousand; and that those retained should be
his majesty’s natural born subjects. A bill was brought in on these
resolutions and prosecuted with peculiar eagerness, to the unspeakable
mortification of king William, who was not only extremely sensible of the
affront, but also particularly chagrined to see himself disabled from
maintaining his Dutch guards and the regiments of French refugees, to
which he was uncommonly attached. Before the meeting of the parliament,
the ministry gave him to understand that they should be able to procure a
vote for ten or twelve thousand, but they would not undertake for a
greater number. He professed himself dissatisfied with the proposal,
observing that they might as well disband the whole as leave so few. The
ministers would not run the risk of losing all their credit by proposing a
greater number; and, having received no directions on this subject, sat
silent when it was debated in the house of commons.

Such was the indignation of William, kindled by this conduct of his
ministry and his parliament, that he threatened to abandon the government,
and had actually penned a speech to be pronounced to both houses on that
occasion; but he was diverted from this purpose by his ministry and
confidants, and resolved to pass the bill by which he had been so much
offended. Accordingly, when it was ready for the royal assent, he went to
the house of peers, where having sent for the commons, he told them that
although he might think himself unkindly used in being deprived of his
guards, which had constantly attended him in all his actions; yet, as he
believed nothing could be more fatal to the nation than any distrust or
jealousy between him and his parliament, he was come to pass the bill
according to their desire.

At the same time, for his own justification, and in discharge of the trust
reposed in him, he declared that in his own judgment the nation was left
too much exposed; and that it was incumbent upon them to provide such a
strength as might be necessary for the safety of the kingdom. They thanked
him in an address for this undeniable proof of his readiness to comply
with the desires of his parliament. They assured him he should never have
reason to think the commons were undutiful or unkind; for they would on
all occasions stand by and assist him in the preservation of his sacred
person, and in the support of his government, against all his enemies
whatsoever. The lords presented an address to the same effect; and the
king assured both houses he entertained no doubts of their loyalty and
affection. He forthwith issued orders for reducing the army to the number
of seven thousand men, to be maintained in England under the name of
guards and garrisons; and hoping the hearts of the commons were now
mollified, he made another effort in favour of his Dutch guards, whom he
could not dismiss without the most sensible regret. Lord Ranelagh was sent
with a written message to the commons, giving them to understand that the
necessary preparations were made for transporting the guards who came with
him into England, and that they should embark immediately, unless out of
consideration to him, the house should be disposed to find a way for
continuing them longer in the service; a favour which his majesty would
take very kindly. The commons, instead of complying with his inclination,
presented an address, in which they professed unspeakable grief that he
should propose anything to which they could not consent with due regard to
the constitution which he had come over to restore, and so often hazarded
his royal person to preserve. They reminded him of the declaration, in
which he had promised that all the foreign forces should be sent out of
the kingdom. They observed, that nothing conduced more to the happiness
and welfare of the nation than an entire confidence between the king and
people, which could no way be so firmly established as by intrusting his
sacred person with his own subjects, who had so eminently signalized
themselves during the late long and expensive war. They received a
soothing answer to this address, but remained firm to their purpose, in
which the king was fain to acquiesce; and the Dutch guards were
transported to Holland. At a time when they declared themselves so well
pleased with their deliverer, such an opposition in an affair of very
little consequence savoured more of clownish obstinacy than of patriotism.
In the midst of all their professions of regard, they entertained a
national prejudice against himself and all the foreigners in his service.
Even in the house of commons, his person was treated with great disrespect
in virulent insinuations. They suggested that he neither loved nor trusted
the English nation; that he treated the natives with the most disagreeable
reserve, and chose his confidants from the number of strangers that
surrounded him; that after every session of parliament, he retired from
the kingdom to enjoy an indolent and inglorious privacy with a few
favourites. These suggestions were certainly true. He was extremely
disgusted with the English, whom he considered as malicious, ignorant, and
ungrateful, and he took no pains to disguise his sentiments.

THE COMMONS ADDRESS THE KING.

The commons having effected a dissolution of the army, voted fifteen
thousand seamen, and a proportionable fleet, for the security of the
kingdom; they granted one million four hundred and eighty-four thousand
and fifteen pounds for the services of the year, to be raised by a tax of
three shillings in the pound upon lands, personal estates, pensions, and
offices. A great number of priests and Roman catholics, who had been
frighted away by the revolution, were now encouraged by the treaty of
Ryswick to return, and appeared in all public places of London and
Westminster with remarkable effrontery. The enemies of the government
whispered about that the treaty contained a secret article in favour of
those who professed that religion; and some did not even scruple to
insinuate that William was a papist in his heart. The commons, alarmed at
the number and insolence of those religionists, desired the king, in an
address, to remove by proclamation all papists and nonjurors from the city
of London and parts adjacent, and put the laws in execution against them,
that the wicked designs they were always hatching might be effectually
disappointed. The king gratified them in their request of a proclamation,
which was not much regarded; but a remarkable law was enacted against
papists in the course of the ensuing session. The old East India company,
about this period, petitioned the lower house to make some provision that
their corporation might subsist for the residue of the term of twenty-one
years granted by his majesty’s charter; that the payment of the five
pounds per cent. by the late act for settling the trade to the East
Indies, might be settled and adjusted in such a manner as not to remain a
burden on the petitioners; and that such further considerations might be
had for their relief, and for the preservation of the East India trade, as
should be thought reasonable. A bill was brought in upon the subject of
this petition, but rejected at the second reading. Discontents had risen
to such a height, that some members began to assert they were not bound to
maintain the votes and credit of the former parliament; and, upon this
maxim, would have contributed their interest towards a repeal of the act
made in favour of the new company: but such a scheme was of too dangerous
consequence to the public credit to be carried into execution.

That spirit of peevishness which could not be gratified with this
sacrifice, produced an inquiry into the management of naval affairs, which
was aimed at the earl of Orford, a nobleman whose power gave umbrage, and
whose wealth excited envy. He officiated both as treasurer of the navy and
lord commissioner of the admiralty, and seemed to have forgot the sphere
from which he had risen to title and office. The commons drew up an
address complaining of some unimportant articles of mismanagement in the
conduct of the navy; and the earl was wise enough to avoid further
prosecution by resigning his employments. On the fourth day of May the
king closed the session with a short speech, hinting dissatisfaction at
their having neglected to consider some points which he had recommended to
their attention; and the parliament was prorogued to the first of June.*
In a little time after this prorogation, his majesty appointed a regency;
and on the second day of June embarked for Holland.

* About the latter end of March, the earl of Warwick and
lord Mohun were tried by their peers in Westminster-hall,
for the murder of captain Richard Coote, who had been killed
in a midnight combat of three on each side. Warwick was
found guilty of manslaughter, and Mohun acquitted.

THE SCOTTISH COMPANY MAKE A SETTLEMENT ON THE ISTHMUS OF DARIEN.

In Ireland nothing of moment was transacted. The parliament of that
kingdom passed an act for raising one hundred and twenty thousand pounds
on lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to defray the expense of
maintaining twelve thousand men, who had been voted by the commons of
England; then the assembly was prorogued. A new commission afterwards
arrived at Dublin, constituting the duke of Bolton, the earls of Berkeley
and Galway, lords-justices of Ireland. The clamour in Scotland increased
against the ministry, who had disowned their company, and in a great
measure defeated the design from which they had promised themselves such
heaps of treasure. Notwithstanding the discouragements to which their
company had been exposed, they fitted out two of four large ships which
had been built at Hamburgh for their service. These were laden with a
cargo for traffic, with some artillery and military stores; and the
adventurers embarking to the number of twelve hundred, they sailed from
the Frith of Edinburgh, with some tenders, on the seventeenth day of July
in the preceding year. At Madeira they took in a supply of wine, and then
steered to Crab-island in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas, lying between
Santa-Cruz and Porto Rico. Their design was to take possession of this
little island; but when they entered the road, they saw a large tent
pitched upon the strand, and the Danish colours flying. Finding themselves
anticipated in this quarter, they directed their course to the coast of
Darien, where they treated with the natives for the establishment of their
colony, and taking possession of the ground, to which they gave the name
of Caledonia, began to execute their plan of erecting a town under the
appellation of New Edinburgh, by the direction of their council,
consisting of Patterson the projector, and six other directors. They had
no sooner completed their settlement, than they wrote a letter to the king
containing a detail of their proceedings. They pretended they had received
undoubted intelligence that the French intended to make a settlement on
that coast; and that their colony would be the means of preventing the
evil consequences which might arise to his majesty’s kingdom and dominions
from the execution of such a scheme. They acknowledged his goodness in
granting those privileges by which their company was established; they
implored the continuance of his royal favour and protection, as they had
punctually adhered to the conditions of the act of parliament, and the
patent they had obtained.

By this time, however, the king was resolved to crush them effectually. He
understood that the greater part of their provisions had been consumed
before they set sail from Scotland, and foresaw that they must be reduced
to a starving condition if not supplied from the English colonies. That
they might be debarred of all such assistance, he sent orders to the
governors of Jamaica and the other English settlements in America, to
issue proclamations prohibiting, under the severest penalties, all his
majesty’s subjects from holding any correspondence with the Scottish
colony, or assisting it in any shape with arms, ammunition, or provisions;
on pretence that they had not communicated their design to his majesty,
but had peopled Darien in violation of the peace subsisting between him
and his allies. Their colony was doubtless a very dangerous encroachment
upon the Spaniards, as it would have commanded the passage between
Porto-Bello and Panama, and divided the Spanish empire in America. The
French king complained of the invasion, and offered to supply the court of
Madrid with a fleet to dislodge the interlopers. Colonna, marquis de
Canales, the Spanish ambassador at the court of London, presented a
memorial to king William, remonstrating against the settlement of this
colony as a mark of disregard, and a breach of the alliance between the
two crowns; and declaring that his master would take proper measures
against such hostilities. The Scots affirmed that the natives of Darien
were a free people, who the Spaniards had in vain attempted to subdue;
that therefore they had an original and incontrovertible right to dispose
of their own lands, part of which the company had purchased for a valuable
consideration. But there was another cause more powerful than the
remonstrances of the Spanish court to which this colony fell a sacrifice;
and that was the jealousy of the English traders and planters. Darien was
said to be a country abounding with gold, which would in a little time
enrich the adventurers. The Scots were known to be an enterprising and
pertinacious people; and their harbour near Golden Island was already
declared a free port. The English apprehended that their planters would be
allured into this new colony by the double prospect of finding gold and
plundering the Spaniards; that the buccaneers in particular would choose
it as their chief residence; that the plantations of England would be
deserted; that Darien would become another Algiers; and that the
settlement would produce a rupture with Spain, in consequence of which the
English effects in that kingdom would be confiscated. The Dutch too are
said to have been jealous of a company which in time might have proved
their competitors in the illicit commerce to the Spanish main; and to have
hardened the king’s heart against the new settlers, whom he abandoned to
their fate, notwithstanding the repeated petitions and remonstrances of
their constituents. Famine compelled the first adventurers to quit the
coast: a second recruit of men and provisions was sent thither from
Scotland; but one of their ships, laden with provisions, being burnt by
accident, they likewise deserted the place. Another reinforcement arrived,
and being better provided than the two former, might have maintained their
footing; but they were soon divided into factions that rendered all their
schemes abortive. The Spaniards advanced against them; when finding
themselves incapable of withstanding the enemy, they solicited a
capitulation, by virtue of which they were permitted to retire. Thus
vanished all the golden dreams of the Scottish nation, which had engaged
in this design with incredible eagerness, and even embarked a greater sum
of money than ever they had advanced upon any other occasion. They were
now not only disappointed in their expectations of wealth and affluence,
but a great number of families were absolutely ruined by the miscarriage
of the design, which they imputed solely to the conduct of king William.
The whole kingdom of Scotland seemed to join in the clamour that was
raised against their sovereign, taxed him with double dealing, inhumanity,
and base ingratitude, to a people who had lavished their treasure and best
blood in support of his government, and in the gratification of his
ambition; and had their power been equal to their animosity, in all
probability a rebellion would have ensued.

REMONSTRANCES OF THE SPANISH COURT.

William meanwhile enjoyed himself at Loo, where he was visited by the duke
of Zell, with whom he had long cultivated an intimacy of friendship.
During his residence in this place, the earl of Portland and the grand
pensionary of Holland frequently conversed with the French ambassador,
count Tallard, upon the subject of the Spanish succession. The first plan
of the partition being defeated by the death of the young prince of
Bavaria, they found it necessary to concert another, and began a private
negotiation for that purpose. The court of Spain, apprized of their
intention, sent a written remonstrance to Mr. Stanhope, the English
minister at Madrid, expressing their resentment at this unprecedented
method of proceeding, and desiring that a stop might be put to those
intrigues, seeing that the king of Spain would of himself take the
necessary steps for preserving the public tranquillity in case he should
die without heirs of his body. A representation of the same kind was made
to the ministers of France and Holland; the marquis de Canales, the
Spanish ambassador at London, delivered a memorial to the lords-justices
couched in the most virulent terms against this transaction, and even
appealing from the king to the parliament. This Spaniard was pleased with
an opportunity to insult king William, who hated his person, and had
forbid him the court, on account of his appearing covered in his majesty’s
presence. The regency had no sooner communicated this paper to the king,
than he ordered the ambassador to quit the kingdom in eighteen days, and
to remain within his own house till the time of his departure. He was
likewise given to understand that no writing would be received from him or
any of his domestics. Mr. Stanhope was directed to complain at Madrid of
the affront offered to his master, which he styled an insolent and saucy
attempt to stir up sedition in the kingdom, by appealing to the people and
parliament of England against his majesty. The court of Spain justified
what their minister had done, and in their turn ordered Mr. Stanhope to
leave their dominions. Don Bernardo de Quiros, the Spanish ambassador in
Holland, prepared a memorial on the same subject to the states-general;
which however they refused to accept. These remonstrances did not
interrupt the negotiation, in which Louis was so eager that he complained
of William as if he had not employed his whole influence in prevailing
upon the Dutch to signify their accession to the articles agreed upon by
France and England; but his Britannic majesty found means to remove this
jealousy.

THE COMMONS PERSIST IN THEIR RESOLUTIONS.

About the middle of October, William returned to England, and conferred
upon the duke of Shrewsbury the office of chamberlain, vacant since the
resignation of Sunderland. * Mr. Montague at the same period resigned his
seat at the treasury-board, together with the chancellorship of the
exchequer; either foreseeing uncommon difficulty in managing a house of
commons after they had been dismissed in ill humour, or dreading the
interest of his enemies, who might procure a vote that his two places were
inconsistent. The king opened the session of parliament on the sixteenth
day of November, with a long speech, advising a further provision for the
safety of the kingdom by sea and land, as well as the repairs of ships and
fortifications; exhorting the commons to make good the deficiencies of the
funds, discharge the debts of the nation, and provide the necessary
supplies. He recommended some good bill for the more effectual preventing
and punishing unlawful and clandestine trading; and expressed a desire
that some method should be taken for employing the poor, which were become
a burden to the kingdom. He assured them his resolutions were to
countenance virtue and discourage vice; and that he would decline no
difficulties and dangers where the welfare and prosperity of the nation
was concerned. He concluded with these words: “Since then our aims are
only for the general good, let us act with confidence in one another;
which will not fail, with God’s blessing, to make me a happy king, and you
a great and flourishing people.” The commons were now become wanton in
their disgust. Though they had received no real provocation, they resolved
to mortify him with their proceedings. They affected to put odious
interpretations on the very harmless expression of “Let us act with
confidence in one another.” Instead of an address of thanks, according to
the usual custom, they presented a sullen remonstrance, complaining that a
jealousy and distrust had been raised of their duty and affection; and
desiring he would show marks of his high displeasure towards all persons
who had presumed to misrepresent their proceedings to his majesty. He
declared, in his answer, that no person had ever dared to misrepresent
their proceedings, and that if any should presume to impose upon him by
such calumnies, he would treat them as his worst enemies.

* Villers, earl of Jersey, who had been sent ambassador to
France, was appointed secretary of state in the room of the
duke of Shrewsbury. This nobleman was created lord
chamberlain; the earl of Manchester was sent ambassador
extraordinary to France; the earl of Pembroke was declared
lord-president of the council; and lord viscount Lonsdale
keeper of the privy-seal.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

INQUIRY INTO THE EXPEDITION Of CAPTAIN KIDD.

The house was not in a humour to be appeased with soothing promises and
protestations; they determined to distress him by prosecuting his
ministers. During the war the colonies of North America had grown rich by
piracy. One Kidd, the master of a sloop, undertook to suppress the
pirates, provided the government would furnish him with a ship of thirty
guns well manned. The board of admiralty declaring that such a number of
seamen could not be spared from the public service, Kidd was equipped by
the private subscription of the lord Chancellor, the duke of Shrewsbury,
the earls of Romney, Orford, and Bellamont, sir Edward Harrison, and
colonel Livingstone of New York. The king promised to contribute one-half
of the expense, and reserved to himself one-tenth of the profits; but he
never advanced the money. Kidd being thus equipped, and provided with a
commission to act against the French, as well as to make war on certain
pirates therein mentioned by name, set sail from Plymouth; but instead of
cruising on the coast of America, he directed his course to the East
Indies, where he himself turned pirate, and took a rich ship belonging to
the Moors. Having divided his booty with his crew, ninety of whom left him
in order to join other adventurers, he burned his own ship and sailed with
his prize to the West Indies. There he purchased a sloop in which he
steered for North America, leaving part of his men in the prize, to remain
in one of the Leeward Islands until they should receive further
instructions. Arriving on the coast of New York, he sent one Emmet to make
his peace with the earl of Bellamont, the governor of that province, who
inveigled him into a negotiation, in the course of which he was
apprehended. Then his lordship sent an account of his proceedings to the
secretary of state, desiring that he would send for the prisoners to
England, as there was no law in that colony for punishing piracy with
death, and the majority of the people favoured that practice. The
admiralty, by order of the lords-justices, despatched the ship Rochester
to bring home the prisoners and their effects; but, after having been
tossed for some time with tempestuous weather, this vessel was obliged to
return to Plymouth in a shattered condition. This incident furnished the
malcontents with a colour to paint the ministry as the authors and
abettors of a piratical expedition, which they wanted to screen from the
cognizance of the public. The old East India company had complained to the
regency of the capture made by Kidd in the East Indies, apprehending, as
the vessel belonged to the Moors, they should be exposed to the
resentments of the Mogul. In the beginning of December, this subject being
brought abruptly into the house of commons, a motion was made, That the
letters patent granted to the earl of Bellamont and others, of pirates’
goods, were dishonourable to the king, against the laws of nations,
contrary to the laws and statutes of the land, invasive of property, and
destructive of trade and commerce. A warm dispute ensued, in the course of
which some members declaimed with great bitterness against the chancellor
and the duke of Shrewsbury, as partners in a piratical scheme; but these
imputations were refuted, and the motion was rejected by a great majority.
Not but they might have justly stigmatized the expedition as a little mean
adventure, in which those noblemen had embarked with a view to their own
private advantage.

While this affair was in agitation among the commons, the attention of the
upper house was employed upon the case of Dr. Watson, bishop of St.
David’s. This prelate was supposed to have paid a valuable consideration
for his bishopric; and, after his elevation, had sold the preferments in
his gift with a view of being reimbursed. He was accused of simony; and,
after a solemn hearing before the archbishop of Canterbury and six
suffragans, convicted and deprived. Then he pleaded his privilege: so that
the affair was brought into the house of lords, who refused to own him as
a peer after he had ceased to be a bishop. Thus disappointed, he had
recourse to the court of delegates, by whom the archbishop’s sentence was
confirmed. The next effort that the commons made, with a view of
mortifying king William, was to raise a clamour against Dr. Burnet, bishop
of Sarum. He was represented in the house as a very unfit preceptor for
the duke of Gloucester, both as a Scottish man, and author of that
pastoral letter which had been burned by order of the parliament, for
asserting that William had a right to the crown from conquest. A motion
was made for addressing his majesty that this prelate might be dismissed
from his employment, but rejected by a great majority. Burnet had acted
with uncommon integrity in accepting the trust. He had declined the
office, which he was in a manner forced to accept. He had offered to
resign his bishopric, thinking the employment of a tutor would interfere
with the duty of a pastor. He insisted upon the duke’s residence all the
summer at Windsor, which is in the diocese of Sarum, and added to his
private charities the whole income of his new office.

INQUIRY INTO THE IRISH FORFEITURES.

The circumstance on which the anti-courtiers built their chief hope of
distressing or disgracing the government, was the inquiry into the Irish
forfeitures, which the king had distributed among his own dependents. The
commissioners appointed by parliament to examine these particulars, were
Annesley, Trenchard, Hamilton, Langford, the earl of Drogheda, sir Francis
Brewster, and sir Richard Leving. The first four were actuated by all the
virulence of faction; the other three were secretly guided by ministerial
influence. They began their inquiry in Ireland, and proceeded with such
severity as seemed to flow rather from resentment to the court, than from
a love of justice and abhorrence of corruption. They in particular
scrutinized a grant of an estate which the king had made to Mrs. Villiers,
now countess of Orkney, so as to expose the king’s partiality for that
favourite, and subject him to an additional load of popular odium. In the
course of their examination the earl of Drogheda, Leving, and Brewster,
opposed the rest of the commissioners in divers articles of the report,
which they refused to sign, and sent over a memorial to the house of
commons explaining their reasons for dissenting from their colleagues. By
this time, however, they were considered as hirelings of the court, and no
regard was paid to their representations. The others delivered their
report, declaring that a million and a half of money might be raised from
the sale of the confiscated estates; and a bill was brought in for
applying them to the use of the public. A motion being made to reserve a
third part for the king’s disposal, it was overruled: then the commons
passed an extraordinary vote, importing that they would not receive any
petition from any person whatsoever concerning the grants, and that they
would consider the great services performed by the commissioners appointed
to inquire into the forfeited estates. They resolved, That the four
commissioners who had signed the report had acquitted themselves with
understanding, courage, and integrity; and, That sir Richard Leving, as
author of groundless and scandalous aspersions cast upon his four
colleagues, should be committed prisoner to the Tower. They afterwards
came to the following resolution, which was presented to the king in form
of an address,—That the procuring and passing those grants had
occasioned great debts upon the nation, and heavy taxes upon the people,
and highly reflected upon the king’s honour; and, That the officers and
instruments concerned in the same had highly failed in the performance of
their trust and duty. The king answered, That he was not only led by
inclination, but thought himself obliged in justice to reward those who
had served well in the reduction of Ireland, out of the estates forfeited
to him by the rebellion in that kingdom. He observed, that as the long war
had left the nation much in debt, their taking just and effectual ways for
lessening that debt and supporting public credit was what, in his opinion,
would best contribute to the honour, interest, and safety of the kingdom.
This answer kindled a flame of indignation in the house. They forthwith
resolved, That the adviser of it had used his utmost endeavours to create
a misunderstanding and jealousy between the king and his people.

THE COMMONS PASS A BILL OF RESUMPTION.

They prepared, finished, and passed a bill of resumption. They ordered the
report of the commissioners, together with the king’s promise and
speeches, and the former resolutions of the house touching the forfeited
estates in Ireland, to be printed and published for their justification;
and they resolved, That the procuring or passing exorbitant grants by any
member now of the privy council, or by any other that had been a privy
councillor in this or any former reign, to his use or benefit, was a high
crime or misdemeanor. That justice might be done to purchasers and
creditors in the act of resumption, thirteen trustees were authorized and
empowered to hear and determine all claims relating to those estates, to
sell them to the best purchasers; and the money arising from the sale was
appropriated to pay the arrears of the army. It passed under the title of
a bill for granting an aid to his majesty by the sale of forfeited and
other estates and interests in Ireland; and that it might undergo no
alteration in the house of lords, it was consolidated with the money-bill
for the service of the year. In the house of lords it produced warm
debates; and some alterations were made which the commons unanimously
rejected. They seemed to be now more than ever exasperated against the
ministry, and ordered a list of the privy council to be laid before the
house. The lords demanded conferences, which served only to exasperate the
two houses against each other; for the peers insisted upon their
amendments, and the commons were so provoked at their interfering in a
money-bill, that they determined to give a loose to their resentment. They
ordered all the doors of their house to be shut that no members should go
forth. Then they took into consideration the report of the Irish
forfeitures, with the list of the privy councillors; and a question was
moved, That an address should be made to his majesty to remove John lord
Somers, chancellor of England, from his presence and councils for ever.
This however was carried in the negative by a great majority. The king was
extremely chagrined at the bill, which he considered as an invasion of his
prerogative, an insult on his person, and an injury to his friends and
servants; and he at first resolved to hazard all the consequences of
refusing to pass it into a law; but he was diverted from his purpose by
the remonstrances of those in whom he chiefly confided.* He could not,
however, dissemble his resentment. He became sullen, peevish, and morose;
and his enemies did not fail to make use of this additional ill humour as
a proof of his aversion to the English people. Though the motion against
the chancellor had miscarried, the commons resolved to address his majesty
that no person who was not a native of his dominions, except his royal
highness prince George of Denmark, should be admitted into his majesty’s
councils in England or Ireland. This resolution was levelled against the
earls of Portland, Albemarle, and Galway; but before the address could be
presented, the king went to the house of peers, and having passed the bill
which had produced such a ferment, with some others, commanded the earl of
Bridge-water, speaker of the house in the absence of the chancellor, who
was indisposed, to prorogue the parliament to the twenty-third day of May.

* Consisting of the lord-chancellor, the lord-president, the
lord privy-seal, the lord-steward of the household, the earl
of Bridge-water, first commissioner of the admiralty, the
earl of Marlborough, the earl of Jersey, and Mr. Montague.

A SEVERE BILL PASSED AGAINST THE PAPISTS.

In the course of this session the commons having prosecuted their inquiry
into the conduct of Kidd, brought in a bill for the more effectual
suppressing of piracy, which passed into a law; understanding afterwards
that Kidd was brought over to England, they presented an address to the
king desiring that he might not be tried, discharged, or pardoned, till
the next session of parliament; and his majesty complied with their
request. Boiling still with indignation against the lord chancellor,
representing the necessity of an immediate parliament. It was circulated
about the kingdom for subscriptions, signed by a great number of those who
sat in parliament, and presented to the king by lord Boss, who with some
others was deputed for that purpose. The king told them they should know
his intention in Scotland; and in the meantime adjourned their parliament
by proclamation. The people exasperated at this new provocation, began to
form the draft of a second national address, to be signed by the shires
and boroughs of the kingdom; but before this could be finished, the king
wrote a letter to the duke of Queensberry and the privy council of that
nation, which was published for the satisfaction of the people. He
professed himself grieved at the nation’s loss, and willing to grant what
might be needful for the relief and ease of the kingdom. He assured them
he had their interest at heart; and that his good subjects should have
convincing proofs of his sincere inclination to advance the wealth and
prosperity of that his ancient kingdom. He said he hoped this declaration
would be satisfactory to all good men; that they would not suffer
themselves to be misled; nor give advantage to enemies and ill-designing
persons, ready to seize every opportunity of embroiling the government. He
gave them to understand that his necessary absence had occasioned the late
adjournment; but as soon as God should bring him back, their parliament
should be assembled. Even this explanation, seconded by all the credit and
address of his ministers, failed in allaying the national ferment, which
rose to the very verge of rebellion.

LORD SOMERS DISMISSED.

The king, who from his first accession to the throne had veered
occasionally from one party to another, according to the circumstances of
his affairs and the opposition he encountered, was at this period so
incensed and embarrassed by the caprice and insolence of the commons, that
he willingly lent an ear to the leaders of the tories, who undertook to
manage the parliament according to his pleasure, provided he would part
with some of his ministers who were peculiarly odious to the commons. The
person against whom their anger was chiefly directed was the lord
chancellor Somers, the most active leader of the whig party. They demanded
his dismission, and the king exhorted him to resign his office; but he
refusing to take any step that might indicate a fear of his enemies or a
consciousness of guilt, the king sent a peremptory order for the seals by
the lord Jersey, to whom Somers delivered them without hesitation. They
were successively offered to lord chief justice Holt, and Trevor the
attorney-general, who declined accepting such a precarious office.
Meanwhile the king granted a temporary commission to three judges to sit
in the court of chancery; and at length bestowed the seals, with the title
of lord keeper, on Nathan Wright, one of the sergeants at law, a man but
indifferently qualified for the office to which he was now preferred.
Though William seemed altogether attached to the tories and inclined to a
new parliament, no person appeared to take the lead in the affairs of
government; and, indeed, for some time the administration seemed to be
under no particular direction.

SECOND TREATY OF PARTITION.

During the transactions of the last session, the negotiation for a second
partition treaty had been carried on in London by the French minister
Tallard, in conjunction with the earls of Portland and Jersey, and was
soon brought to perfection. On the twenty-first day of February the treaty
was signed in London; and on the twenty-fifth of the next month it was
subscribed at the Hague by Briord, the French envoy, and the
plenipotentiaries of the states-general. By this convention the treaty of
Ryswiek was confirmed. The contracting parties agreed, that, in case of
his catholic majesty’s dying without issue, the dauphin should possess,
for himself and his heirs, the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, the islands
of St. Stephano, Porto Hercole, Orbitello, Telamone, Porto Longone,
Piombino, the city and marquisate of Final, the province of Guipuscoa, the
duchies of Lorraine and Bar; in exchange for which last, the duke of
Lorraine should enjoy the duchy of Milan; but that the county of Biche
should remain in sovereignty to the prince of Vaudemont; that the archduke
Charles should inherit the kingdom of Spain and all its dependencies in
and out of Europe; but in case of his dying without issue, it should
devolve to some other child of the emperor, excepting him who might
succeed as emperor or king of the Romans: that this monarchy should never
descend to a king of France or dauphin; and that three months should be
allowed to the emperor, to consider whether or not he would accede to this
treaty. Whether the French king was really sincere in his professions at
this juncture, or proposed this treaty with a view to make a clandestine
use of it at the court of Spain for more interested purposes, it is not
easy to determine; at first however it was concealed from the notice of
the public, as if the parties had resolved to take no step in consequence
of it during the life of his catholic majesty.

In the beginning of July the king embarked for Holland, after having
appointed a regency to govern the kingdom in his absence. On the
twenty-ninth day of the same month the young duke of Gloucester, the only
remaining child of seventeen which the princess Anne had borne, died of a
malignant fever, in the eleventh year of his age. His death was much
lamented by the greater part of the English nation, not only on account of
his promising talents and gentle behaviour, but also, as it left the
succession undetermined, and might create disputes of fatal consequence to
the nation. The Jacobites openly exulted in an event which they imagined
would remove the chief bar to the interest of the prince of Wales; but the
protestants generally turned their eyes upon the princess Sophia,
electress dowager of Hanover, and grand-daughter of James I. It was with a
view to concert the establishment of her succession, that the court of
Brunswick now returned the visit of king William. The present state of
affairs in England, however, afforded a very uncomfortable prospect. The
people were generally alienated from the person and government of the
reigning king, upon whom they seem to have surfeited. The vigour of their
minds was destroyed by luxury and sloth; the severity of their morals was
relaxed by a long habit of venality and corruption. The king’s health
began to decline, and even his faculties decayed apace. No person was
appointed to ascend the throne when it should become vacant. The Jacobite
faction alone was eager, vigilant, enterprising and elate. They despatched
Mr. Graham, brother of lord Preston, to the court of St. Germain’s,
immediately after the death of the duke of Gloucester; they began to
bestir themselves all over the kingdom. A report was spread that the
princess Anne had privately sent a message to her father, and that Britain
was once more threatened with civil war, confusion, anarchy, and ruin.

A FLEET SENT INTO THE BALTIC.

In the meantime King William was not inactive. The kings of Denmark and
Poland, with the elector of Brandenburgh, had formed a league to crush the
young-king of Sweden, by invading his dominions on different sides. The
Poles actually entered Livonia, and undertook the siege of Riga; the king
of Denmark, having demolished some forts in Holstein, the duke of which
was connected with Sweden, invested Tonninghen. The Swedish minister in
England demanded that assistance of William which had been stipulated in a
late renewal of the ancient treaty between England and Sweden. The states
of Holland were solicited to the same purpose. Accordingly, a fleet of
thirty sail, English and Dutch, was sent to the Baltic under the command
of sir George Rooke, who joined the Swedish squadron, and bombarded
Copenhagen, to which the Danish fleet had retired. At the same time the
duke of Lunenbourg, with the Swedish forces which happened to be at
Bremen, passed the Elhe, and marched to the assistance of the duke of
Holstein. The Danes immediately abandoned the siege of Tonninghen, and a
body of Saxons, who had made an irruption into the territories of the duke
of Brunswick, were obliged to retreat in disorder. By the mediation of
William, a negotiation was begun for a treaty between Sweden and Denmark,
which in order to quicken, Charles the young king of Sweden made a descent
upon the isle of Zealand. This was executed with great success. Charles
was the first man who landed; and here he exhibited such marks of courage
and conduct, far above his years, as equally astonished and intimidated
his adversaries. Then he determined to besiege Copenhagen; a resolution
that struck such terror into the Danes, that they proceeded with redoubled
diligence in the treaty, which was brought to a conclusion, between
Denmark, Sweden, and Holstein, about the middle of August. Then the Swedes
retired to Schonen, and the squadrons of the maritime powers returned from
the Baltic.

SECOND TREATY OF PARTITION.

When the new partition treaty was communicated by the ministers of the
contracting parties to the other powers of Europe, it generally met with a
very unfavourable construction. Saxony and the northern crowns were still
embroiled with their own quarrels, consequently could not give much
attention to such a remote transaction. The princes of Germany appeared
cautious and dilatory in their answers, unwilling to be concerned in any
plan that might excite the resentment of the house of Austria. The elector
of Brandenburgh in particular had set his heart upon the regal dignity,
which he hoped to obtain from the favour and authority of the emperor. The
Italian states were averse to the partition treaty, from their
apprehension of seeing France in possession of Naples and other districts
of their country. The duke of Savoy affected a mysterious neutrality, in
hopes of being, able to barter his consent for some considerable
advantage. The Swiss cantons declined acceding as guarantees. The emperor
expressed his astonishment that any disposition should be made of the
Spanish monarchy without the consent of the present possessor, and the
states of the kingdom. He observed, that neither justice nor decorum could
warrant the contracting powers to compel him, who was the rightful heir,
to accept a part of his inheritance within three months, under penalty of
forfeiting even that share to a third person not yet named; and he
declared that he could take no final resolution until he should know the
sentiments of his catholic majesty, on an affair in which their mutual
interest was so nearly concerned. Leopold was actually engaged in a
negotiation with the king of Spain, who signed a will in favour of his
second son Charles; yet he took no measures to support the disposition,
either by sending the archduke with a sufficient force to Spain, or by
detaching troops into Italy.

THE FRENCH INTEREST PREVAILS AT THE COURT OF SPAIN.

The people of Spain were exasperated at the insolence of the three foreign
powers who pretended to parcel out their dominions. Their pride took the
alarm at the prospect of their monarchy’s being dismembered; and their
grandees repined at the thoughts of losing so many lucrative governments
which they now enjoyed. The king’s life became every day more and more
precarious, from frequent returns of his disorder. The ministry was weak
and divided, the nobility factious, and the people discontented. The
hearts of the nation had been alienated from the house of Austria, by the
insolent carriage and rapacious disposition of the queen Mariana. The
French had gained over to their interests the cardinal Portocarrero, the
marquis de Monterey, with many other noblemen and persons of distinction.
These perceiving the sentiments of the people, employed their emissaries
to raise a general cry that France alone could maintain the succession
entire; that the house of Austria was feeble and exhausted, and any prince
of that line must owe his chief support to detestable heretics.
Portocarrero tampered with the weakness of his sovereign. He repeated and
exaggerated all these digestions; he advised him to consult Pope Innocent
XII. on this momentous point of regulating the succession. That pontiff,
who was a creature of France, having taken the advice of a college of
cardinals, determined that the renunciation of Maria Theresa was invalid
and null, as being founded upon compulsion, and contrary to the
fundamental laws of the Spanish monarchy. He therefore exhorted king
Charles to contribute to the propagation of the faith, and the repose of
Christendom, by making a new will in favour of a grandson of the French
monarch. This admonition was seconded by the remonstrance of Portocarrero;
and the weak prince complied with the proposal. In the meantime the king
of France seemed to act heartily as a principal in the treaty of
partition. His ministers at foreign courts co-operated with those of the
maritime powers in soliciting the accession of the different potentates in
Europe. When count Zinzendorf, the imperial ambassador at Paris, presented
a memorial, desiring to know what part France would act should the king of
Spain voluntarily place a grandson of Louis upon the throne, the marquis
de Torcy answered in writing, that his most christian majesty would by no
means listen to such a proposal; nay, when the emperor’s minister gave
them to understand that his master was ready to begin a separate
negotiation with the court of Versailles, touching the Spanish succession,
Louis declared he could not treat on that subject without the concurrence
of his allies.

The nature of the partition-treaty was no sooner known in England, than
condemned by the most intelligent part of the nation. They first of all
complained, that such an important affair should be concluded without the
advice of parliament. They observed that the scheme was unjust, and the
execution of it hazardous; that in concerting the terms, the maritime
powers seemed to have acted as partizans of France; for the possession of
Naples and the Tuscan ports would subject Italy to her dominion, and
interfere with the English trade to the Levant and Mediterranean; while
Guipuscoa, on any future rupture, would afford another inlet into the
heart of the Spanish dominions; they, for these reasons, pronounced the
treaty destructive of the balance of power, and prejudicial to the
interest of England. All these arguments were trumpeted by the
malcontents, so that the whole kingdom echoed with the clamour of
disaffection. Sir Christopher Musgrave, and others of the tory faction,
began to think in earnest of establishing the succession of the English
crown upon the person of the prince of Wales. They are said to have sent
over Mr. Graham to St. Germain’s with overtures to this purpose, and an
assurance that a motion would be made in the house of commons, to pass a
vote that the crown should not be supported in the execution of the
partition treaty. King William was not ignorant of the censure he had
undergone, and not a little alarmed to find himself so unpopular among his
own subjects. That he might be the more able to bestow his attention
effectually upon the affairs of England, he resolved to take some measures
for the satisfaction of the Scottish nation. He permitted the parliament
of that kingdom to meet on the twenty-eighth day of October, and wrote a
letter to them from his house at Loo, containing an assurance that he
would concur in every thing that could be reasonably proposed for
maintaining and advancing the peace and welfare of their kingdom. He
promised to give his royal assent to such acts as they should frame for
the better establishment of the presbyterian discipline; for preventing
the growth of popery, suppressing vice and immorality, encouraging piety
and virtue, preserving and securing personal liberty, regulating and
advancing trade, retrieving the losses, and promoting the interest of
their African and Indian companies. He expressed his concern that he could
not assert the company’s right of establishing a colony at Darien, without
disturbing the peace of Christendom, and entailing a ruinous war on that
his ancient kingdom. He recommended unanimity and despatch in raising
competent taxes for their own defence; and told them he had thought fit to
continue the duke of Queensberry in the office of high commissioner.
Notwithstanding this soothing address, the national resentment continued
to rage, and the parliament seemed altogether intractable. By this time
the company had received certain tidings of the entire surrender of their
settlement; and on the first day of the session, they represented to
parliament, that, for want of due protection abroad, some persons had been
encouraged to break in upon their privileges even at home. This
remonstrance was succeeded by another national address to the king, who
told them he could not take any further notice of that affair, since the
parliament was now assembled; and he had already made a declaration, with
which he hoped all his faithful subjects would be satisfied. Nevertheless
he found it absolutely necessary to practise other expedients for allaying
the ferment of that nation. His ministers and their agents bestirred
themselves so successfully, that the heats in parliament were entirely
cooled, and the outcry of the people subsided into unavailing murmurs. The
parliament resolved, that in consideration of their great deliverance by
his majesty, and as next, under God, their safety and happiness wholly
depended on his preservation and that of his government, they would
support both to the utmost of their power, and maintain such forces as
should be requisite for those ends. They passed an act for keeping on foot
three thousand men for two years, to be maintained by a land-tax. Then the
commissioner produced the king’s letter, desiring to have eleven hundred
men on his own account to the first day of June following; they forthwith
complied with this request, and were prorogued to the sixth of May. The
supernumerary troops were sent over to the states-general; and the earl of
Argyle was honoured with the title of duke, as a recompence for having
concurred with the commissioners in managing this session of parliament.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

DEATH OF THE KING OF SPAIN.

King William had returned to England on the eighteenth day of October, not
a little chagrined at the perplexities in which he found himself involved;
and in the beginning of the next month, he received advice that the king
of Spain was actually dead. He could not be surprised at this event, which
had been so long-expected; but it was attended with a circumstance which
he had not foreseen. Charles, by his last will, had declared the duke of
Anjou, second son of the dauphin, the sole heir of the Spanish monarchy.
In case this prince should die without issue, or inherit the crown of
France, he willed that Spain should devolve to the duke of Berry: in
default of him, and children, to the archduke Charles and his heirs;
failing of whom, to the duke of Savoy and his posterity. He likewise
recommended a match between the duke of Anjou and one of the
archduchesses. When this testament was first notified to the French court,
Louis seemed to hesitate between his inclination and engagements to
William and the states-general. Madame de Maintenon is said to have joined
her influence to that of the dauphin, in persuading the king to accept of
the will; and Pontchartrain was engaged to support the same measure. A
cabinet-council was called in her apartment. The rest of the ministry
declared for the treaty of partition; the king affected a kind of
neutrality. The dauphin spoke for his son with an air of resolution he had
never assumed before; Pontchartain seconded his argument; madame de
Main-tenon asked, what the duke of Anjou had done to provoke the king,
that he should be barred of his right to that succession? Then the rest of
the members espoused the dauphin’s opinion; and the king owned himself
convinced by their reasons. In all probability the decision of this
council was previously settled in private. After the will was accepted,
Louis closeted the duke of Anjou, to whom he said in presence of the
marquis des Rois, “Sir, the king of Spain has made you a king. The
grandees demand you; the people wish for you, and I give my consent,
remember only, you are a prince of France. I recommend to you to love your
people, to gain their affection by the lenity of your government, and to
render yourself worthy of the throne you are going to ascend.” The new
monarch was congratulated on his elevation by all the princes of the
blood; nevertheless, the duke of Orleans and his son protested against the
will, because the archduke was placed next in succession to the duke of
Berry, in bar of their right as descendants of Anne of Austria, whose
renunciation could be of no more force than that of Maria-Theresa. On the
fourth day of December the new king set out for Spain, to the frontiers of
which he was accompanied by his two brothers.

When the will was accepted, the French minister de Torcy endeavoured to
justify his master’s conduct to the earl of Manchester, who resided at
Paris in the character of ambassador from the court of London. He
observed, that the treaty of partition was not likely to answer the end
for which it had been concerted; that the emperor had refused to accede;
that it was relished by none of the princes to whom it had been
communicated; that the people of England and Holland had expressed their
discontent at the prospect of France being in possession of Naples and
Sicily; that if Louis had rejected the will, the archduke would have had a
double title derived from the former will, and that of the late king; that
the Spaniards were so averse to the division of their monarchy, there
would be a necessity for conquering the whole kingdom before the treaty
could be executed; that the ships to be furnished by Great Britain and
Holland would not be sufficient for the purposes of such a war, and it was
doubtful whether England and the states-general would engage themselves in
a greater expense. He concluded with saying, That the treaty would have
been more advantageous to France than the will, which the king accepted
purely from a desire of preserving the peace of Europe. His master hoped
therefore that a good understanding would subsist between him and the king
of Great Britain. The same reasons were communicated by Briod, the French
ambassador at the Hague, to the states-general. Notwithstanding this
address, they ordered their envoy at Paris to deliver a memorial to the
French king, expressing their surprise at his having accepted the will;
and their hope, that as the time specified for the emperor’s acceding to
the treaty was not expired, his most christian majesty would take the
affair again into his consideration, and adhere to his engagements in
every article. Louis in his answer to this memorial, which he despatched
to all the courts of Europe, declared that what he chiefly considered was
the principal design of the contracting parties, namely, the maintenance
of peace in Europe; and that, true to his principle, he only departed from
the words that he might the better adhere to the spirit of the treaty.

PHILIP ACKNOWLEDGED KING OF SPAIN.

With this answer he sent a letter to the states, giving them to understand
that the peace of Europe was so firmly established by the will of the king
of Spain, in favour of his grandson, that he did not doubt their
approbation of his succession to the Spanish crown. The states observed,
that they could not declare themselves upon an affair of such consequence,
without consulting their respective provinces. Louis admitted the excuse,
and assured them of his readiness to concur with whatever they should
desire for the security of the Spanish Netherlands. The Spanish ambassador
at the Hague presented them with a letter from his new master, who
likewise notified his accession to all the powers of Europe, except the
king of England. The emperor loudly exclaimed against the will, as being
more iniquitous than the treaty of partition; and threatened to do himself
justice by force of arms. The Spaniards, apprehending that a league would
be formed between his imperial majesty and the maritime powers for setting
aside the succession of the duke of Anjou, and conscious of their own
inability to defend their dominions, resigned themselves entirely to the
protection of the French monarch. The towns in the Spanish Netherlands and
the duchy of Milan admitted French garrisons: a French squadron anchored
in the port of Cadiz; and another was detached to the Spanish settlements
in the West Indies. Part of the Dutch army that was quartered at
Luxembourg, Mon, and Namur, were made prisoners of war, because they would
not own the king of Spain, whom their masters had not yet acknowledged.
The states were overwhelmed with consternation by this event, especially
when they considered their own naked situation, and reflected that the
Spanish garrisons might fall upon them before they could assemble a body
of troops for their defence. The danger was so imminent, that they
resolved to acknowledge the king of Spain without further hesitation, and
wrote a letter to the French king for that purpose; this was no sooner
received, than orders were issued for sending back their battalions.

A NEW MINISTRY, AND A NEW PARLIAMENT.

How warmly soever king William resented the conduct of the French king, in
accepting the will so diametrically opposite to his engagements, he
dissembled his chagrin; and behaved with such reserve and apparent
indifference, that some people naturally believed he had been privy to the
transaction. Others imagined that he was discouraged from engaging in a
new war by his bodily infirmities, which daily increased, as well as by
the opposition in parliament to which he should be inevitably exposed. But
his real aim was to conceal his sentiments until he should have sounded
the opinions of other powers in Europe, and seen how far he could depend
upon his new ministry. He now seemed to repose his chief confidence in the
earl of Rochester, who had undertaken for the tories, and was declared
lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Lord Godolphin was appointed first
commissioner of the treasury, lord Tankerville succeeded lord Lonsdale,
lately deceased, as keeper of the privy-seal, and sir Charles Hedges was
declared secretary of state, in the room of the earl of Jersey; but the
management of the commons was intrusted to Mr. Robert Harley, who had
hitherto opposed the measures of the court with equal virulence and
ability. These new undertakers, well knowing they should find it very
difficult, if not impossible, to secure a majority in the present
parliament, prevailed on the king to dissolve it by proclamation; then the
sheriffs were changed according to their nomination, and writs issued for
a new parliament to meet on the sixth day of February. During this
interval, count Wratislaw arrived in England, as ambassador from the
emperor, to explain Leopold’s title to the Spanish monarchy, supported by
repeated entails and renunciations, confirmed in the most solemn treaties.
This minister met with a very cold reception from those who stood at the
helm of affairs. They sought to avoid all connexions, that might engage
their country as a principal in another war upon the Continent; smarting
as they were from the losses and incumbrances which the last had entailed
upon them and their posterity. They seemed to think that Louis, rather
than involve himself in fresh troubles, would give all the security that
could be desired for maintaining the peace of Europe; or even should this
be refused, they saw no reason for Britain exhausting her wealth and
strength to support a chimerical balance, in which her interest was but
remotely concerned. It was their opinion, that by keeping aloof she might
render herself more respectable. Her reserve would overawe contending
powers; they would in their turn sue for her assistance, and implore her
good offices; and, instead of declaring herself a party, she would have
the honour to decide as arbitress of their disputes. Perhaps they extended
this idea too far; and, in all probability, their notions were inflamed by
a spirit of faction. They hated the whigs as their political adversaries,
and detested the war, because it had been countenanced and supported by
the interest of that party. The king believed that a conjunction of the
two monarchies of France and Spain would prove fatal to the liberties of
Europe; and that this could not be prevented by any other method than a
general union of the other European powers. He certainly was an enthusiast
in his sentiments of this equilibrium; and fully convinced that he
himself, of all the potentates in Christendom, was the only prince capable
of adjusting the balance. The imperial ambassador could not therefore be
long ignorant of his real purpose, as he conversed with the Dutch
favourites, who knew and approved of their master’s design, though he
avoided a declaration until he should have rendered his ministers more
propitious to his aim. The true secret, however, of that reserve with
which count Wratislaw was treated at his first arrival, was a private
negotiation which the king had set on foot with the regency of Spain,
touching a barrier in the Netherlands. He proposed that certain towns
should be garrisoned with English and Dutch troops, by way of security
against the ambitious designs of France; but the regency were so devoted
to the French interest, that they refused to listen to any proposal of
this nature. While this affair was in agitation, William resolved to
maintain a wary distance from the emperor; but when his efforts
miscarried, the ambassador found him much more open and accessible.*

* This year was distinguished by a glorious victory which
the young king of Sweden obtained in the nineteenth year of
his age. Riga continued invested by the king of Poland,
while Peter the czar of Muscovy made his approaches to
Narva, at the head of a prodigious army, purposing, in
violation of all faith and justice, to share the spoils of
the youthful monarch. Charles landed at Revel, compelled the
Saxons to abandon the siege of Riga, and having supplied the
place, marched with a handful of troops against the
Muscovites, who had undertaken the siege of Narva. The czar
quitted his army with some precipitation, as if he had been
afraid of hazarding his person, while Charles advanced
through ways that were thought impracticable, and surprised
the enemy. He broke into their camp before they had the
least intimation of his approach, and totally routed them
after a short resistance. He took a great number of
prisoners, with all their baggage, tents, and artillery, and
entered Narva in triumph.

The parliament meeting on the sixth, was prorogued to the tenth day of
February, when Mr. Harley was chosen speaker by a great majority, in
opposition to sir Richard Onslow. The king had previously told sir Thomas
Lyttleton, it would be for his service that he should yield his
pretensions to Harley at this juncture; and that gentleman agreed to
absent himself from the house on the day of election. The king observed in
his speech, that the nation’s loss in the death of the duke of Gloucester,
had rendered it absolutely necessary for them to make further provision
for the succession of the crown in the protestant line; that the death of
the king of Spain had made such an alteration in the affairs of the
Continent, as required their mature deliberation. The rest of his harangue
turned upon the usual topics of demanding supplies for the ensuing year,
reminding them of the deficiencies and public debts, recommending to their
inquiry the state of the navy and fortifications; exhorting them to
encourage commerce, employ the poor, and proceed with vigour and unanimity
in all their deliberations. Though the elections had been generally
carried in favour of the tory interest, the ministry had secured but one
part of that faction. Some of the most popular leaders, such as the duke
of Leeds, the marquis of Normanby, the earls of Nottingham, Seymour,
Musgrave, Howe, Finch, and Showers, had been either neglected or found
refractory, and resolved to oppose the court measures with all their
influence. Besides, the French king, knowing that the peace of Europe
would in a great measure depend on the resolutions of the English
parliament, is said to have distributed great sums of money in England, by
means of his minister Tallard, in order to strengthen the opposition of
the house of commons. Certain it is, the nation abounded at this period
with the French coins called louis d’ors and pistoles; but whether this
redundancy was owing to a balance of trade in favour of England, or to the
largesses of Louis, we shall not pretend to determine. We may likewise
observe, that the infamous practice of bribing electors had never been so
flagrant as in the choice of representatives for this parliament. This
scandalous traffic had been chiefly carried on by the whig party, and
therefore their antagonists resolved to spare no pains in detecting their
corruption. Sir Edward Seymour distinguished himself by his zeal and
activity; he brought some of these practices to light, and, in particular,
stigmatized the new East-India company for having been deeply concerned in
this species of venality. An inquiry being set on foot in the house of
commons, several elections were declared void; and divers persons who had
been illegally returned, were first expelled the house, and afterwards
detained in prison. Yet these prosecutions were carried on with such
partiality, as plainly indicated that they flowed rather from party zeal
than from patriotism.

A great body of the commons had resolved to present an address to his
majesty, desiring he would acknowledge the king of Spain; and the motion
in all probability would have been carried by a considerable majority, had
not one bold and lucky expression given such a turn to the debate, as
induced the anti-courtiers to desist. One Mr. Monckton, in the heat of his
declamation against this measure, said he expected the next vote would be
for owning the pretended prince of Wales. Though there was little or no
connexion between these two subjects, a great many members were startled
at the information, and deserted the measure, which was dropped
accordingly. The king’s speech being taken into consideration, the house
resolved to support his majesty and his government; to take such effectual
measures as might best conduce to the interest and safety of England, and
the preservation of the protestant religion. This resolution was presented
in an address to the king, who received it favourably. At the same time,
he laid before them a memorial he had received from the states-general,
and desired their advice and assistance in the points that constituted the
substance of the remonstrance. The states gave him to understand, that
they had acknowledged the duke of Anjou as king of Spain; that France had
agreed to a negotiation, in which they might stipulate the necessary
conditions for securing the peace of Europe; and that they were firmly
resolved to do nothing without the concurrence of his majesty and their
other allies. They therefore begged he would send a minister to the Hague,
with necessary powers and instructions to co-operate with them in this
negotiation; they told him that in case it should prove ineffectual, or
Holland be suddenly invaded by the troops which Louis had ordered to
advance towards their frontiers, they relied on the assistance of England,
and hoped his majesty would prepare the succours stipulated by treaty, to
be used should occasion require. The memorial was like-wise communicated
to the house of lords. Meanwhile the commons desired that the treaties
between England and the states-general should be laid before the house.
These being perused, they resolved upon an address, to desire his majesty
would enter into such negotiations with the states-general, and other
potentates, as might most effectually conduce to the mutual safety of
Great Britain and the united provinces, as well as to the preservation of
the peace of Europe, and to assure him of their support and assistance in
performance of the treaty subsisting between England and the
states-general. This resolution however was not carried without great
opposition from those who were averse to the nation involving itself in
another war upon the continent. The king professed himself extremely well
pleased with this address, and told them he would immediately order his
ministers abroad to act in concert with the states-general and other
powers, for the attainment of those ends they proposed.

AN INTERCEPTED LETTER.

He communicated to the commons a letter, written by the earl of Melfort to
his brother the earl of Perth, governor to the pretended prince of Wales.
It had been mislaid by, accident, and came to London in the French mail.
It contained a scheme for another invasion of England, together with some
reflections on the character of the earl of Middleton, who had supplanted
him at the court of St. Germain’s. Melfort was a mere projector, and seems
to have had no other view than that of recommending himself to king James,
and bringing his rival into disgrace. The house of lords, to whom the’
letter was also imparted, ordered it to be printed. Next day they
presented an address, thanking his majesty for his care of the protestant
religion; desiring all the treaties made since the last war might be laid
before them; requesting him to engage in such alliances as he should think
proper for preserving the balance of power in Europe; assuring him of
their concurrence; expressing their acknowledgment for his having
communicated Melfort’s letter; desiring he would give orders for seizing
the horses and arms of disaffected persons; for removing papists from
London; and for searching after those arms and provisions of war mentioned
in the letter; finally, they requested him to equip speedily a sufficient
fleet for the defence of himself and the kingdom. They received a gracious
answer to this address, which was a further encouragement to the king to
put his own private designs in execution; towards the same end the letter
contributed not a little, by inflaming the fears and resentment of the
nation against France, which in vain disclaimed the earl of Melfort as a
fantastical schemer, to whom no regard was paid at the court of
Versailles. The French ministry complained of the publication of this
letter, as an attempt to sow jealousy between the two crowns; and as a
convincing proof of their sincerity, banished the earl of Melfort to
Angers.

SUCCESSION OF THE CROWN SETTLED.

The credit of exchequer bills was so lowered by the change of the
ministry, and the lapse of the time allotted for their circulation, that
they fell nearly twenty per cent, to the prejudice of the revenue, and the
discredit of the government in foreign countries. The commons having taken
this affair into consideration, voted, That provision should be made from
time to time for making good the principal and interest due on all
parliamentary funds; and afterwards passed a bill for renewing the bills
of credit, commonly called exchequer bills. This was sent up to the lords
on the sixth day of March, and on the thirteenth received the royal
assent. The next object that engrossed the attention of the commons, was
the settlement of the succession to the throne, which the king had
recommended to their consideration in the beginning of the session. Having
deliberated on this subject, they resolved, That for the preservation of
the peace and happiness of the kingdom, and the security of the protestant
religion, it was absolutely necessary that a further declaration should be
made of the limitation and succession of the crown in the protestant line,
after his majesty and the princess, and the heirs of their bodies
respectively; and that further provision should be first made for the
security of the rights and liberties of the people. Mr. Harley moved, That
some conditions of government might be settled as preliminaries, before
they should proceed to the nomination of the person, that their security
might be complete. Accordingly, they deliberated on this subject, and
agreed to the following resolutions; That whoever shall hereafter come to
the possession of this crown, shall join in communion with the church of
England as by law established; that in case the crown and imperial dignity
of this realm shall hereafter come to any person, not being a native of
this kingdom of England, this nation be not obliged to engage in any war
for the defence of any dominions or territories which do not belong to the
crown of England, without the consent of parliament; that no person who
shall hereafter come to the possession of the crown, shall go out of the
dominions of England, Scotland, or Ireland, without consent of parliament;
that, from and after the time that the further limitation by this act
shall take effect, all matters and things relating to the well-governing
of this kingdom, which are properly cognizable in the privy-council, by
the laws and customs of the realm, shall be transacted there, and all
resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the privy-council
as shall advise and consent to the same; that, after the limitation shall
take effect, no person born out of the kingdom of England, Scotland, or
Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging, although he be naturalized,
and made a denizen (except such as are born of English parents), shall be
capable to be of the privy-council, or a member of either house of
parliament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil or
military, or to have any grant of lands, tenements, or hereditaments from
the crown to himself, or to any others in trust for him; that no person
who has an office or place of profit under the king, or receives a pension
from the crown, shall be capable of serving as a member of the house of
commons; that, after the limitation shall take effect, judges’ commissions
be made quamdiu se bene gesserint, and their salaries ascertained
and established; but upon the address of both houses of parliament, it may
be lawful to remove them; but no pardon under the great seal of England be
pleadable to an impeachment by the commons in parliament. Having settled
these preliminaries, they resolved, that the princess Sophia, duchess
dowager of Hanover, be declared the next in succession to the crown of
England, in the protestant line, after his majesty, and the princess, and
the heirs of their bodies respectively; and, that the further limitation
of the crown be to the said princess Sophia and the heirs of her body,
being protestants. A bill being formed on these resolutions, was sent up
to the house of lords, where it met with some opposition from the marquis
of Normanby; a protest was likewise entered against it by the earls of
Huntingdon and Plymouth, and the lords Guilford and Jeffries. Nevertheless
it passed without amendments, and on the twelfth day of June received the
royal assent: the king was extremely mortified at the preliminary
limitations, which he considered as an open insult on his own conduct and
administration; not but that they were necessary precautions, naturally
suggested by the experience of those evils to which the nation had been
already exposed, in consequence of raising a foreign prince to the throne
of England. As the tories lay under the imputation of favouring the late
king’s interest, they exerted themselves zealously on this occasion to
wipe off the aspersion, and insinuate themselves into the confidence of
the people; hoping that in the sequel they should be able to restrain the
nation from engaging too deep in the affairs of the continent, without
incurring the charge of disaffection to the present king and government.
The act of settlement being passed, the earl of Macclesfield was sent to
notify the transaction to the electress Sophia, who likewise received from
his hands the order of the garter.

The act of succession gave umbrage to all the popish princes, who were
more nearly related to the crown than this lady, whom the parliament had
preferred to all others. The duchess of Savoy, grand-daughter to king
Charles I. by her mother, ordered her ambassador, count Maffei, to make a
protestation to the parliament of England, in her name, against all
resolutions and decisions contrary to her title, as sole daughter to the
princess Henrietta, next in succession to the crown of England, after king
William and the princess Anne of Denmark. Two copies of this protest,
Maffei sent in letters to the lord keeper and the speaker of the lower
house, by two of his gentlemen, and a public notary to attest the
delivery; but no notice was taken of the declaration. The duke of Savoy,
while his minister was thus employed in England, engaged in an alliance
with the crowns of France and Spain, on condition, That his catholic
majesty should espouse his youngest daughter without a dowry; that he
himself should command the allied army in Italy, and furnish eight
thousand infantry, with five-and-twenty hundred horse, in consideration of
a monthly subsidy of fifty thousand crowns.

INEFFECTUAL NEGOTIATION with FRANCE.

During these transactions, Mr. Stanhope, envoy extraordinary to the
states-general, was empowered to treat with the ministers of France and
Spain, according to the addresses of both houses of parliament. He
represented, that though his most christian majesty had thought fit to
deviate from the partition-treaty, it was not reasonable that the king of
England should lose the effect of that convention; he therefore expected
some security for the peace of Europe; and for that purpose insisted upon
certain articles, importing, That the French king should immediately
withdraw his troops from the Spanish Netherlands; that for the security of
England, the cities of Ostend and Nieuport should be delivered into the
hands of his Britannic majesty; that no kingdom, provinces, cities, lands,
or places, belonging to the crown of Spain, should ever be yielded or
transferred to the crown of France, on any pretence whatever; that the
subjects of his Britannic majesty should retain all the privileges,
rights, and immunities, with regard to their navigation and commerce in
the dominions of Spain, which they enjoyed at the death of his late
catholic majesty; and also all such immunities, rights, and franchises, as
the subjects of France, or any other power, either possess for the
present, or may enjoy for the future; that all treaties of peace and
conventions between England and Spain should be renewed; and that a treaty
formed on these demands should be guaranteed by such powers as one or
other of the contractors should solicit and prevail upon to accede. Such
likewise were the proposals made by the states-general, with this
difference, that they demanded as cautionary towns, all the strongest
places in the Netherlands. Count D’A vaux, the French minister, was so
surprised at these exorbitant demands, that he could not help saying, They
could not have been higher, if his master had lost four successive
battles. He assured them that his most christian majesty would withdraw
his troops from the Spanish Netherlands as soon as the king of Spain
should have forces of his own sufficient to guard the country; with
respect to the other articles, he could give no other answer, but that he
would immediately transmit them to Versailles. Louis was filled with
indignation at the insolent strain of those proposals, which he considered
as a sure mark of William’s hostile intentions. He refused to give any
other security for the peace of Europe, than a renewal of the treaty of
Ryswick; and he is said to have tampered, by means of his agents and
emissaries, with the members of the English parliament, that they might
oppose all steps tending to a new war on the continent.

WILLIAM, 1688—1701.

SEVERE ADDRESSES FROM BOTH HOUSES.

King William certainly had no expectation that France would close with
such proposals; but he was not without hope that her refusal would warm
the English nation into a concurrence with his designs. He communicated to
the house of commons the demands which had been made by him and the
states-general; and gave them to understand, that he would from time to
time make them acquainted with the progress of the negotiation. The
commons suspecting that his intention was to make them parties in a
congress which he might conduct to a different end from that which they
proposed, resolved to signify their sentiments in the answer to this
message. They called for the treaty of partition, which being read, they
voted an address of thanks to his majesty, for his most gracious
declaration that he would make them acquainted with the progress of the
negotiation; but they signified their disapprobation of the partition
treaty, signed with the great seal of England, without the advice of the
parliament which was then sitting, and productive of ill consequences to
the kingdom, as well as to the peace of Europe, as it assigned over to the
French king such a large portion of the Spanish dominion. Nothing could be
more mortifying to the king than this open attack upon his own conduct,
yet he suppressed his resentment, and without taking the least notice of
their sentiments with respect to the partition treaty, assured them that
he should be always ready to receive their advice on the negotiation which
he had set on foot according to their desire. The debates in the house of
commons upon the subject of the partition treaty rose to such violence,
that divers members, in declaiming against it, transgressed the bounds of
decency. Sir Edward Seymour compared the division which had been made of
the Spanish territories, to a robbery on the highway; and Mr. Howe did not
scruple to say it was a felonious treaty: an expression which the king
resented to such a degree, that he declared he would have demanded
personal satisfaction with his sword, had he not been restrained by the
disparity of condition between himself and the person who had offered such
an outrageous insult to his honour. Whether the tories intended to
alienate the minds of the nation from all foreign connexions, or to wreak
their vengeance on the late ministers, whom they hated as the chiefs of
the whig party, certain it is, they now raised an universal outcry against
the partition treaty, which was not only condemned in public pamphlets and
private conversation, but even brought into the house of lords as an
object of parliamentary censure. In the month of March a warm debate on
this subject was begun by Sheffield marquis of Nonnanby, and carried on
with great vehemence by other noblemen of the same faction. They exclaimed
against the article by which so many territories were added to the crown
of France; they complained, that the emperor had been forsaken; that the
treaty was not communicated to the privy-council or ministry, but
clandestinely transacted by the earls of Portland and Jersey; that the
sanction of the great seal had been unjustly and irregularly applied,
first to blank powers, and afterwards to the treaty itself. The courtiers
replied, that the king had engaged in a treaty of partition at the desire
of the emperor, who had agreed to every article except that relating to
the duchy of Milan, and afterwards desired, that his majesty would procure
for him the best terms he could obtain; above all things recommending
secrecy, that he might not forfeit his interest in Spain, by seeming to
consent to the treaty; that foreign negotiations being intrusted to the
care of the crown, the king lay under no legal obligation to communicate
such secrets of state to his council; far less was he obliged to follow
their advice; and that the keeper of the great seal had no authority for
refusing to apply it to any powers or treaty which the king should grant
or conclude, unless they were contrary to law, which had made no provision
for such an emergency.*

* In the course of this debate, the earl of Rochester
reprehended some lords for speaking disrespectfully of the
French king, observing that it was peculiarly incumbent on
peers to treat monarchs with decorum and respect, as they
derived their dignity from the crown. Another affirming that
the French king was not only to be respected, but likewise
to be feared: a certain lord replied, “He hoped no man in
England need to be afraid of the French king; much less the
peer who spoke last, who was too much a friend to that
monarch to fear anything from his resentment.”

The earl of Portland, apprehending that this tempest would burst upon his
head, declared on the second day of the debate, that he had, by the king’s
order, communicated the treaty, before it was concluded, to the earls of
Pembroke and Marlborough, the lords Lonsdale, Somers, Halifax, and
secretary Vernon. These noblemen owned, that they had been made acquainted
with the substance of it: that when they excepted to some particulars,
they were told his majesty had carried the matter as far as it could be
advanced, and that he could obtain no better terms; thus assured that
every article was already settled, they said they no longer insisted upon
particulars, but gave their advice that his majesty should not engage
himself in any measure that would produce a new war, seeing the nation had
been so uneasy under the last. After long debates, and great variety as
well as virulence of altercation, the house agreed to an address in which
they disapproved of the partition treaty, as a scheme inconsistent with
the peace and safety of Europe, as well as prejudicial to the interest of
Great Britain. They complained, that neither the instructions given to his
plenipotentiaries, nor the draft of the treaty itself, had been laid
before his majesty’s council. They humbly besought him, that for the
future he would, in all matters of importance, require and admit the
advice of his natural born subjects of known probity and fortune; and that
he would constitute a council of such persons, to whom he might impart all
affairs which should any way concern him and his dominions. They observed,
that interest and natural affection to their country would incline them to
every measure that might tend to its welfare and prosperity; whereas
strangers could not be so much influenced by these considerations; that
their knowledge of the country would render them more capable than
foreigners could be of advising his majesty touching the true interests of
his kingdom; that they had exhibited such repeated demonstrations of their
duty and affection, as must convince his majesty of their zeal in his
service; nor could he want the knowledge of persons fit to be employed in
all his secret and arduous affairs; finally, as the French king appeared
to have violated the treaty of partition, they advised his majesty, in
future negotiations with that prince, to proceed with such caution as
might imply a real security.

WILLIAM IS OBLIGED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE KING OF SPAIN.

The king received this severe remonstrance with his usual phlegm; saying,
it contained matter of very great moment; and he would take care that all
treaties he made should be for the honour and safety of England. Though he
deeply felt this affront, he would not alter his conduct towards the new
ministers; but he plainly perceived their intention was to thwart him in
his favourite measure, and humble him into a dependence upon their
interest in parliament. On the last day of March, he imparted to the
commons the French king’s declaration, that he would grant no other
security than a renewal of the treaty of Ryswick; so that the negotiation
seemed to be at an end. He likewise communicated two resolutions of the
states-general, with a memorial from their envoy in England, relating to
the ships they had equipped with a view to join the English fleet, and the
succours stipulated in the treaty concluded in the year 1677, which they
desired might be sent over with all convenient expedition. The house
having considered this message, unanimously resolved to desire his majesty
would carry on the negotiations in concert with the states-general, and
take such measures therein as might most conduce to their safety; they
assured him they would effectually enable him to support the treaty of
1677, by which England was bound to assist them with ten thousand men, and
twenty ships of war, in case they should be attacked. Though the king was
nettled at that part of this address, which, by confining him to one
treaty, implied their disapprobation of a new confederacy, he discovered
no signs of emotion; but thanked them for the assurance they had given,
and told them he had sent orders to his envoy at the Hague, to continue
the conferences with the courts of Franco and Spain. On the nineteenth day
of April, the marquis de Torcy delivered to the earl of Manchester, at
Paris, a letter from the new king of Spain to his Britannic majesty,
notifying his accession to that throne, and expressing a desire of
cultivating a mutual friendship with the king and crown of England. How
averse soever William might have been to any correspondence of this sort,
the earl of Rochester and the new ministers importuned him in such a
manner to acknowledge Philip, that he at length complied with their
entreaties, and wrote a civil answer to his most catholic majesty. This
was a very alarming incident to the emperor, who was bent upon a war with
the two crowns, and had determined to send prince Eugene with an army into
Italy, to take possession of the duchy of Milan as a fief of the empire.
The new pope Clement XI., who had succeeded to the papacy in the preceding
year, was attached to the French interest; the Venetians favoured the
emperor; but they refused to declare themselves at this juncture.

The French king consented to a renewal of the negotiations at the Hague;
but in the meantime tampered with the Dutch deputies, to engage them in a
separate treaty. Finding them determined to act in concert with the king
of England, he protracted the conferences in order to gain time, while he
erected fortifications and drew lines on the frontiers of Holland, divided
the princes of the empire by his intrigues, and endeavoured to gain over
the states of Italy. The Dutch meanwhile exerted themselves in providing
for their own security. They reinforced their garrisons, purchased
supplies, and solicited succours from foreign potentates. The states wrote
a letter to king William, explaining the danger of their situation,
professing the most inviolable attachment to the interest of England, and
desiring that the stipulated number of troops should be sent immediately
to their assistance. The three Scottish regiments which he had retained in
his own pay, were immediately transported from Scotland. The letter of the
states-general he communicated to the house of commons, who having taken
it into consideration, resolved to assist his majesty to support his
allies in maintaining the liberty of Europe; and to provide immediate
succours for the states-general, according to the treaty of 1677. The
house of peers, to whom the letter was also communicated, carried their
zeal still farther. They presented an address, in which they desired his
majesty would not only perform the articles of any former treaty with the
states-general, but also engage with them in a strict league offensive and
defensive, for their common preservation; and invite into it all the
princes and states that were concerned in the present visible danger
arising from the union of Franco and Spain. They exhorted him to enter
into such alliances with the emperor as his majesty should think
necessary, pursuant to the ends of the treaty concluded in the year 1689.
They assured him of their hearty and sincere assistance, not doubting that
Almighty God would protect his sacred person in so righteous a cause; and
that the unanimity, wealth, and courage of his subjects would carry him
with honour and success through all the difficulties of a just war.
Lastly, they took leave humbly to represent, that the dangers to which his
kingdom and allies had been exposed, were chiefly owing to the fatal
counsels that prevented his majesty’s sooner meeting his people in
parliament.

These proceedings of both houses could not but be very agreeable to the
king, who expressed his satisfaction in his answer to each apart. They
were the more remarkable, as at this very time considerable progress was
made in a design to impeach the old ministry. This deviation therefore
from the tenour of their former conduct, could be owing to no other motive
than a sense of their own danger, and resentment against France, which,
even during the negotiation, had been secretly employed in making
preparations to surprise and distress the states-general. The commons
having expressed their sentiments on this subject, resumed the
consideration of the partition treaty. They had appointed a committee to
examine the journals of the house of lords, and to report their
proceedings in relation to the treaty of partition. When the report was
made by sir Edward Seymour, the house resolved itself into a committee to
consider the state of the nation; after warm debates they resolved, That
William earl of Portland, by negotiating and concluding the treaty of
partition, was guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor. They ordered sir
John Leveson Gower to impeach him at the bar of the house of lords; and
named a committee to prepare the articles of his impeachment. Then, in a
conference with the lords, they desired to know the particulars of what
had passed between the earl of Portland and secretary Vernon, in relation
to the partition treaty, as also what other information they had obtained
concerning negotiations or treaties of partition of the Spanish monarchy.
The lords demurring to this demand, the lower house resolved to address
the king, That copies of both treaties of partition, together with all the
powers and instructions for negotiating those treaties, should be laid
before them. The copies were accordingly produced, and the lords sent down
to the commons two papers containing the powers granted to the earls of
Portland and Jersey for signing both treaties of partition. The house
afterwards ordered, That Mr. secretary Vernon should lay before them all
the letters which had passed between the earl of Portland and him, in
relation to those treaties; and he thought proper to obey their command.
Nothing could be more scandalously partial than the conduct of the commons
on this occasion. They resolved to screen the earl of Jersey, sir Joseph
Williamson, and Mr. Vernon, who had been as deeply concerned as any others
in that transaction; and pointed all their vengeance against the earls of
Portland and Orford, and the lords Somers and Halifax. Some of the members
even tampered with Kidd, who was now a prisoner in Newgate, to accuse lord
Somers as having encouraged him in his piracy. He was brought to the bar
of the house and examined; but he declared that he had never spoke to lord
Somers; and that he had no order from those concerned in the ship, but
that of pursuing his voyage against the pirates in Madagascar. Finding him
unfit for their purpose, they left him to the course of law; and he was
hanged with some of his accomplices.

WILLIAM, 1688-1701.

EARL OF ORFORD, &c, IMPEACHED.

Lord Somers, understanding that he was accused in the house of commons of
having consented to the partition treaty, desired that he might be
admitted and heard in his own defence. His request being granted, he told
the house that when he received the king’s letter concerning the partition
treaty, with an order to send over the necessary powers in the most secret
manner, he thought it would have been taking too much upon him to put a
stop to a treaty of such consequence when the life of the king of Spain
was so precarious; for, had the king died before the treaty was finished,
and he been blamed for delaying the necessary powers, he could not have
justified his own conduct, since the king’s letter was really a warrant;
that, nevertheless, he had written a letter to his majesty objecting to
several particulars in the treaty, and proposing other articles which he
thought were for the interest of his country; that he thought himself
bound to put the great seal to the treaty when it was concluded; that, as
a privy counsellor, he had offered his best advice, and as chancellor,
executed his office according to his duty. After he had withdrawn, his
justification gave rise to a long debate which ended in a resolution,
carried by a majority of seven voices, That John lord Somers, by advising
his majesty to conclude the treaty of partition, whereby large territories
of the Spanish monarchy were to be delivered up to France, was guilty of a
high crime and misdemeanor. Votes to the same effect were passed against
Edward carl of Orford, and Charles lord Halifax; and all three were
impeached at the bar of the upper house. But the commons knowing that
those impeachments would produce nothing in the house of lords, where the
opposite interest predominated, they resolved to proceed against the
accused noblemen in a more expeditious and effectual way of branding their
reputation. They voted and presented an address, to the king, desiring he
would remove them from his councils and presence for ever, as advisers of
a treaty so pernicious to the trade and welfare of England. They concluded
by repeating their assurance that they would always stand by and support
his majesty to the utmost of their power, against all his enemies both at
home and abroad. The king, in his answer, artfully overlooked the first
part of the remonstrance. He thanked them for their repeated assurances;
and told them he would employ none in his service but such as should be
thought most likely to improve that mutual trust and confidence between
him and his people, which was so necessary at that conjuncture, both for
their own security and the preservation of their allies.

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES.

The lords, incensed at this step of the commons, which they considered as
an insult upon their tribunal, and a violation of common justice, drew up
and delivered a counter-address, humbly beseeching his majesty that he
would not pass any censure upon the accused lords until they should be
tried on the impeachments, and judgments be given according to the usage
of parliament. The king was so perplexed by these opposite
representations, that he knew not well what course to follow. He made no
reply to the counter-address; but allowed the names of the impeached lords
to remain in the council-books. The commons having carried their point,
which was to stigmatize those noblemen and prevent their being employed
for the future, suffered the impeachments to be neglected until they
themselves moved for trial. On the fifth day of May the house of lords
sent a message to the commons, importing, That no articles had as yet been
exhibited against the noblemen whom they had impeached. The charge was
immediately drawn up against the earl of Orford: him they accused of
having received exorbitant grants from the crown; of having been concerned
with Kidd the pirate; of having committed abuses in managing and
victualling the fleet when it lay on the coast of Spain; and lastly, of
having advised the partition treaty. The earl, in his own defence,
declared that he had received no grant from the king except a very distant
reversion, and a present of ten thousand pounds after he had defeated the
French at La Hogue; that in Kidd’s affair he had acted legally, and with a
good intention towards the public, though to his own loss; that his
accounts with regard to the fleet which he commanded had been examined and
passed; yet he was ready to waive the advantage, and justify himself in
every particular; and he absolutely denied that he had given any advice
concerning the treaty of partition. Lord Somers was accused of having set
the seals to the powers, and afterwards to the treaties; of having
accepted some grants; of having been an accomplice with Kidd; and of
having some guilt of partial and dilatory proceedings in chancery. He
answered every article in the charge; but no replication was made by the
commons either to him or the earl of Orford. When the commons were
stimulated by another message from the peers, relating to the impeachments
of the earl of Portland and lord Halifax, they declined exhibiting
articles against the former on pretence of respect for his majesty; but on
the fourteenth of June, the charge against Halifax was sent up to the
lords. He was taxed with possessing a grant in Ireland, without paying the
produce of it according to the law lately enacted concerning those grants;
with enjoying another grant out of the forest of Deane, to the waste of
the timber and the prejudice of the navy; with having held places that
were incompatible, by being at the same time commissioner of the treasury
and chancellor of the exchequer; and with having advised the two treaties
of partition. He answered, that his grant in Ireland was of debts and sums
of money, and within the act concerning confiscated estates; that all he
had ever received from it did not exceed four hundred pounds, which, if he
was bound to repay, a common action would lie against him; but every man
was not to be impeached who did not discharge his debts at the very day of
payment. He observed, that as his grant in the forest of Deane extended to
weedings only, it could occasion no waste of timber nor prejudice to the
navy; that the auditor’s place was held by another person, until he
obtained the king’s leave to withdraw from the treasury; that he never saw
the first treaty of partition, nor was his advice asked upon the subject;
that he had never heard of the second but once before it was concluded;
and then he spoke his sentiments freely on the subject. This answer, like
the others, would have been neglected by the commons, whose aim was now to
evade the trials, had not the lords pressed them by messages to expedite
the articles. They even appointed a day for Orford’s trial, and signified
their resolution to the commons. These desired that a committee of both
houses should be named for settling preliminaries, one of which was, That
the lord to be tried should not sit as a peer; and the other imported,
That those lords impeached for the same matter should not vote in the
trial of each other. They likewise desired that lord Somers should be
first tried. The lords made no objection to this last demand; but they
rejected the proposal of a committee consisting of both houses, alleging
that the commons were parties, and had no title to sit in equality with
the judges, or to settle matters relating to the trial; that this was a
demand contrary to the principles of law and rules of justice, and never
practised in any court or nation. The lords, indeed, had yielded to this
expedient in the popish plot, because it was a case of treason, in which
the king’s life and safety of the kingdom were concerned, while the people
were jealous of the court, and the whole nation was in a ferment; but at
present the times were quiet, and the charge amounted to nothing more than
misdemeanors; therefore the lords could not assent to such a proposal as
was derogatory from their jurisdiction. Neither would they agree to the
preliminaries; but on the twelfth day of June resolved, That no peer
impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors should, upon his trial, be
without the bar; and that no peer impeached could be precluded from voting
on any occasion except in his own trial. Divers messages passed between
the two houses,—the commons still insisting upon a committee to
settle preliminaries; at length the dispute was brought to a free
conference.

THE IMPEACHED LORDS ACQUITTED.

Meanwhile the king, going to the house of peers, gave the royal assent to
the bill of succession. In his speech he expressed his warm
acknowledgments for their repeated assurances of supporting him in such
alliances as should be most proper for the preservation of the liberty of
Europe, and for the security of England and the states-general. He
observed that the season of the year was advanced; that the posture of
affairs absolutely required his presence abroad; and he recommended
despatch of the public business, especially of those matters which were of
the greatest importance. The commons thanked him in an address for having
approved of their proceedings: they declared they would support him in
such alliances as he should think fit to make in conjunction with the
emperor and the states-general, for the peace of Europe, and reducing the
exorbitant power of France. They then resumed their dispute with the upper
house. In the free conference, lord Haversham happened to tax the commons
with partiality, in impeaching some lords and screening others who were
equally guilty of the same misdemeanors. Sir Christopher Musgrave and the
managers for the commons immediately withdrew; this unguarded sally being
reported to the house, they immediately resolved, That John lord Haversham
had uttered most scandalous reproaches and false expressions, highly
reflecting upon the honour and justice of the house of commons, tending to
a breach in the good correspondence between the two houses, and to the
interruption of the public justice of the nation; that the said lord
Haversham should be charged before the lords for the said words; that the
lords should be desired to proceed in justice against him, and to inflict
upon him such punishment as so high an offence against the commons did
deserve. The commons had now found a pretence to justify their delay; and
declared they would not renew the conference until they should have
received satisfaction. Lord Haversham offered to submit to a trial; but
insisted on their first proving the words which he was said to have
spoken. When this declaration was imparted to the commons, they said the
lords ought to have censured him in a summary way, and still refused to
renew the conference. The lords, on the other hand, came to a resolution,
That there should not be a committee of both houses concerning the trial
of the impeached lords. Then they resolved, That lord Somers should be
tried at Westminster-hall on Tuesday the seventeenth day of June, and
signified this resolution to the lower house; reminding them, at the same
time, of the articles against the earl of Portland. The commons refused to
appear, alleging they were the only judges, and that the evidence was not
yet prepared. They sent up the reasons of their nonappearance to the house
of lords, where they were supported by the new ministry and all the
malcontents, and produced very warm debates. The majority carried their
point piecemeal by dint of different votes, against which very severe
protests were entered. On the day appointed for the trial, they sent a
message to the commons that they were going to Westminster-hall. The other
impeached lords asked leave, and were permitted to withdraw. The articles
of impeachment against lord Somers, and his answers, being read in
Westminster-hall, and the commons not appearing to prosecute, the lords
adjourned to their own house, where they debated concerning the question
that was to be put. This being settled, they returned to Westminster-hall;
and the question being put, “That John lord Somers be acquitted of the
articles of impeachment against him, exhibited by the house of commons,
and all things therein contained; and, That the impeachment be dismissed,”
it was carried by a majority of thirty-five. The commons, exasperated at
these proceedings, resolved, That the lords had refused justice to the
commons; that they had endeavoured to overturn the right of impeachment
lodged in the commons by the ancient constitution of the kingdom; that all
the ill consequences which might attend the delay of the supplies given
for the preservation of the public peace, and the maintenance of the
balance of Europe, would be owing to those who, to procure an indemnity
for their own crimes, had used their utmost endeavours to make a breach
between the two houses. The lords sent a message to the commons, giving
them to understand that they had acquitted lord Somers and dismissed the
impeachment, as nobody had appeared to support the articles; and that they
had appointed next Monday for the trial of the earl of Orford. They
resolved, That unless the charge against lord Haversham should be
prosecuted by the commons before the end of the session, the lords would
adjudge him innocent; that the resolutions of the commons on their late
votes, contained most unjust reflections on the honour and justice of the
peers; that they were contrived to cover their affected and unreasonable
delays in prosecuting the impeached lords; that they manifestly tended to
the destruction of the judicature of the lords; to the rendering trials on
impeachments impracticable for the future, and to the subverting the
constitution of the English government; that therefore, whatever ill
consequence might arise from the so long deferring the supplies for this
year’s service, wore to be attributed to the fatal counsel of the putting
off the meeting of a parliament so long, and to the unnecessary delays of
the house of commons. On the twenty-third day of June, the articles of
impeachment against Edward earl of Orford were read in Westminster-hall;
but the house of commons having previously ordered that none of the
members should appear at this pretended trial, those articles were not
supported, so that his lordship was acquitted and the impeachment
dismissed. Next day the impeachments against the duke of Leeds, which had
lain seven years neglected, together with those against the earl of
Portland and lord Halifax as well as the charge against lord Haversham,
were dismissed for want of prosecution. Each house ordered a narrative of
these proceedings to be published; and their mutual animosity had
proceeded to such a degree of rancour as seemed to preclude all
possibility of reconciliation. The commons, in the whole course of this
transaction, had certainly acted from motives of faction and revenge; for
nothing could be more unjust, frivolous, and partial, than the charge
exhibited in the articles of impeachment, their anticipating address to
the king, and their affected delay in the prosecution. Their conduct on
this occasion was so flagrant as to attract the notice of the common
people, and inspire the generality of the nation with disgust. This the
whigs did not fail to augment by the arts of calumny, and, in particular,
by insinuating that the court of Versailles had found means to engage the
majority of the commons in its interest.

PETITION OF KENT.

This faction had, since the beginning of this session, employed their
emissaries in exciting a popular aversion to the tory ministers and
members, and succeeded so well in their endeavours, that they formed a
scheme of obtaining petitions from different counties and corporations
that should induce the commons to alter their conduct, on the supposition
that it was contrary to the sense of the nation. In execution of this
scheme, a petition signed by the deputy-lieutenants, above twenty justices
of the peace, the grand jury and freeholders of the county of Kent, had
been presented to the house of commons on the eighteenth of May, by five
gentlemen of fortune and distinction. The purport of this remonstrance was
to recommend union among themselves, and confidence in his majesty, whose
great actions for the nation could never be forgotten without the blackest
ingratitude; to beg they would have regard to the voice of the people;
that their religion and safety might be effectually provided for; that
their loyal addresses might be turned into bills of supply; and that his
most sacred majesty might be enabled powerfully to assist his allies
before it should be too late. The house was so incensed at the petulance
of the petition, that they voted it scandalous, insolent, and seditious;
and ordered the gentlemen who had presented it to be taken into custody.
They were afterwards committed to the Gate-house, where they remained till
the prorogation of parliament; but they had no reason to repine at their
imprisonment, which recommended them to the notice and esteem of the
public. They were visited and caressed by the chiefs of the whig interest,
and considered as martyrs to the liberties of the people. Their
confinement gave rise to a very extraordinary paper, entitled, “A memorial
from the gentlemen, freeholders, and inhabitants of the counties of———,
in behalf of themselves and many thousands of the good people of England.”
It was signed Legion, and sent to the speaker in a letter,
commanding him, in the name of two hundred thousand Englishmen, to deliver
it to the house of commons. In this strange expostulation, the house was
charged with illegal and unwarrantable practices in fifteen particulars; a
new claim of right was ranged under seven heads; and the commons were
admonished to act according to their duty, as specified in this memorial,
on pain of incurring the resentment of an injured nation. It was concluded
in these words—“For Englishmen are no more to be slaves to
parliaments than to kings-our name is Legion, and we are many.” The
commons were equally provoked and intimidated by this libel, which was the
production of one Daniel de Foe, a scurrilous party-writer in very little
estimation. They would not, however, deign to take notice of it in the
house; but a complaint being made of endeavours to raise tumults and
seditions, a committee was appointed to draw up an address to his majesty,
informing him of those seditious endeavours, and beseeching him to provide
for the public peace and security.

The house, however, perceiving plainly that they had incurred the odium of
the nation, which began to clamour for a war with France, and dreading the
popular resentment, thought fit to change their measures with respect to
this object, and present the address we have already mentioned, in which
they promised to support him in the alliances he should contract with the
emperor and other states in order to bridle the exorbitant power of
France. They likewise proceeded in earnest upon the supply, and voted
funds for raising about two millions seven hundred thousand pounds to
defray the expense of the ensuing year. They voted thirty thousand seamen,
and resolved that ten thousand troops should be transported from Ireland
to Holland, as the auxiliaries stipulated in the treaty of 1677 with the
states-general. The funds were constituted of a land-tax, certain duties
on merchandise, and a weekly deduction from the excise, so as to bring
down the civil list to six hundred thousand pounds, as the duke of
Gloucester was dead, and James’ queen refused her allowance. They passed a
bill for taking away all privileges of parliament in legal prosecutions
during the intermediate prorogations; their last struggle with the lords
was concerning a bill for appointing commissioners to examine and state
the public accounts. The persons nominated for this purpose were extremely
obnoxious to the majority of the peers, as violent partizans of the tory
faction; when the bill, therefore, was sent up to the lords, they made
some amendments which the commons rejected. The former animosity between
the two houses began to revive, when the king interrupted their disputes
by putting an end to the session on the twenty-fourth day of Juno, after
having thanked the parliament for their zeal in the public service, and
exhorted them to a discharge of their duties in their several counties. He
was, no doubt, extremely pleased with such an issue of a session that had
began with a very inauspicious aspect. His health daily declined; but he
concealed the decay of his constitution, that his allies might not be
discouraged from engaging in a confederacy of which he was deemed the head
and chief support. He conferred the command of the ten thousand troops
destined for Holland upon the earl of Marlborough, and appointed him at
the same time his plenipotentiary to the states-general, a choice that
evinced his discernment and discretion; for that nobleman surpassed all
his contemporaries both as a general and a politician. He was cool,
penetrating, intrepid, and persevering, plausible, insinuating, artful,
and dissembling.

PROGRESS OF PRINCE EUGENE.

A regency being established, the king embarked for Holland in the
beginning of July. On his arrival at the Hague he assisted at an assembly
of the states-general, whom he harangued in very affectionate terms, and
was answered with great cordiality; then he made a progress round the
frontiers to examine the state of the garrisons, and gave such orders and
directions as he judged necessary for the defence of the country.
Meanwhile, the French minister D’Avaux, being recalled from the Hague,
delivered a letter to the states from the French king, who complained that
they had often interrupted the conferences, from which no good fruits were
to be expected; but he assured them it wholly depended upon themselves
whether they should continue to receive marks of his ancient friendship
for their republic. The letter was accompanied by an insolent memorial, to
which the states-general returned a very spirited answer. As they expected
nothing now but hostilities from France, they redoubled their diligence in
making preparations for their own defence. They repaired their
fortifications, augmented their army, and hired auxiliaries. King William
and they had already engaged in an alliance with the king of Denmark, who
undertook to furnish a certain number of troops in consideration of a
subsidy; and they endeavoured to mediate a peace between Sweden and
Poland; but this they could not effect. France had likewise offered her
mediation between those powers in hopes of bringing over Sweden to her
interest; and the court of Vienna had tampered with the king of Poland;
but he persisted in his resolution to prosecute the war. The Spaniards
began to be very uneasy under the dominion of their new master. They were
shocked at the insolence of his French ministers and attendants, and much
more at the manners and fashions which they introduced. The grandees found
themselves very little considered by their sovereign, and resented his
economy; for he had endeavoured to retrench the expense of the court,
which had used to support their magnificence. Prince Eugene, at the head
of the Imperial army, had entered Italy by Vicenza, and passed the Adige
near Carpi, where he defeated a body of five thousand French forces. The
enemy were commanded by the duke of Savoy, assisted by mareschal Catinat
and the prince of Vaudemont, who did not think proper to hazard an
engagement; but mareschal Villeroy arriving in the latter end of August
with orders to attack the Imperialists, Catinat retired in disgust. The
new general marched immediately towards Chiari, where prince Eugene was
intrenched, and attacked his camp; but met with such a reception that he
was obliged to retire with the loss of five thousand men. Towards the end
of the campaign the prince took possession of all the Mantuan territories,
except Mantua itself, and Goito, the blockade of which he formed. He
reduced all the places on the Oglio, and continued in the field during the
whole winter, exhibiting repeated marks of the most invincible courage,
indefatigable vigilance, and extensive capacity in the art of war. In
January he had well nigh surprised Cremona, by introducing a body of men
through an old aqueduct. They forced one of the gates, by which the prince
and his followers entered; Villeroy, being awakened by the noise, ran into
the street where he was taken; and the town must have been infallibly
reduced, had prince Eugene been joined by another body of troops which he
had ordered to march from the Parmesan and secure the bridge. These not
arriving at the time appointed, an Irish regiment in the French service
took possession of the bridge, and the prince was obliged to retire with
his prisoner.

WILLIAM, 1688-1701.

SITUATION OF AFFAIRS IN EUROPE.

The French king, alarmed at the activity and military genius of the
Imperial general, sent a reinforcement to his army in Italy, and the duke
of Vendôme to command his forces in that country; he likewise importuned
the duke of Savoy to assist him effectually; but that prince having
obtained all he could expect from France, became cold and backward. His
second daughter was by this time married to the new king of Spain, who met
her at Barcelona, where he found himself involved in disputes with the
states of Catalonia, who refused to pay a tax he had imposed until their
privileges should be confirmed; and he was obliged to gratify them in this
particular. The war continued to rage in the north. The young king of
Sweden routed the Saxons upon the river Danu: thence he marched into
Courland and took possession of Mittau without opposition; while the king
of Poland retired into Lithuania. In Hungary the French emissaries
endeavoured to sow the seeds of a new revolt. They exerted themselves with
indefatigable industry in almost every court of Christendom. They had
already gained over the elector of Bavaria, and his brother the elector of
Cologn, together with the dukes of Wolfenbuttle and Saxe-Gotha, who
professed neutrality, while they levied troops and made such preparations
for war as plainly indicated that they had received subsidies from France.
Louis had also extorted a treaty of alliance from the king of Portugal,
who was personally attached to the Austrian interest; but this weak prince
was a slave to his ministers, whom the French king had corrupted. During
this summer, the French coasts were over-awed by the combined fleets of
England and Holland under the command of sir George Rooke, who sailed down
the channel in the latter end of August, and detached vice-admiral Benbow
with a strong squadron to the West Indies. In order to deceive the French
king with regard to the destination of this fleet, king William demanded
the free use of the Spanish harbours, as if his design had been to send a
squadron to the Mediterranean; but he met with a repulse, while the French
ships were freely admitted. About this period the king revoked his
letters-patent to the commissioners of the admiralty, and constituted the
earl of Pembroke lord high-admiral of England, in order to avoid the
factions, the disputes, and divided counsels of a board. The earl was no
sooner promoted to this office than he sent captain Loades with three
frigates to Cadiz, to bring home the sea-stores and effects belonging to
the English in that place before the war should commence; and this piece
of service was successfully performed. The French king, in order to enjoy
all the advantages that could be derived from his union with Spain,
established a company to open a trade with Mexico and Peru; and concluded
a new Assiento treaty for supplying the Spanish plantations with negroes.
At the same time he sent a strong squadron to the port of Cadiz. The
French dress was introduced into the court of Spain; and by a formal
edict, the grandees of that kingdom and the peers of France were put on a
level in each nation. There was no vigour left in the councils of Spain;
her finances were exhausted; and her former spirit seemed to be quite
extinguished; the nobility were beggars, and the common people overwhelmed
with indigence and distress. The condition of France was not much more
prosperous. She had been harassed by a long war, and now saw herself on
the eve of another, which in all probability would render her completely
miserable.

TREATY OF ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE MARITIME POWERS.

These circumstances were well known to the emperor and the maritime
powers, and served to animate their negotiations for another grand
alliance. Conferences were opened at the Hague; and on the seventh day of
September a treaty was concluded between his Imperial majesty, England,
and the states-general. The objects proposed were to procure satisfaction
to the emperor in the Spanish succession, and sufficient security for the
dominions and commerce of the allies. They engaged to use their endeavours
for recovering the Spanish Netherlands as a barrier between Holland and
France, and for putting the emperor in possession of the duchy of Milan,
Naples, and Sicily, with the lands and islands upon the coast of Tuscany
belonging to the Spanish dominions. They agreed that the king of England
and the states-general should keep and possess whatever lands and cities
they should conquer from the Spaniards in the Indies; that the
confederates should faithfully communicate their designs to one another;
that no party should treat of peace or truce but jointly with the rest;
that they should concur in preventing the union of France and Spain under
the same government, and hinder the French from possessing the Spanish
Indies; that in concluding a peace, the confederates should provide for
the maintenance of the commerce carried on by the maritime powers to the
dominions taken from the Spaniards, and secure the states by a barrier;
that they should at the same time settle the exercise of religion in the
new conquests; that they should assist one another with all their forces
in case of being invaded by the French king, or any other potentate, on
account of this alliance; that a defensive alliance should remain between
them even after the peace; that all kings, princes, and states should be
at liberty to engage in this alliance. They determined to employ two
months to obtain by amicable means the satisfaction and security which
they demanded; and Stipulated that within six weeks the treaty should be
ratified.

DEATH OF KING JAMES.

On the sixteenth day of September king James expired at St. Germain’s,
after having laboured under a tedious indisposition. This unfortunate
monarch, since the miscarriage of his last attempt for recovering his
throne, had laid aside all thoughts of worldly grandeur, and devoted his
whole attention to the concerns of his soul. Though he could not prevent
the busy genius of his queen from planning new schemes of restoration, he
was always best pleased when wholly detached from such chimerical
projects. Hunting was his chief diversion; but religion was his constant
care. Nothing could be more harmless than the life he led; and in the
course of it he subjected himself to uncommon penance and mortification.
He frequently visited the poor monks of la Trappe, who were much edified
by his humble and pious deportment. His pride and arbitrary temper seem to
have vanished with his greatness. He became affable, kind, and easy to all
his dependents; and his religion certainly opened and improved the virtues
of his heart, though it seemed to impair the faculties of his soul. In his
last illness he conjured his son to prefer his religion to every worldly
advantage, and even to renounce all thoughts of a crown if he could not
enjoy it without offering violence to his faith. He recommended to him the
practice of justice and christian forgiveness; he himself declaring that
he heartily forgave the prince of Orange, the emperor, and all his
enemies. He died with great marks of devotion, and was interred, at his
own request, in the church of the English Benedictines in Paris without
any funeral solemnity.

LOUIS OWNS THE PRETENDED PRINCE OF WALES AS KING OF ENGLAND.

Before his death he was visited by the French king, who seemed touched
with his condition, and declared that, in case of his death, he would own
his son as king of England. This promise James’ queen had already extorted
from him by the interest of madame de Main-tenon and the dauphin.
Accordingly, when James died, the pretended prince of Wales was proclaimed
king of England at St. Germain’s, and treated as such at the court of
Versailles. His title was likewise recognised by the king of Spain, the
duke of Savoy, and the pope. William was no sooner informed of this
transaction, than he despatched a courier to the king of Sweden, as
guarantee of the treaty of Ryswick, to complain of this manifest
violation. At the same time he recalled the earl of Manchester from Paris,
and ordered him to return without taking an audience of leave. That
nobleman immediately withdrew, after having intimated to the marquis de
Torcy the order he had received. Louis, in vindication of his own conduct,
dispersed through all the courts of Europe a manifesto, in which he
affirmed, that in owning the prince of Wales as king of England, he had
not infringed any article of the treaty of Ryswick, He confessed that in
the fourth article he had promised that he would not disturb the king of
Great Britain in the peaceable possession of his dominions; and he
declared his intention was to observe that promise punctually. He observed
that his generosity would not allow him to abandon the prince of Wales or
his family; that he could not refuse him a title which was due to him by
birth; that he had more reason to complain of the king of Great Britain
and the states-general, whose declarations and preparations in favour of
the emperor might be regarded as real contraventions to treaties; finally,
he quoted some instances from history in which the children enjoyed the
titles of kingdoms which their fathers had lost. These reasons, however,
would hardly have induced the French king to take such a step, had not he
perceived that a war with England was inevitable; and that he should be
able to reap some advantages in the course of it from espousing the cause
of the pretender.

The substance of the French manifesto was published in London, by Poussin
the secretary of Tallard, who had been left in England as agent for the
court of Versailles. He was now ordered to leave kingdom, which was filled
with indignation at Louis for having pretended to declare who ought to be
their sovereign. The city of London presented an address to the
lords-justices, expressing the deepest resentment of the French king’s
presumption; assuring his majesty that they would at all times exert the
utmost of their abilities for the preservation of his person, and the
defence of his just rights, in opposition to all invaders of his crown and
dignity. Addresses of the same nature were sent up from all parts of the
kingdom, and could not but be agreeable to William. He had now concerted
measures for acting with vigour against France; and he resolved to revisit
his kingdom after having made a considerable progress in a treaty of
perpetual alliance between England and the states-general, which was
afterwards brought to perfection by his plenipotentiary, the earl of
Marlborough. The king’s return, however, was delayed a whole month by a
severe indisposition, during which the Spanish minister de Quiros hired
certain physicians to consult together upon the state and nature of his
distemper. They declared that he could not live many weeks; and this
opinion was transmitted to Madrid. William however baffled the prognostic,
though his constitution had sustained such a rude shock that he himself
perceived his end was near. He told the earl of Portland he found himself
so weak that he could not expect to live another summer; but charged him
to conceal this circumstance until he should be dead. Notwithstanding this
near approach to dissolution, he exerted himself with surprising diligence
and spirit in establishing the confederacy, and settling the plan of
operations. A subsidiary treaty was concluded with the king of Prussia,
who engaged to furnish a certain number of troops. The emperor agreed to
maintain ninety thousand men in the field against France; the proportion
of the states was limited to one hundred and two thousand; and that of
England did not exceed forty thousand, to act in conjunction with the
allies.

On the fourth day of November the king arrived in England, which he found
in a strange ferment, produced from the mutual animosity of the two
factions. They reviled each other in words and writing with all the
falsehood of calumny, and all the bitterness of rancour; so that truth,
candour, and temperance, seemed to be banished by consent of both parties.
The king had found himself deceived in his new ministers, who had opposed
his measures with all their influence. He was particularly disgusted with
the deportment of the earl of Rochester, who proved altogether imperious
and intractable; and, instead of moderating, inflamed the violence of his
party. The king declared the year in which that nobleman directed his
councils was the un-easiest of his whole life. He could not help
expressing his displeasure in such a coldness of reserve, that Rochester
told him he would serve his majesty no longer since he did not enjoy his
confidence. William made no answer to this expostulation, but resolved he
should see him no more. The earl, however, at the desire of Mr. Harley,
became more pliant and submissive; and, after the king’s departure for
Holland, repaired to his government of Ireland, in which he now remained
exerting all his endeavours to acquire popularity. William foreseeing
nothing but opposition from the present spirit of the house of commons,
closeted some of their leaders with a view to bespeak their compliance;
but finding them determined to pursue their former principles, and to
insist upon their impeachments, he resolved, with the advice of his
friends, to dissolve the parliament. This step he was the more easily
induced to take, as the commons were become extremely odious to the nation
in general, which breathed nothing but war and defiance against the French
monarch. The parliament was accordingly dissolved by proclamation, and
another summoned to meet on the thirtieth day of December.

THE KING’S LAST SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES.

Never did the two parties proceed with such heat and violence against each
other, as in their endeavours to influence the new elections. The whigs,
however, obtained the victory, as they included the monied-interest, which
will always prevail among the borough electors. Corruption was now reduced
into an open and avowed commerce; and, had not the people been so
universally venal and profligate that no sense of shame remained, the
victors must have blushed for their success. Though the majority thus
obtained was staunch to the measures of the court, the choice of speaker
fell upon Mr. Harley, contrary to the inclination of the king, who
favoured sir Thomas Lyttleton; but his majesty’s speech was received with
universal applause. It was so much admired by the well-wishers to the
revolution, that they printed it with decorations in the English, Dutch,
and French languages. It appeared as a piece of furniture in all their
houses, and as the king’s last legacy to his own and all protestant
people. In this celebrated harangue, he expatiated upon the indignity
offered to the nation by the French king’s acknowledging the pretended
prince of Wales; he explained the dangers to which it was exposed by his
placing his grandson on the throne of Spain; he gave them to understand he
had concluded several alliances according to the encouragement given him
by both houses of parliament, which alliances should be laid before them,
together with other treaties still depending. He observed, that the eyes
of all Europe were upon this parliament; and all matters at a stand until
their resolution should be known: therefore no time ought to be lost. He
told them they had yet an opportunity to secure for themselves and their
posterity the quiet enjoyment of their religion and liberties, if they
were not wanting to themselves, but would exert the ancient vigour of the
English nation; but he declared his opinion was that should they neglect
this occasion, they had no reason to hope for another. He said it would be
necessary to maintain a great strength at sea, and a force on land
proportionable to that of their allies. He pressed the commons to support
the public credit, which could not be preserved without keeping sacred
that maxim, That they shall never be losers who trust to the parliamentary
security. He declared that he never asked aids from his people without
regret; that what he desired was for their own safety and honour at such a
critical time; and that the whole should be appropriated to the purposes
for which it was intended. He expressed his willingness that the accounts
should be yearly submitted to the inspection of parliament. He again
recommended despatch, together with good bills for employing the poor,
encouraging trade, and suppressing vice. He expressed his hope that they
were come together determined to avoid disputes and differences, and to
act with a hearty concurrence for promoting the common cause. He said he
should think it as great a blessing as could befal England, if they were
as much inclined to lay aside those unhappy fatal animosities which
divided and weakened them, as he was disposed to make all his subjects
safe and easy, even as to the highest offences committed against his
person. He conjured them to disappoint the hopes of their enemies by their
unanimity. As he had always shown, and always would show, how desirous he
was to be the common father of all his people, he desired they would lay
aside parties and divisions, so as that no distinction should be heard of
amongst them, but of those who were friends to the protestant religion and
present establishment, and of those who wished for a popish prince and a
French government. He concluded by affirming, that if they in good earnest
desired to see England hold the balance of Europe, and be indeed at the
head of the protestant interest, it would appear by their improving the
present opportunity, The lords immediately drew up a warm and affectionate
address, in which they expressed their resentment of the proceedings of
the French king in owning the pretended prince of Wales for king of
England. They assured his majesty they would assist him to the utmost of
their power against all his enemies: and when it should please God to
deprive them of his majesty’s protection, they would vigorously assist and
defend against the pretended prince of Wales, and all other pretenders
whatsoever, every person and persons who had right to succeed to the crown
of England by virtue of the acts of parliament for establishing and
limiting the succession. On the fifth day of January. an address to the
same effect was presented by the commons, and both met with a very
gracious reception from his majesty. The lords, as a further proof of
their zeal, having taken into consideration the dangers that threatened
Europe, from the accession of the duke of Anjou to the crown of Spain,
drew up another address explaining their sense of that danger;
stigmatizing the French king as a violator of treaties; declaring their
opinion that his majesty, his subjects, and allies, could never be safe
and secure until the house of Austria should be restored to their rights,
and the invader of the Spanish monarchy brought to reason; and assuring
his majesty that no time should be lost, nor any thing wanting on their
parts, which might answer the reasonable expectations of their friends
abroad; not doubting but to support the reputation of the English name,
when engaged under so great a prince, in the glorious cause of maintaining
the liberty of Europe.

The king, in order to awake the confidence of the commons, ordered Mr.
secretary Vernon to lay before them copies of the treaties and conventions
he had lately concluded, which were so well approved that the house
unanimously voted the supply. By another vote they authorized the
exchequer to borrow six hundred thousand pounds at six per cent, for the
service of the fleet, and fifty thousand pounds for the subsistence of
guards and garrisons. They deliberated upon the state of the navy, with
the debt due upon it, and examined an estimate of what would be necessary
for extraordinary repairs. They called for an account of that part of the
national debt for which no provision had been made. The ordered the
speaker to write to the trustees for the forfeited estates in Ireland, to
attend the house with a full detail of their proceedings in the execution
of that act of parliament. On the ninth day of January, they unanimously
resolved, That leave be given to bring in a bill for securing his
majesty’s person, and the succession of the crown in the protestant line,
for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended prince of Wales, and all
other pretenders, and their open and secret abettors. They resolved to
address his majesty that he would insert an article in all his treaties of
alliance, importing, That no peace should be made with France until his
majesty and the nation have reparation for the great indignity offered by
the French king, in owning and declaring the pretended prince of Wales
king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. They agreed to maintain forty
thousand men for the sea service, and a like number by land, to act in
conjunction with the forces of the allies, according to the proportions
settled by the contracting powers. The supplies were raised by an
imposition of four shillings in the pound upon lands, annuities, pensions,
and stipends, and on the profits arising from the different professions;
by a tax of two and one-half per cent, on all stock in trade and money at
interest; of five shillings in the pound on all salaries, fees, and
perquisites; a capitation tax of four shillings; an imposition of one per
cent, on all shares in the capital stock of any corporation or company
which should be bought, sold, or bargained for; a duty of sixpence per
bushel on malt, and a farther duty on mum, cyder, and perry.

THE BILL OF ABJURATION PASSED.

The commons seemed to vie with the lords in their zeal for the government.
They brought in a bill for attainting the pretended prince of Wales, which
being sent up to the other house, passed with an additional clause of
attainder against the queen, who acted as regent for the pretender. This
however was not carried without great opposition in the house of lords.
When the bill was sent back to the commons, they excepted to the amendment
as irregular. They observed that attainders by bill constituted the most
rigorous part of the law; and that the stretching of it ought to be
avoided. They proposed that the queen should be attainted by a separate
bill. The lords assented to the proposal; and the bill against the
pretended prince of Wales passed. The lords passed another for attainting
the queen; however it was neglected in the house of commons. But the
longest and warmest debates of this session were produced by a bill, which
the lords brought in, for abjuring the pretended prince of Wales, and
swearing to the king by the title of rightful and lawful king, and his
heirs, according to the act of settlement. It was proposed that this oath
should be voluntary, tendered to all persons, and their subscription or
refusal recorded without any other penalty. This article was violently
opposed by the earl of Nottingham, and the other lords of the tory
interest. They observed, that the government was first settled with
another oath, which was like an original contract; so that there was no
occasion for a new imposition; that oaths relating to men’s opinions had
been always considered as severe impositions; and that a voluntary oath
was in its own nature unlawful. During these disputes, another bill of
abjuration was brought into the house of commons by sir Charles Hedges,
that should be obligatory on all persons who enjoyed employments in church
or state; it likewise included an obligation to maintain the government in
king, lords, and commons, and to maintain the church of England, together
with the toleration for dissenters. Warm debates arose upon the question,
Whether the oath should be imposed or voluntary; and at length it was
carried for imposition by the majority of one voice. They agreed to insert
an additional clause, declaring it equally penal to compass or imagine the
death of her royal highness the princess Anne of Denmark, as it was to
compass or imagine the death of the king’s eldest son and heir. In the
house of peers this bill was strenuously opposed by the tories; and when,
after long debates, it passed on the twenty-fourth day of February, ten
lords entered a protest against it, as an unnecessary and severe
imposition.

The whole nation now seemed to join in the cry for a war with France.
Party heats began to abate; the factions in the city of London were in a
great measure moderated by the union of the two companies trading to the
East Indies, which found their mutual interest required a coalition. The
tories in the house of commons having concurred so heartily with the
inclinations of the people, resolved, as far it lay in their power, to
justify the conduct of their party in the preceding parliament. They
complained of some petitions and addresses which had reflected upon the
proceedings of the last house of commons, and particularly of the Kentish
petition. The majority, however, determined that it was the undoubted
right of the people of England to petition or address the king for the
calling, sitting, or dissolving of parliaments, and for the redressing of
grievances; and that every subject under any accusation, either by
impeachment or otherwise, had a right to be brought to a speedy trial. A
complaint being likewise made that the lords had denied the commons
justice in the matter of the late impeachments, a furious debate ensued;
and it was carried by a very small majority that justice had not been
denied. In some points, however, they succeeded: in the case of a
controverted election at Maidstone, between Thomas Blisse and Thomas
Culpepper, the house resolved, That the latter had been not only guilty of
corrupt, scandalous, and indirect practices, in endeavouring to procure
himself to be elected a burgess, but likewise being one of the instruments
in promoting and presenting the scandalous, insolent, and seditious
petition, commonly called the Kentish petition, to the last house of
commons, was guilty of promoting a scandalous, villainous, and groundless
reflection upon that house, by aspersing the members with receiving French
money, or being in the interest of France; for which offence he was
ordered to be committed to Newgate, and to be prosecuted by his majesty’s
attorney-general. They also resolved, That to assert that the house of
commons is not the only representative of the commons of England, tends to
the subversion of the rights and privileges of the house of commons, and
the fundamental constitution of the government of this kingdom; that to
assert that the house of commons have no power of commitment, but of their
own members, tends to the subversion of the constitution of the house of
commons; that to print or publish any books or libels reflecting upon the
proceedings of the house of commons, or any member thereof, for or
relating to his service therein, is a high violation of the rights and
privileges of the house of commons. Notwithstanding these transactions,
they did not neglect the vigorous prosecution of the war. They addressed
his majesty to interpose with his allies that they might increase their
quotas of land forces, to be put on board the fleet in proportion to the
numbers his majesty should embark. When they had settled the sums
appropriated to the several uses of the war, they presented a second
address desiring he would provide for the half-pay officers in the first
place, in the recruits and levies to be made. The king assured them it was
always his intention to provide for those officers. He went to the house
of peers and gave the royal assent to an act appointing commissioners to
take, examine, and determine the debts due to the army, navy, and the
transport service; and also to take an account of prizes taken during the
war.

AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.

The affairs of Ireland were not a little embarrassed by the conduct of the
trustees appointed to take cognizance of the forfeited estates. Their
office was extremely odious to the people as well as to the court, and
their deportment was arbitrary and imperious. Several individuals of that
kingdom, provoked by the insolence of the trustees on one hand, and
encouraged by the countenance of the courtiers on the other, endeavoured
by a circular letter to spirit up the grand jury of Ireland against the
act of resumption: petitions were presented to the king, couched in very
strong terms, affirming that it was injurious to the protestant interest,
and had been obtained by gross misinformations. The king having
communicated these addresses to the house, they were immediately voted
scandalous, false, and groundless; and the commons resolved, That
notwithstanding the complaints and clamours against the trustees, it did
not appear to the house but those complaints were groundless; nevertheless
they afterwards received several petitions imploring relief against the
said act; and they ordered that the petitioners should be relieved
accordingly. Proposals were delivered in for incorporating such as should
purchase the said forfeitures, on certain terms therein specified,
according to the rent-roll, when verified and made good to the purchasers;
but whereas in this rent-roll the value of the estates had been estimated
at something more than seven hundred and sixteen thousand pounds, those
who undertook to make the purchase affirmed they were not worth five
hundred thousand pounds; and thus the affair remained in suspense.

THE KING RECOMMENDS AN UNION.

With respect to Scotland, the clamours of that kingdom had not yet
subsided. When the bill of abjuration passed in the house of peers, the
earl of Nottingham had declared that although he differed in opinion from
the majority in many particulars relating to that bill, yet he was a
friend to the design of it; and in order to secure a protestant
succession, he thought an union of the whole island was absolutely
necessary. He therefore moved for an address to the king that he would
dissolve the parliament of Scotland now sitting, as the legality of it
might be called in question, on account of its having been originally a
convention; and that a new parliament should be summoned that they might
treat about an union of the two kingdoms. The king had this affair so much
to heart, that even when he was disabled from going to the parliament in
person, he sent a letter to the commons expressing an eager desire that a
treaty for this purpose might be set on foot, and earnestly recommending
this affair to the consideration of the house; but as a new parliament in
Scotland could not be called without a great risk, while the nation was in
such a ferment, the project was postponed to a more favourable
opportunity.

HE FALLS FROM HIS HORSE.

Before the king’s return from Holland, he had concerted with his allies
the operations of the ensuing campaign. He had engaged in a negotiation
with the prince of Hesse D’Armstadt, who assured him that if he would
besiege and take Cadiz, the admiral of Castile, and divers other grandees
of Spain, would declare for the house of Austria. The allies had also
determined upon the siege of Keyserswaert, which the elector of Cologn had
delivered into the hands of the French; the elector of Hanover had
resolved to disarm the princes of Wolfenbuttle; the king of the Romans,
and prince Louis of Baden, undertook to invest Landau; and the emperor
promised to send a powerful reinforcement to prince Eugene in Italy; but
William did not live to see these schemes put in execution. His
constitution was by this time almost exhausted, though he endeavoured to
conceal the effects of his malady, and to repair his health by exercise.
On the twenty-first day of February, in riding to Hampton-court from
Kensington, his horse fell under him, and he himself was thrown upon the
ground with such violence as produced a fracture in his collar-bone. His
attendants conveyed him to the palace of Hampton-court, where the fracture
was reduced by Ronjat, his sergeant-surgeon. In the evening he returned to
Kensington in his coach, and the two ends of the fractured bone having
been disunited by the jolting of the carriage, were replaced under the
inspection of Bidloo, his physician. He seemed to be in a fair way of
recovering till the first day of March, when his knee appeared to be
inflamed, with great pain and weakness. Next day he granted a commission
under the great seal to several peers, for passing the bills to which both
houses of parliament had agreed; namely, the act of attainder against the
pretended prince of Wales, and another in favour of the quakers, enacting,
That their solemn affirmation and declaration should be accepted instead
of an oath in the usual form.

WILLIAM, 1688-1701.

HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER.

On the fourth day of March the king was so well recovered of his lameness
that he took several turns in the gallery at Kensington; but sitting down
on a couch where he fell asleep, he was seized with a shivering, which
terminated in a fever and diarrhoea. He was attended by sir Thomas
Millington, sir Richard Black-more, sir Theodore Colledon, Dr. Bidloo, and
other eminent physicians; but their prescriptions proved ineffectual. On
the sixth he granted another commission for passing the bill for the malt
tax, and the act of abjuration; and being so weak that he could not write
his name, he, in presence of the lord-keeper and the clerks of parliament,
applied a stamp prepared for the purpose. The earl of Albemarle arriving
from Holland, conferred with him in private on the posture of affairs
abroad; but he received his informations with great coldness, and said, “Je
tire vers ma fin—I approach the end of my life.” In the evening
he thanked Dr. Bidloo for his care and tenderness, saying, “I know that
you and the other learned physicians have done all that your art can do
for my relief; but, finding all means ineffectual, I submit.” He received
spiritual consolation from archbishop Tennison, and Burnet bishop of
Salisbury; on Sunday morning the sacrament was administered to him. The
lords of the privy-council and divers noblemen attended in the adjoining
apartments, and to some of them who were admitted he spoke a little. He
thanked lord Auverquerque for his long and faithful services; he delivered
to lord Albemarle the keys of his closet and scrutoire, telling him he
knew what to do with them. He inquired for the earl of Portland; but being
speechless before that nobleman arrived, he grasped his hand and laid it
to his heart, with marks of the most tender affection. On the eighth day
of March he expired, in the fifty-second year of his age, after having
reigned thirteen years. The lords Lexington and Scarborough, who were in
waiting, no sooner perceived that the king was dead, than they ordered
Ronjat to untie from his left arm a black ribbon, to which was affixed a
ring containing some hair of the late queen Mary. The body being opened
and embalmed, lay in state for some time at Kensington; and on the twelfth
day of April was deposited in a vault of Henry’s chapel in
Westminster-abbey. In the beginning of May, a will which he had intrusted
with Monsieur Schuylemberg was opened at the Hague. In this he had
declared his cousin prince Frison of Nassau, stadtholder of Friesland, his
sole and universal heir, and appointed the states-general his executors.
By a codicil annexed, he had bequeathed the lordship of Breevert, and a
legacy of two hundred thousand guilders, to the earl of Albemarle.

William III. was in his person of the middle stature, a thin body, a
delicate constitution, subject to an asthma and continual cough from his
infancy. He had an aquiline nose, sparkling eyes, a large forehead, and a
grave solemn aspect. He was very sparing of speech; his conversation was
dry, and his manner disgusting, except in battle, when his deportment was
free, spirited, and animating. In courage, fortitude, and equanimity, he
rivalled the most eminent warriors of antiquity; and his natural sagacity
made amends for the defects in his education, which had not been properly
superintended. He was religious, temperate, generally just and sincere, a
stranger to violent transports of passion, and might have passed for one
of the best princes of the age in which he lived, had he never ascended
the throne of Great Britain. But the distinguishing criterion of his
character was ambition. To this he sacrificed the punctilios of honour and
decorum, in deposing his own father-in-law and uncle; and this he
gratified at the expense of the nation that raised him to sovereign
authority. He aspired to the honour of acting as umpire in all the
contests of Europe; and the second object of his attention was the
prosperity of that country to which he owed his birth and extraction.
Whether he really thought the interests of the continent and Great Britain
were inseparable, or sought only to drag England into the confederacy as a
convenient ally, certain it is he involved these kingdoms in foreign
connexions which in all probability will be productive of their ruin. In
order to establish this favourite point, he scrupled not to employ all the
engines of corruption by which the morals of the nation were totally
debauched. He procured a parliamentary sanction for a standing army, which
now seems to be interwoven in the constitution. He introduced the
pernicious practice of borrowing upon remote funds; an expedient that
necessarily hatched a brood of usurers, brokers, contractors, and
stock-jobbers, to prey upon the vitals of their country. He entailed upon
the nation a growing debt, and a system of politics big with misery,
despair, and destruction. To sum up his character in a few words—William
was a fatalist in religion, indefatigable in war, enterprising in
politics, dead to all the warm and generous emotions of the human heart, a
cold relation, an indifferent husband, a disagreeable man, an ungracious
prince, and an imperious sovereign.

NOTES:

001 (return)
[ Note A, p. 1. The
council consisted of the prince of Denmark, the archbishop of Canterbury,
the duke of Norfolk, the marquises of Halifax and Winchester, the earls of
Danby, Lindsey, Devonshire, Dorset, Middlesex, Oxford, Shrewsbury,
Bedford, Bath, Macclesfield, and Nottingham; the viscounts Fauconberg,
Mordaunt, Newport, Lumley; the lords Wharton, Montague, Delamere,
Churchill; Mr. Bentinck, Mr. Sidney, sir Robert Howard, sir Henry Capel,
Mr. Powle, Mr. Russel, Mr. Hambden, and Mr. Boseawen.]

002 (return)
[ Note B, p. 2. This
expedient was attended with an insurmountable absurdity. If the majority
of the convention could not grant a legal sanction to the establishment
they had made, they could never invest the prince of Orange with a just
right to ascend the throne; for they could not give what they had no right
to bestow; and if he ascended the throne without a just title, he could
have no right to sanctify that assembly to which he owed his elevation.
When the people are obliged, by tyranny or other accidents, to have
recourse to the first principles of society, namely, their own
preservation, in electing a new sovereign, it will deserve consideration,
whether that choice is to be effected by the majority of a parliament
which has been dissolved, indeed by any parliament whatsoever, or by the
body of the nation assembled in communities, corporations, by tribes or
centuries, to signify their assent or dissent with respect to the person
proposed as their sovereign. This kind of election might be attended with
great inconvenience and difficulty, but these cannot possibly be avoided
when the constitution is dissolved by setting aside the lineal succession
to the throne. The constitution of England is founded on a parliament
consisting of kings, lords, and commons; but when there is no longer a
king, the parliament is defective, and the constitution impaired: the
members of the lower house are the representatives of the people,
expressly chosen to maintain the constitution in church and state, and
sworn to support the rights of the crown, as well as the liberties of the
nation; but though they are elected to maintain, they have no power to
alter, the constitution. When the king forfeits the allegiance of his
subjects, and it becomes necessary to dethrone him, the power of so doing
cannot possibly reside in the representatives who are chosen, under
certain limitations, for the purposes of a legislature which no longer
exists; their power is of course at an end, and they are reduced to a
level with other individuals that constitute the community. The right of
altering the constitution, therefore, or of deviating from the established
practice of inheritance in regard to the succession of the crown, is
inherent in the body of the people; and every individual has an equal
right to his share in the general determination, whether his opinion be
signified viva voce, or by a representative whom he appoints and
instructs for that purpose. It may be suggested, that the prince of Orange
was raised to the throne without any convulsion, or any such difficulties
and inconveniencies as we have affirmed to be the necessary consequences
of a measure of that nature. To this remark we answer, that, since the
Revolution, these kingdoms have been divided and harassed by violent and
implacable factions, that eagerly seek the destruction of each other: that
they have been exposed to plots, conspiracies, insurrections, civil wars,
and successive rebellions, which have not been defeated and quelled
without vast effusion of blood, infinite mischief, calamity, and expense
to the nation: that they are still subjected to all those alarms and
dangers which are engendered by a disputed title to the throne, and the
efforts of an artful pretenders that they are necessarily wedded to the
affairs of the continent, and their interest sacrificed to foreign
connexions, from which they can never be disengaged. Perhaps all these
calamities might have been prevented by the interposition of the prince of
Orange. King James, without forfeiting the crown, might have been laid
under such restrictions that it would not have been in his power to
tyrannize over his subjects, either in spirituals or temporals. The power
of the militia might have been vested in the two houses of parliament, as
well as the nomination of persons to fill the great offices of the church
and state, and superintend the economy of the administration in the
application of the public money; a law might have passed for annual
parliaments, and the king might have been deprived of his power to
convoke, adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve them at his pleasure. Had these
measures been taken, the king must have been absolutely disabled from
employing either force or corruption in the prosecution of arbitrary
designs, and the people must have been fairly represented in a rotation of
parliaments, whose power and influence would have been but of one year’s
duration.]

003 (return)
[ Note C, p. 3. The new
form of the coronation-oath consisted in the following questions and
answers:—“Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people
of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belonging, according
to the statutes in parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the
same?”—“I solemnly promise so to do.”

“Will you, to the
utmost of your power, cause law and justice in mercy to be executed in all
your judgments?” “I will.” “Will You, to the utmost of your power,
maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel, and the
Protestant reformed religion as by law established; and will you preserve
unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed
to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall
appertain unto them or any of them?”—“All this I promise to do.”

Then the king or queen, laying his or her hand upon the
Gospels, shall say, “The things which I have here before promised, I will
perform and keep. So help me God.”]

008 (return)
[ Note D, p. 8. The lords
of the articles, by the gradual usurpation of the crown, actually
constituted a grievance intolerable in a free nation. The king empowered
the commissioner to choose eight bishops, whom he authorized to nominate
eight noblemen: these together choose eight barons and eight burgesses;
and this whole number, in conjunction with the officers of state as
supernumeraries, constituted the lords of the articles. This committee
possessed the sole exclusive right and liberty of bringing in motions,
making overtures for redressing wrongs, and proposing means and expedients
for the relief and benefit of the subjects.—Proceedings of the
Scots Parliament vindicated.]

010 (return)
[ Note E, p. 10. James in
this expedition was attended by the duke of Berwick, and by his brother
Mr. Fitzjames, grand prior, the duke of Powis, the earls of Dover,
Melfort, Abercorn, and Seaforth; the lords Henry and Thomas Howard, the
lords Drummond, Dungan, Trendrauglit, Buchan, Hunsdon, and Brittas; the
bishops of Chester and Galway; the late lord chief justice Herbert; the
marquis d’Estrades, M. de Rosene, mareschal decamp; Mamoe, Pusignan, and
Lori, lieutenant-general; Prontee, engineer-general; the marquis
d’Albeville, sir John Sparrow, sir Roger Strictland, sir William Jennings,
sir Henry Bond, sir Charles Carney, sir Edward Vaudrey, sir Charles
Murray, sir Robert Parker, sir Alphonso Maiolo, sir Samuel Foxon, and sir
William Wallis; by the colonels Porter, Sarsfield, Anthony and John
Hamilton, Simon and Henry Luttrel, Ramsay, Dorrington, Sutherland,
Clifford, Parker, Parcel, Cannon, and Fielding, with about two-and-twenty
other officers of inferior rank.]

016 (return)
[ F, p. 16. The
franchises were privileges of asylum, annexed not only to the ambassadors
at Rome, but even to the whole district in which any ambassador chanced to
live. This privilege was become a terrible nuisance, inasmuch as it
afforded protection to the most atrocious criminals, who filled the city
with rapine and murder. Innocent XI. resolving to remove this evil,
published a bull, abolishing the franchises; and almost all the catholic
powers of Europe acquiesced in what he had done, upon being duly informed
of the grievance. Louis XIV. however, from a spirit of pride and
insolence, refused to part with anything that looked like a prerogative of
his crown. He said the king of France was not the imitator, but a pattern
and example for other princes. He rejected with disdain the mild
representations of the pope; he sent the marquis de Lavarden as his
ambassador to Rome, with a formidable train, to insult Innocent even in
his own city. That nobleman swaggered through the streets of Rome like a
bravo, taking all opportunities to affront the pope, who excommunicated
him in revenge. On the other hand, the parliament of Paris appealed from
the pope’s bull to a future council. Louis caused the pope’s nuncio to be
put under arrest, took possession of Avignon, which belonged to the see of
Rome, and set the holy father at defiance.]

021 (return)
[G, p. 21. The following
persons were exempted from the benefit of this act:—William, marquis
of Powis; Theophilus, earl of Huntingdon; Robert, earl of Sunderland;
John, earl of Melfort; Roger, earl of Castlemain; Nathaniel, lord bishop
of Durham; Thomas, lord bishop of Saint David’s; Henry, lord Dover; lord
Thomas Howard; sir-Edward Hales, sir Francis Withers, sir Edward Lutwych,
sir Thomas Jenner, sir Nicholas Butler, sir William Herbert, sir Richard
Holloway, sir Richard Heath, sir Roger l’Estrange William Molineux, Thomas
Tynde-sly, colonel Townley, colonel Lundy, Robert Brent, Edward Morgan,
Philip Burton, Richard Graham, Edward Petre, Obadiah Walker, Matthew
Crone, and George lord Jeffries, deceased.]

035 (return)
[ H, p. 35. In the course
of this session, Dr. Welwood, a Scottish physician, was taken into
custody, and reprimanded at the bar of the house of commons, for having
reflected upon that house in a weekly paper, entitled Mercurius
Reformatus; but, as it was written in defence of the government, the
king appointed him one of his physicians in ordinary. At this period,
Charles Montague, afterwards earl of Halifax, distinguished himself in the
house of commons by his fine talents and eloquence. The privy seal was
committed to the earl of Pembroke; lord viscount Sidney was created
lord-lieutenant of Ireland; sir John Somers appointed attorney-general;
and the see of Lincoln, vacant by the death of Barlow, conferred upon Dr.
Thomas Tennison, who had been recommended to the king as a divine
remarkable for his piety and moderation.]

046 (return)
[ I, p. 46. The other
laws made in this session were those that follow:—An act for
preventing suits against such as had acted for their majesties’ service in
defense of this kingdom. An act for raising the militia in the year 1693.
An act for authorizing the judges to empower such persons, other than
common attorneys and solicitors, as they should think fit, to take special
bail, except in London, Westminster, and ten miles round. An act to
encourage the apprehending of highwaymen. An act for preventing
clandestine marriages. An act for the regaining, encouraging, and settling
the Greenland trade. An act to prevent malicious informations in the court
of King’s Bench, and for the more easy reversal of outlawries in that
court. An Act for the better discovery of judgments in the courts of law.
An Act for delivering declarations to prisoners for debt. An act for
regulating proceedings in the Crown Office. An act for the more easy
discovery and conviction of such as should destroy the game of this
kingdom, And an act for continuing the acts for prohibiting all trade and
commerce with France, and for the encouragement of privateers.]

053 (return)
[ K, p. 53. Besides the
bills already mentioned, the parliament in this session passed an act for
taking and stating the public accounts—another to encourage
ship-building—a third for the better disciplining the navy—the
usual militia act—and an act enabling his majesty to make grants and
leases in the duchy of Cornwall. One was also passed for renewing a clause
in an old statute, limiting the number of justices of the peace in the
principality of Wales. The duke of Norfolk brought an action in the court
of King’s Bench against Mr. Germaine, for criminal conversation with his
duchess. The cause was tried, and the jury brought in their verdict for
one hundred marks, and costs of suit, in favour of the plaintiff.

Before the king embarked, he gratified a good number of his friends with
promotions. Lord Charles Butler, brother to the duke of Ormond, was
created lord Butler, of Weston in England, and earl of Arran in Ireland.
The earl of Shrewsbury was honoured with the title of duke. The earl of
Mulgrave, being reconciled to the court measures, was gratified with a
pension of three thousand pounds, and the title of marquis of Normanby.
Henry Herbert was ennobled by the title of baron Herbert, of Cherbury. The
earls of Bedford, Devonshire, and Clare, were promoted to the rank of
dukes. The marquis of Caermarthen was made duke of Leeds; lord viscount
Sidney, created earl of Romney; and viscount Newport, earl of Bedford.
Russel was advanced to the head of the admiralty board. Sir George Rooke
and sir John Houblon were appointed joint-commissioners in the room of
Killegrew and Délavai. Charles Montague was made chancellor of the
exchequer; and sir William Trumbal and John Smith commisioners of the
treasury, in the room of sir Edward Seymour and Mr. Hambden.]

056 (return)
[ L, p. 56. Her obsequies
were performed with great magnificence. The body was attended from
Whitehall to Westminster Abbey by all the judges, sergeants at law, the
lord-mayor and aldermen of the city of London, and both houses of
parliament; and the funeral sermon was preached by Dr. Tennison,
archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Kenn, the deprived bishop of Bath and Wells,
reproached him in a letter, for not having called upon her majesty on her
death-bed to repent of the share she had in the Revolution. This was
answered by another pamphlet. One of the Jacobite clergy insulted the
queen’s memory, by preaching on the following text: “Go now, see this
cursed woman, and bury her, for she is a king’s daughter.” On the other
hand, the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common council of London came to a
resolution to erect her statue, with that of the king, in the Royal
Exchange.]

058 (return)
[ M, p. 58. In the course
of this session, the lords inquired into the particulars of the
Mediterranean expedition, and presented an address to the king, declaring,
that the fleet in those seas had conduced to the honour and advantage of
the nation. On the other hand, the commons, in an address, besought his
majesty to take care that the kingdom might be put on an equal footing and
proportion with the allies, in defraying the expense of the war.

The coin of the kingdom being greatly diminished and adulterated, the
earls of Rochester and Nottingham expatiated upon this national evil in
the house of lords: an act was passed, containing severe penalties against
clippers; but this produced no good effect. The value of money sunk in the
exchange to such a degree, that a guinea was reckoned adequate to thirty
shillings; and this public disgrace lowered the credit of the funds and of
the government. The nation was alarmed by the circulation of fictitious
wealth, instead of gold and silver, such as bank bills, exchequer tallies,
and government securities. The malcontents took this opportunity to
exclaim against the bank, and even attempted to shake the credit of it in
parliament; but their endeavours proved abortive—the monied interest
preponderated in both houses.]

059 (return)
[ N, p. 58. The regency
was composed of the archbishop of Canterbury; Somers, lord-keeper of the
great seal; the earl of Pembroke, lord-privy-seal; the duke of Devonshire,
lord-steward of the household; the duke of Shrewsbury, secretary of state;
the earl of Dorset, lord-chamberlain; and the lord Godolphin, first
commissioner of the treasury. Sir John Trenchard dying, his place of
secretary was filled by sir William Trumbal, an eminent civilian, learned,
diligent, and virtuous, who had been envoy at Paris and Constantinople.
William Nassau de Zulycrstein, son of the king’s natural uncle, was
created baron of Enfield, viscount Tunbridge, and earl of Rochibrd. Ford,
lord Grey of Werke, was made viscount Glendale, and earl of Tankerville.
The month of April of this year was distinguished by the death of the
famous George Saville, marquis of Halifax, who had survived, in a good
measure, his talents and reputation.]

067 (return)
[ Note 0, p. 67. The
commons resolved, That a fund, redeemable by parliament, be settled in a
national land bank, to be raised by new subscriptions; That no person be
concerned in both banks at the same time; That the duties upon coals,
culm, and tonnage of ships be taken off, from the seventeenth day of
March; That the sum of two millions five hundred and sixty-four thousand
pounds be raised on this perpetual fund, redeemable by parliament; That
the new bank should be restrained from lending money but upon land
securities, or to the government in the exchequer; That for making up the
fund of interest for the capital stock, certain duties upon glass wares,
stone and earthen bottles, granted before to the king for a term of years,
be continued to his majesty, his heirs, and successors; That a further
duty be laid upon stone and earthen ware, and another upon tobacco-pipes.
This bank was to lend out five hundred thousand pounds a-year upon land
securities, at three pounds ten shillings per cent, per annum, and to
cease and determine, unless the subscription should be full, by the first
day of August next ensuing.

The most remarkable laws enacted in
this session were these:—An act for voiding all the elections of
parliament men, at which the elected had been at any expense in meat,
drink, or money, to procure votes.

Another against unlawful and
double returns. A third, for the more easy recovery of small tithes. A
fourth, to prevent marriages without license or banns. A fifth, for
enabling the inhabitants of Wales to dispose of all their personal estates
as they should think fit: this law was in bar of a custom that had
prevailed in that country—the widows and younger children claimed a
share of the effects, called their reasonable part, although the effects
had been otherwise disposed of by will or deed. The parliament likewise
passed an act for preventing the exportation of wool, and encouraging the
importation thereof from Ireland. An act for encouraging the linen
manufactures of Ireland. An act for regulating juries. An act for
encouraging the Greenland trade. An act of indulgence to the quakers, that
their solemn affirmation should be accepted instead of an oath. And an act
for continuing certain other acts that were near expiring. Another bill
passed for the better regulating elections for members of parliament; but
the royal assent was denied. The question was put in the house of commons,
That whosoever advised his majesty not to give his assent to that bill was
an enemy to his country; but it was rejected by a great majority.]

MAPS:

ENLARGE
ENLARGE
ENLARGE
ENLARGE

QUEEN ANNE

CHAPTER VII.

ENLARGE

Anne succeeds to the Throne….. She resolves to fulfil the
Engagements of her Predecessor with his Allies….. A French
Memorial presented to the States-general….. The Queen’s
Inclination to the Tories….. War declared against
France….. The Parliament prorogued….. Warm Opposition to
the Ministry in the Scottish Parliament….. They recognize
her Majesty’s Authority….. The Queen appoints
Commissioners to treat of an Union between England and
Scotland….. State of Affairs on the Continent…..
Keiserswaert and Landau taken by the Allies….. Progress of
the Earl of Marlborough in Flanders….. He narrowly escapes
being taken by a French Partisan….. The Imperialists are
worsted at Fridlinguen….. Battle of Luzzara in Italy…..
The King of Sweden defeats Augustus at Lissou in Poland…..
Fruitless expedition to Cadiz by the Duke of Ormond and Sir
George Booke….. They take and destroy the Spanish Galleons
at Vigo….. Admiral Benbow’s Engagement with Ducasse in the
West Indies….. The Queen assembles a new Parliament…..
Disputes between the two Houses….. The Lords inquire into
the Conduct of Sir George Rooke….. The Parliament make a
Settlement on Prince George of Denmark….. The Earl of
Marlborough created a Duke….. All Commerce and
Correspondence prohibited between Holland and the two Crowns
of France and Spain….. A Bill for preventing occasional
Conformity….. It miscarries….. Violent Animosity
between the two Houses produced by the Inquiry into the
Public Accounts….. Disputes between the two Houses of
Convocation….. Account of the Parties in Scotland…..
Dangerous Heats in the Parliament of that Kingdom….. The
Commissioner is abandoned by the Cavaliers….. He is in
Danger of his Life, and suddenly prorogues the
Parliament….. Proceedings of the Irish Parliament…..
They pass a severe Act against Papists….. The Elector of
Bavaria defeats the Imperialists at Scardingen, and takes
Possession of Ratisbon….. The Allies reduce Bonne…..
Battle of Eckeren….. The Prince of Hesse is defeated by
the French at Spirebath….. Treaty between the Emperor and
the Duke of Savoy….. The King of Portugal accedes to the
Grand Alliance….. Sir Cloudesley Shovel sails with a Fleet
to the Mediterranean….. Admiral Graydon’s bootless
Expedition to the West Indies….. Charles King of Spain
arrives in England.

ANNE, 1701—1714

ANNE SUCCEEDS TO THE THRONE.

William was succeeded as sovereign of England by Anne princess of Denmark,
who ascended the throne in the thirty-eighth year of her age, to the
general satisfaction of all parties. Even the Jacobites seemed pleased
with her elevation, on the supposition that as in all probability she
would leave no heirs of her own body, the dictates of natural affection
would induce her to alter the succession in favour of her own brother. She
had been taught to cherish warm sentiments of the tories, whom she
considered as the friends of monarchy, and the true sons of the church;
and they had always professed an inviolable attachment to her person and
interest; but her conduct was wholly influenced by the countess of
Marlborough, a woman of an imperious temper and intriguing genius, who had
been intimate with the princess from her tender years, and gained a
surprising ascendancy over her. Anne had undergone some strange
vicissitudes of fortune in consequence of her father’s expulsion, and
sustained a variety of mortifications in the late reign, during which she
conducted herself with such discretion as left little or no pretence for
censure or resentment. Such conduct indeed was in a great measure owing to
a natural temperance of disposition not easily ruffled or inflamed. She
was zealously devoted to the church of England, from which her father had
used some endeavours to detach her before the Revolution; and she lived in
great harmony with her husband, to whom she bore six children, all of whom
she had already survived. William had no sooner yielded up his breath,
than the privy-council in a body waited on the new queen, who, in a short
but sensible speech, assured them that no pains nor diligence should be
wanting on her part to preserve and support the religion, laws, and
liberties of her country, to maintain the succession in the protestant
line, and the government in church and state, as by law established. She
declared her resolution to carry on the preparations for opposing the
exorbitant power of France, and to assure the allies that she would pursue
the true interest of England, together with theirs, for the support of the
common cause. The members of the privy-council having taken the oaths, she
ordered a proclamation to be published, signifying her pleasure that all
persons in office of authority or government at the decease of the late
king, should so continue till further directions. By virtue of an act
passed in the late reign, the parliament continued sitting even after the
king’s death. Both houses met immediately, and unanimously voted an
address of condolence and congratulation; and in the afternoon the queen
was proclaimed. Next day the lords and commons severally attended her with
an address, congratulating her majesty’s accession to the throne; and
assuring her of their firm resolution to support her against all her
enemies whatsoever. The lords acknowledged that their great loss was no
otherwise to be repaired but by a vigorous adherence to her majesty and
her allies, in the prosecution of those measures already concerted to
reduce the exorbitant power of France. The commons declared they would
maintain the succession of the crown in the protestant line, and
effectually provide for the public credit of the nation. These addresses
were graciously received by the queen, who, on the eleventh day of March,
went to the house of peers with the usual solemnity, where, in a speech to
both houses, she expressed her satisfaction at their unanimous concurrence
with her opinion, that too much could not be done for the encouragement of
their allies in humbling the power of France; and desired they would
consider of proper methods towards obtaining an union between England and
Scotland. She observed to the commons that the revenue for defraying the
expenses of civil government was expired; and that she relied entirely on
their affection for its being supplied in such a manner as should be most
suitable to the honour and dignity of the crown. She declared it should be
her constant endeavour to make them the best return for their duty and
affection, by a careful and diligent administration for the good of all
her subjects. “And as I know my own heart to be entirely English
(continued she) I can very sincerely assure you, there is not any thing
you can expect or desire from me which I shall not be ready to do for the
happiness and prosperity of England; and you shall always find me a strict
and religious observer of my word.” These assurances were extremely
agreeable to the parliament; and she received the thanks of both houses.
Addresses of congratulation were presented by the bishop and clergy of
London; by the dissenters in and about that city; and by all the counties,
cities, towns, and corporations of England. She declared her attachment to
the church; she promised her protection to the dissenters; and received
the compliments of all her subjects with such affability as ensured their
affection.

THE ENGAGEMENTS OF HER PREDECESSOR WITH HIS ALLIES FULFILLED.

William’s death was no sooner known at the Hague, than all Holland was
filled with consternation. The states immediately assembled, and for some
time gazed at each other in silent fear and astonishment. They sighed,
wept, and interchanged embraces and vows that they would act with
unanimity, and expend their clearest blood in defence of their country.
Then they despatched letters to the cities and provinces, informing them
of this unfortunate event, and exhorting them to union and perseverance.
The express from England having brought the queen’s speech to her
privy-council, it was translated and published to revive the drooping
spirits of the people. Next day pensionary Fagel imparted to the states of
Holland a letter which he had received from the earl of Marlborough,
containing assurances, in the queen’s name, of union and assistance. In a
few days, the queen wrote a letter in the French language to the States,
confirming these assurances; it was delivered by Mr. Stanhope, whom she
had furnished with fresh credentials as envoy from England. Thus animated,
the states resolved to prosecute vigorous measures; their resolutions were
still more inspirited by the arrival of the earl of Marlborough, whom the
queen honoured with the order of the garter, and invested with the
character of ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the
states-general; he was likewise declared captain general of her forces
both at home and abroad. He assured the states that her Britannic majesty
would maintain the alliances which had been concluded by the late king,
and do every thing that the common concerns of Europe required. The speech
was answered by Dickvelt, president of the week, who, in the name of the
states, expressed their hearty thanks to her majesty, and their
resolutions of concurring with her in a vigorous prosecution of the common
interest.

A FRENCH MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL.

The importance of William’s life was evinced by the joy that diffused
itself through the kingdom of France at the news of his decease. The
person who first brought the tidings to Calais, was imprisoned by the
governor until his information was confirmed. The court of Versailles
could hardly restrain their transports so as to preserve common decorum;
the people of Paris openly rejoiced at the event; all decency was laid
aside at Rome, where this incident produced such indecent raptures, that
cardinal Grimani, the imperial minister, complained of them to the pope,
as an insult on his master the emperor, who was William’s friend,
confederate, and ally. The French king despatched credentials to Barré,
whom the count D’Avaux had left at the Hague to manage the affairs of
France, together with instructions to renew the negotiation with the
states, in hope of detaching them from the alliance. This minister
presented a memorial implying severe reflections on king William, and the
past conduct of the Dutch; and insinuating that now they had recovered
their liberty, the court of France hoped they would consult their true
interest. The count de Goes, envoy from the emperor, animadverted on these
expressions in another memorial, which was likewise published; the states
produced in public an answer to the same remonstrance, expressing their
resentment at the insolence of such insinuations, and their veneration for
the memory of their late stadtholder. The earl of Marlborough succeeded in
every part of his negotiation. He animated the Dutch to a full exertion of
their vigour; he concerted the operations of the campaign; he agreed with
the states-general and the imperial minister, that war should be declared
against France on the same day at Vienna, London, and the Hague; and on
the third of April embarked for England, after having acquired the entire
confidence of those who governed the United Provinces.

QUEEN’S INCLINATION TO THE TORIES.

By this time the house of commons in England had settled the civil list
upon the queen for her life. When the bill received the royal assent, she
assured them that one hundred thousand pounds of this revenue should be
applied to the public service of the current year; at the same time she
passed another bill for receiving and examining the public accounts. A
commission for this purpose was granted in the preceding reign, but had
been for some years discontinued; and indeed always proved ineffectual to
detect and punish those individuals who shamefully pillaged their country.
The villany was so complicated, the vice so general, and the delinquents
so powerfully screened by artifice and interest, as to elude all inquiry.
On the twenty-fourth day of March the oath of abjuration was taken by the
speaker and members, according to an act for the further security of her
majesty’s person, and the succession of the crown in the protestant line,
and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended prince of Wales. The
queen’s inclination to the tories plainly appeared in her choice of
ministers. Doctor John Sharp, archbishop of York, became her ghostly
director and counsellor in all ecclesiastical affairs; the earl of
Rochester was continued lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and enjoyed a great
share of her majesty’s confidence; the privy-seal was intrusted to the
marquis of Normandy; the earl of Nottingham and sir Charles Hedges were
appointed secretaries of state; the earl of Abingdon, viscount Weymouth,
lord Dartmouth, sir Christopher Musgrave, Grenville, Howe, Gower, and
Harcourt, were admitted as members of the privy-council, together with sir
Edward Seymour, now declared comptroller of the household. The lord
Godolphin declined accepting the office of lord high-treasurer, until he
was over-ruled by the persuasions of Marlborough, to whose eldest daughter
his son was married. This nobleman refused to command the forces abroad,
unless the treasury should be put into the hands of Godolphin, on whose
punctuality in point of remittances he knew he could depend. George,
prince of Denmark, was invested with the title of generalissimo of all the
queen’s forces by sea and land; and afterwards created lord high admiral,
the earl of Pembroke having been dismissed from this office with the offer
of a large pension, which he generously refused. Prince George, as
admiral, was assisted by a council, consisting of sir George Rooke, sir
David Mitch el, George Churchill, and Richard Hill. Though the legality of
this board was doubted, the parliament had such respect and veneration for
the queen, that it was suffered to act without question.

WAR DECLARED AGAINST FRANCE.

A rivalship for the queen’s favour already appeared between the earls of
Rochester and Marlborough. The former, as first cousin to the queen, and
chief of the tory faction, maintained considerable influence in the
council; but even there the interest of his rival predominated.
Marlborough was not only the better courtier, but by the canal of his
countess, actually directed the queen in all her resolutions. Rochester
proposed in council, that the English should avoid a declaration of war
with France, and act as auxiliaries only. He was seconded by some other
members; but the opinion of Marlborough preponderated. He observed, that
the honour of the nation was concerned to fulfil the late king’s
engagements; and affirmed that France could never be reduced within due
bounds, unless the English would enter as principals in the quarrel. This
allegation was supported by the dukes of Somerset and Devonshire, the earl
of Pembroke, and the majority of the council. The queen being resolved to
declare war, communicated her intention to the house of commons, by whom
it was approved; and on the fourth day of May the declaration was solemnly
proclaimed. The king of France was, in this proclamation, taxed with
having taken possession of great part of the Spanish dominions; with
designing to invade the liberties of Europe; and obstruct the freedom of
navigation and commerce; with having offered an unpardonable insult to the
queen and her throne, by taking upon him to declare the pretended prince
of Wales king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The three declarations of
the emperor, England, and the states-general, which were published in one
day, did not fail to disconcert, as well as to provoke the French monarch.
When his minister De Torcy recited them in his hearing, he spoke of the
queen with some acrimony; but with respect to the states-general, he
declared with great emotion, that “Messieurs the Dutch merchants should
one day repent of their insolence and presumption, in declaring war
against so powerful a monarch;” he did not, however, produce his
declaration till the third day of July.

THE PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

The house of commons, in compliance with the queen’s desire, brought in a
bill empowering her majesty to name commissioners to treat with the Scots
for an union of the two kingdoms. It met with warm opposition from sir
Edward Seymour and other tory members, who discharged abundance of satire
and ridicule upon the Scottish nation; but the measure seemed so necessary
at that juncture, to secure the protestant succession against the
practices of France and the claims of the pretender, that the majority
espoused the bill, which passed through both houses, and on the sixth day
of May received the royal assent, together with some bills of less
importance. The enemies of the late king continued to revile his memory.
107
[See note P, at the end of this Vol.] They even charged him with
having formed a design of excluding the princess Anne from the throne, and
of introducing the elector of Hanover as his own immediate successor. This
report had been so industriously circulated, that it began to gain credit
all over the kingdom. Several peers interested themselves in William’s
character, and a motion was made in the upper house that the truth of this
report should be inquired into. The house immediately desired that those
lords who had visited the late king’s papers, would intimate whether or
not they had found any among them relating to the queen’s succession, or
to the succession of the house of Hanover. They forthwith declared that
nothing of that sort appeared. Then the house resolved, That the report
was groundless, false, villanous, and scandalous, to the dishonour of the
late king’s memory, and highly tending to the disservice of her present
majesty, whom they besought to give orders that the authors or publishers
of such scandalous reports should be prosecuted by the attorney-general.
The same censure was passed upon some libels and pamphlets tending to
inflame the factions of the kingdom, and to propagate a spirit of
irreligion. 108 [See note Q, at the end of this Vol.]
On the twenty-first day of May, the commons in an address advised her
majesty to engage the emperor, the states-general, and her other allies,
to join with her in prohibiting all intercourse with France and Spain; and
to concert such methods with the states-general as might most effectually
secure the trade of her subjects and allies. The lords presented another
address, desiring the queen would encourage her subjects to equip
privateers, as the preparations of the enemy seemed to be made for a
piratical war, to the interruption of commerce; they likewise exhorted her
majesty to grant commissions or charters to all persons who should make
such acquisitions in the Indies, as she in her great wisdom should judge
most expedient for the good of her kingdoms. On the twenty-fifth day of
May the queen having passed several public and private bills, 109
[See note R, at the end of this Vol.] dismissed the parliament by
prorogation, after having in a short speech thanked them for their zeal,
recommended unanimity, and declared she would carefully preserve and
maintain the act of toleration.

WARM OPPOSITION TO THE MINISTRY IN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

In Scotland a warm contest arose between the revolutioners and those in
the opposition, concerning the existence of the present parliament. The
queen had signified her accession to the throne in a letter to her
privy-council for Scotland, desiring they would continue to act in that
office until she should send a new commission. Meanwhile she authorized
them to publish a proclamation ordaining all officers of state,
counsellors, and magistrates, to act in all things conformably to the
commissions and instructions of his late majesty until new commissions
should be prepared. She likewise assured them of her firm resolution to
protect them in their religion, laws, and liberties, and in the
established government of the church. She had already, in presence of
twelve Scottish counsellors, taken the coronation-oath for that kingdom;
but those who wanted to embroil the affairs of their country, affirmed
that this was an irregular way of proceeding, and that the oath ought to
have been tendered by persons deputed for that purpose either by the
parliament or the privy council of the kingdom. The present ministry,
consisting of the duke of Queensberry, the earls of Marchmont, Melvil,
Seafield, Hyndford, and Selkirk, were devoted to revolution principles,
and desirous that the parliament should continue, in pursuance of a late
act for continuing the parliament that should be then in being, six months
after the death of the king, and that it should assemble in twenty days
after that event. The queen had, by several adjournments, deferred the
meeting almost three months after the king’s decease; and therefore the
anti-revolutioners affirmed that it was dissolved. The duke of Hamilton
was at the head of this party which clamoured loudly for a new parliament.
This nobleman, together with the marquis of Tweedale, the carls Marshal
and Kothes, and many other noblemen, repaired to London in order to make
the queen acquainted with their objections to the continuance of the
present parliament. She admitted them to her presence and calmly heard
their allegations; but she was determined by the advice of her
privy-council for that kingdom, who were of opinion that the nation was in
too great a ferment to hazard the convocation of a new parliament.
According to the queen’s last adjournment, the parliament met at Edinburgh
on the ninth day of June, the duke of Queensberry having been appointed
high commissioner. Before the queen’s commission was read, the duke of
Hamilton for himself and his adherents, declared their satisfaction at her
majesty’s accession to the throne, not only on account of her undoubted
right by descent, but likewise because of her many personal virtues and
royal qualities. He said they were resolved to sacrifice their lives and
fortunes in defence of her majesty’s right against all her enemies
whatever; but, at the same time, they thought themselves bound in duty to
give their opinion that they were not warranted by law to sit and act as a
parliament. He then read a paper to the following effect:—That
forasmuch as, by the fundamental laws and constitution of this kingdom,
all parliaments do dissolve on the death of their sovereign, except in so
far as innovated by an act in the preceding reign, that the parliament in
being at his majesty’s decease should meet and act what might be needful
for the defence of the true protestant religion as by law established, and
for the maintenance of the succession to the crown as settled by the claim
of right, and for the preservation and security of the public peace; and
seeing these ends are fully answered by her majesty’s succession to the
throne, we conceive ourselves not now warranted by law to meet, sit, or
act; and therefore do dissent from anything that shall be done or acted.
The duke having recited this paper, and formally protested against the
proceedings of the parliament, withdrew with seventy-nine members amidst
the acclamations of the people.

THEY RECOGNISE HER MAJESTY’S AUTHORITY.

Notwithstanding their secession, the commissioner, who retained a much
greater number, produced the queen’s letter signifying her resolution to
maintain and protect her subjects in the full possession of their
religion, laws, liberties, and the presbyterian discipline. She informed
them of her having declared war against France; she exhorted them to
provide competent supplies for maintaining such a number of forces as
might be necessary for disappointing the enemy’s designs, and preserving
the present happy settlement; and she earnestly recommended to their
consideration an union of the two kingdoms. The duke of Queensberry and
the carl of Marchmont having enforced the different articles of this
letter, committees were appointed for the security of the kingdom, for
controverted elections, for drawing up an answer to her majesty’s letter,
and for revising the minutes. Meanwhile the duke of Hamilton and his
adherents sent the lord Blantyre to London with an address to the queen,
who refused to receive it, but wrote another letter to the parliament
expressing her resolution to maintain their dignity and authority against
all opposers. They, in answer to the former, had assured her that the
groundless secession of some members should increase and strengthen their
care and zeal for her majesty’s service. They expelled sir Alexander Bruce
for having given vent to some reflections against presbytery. The lord
advocate prosecuted the faculty of advocates before the parliament for
having passed a vote among themselves in favour of the protestation and
address of the dissenting members. The faculty was severely reprimanded;
but the whole nation seemed to resent the prosecution. The parliament
passed an act for recognising her majesty’s royal authority; another for
adjourning the court of judicature called the session; a third declaring
this meeting of parliament legal, and forbidding any person to disown,
quarrel with, or impugn the dignity and authority thereof, under the
penalty of high treason; a fourth for securing the true protestant
religion and presbyterian church government; a fifth for a land tax; and a
sixth, enabling her majesty to appoint commissioners for an union between
the two kingdoms.

THE QUEEN APPOINTS COMMISSIONERS TO TREAT OF AN UNION.

The earl of Marchmont, of his own accord, and even contrary to the advice
of the high commissioner, brought in a bill for abjuring the pretended
prince of Wales; but this was not supported by the court party, as the
commissioner had no instructions how to act on the occasion. Perhaps the
queen and her English ministry resolved to keep the succession open in
Scotland as a check upon the whigs and house of Hanover. On the thirtieth
day of June the commissioner adjourned the parliament, after having
thanked them for their cheerfulness and unanimity in their proceedings;
and the chiefs of the opposite parties hastened to London to make their
different representations to the queen and her ministry. In the meantime
she appointed commissioners for treating about the union, and they met at
the Cockpit on the twenty-second day of October. On the twentieth day of
the next month they adjusted preliminaries, importing, That nothing agreed
on among themselves should be binding except ratified by her majesty and
the respective parliaments of both nations; and that unless all the heads
proposed for the treaty were agreed to, no particular thing agreed on
should be binding. The queen visited them in December, in order to quicken
their mutual endeavours. They agreed that the two kingdoms should be
inseparably united into one monarchy, under her majesty, her heirs, and
successors, and under the same limitations according to the Acts of
Settlement; but when the Scottish commissioners proposed that the rights
and privileges of their company trading to Africa and the Indies should be
preserved and maintained, such a difficulty arose as could not be
surmounted, and no further progress was made in this commission. The
tranquillity of Ireland was not interrupted by any new commotion. That
kingdom was ruled by justices whom the earl of Rochester had appointed;
and the trustees for the forfeited estates maintained their authority.

STATE OF AFFAIRS ON THE CONTINENT.

While Britain was engaged in these civil transactions, her allies were not
idle on the continent. The old duke of Zell, and his nephew, the elector
of Brunswick, surprised the dukes of Wolfenbuttle and Saxe-Gotha, whom
they compelled to renounce their attachments to France, and concur in the
common councils of the empire. Thus the north of Germany was reunited to
the interest of the confederates; and the princes would have been in a
condition to assist them effectually, had not the neighbourhood of the war
in Poland deterred them from parting with their forces. England and the
states-general endeavoured in vain to mediate a peace between the kings of
Sweden and Poland. Charles was become enamoured of war and ambitious of
conquest. He threatened to invade Saxony through the dominions of Prussia.
Augustus retired to Cracow, while Charles penetrated to Warsaw, and even
ordered the cardinal-primate to summon a diet for choosing a new king. The
situation of affairs at this juncture was far from being favourable to the
allies. The court of Vienna had tampered in vain with the elector of
Bavaria, who made use of this negotiation to raise his terms with Louis.
His brother, the elector of Cologn, admitted French garrisons into Liege
and all his places on the Rhine. The elector of Saxony was too hard
pressed by the king of Sweden to spare his full proportion of troops to
the allies; the king of Prussia was overawed by the vicinity of the
Swedish conqueror; the duke of Savoy had joined his forces to those of
France, and overrun the whole state of Milan; and the pope, though he
professed a neutrality, evinced himself strongly biassed to the French
interests.

ANNE, 1701—1714

KEISEESWAERT AND LANDAU TAKEN.

The war was begun in the name of the elector-palatine with the siege of
Keiserswaert, which was invested in the month of April by the prince of
Nassau-Saarburgh, mareschal-du-camp to the emperor: under this officer the
Dutch troops served as auxiliaries, because war had not yet been declared
by the states-general. The French garrison made a desperate defence. They
worsted the besiegers in divers sallies, and maintained the place until it
was reduced to a heap of ashes. At length the allies made a general attack
upon the counterscarp and ravelin, which they carried after a very
obstinate engagement, with the loss of two thousand men. Then the garrison
capitulated on honourable terms, and the fortifications were razed. During
this siege, which lasted from the eighteenth day of April to the middle of
June, count Tallard posted himself on the opposite side of the Rhine, from
whence he supplied the town with fresh troops and ammunition, and annoyed
the besiegers with his artillery; but finding it impossible to save the
place, he joined the grand army commanded by the duke of Burgundy in the
Netherlands. The siege of Keiserswaert was covered by a body of Dutch
troops under the earl of Athlone, who lay encamped in the duchy of Cleve.
Meanwhile general Coehorn, at the head of another detachment, entered
Flanders, demolished the French lines between the forts of Donat and
Isabella, and laid the chatellaine of Bruges under contribution; but a
considerable body of French troops advancing under the marquis de Bedmar,
and the count de la Motte, he overflowed the country, and retired under
the Avails of Sluys. The duke of Burgundy, who had taken the command of
the French army under Bouifflers, encamped at Zanten near Cleve, and laid
a scheme for surprising Nimeguen; in which, however, he was baffled by the
vigilance and activity of Athlone, who, guessing his design, marched
thither and encamped under the cannon of the town. In the beginning of
June, Landau was invested by prince Louis of Baden: in July, the king of
the Romans arrived in the camp of the besiegers with such pomp and
magnificence as exhausted his father’s treasury. On the ninth day of
September the citadel was taken by assault, and then the town surrendered.

PROGRESS OF THE EARL OF MARLBOROUGH.

When the earl of Marlborough arrived in Holland, the earl of Athlone, in
quality of veldt-mareschal, insisted upon an equal command with the
English general; but the states obliged him to yield this point in favour
of Marlborough, whom they declared generalissimo of all their forces. In
the beginning of July he repaired to the camp at Nimeguen, where he soon
assembled an army of sixty thousand men, well provided with all
necessaries; then he convoked a council of the general officers to concert
the operations of the campaign. On the sixteenth day of the month he
passed the Maese, and encamped at Overasselt, within two leagues and a
half of the enemy, who had entrenched themselves between Goch and Gedap.
He afterwards repassed the river below the Grave, and removed to
Gravenbroeck, where he was joined by the British train of artillery from
Holland. On the second day of August, he advanced to Petit Brugel, and the
French retired before him, leaving Spanish Guelderkind to his discretion.
He had resolved to hazard an engagement, and issued orders accordingly;
but he was restrained by the Dutch deputies, who were afraid of their own
interest in case the battle should have proved unfortunate. The duke of
Burgundy, finding himself obliged to retreat before the allied army,
rather than expose himself longer to such a mortifying indignity, returned
to Versailles, leaving the command to Boufflers, who lost the confidence
of Louis by the ill success of this campaign. The deputies of the
states-general having represented to the earl of Marlborough the
advantages that would accrue to Holland, from his dispossessing the enemy
of the places they maintained in the Spanish Guelderland, by which the
navigation of the Maese was obstructed, and the important town of
Maestricht in a manner blocked up, he resolved to deliver them from such a
troublesome neighbourhood. He detached general Schultz with a body of
troops to reduce the town and castle of Werk, which were surrendered after
a slight resistance. In the beginning of September he undertook the siege
of Venlo, which capitulated on the twenty-fifth day of the month, after
fort St. Michael had been stormed and taken by lord Cutts and the English
volunteers, among whom the young earl of Huntingdon distinguished himself
by very extraordinary acts of valour. Then the general invested Euremonde,
which he reduced after a very obstinate defence, together with the fort of
Stevensuaert, situated on the same river. Boufflers, confounded at the
rapidity of Marlborough’s success, retired towards Liege in order to cover
that city; but, at the approach of the confederates, he retired with
precipitation to Tongeren, from whence he directed his route towards
Brabant, with a view to defend such places as the allies had no design to
attack. When the earl of Marlborough arrived at Liege, he found the
suburbs of St. Walburgh had been set on fire by the French garrison, who
had retired into the citadel and the Chartreux. The allies took immediate
possession of the city; and in a few days opened the trenches against the
citadel, which was taken by assault. On this occasion, the hereditary
prince of Hesse-Cassel charged at the head of the grenadiers, and was the
first person who mounted the breach. Violani the governor, and the duke of
Charost, were made prisoners. Three hundred thousand florins in gold and
silver were found in the citadel, besides notes for above one million
drawn upon substantial merchants in Liege, who paid the money. Immediately
after this exploit, the garrison of the Chartreux capitulated on
honourable terms, and were conducted to Antwerp. By the success of this
campaign the earl of Marlborough raised his military character above all
censure, and confirmed himself in the entire confidence of the
states-general, who, in the beginning of the season, had trembled for
Nimeguen, and now saw the enemy driven back into their own domains.

HE NARROWLY ESCAPES BEING TAKEN BY A FRENCH PARTISAN.

When the army broke up in November, the general repaired to Maestricht,
from whence he proposed to return to the Hague by water. Accordingly he
embarked in a large boat, with five-and-twenty soldiers under the command
of a lieutenant. Next morning he was joined at Ruremonde by Coehorn in a
larger vessel, with sixty men, and they were moreover escorted by fifty
troopers, who rode along the bank of the river. The large boat outsailed
the other, and the horsemen mistook their way in the dark. A French
partisan, with five-and-thirty men from Gueldres, who lurked among the
rushes in wait for prey, seized the rope by which the boat was drawn,
hauled it ashore, discharged their small arms and hand-grenades, then
rushing into it, secured the soldiers before they could put themselves in
a posture of defence. The earl of Marlborough was accompanied by general
Opdam, and mynheer Gueldermalsen, one of the deputies, who were provided
with passports. The earl had neglected this precaution; but recollecting
he had an old passport for his brother general Churchill, he produced it
without any emotion, and the partisan was in such confusion that he never
examined the date. Nevertheless, he rifled their baggage, carried off the
guard as prisoners, and allowed the boat to proceed. The governor of Venlo
receiving information that the earl was surprised by a party and conveyed
to Gueldres, immediately marched out with his whole garrison to invest
that place. The same imperfect account being transmitted to Holland,
filled the whole province with consternation. The states forthwith
assembling, resolved that all their forces should march immediately to
Gueldres, and threaten the garrison of the place with the utmost
extremities unless they would immediately deliver the general. But, before
these orders could be despatched, the earl arrived at the Hague, to the
inexpressible joy of the people, who already looked upon him as their
saviour and protector.

THE IMPERIALISTS ARE WORSTED AT FEIDLINGUEN.

The French arms were not quite so unfortunate on the Rhine as in Flanders.
The elector of Bwaria surprised the city of Ulm in Suabia by a stratagem,
and then declared for France, which had by this time complied with all his
demands. The diet of the empire assembled at Batisbon were so incensed at
his conduct in seizing the city of Ulm by perfidy, that they presented a
memorial to his Imperial majesty, requesting he would proceed against the
elector according to the constitutions of the empire. They resolved, by a
plurality of voices, to declare war in the name of the empire against the
French king and the duke of Anjou, for having invaded several fiefs of the
empire in Italy, the archbishopric of Cologn, and the diocese of Liege;
and they forbade the ministers of Bavaria and Cologn to appear in the
general diet. In vain did these powers protest against their proceedings.
The empire’s declaration of war was published and notified, in the name of
the diet, to the cardinal of Limberg, the emperor’s commissioner.
Meanwhile the French made themselves masters of Neuburgh, in the circle of
Suabia, while Louis prince of Baden, being weakened by sending off
detachments, was obliged to lie inactive in his camp near Fridlinguen. The
French army was divided into two bodies, commanded by the marquis de
Villars and the count de Guiscard; and the prince thinking himself in
danger of being enclosed by the enemy, resolved to decamp. Villars
immediately passed the Rhine to fall upon him in his retreat, and an
obstinate engagement ensuing, the Imperialists were overpowered by
numbers. The prince having lost two thousand men, abandoned the field of
battle to the enemy, together with his baggage, artillery, and ammunition,
and retired towards Stauffen without being pursued. The French army, even
after they had gained the battle, were unaccountably seized with such a
panic, that if the Imperial general had faced them with two regiments he
would have snatched the victory from Villars, who was upon this occasion
saluted mareschal of France by the soldiers; and next day the town of
Fridlinguen surrendered. The prince being joined by some troops under
general Thungen and other reinforcements, resolved to give battle to the
enemy; but Villars declined an engagement, and repassed the Rhine. Towards
the latter end of October, count Tallard and the marquis de Lo-marie, with
a body of eighteen thousand men, reduced Triers and Traerbach; on the
other hand, the prince of Hesse-Cassel, with a detachment from the allied
army at Liege, retook from the French the towns of Zinch, Lintz, Brisac,
and Andernach.

BATTLE OF LUZZARA, IN ITALY.

In Italy prince Eugene laboured under a total neglect of the Imperial
court, where his enemies, on pretence of supporting the king of the Romans
in his first campaign, weaned the emperor’s attention entirely from his
affairs on the other side of the Alps, so that he left his best army to
moulder away for want of recruits and reinforcements. The prince thus
abandoned could not prevent the duke de Vendôme from relieving Mantua, and
was obliged to relinquish some other places he had taken. Philip, king of
Spain, being inspired with the ambition of putting an end to the war in
this country, sailed in person for Naples, where he was visited by the
cardinal-legate with a compliment from the pope; yet he could not obtain
the investiture of the kingdom from his holiness. The emperor, however,
was so disgusted at the embassy which the pope had sent to Philip, that he
ordered his ambassador at Eome to withdraw. Philip proceeded from Naples
to Final under convoy of the French fleet which had brought him to Italy;
here he had an interview with the duke of Savoy, who began to be alarmed
at the prospect of the French king’s being master of the Milanese; and, in
a letter to the duke de Vendôme, he forbade him to engage prince Eugene
until he himself should arrive in the camp. Prince Eugene, understanding
that the French army intended to attack Luzzara and Guastalla, passed the
Po with an army of about half the number of the enemy, and posted himself
behind the dike of Zero in such a manner that the French were ignorant of
his situation. He concluded that on their arrival at the ground they had
chosen, the horse would march out to forage, while the rest of the army
would be employed in pitching tents and providing for their refreshment.
His design was to seize that opportunity of attacking them, not doubting
that he should obtain a complete victory; but he was disappointed by mere
accident. An adjutant with an advanced guard had the curiosity to ascend
the dike in order to view the country, when he discovered the Imperial
infantry lying on their faces, and their horse in the rear, ranged in
order of battle. The French camp was immediately alarmed, and as the
intermediate ground was covered with hedges which obliged the assailants
to defile, the enemy were in a posture of defence before the Imperialists
could advance to action; nevertheless, the prince attacked them with great
vivacity in hopes of disordering their line, which gave way in several
places; but night interposing, he was obliged to desist, and in a few days
the French reduced Luzzara and Guastalla. The prince, however, maintained
his post, and Philip returned to Spain without having obtained any
considerable advantage.

THE KING OF SWEDEN DEFEATS AUGUSTUS AT LISSOU.

The French king employed all his artifice and intrigues in raising up new
enemies against the confederates. He is said to have bribed count
Mansfield, president of the council of war at Vienna, to withhold the
supplies from prince Eugene in Italy. At the Ottoman Porte he had actually
gained over the vizier, who engaged to renew the war with the emperor. But
the mufti and all the other great officers were averse to the design, and
the vizier fell a sacrifice to their resentment. Louis continued to broil
the kingdom of Poland by means of the cardinal-primate. The young king of
Sweden advanced to Lissou, where he defeated Augustus. Then he took
possession of Cracow, and raised contributions; nor could he be persuaded
to retreat, although the Muscovites and Lithuanians had ravaged Livonia,
and even made an irruption into Sweden.

FRUITLESS EXPEDITION TO CADIZ.

The operations of the combined squadrons at sea did not fully answer the
expectation of the public. On the twelfth day of May, sir John Munden
sailed with twelve ships to intercept a French squadron appointed as a
convoy to a new viceroy of Mexico, from Corunna to the West Indies. On the
twenty-eighth day of the month, he chased fourteen sail of French ships
into Corunna.

Then he called a council of war, in which it was agreed that as the place
was strongly fortified, and by the intelligence they had received, it
appeared that seventeen of the enemy’s ships of war rode at anchor in the
harbour, it would be expedient for them to follow the latter part of their
instructions, by which they were directed to cruise in soundings for the
protection of the trade. They returned accordingly, and being distressed
by want of provisions, came into port to the general discontent of the
nation. For the satisfaction of the people, sir John Munden was tried by a
court-martial and acquitted; but as this miscarriage had rendered him very
unpopular, prince George dismissed him from the service. We have already
hinted that king William had projected a scheme to reduce Cadiz, with
intention to act afterwards against the Spanish settlements in the West
Indies. This design queen Anne resolved to put in execution. Sir George
Rooke commanded the fleet, and the duke of Ormond was appointed general of
the land forces destined for this expedition. The combined squadrons
amounted to fifty ships of the line, exclusive of frigates, fire-ships,
and smaller vessels; and the number of soldiers embarked was not far short
of fourteen thousand. In the latter end of June the fleet sailed from St.
Helen’s; on the twelfth of August they anchored at the distance of two
leagues from Cadiz. Next day the duke of Ormond summoned the duke de
Brancaccio, who was governor, to submit to the house of Austria; but that
officer answered he would acquit himself honourably of the trust reposed
in him by the king. On the fifteenth the duke of Ormond landed with his
forces in the bay of Bulls, under cover of a smart fire from some
frigates, and repulsed a body of Spanish cavalry; then he summoned the
governor of Fort St. Catharine’s to surrender, and received an answer,
importing, that the garrison was prepared for his reception. A declaration
was published in the Spanish language, intimating, that the allies did not
come as enemies to Spain, but only to free them from the yoke of France,
and assist them in establishing themselves under the government of the
house of Austria. These professions produced very little effect among the
Spaniards, who were either cooled in their attachment to that family, or
provoked by the excesses of the English troops. These having taken
possession of Fort St. Catharine and Port St. Mary’s, instead of
protecting, plundered the natives, notwithstanding the strict orders
issued by the duke of Ormond to prevent this scandalous practice; even
some general officers were concerned in the pillage. A battery was raised
against Montagorda fort opposite to the Puntal; but the attempt
miscarried, and the troops were re-embarked.

SPANISH GALLEONS TAKEN and DESTROYED.

Captain Hardy having been sent to water in Lagos bay, received
intelligence that the galleons from the West Indies had put into Vigo
under convoy of a French squadron. He sailed immediately in quest of sir
George Rooke, who was now on his voyage back to England, and falling in
with him on the sixth day of October, communicated the substance of what
he had learned. Rooke immediately called a council of war, in which it was
determined to alter their course and attack the enemy at Vigo. He
forthwith detached some small vessels for intelligence, and received a
confirmation that the galleons and the squadron commanded by Chateau
Renault, were actually in the harbour. They sailed thither, and appeared
before the place on the eleventh day of October. The passage into the
harbour was narrow, secured by batteries, forts, and breast-works on each
side; by a strong boom, consisting of iron chains, top-masts, and cables,
moored at each end of a seventy-gun ship, and fortified within by five
ships of the same strength lying athwart the channel with their broadsides
to the offing. As the first and second rates of the combined fleets were
too large to enter, the admirals shifted their flags into smaller ships;
and a division of five-and-twenty English and Dutch ships of the line,
with their frigates, fire-ships, and ketches, was destined for the
service. In order to facilitate the attack, the duke of Ormond landed with
five-and-twenty hundred men, at the distance of six miles from Vigo, and
took by assault a fort and platform of forty pieces of cannon at the
entrance of the harbour. The British ensign was no sooner seen flying at
the top of this fort than the ships advanced to the attack. Vice-admiral
Hop-son, in the Torbay, crowding all his sail, ran directly against the
boom, which was broken by the first shock; then the whole squadron entered
the harbour through a prodigious fire from the enemy’s ships and
batteries. These last, however, were soon stormed and taken by the
grenadiers who had been landed. The great ships lay against the forts at
each side of the harbour, which in a little time they silenced, though
vice-admiral Hop-son narrowly escaped from a fire-ship by which he was
boarded. After a very vigorous engagement, the French, finding themselves
unable to cope with such an adversary, resolved to destroy their ships and
galloons, that they might not fall into the hands of the victors. They
accordingly burned and ran ashore eight ships and as many advice-boats;
but ten ships of war were taken, together with eleven galleons. Though
they had secured the best part of their plate and merchandize before the
English fleet arrived, the value of fourteen millions of pieces of eight,
in plate and rich commodities, was destroyed in six galleons that
perished; and about half that value was brought off by the conquerors; so
that this was a dreadful blow to the enemy, and a noble acquisition to the
allies. Immediately after this exploit, sir George Rooke was joined by sir
Cloudesley Shovel, who had been sent out with a squadron to intercept the
galleons. This officer was left to bring home the prizes and dismantle the
fortifications, while Rooke returned in triumph to England.

BENBOW’S ENGAGEMENT WITH DU CASSE.

The glory which the English acquired in this expedition was in some
measure tarnished by the conduct of some officers in the West Indies.
Thither admiral Benbow had been detached with a squadron of ten sail in
the course of the preceding year. At Jamaica he received intelligence that
monsieur Du Casse was in the neighbourhood of Hispaniola, and resolved to
beat up to that island. At Leogane he fell in with a French ship of fifty
guns, which her captain ran ashore and blew up. He took several other
vessels, and having alarmed Petit-Guavas, bore away for Donna Maria bay,
where he understood that Du Casse had sailed for the coast of Carthagena.
Benbow resolved to follow the same course; and on the nineteenth of August
discovered the enemy’s squadron near Saint Martha, consisting of ten sail,
steering along shore. He formed the line, and an engagement ensued, in
which he was very ill seconded by some of his captains. Nevertheless, the
battle continued till night, and he determined to renew it next morning,
when he perceived all his ships at the distance of three or four miles
astern, except the Ruby, commanded by captain George Walton, who joined
him in plying the enemy with chase guns. On the twenty-first these two
ships engaged the French squadron; and the Ruby was so disabled that the
admiral was obliged to send her back to Jamaica. Next day the Greenwich,
commanded by Wade, was five leagues astern; and the wind changing, the
enemy had the advantage of the weather-gage. On the twenty-third the
admiral renewed the battle with his single ship unsustained by the rest of
the squadron. On the twenty-fourth his leg was shattered by a chain-shot;
notwithstanding which accident, he remained on the quarter-deck in a
cradle and continued the engagement. One of the largest ships of the enemy
lying like a wreck upon the water, four sail of the English squadron
poured their broadsides into her, and then ran to leeward without paying
any regard to the signal for battle. Then the French bearing down upon the
admiral with their whole force, shot away his main-top-sail-yard, and
damaged his rigging in such a manner that he was obliged to lie by and
refit, while they took their disabled ship in tow. During this interval he
called a council of his captains, and expostulated with them on their
behaviour. They observed, that the French were very strong, and advised
him to desist. He plainly perceived that he was betrayed, and with the
utmost reluctance returned to Jamaica, having not only lost a leg, but
also received a large wound in his face, and another in his arm, while he
in person attempted to board the French admiral. Exasperated at the
treachery of his captains, he granted a commission to rear-admiral
Whetstone and other officers, to hold a court-martial and try them for
cowardice. Hudson, of the Pendennis, died before his trial: Kirby and Wade
were convicted, and sentenced to be shot: Constable, of the Windsor, was
cashiered and imprisoned: Vincent, of the Falmouth, and Fogg, the
admiral’s own captain of the Breda, were convicted of having signed a
paper that they would not fight under Benbow’s command; but as they
behaved gallantly in the action, the court inflicted upon them no other
punishment than that of a provisional suspension. Captain Walton had
likewise joined in the conspiracy while he was heated with the fumes of
intoxication, but he afterwards renounced the engagement, and fought with
admirable courage until his ship was disabled. The boisterous manner of
Benbow had produced this base confederacy. He was a rough seamen; but
remarkably brave, honest, and experienced. 112 [See note S, at the
end of this Vol.] He took this miscarriage so much to heart, that he
became melancholy, and his grief co-operating with the fever occasioned by
his wounds, put a period to his life. Wade and Kirby were sent home in the
Bristol; and, on their arrival at Plymouth, shot on board of the ship, by
virtue of a dead warrant for their immediate execution, which had lain
there for some time. The same precaution had been taken in all the western
ports, in order to prevent applications in their favour.

ANNE, 1701—1714

A NEW PARLIAMENT.

During these transactions the queen seemed to be happy in the affection of
her subjects. Though the continuance of the parliament was limited to six
months after the king’s decease, she dissolved it by proclamation before
the term was expired; and issued writs for electing another, in which the
tory interest predominated. In the summer the queen gave audience to the
count de Platens, envoy-extraordinary from the elector of Hanover; then
she made a progress with her husband to Oxford, Bath, and Bristol, where
she was received with all the marks of the most genuine affection. The new
parliament meeting on the twentieth day of October, Mr. Harley was chosen
speaker. The queen in her speech, declared that she had summoned them to
assist her in carrying on the just and necessary war in which the nation
was engaged. She desired the commons would inspect the accounts of the
public receipts and payments, that if any abuses had crept into the
management of the finances, they might be detected and the offenders
punished. She told them that the funds assigned in the last parliament had
not produced the sums granted; and that the deficiency was not supplied
even by the one hundred thousand pounds which she had paid from her own
revenue for the public service. She expressed her concern for the
disappointment at Cadiz, as well as for the abuses committed at Port St.
Mary’s, which had obliged her to give directions for the strictest
examination of the particulars. She hoped they would find time to consider
of some better and more effectual method to prevent the exportation of
wool, and improve that manufacture, which she was determined to encourage.
She professed a firm persuasion, that the affection of her subjects was
the surest pledge of their duty and obedience. She promised to defend and
maintain the church as by law established; and to protect her subjects in
the full enjoyment of all their rights and liberties. She protested, that
she relied on their care of her: she said her interest and theirs were
inseparable; and that her endeavours should never be wanting to make them
all safe and happy. She was presented with a very affectionate address
from either house, congratulating her upon the glorious success of her
arms, and those of her allies, under the command of the earl of
Marlborough: but that of the commons was distinguished by an implicated
reproach on the late reign, importing, that the wonderful progress of her
majesty’s arms under the earl of Marlborough had signally “retrieved” the
ancient honour and glory of the English nation. This expression had
excited a warm debate in the house, in the course of which many severe
reflections were made on the memory of king William. At length the
question was put, whether the word “retrieved” should remain? and carried
in the affirmative by a majority of one hundred.

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES.

The strength of the tories appeared in nothing more conspicuous than in
their inquiry concerning controverted elections. The borough of Hindon,
near Salisbury, was convicted of bribery, and a bill brought in for
disfranchising the town; yet no vote passed against the person who
exercised this corruption, because he happened to be a tory. Mr. Howe was
declared duly elected for Gloucestershire, though the majority of the
electors had voted for the other candidate. Sir John Packington exhibited
a complaint against the bishop of Worcester and his son, for having
endeavoured to prevent his election: the commons having taken it into
consideration, resolved, that the proceedings of William lord bishop of
Worcester, and his son, had been malicious, unchristian, and arbitrary, in
high violation of the liberties and privileges of the commons of England.
They voted an address to the queen, desiring her to remove the father from
the office of lord-almoner; and they ordered the attorney-general to
prosecute the son, after his privilege as member of the convocation should
be expired. A counter address was immediately voted and presented by the
lords, beseeching her majesty would not remove the bishop of Worcester
from the place of lord-almoner, until he should be found guilty of some
crime by due course of law; as it was the undoubted right of every lord of
parliament, and of every subject of England, to have an opportunity to
make his defence before he suffers any sort of punishment. The queen said
she had not as yet received any complaint against the bishop of Worcester;
but she looked upon it as her undoubted right to continue or displace any
servant attending upon her own person, when she should think proper. The
peers having received this answer, unanimously resolved, That no lord of
their house ought to suffer any sort of punishment by any proceedings of
the house of commons, otherwise than according to the known and ancient
rules and methods of parliament. When the commons attended the queen with
their address against the bishop, she said she was sorry there was
occasion for such a remonstrance, and that the bishop of Worcester should
no longer continue to supply the place of her almoner. This regard to
their address was a flagrant proof of her partiality to the tories, who
seemed to justify her attachment by their compliance and liberality.

THE LORDS INQUIRE INTO THE CONDUCT OF SIR GEORGE ROOKE.

In deliberating on the supplies, they agreed to all the demands of the
ministry. They voted forty thousand seamen, and the like number of land
forces, to act in conjunction with those of the allies. For the
maintenance of these last, they granted eight hundred and thirty-three
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six pounds; besides three hundred and
fifty thousand pounds for guards and garrisons; seventy thousand nine
hundred and seventy-three pounds for ordnance; and fifty-one thousand
eight hundred and forty-three pounds for subsidies to the allies. Lord
Shannon arriving with the news of the success at Vigo, the queen appointed
a day of thanksgiving for the signal success of her arms under the earl of
Marlborough, the duke of Ormond, and sir George Rooke; and on that day,
which was the twelfth of November, she went in state to St. Paul’s church,
attended by both houses of parliament. Next day the peers voted the thanks
of their house to the duke of Ormond for his services at Vigo, and, at the
same time, drew up an address to the queen, desiring she would order the
duke of Ormond and sir George Rooke to lay before them an account of their
proceedings: a request with which her majesty complied. These two officers
were likewise thanked by the house of commons: vice-admiral Hopson was
knighted, and gratified with a considerable pension. The duke of Ormond,
at his return from the expedition, complained openly of Rooke’s conduct,
and seemed determined to subject him to a public accusation; but that
officer was such a favourite among the commons, that the court was afraid
to disoblige them by an impeachment, and took great pains to mitigate the
duke’s resentment. This nobleman was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
and Rooke was admitted into the privy-council. A motion however being made
in the house of lords, that the admiral’s instructions and journals
relating to the last expedition might be examined, a committee was
appointed for that purpose, and prepared an unfavourable report; but it
was rejected by a majority of the house; and they voted, That sir George
Rooke had done his duty, pursuant to the councils of war, like a brave
officer, to the honour of the British nation.

THE PARLIAMENT MAKE A SETTLEMENT ON PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK.

On the twenty-first day of November, the queen sent a message to the house
of commons by Mr. Secretary Hedges, recommending further provision for the
prince her husband, in case he should survive her. This message being
considered, Mr. Howe moved, that the yearly sum of one hundred thousand
pounds should be settled on the prince, in case he should survive her
majesty. No opposition was made to the proposal; but warm debates were
excited by a clause in the bill, exempting the prince from that part of
the act of succession by which strangers, though naturalized, were
rendered incapable of holding employments. This clause related only to
those who should be naturalized in a future reign; and indeed was
calculated as a restriction upon the house of Hanover. Many members argued
against the clause of exemption, because it seemed to imply, that persons
already naturalized would be excluded from employments in the next reign,
though already possessed of the right of natural-born subjects, a
consequence plainly contradictory to the meaning of the act. Others
opposed it, because the lords had already resolved by a vote, that they
would never pass any bill sent up from the commons, to which a clause
foreign to the bill should be tacked; and this clause they affirmed to be
a tack, as an incapacity to hold employments was a circumstance altogether
distinct from a settlement in money. The queen expressed uncommon
eagerness in behalf of this bill; and the court influence was managed so
successfully that it passed through both houses, though not without an
obstinate opposition, and a formal protest by seven-and-twenty peers.

EARL OF MARLBOROUGH CREATED A DUKE.

The earl of Marlborough arriving in England about the latter end of
November, received the thanks of the commons for his great and signal
services, which were so acceptable to the queen, that she created him a
duke, gratified him with a pension of five thousand pounds upon the
revenue of the post office during his natural life; and in a message to
the commons, expressed a desire that they would find some method to settle
it on the heirs male of his body. This intimation was productive of warm
debates, during which sir Christopher Musgrave observed, that he would not
derogate from the duke’s eminent services; but he affirmed his grace had
been very well paid for them by the profitable employments which he and
his duchess enjoyed. The duke, understanding that the commons were heated
by the subject, begged her majesty would rather forego her gracious
message in his behalf, than create any uneasiness on his account, which
might embarrass her affairs, and be of ill consequence to the public. Then
she sent another message to the house, signifying that the duke of
Marlborough had declined her interposition. Notwithstanding this
declaration, the commons in a body presented an address, acknowledging the
eminent services of the duke of Marlborough, yet expressing their
apprehension of making a precedent to alienate the revenue of the crown,
which had been so much reduced by the exorbitant grants of the late reign,
and so lately settled and secured by her majesty’s unparalleled grace and
goodness. The queen was satisfied with their apology; but their refusal in
all probability helped to alienate the duke from the tories, with whom he
had been hitherto connected.

COMMERCE PROHIBITED BETWEEN HOLLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN.

In the beginning of January, the queen gave the house of commons to
understand, that the states-general had pressed her to augment her forces,
as the only means to render ineffectual the great and early preparations
of the enemy. The commons immediately resolved, that ten thousand men
should be hired, as an augmentation of the forces to act in conjunction
with the allies; but on condition that an immediate stop should be put to
all commerce and correspondence with France and Spain on the part of the
states-general. The lords presented an address to the queen on the same
subject, and to the same effect; and she owned that the condition was
absolutely necessary for the good of the whole alliance. The Dutch, even
after the declaration of war, had carried on a traffic with the French;
and at this very juncture Louis found it impossible to make remittances of
money to the elector of Bwaria in Germany, and to his forces in Italy,
except through the channel of English, Dutch, and Geneva merchants. The
states-general, though shocked at the imperious manner in which the
parliament of England prescribed their conduct, complied with the demand
without hesitation, and published a prohibition of all commerce with the
subjects of France and Spain.

BILL FOR PREVENTING OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY.

The commons of this parliament had nothing more at heart than a bill
against occasional conformity. The tories affected to distinguish
themselves as the only true friends to the church and monarchy; and they
hated the dissenters with a mixture of spiritual and political disgust.
They looked upon these last as an intruding sect, which constituted great
part of the whig faction that extorted such immense sums of money from the
nation in the late reign, and involved it in pernicious engagements, from
whence it had no prospect of deliverance. They considered them as
encroaching schismatics that disgraced and endangered the hierarchy; and
those of their own communion, who recommended moderation, they branded
with the epithets of lukewarm christians, betrayers, and apostates. They
now resolved to approve themselves zealous sons of the church, by seizing
the first opportunity that was in their power to distress the dissenters.
In order to pave the way to this persecution, sermons were preached, and
pamphlets were printed, to blacken the character of the sect, and inflame
the popular resentment against them. On the fourth day of November, Mr.
Bromley, Mr. St. John, and Mr. Annesley, were ordered by the house of
commons to bring in a bill for preventing occasional conformity. In the
preamble, all persecution for conscience sake was condemned: nevertheless
it enacted, that all those who had taken the sacrament and test for
offices of trust, or the magistracy of corporations, and afterwards
frequented any meeting of dissenters, should be disabled from holding
their employments, pay a fine of one hundred pounds, and five pounds for
every day in which they continued to act in their employment after having
been at any such meeting: they were also rendered incapable of holding any
other employment, till after one whole year’s conformity; and, upon a
relapse, the penalties and time of incapacity were doubled. The promoters
of the bill alleged, that an established religion and national church were
absolutely necessary, when so many impious men pretended to inspiration,
and deluded such numbers of people: that the most effectual way to
preserve this national church, would be the maintenance of the civil power
in the hands of those who expressed their regard to the church in their
principles and practice: that the parliament, by the corporation and test
acts, thought they had raised a sufficient barrier to the hierarchy, never
imagining that a set of men would rise up, whose consciences would be too
tender to obey the laws, but hardened enough to break them: that, as the
last reign began with an act in favour of dissenters, so the commons were
desirous that in the beginning of her majesty’s auspicious government an
act should pass in favour of the church of England: that this bill did not
intrench on the act of toleration, or deprive the dissenters of any
privileges they enjoyed by law, or add any thing to the legal rights of
the church of England: that occasional conformity was an evasion of the
law, by which the dissenters might insinuate themselves into the
management of all corporations: that a separation from the church, to
which a man’s conscience will allow him occasionally to conform, is a mere
schism, which in itself was sinful, without the superaddition of a
temporal law to make it an offence: that the toleration was intended only
for the ease offender consciences, and not to give a license for
occasional conformity: that conforming and non-conforming were
contradictions; for nothing but a firm persuasion that the terms of
communion required are sinful and unlawful, could justify the one; and
this plainly condemns the other. The members who opposed the bill argued,
that the dissenters were generally well affected to the present
constitution: that to bring any real hardship upon them, or give rise to
jealousies and fears at stich a juncture, might be attended with dangerous
consequences; that the toleration had greatly contributed to the security
and reputation of the church, and plainly proved that liberty of
conscience and gentle measures were the most effectual means for
increasing the votaries of the church, and diminishing the number of
dissenters: that the dissenters could not be termed schismatics without
bringing a heavy charge upon the church of England, which had not only
tolerated such schism, but even allowed communion with the reformed
churches abroad: that the penalties of this bill were more severe than
those which the laws imposed on papists, for assisting at the most solemn
act of their religion: in a word, that toleration and tenderness had been
always productive of peace and union, whereas persecution had never failed
to excite disorder and extend superstition. Many alterations and
mitigations were proposed, without effect. In the course of the debate,
the dissenters were mentioned and reviled with great acrimony; and the
bill passed the lower house by virtue of a considerable majority.

The lords, apprehensive that the commons would tack it to some money-bill,
voted, that the annexing any clause to a money-bill was contrary to the
constitution of the English government, and the usage of parliament. The
bill met with a very warm opposition in the upper house, where a
considerable portion of the whig interest still remained. These members
believed that the intention of the bill was to model corporations, so as
to eject all those who would not vote in elections for the tories. Some
imagined this was a preparatory step towards a repeal of the toleration;
and others concluded that the promoters of the bill designed to raise such
disturbances at home as would discourage the allies abroad, and render the
prosecution of the war impracticable. The majority of the bishops, and
among these Burnet of Sarum, objected against it on the principles of
moderation, and from motives of conscience. Nevertheless, as the court
supported this measure with its whole power and influence, the bill made
its way through the house, though not without alterations and amendments,
which were rejected by the commons. The lower house pretended, that the
lords had no right to alter any fines and penalties that the commons
should fix in bills sent up for their concurrence, on the supposition that
those were matters concerning money, the peculiar province of the lower
house; the lords ordered a minute inquiry to be made into all the rolls of
parliament since the reign of Henry the Seventh; and a great number of
instances were found, in which the lords had begun the clauses imposing
fines and penalties, altered the penalties which had been fixed by the
commons, and even changed the uses to which they were applied. The
precedents were entered in the books; but the commons resolved to maintain
their point without engaging in any dispute upon the subject. After warm
debates, and a free conference between the two houses, the lords adhered
to their amendments, though this resolution was carried by a majority of
one vote only; the commons persisted in rejecting them; the bill
miscarried, and both houses published their proceedings, by way of appeal
to the nation. 114 [See note T, at the end of this Vol.]
A bill was now brought into the lower house, granting another year’s
consideration to those who had not taken the oath abjuring the pretended
prince of Wales. The lords added three clauses, importing, that those
persons who should take the oath within the limited time might return to
their benefices and employments, unless they should be already legally
filled; that any person endeavouring to defeat the succession to the
crown, as now limited by law, should be deemed guilty of high treason; and
that the oath of abjuration should be imposed upon the subjects in
Ireland. The commons made some opposition to the first clause; but at
length the question being put, Whether they should agree to the
amendments, it was carried in the affirmative by one voice.

INQUIRY INTO THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS.

No object engrossed more time, or produced more violent debates, than did
the inquiry into the public accounts. The commissioners appointed for this
purpose pretended to have made great discoveries. They charged the earl of
Ranelagh, paymaster-general of the army, with flagrant mismanagement. He
acquitted himself in such a manner as screened him from all severity of
punishment; nevertheless, they expelled him from the house for a high
crime and misdemeanor, in misapplying several sums of the public money;
and he thought proper to resign his employment. A long address was
prepared and presented to the queen, attributing the national debt to
mismanagement of the funds; complaining that the old methods of the
exchequer had been neglected; and that iniquitous frauds had been
committed by the commissioners of the prizes. Previous to this
remonstrance, the house, in consequence of the report of the committee,
had passed several severe resolutions, particularly against Charles lord
Halifax, auditor of the receipt of the exchequer, as having neglected his
duty, and been guilty of a breach of trust. For these reasons they
actually besought the queen, in an address, that she would give directions
to the attorney-general to prosecute him for the said offences; and she
promised to comply with their request. On the other hand, the lords
appointed a committee to examine all the observations which the
commissioners of accounts had offered to both houses. They ascribed the
national debt to deficiencies in the funds: they acquitted lord Halifax,
the lords of the treasury, and their officers, whom the commons had
accused; and represented these circumstances in an address to the queen,
which was afterwards printed with the vouchers to every particular. This
difference blew up a fierce flame of discord between the two houses, which
manifested their mutual animosity in speeches, votes, resolutions, and
conferences. The commons affirmed, that no cognizance the lords could take
of the public accounts would enable them to supply any deficiency, or
appropriate any surplusage of the public money; that they could neither
acquit nor condemn any person whatsoever, upon any inquiry arising
originally in their own house; and that their attempt to acquit Charles
lord Halifax was unparliamentary. The lords insisted upon their right to
take cognizance originally of all public accounts; they affirmed, that in
their resolutions, with respect to lord Halifax, they had proceeded
according to the rules of justice. They owned however that their
resolutions did not amount to any judgment or acquittal; but that finding
a vote of the commons reflected upon a member of their house, they thought
fit to give their opinion in their legislative capacity. The queen
interposed by a message to the lords, desiring they would despatch the
business in which they were engaged. The dispute continued even after this
intimation; one conference was held after another, at length both sides
despaired of an accommodation. The lords ordered their proceedings to be
printed, and the commons followed their example. On the twenty-seventh day
of February, the queen, having passed all the bills that were ready for
the royal assent, ordered the lord-keeper to prorogue the parliament,
after having pronounced a speech in the usual style. She thanked them for
their zeal, affection, and despatch; declared, she would encourage and
maintain the church as by law established; desired they would consider
some further laws for restraining the great license assumed for publishing
scandalous pamphlets and libels; and assured them, that all her share of
the prizes which might be taken in the war, should be applied to the
public service. By this time the earl of Eochester was entirely removed
from the queen’s councils. Finding himself outweighed by the interest of
the duke of Marlborough and lord Godolphin, he had become sullen and
intractable; and, rather than repair to his government of Ireland, chose
to resign the office, which, as we have already observed, was conferred
upon the duke of Ormond, an accomplished nobleman, who had acquired great
popularity by the success of the expedition to Vigo. The parties in the
house of lords were so nearly matched, that the queen, in order to
ascertain an undoubted majority in the next session, created four new
peers, 115
[See note-J, at the end of this Vol.] who had signalized themselves
by the violence of their speeches in the house of commons.

ANNE, 1701—1714

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES OF CONVOCATION.

The two houses of convocation, which were summoned with the parliament,
bore a strong affinity with this assembly, by the different interests that
prevailed in the upper and lower. The last, in imitation of the commons,
was desirous of branding the preceding reign; and it was with great
difficulty that they concurred with the prelates in an address of
congratulation to her majesty. Then their former contest was revived. The
lower house desired, in an application to the archbishop of Canterbury and
his suffragans, that the matters in dispute concerning the manner of
synodical proceedings, and the right of the lower house to hold
intermediate assemblies, might be taken into consideration and speedily
determined. The bishops proposed, that in the intervals of sessions, the
lower house might appoint committees to prepare matters; and when business
should be brought regularly before them, the archbishop would regulate the
prorogations in such a manner, that they should have sufficient time to
sit and deliberate on the subject. This offer did not satisfy the lower
house, which was emboldened to persist in its demand by a vote of the
commons. These, in consequence of an address of thanks from the clergy,
touching Mr. Lloyd, son to the bishop of Worcester, whom they ordered to
be prosecuted after his privilege as member of the convocation should be
expired, had resolved, that they would on all occasions assert the just
rights and privileges of the lower house of convocation. The prelates
refused to depart from the archbishop’s right of proroguing the whole
convocation with consent of his suffragans. The lower house proposed to
refer the controversy to the queen’s decision. The bishops declined this
expedient, as inconsistent with the episcopal authority, and the
presidency of the archbishop. The lower house having incurred the
imputation of favouring presbytery, by this opposition to the bishops,
entered in their books a declaration, acknowledging the order of bishops
as superior to presbyters, and to be a divine apostolical institution.
Then they desired the bishops in an address to concur in settling the
doctrine of the divine apostolical right of episcopacy, that it might be a
standing rule of the church. They likewise presented a petition to the
queen, complaining, that in the convocation called in the year 1700, after
an interruption of ten years, several questions having arisen concerning
the rights and liberties of the lower house, the bishops had refused a
verbal conference; and afterwards declined a proposal to submit the
dispute to her majesty’s determination; they therefore fled for protection
to her majesty, begging she would call the question into her own royal
audience. The queen promised to consider their petition, which was
supported by the earl of Nottingham; and ordered their council to examine
the affair, how it consisted with law and custom. Whether their report was
unfavourable to the lower house, or the queen was unwilling to encourage
the division, no other answer was made to their address. The archbishop
replied to their request presented to the upper house, concerning the
divine right of presbytery, that the preface to the form of ordination
contained a declaration of three orders of ministers from the times of the
apostles; namely, bishops, priests, and deacons, to which they had
subscribed; but he and his brethren conceived, that without a royal
license, they had not authority to attempt, enact, promulge, or execute
any canon, which should concern either doctrine or discipline. The lower
house answered this declaration in very petulant terms; and the dispute
subsisted when the parliament was prorogued. But these contests produced
divisions through the whole body of the clergy, who ranged themselves in
different factions, distinguished by the names of high-church and
low-church. The first consisted of ecclesiastical tories; the other
included those who professed revolution principles, and recommended
moderation towards the dissenters. The high-church party reproached the
other as time-servers, and presbyterians in disguise; and were in their
turn stigmatized as the friends and abettors of tyranny and persecution.
At present, however, the tories both in church and state triumphed in the
favour of their sovereign. The right of parliaments, the memory of the
late king, and even the act limiting the succession of the house of
Hanover, became the subjects of ridicule. The queen was flattered as
possessor of the prerogatives of the ancient monarchy; the history written
by her grandfather, the earl of Clarendon, was now for the first time
published, to inculcate the principles of obedience, and inspire the
people with an abhorrence of opposition to an anointed sovereign. Her
majesty’s hereditary right was deduced from Edward the Confessor, and as
heir of his pretended sanctity and virtue, she was persuaded to touch
persons afflicted with the king’s evil, according to the office inserted
in the Liturgy for this occasion.

ACCOUNT OF PARTIES IN SCOTLAND.

The change of the ministry in Scotland seemed favourable to the
episcopalians and anti-revolutioners of that kingdom. The earls of
Marchmont, Melvil, Selkirk, Leven, and Hyndford, were laid aside; the earl
of Seafield was appointed chancellor; the duke of Queensberry and the lord
viscount Tarbat, were declared secretaries of state; the marquis of
Annandale was made president of the council, and the earl of Tullibardin,
lord privy-seal. A new parliament having been summoned, the earl of
Seafield employed his influence so successfully, that a great number of
anti-revolutioners were returned as members. The duke of Hamilton had
obtained from the queen a letter to the privy-council in Scotland, in
which she expressed her desire that the presbyterian clergy should live in
brotherly love and communion with such dissenting ministers of the
reformed religion as were in possession of benefices, and lived with
decency, and submission to the law. The episcopal clergy, encouraged by
these expressions in their favour, drew up an address to the queen,
imploring her protection; and humbly beseeching her to allow those
parishes in which there was a majority of episcopal freeholders, to bestow
the benefice on ministers of their principles. This petition was presented
by Dr. Skeen and Dr. Scot, who were introduced by the duke of Queensberry
to her majesty. She assured them of her protection and endeavours to
supply their necessities; and exhorted them to live in peace and christian
love with the clergy, who were by law invested with the church-government
in her ancient kingdom of Scotland. A proclamation of indemnity having
been published in March, a great number of Jacobites returned from France
and other countries, pretended to have changed their sentiments, and took
the oaths, that they might be qualified to sit in parliament. They formed
an accession to the strength of the anti-revolutioners and episcopalians,
who now hoped to out-number the presbyterians, and outweigh their
interest. But this confederacy was composed of dissonant parts, from which
no harmony could be expected. The presbyterians and revolutioners were
headed by the duke of Argyle. The country party of malcontents, which took
its rise from the disappointments of the Darien settlement, acted under
the auspices of the duke of Hamilton and marquis of Tweedale; and the earl
of Hume appeared as chief of the anti-revolutioners. The different parties
who now united, pursued the most opposite ends. The majority of the
country party were friends to the revolution, and sought only redress of
the grievances which the nation had sustained in the late reign. The
anti-revolutioners considered the accession and government of king William
as an extraordinary event, which they were willing to forget, believing
that all parties were safe under the shelter of her majesty’s general
indemnity. The Jacobites submitted to the queen, as tutrix or regent for
the prince of Wales, whom they firmly believed she intended to establish
on the throne. The whigs under Argyle, alarmed at the coalition of all
their enemies, resolved to procure a parliamentary sanction for the
revolution.

DANGEROUS HEATS IN THE PARLIAMENT.

The parliament being opened on the sixth day of May at Edinburgh, by the
duke of Queensberry as commissioner, the queen’s letter was read, in which
she demanded a supply for the maintenance of the forces, advised them to
encourage trade, and exhorted them to proceed with wisdom, prudence, and
unanimity. The duke of Hamilton immediately offered the draft of a bill
for recognising her majesty’s undoubted right and title to the imperial
crown of Scotland, according to the declaration of the estates of the
kingdom, containing the claim of right. It was immediately received; and
at the second reading, the queen’s advocate offered an additional clause,
denouncing the penalties of treason against any person who should question
her majesty’s right and title to the crown, or her exercise of the
government, from her actual entry to the same. This, after a long and warm
debate, was carried by the concurrence of the anti-revolutioners. Then the
earl of Hume produced the draft of a bill for the supply; immediately
after it was read, the marquis of Tweedale made an overture, that, before
all other business, the parliament would proceed to make such conditions
of government, and regulations in the constitution of the kingdom, to take
place after the decease of her majesty and the heirs of her body, as
should be necessary for the preservation of their religion and liberty.
This overture and the bill were ordered to lie upon the table; and in the
meantime the commissioner found himself involved in great perplexity. The
duke of Argyle, the marquis of Annandale, and the earl of Marchmont, gave
him to understand in private, that they were resolved to move for an act
ratifying the revolution; and for another confirming the presbyterian
government; that they would insist upon their being discussed before the
bill of supply, and that they were certain of carrying the points at which
they aimed. The commissioner now found himself reduced to a very
disagreeable alternative. There was a necessity for relinquishing all hope
of a supply, or abandoning the anti-revolutioners, to whom he was
connected by promises of concurrence. The whigs were determined to oppose
all schemes of supply that should come from the cavaliers; and these last
resolved to exert their whole power in preventing the confirmation of the
revolution and the presbyterian discipline. He foresaw that on this
occasion the whigs would be joined by the duke of Hamilton and his party,
so as to preponderate against the cavaliers. He endeavoured to cajole both
parties; but found the task impracticable. He desired in parliament, that
the act for the supply might be read, promising that they should have full
time afterwards to deliberate on other subjects. The marquis of Tweedale
insisted upon his overture; and after warm debates, the house resolved to
proceed with such acts as might be necessary for securing the religion,
liberty, and trade of the nation, before any bill for supply or other
business should be discussed. The marquis of Athol offered an act for the
security of the kingdom, in case of her majesty’s decease; but before it
was read, the duke of Argyle presented his draft of a bill for ratifying
the revolution, and all the acts following thereupon, An act for limiting
the succession after the death of her majesty, and the heirs of her body,
was produced by Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun. The earl of Rothes recommended
another, importing, that after her majesty’s death, and failing heirs of
her body, no person coming to the crown of Scotland, being at the same
time king or queen of England, should as king or queen of Scotland, have
power to make peace or war without the con* sent of parliament. The earl
of Marchmont recited the draft of an act for securing the true protestant
religion and presbyterian government; one was also suggested by sir
Patrick Johnston, allowing the importation of wines, and other foreign
liquors. All these bills were ordered to lie upon the table. Then the earl
of Strath-more produced an act for toleration to all protestants in the
exercise of religious worship. But against this the general assembly
presented a most violent remonstrance; and the promoters of the bill,
foreseeing that it would meet with great opposition, allowed it to drop
for the present. On the third day of June, the parliament passed the act
for preserving the true reformed protestant religion, and confirming
presbyterian church government, as agreeable to the word of God, and the
only government of Christ’s church within the kingdom. The same party
enjoyed a further triumph in the success of Argyle’s act, for ratifying
and perpetuating the first act of king William’s parliament; for declaring
it high treason to disown the authority of that parliament, or to alter or
renovate the claim of right or any article thereof. This last clause was
strenuously opposed; but at last the bill passed with the concurrence of
all the ministry, except the marquis of Athol and the viscount Tarbat, who
began at this period to correspond with the opposite party.

THE COMMISSIONER IS ABANDONED BY THE CAVALIERS.

The cavaliers thinking themselves betrayed by the duke of Queensberry, who
had assented to these acts, first expostulated with him on his breach of
promise, and then renounced his interest, resolving to separate themselves
from the court, and jointly pursue such measures as might be for the
interest of their party. But of all the bills that were produced in the
course of this remarkable session, that which produced the most violent
altercation was the act of security, calculated to abridge the prerogative
of the crown, limit the successor, and throw a vast additional power into
the hands of the parliament. It was considered paragraph by paragraph;
many additions and alterations were proposed, and some adopted;
inflammatory speeches were uttered; bitter sarcasms retorted from party to
party; and different votes passed on different clauses. At length, in
spite of the most obstinate opposition from the ministry and the
cavaliers, it was passed by a majority of fifty-nine voices. The
commissioner was importuned to give it the royal assent; but declined
answering their entreaties till the tenth day of September. Then he made a
speech in parliament, giving them to understand that he had received the
queen’s pleasure, and was empowered to give the royal assent to all the
acts voted in this session, except the act for the security of the
kingdom. A motion was made to solicit the royal assent in an address to
her majesty; but the question being put, it was carried in the negative by
a small majority. On the sixth day of the same month, the earl of
Marchmont had produced a bill to settle the succession on the house of
Hanover. At first the import of it was not known; but when the clerk in
reading it mentioned the princess Sophia, the whole house was kindled into
a flame. Some proposed that the overture should be burned; others moved
that the earl might be sent prisoner to the castle; and a general
dissatisfaction appeared in the whole assembly. Not that the majority in
parliament were averse to the succession in the house of Hanover; but they
resolved to avoid a nomination without stipulating conditions; and they
had already provided, in the act of security, that it should be high
treason to own any person as king or queen after her majesty’s decease,
until he or she should take the coronation oath, and accept the terms of
the claim of right, and such conditions as should be settled in this or
any ensuing parliament.

HE IS IN DANGER OF HIS LIFE.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man of undaunted courage and inflexible
integrity, who professed republican principles, and seemed designed by
nature as a member of some Grecian commonwealth, after having observed
that the nation would be enslaved should it submit, either willingly or by
commission, to the successor of England, without such conditions of
government as should secure them against the influence of an English
ministry, offered the draft of an act, importing, that after the decease
of her majesty, without heirs of her body, no person being successor to
the English throne should succeed to the crown of Scotland but under the
following limitations, which, together with the coronation oath and claim
of right, they should swear to observe: namely, that all offices and
places, civil and military, as well as pensions, should for the future be
conferred by a parliament to be chosen at every Michaelmas head-court, to
sit on the first day of November, and adjourn themselves from time to time
till the ensuing Michaelmas; that they should choose their own president;
that a committee of six-and-thirty members, chosen out of the whole
parliament, without distinction of estates, should, during the intervals
of parliament, be vested, under the king, with the administration of the
government, act as his council, be accountable to parliament, and call it
together on extraordinary occasions. He proposed that the successor should
be nominated by the majority; declaring for himself that he would rather
concur in nominating the most rigid papist with those conditions, than the
truest protestant without them. The motion was seconded by many members;
and though postponed for the present, in favour of an act of trade under
the consideration of the house, it was afterwards resumed with great
warmth. In vain the lord-treasurer represented that no funds were as yet
provided for the army, and moved for a reading of the act presented for
that purpose; a certain member observed, that this was a very unseasonable
juncture to propose a supply, when the house had so much to do for the
security of the nation; he said they had very little encouragement to
grant supplies when they found themselves frustrated of all their labour
and expense for these several months; and when the whole kingdom saw that
supplies served for no other use but to gratify the warice of some
insatiable ministers. Mr. Fletcher expatiated upon the good consequences
that would arise from the act which he had proposed. The chancellor
answered, that such an act was laying a scheme for a commonwealth, and
tending to innovate the constitution of a monarchy. The ministry proposed
a state of a vote, whether they should first give a reading to Fletcher’s
act or to the act of subsidy. The country party moved that the question
might be, “Overtures for subsidies, or overtures for liberty.” Fletcher
withdrew his act, rather than people should pervert the meaning of
laudable designs. The house resounded with the cry of “Liberty or
Subsidy.” Bitter invectives were uttered against the ministry. One member
said it was now plain the nation was to expect no other return for their
expense and toil than that of being loaded with a subsidy, and being
obliged to bend their necks under the yoke of slavery, which was prepared
for them from that throne; another observed, that as their liberties were
suppressed, so the privileges of parliament were like to be torn from
them; but that he would venture his life in defence of his birthright, and
rather die a free man than live a slave. When the vote was demanded, and
declined by the commissioner, the earl of Roxburgh declared, that if there
was no other way of obtaining so natural and undeniable a privilege of
parliament, they would demand it with their swords in their hands. The
commissioner, foreseeing this spirit of freedom and contradiction, ordered
the foot-guard to be in readiness, and placed a strong guard upon the
eastern gate of the city. Notwithstanding these precautions, he ran the
risk of being torn to pieces; and, in this apprehension, ordered the
chancellor to inform the house that the parliament should proceed upon
overtures for liberty at their next sitting. This promise allayed the
ferment which had begun to rise. Next day the members prepared an
overture, implying, that the elective members should be chosen for every
seat at the Michaelmas head courts; that a parliament should be held once
in two years at least; that the short adjournments de die in diem
should be made by the parliaments themselves as in England; and that no
officer in the army, customs, or excise, nor any gratuitous pensioner,
should sit as an elective member. The commissioner being apprised of their
proceedings, called for such acts as he was empowered to pass, and having
given the royal assent to them, prorogued the parliament to the twelfth
day of October. 117 [See note X, at the end of this Vol.]
Such was the issue of this remarkable session of the Scottish parliament,
in which the duke of Queensberry was abandoned by the greatest part of the
ministry; and such a spirit of ferocity and opposition prevailed, as
threatened the whole kingdom with civil war and confusion. The queen
conferred titles upon those who appeared to have influence in the nation
118
[See note Y, at the end of this Vol.] and attachment to her
government, and revived the order of the thistle, which the late king had
dropped.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

Ireland was filled with discontent by the behaviour and conduct of the
trustees for the forfeited estates. The earl of Rochester had contributed
to foment the troubles of the kingdom by encouraging the factions which
had been imported from England. The duke of Ormond was received with open
arms as heir to the virtues of his ancestors, who had been the bulwarks of
the protestant interest in Ireland. He opened the parliament on the
twenty-first day of September, with a speech to both houses, in which he
told them that his inclination, his interest, and the examples of
progenitors, were indispensable obligations upon him to improve every
opportunity to the advantage and prosperity of his native country. The
commons having chosen Allen Broderick to be their speaker, proceeded to
draw up very affectionate addresses to the queen and the lord lieutenant.
In that to the queen they complained that their enemies had misrepresented
them, as desirous of being independent of the crown of England; they,
therefore, to vindicate themselves from such false aspersions, declared
and acknowledged that the kingdom of Ireland was annexed and united to the
imperial crown of England. In order to express their hatred of the
trustees, they resolved, that all the protestant freeholders of that
kingdom had been falsely and maliciously misrepresented, traduced, and
abused, in a book entitled, “The Report of the Commissioners appointed to
inquire into the Irish Forfeitures;” and it appearing that Francis
Annesley, member of the house, John Trenchard, Henry Langford, and James
Hamilton, were authors of that book, they further resolved, that these
persons had scandalously and maliciously misrepresented and traduced the
protestant freeholders of that kingdom, and endeavoured to create a
misunderstanding and jealousy between the people of England and the
protestants of Ireland. Annesley was expelled the house, Hamilton was
dead, and Trenchard had returned to England. They had finished the inquiry
before the meeting of this parliament; and sold at an undervalue the best
of the forfeited estates to the sword-blade company of England. This, in a
petition to the Irish parliament, prayed that heads of a bill be brought
in for enabling them to take conveyance of lands in Ireland; but the
parliament was very little disposed to confirm the bargains of the
trustees, and the petition lay neglected on the table. The house expelled
John Asgil, who, as agent to the sword-blade company, had offered to lend
money to the public in Ireland, on condition that the parliament would
pass an act to confirm the company’s purchase of the forfeited estates.
His constituents disowned his proposal; and when he was summoned to appear
before the house, and answer for his prevarication, he pleaded his
privilege as member of the English parliament. The commons, in a
representation of the state and grievances of the nation, gave her majesty
to understand that the constitution of Ireland had been of late greatly
shaken; and their lives, liberties, and estates, called in question, and
tried in a manner unknown to their ancestors; that the expense to which
they had been unnecessarily exposed by the late trustees for the forfeited
estates, in defending their just rights and titles, had exceeded in value
the current cash of the kingdom; that their trade was decayed, their money
exhausted; and that they were hindered from maintaining their own
manufactures; that many protestant families had been constrained to quit
the kingdom in order to earn a livelihood in foreign countries; that the
want of frequent parliaments in Ireland had encouraged evil-minded men to
oppress the subject; that many civil officers had acquired great fortunes
in that impoverished country, by the exercise of corruption and
oppression; that others, in considerable employments, resided in another
kingdom, neglecting personal attendance on their duty, while their offices
were ill executed, to the detriment of the public, and the failure of
justice. They declared, that it was from her majesty’s gracious
interposition alone they proposed to themselves relief from those their
manifold grievances and misfortunes. The commons afterwards voted the
necessary supplies, and granted one hundred and fifty thousand pounds to
make good the deficiencies of the necessary branches of the establishment.

A SEVERE ACT PASSED AGAINST PAPISTS.

They appointed a committee to inspect the public accounts, by which they
discovered that above one hundred thousand pounds had been falsely charged
as a debt upon the nation. The committee was thanked by the house for
having saved this sum, and ordered to examine what persons were concerned
in such a misrepresentation, which was generally imputed to those who
acted under the duke of Ormond. He himself was a nobleman of honour and
generosity, addicted to pleasure, and fond of popular applause; but he was
surrounded by people of more sordid principles, who had ingratiated
themselves into his confidence by the arts of adulation. The commons voted
a provision for the half-pay officers; and abolished pensions to the
amount of seventeen thousand pounds a-year, as unnecessary branches of the
establishment. They passed an act settling the succession of the crown
after the pattern set them by England; but the most important transaction
of this session was a severe bill to prevent the growth of popery. It bore
a strong affinity to that which had passed three years before in England;
but contained more effectual clauses. Among others it enacted, that all
estates of papists should be equally divided among the children,
notwithstanding any settlement to the contrary, unless the person to whom
they might be settled should qualify themselves by taking the oaths, and
communicating with the church of England. The bill was not at all
agreeable to the ministry in England, who expected large presents from the
papists, by whom a considerable sum had been actually raised for this
purpose. But as they did not think proper to reject such a bill while the
English parliament was sitting, they added a clause which they hoped the
parliament of Ireland would refuse: namely, that no persons in that
kingdom should be capable of any employment, or of being in the magistracy
of any city, who did not qualify themselves by receiving the sacrament
according to the test act passed in England. Though this was certainly a
great hardship on the dissenters, the parliament of Ireland sacrificed
this consideration to their common security against the Roman catholics,
and accepted the amendment without hesitation. This affair being
discussed, the commons of Ireland passed a vote against a book entitled,
“Memoirs of the late king James II.” as a seditious libel. They ordered it
to be burned by the hands of the common hangman; and the bookseller and
printer to be prosecuted. When this motion was made, a member informed the
house that in the county of Limerick the Irish papists had begun to form
themselves into bodies, to plunder the protestants of their arms and
money; and to maintain a correspondence with the disaffected in England.
The house immediately resolved, that the papists of the kingdom still
retained hopes of the accession of the person known by the name of the
Prince of Wales in the life-time of the late king James, and now by the
name of James III. In the midst of this zeal against popery and the
pretender, they were suddenly adjourned by the command of the
lord-lieutenant, and broke up in great animosity against that nobleman. 119
[See note Z, at the end of this Vol.]

THE ELECTOR TAKES POSSESSION OF RATISBON.

The attention of the English ministry had been for some time chiefly
engrossed by the affairs of the continent. The emperor agreed with the
allies that his son, the archduke Charles should assume the title of king
of Spain, demand the infanta of Portugal in marriage, and undertake
something of importance, with the assistance of the maritime powers. Mr.
Methuen, the English minister at Lisbon, had already made some progress in
a treaty with his Portuguese majesty; and the court of Vienna promised to
send such an army into the field as would in a little time drive the
elector of Bavaria from his dominions. But they were so dilatory in their
preparations, that the French king broke all their measures by sending
powerful reinforcements to the elector, in whose ability and attachment
Louis reposed great confidence. Mareschal Villars, who commanded an army
of thirty thousand men at Strasburgh, passed the Rhine and reduced fort
Kehl, the garrison of which was conducted to Philipsburgh. The emperor,
alarmed at this event, ordered count Schlick to enter Bwaria on the side
of Saltsburgh, with a considerable body of forces; and sent another, under
count Stirum, to invade the same electorate by the way of Newmark, which
was surrendered to him after he had routed a party of Bavarians; the city
of Amberg met with the same fate. Meanwhile count Schlick defeated a body
of militia that defended the lines of Saltsburgh, and made himself master
of Biedt, and several other places. The elector assembling his forces near
Brenau, diffused a report that he intended to besiege Passau, to cover
which place Schlick advanced with the greatest part of his infantry,
leaving behind his cavalry and cannon. The elector having by this feint
divided the Imperialists, passed the bridge of Scardingen with twelve
thousand men, and, after an obstinate engagement, compelled the
Imperialists to abandon the field of battle; then he marched against the
Saxon troops which guarded the artillery, and attacked them with such
impetuosity that they were entirely defeated. In a few days after these
actions, he took Newburgh on the Inn by capitulation. He obtained another
advantage over an advanced post of the Imperialists near Burgenfeldt,
commanded by the young prince of Brandenburgh Anspach, who was mortally
wounded in the engagement. He advanced to Batisbon, where the diet of the
empire was assembled, and demanded that he should be immediately put in
possession of the bridge and gate of the city. The burghers immediately
took to their arms, and planted cannon on the ramparts; but when they saw
a battery erected against them, and the elector determined to bombard the
place, they thought proper to capitulate, and comply with his demands. He
took possession of the town on the eighth day of April, and signed an
instrument obliging himself to withdraw his troops as soon as the emperor
should ratify the diet’s resolution for the neutrality of Ratisbon.
Mareschal Villars having received orders to join the elector at all
events, and being reinforced by a body of troops under count Tallard,
resolved to break through the lines which the prince of Baden had made at
Stolhoffen. This general had been luckily joined by eight Dutch
battalions, and received the French army, though double his number, with
such obstinate resolution, that Villars was obliged to retreat with great
loss, and directed his route towards Offingen. Nevertheless he penetrated
through the Black Forest, and effected a junction with the elector. Count
Stirum endeavoured to join prince Louis of Baden; but being attacked near
Schwemmingen, retired under the cannon of Nortlingen.

THE ALLIES REDUCE BONNE.

The confederates were more successful on the Lower Rhine and in the
Netherlands. The duke of Marlborough crossed the sea in the beginning of
April, and assembling the allied army, resolved that the campaign should
be begun with the siege of Bonne, which was accordingly invested on the
twenty-fourth day of April. Three different attacks were carried on
against this place: one by the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel; another
by the celebrated Coehorn; and a third by lieutenant-general Fagel. The
garrison defended themselves vigorously till the fourteenth day of May,
when the fort having been taken by assault, and the breaches rendered
practicable, the marquis d’Alegre, the governor, ordered a parley to be
beat; hostages were immediately exchanged; on the sixteenth the
capitulation was signed; and in three days the garrison evacuated the
place in order to be conducted to Luxembourg. During the siege of Bonne,
the mareschals Boufflers and Villeroy advanced with an army of forty
thousand men towards Tongeren, and the confederate army, commanded by M.
d’Auverquerque, was obliged at their approach to retreat under the cannon
of Maestricht. The enemy having taken possession of Tongeren, made a
motion against the confederate army, which they found already drawn up in
order of battle, and so advantageously posted, that, notwithstanding their
great superiority in point of number, they would not hazard an attack, but
retired to the ground from whence they had advanced. Immediately after the
reduction of Bonne, the duke of Marlborough, who had been present at the
siege, returned to the confederate army in the Netherlands, now amounting
to one hundred and thirty squadrons, and fifty-nine battalions. On the
twenty-fifth day of May, the duke having passed the river Jecker in order
to give battle to the enemy, they marched with precipitation to Boekwren,
and abandoned Tongeren, after having blown up the walls of the place with
gunpowder. The duke continued to follow them to Thys, where he encamped,
while they retreated to Hannye, retiring as he advanced. Then he resolved
to force their lines: this service was effectually performed by Coehorn,
at the point of Callo, and by baron Spaar, in the county of Waes, near
Stoken. The duke had formed the design of reducing Antwerp, which was
garrisoned by Spanish troops under the command of the marquis de Bedmar.
He intended with the grand army to attack the enemy’s lines on the side of
Louvaine and Mechlin: he detached Coehorn with his flying camp on the
right of the Scheldt towards Dutch Flanders, to amuse the marquis de
Bed-mar on that side; and he ordered the baron Opdam, with twelve thousand
men, to take post between Eckeren and Capelle, near Antwerp, that he might
act against that part of the lines which was guarded by the Spanish
forces.

ANNE, 1701—1714

BATTLE OF ECKEREN.

The French generals, in order to frustrate the scheme of Marlborough,
resolved to cut off the retreat of Opdam. Boufflers, with a detachment of
twenty thousand men from Villeroy’s army, surprised him at Eckeren, where
the Dutch were put in disorder; and Opdam, believing all was lost, fled to
Breda. Nevertheless, the troops rallying under general Schlangenburg,
maintained their ground with the most obstinate valour till night, when
the enemy was obliged to retire, and left the communication free with fort
Lillo, to which place the confederates marched without further
molestation, having lost about fifteen hundred men in the engagement. The
damage sustained by the French was more considerable. They were frustrated
in their design, and had actually abandoned the field of battle; yet Louis
ordered Te Deum to be sung for the victory; nevertheless Boufflers
was censured for his conduct on this occasion, and in a little time
totally disgraced. Opdam presented a justification of his conduct to the
states-general; but by this oversight he forfeited the fruits of a long
service, during which he had exhibited repeated proofs of courage, zeal,
and capacity. The states honoured Schlangenburg with a letter of thanks
for the valour and skill he had manifested in this engagement; but in a
little time they dismissed him from his employment on account of his
having given umbrage to the duke of Marlborough, by censuring his grace
for exposing such a small number of men to this disaster. After this
action, Villeroy, who lay encamped near Saint Job, declared he waited for
the duke of Marlborough, who forthwith advanced to Hoogstraat, with a view
to give him battle; but at his approach the French general, setting fire
to his camp, retired within his lines with great precipitation. Then the
duke invested Huy, the garrison of which, after a vigorous defence,
surrendered themselves prisoners of war on the twenty-seventh day of
August. At a council of war held in the camp of the confederates, the duke
proposed to attack the enemies’ lines between the Mehaigne and Leuwe, and
was seconded by the Danish, Hanoverian, and Hessian generals; but the
scheme was opposed by the Dutch officers, and the deputies of the states,
who alleged that the success was dubious, and the consequences of forcing
the lines would be inconsiderable; they therefore recommended the siege of
Limburgh, by the reduction of which they would acquire a whole province,
and cover their own country, as well as Juliers and Gueldres, from the
designs of the enemy. The siege of Limburgh was accordingly undertaken.
The trenches were opened on the five-and-twentieth day of September, and
in two days the place was surrendered; the garrison remaining prisoners of
war. By this conquest the allies secured the country of Liege, and the
electorate of Cologn, from the incursions of the enemy; before the end of
the year they remained masters of the whole Spanish Guelderland, by the
reduction of Gueldres, which surrendered on the seventeenth day of
September, after having been long blockaded, bombarded, and reduced to a
heap of ashes, by the Prussian general Lottum. Such was the campaign in
the Netherlands, which in all probability would have produced events of
greater importance, had not the duke of Marlborough been restricted by the
deputies of the states-general, who began to be influenced by the
intrigues of the Louvestein faction, ever averse to a single dictator.

PRINCE OF HESSE DEFEATED BY THE FRENCH.

The French king redoubled his efforts in Germany. The duke de Vendôme was
ordered to march from the Milanese to Tyrol, and there join the elector of
Bwaria, who had already made himself master of Inspruck. But the boors
rising in arms, drove him out of the country before he could be joined by
the French general, who was therefore obliged to return to the Milanese.
The Imperialists in Italy were so ill supplied by the court of Vienna,
that they could not pretend to act offensively. The French invested
Ostiglia, which, however, they could not reduce; but the fortress of
Barsillo, in the duchy of Beggio, capitulating after a long blockade, they
took possession of the duke of Modena’s country. The elector of Bwaria
rejoining Villars, resolved to attack count Stirum, whom prince Louis of
Baden had detached from his army. With this view they passed the Danube at
Donawert, and discharged six guns as a signal for the marquis D’Usson,
whom they had left in the camp at Lavingen, to fall upon the rear of the
imperialists, while they should charge them in front. Stirum no sooner
perceived the signal than he guessed the intention of the enemy, and
instantly resolved to attack D’Usson before the elector and the mareschal
should advance. He accordingly charged him at the head of some select
squadrons with such impetuosity, that the French cavalry were totally
defeated; and all his infantry would have been killed and taken, had not
the elector and Villars come up in time to turn the fate of the day. The
action continued from six in the morning till four in the afternoon, when
Stirum, being overpowered by numbers, was obliged to retreat to
Norlin-gen, with the loss of twelve thousand men, and all his baggage and
artillery. In the meantime the duke of Burgundy, assisted by Tallard,
undertook the siege of Old Brisac, with a prodigious train of artillery.
The place was very strongly fortified, though the garrison was small and
ill provided with necessaries. In fourteen days the governor surrendered
the place, and was condemned to lose his head for having made such a
slender defence. The duke of Burgundy returned in triumph to Versailles,
and Tallard was ordered to invest Landau. The prince of Hesse-Cassel being
detached from the Netherlands for the relief of the place, joined the
count of Nassau-Weilbourg, general of the Palatine forces, near Spires,
where they resolved to attack the French in their lines. But by this time
Mons. Pracon-tal, with ten thousand men, had joined Tallard, and enabled
him to strike a stroke which proved decisive. He suddenly quitted his
lines, and surprised the prince at Spirebach, where the French obtained a
complete victory after a very obstinate and bloody engagement, in which
the prince of Hesse distinguished himself by uncommon marks of courage and
presence of mind. Three horses were successively killed under him, and he
slew a French officer with his own hand. After incredible efforts, he was
fain to retreat with the loss of some thousands. The French paid dear for
their victory, Pracontal having been slain in the action. Nevertheless
they resumed the siege, and the place was surrendered by capitulation. The
campaign in Germany was finished by the reduction of Augsburg by the
elector of Bwaria, who took it in the month of December, and agreed to its
being secured by a French garrison.

TREATY BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE DUKE OF SAVOY.

The emperor’s affairs at this juncture wore a very unpromising aspect. The
Hungarians were fleeced and barbarously oppressed by those to whom he
intrusted the government of their country. They derived courage from
despair. They seized this opportunity, when the emperor’s forces were
divided, and his councils distracted, to exert themselves in defence of
their liberties. They ran to arms under the auspices of prince Ragotzki.
They demanded that their grievances should be redressed, and their
privileges restored. Their resentment was kept up by the emissaries of
France and Bwaria, who likewise encouraged them to persevere in their
revolt, by repeated promises of protection and assistance. The emperor’s
prospect, however, was soon mended by two incidents of very great
consequence to his interest. The duke of Savoy foreseeing how much he
should be exposed to the mercy of the French king, should that monarch
become master of the Milanese, engaged in a secret negotiation with the
emperor, which, notwithstanding all his caution, was discovered by the
court of Versailles. Louis immediately ordered the duke of Vendôme to
disarm the troops of Savoy that were in his army, to the number of
two-and-twenty thousand men; to insist upon the duke’s putting him in
possession of four considerable fortresses; and demand that the number of
his troops should be reduced to the establishment stipulated in the treaty
of 1696. The duke, exasperated at these insults, ordered the French
ambassador, and several officers of the same nation, to be arrested. Louis
endeavoured to intimidate him by a menacing letter, in which he gave him
to understand that since neither religion, honour, interest, nor
alliances, had been able to influence his conduct, the duke de Vendôme
should make known the intentions of the French monarch, and allow him
four-and-twenty hours to deliberate on the measures he should pursue. This
letter was answered by a manifesto: in the meantime the duke concluded a
treaty with the court of Vienna; acknowledged the archduke Charles as king
of Spain; and sent envoys to England and Holland. Queen Anne, knowing his
importance as well as his selfish disposition, assured him of her
friendship and assistance; and both she and the states sent ambassadors to
Turin. He was immediately joined by a body of imperial horse under
Visconti, and afterwards by count Staremberg, at the head of fifteen
thousand men, with whom that general marched from the Modenese in the
worst season of the year, through an enemy’s country, and roads that were
deemed impassable. In vain the French forces harassed him in his march,
and even surrounded him in many different places on the route: he
surmounted all these difficulties with incredible courage and
perseverance, and joined the duke of Savoy at Canelli, so as to secure the
country of Piedmont. The other incident which proved so favourable to the
imperial interest, was a treaty by which the king of Portugal acceded to
the grand alliance. His ministry perceived that should Spain be once
united to the crown of France, their master would sit very insecure upon
his throne. They were intimidated by the united fleets of the maritime
powers, which maintained the empire of the sea; and they were allured by
the splendour of a match between their infanta and the archduke Charles,
to whom the emperor and the king of the Romans promised to transfer all
their pretensions to the Spanish crown. By this treaty, concluded at
Lisbon between the emperor, the queen of Great Britain, the king of
Portugal, and the states-general, it was stipulated that king Charles
should be conveyed to Portugal by a powerful fleet, having on board twelve
thousand soldiers, with a great supply of money, arms, and ammunition; and
that he should be joined immediately upon his landing by an army of
eight-and-twenty thousand Portuguese.

SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL SAILS WITH A FLEET.

The confederates reaped very little advantage from the naval operations of
this summer. Sir George Rooke cruised in the channel, in order to alarm
the coast of France, and protect the trade of England. On the first day of
July, sir Cloudesley Shovel sailed from St. Helen’s with the combined
squadrons of England and Holland: he directed his course to the
Mediterranean, and being reduced to great difficulty by want of water,
steered to Altea, on the coast of Valentia, where brigadier Seymour
landed, and encamped with five-and-twenty hundred marines. The admiral
published a short manifesto, signifying that he was not come to disturb
but to protect the good subjects of Spain, who should swear allegiance to
their lawful monarch the archduke Charles, and endeavour to shake off the
yoke of France. This declaration produced little or no effect; and the
fleet being watered, sir Cloudesley sailed to Leghorn. One design of this
armament was to assist the Cevennois, who had in the course of the
preceding year been persecuted into a revolt on account of religion, and
implored the assistance of England and the states-general. The admiral
detached two ships into the gulf of Narbonne, with some refugees and
French pilots, who had concerted signals with the Cevennois; but the
mareschal de Montrevil having received intimation of their design, took
such measures as prevented all communication; and the English captains
having repeated their signals to no purpose, rejoined sir Cloudesley at
Leghorn. This admiral, having renewed the peace with the piratical states
of Barbary, returned to England without having taken one effectual step
for annoying the enemy, or attempted any thing that looked like the result
of a concerted scheme for that purpose. The nation naturally murmured at
the fruitless expedition, by which it had incurred such a considerable
expense. The merchants complained that they were ill supplied with
convoys. The ships of war were victualled with damaged provisions; and
every article of the marine being mismanaged, the blame fell upon those
who acted as council to the lord high-admiral.

ADMIRAL GRAYDON’S BOOTLESS EXPEDITION.

Nor were the arms of England by sea much more successful in the West
Indies. Sir George Rooke, in the preceding year, had detached from the
Mediterranean captain Hovenden Walker, with six ships of the line and
transports, having on board four regiments of soldiers, for the Leeward
islands. Being joined at Antigua by some troops under colonel Codrington,
they made a descent upon the island of Guadaloupe, where they razed the
fort, burned the town, ravaged the country, and reimbarked with
precipitation, in consequence of a report that the French had landed nine
hundred men on the back of the island. They retired to Nevis, where they
must have perished by famine, had they not been providentially relieved by
vice-admiral Graydon, in his way to Jamaica. This officer had been sent
out with three ships to succeed Benbow, and was convoyed about one hundred
and fifty leagues by two other ships of the line. He had not sailed many
days when he fell in with part of the French squadron, commanded by Du
Casse, on their return from the West Indies, very full and richly laden.
Captain Cleland, of the Montagu, engaged the sternmost; but he was called
off by a signal from the admiral, who proceeded on his voyage without
taking-further notice of the enemy. When he arrived at Jamaica, he
quarrelled with the principal planters of the island; and his ships
beginning to be crazy, he resolved to return to England. He accordingly
sailed through the gulf of Florida, with a view to attack the French at
Placentia in Newfoundland; but his ships were dispersed in a fog that
lasted thirty days; and afterwards the council of war which he convoked
were of opinion that he could not attack the settlement with any prospect
of success. At his return to England, the house of lords, then sitting,
set on foot an inquiry into his conduct. They presented an address to the
queen, desiring she would remove him from his employments; and he was
accordingly dismissed. The only exploit that tended to distress the enemy
was performed by rear-admiral Dilkes, who in the month of July sailed to
the coast of France with a small squadron; and, in the neighbourhood of
Granville, took or destroyed about forty ships and their convoy. Yet this
damage was inconsiderable, when compared to that which the English navy
sustained from the dreadful tempest that began to blow on the
twenty-seventh day of November, accompanied with such flashes of
lightning, and peals of thunder, as overwhelmed the whole kingdom with
consternation. The houses in London shook from their foundations, and some
of them falling buried the inhabitants in their ruins. The water
overflowed several streets, and rose to a considerable height in
Westminster-hall. London bridge was almost choked with the wrecks of
vessels that perished in the river. The loss sustained by the capital was
computed at a million sterling; and the city of Bristol suffered to a
prodigious amount; but the chief national damage fell upon the navy.
Thirteen ships of war were lost, together with fifteen hundred seamen,
including rear-admiral Beaumont, who had been employed in observing the
Dunkirk squadron, and was then at anchor in the Downs, where his ship
foundered. This great loss, however, was repaired with incredible
diligence, to the astonishment of all Europe. The queen immediately issued
orders for building a greater number of ships than that which had been
destroyed; and she exercised her bounty for the relief of the shipwrecked
seamen, and the widows of those who were drowned, in such a manner as
endeared her to all her subjects.

CHARLES KING OF SPAIN ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.

The emperor having declared his second son, Charles, king of Spain, that
young prince set out from Vienna to Holland, and at Dusseldorp was visited
by the duke of Marlborough, who, in the name of his mistress,
congratulated him upon his accession to the crown of Spain. Charles
received him with the most obliging courtesy. In the course of their
conversation, taking off his sword he presented it to the English general,
with a very gracious aspect, saying, in the French language, “I am not
ashamed to own myself a poor prince. I possess nothing but my cloak and
sword; the latter may be of use to your grace; and I hope you will not
think it the worse for my wearing it one day.”—“On the contrary,”
replied the duke, “it will always put me in mind of your majesty’s just
right and title, and of the obligations I lie under to hazard my life in
making you the greatest prince in Christendom.” This nobleman returned to
England in October and king Charles embarking for the same kingdom, under
convoy of an English and Dutch squadron, arrived at Spithead on the
twenty-sixth day of December. There he was received by the dukes of
Somerset and Marlborough, who conducted him to Windsor; and on the road he
was met by prince George of Denmark. The queen’s deportment towards him
was equally noble and obliging; and he expressed the most profound respect
and veneration for this illustrious princess. He spoke but little; yet
what he said was judicious; and he behaved with such politeness and
affability, as conciliated the affection of the English nobility. After
having been magnificently entertained for three days, he returned to
Portsmouth, from whence on the fourth of January he sailed for Portugal,
with a great fleet commanded by sir George Rooke, having on board a body
of land forces under the duke of Schomberg. When the admiral had almost
reached Cape Finisterre, he was driven back by a storm to Spithead, where
he was obliged to remain till the middle of February. Then being favoured
with a fair wind, he happily performed the voyage to Lisbon, where king
Charles was received with great splendour, though the court of Portugal
was overspread with sorrow excited by the death of the infanta, whom the
king of Spain intended to espouse. In Poland all hope of peace seemed to
vanish. The cardinal-primate, by the instigation of the Swedish king,
whose army lay encamped in the neighbourhood of Dantzick, assembled a diet
at Warsaw, which solemnly deposed Augustus, and declared the throne
vacant. Their intention was to elect young Sobieski, son of their late
monarch, who resided at Breslau in Silesia: but their scheme was
anticipated by Augustus, who retired hastily into his Saxon dominions, and
seizing Sobieski, with his brother, secured them as prisoners at Dresden.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Commons revive the Bill against occasional
Conformity….. Conspiracy trumped up by Simon Fraser, Lord
Lovat….. The Lords present a Remonstrance to the Queen…..
The Commons pass a Vote in favour of the Karl of
Nottingham….. Second Remonstrance of the Lords…..
Further Disputes between the two Houses….. The Queen
grants the first Fruits and the tenths to the poor
Clergy….. Inquiry into Naval Affairs….. Trial of
Lindsay….. Meeting of the Scottish Parliament….. Violent
Opposition to the Ministry in that Kingdom….. Their
Parliament pass the Act of Security….. Melancholy Situation
of the Emperor’s Affairs….. The duke of Marlborough
marches at the head of the Allied Army into Germany….. He
defeats the Bavarians at Schellenberg….. Fruitless
Negotiation with the Elector of Bavaria….. The
Confederates obtain a complete Victory at Hochstadt….. Siege
of Landau….. The Duke of Marlborough returns to
England….. State of the War in different parts of
Europe….. Campaign in Portugal….. Sir George Rooke takes
Gibraltar, and worsts the French Fleet in a Battle off
Malaga….. Session of Parliament in England….. An Act of
Alienation passed against the Scots….. Manor of Woodstock
granted to the Duke of Marlborough….. Disputes between the
two Houses on the Subject of the Aylesbury Constables…..
The Parliament dissolved….. Proceedings in the Parliament
of Scotland….. They pass an Act for a Treaty of Union with
England….. Difference between the Parliament and
Convocation in Ireland….. Fruitless Campaign on the
Moselle….. The Duke of Marlborough forces the French lines
in Brabant….. He is prevented by the Deputies of the States
from attacking the French Army….. He visits the Imperial
Court of Vienna….. State of the War on the Upper Rhine, in
Hungary, Piedmont, Portugal, and Poland….. Sir Thomas
Dilkes destroys part of the French Fleet, and relieves
Gibraltar….. The Earl of Peterborough and Sir Cloudesley
Shovel reduce Barcelona….. The Karl’s surprising Progress
in Spain….. New Parliament in England….. Bill for a
Regency in case of the Queen’s Decease….. Debates in the
House of Lords upon the supposed Danger to which the Church
was exposed….. The Parliament prorogued….. Disputes in
the Convocation….. Conferences opened for a Treaty of
Union with Scotland….. Substance of the Treaty.

BILL AGAINST OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY.

When the parliament met in October, the queen in her speech took notice of
the declaration by the duke of Savoy, and the treaty with Portugal, as
circumstances advantageous to the alliance. She told them, that although
no provision was made for the expedition to Lisbon, and the augmentation
of the land forces, the funds had answered so well, and the produce of
prizes been so considerable, that the public had not run in debt by those
additional services; that she had contributed out of her own revenue to
the support of the circle of Suabia, whose firm adherence to the interest
of the allies deserved her seasonable assistance. She said, she would not
engage in any unnecessary expense of her own, that she might have the more
to spare towards the ease of her subjects. She recommended despatch and
union, and earnestly exhorted them to avoid any heats or divisions that
might give encouragement to the common enemies of the church and state.
Notwithstanding this admonition, and the addresses of both houses, in
which they promised to avoid all divisions, a motion was made in the house
of commons for renewing the bill against occasional conformity, and
carried by a great majority. In the new draft, however, the penalties were
lowered and the severest clauses mitigated. As the court no longer
interested itself in the success of this measure, the house was pretty
equally divided with respect to the speakers, and the debates on each side
were maintained with equal spirit and ability; at length it passed, and
was sent up to the lords, who handled it still more severely. It was
opposed by a small majority of the bishops, and particularly by Burnet of
Sarum, who declaimed against it as a scheme of the papists to set the
church and protestants at variance. It was successively attacked by the
duke of Devonshire, the earl of Pembroke, the lords Haversham, Mohun,
Ferrars, and Wharton. Prince George of Denmark absented himself from the
house; and the question being put for a second reading, it was carried in
the negative; yet the duke of Marlborough and lord Godolphin entered their
dissent against its being rejected, although the former had positively
declared that he thought the bill unseasonable. The commons having perused
a copy of the treaty with Portugal, voted forty thousand men, including
five thousand marines, for the sea service of the ensuing year; and a like
number of land forces, to act in conjunction with the allies, besides the
additional ten thousand: they likewise resolved, that the proportion to be
employed in Portugal should amount to eight thousand. Sums were granted
for the maintenance of these great armaments, as well as for the subsidies
payable to her majesty’s allies; and funds appointed equal to the
occasion. Then they assured the queen, in an address, that they would
provide for the support of such alliances as she had made, or should make
with the duke of Savoy.

CONSPIRACY OF SIMON FRASER, LORD LOVAT.

At this period the nation was alarmed by the detection of a conspiracy
said to be hatched by the Jacobites of Scotland. Simon Fraser, lord Lovat,
a man of desperate enterprise, profound dissimulation, abandoned morals,
and ruined fortune, who had been outlawed for having ravished a sister of
the marquis of Athol, was the person to whom the plot seems to have owed
its origin. He repaired to the court of St. Germain’s, where he undertook
to assemble a body of twelve thousand highlanders to act in favour of the
pretender, if the court of France would assist them with a small
reinforcement of troops, together with officers, arms, ammunition, and
money. The French king seemed to listen to the proposal; but as Fraser’s
character was infamous, he doubted his veracity. He was therefore sent
back to Scotland with two other persons, who were instructed to learn the
strength and sentiments of the clans, and endeavour to engage some of the
nobility in the design of an insurrection. Fraser had no sooner returned,
than he privately discovered the whole transaction to the duke of
Queensberry, and undertook to make him acquainted with the whole
correspondence between the pretender and the Jacobites. In consequence of
this service he was provided with a pass, to secure him from all
prosecution; and made a progress through the highlands, to sound the
inclination of the chieftains. Before he set out on this circuit, he
delivered to the duke a letter from the queen dowager at St. Germain’s,
directed to the marquis of Athol: it was couched in general terms, and
superscribed in a different character; so that, in all probability, Fraser
had forged the direction with a view to ruin the marquis, who had
prosecuted him for the injury done to his sister. He proposed a second
journey to France, where he should be able to discover other more material
circumstances; and the duke of Queensberry procured a pass for him to go
to Holland from the earl of Nottingham, though it was expedited tinder a
borrowed name. The duke had communicated his discovery to the queen
without disclosing his name, which he desired might be concealed: her
majesty believed the particulars, which were confirmed by her spies at
Paris, as well as by the evidence of sir John Maclean, who had lately been
convoyed from France to England in an open boat, and apprehended at
Feldstone. This gentleman pretended at first that his intention was to go
through England to his own country, in order to take the benefit of the
queen’s pardon; and this in all probability was his real design; but being
given to understand that he would be treated in England as a traitor,
unless he should merit forgiveness by making important discoveries, he
related all he knew of the proposed insurrection. From his informations
the ministry gave directions for apprehending one Keith, whose uncle had
accompanied Fraser from France, and knew all the intrigues of the court of
St. Germain’s. He declared that there was no other design on foot, except
that of paving the way for the pretender’s ascending the throne after the
queen’s decease. Ferguson, that veteran conspirator, affirmed that Fraser
had been employed by the duke of Queensberry to decoy some persons whom he
hated into a conspiracy, that he might have an opportunity to effect their
ruin; and by the discovery establish his own credit, which began to
totter. Perhaps there was too much reason for this imputation. Among those
who were seized at this time was a gentleman of the name of Lindsay, who
had been under-secretary to the earl of Middleton. He had returned from
France to Scotland in order to take the benefit of the queen’s pardon,
under the shelter of which he came to England, thinking himself secure
from prosecution. He protested he knew of no designs against the queen or
her government; and that he did not believe she would ever receive the
least injury or molestation from the court of St. Germain’s. The house of
lords having received intimation of this conspiracy, resolved, that a
committee should be appointed to examine into the particulars; and ordered
that sir John Maclean should be next day brought to their house. The
queen, who was far from being pleased with this instance of their
officious interposition, gave them to understand by message, that she
thought it would be inconvenient to change the method of examination
already begun; and that she would in a short time inform the house of the
whole affair. On the seventeenth day of December the queen went to the
house of peers, and having passed the bill for the land-tax, made a speech
to both houses, in which she declared that she had unquestionable
information of ill practices and designs carried on by the emissaries of
France in Scotland. The lords persisting in their resolution to bring the
inquiry into their own house, chose their select committee by ballot; and,
in an address, thanked her majesty for the information she had been
pleased to communicate.

ANNE, 1701—1714

A REMONSTRANCE PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN.

The commons, taking it for granted that the queen was disobliged at these
proceedings of the upper house—which indeed implied an insult upon
her ministry, if not upon herself—presented an address, declaring
themselves surprised to find that when persons suspected of treasonable
practices were taken into custody by her majesty’s messengers in order to
be examined, the lords, in violation to the known laws of the land, had
wrested them out of her hands, and arrogated the examination solely to
themselves; so that a due inquiry into the evil practices and designs
against her majesty’s person and government, might in a great measure be
obstructed. They earnestly desired that she would suffer no diminution of
the prerogative; and they assured her they would, to the utmost of their
power, support her in the exercise of it at home, as well as in asserting
it against all invasions whatsoever. The queen thanked them for their
concern and assurances; and was not ill pleased at the nature of the
address, though the charge against the peers was not strictly true; for
there were many instances of their having assumed such a right of inquiry.
The upper house deeply resented the accusation. They declared, that by the
known laws and customs of parliament, they had an undoubted right to take
examinations of persons charged with criminal matters, whether those
persons were or were not in custody. They resolved, That the address of
the commons was unparliamentary, groundless, without precedent, highly
injurious to the house of peers, tending to interrupt the good
correspondence between the two houses, to create an ill opinion in her
majesty of the house of peers, of dangerous consequence to the liberties
of the people, the constitution of the kingdom, and privileges of
parliament. They presented a long remonstrance to the queen, justifying
their own conduct, explaining the steps they had taken, recriminating upon
the commons, and expressing the most fervent zeal, duty, and affection to
her majesty. In her answer to this representation, which was drawn up with
elegance, propriety, and precision, she professed her sorrow for the
misunderstanding which had happened between the two houses of parliament,
and thanked them for the concern they had expressed for the rights of the
crown and the prerogative; which she should never exert so willingly as
for the good of her subjects, and the protection of their liberties.

Among other persons seized on the coast of Sussex on their landing from
France, was one Boucher, who had been aidecamp to the duke of Berwick.
This man, when examined, denied all knowledge of any conspiracy: he said,
that being weary of living so long abroad, and having made some
unsuccessful attempts to obtain a pass, he had chosen rather to cast
himself on the queen’s mercy than to remain longer in exile from his
native country. He was tried and condemned for high treason, yet continued
to declare himself ignorant of the plot. He proved that in the war of
Ireland, as well as in Flanders, he had treated the English prisoners with
great humanity. The lords desisted from the prosecution; he obtained a
reprieve, and died in Newgate. On the twenty-ninth day of January, the
earl of Nottingham told the house that the queen had commanded him to lay
before them the papers containing all the particulars hitherto discovered
of the conspiracy in Scotland; but that there was one circumstance which
could not yet be properly communicated without running the risk of
preventing a discovery of greater importance. They forthwith drew up and
presented an address, desiring that all the papers might be immediately
submitted to their inspection. The queen said she did not expect to be
pressed in this manner immediately after the declaration she had made; but
in a few days the earl of Nottingham delivered the papers, sealed, to the
house, and all the lords were summoned to attend on the eighth day of
February, that they might be opened and perused. Nottingham was suspected
of a design to stifle the conspiracy. Complaint was made in the house of
commons that he had discharged an officer belonging to the late king
James, who had been seized by the governor of Berwick. A warm debate
ensued, and at length ended in a resolve, That the earl of Nottingham, one
of her majesty’s principal secretaries of state, for his great ability and
diligence in the execution of his office, for his unquestionable fidelity
to the queen and her government, and for his steady adherence to the
church of England as by law established, highly merited the trust her
majesty had reposed in him. They ordered the speaker to present this
resolution to the queen, who said, she was glad to find them so well
satisfied with the earl of Nottingham, who was trusted by her in so
considerable an office. They perused the examinations of the witnesses
which were laid before them, without passing judgment or offering advice
on the subject; but they thanked her majesty for having communicated those
particulars, as well as for her wisdom and care of the nation. When the
lords proceeded with uncommon eagerness in their inquiry, the lower house,
in another address, renewed their complaints against the conduct of the
peers, which they still affirmed was without a precedent. But this was the
language of irritated faction, by which indeed both sides were equally
actuated. The select committee of the lords prosecuted the inquiry, and
founded their report chiefly on the confession of sir John Maclean, who
owned that the court of St. Germain’s had listened to Lovat’s proposal;
that several councils had been held at the pretender’s court on the
subject of an invasion; and that persons were sent over to sound some of
the nobility in Scotland. But the nature of their private correspondence
and negotiation could not be discovered. Keith had tampered with his uncle
to disclose the whole secret; and this was the circumstance which the
queen declined imparting to the lords until she should know the success of
his endeavours, which proved ineffectual. The uncle stood aloof; and the
ministry did not heartily engage in the inquiry. The house of lords having
finished these examinations, and being warmed with violent debates, voted
that there had been dangerous plots between some persons in Scotland and
the courts of France and St. Germain’s; and that the encouragement for
this plotting arose from the not settling the succession to the crown of
Scotland in the house of Hanover. These votes were signified to the queen
in an address; and they promised, that when the succession should be thus
settled, they would endeavour to promote the union of the two kingdoms
upon just and reasonable terms. Then they composed another representation
in answer to the second address of the commons touching their proceedings.
They charged the lower house with want of zeal in the whole progress of
this inquiry. They produced a great number of precedents to prove that
their conduct had been regular and parliamentary; and they, in their turn,
accused the commons of partiality and injustice in vacating legal
elections. The queen, in answer to this remonstrance, said, she looked
upon any misunderstanding between the two houses as a very great
misfortune to the kingdom; and that she should never omit anything in her
power to prevent all occasions of them for the future.

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES.

The lords and commons, animated by such opposite principles, seized every
opportunity of thwarting each other. An action having been brought by one
Matthew Ashby against William White and the other constables of Aylesbury,
for having denied him the privilege of voting in the last election, the
cause was tried at the assizes, and the constables were cast with damages.
But an order was given in the queen’s bench to quash all the proceedings,
since no action had ever been brought on that account. The cause being
moved by writ of error into the house of lords, was argued with great
warmth; at length it was carried by a great majority, that the order of
the queen’s bench should be set aside, and judgment pronounced according
to the verdict given at the assizes. The commons considered these
proceedings as encroaching on their privileges. They passed five different
resolutions, importing, That the commons of England, in parliament
assembled, had the sole right to examine and determine all matters
relating to the right of election of their own members; that the practice
of determining the qualifications of electors in any court of law would
expose all mayors, bailiffs, and returning officers, to a multiplicity of
vexatious suits and insupportable expenses, and subject them to different
and independent jurisdictions, as well as to inconsistent determinations
in the same case, without relief; that Matthew Ashby was guilty of a
breach of privilege, as were all attorneys, solicitors, counsellors, and
sergeants-at-law, soliciting, prosecuting, or pleading, in any case of the
same nature. These resolutions, signed by the clerk, were fixed upon the
gate of Westminster-hall. On the other hand, the lords appointed a
committee to draw up a state of the case; and, upon their report,
resolved, That every person being wilfully hindered to exercise his right
of voting, might maintain an action in the queen’s courts against the
officer by whom his vote should be refused, to assert his right, and
recover damage for the injury; that an assertion to the contrary was
destructive of the property of the subjects, against the freedom of
elections, and manifestly tended to the encouragement of partiality and
corruption; that the declaring of Matthew Ashby guilty of a breach of
privilege of the house of commons, was an unprecedented attempt upon the
judicature of parliament, and an attempt to subject the law of England to
the votes of the house of commons. Copies of the case, and these
resolutions, were sent by the lord-keeper to all the sheriffs of England,
to be circulated through all the boroughs of their respective counties.

THE QUEEN’S BOUNTY to the POOR CLERGY.

On the seventh day of February, the queen ordered secretary Hedges to tell
the house of commons that she had remitted the arrears of the tenths to
the poor clergy; that she would grant her whole revenue arising out of the
first fruits and tenths, as far as it should become free from incumbrance,
as an augmentation of their maintenance; that if the house of commons
could find any method by which her intentions to the poor clergy might be
made more effectual, it would be an advantage to the public, and
acceptable to her majesty. The commons immediately brought in a bill
enabling her to alienate this branch of the revenue, and create a
corporation by charter, to direct the application of it to the uses
proposed; they likewise repealed the statute of mortmain, so far as to
allow all men to bequeath by will, or grant by deed, any sum they should
think fit to give towards the augmentation of benefices. Addresses of
thanks and acknowledgment from all the clergy of England were presented to
the queen for her gracious bounty; but very little regard was paid to
Burnet, bishop of Sarum, although the queen declared that prelate author
of the project. He was generally hated, either as a Scot, a low-churchman,
or a meddling partisan.

INQUIRY INTO NAVAL AFFAIRS.

In March, an inquiry into the condition of the navy was begun in the house
of lords. They desired the queen in an address to give speedy and
effectual orders that a number of ships, sufficient for the home service,
should be equipped and manned with all possible expedition. They resolved,
that admiral Graydon’s not attacking the four French ships in the channel,
had been a prejudice to the queen’s service, and a disgrace to the nation;
that his pressing men in Jamaica, and his severity towards masters of
merchant vessels and transports, had been a great discouragement to the
inhabitants of that island, as well as prejudicial to her majesty’s
service; and they presented an address against him, in consequence of
which he was dismissed. They examined the accounts of the earl of Oxford,
against which great clamour had been raised; and taking cognizance of the
remarks made by the commissioners of the public accounts, found them false
in fact, ill-grounded, and of no importance. The commons besought the
queen to order a prosecution on account of ill practices in the earl of
Ranelagh’s office; and they sent up to the lords a bill for continuing the
commission on the public accounts. Some alterations were made in the upper
house, especially in the nomination of commissioners; but these were
rejected by the commons. The peers adhering to their amendments, the bill
dropped, and the commission expired. No other bill of any consequence
passed in this session, except an act for raising recruits, which
empowered justices of the peace to impress idle persons for soldiers and
marines. On the third day of April the queen went to the house of peers,
and having made a short speech on the usual topics of acknowledgment,
unity, and moderation, prorogued the parliament to the fourth day of July.
The division still continued between the two houses of convocation; so
that nothing of moment was transacted in that assembly, except their
address to the queen upon her granting the first fruits and tenths for the
augmentation of small benefices. At the same time, the lower house sent
their prolocutor with a deputation to wait upon the speaker of the house
of commons, to return their thanks to that honourable house for having
espoused the interest of the clergy; and to assure them that the
convocation would pursue such methods as might best conduce to the
support, honour, interest, and security of the church as now by law
established. They sent up to the archbishop and prelates divers
representations, containing complaints, and proposing canons and articles
of reformation; but very little regard was paid to their remonstrances.

TRIAL OF LINDSAY.

About this period the earl of Nottingham, after having ineffectually
pressed the queen to discard the dukes of Somerset and Devonshire,
resigned the seals. The carl of Jersey and sir Edward Seymour were
dismissed; the earl of Kent was appointed chamberlain, Harley secretary of
state, and Henry St. John secretary of war. The discovery of the Scottish
conspiracy was no sooner known in France, than Louis ordered Fraser to be
imprisoned in the Bastile. In England, Lindsay being sentenced to die for
having corresponded with France, was given to understand that he had no
mercy to expect, unless he would discover the conspiracy, He persisted in
denying all knowledge of any such conspiracy; and scorned to save his life
by giving false information. In order to intimidate him into a confession,
the ministry ordered him to be conveyed to Tyburn, where he still rejected
life upon the terms proposed; then he was carried back to Newgate, where
he remained some years; at length he was banished, and died of hunger in
Holland. The ministers had been so lukewarm and languid in the
investigation of the Scottish conspiracy, that the whigs loudly exclaimed
against them as disguised Jacobites, and even whispered insinuations,
implying, that the queen herself had a secret bias of sisterly affection
for the court of St. Germain’s. What seemed to confirm this allegation was
the disgrace of the duke of Queensberry, who had exerted himself with
remarkable zeal in the detection; but the decline of his interest in
Scotland was the real cause of his being laid aside at this juncture.

1704

THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

The design of the court was to procure in the Scottish parliament the
nomination of a successor to the crown, and a supply for the forces, which
could not be obtained in the preceding session. Secretary Johnston, in
concert with the marquis of Tweedale, undertook to carry these points in
return for certain limitations on the successor, to which her majesty
agreed. The marquis was appointed commissioner. The office of
lord-register was bestowed upon Johnston; and the parliament met on the
sixth day of July. The queen, in her letter, expressed her concern that
these divisions should have risen to such a height, as to encourage the
enemies of the nation to employ their emissaries for debauching her good
subjects from their allegiance. She declared her resolution to grant
whatever could in reason be demanded for quieting the minds of the people.
She told them she had empowered the marquis of Tweedale to give
unquestionable proofs of her determination to maintain the government in
church and state, as by law established in that kingdom; to consent to
such laws as should be found wanting for the further security of both, and
for preventing all encroachments for the future. She earnestly exhorted
them to settle the succession in the protestant line, as a step absolutely
necessary for their own peace and happiness, the quiet and security of all
her dominions, the reputation of her affairs abroad, and the improvement
of the protestant interest through all Europe. She declared that she had
authorized the commissioners to give the royal assent to whatever could be
reasonably demanded, and was in her power to grant, for securing the
sovereignty and liberties of that her ancient kingdom. The remaining part
of the letter turned upon the necessity of their granting a supply, the
discouragement of vice, the encouragement of commerce, and the usual
recommendation of moderation and unanimity.

VIOLENT OPPOSITION TO THE MINISTRY.

The duke of Hamilton presented a resolve, that the parliament would not
name a successor to the crown, until the Scots should have concluded a
previous treaty with England in relation to commerce and other concerns.
This motion produced a warm debate, in the course of which Fletcher of
Saltoun expatiated upon the hardships and miseries which the Scots had
sustained since the union of the two crowns under one sovereign, and the
impossibility of bettering their condition, unless they should take care
to anticipate any design that tended to a continuation of the same
calamities. Another resolve was produced by the earl of Rothes, importing,
that the parliament should proceed to make such limitations and conditions
of the government as might be judged proper for rectifying the
constitution—for vindicating and securing the sovereignty and
independency of the nation; and that then parliament would take into
consideration the other resolve offered by the duke of Hamilton, for a
treaty previous to the nomination of a successor. This proposal was
seconded by the court party, and violent heats ensued. At length sir James
Falconer of Phesdo offered an expedient, which neither party could refuse
with any show of moderation. He suggested a resolve, that the parliament
would not proceed to the nomination of a successor until the previous
treaty with England should be discussed; and that it would make the
necessary limitations and conditions of government before the successor
should be nominated. This joint resolve being put to the vote, was carried
by a great majority. The treaty with England was neglected, and the affair
of the succession consequently postponed. The duke of Athol moved, that
her majesty should be desired to send down the witnesses and all the
papers relating to the conspiracy, that, after due examination, those who
were unjustly accused might be vindicated, and the guilty punished
according to their demerits. The commissioner declared, that he had
already written, and would write again to the queen on that subject. The
intention of the cavaliers was to convict the duke of Queensberry of
malice and calumny in the prosecution of that affair, that they might
wreak their vengeance upon him for that instance of his animosity, as well
as for his having deserted them in the former session. He found means
however to persuade the queen, that such an inquiry would not only
protract the session, but also divert them from the settlement of the
succession, and raise such a ferment as might be productive of tragical
consequences. Alarmed at these suggestions, she resolved to prevent the
examination, and gave no answer to the repeated applications made by her
parliament and ministers. Meanwhile the duke of Queensberry appeased his
enemies in Scotland, by directing all his friends to join in the
opposition.

THEY PASS THE ACT OF SECURITY.

The duke of Hamilton again moved, that the parliament should proceed to
the limitations, and name commissioners to treat with England previous to
all other business, except an act for a land tax of two months necessary
for the immediate subsistence of the forces. The earl of Marchmont
proposed an act to exclude all popish successors; but this was warmly
opposed, as unseasonable, by Hamilton and his party, A bill of supply
being offered by the lord justice Clerk, the cavaliers tacked to it great
part of the act of security, to which the royal assent had been refused in
the former session. Violent debates arose; so that the house was filled
with rage and tumult. The national spirit of independence had been wrought
up to a dangerous pitch of enthusiasm. The streets were crowded with
people of all ranks, exclaiming against English influence, and threatening
to sacrifice as traitors to their country all who should embrace measures
that seemed to favour a foreign interest. The commissioner and his friends
were confounded and appalled. Finding it impossible to stem the torrent,
he, with the concurrence of the other ministers, wrote a letter to the
queen, representing the uncomfortable situation of affairs, and advising
her majesty to pass the bill encumbered as it was with the act of
security. Lord Godolphin, on whose council she chiefly relied, found
himself involved in great perplexity. The tories had devoted him to
destruction. He foresaw that the queen’s concession to the Scots in an
affair of such consequence, would furnish his enemies with a plausible
pretence to arraign the conduct of her minister; but he chose to run that
risk rather than see the army disbanded for want of a supply, and the
kingdom left exposed to an invasion. He therefore seconded the advice of
the Scottish ministers; and the queen authorized the commissioner to pass
the bill that was depending. The act provided, that in case of the queen’s
dying without issue a parliament should immediately meet and declare the
successor to the crown, different from the person possessing the throne of
England, unless before that period a settlement should be made in
parliament of the rights and liberties of the nation, independent of
English councils; by another clause they were empowered to arm and train
the subjects, so as to put them in a posture of defence. The Scottish
parliament having, by a laudable exertion of spirit, obtained this act of
security, granted the supply without further hesitation; but not yet
satisfied with this sacrifice, they engaged in debates about the
conspiracy, and the proceedings of the house of lords in England, which
they termed an officious intermeddling in their concerns, and an
encroachment upon the sovereignty and independency of the nation, They
drew up an address to the queen, desiring that the evidence and papers
relating to the plot might be subjected to their examination in the next
session. Meanwhile, the commissioner, dreading the further progress of
such an ungovernable ferocity, prorogued the parliament to the seventh day
of October. The act of security being transmitted to England, copies of it
were circulated by the enemies of Godolphin, who represented it as a
measure of that minister; and the kingdom was filled with murmurs and
discontent. People openly declared, that the two kingdoms were now
separated by law so as never to be rejoined. Reports were spread that
great quantities of arms had been conveyed to Scotland, and that the
natives were employed in preparations to invade England. All the blame of
these transactions was imputed to lord Godolphin, whom the tories
determined to attack, while the other party resolved to exert their whole
influence for his preservation; yet, in all probability, he owed his
immediate support to the success of his friend the duke of Marlborough.

SITUATION OF THE EMPEROR’S AFFAIRS.

Nothing could be more deplorable than the situation to which the emperor
was reduced in the beginning of the season. The malcontents in Hungary had
rendered themselves formidable by their success; the elector of Bavaria
possessed all the places on the Danube as far as Passau, and even
threatened the city of Vienna, which must have been infallibly lost, had
the Hungarians and Bavarians acted in concert. By the advice of prince
Eugene, the emperor implored the assistance of her Britannic majesty; and
the duke of Marlborough explained to her the necessity of undertaking his
relief. This nobleman in the month of January had crossed the sea to
Holland, and concerted a scheme with the deputies of the states-general
for the operations of the ensuing campaign. They agreed that general
Averquerque should lie upon the defensive with a small body of troops in
the Netherlands, while the main army of the allies should act upon the
Rhine, under the command of the duke of Marlborough. Such was the pretext
under which this consummate general concealed another plan, which was
communicated to a few only in whose discretion he could confide. It was
approved by the pensionary and some leading men, who secured its
favourable reception with the states-general when it became necessary to
impart the secret to that numerous assembly. In the meantime, the
preparations were made on pretence of carrying the war to the banks of the
Moselle.

MARLBOROUGH MARCHES WITH THE ALLIED ARMY INTO GERMANY.

In the month of April, the duke, accompanied by his brother general
Churchill, lieutentant-general Lumley, the earl of Orkney, and other
officers of distinction, embarked for Holland, where he had a long
conference with a deputation of the states concerning a proposal of
sending a large army towards the Moselle. The deputies of Zealand opposed
this measure of sending their troops to stich a distance so strenuously,
that the duke was obliged to tell them in plain terms he had received
orders to march thither with the British forces. He accordingly assembled
his army at Maestricht, and on the eight day of May began his march into
Germany. The French imagined his intention was to begin the campaign with
the siege of Traerbach, and penetrate into France along the Moselle. In
this persuasion they sent a detachment to that river, and gave out that
they intended to invest Huy, a pretence to which the duke paid no regard.
He continued his route by Bedburgh, Kerpenord, Kalsecken; he visited the
fortifications of Bonne, where he received certain advice that the
recruits and reinforcements for the French army in Bavaria had joined the
elector at Villigen. He redoubled his diligence, passed the Neckar on the
third of June, and halted at Ladenburgh; from thence he wrote a letter to
the states-general, giving them to understand that he had the queen’s
orders to march to the relief of the empire, and expressing his hope that
they would approve the design, and allow their troops to share the honour
of the expedition By the return of a courier he received their
approbation, and full power to command their forces He then proceeded to
Mildenheim, where he was visited by prince Eugene; and these two great
men, whose talents were congenial, immediately contracted an intimacy of
friendship, Next day prince Louis of Baden arrived in the camp at Great
Hippach, He told the duke, his grace was come to save the empire, and to
give him an opportunity of vindicating his honour, which he knew was at
the last stake in the opinion of some people. The duke replied he was come
to learn of him how to serve the empire: that they must be ignorant indeed
who did not know that the prince of Baden, when his health permitted him,
had preserved the empire and extended its conquests.

Those three celebrated generals agreed that the two armies should join,
that the command should be alternately vested in the duke and prince Louis
from day to day, and that prince Eugene should command a separate army on
the Rhine, Prince Louis returned to his army on the Danube, prince Eugene
set out for Philipsburgh; the duke of Marlborough being joined by the
imperial army under prince Louis of Baden at Wastertellen, prosecuted his
march by Elchingen, Gingen, and Landthaussen. On the first day of July he
was in sight of the enemy’s entrenchments at Dillingen, and encamped with
his right at Amerdighem, and his left at Onderin-gen. Understanding that
the elector of Bavaria had detached the best part of his infantry to
reinforce the count D’Arco, who was posted behind strong lines at
Schellenberg near Donawert, he resolved to attack their entrenchments
without delay On the second day of July he advanced towards the enemy, and
passed the river Wermitz; about five o’clock in the afternoon the attack
was begun by the English and Dutch infantry, supported by the horse and
dragoons. They were very severely handled, and even obliged to give way,
when prince Louis of Baden marching up at the head of the imperialists to
another part of the line, made a diversion in their favour. After an
obstinate resistance they forced the entrenchments, and the horse entering
with the infantry, fell so furiously upon the enemy, already disordered,
that they were routed with great slaughter. They fled with the utmost
trepidation to Donawert and the Danube, leaving six thousand men dead on
the field of battle, The confederates took sixteen pieces of cannon,
thirteen pairs of colours, with all the tents and baggage. Yet the victory
was dearly purchased; some thousands of the allies were slain in the
attack, including many gallant officers, among whom were the generals Goor
and Beinheim, and count Stirum was mortally wounded. Next day the Bavarian
garrison abandoned Donawert, of which the confederates took immediate
possession, while the elector passed the Danube in his march to the river
Leche, lest the victors should cut off his retreat to his own country. The
confederates having crossed the Danube on several bridges of pontoons, a
detachment was sent to pass the Leche, and take post in the country of the
elector, who had retired under the cannon of Augsburgh. The garrison of
Neuburgh retiring to Ingoldstadt, the place was secured by the
confederates, and the count de Frize was detached with nine battalions and
fifteen squadrons to invest the town of Rain. Advice arriving from prince
Eugene that the mareschals Villeroy and Tallard had passed the Rhine at
Fort Kehl, with an army of five-and-forty thousand men, to succour the
elector of Bavaria, the generals of the allies immediately detached prince
Maximilian of Hanover with thirty squadrons of horse as a reinforcement to
the prince. In a few days Rain surrendered, and Aicha was taken by
assault. The emperor no sooner received a confirmation of the victory of
Schellenberg, than he wrote a letter of acknowledgment to the duke of
Marlborough, and ordered count Wratislau to intimate his intention of
investing him with the title of prince of the empire, which the duke
declined accepting until the queen interposed her authority at the desire
of Leopold.

ANNE, 1701—1714

FRUITLESS NEGOTIATION WITH THE ELECTOR.

The allies advanced within a league of Augsburgh, and though they found
the elector of Bavaria too securely posted under the cannon of that city
to be dislodged or attacked with any prospect of success, they encamped
with Friedburgh in the centre, so as to cut off all communication between
him and his dominions. The duke of Marlborough having reduced him to this
situation, proposed very advantageous terms of peace, provided he would
abandon the French interest, and join the imperialists in Italy. His
subjects seeing themselves at the mercy of the allies, pressed him to
comply with these offers rather than expose his country to ruin and
desolation. A negotiation was begun, and he seemed ready to sign the
articles, when hearing that mareschal Tallard had passed the Black Forest
to join him with a great body of forces, he declared that since the king
of France had made such powerful efforts to support him, he thought
himself obliged in honour to continue firm in his alliance. The generals
of the allies were so exasperated at this disappointment, that they sent
out detachments to ravage the country of Bavaria as far as Munich: upwards
of three hundred towns, villages, and castles were inhumanly destroyed, to
the indelible disgrace of those who countenanced and conducted such
barbarbous practices. The elector, shocked at these brutal proceedings,
desired, in a letter to the duke of Marlborough, that a stop might be put
to acts of violence so opposite to true glory. The answer he received
implied, that it was in his own power to put an end to them by a speedy
accommodation. Incensed at this reply, he declared that since they had
obliged him to draw the sword, he would throw away the scabbard. The duke
and prince Louis finding it impracticable to attack the elector in his
strong camp, resolved to undertake the siege of Ingoldstadt, and for that
purpose passed the Paer near the town of Schrobbenhausen, where they
encamped, with their left at Closterburgh. On the fifth day of August the
elector of Bavaria marched to Biberach, where he was joined by Tallard. He
resolved to pass the Danube at Lawingen to attack prince Eugene, who had
followed the French army from the lines of Bichi, and lay encamped at
Hochstadt. Next day, however, he made a motion that disappointed the
enemy. Nevertheless, they persisted in their design of passing the Danube
and encamping at Blenheim. The allies resolved that prince Louis should
undertake the siege of Ingoldstadt, whilst prince Eugene and the duke
should observe the elector of Bavaria. Advice being received that he had
actually crossed the Danube at Lawingen, the duke of Marlborough joined
the forces of prince Eugene at the camp of Munster on the eleventh day of
August, prince Louis having by this time marched off towards the place he
intended to besiege. Next day the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene
observed the posture of the enemy, who were advantageously posted on a
hill near Hochstadt, their right being covered by the Danube and the
village of Blenheim, their left by the village of Lutzengen, and their
front by a rivulet, the banks of which were steep, and the bottom marshy.

THE CONFEDERATES OBTAIN A COMPLETE VICTORY AT HOCHSTADT.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, the generals resolved to attack them
immediately, rather than lie inactive until their forage and provisions
should be consumed. They were moreover stimulated to this hazardous
enterprise by an intercepted letter to the elector of Bavaria, from
mareschal Villeroy, giving him to understand that he had received orders
to ravage the country of Wirtem-berg, and intercept all communication
between the Rhine and the allied army. The dispositions being made for the
attack, and the orders communicated to the general officers, the forces
advanced into the plain on the thirteenth day of August, and were ranged
in order of battle. The cannonading began about nine in the morning, and
continued on both sides till one in the afternoon. The French and
Bavarians amounted to about sixty thousand men, Mareschal Tallard
commanded on the right, and posted twenty-seven battalions, with twelve
squadrons, in the village of Blenheim, supposing that there the allies
would make their chief effort: their left was conducted by the elector of
Bavaria, assisted by Marsin, a French general of experience and capacity.
The number of the confederates did not exceed fifty-five thousand: their
right was under the direction of prince Eugene, and their left commanded
by the duke of Marlborough. At noon the battle was begun by a body of
English and Hessians under major-general Wilkes, who having passed the
rivulet with difficulty, and filed off to the left in the face of the
enemy, attacked the village of Blenheim with great vigour; but were
repulsed after three successive attempts. Meanwhile the troops in the
centre, and part of the right wing, passed the rivulet on planks in
different places, and formed on the other side without any molestation
from the enemy. At length, however, they were charged by the French horse
with such impetuosity, and so terribly galled in flank by the troops
posted at Blenheim, that they fell in disorder, and part of them repassed
the rivulet; but a reinforcement of dragoons coming up, the French cavalry
were broke in their turn, and driven to the very hedges of the village of
Blenheim. The left wing of the confederates being now completely formed,
ascended the hill in a firm compacted body, charged the enemy’s horse,
which could no longer stand their ground, but rallied several times as
they gave way. Tallard, in order to make a vigorous effort, ordered ten
battalions to fill up the intervals of his cavalry. The duke, perceiving
his design, sent three battalions of the troops of Zell to sustain his
horse. Nevertheless, the line was a little disordered by the prodigious
fire from the French infantry, and even obliged to recoil about sixty
paces: but the confederates advancing to the charge with redoubled ardour,
routed the French horse; and their battalions being thus abandoned, were
cut in pieces. Tallard, having rallied his broken cavalry behind some
tents that were still standing, resolved to draw off the troops he had
posted in the village of Blenheim, and sent an aidecamp to Marsdin, who
was with the elector of Bavaria on the left, to desire he would face the
confederates with some troops to the right of the village of Oberklau, so
as to keep them in play, and favour the retreat of the forces from
Blenheim. That officer assured him he was so far from being in a condition
to spare troops, that he could hardly maintain his ground. The fate of the
day was now more than half decided. The French cavalry being vigorously
attacked in flank, were totally defeated. Part of them endeavoured to gain
the bridge which they had thrown over the Danube between Hochstadt and
Blenheim, but they were so closely pursued, that those who escaped the
slaughter threw themselves into the river, where they perished. Tallard,
being surrounded, was taken near a mill behind the village of Sonderen,
together with the marquis de Montperouz, general of horse, the
major-generals de Seppeville, de Silly, de la Valiere, and many other
officers of distinction. While these occurrences passed on the loft wing,
Marsin’s quarters at the village of Oberklau, in the centre, were attacked
by ten battalions under the prince of Holsteinbeck, who passed the rivulet
with undaunted resolution; but before he could form his men on the other
side, he was overpowered by numbers, mortally wounded, and taken prisoner.
His battalions being supported by some Danish and Hanoverian cavalry,
renewed the charge, and were again repulsed: at length the duke of
Marlborough in person brought up some fresh squadrons from the body of
reserve, and compelled the enemy to retire. By this time prince Eugene had
obliged the left wing of the enemy to give ground, after having surmounted
a great number of difficulties, sustained a very obstinate opposition, and
seen his cavalry, in which his chief strength seemed to lie, three times
repulsed. The duke of Marlborough had no sooner defeated the right wing,
than he made a disposition to reinforce the prince, when he understood
from an aidecamp that his highness had no occasion for assistance; and
that the elector, with monsieur de Mar-sin, had abandoned Oberklau and
Luteingen. They were pursued as far as the villages of Morselingen and
Teissenhoven, from whence they retreated to Dillingen and Lawingen. The
confederates being now masters of the field of battle, surrounded the
village of Blenheim, in which, as we have already observed, twenty-seven
battalions and twelve squadrons were posted. These troops seeing
themselves cut off from all communication with the rest of their army, and
despairing of being able to force their way through the allies,
capitulated about eight in the evening, laid down their arms, delivered
their colours and standards, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war,
on condition that the officers should not be rifled. This was one of the
most glorious and complete victories that ever was obtained. Ten thousand
French and Bavarians were left dead on the field of battle: the greater
part of thirty squadrons of horse and dragoons perished in the river
Danube: thirteen thousand were made prisoners: one hundred pieces of
cannon were taken, with twenty-four mortars, one hundred and twenty-nine
colours, one hundred and seventy-one standards, seventeen pair of
kettle-drums, three thousand six hundred tents, thirty-four coaches, three
hundred laden mules, two bridges of boats, fifteen pontoons, fifteen
barrels and eight casks filled with silver. Of the allies, about four
thousand five hundred men were killed, and about eight thousand wounded or
taken. The loss of the battle was imputed to two capital errors committed
by Tallard; namely, his weakening the centre by detaching such a number of
troops to the village of Blenheim, and his suffering the confederates to
pass the rivulet, and form unmolested. Certain it is, these circumstances
contributed to the success of the duke of Marlborough, who rode through
the hottest of the fire with the calmest intrepidity, giving his orders
with that presence of mind and deliberation which were so peculiar to his
character. When he next day visited Tallard, he told that general he was
sorry such a misfortune should happen personally to one for whom he had a
profound esteem. The mareschal congratulated him on having vanquished the
best troops in the world; a compliment to which the duke replied, that he
thought his own the best troops in the world, seeing they had conquered
those upon whom the mareschal had bestowed such an encomium.

SIEGE OF LANDAU.

The victorious generals having by this decisive stroke saved the house of
Austria from entire ruin, and entirely changed the face of affairs in the
empire, signified their opinion to prince Louis of Baden, that it would be
for the advantage of the common cause to join all their forces and drive
the French out of Germany, rather than lose time at the siege of
Ingoldstadt, which would surrender of course. This opinion was confirmed
by the conduct of the French garrison at Augsburg, who quitted that place
on the sixteenth day of August. The magistrates sent a deputation, craving
the protection of the duke of Marlborough, who forthwith ordered a
detachment to take possession of that important city. The duke having sent
mareschal de Tallard under a guard of dragoons to Frankfort, and disposed
of the other prisoners of distinction in the adjacent places, encamped at
Sefillingen, within half a league of Ulm. Here he held a conference with
the princes Eugene and Louis of Baden, in which they agreed that, as the
enemy retreated towards the Bhine, the confederate army should take the
same rout, excepting three-and-twenty battalions and some squadrons to be
left for the siege of Ulm, under general Thungen. They began their march
on the twenty-sixth day of August, by different routes, to the general
rendezvous at Bruschal near Philipsburgh. Then they resolved that prince
Louis of Baden should undertake the siege of Landau, in order to secure
the circle of Suabia from the incursions of that garrison. Considering the
consternation that prevailed all over France, nothing could be more
impolitic than this measure, which gave the enemy time for recollection,
and recruiting their forces. It was a proposal on which the prince of
Baden insisted with uncommon obstinacy. He was even suspected of
corruption: he was jealous of the glory which the duke of Marlborough had
acquired, and such a bigoted papist, that he repined at the success of an
heretical general. On the twelfth day of September he marched towards
Landau with the troops destined for the siege; and the duke of
Marlborough, with prince Eugene, encamped at Croon Weissenburgh to cover
the enterprise. By this time Ulm had surrendered to Thungen, even before
the trenches were opened. Villeroy advanced with his army towards Landau,
as if he had intended to attack the confederates; but retired without
having made any attempt for the relief of the place, which was defended
with the most obstinate valour till the twenty-third day of November, when
the besiegers having lodged themselves on the counterscarp, the breaches
being practicable, and the dispositions made for a general assault, the
garrison capitulated upon honourable conditions. The king of the Romans
had arrived in the camp, that he might have the credit of taking the
place, the command of which he bestowed on the count de Frize, who had
before defended it with equal courage and ability.

MARLBOROUGH RETURNS TO ENGLAND.

The next enterprise which the confederates undertook was the siege of
Traerbach. The hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, being intrusted with the
direction of the attacks, invested the castle in the beginning of
November. Though it was strongly fortified and well defended, he carried
on his operations with such spirit and assiduity, that in about six weeks
the garrison surrendered the place on honourable terms. In the meantime
the duke of Marlborough repaired to Berlin, where he negotiated for a
reinforcement of eight thousand Prussians, to serve under prince Eugene in
Italy during the next campaign. Thence he proceeded to the court of
Hanover, where, as in all other places, he was received with particular
marks of distinction. When he arrived at the Hague, he was congratulated
by the states-general on his victories at Schellenberg and Blenheim, and
as much considered in Holland as if he had been actually stadt-holder. He
had received a second letter from the emperor couched in the warmest terms
of acknowledgment, and was declared prince of the empire. In December he
embarked for England, where he found the people in a transport of joy, and
was welcomed as a hero who had retrieved the glory of the nation.

STATE OF THE WAR IN EUROPE.

In Flanders nothing of moment was executed, except the bombardment of
Bruges and Namur by baron Spaar, with nine thousand Dutch troops; and two
attempts upon the French lines, which were actually penetrated by
Auverquerque, though he was not able to maintain the footing he had
gained. The elector of Bavaria, who had retired to Brussels after his
defeat, formed a scheme for surprising the Dutch general at the end of the
campaign, and assembled all his troops at Tirlemont: but the French court,
apprehensive of his temerity, sent Villeroy to watch his conduct, and
prevent his hazarding an engagement, except with a fair prospect of
advantage. The mareschal finding him determined to give battle at all
events, represented the improbability of succeeding against an enemy so
advantageously posted; and the ill consequences of a repulse: but finding
the elector deaf to all his remonstrances, he flatly refused to march, and
produced the king’s order to avoid an engagement. In Italy the French met
with no opposition. The duke of Savoy, being unable to face the enemy in
the field, was obliged to lie inactive. He saw the duke de Vendome reduce
Vercelli and Ivrea, and undertake the siege of Verac; while he posted his
little army on the other side of the Po, at Crescentino, where he had a
bridge of communication by which he supplied the place occasionally with
fresh troops and provisions. The place held out five months against all
the efforts of the French general: at length, the communication being cut
off, the duke of Savoy retired to Chivas. He bore his misfortunes with
great equanimity, and told the English minister that though he was
abandoned by the allies, he would never abandon himself. The emperor had
neglected Italy that he might act with more vigour against Ragotzki and
the Hungarian malcontents, over whom he obtained several advantages;
notwithstanding which they continued formidable, from their number,
bravery, and resolution. The ministers of the allies pressed Leopold to
enter into a negotiation for a peace with those rebels, and conferences
were opened; but he was not sincerely disposed to an accommodation, and
Ragotzki aimed at the principality of Transylvania, which the court of
Vienna would not easily relinquish. The emperor was not a little alarmed
by a revolution at the Ottoman porte, until the new sultan despatched a
chiaus to Vienna, with an assurance that he would give no assistance to
the malcontents of Hungary. In Poland, the diet being assembled by the
cardinal-primate, Stanislaus Lezinski, palatine of Posnania, was elected
and proclaimed king, and recognised by Charles of Sweden, who still
maintained his army by contributions in that country, more intent upon the
ruin of Augustus than upon the preservation of his own dominions; for he
paid no regard to the progress of the Muscovites, who had ravaged Livonia,
reduced Narva, and made incursions into Sweden. Augustus retreated into
his Saxon dominions, which he impoverished in order to raise a great army
with which he might return to Poland; the pope espoused the interest of
this new convert, so far as to cite the cardinal-primate to appear at
Rome, and give an account of the share he had in the Polish troubles. The
protestants of the Cevennois, deriving courage from despair, became so
troublesome to the government of France, that Louis was obliged to treat
them with lenity: he sent mareschal Villars against them with a fresh
reinforcement, but at the same time furnished him with instructions to
treat for an accommodation. This officer immediately commenced a
negotiation with Cavalier, the chief of the revolters; and a formal treaty
was concluded, by which they were indulged with liberty of conscience: but
these articles were very ill observed by the French ministry.

CAMPAIGN IN PORTUGAL.

In Portugal, the interest of king Charles wore a very melancholy aspect.
When he arrived at Lisbon, he found no preparations made for opening the
campaign. The Portuguese ministry favoured the French in secret; the
people were averse to heretics; the duke of Schom-berg was on ill terms
with Fagel, the Dutch general; the Portuguese forces consisted of raw
undisciplined peasants; and the French ambassador had bought up the best
horses in the kingdom; so that the troopers could not be properly mounted.
The king of Portugal had promised to enter Spain with Charles by the
middle of May; but he was not ready till the beginning of June, when they
reached Santaran. By this time they had published their respective
manifestoes; Charles displaying his title to the crown of Spain, and
promising pardon to all his subjects who would in three months join his
army; and the king of Portugal declaring, that his sole aim in taking up
arms was to restore liberty to the Spanish nation, oppressed by the power
of France, as Avell as to assert the right of Charles to that monarchy.
The present possessor, whom they mentioned by the name of the duke of
Anjou, had already anticipated their invasion. His general, the duke of
Berwick, entering Portugal, took the town of Segura by stratagem. The
governor of Salvaterra surrendered at discretion; Cebreros was reduced
without much opposition; Zode-bre was abandoned by the inhabitants; and
the town of Lhana la Viella was taken by assault. Portugal was at the same
time invaded in different parts by the marquis de Jeoffreville, prince
Tserclas de Tilly, and the marquis de Villadarias. Two Dutch battalions
were attacked and taken by the duke of Berwick at Sodreira Formosa. Then
he passed the Tagus, and joined prince Tserclas. King Philip arriving in
the army, invested Portalegre; and the garrison, including an English
regiment of foot commanded by colonel Stanhope, were made prisoners of
war. The next place he besieged was Castel Davide, which met with the same
fate. On the other hand, the marquis Das Minas, in order to make a
diversion, entered Spain with fifteen thousand men, took Feuenta Grimaldo
in Castile, by assault, defeated a body of French and Spaniards commanded
by Don Ronquillo, and made himself master of Manseinto. The weather
growing excessively hot, Philip sent his troops into quarters of
refreshment; and the allies followed his example. Duke Schomberg finding
his advice very little regarded by the Portuguese ministry, and seeing
very little prospect of success, desired leave to resign his command,
which the queen bestowed upon the earl of Galway, who, with a
reinforcement of English and Dutch troops, arrived at Lisbon on the
thirtieth day of July. About the latter end of September, the two kings
repaired to the camp near Almeida, resolving to invade Castile; but they
found the river Aguada so well guarded by the duke of Benvick, that they
would not attempt a passage. They therefore retired into the territories
of Portugal, and the army was put into winter quarters. The Spaniards were
now so weakened by detachments sent with the marquis de Villadarias
towards Gibraltar, that the duke of Berwick could not execute any scheme
of importance during the remaining part of the campaign.

SIR GEORGE KOOKE TAKES GIBRALTAR.

The arms of England were not less fortunate by sea than they had been upon
the Danube. Sir George Rooke having landed king Charles at Lisbon, sent a
squadron to cruise off Cape Spartell, under the command of rear admiral
Dilkes, who on the twelfth of March, engaged and took three Spanish ships
of war, bound from St. Sebastian’s to Cadiz. Rooke received orders from
the queen to sail to the relief of Nice and Villa Franca, which were
threatened with a siege by the duke de Vendôme; at the same time he was
pressed by king Charles to execute a scheme upon Barcelona, projected by
the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt, who declared his opinion, that the
Catalonians would declare for the house of Austria, as soon as they should
be assured of proper support and protection. The ministry of England
understanding that the French were employed in equipping a strong squadron
at Brest, and judging it was destined to act in the Mediterranean, sent
out sir Cloudesley Shovel with a considerable fleet, to watch the motions
of the Brest squadron; and he was provided with instructions how to act,
in case it should be sailed to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, sir George
Rooke, in compliance with the entreaties of King Charles, sailed with the
transports under his convoy to Barcelona, and on the eighteenth of May
appeared before the city. Next day the troops were landed by the prince of
Hesse, to the number of two thousand, and the Dutch ketches bombarded the
place; but by this time the governor had secured the chiefs of the
Austrian party; and the people exhibiting no marks of attachment to king
Charles, the prince re-embarked his soldiers, from an apprehension of
their being attacked and overpowered by superior numbers. On the sixteenth
day of June, sir George Rooke, being joined by sir Cloudesley Shovel,
resolved to proceed up the Mediterranean in quest of the French fleet,
which had sailed thither from Brest, and which Rooke had actually
discovered, in the preceding month, on their voyage to Toulon. On the
seventeenth day of July the admiral called a council of war in the road of
Tetuan, when they resolved to make an attempt upon Gibraltar, which was
but slenderly provided with a garrison. Thither they sailed, and on the
twenty-first day of the month the prince of Hesse landed on the isthmus
with eighteen hundred marines; then he summoned the governor to surrender,
and was answered, that the place would be defended to the last extremity.
Next day the admiral gave orders for cannonading the town; perceiving that
the enemy were driven from their fortifications at the south mole-head, he
commanded captain Whi-taker to arm all the boats, and assault that
quarter. The captains Hicks and Juniper, who happened to be nearest the
mole, immediately manned their pinnaces, and entered the fortifications
sword in hand. The Spaniards sprung a mine, by which two lieutenants, and
about a hundred men were killed or wounded. Nevertheless, the two captains
took possession of a platform, and kept their ground until they were
sustained by captain Whi-taker, and the rest of the seamen, who took by
storm a redoubt between the mole and the town. Then the governor
capitulated; and the prince of Hesse entered the place, amazed at the
success of this attempt, considering the strength of the fortifications,
which might have been defended by fifty men against a numerous army.

A sufficient garrison being left with his highness, the admiral returned
to Tetuan to take in wood and Water; and when he sailed, on the ninth day
of August, he descried the French fleet, to which he gave chase with all
the sail he could spread. On the thirteenth he came up with it, as it lay
in a line off Malaga ready to receive him, to the number of two-and-fifty
great ships, and four-and-twenty galleys, under the command of the count
de Tholouse, high-admiral of France, with the inferior flags of the white
and blue divisions. The English fleet consisted of three-and-fifty ships
of the line, exclusive of frigates, but they were inferior to the French
in number of guns and men, as well as in weight of metal, and altogether
unprovided with galleys, from which the enemy reaped great advantage
during the engagement. A little after ten in the morning the battle began,
with equal fury on both sides, and continued to rage with doubtful success
till two in the afternoon, when the van of the French gave way;
nevertheless, the fight was maintained till night, when the enemy bore
away to leeward. The wind shifting before morning, the French gained the
weather-gage; but they made no use of this advantage; for two successive
days the English admiral endeavoured to renew the engagement, which the
count de Tholouse declined, and at last he disappeared. The loss was
pretty equal on both sides, though not a single ship was taken or
destroyed by either; but the honour of the day certainly remained with the
English. Over and above the disadvantages we have enumerated, the bottoms
of the British fleet were foul, and several large ships had expended all
their shot long before the battle ceased; yet the enemy were so roughly
handled, that they did not venture another engagement during the whole
war. The French king, in order to raise the drooping spirits of his
people, claimed the victory, and published an account of the action,
which, at this distance of time, plainly proves that he was reduced to the
mean shift of imposing upon his subjects, by false and partial
representations. Among other exaggerations in this detail, we find mention
made of mischief done to French ships by English bombs; though nothing is
more certain than that there was not one bomb vessel in the combined
fleet. The French academy, actuated by a servile spirit of adulation,
caused a medal to be struck on the occasion, which, instead of
perpetuating the glory of their prince, served only to transmit their own
shame to posterity. After the battle, sir George Rooke sailed to Gibraltar
to refit, and leaving a squadron with sir John Leake, set sail for England
on the twenty-fourth day of August. He arrived in September, and was
received by the ministry, and the people in general, with those marks of
esteem and veneration which were due to his long services and signal
success; but he was still persecuted with a spirit of envy and detraction.
Philip king of Spain, alarmed at the reduction of Gibraltar, sent the
marquis de Villadarias with an army to retake it. The siege lasted four
months, during which the prince of Hesse exhibited many shining proofs of
courage and ability. The place was supplied with men and provisions by
convoys from Lisbon, until monsieur de Pointis put a stop to that
communication, by entering the bay with a strong squadron; but he was
obliged to retire at the approach of sir John Leake and admiral
Vanderdussen; and the marquis de Villadarias, having made little or no
progress on land, thought proper to abandon the enterprise.

SESSION OF PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND.

The parliament of England meeting on the twenty-ninth day of October, the
queen in her speech, observed, that the great and remarkable success with
which God had blessed her arms, produced unanimous joy and satisfaction
through all parts of the kingdom; and that a timely improvement of the
present advantages would enable her to procure a lasting foundation of
security for England, as well as a firm support for the liberty of Europe.
She declared her intention was to be kind and indulgent to all her
subjects. She expressed her hope that they would do nothing to endanger
the loss of this opportunity; and that there would be no contention among
them, but an emulation to promote the public welfare. Congratulatory
addresses were voted and presented by both houses. They were equal in
their professions of duty and affection to the queen; but the addresses
imbibed a very different colour from the different sanctions by which the
two houses were influenced. The lords congratulated her on the great and
glorious success of her arms under the command of the duke of Marlborough,
without deigning to mention sir George Rooke, who had defeated the French
navy at sea, and added the important fortress of Gibraltar to the British
conquests. On the other hand, the commons affected to mention the battle
of Blenheim, and Rooke’s naval victory, as events of equal glory and
importance. However they might be warped by prejudice against individuals,
they did not suffer the war to languish for want of supplies. Having taken
into consideration the services of the army and navy, they voted that the
queen should be desired to bestow her bounty on the seamen and land forces
who had behaved themselves so gallantly. Then they deliberated upon the
different articles of national expense, and granted four millions six
hundred and seventy thousand nine hundred and thirty-one pounds, for the
occasion’s of the ensuing year, to be raised by a land tax, by the sale of
annuities, and other expedients. These measures were taken with such
expedition, that the land tax received the royal assent on the ninth day
of December; when the queen, in a short speech, thanked the commons for
their despatch, which she considered a sure pledge of their affection.

AN ACT OF ALIENATION PASSED.

The high church party took this occasion to promote the bill against
occasional conformity, which was revived and brought into the house in a
new model by Mr. William Bromley, who moved that it might be tacked to the
land-tax bill, and sent up to the lords for their concurrence. The court
no longer espoused this measure, and the violent party was weakened by
defection. After a warm and tedious debate, the tack was rejected by a
great majority. The bill, however, passed the house of commons, and was
sent up to the lords on the fourteenth day of December, when it would
hardly have excited a debate had not the queen been present, and desirous
of hearing what could be said on both sides of the question. For the
information and satisfaction of her majesty the subject was again
discussed, and all the arguments being repeated, the bill was rejected by
a majority of one-and-twenty voices. The next subject on which the house
of lords employed their attention, was the late conduct of the Scottish
parliament. The lord Haversham, in a set speech, observed, that the
settlement of the succession in Scotland had been postponed, partly
because the ministry for that kingdom were weak and divided; partly from a
received opinion that the succession was never sincerely and cordially
intended by those who managed the affairs of Scotland in the
cabinet-council. He expatiated on the bad consequences that might attend
the act of security, which he styled a bill of exclusion, and particularly
mentioned that clause by which the heritors and boroughs were ordained to
exercise their fencible men every month. He said the nobility and gentry
of Scotland were as learned and brave as any nation in Europe, and
generally discontented: that the common people were very numerous, very
stout, and very poor; and he asked who was the man that could tell what
such a multitude, so armed, and so disciplined, might do under such
leaders could opportunities suit their intention. He recommended these
circumstances to the consideration of the house, and concluded with these
words of Lord Bacon, “Let men beware how they neglect or suffer matter of
troubles to be prepared, for no man can forbid the sparks that may set all
on fire.” The lords resolved to consider these subjects on the
twenty-ninth day of November, when the queen repaired to the house of
peers to hear the debates, and by her presence moderate the heat of both
parties. The earl of Nottingham reflected so severely on the memory of
king William, that he would have been sent to the Tower, had not the lords
declined any such motion out of respect to her majesty. After much
declamation on the Scottish act of security, the grand committee of the
peers, by the advice of lord Wharton, resolved that the queen should be
enabled by act of parliament on the part of England, to name commissioners
to treat about an union with Scotland, provided that the parliament of
Scotland should first appoint commissioners on their part for the same
purpose; that no Scotsmen should enjoy the privileges of Englishmen,
except such as were settled in England, Ireland, and the plantations, and
such as were or might be in the sea or land service, until an union could
be effected, or the succession settled as in England: that the traffic by
cattle from Scotland to England should be prevented: that the lord admiral
should issue orders for taking such vessels as should be found trading
from Scotland to France, or to the ports of any of her majesty’s enemies:
and that care should be taken to prevent the exportation of English wool
into Scotland. On these resolutions a bill was formed for an entire union,
and passed the house on the twentieth day of December. The lords presented
an address to the queen, representing that they had duly weighed the
dangerous and pernicious effects that were likely to be produced by divers
acts of parliament lately passed in Scotland: that they were of opinion
the safety of the kingdom required that speedy and effectual orders should
be given to put Newcastle in a posture of defence, to secure the port of
Tynemouth, and repair the fortifications of Hull and Carlisle. They
likewise advised her majesty to give directions for disciplining the
militia of the four northern counties; for providing them with arms and
ammunition; for maintaining a competent number of regular troops on the
northern borders of England, as well as in the north of Ireland; and for
putting the laws in execution against papists. The queen promised that a
survey should be made of the places they had mentioned, and laid before
parliament, and that she would give the necessary directions upon the
other articles of the address. The commons seemed to concur with the lords
in their sentiments of the Scottish act of security. They resolved that a
bill should be brought in for the effectual securing the kingdom of
England from the apparent dangers that might arise from several acts
lately passed in the parliament of Scotland, and this was formed on nearly
the same resolutions which had been taken in the upper house. The bill
sent down by the lords was thrice read, and ordered to lie on the table,
but they passed their own, to take effect at Christmas, provided before
that time the Scots should not settle the succession. When it was offered
to the lords they passed it without any amendment, contrary to the
expectation and even to the hope of some members who were no friends to
the house of Hanover, and firmly believed the lords would have treated
this bill with the same contempt which had been manifested for that which
they had sent down to the commons.

The duke of Marlborough, at his first appearance in the house after his
return to England, was honoured with a very extraordinary eulogium,
pronounced by the lord-keeper, in the name of the peers of England; and a
compliment of the same nature was presented to him by a committee of the
house of commons. Doctor Delaune, vice-chancellor of Oxford, accompanied
by the principal members of the University, attended the queen with an
address of congratulation upon the success of her arms in Germany, under
the admirable conduct and invincible courage of the duke of Marlborough;
and at sea, under the most brave and faithful admiral sir George Booke. He
received a civil answer from her majesty, though now she took umbrage at
Booke’s being raised upon a level with the duke of Marlborough, whose
great victories had captivated her administration, and whose wife had
alienated her affection from the tories. The commons perceiving how high
he stood in her majesty’s esteem, and having been properly tutored for the
purpose, took into consideration the great services of the duke; and, in
an address, besought her majesty to consider some proper means to
perpetuate the memory of such noble actions. In a few days she gave them
to understand, by a message that she was inclined to grant the interest of
the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wooton, to
the duke of Marlborough and his heirs; and that as the lieutenancy and
rangership of the parks, with the rents and profits of the manors and
hundreds, were granted for two lives, she wished that incumbrance could be
removed. A bill was immediately brought in, enabling the queen to bestow
these honours and manors on the duke of Marlborough and his heirs, and the
queen was desired to advance the money for clearing the incumbrances. She
not only complied with this address, but likewise ordered the comptroller
of her works to build in Woodstock-park a magnificent palace for the duke,
upon a plan much more solid than beautiful. By this time sir George Rooke
was laid aside, and the command of the fleet bestowed upon sir Cloudesley
Shovel, now declared rear-admiral of England. Mareschal de Tallard, with
the other French generals taken at Hochstadt, arrived on the sixteenth of
December in the river Thames, and were immediately conveyed to Nottingham
and Lichfield, attended by a detachment of the royal regiment of horse
guards. They were treated with great respect, and allowed the privilege of
riding ten miles around the places of their confinement.

ANNE, 1701—1714

DISAGREEMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF THE AYLESBURY CONSTABLES.

While the house of commons, in two successive addresses, thanked the queen
for the treaty which the duke of Marlborough had concluded with Prussia
concerning the troops to be sent to the duke of Savoy, and desired she
would use her interest with the allies that they might next year furnish
their complete proportions of men by sea and land; the lords examined into
all the proceedings at sea and all the instructions of the admiralty, and
presented an address to the queen, explaining all the different articles
of mismanagement. She promised to consider them particularly, and give
such directions upon them as might be most for the advantage of the public
service. The remaining part of the session was consumed in disputes and
altercations between the two houses on the subject of the Aylesbury
constables, who were sued by five other inhabitants for having denied them
the right of voting at the election. These five persons were committed to
Newgate by order of the house of commons. They moved for a habeas-corpus
in the King’s Bench, but the court would take no cognizance of the affair.
Two of the prisoners petitioned the queen that their case might be brought
before her majesty in parliament. The commons, in an address, besought the
queen to refuse granting a writ of error in this case, which would tend to
the overthrowing the undoubted rights and privileges of the commons of
England. She assured them she would not do any thing to give them just
cause of complaint, but this matter relating to the course of judicial
proceedings being of the highest importance, she thought it necessary to
weigh and consider very carefully what might be proper for her to do in a
thing of so great concern. They voted all the lawyers, who had pleaded on
the return of the habeas-corpus in behalf of the prisoners, guilty
of a breach of privilege, and ordered them to be taken into custody. They
likewise ordered the prisoners to be removed from Newgate into the custody
of their serjeant-at-arms, lest they should have been discharged by the
queen’s granting writs of error. The prisoners, finding themselves at the
mercy of the exasperated commons, petitioned the lords for relief. The
upper house passed six different resolutions against the conduct of the
commons, as being an obstruction to justice, and contrary to Magna Charta.
The lower house demanded a conference, in which they insisted upon the
sole right of determining elections: they affirmed that they only could
judge who had a right of voting, and that they were judges of their own
privileges, in which the lords could not intermeddle.

THE PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.

The upper house demanded a free conference, which proved ineffectual. New
resolutions were taken by the commons, diametrically opposite to those of
the peers; who, on the other hand, attended the queen with along
representation of all the particulars relating to this affair. They
affirmed that the proceedings of the house of commons against the
Aylesbury men, were wholly new and unprecedented: that it was the
birthright of every Englishman, who apprehended himself injured, to seek
for redress in her majesty’s courts of justice: that if any power could
control this right, and prescribe when he should, and when he should not,
be allowed the benefit of the laws, he ceased to be a freeman, and his
liberty and property were precarious. They requested, therefore, that no
consideration whatever should prevail with her majesty to suffer an
obstruction to the known course of justice, but that she would be pleased
to give effectual orders for the immediate issuing of the writs of error.
The queen assured them that she would have complied with their request,
but finding an absolute necessity for putting an immediate end to the
session, she knew there could be no further proceedings on that matter. On
the very day, which was the fourteenth of March, she went to the house of
lords and passed the bills that were ready for the royal assent. Then she
thanked the parliament for having despatched the public business: she
warned them to avoid the fatal effects of animosity and dissension: and
ordered the lord keeper to prorogue them to Thursday the first of May; but
on the fifth of April they were dissolved by proclamation, and another was
published for calling a new parliament. The queen, accompanied by the
prince of Denmark, made an excursion to Newmarket, and afterwards dined by
invitation with the university of Cambridge, where she conferred the
honour of knighthood upon Dr. Ellis the vice-chancellor, upon James
Montague, counsel for the University, and upon the celebrated Isaac
Newton, mathematical professor. The two houses of convocation still
continued at variance. The lower house penned petulant representations,
and the archbishop answered them by verbal reprehension and admonition.
The tory interest was now in the wane. The duke of Buckinghamshire was
deprived of the privy-seal, and that office conferred on the duke of
Newcastle, a nobleman of powerful influence with the whig party. The earl
of Montague was created marquis of Mounthermer and duke of Montague; the
earl of Peterborough and lord Cholmondeley were chosen of the
privy-council; and lord Cutts was sent to command the troops in Ireland
under the duke of Ormond.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

The ministry of Scotland was now entirely changed. The marquis of Tweedale
and Johnston having been found unequal to the undertaking, were dismissed.
The duke of Queensberry resumed the management of affairs in that kingdom
under the title of lord privy-seal, and the office of commissioner was
conferred upon the young duke of Argyle, who succeeded to his father’s
influence among the presbyterians. He was a nobleman possessed of good
natural talents, which had not been neglected; candid, open, and sincere;
brave, passionate, and aspiring; had he been endued with a greater share
of liberality, his character would have been truly heroic. At this
juncture he was instructed to procure an act of the Scottish parliament,
settling the protestant succession, or to set on foot a treaty for the
union of the two kingdoms. At the opening of the session in June, the
members were divided into three parties, namely, the cavaliers or
Jacobites, the revolutioners, the squadrone volante, or flying squadron,
headed by the marquis of Tweedale, who disclaimed the other two factions,
and pretended to act from the dictates of conscience alone. The parliament
was adjourned to the third day of July, when her majesty’s letter was
read, earnestly recommending the settlement of the succession in the
protestant line, and an act for a commission to treat of an union between
the two kingdoms. The marquis of Annandale proposed that the parliament
should proceed on the limitations and conditions of government: that a
committee should be appointed to consider the condition of the coin and
the commerce of the nation. The earl of Mar moved that the house would,
preferable to all other business, consider the means for engaging in a
treaty with England. After a long debate they resolved to proceed on the
coin and the commerce. Schemes for supplying the nation with money by a
paper credit were presented by Dr. Hugh Chamberlain and John Law, but
rejected. The house resolved that any kind of paper credit, by the
circulation of bills, was an improper expedient, and appointed a council
to put the laws relating to trade in execution. The duke of Hamilton
proposed that the parliament should not proceed to the nomination of a
successor until the treaty with England should be discussed, and the
limitations settled. This proposal being approved, a draft of an answer to
her majesty’s letter was presented by the marquis of Tweedale. Two
different forms of an act for a treaty with England were offered by the
earl of Mar and the marquis of Lothian: others were produced concerning
the elections of officers of state, and the regulation of commerce.

1705

ACT PASSED FOR A TREATY OF UNION.

The chief aim of the cavaliers was to obstruct the settlement of the
succession, and with that view they pressed the project of limitations, to
which they knew the court would never assent. A motion being made to grant
the first reading to an act of commission for a treaty with England, the
duke of Hamilton insisted on the limitations, and a vote being stated in
these terms, “Proceed to consider the act for a treaty of limitation,” the
latter was carried in favour of the cavaliers. On the twenty-second day of
August an act for this purpose was approved; and next day an act for a
triennial parliament, which the courtiers were enabled to defeat. They
likewise passed an act, ordaining, that the Scottish ambassadors
representing Scotland should be present when the sovereign might have
occasion to treat with foreign princes and states, and be accountable to
the parliament of Scotland. Fletcher of Saltoun, presented a scheme of
limitations that savoured strongly of republican principles. He afterwards
enlarged upon every article, endeavouring to prove that they were
absolutely necessary to prevent the consequences of English influence; to
enable the nation to defend its rights and liberties; to deter ministers
of state from giving bad advice to their sovereign; to preserve the courts
of judicature from corruption, and screen the people from tyranny and
oppression. The earl of Stair having argued against these limitations,
Fletcher replied, “It is no wonder he opposed the scheme; for, had such an
act subsisted, his lordship would have been hanged for the bad counsel he
had given to king James; for the concern he had in the massacre of
Glencoe; and for his conduct since the revolution.” The next subject on
which the parliament deliberated was the conspiracy. A motion being made
that the house might know what answer the queen had returned to their
address in the last session, the chancellor delivered to the clerk
register the papers relating to the plot, that they might be perused by
the members: but these being copies, and the evidences remaining at
London, no further progress was made in the affair. Yet the duke of Athol,
in a distinct narrative of the pretended conspiracy, boldly accused the
duke of Queensberry of having endeavoured to mislead the queen by false
accusations against her good subjects. When the act for a treaty of union
fell under consideration, a draft for that purpose, presented by the earl
of Mar, was compared with the English act, importing, that the queen
should name and appoint not only the commissioners for England, but
likewise for Scotland.

Fletcher did not fail to inveigh against the imperious conduct of the
English parliament in this affair. He exhorted the house to resent such
treatment, and offered the draft of an address to her majesty on the
subject, but this the house rejected. Duke Hamilton proposed that a clause
might be added to the act, importing, that the union should nowise
derogate from any fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices, rights,
liberties, and dignities of the Scottish nation. This occasioned a long
debate; and a question being put, was carried in the negative. Another
clause was proposed, that the Scottish commissioners should not begin to
treat until the English parliament should have rescinded their clause
enacting that the subjects of Scotland should be adjudged and taken as
aliens after the twenty-fifth day of December. The courtiers, considering
the temper of the house, would not venture to oppose this motion directly,
but proposed that the clause should be formed into a separate act, and the
expedient was approved. Though the Duke of Athol entered a vigorous
protest, to which the greater part of the cavaliers and all the squadrone
adhered, comprehending four-and-twenty peers, seven-and-thirty barons, and
eighteen boroughs, the act for the treaty of union was, after much
altercation, finished, empowering commissioners to meet and treat of an
union; but restraining them from treating of any alterations of the church
government as by law established. Whilst this important subject was under
consideration, the duke of Hamilton, to the amazement of his whole party,
moved that the nomination of the commissioners should be left to the
queen. Fourteen or fifteen of the cavaliers ran out of the house in a
transport of indignation, exclaiming that they were deserted and basely
betrayed by the duke of Hamilton. A very hot debate ensued, in the course
of which the duke was severely handled by those whom he had hitherto
conducted: but at length the question being put whether the nomination
should be left to the queen or to the parliament, the duke’s motion was
approved by a very small majority. He afterwards excused himself for his
defection, by saying he saw it was in vain to contend, and that since the
court had acquired a great majority, he thought he might be allowed to pay
that compliment to his sovereign. He was desirous of being in the
commission, and the duke of Argyle promised he should be nominated. The
queen refusing to honour him with that mark of distinction, Argyle would
not suffer himself to be named, and threatened to oppose the union, but
means were found to appease his resentment. Two drafts of an address being
presented by the earl of Sutherland and Fletcher of Saltoun, beseeching
her majesty to use her endeavours with the parliament of England to
rescind that part of their act which declared the subjects of Scotland
aliens; and an overture of a bill being offered, ordaining that the
Scottish commissioners should not enter upon the treaty of union until
that clause should be repealed; the courtiers moved that the parliament
should proceed by way of order to their commissioners, and by address to
her majesty. After some debate, the house assenting to this proposal, the
order and address was drawn up and approved. The great and weighty affair
of the treaty being at length happily transacted, though not without a
protest by Athol and his adherents, the parliament granted a supply of
fifty thousand pounds, and the house was adjourned to the twentieth day of
December; then the queen declaring the earl of Mar secretary of state in
the room of the marquis of Annandale, who was appointed lord president of
the council.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENT AND CONVOCATION IN IRELAND.

In Ireland, the parliament met at Dublin on the fifth day of March, and
voted one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for the support of the
necessary branches of the establishment. A dispute arose between the
commons and the lower house of convocation, relating to the tithes of hemp
and flax, ascertained in a clause of a bill for the better improvement of
the hempen and flaxen manufactures of the kingdom. The lower house of
convocation presented a memorial against this clause as prejudicial to the
rights and properties of the clergy. The commons voted the person who
brought it in guilty of a breach of privilege, and ordered him to be taken
into custody. Then they resolved that the convocation were guilty of a
contempt and breach of the privilege of that house. The convocation
presuming to justify their memorials, the commons voted that all matters
relating to it should be razed out of the journals and books of
convocation. The duke of Ormond, dreading the consequences of such heats,
adjourned the parliament to the first day of May, when the houses meeting
again, came to some resolutions that reflected obliquely on the
eon-vocation as enemies to her majesty’s government and the protestant
succession. The clergy, in order to acquit themselves of all suspicion,
resolved in their turn that the church and nation had been happily
delivered from popery and tyranny by king William at the revolution: that
the continuance of these blessings were due, under God, to the auspicious
reign and happy government of her majesty queen Anne: that the future
security and preservation of the church and nation depended wholly, under
God, on the succession of the crown as settled by law in the protestant
line: that if any clergyman should by word or writing declare anything in
opposition to these resolutions, they should look upon him as a sower of
divisions among the protestants, and an enemy to the constitution. They
levelled another resolution against the presbyterians, importing, that to
teach or to preach against the doctrine, government, rites, or ceremonies
of the church, or to maintain schools or seminaries for the education of
youth, in principles contrary to those of the established church, was a
contempt of the ecclesiastical laws of the kingdom; of pernicious
consequence; and served only to continue and widen the unhappy schisms and
divisions in the nation. In June the parliament was prorogued to the same
month of the following year: then the duke of Ormond embarked for England,
leaving the administration in the hands of sir Richard Cox, lord
chancellor, and lord Cutts, the commander-in-chief of the queen’s forces,
who were appointed lords-justices during the duke’s absence.

CAMPAIGN ON THE MOSELLE.

During these transactions in Great Britain and Ireland, the allies had not
been remiss in their preparations for the ensuing campaign. The duke of
Marlborough had fixed upon the Moselle for the scene of action; and
magazines of all sorts were formed at Triers. On the thirteenth day of
March the duke embarked for Holland, where he prevailed upon the
states-general to contribute their troops for the execution of his
project. Having concerted with the deputies of the states and the Dutch
generals the necessary measures for opening the campaign, he set out for
Maestricht in order to assemble his army. On the fifth day of May the
emperor Leopold died at Vienna, and was succeeded on the imperial throne
by his eldest son Joseph, king of the Romans, a prince who resembled his
father in meekness of disposition, narrowness of intellect, and bigotry to
the Romish religion. On the fifteenth of June the English troops passed
the Maese, and continued their march towards the Moselle, under the
command of general Churchill; and the duke set out for Cruetznach, to
confer with prince Louis of Baden, who excused himself on pretence of
being much indisposed. Marlborough visited him at Castadt, where in a
conference they resolved that a sufficient number of German troops should
be left for the security of the lines of Lauterburg and Stolhoffen, under
the command of general Thungen, and that prince Louis of Baden should
march with a large detachment towards the Saar, to act in concert with the
duke of Marlborough. The confederate army passed the Moselle and the Saar
in the beginning of June, and encamped at Elft in sight of the enemy, who
retired with great precipitation, and intrenched themselves in the
neighbourhood of Coningsmarcheren. The duke’s design was to besiege
Saar-Louis; but prince Louis failed in the performance of his engagement:
he feigned himself sick, and repaired to the bath at Schlangenbacle,
leaving the small number of imperial troops he conducted as far as
Cruetznach, under the command of the count de Frize. He was suspected of
treachery; but probably acted from envy of the duke’s military
reputation.*

* The duke of Marlborough finding himself obliged to
retreat, sent a note with a trumpeter to Villars, containing
an apology for decamping:—“Do me the justice, said he, to
believe that my retreat is entirely owing to the failure of
the prince of Baden; but that my esteem for you is still
greater than my resentment of his conduct.”

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH FORCES THE FRENCH LINES IN BRABANT.

While this nobleman sustained such a mortifying disappointment on the
Moselle, the French did not fail to take advantage of their superiority in
the Netherlands, where general d’Auverquerque was obliged to stand on the
defensive. They invested Huy, and carried on their operations so
vigorously, that in a few days the garrison were obliged to surrender
themselves prisoners of war; then Villeroy undertook the reduction of
Liege, and actually began his works before the citadel. Marlborough was no
sooner informed of the enemy’s progress than he marched to Triers, where,
in a council, it was resolved that the army should return to the
Netherlands. The troops were in motion on the nineteenth of June, and
marched with such expedition that they passed the Maese on the first day
of July. Villeroy having received advice of the duke’s approach, abandoned
his enterprise, and retired to Tonegren, from whence he retreated within
his lines, that reached from Marche aux Dames on the Mouse, along the
Mehaigne as far as Lenuive. Marlborough having joined d’Auverquerque, sent
general Scholten with a detachment to invest Huy, and in a few days the
garrison surrendered at discretion. The English general, resolving to
strike some stroke of importance that should atone for his disappointment
on the Moselle, sent general Hompesch to the states, with a proposal for
attacking the French lines; and obtained their permission to do whatever
he should think proper for the good of the common cause. Then he explained
the scheme in two successive councils of war, by which at length it was
approved and resolved upon, though some Dutch generals declared themselves
against the undertaking. The enemy were posted along the lines, amounting
to one hundred battalions, and one hundred and forty-six squadrons. The
allied army did not much exceed that number. In order to divide them,
d’Auverquerque made a false motion, and passed the Mehaigne as if he had
intended to attack the lines about Messelin. The stratagem succeeded. The
French weakened the other parts by strengthening that which was on the
side of the Gerbise towards Namur. The duke of Marlborough having made the
disposition, the army began to march in the night between the seventeenth
and eighteenth of July, in order to force a passage of the French lines at
Heylesem, the castle of Wauge, and the villages of Wauge, Neerhespen, and
Oostmalen. These posts were taken with very little difficulty; but before
the infantry could come up, the enemy advanced with fifty squadrons and
twenty battalions, and began to fire from eight pieces of cannon with
triple barrels, which did considerable execution. The duke perceiving that
they were continually reinforced from the other parts of the lines,
ordered the horse to charge their cavalry, which were soon broken and
routed; but rallying behind their infantry, interlined with foot, and
joined by fresh squadrons, they advanced again towards the allies, who
were now sustained by their infantry, and moved forward to renew the
charge. After a warm though short engagement, the enemy’s horse were
defeated with great slaughter. The infantry, seeing themselves abandoned
in the plain, retreated in great disorder, between the villages of
Heylesem and Golsteven, where they were joined by the rest of their army,
and formed again in order of battle. Meanwhile the duke of Marlborough
ordered all his troops to enter the lines; and extended his right towards
the great Geete before Tirlemont, where the enemy had left the battalion
of Montluc, which surrendered at discretion. In this action the
confederates took the marquis d’Alegre and the count de Home,
lieutenant-generals, one major-general, two brigadier-generals, with many
other officers, and a great number of common soldiers; a large heap of
standards, four colours, one pair of kettle-drums, and ten pieces of
cannon. In the action, as the duke of Marlborough advanced to the charge
at the head of several squadrons, a Bavarian officer rode up to attack him
sword in hand; but in raising himself on his stirrups to strike with the
greater advantage, he fell from his horse and was immediately slain.

The body of troops commanded by monsieur d’Alegre being thus defeated with
little or no loss to the confederates, the elector of Bavaria and the
mareschal de Villeroy passed the great Geete and the Deule, with great
expedition, and took possession of the strong camp at Parck, their left
extending to Eoselser, and their right to Winselen against the height of
Louvain. Next day the duke of Marlborough, marching through the plain of
Parck, took twelve hundred prisoners, who could not keep pace with the
rest of the enemy’s forces; and in the evening he encamped with the right
at the abbey of Vliersbeck, and the left before Bierbcek, under the cannon
of Louvain. He detached lieutenant-gen-carl Henkelum, the duke of
Wirtemberg, and count Oxienstiern, with a considerable body of forces, to
attack some posts on the Deule which were slenderly guarded. Their
advanced guard accordingly passed the river and repulsed the enemy; but
for want of timely support, they were obliged to pass it and retire. On
the third of August baron Spaar, with a body of Dutch troops, marched to
Raboth on the canal of Bruges, forced the French lines at Lovendegen, and
took four forts by which they were defended; but receiving advice that the
enemy were on their march towards him, he retired to Mildegem, and carried
with him several hostages as security for the payment of the contributions
he had raised. On the fifteenth the duke moved from Mildert to Corbais;
next day he continued his march to Genap, from whence he advanced to
Fischer-mont. On the seventeenth general d’Auverquerque took the post of
Waterloo; and next day the confederate army was drawn up in order of
battle before the enemy, who extended from Overysche, near the wood of
Soignies, to Neerysche, with the little river Ysche in their front, so as
to cover Brussels and Louvain. The duke of Marlborough proposed to attack
them immediately, before they should recollect themselves from their
consternation; and d’Auverquerque approved of the design; but it was
opposed by general Schlangenburg and other Dutch officers, who represented
it in such a light to the deputies of the states, that they refused to
concur in the execution. The duke being obliged to relinquish the scheme,
wrote an expostulatory letter to the states-general, complaining of their
having withdrawn that confidence which they had reposed in him while he
acted Germany. This letter being published at the Hague, excited murmurs
among the people, and the English nation were incensed at the presumption
of the deputies, who wrote several letters in their own justification to
the states-general; but these had no effect upon the populace, by whom the
duke was respected even to a degree of adoration. The states being
apprised of the resentment that prevailed over all England, and that the
earl of Pembroke, lord-president of the council, was appointed as
envoy-extraordinary to Holland, with instructions to demand satisfaction,
thought proper to anticipate his journey by making submissions to the
duke, and removing Schlangenburg from his command. The confederate army
returned to Corbais, from whence it inarched to Perwitz, where it
encamped. The little town of Sout-Leeuwe, situated in the middle of a
morass, and constituting the chief defence of the enemy’s lines, being
taken by a detachment under the command of lieutenant-general Dedem, the
duke ordered the lines from this place to Wasseigne to be levelled, and
the town of Tirlemont to be dismantled; then passing the Demer, he
encamped on the nineteenth day of September at Aerschot. About the latter
end of the month he marched to Heventlials; from hence the duke repaired
to the Hague, where he had several conferences with the pensionary. In a
few days he returned to the army, which decamping from Heventlials,
marched to Clampthout. On the twenty-fourth day of October, the count de
Noyelles invested Santvliet, which surrendered before the end of the
month.

ANNE, 1701—1714

HE VISITS THE COURT OF VIENNA.

At this period the duke, in consequence of pressing letters from the
emperor, set out for Vienna in order to concert the operations for the
ensuing campaign, and other measures of importance, in which the concerns
of the allies were interested. In his way he was magnificently entertained
by the elector Palatine, and him of Triers, and complimented by the
magistracy of Frankfort, where he conferred with prince Louis of Baden. On
the twelfth of November he arrived at Vienna, where he was treated with
the highest marks of distinction and cordial friendship by their imperial
majesties. His son-in-law, the earl of Sunderland, had been sent thither
as envoy-extraordinary; and now they conferred together with the emperor
and his ministers. They resolved to maintain the war with redoubled
vigour. The treaties were renewed, and provision made for the security of
the duke of Savoy. The emperor, in consideration of the duke’s signal
service to the house of Austria, presented him with a grant of the
lordship of Mindel-heim in Suabia, which was now erected into a
principality of the Roman empire. In his return with the earl of
Sunderland he visited the courts of Berlin and Hanover, where he was
received with that extraordinary respect which was due to his character;
and arrived at the Hague on the fourteenth day of December. There he
settled the operations of the next campaign with the states-general, who
consented to join England in maintaining an additional body of ten
thousand men reinforcement to the army of prince Eugene in Italy. While
the allies were engaged in the siege of Santvliet, the elector of Bavaria
sent a detachment, under the command of don Marcello de Grimaldi, to
invest Diest, the garrison of which were made prisoners of war.

STATE OF THE WAR ON THE UPPER RHINE, IN HUNGARY, &c.

On the Upper Rhine, mareschal Villars besieged and took Homburgh, and
passed the Rhine at Strasburgh on the sixth day of August. Prince Louis of
Baden arriving in the camp of the Imperialists at Stolhoffen, not only
obliged him to retire, but having passed the river, forced the French
lines at Hagenau; then he reduced Drusenheim and Hagenau, but attempted no
enterprise equal to the number of his army, although the emperor had
expostulated with him severely on his conduct, and he had now a fair
opportunity of emulating the glory of Marlborough, upon whom he looked
with the eyes of an envious rival. In Italy a battle was fought at Casano,
between prince Eugene and the duke de Vendôme, with dubious success. The
duke de Feuillade reduced Chivas, and invested Nice, which, after an
obstinate defence, surrendered in December. All the considerable places
belonging to the duke of Savoy were now taken, except Coni and Turin; and
his little army was reduced to twelve thousand men, whom he could hardly
support. His duchess, his clergy, and his subjects in general, pressed him
to submit to the necessity of his affairs; but he adhered to the alliance
with surprising fortitude. He withstood the importunities of his duchess,
excluded all the bishops and clergy from his councils; and when he had
occasion for a confessor, he chose a priest occasionally either from the
Dominicans or Franciscans. The campaign in Portugal began with a very
promising aspect. The allies invaded Spain by the different frontiers of
Beyra and Alentejo. Their army, under the command of the Condo das
Galveas, undertook the siege of Valencia D’Alcantara in May, and took it
by assault; Albuquerque surrendered upon articles, and then the troops
were sent into quarters of refreshment. The marquis de las Minas, who
commanded the Portuguese in the province of Beyra, reduced the town of
Salva-terra, plundered and burned Sarca, but was obliged to retire to
Panamacos at the approach of the enemy. Towards the end of September the
confederates, being reassembled, invested Badajox, by the advice of the
earl of Gal-way, who lost his right hand by a cannon ball, and was obliged
to be carried off; so that the conduct of the siege was left to General
Fagel. He had made considerable progress towards the reduction of the
place, when the marquis de Thessé found means to throw in a powerful
reinforcement, and then the confederates abandoned the enterprise. The war
continued to rage in Hungary with various success. Ragotzki, though
frequently worsted, appeared still in arms, and ravaged the country, which
became a scene of misery and desolation. In Poland the old
cardinal-primate owned Stanislaus, but died before the coronation, which
was performed by the bishop of Cujavia. In the beginning of winter king
Augustus had passed through Poland in disguise to the Muscovite army,
which was put under his command in Lithuania; and the campaign was
protracted through the whole winter season, notwithstanding the severity
of the weather in that northern climate. In the spring the Swedish
general, Reinchild, obtained a complete victory over the Saxon army, which
was either cut in pieces or taken, with their camp, baggage, and
artillery; yet the war was not extinguished. The king of Sweden continued
obstinately deaf to all proposals of peace, and was become as savage in
his manners, as brutal in his revenge.

THE FRENCH FLEET DESTROYED, &c.

At sea the arms of the allies were generally prosperous. Philip of Spain,
being obstinately bent upon retaking Gibraltar, sent mareschal de Thessé
to renew the siege, while de Pontis was ordered to block up the place by
sea with his squadron. These French officers carried on the siege with
such activity, that the prince of Hesse despatched an express to Lisbon
with a letter, desiring sir John Leake to sail immediately to his
assistance. This admiral having been reinforced from England by sir Thomas
Dilkes, with five sail of the line and a body of troops, set sail
immediately; and on the tenth day of March descried five ships of war
hauling out of the bay of Gibraltar. These were commanded by de Pontis in
person, to whom the English admiral gave chase. One of them struck, after
having made a very slight resistance; and the rest ran ashore to the
westward of Marbella, where they were destroyed. The remaining part of the
French squadron had been blown from their anchors, and taken shelter in
the bay of Malaga; but now they slipped their cables and made the best of
their way to Toulon. The mareschal de Thessé, inconsequence of this
disaster, turned the siege of Gibraltar into a blockade, and withdrew the
greater part of his forces. While sir John Leake was employed in this
expedition, sir George Byng, who had been ordered to cruise in soundings
for the protection of trade, took a ship of forty guns from the enemy,
together with twelve privateers, and seven vessels richly laden from the
West Indies.

BARCELONA REDUCED BY SIR C. SHOVEL AND LORD PETERBOROUGH.

But the most eminent achievement of this summer was the reduction of
Barcelona, by the celebrated earl of Peterborough and sir Cloudesley
Shovel, who sailed from St. Helen’s in the latter end of May with the
English fleet, having on board a body of five thousand land forces; and on
the twentieth day of June arrived at Lisbon; where they were joined by sir
John Leake and the Dutch admiral Allemonde. In a council of war, they
determined to put to sea with eight-and-forty ships of the line, which
should be stationed between cape Spartel and the bay of Cadiz, in order to
prevent the junction of the Toulon and Brest squadrons. The prince of
Hesse-d’Armstadt arriving from Gibraltar, assured king Charles that the
province of Catalonia and the kingdom of Valencia were attached to his
interest; and his majesty, being weary of Portugal, resolved to accompany
the earl of Peterborough to Barcelona. He accordingly embarked with him on
board of the Ranelagh; and the fleet sailed on the twenty-eighth day of
July, the earl of Galway having reinforced them with two regiments of
English dragoons. At Gibraltar they took on board the English guards, and
three old regiments, in lieu of which they left two new raised battalions.
On the eleventh day of August they anchored in the bay of Altea, where the
earl of Peterborough published a manifesto in the Spanish language, which
had such an effect that all the inhabitants of the place, the neighbouring
villages, and adjacent mountains, acknowledged king Charles as their
lawful sovereign. They seized the town of Denia for his service; and he
sent thither a garrison of four hundred men under the command of
major-general Ramos. On the twenty-second they arrived in the bay of
Barcelona: the troops were disembarked to the eastward of the city, where
they encamped in a strong situation, and were well received by the country
people. King Charles landed amidst the acclamations of an infinite
multitude from the neighbouring towns and villages, who threw themselves
at his feet, exclaiming, “Long live the king!” and exhibiting all the
marks of the most extravagant joy. The inhabitants of Barcelona were well
affected to the house of Austria, but overawed by a garrison of five
thousand men under the duke de Popoli, Velasco, and other officers devoted
to the interest of king Philip. Considering the strength of such a
garrison, and the small number of Dutch and English troops, nothing could
appear more desperate and dangerous than the design of besieging the
place; yet this was proposed by the prince of Hesse d’Armstadt, who served
in the expedition as a volunteer, strongly urged by king Charles, and
approved by the earl of Peterborough and sir Cloudesley Shovel. The city
was accordingly invested on one side; but, as a previous step to the
reduction of it, they resolved to attack the fort of Montjuic, strongly
situated on a hill that commanded the city. The out-works were taken by
storm, with the loss of the gallant prince of Hesse, who was shot through
the body, and expired in a few hours: then the earl of Peterborough began
to bombard the body of the fort; and a shell chancing to fall into the
magazine of powder, blew it up, together with the governor and some of the
best officers: an accident which struck such a terror into the garrison,
that they surrendered without further resistance.

THE EARL’S PROGRESS IN SPAIN.

This great point being gained, the English general erected his batteries
against the town, with the help of the Miquelets and seamen; the bomb
ketches began to fire with such execution, that in a few days the governor
capitulated, and on the fourth day of October king Charles entered in
triumph. 136 [See note K, at the end of this Vol.]
All the other places in Catalonia declared for him, except Roses; so that
the largest and richest province of Spain was conquered with an army
scarce double the number of the garrison of Barcelona. King Charles wrote
a letter with his own hand to the queen of England, containing a
circumstantial detail of his affairs, the warmest expressions of
acknowledgment, and the highest encomiums on her subjects, particularly
the earl of Peterborough. In a council of war it was determined that the
king and the earl should continue in Catalonia with the land forces; that
sir Cloudesley Shovel should return to England; that five-and-twenty
English and fifteen Dutch ships of war should winter at Lisbon under the
command of sir John Leake and the Dutch rear-admiral Wassenaer; and that
four English and two Dutch frigates should remain at Barcelona. Don
Francisco de Velasco was transported to Malaga with about a thousand men
of his garrison; the rest voluntarily engaged in the service of king
Charles, and six other regiments were raised by the states of Catalonia.
The count de Cifuentas, at the head of the Miquelets and Catalans attached
to the house of Austria, secured Tar-ragonia, Tortosa, Lerida,
San-Mattheo, Gironne, and other places. Don Raphael Nevat, revolting from
Philip with his whole regiment of horse, joined general Ramos at Denia,
and made themselves masters of several places of importance in the kingdom
of Valencia. Flushed with such unexpected success, they penetrated to the
capital of the same name, which they surprised, together with the marquis
de Villa-Gracia, the viceroy, and the archbishop. These advantages however
were not properly improved. The court of Charles was divided into
factions, and so much time lost in disputes, that the enemy sent a body of
six thousand men into the kingdom of Valencia, under the command of the
conde de las Torres, who forthwith invested San-Mattheo, guarded by
colonel Jones at the head of five hundred Miquelets. This being a place of
great consequence on account of its situation, the earl of Peterborough
marched thither with one thousand infantry, and two hundred dragoons; and
by means of feigned intelligence artfully conveyed to the conde, induced
that general to abandon the siege with precipitation, in the apprehension
of being suddenly attacked by a considerable army. Peterborough afterwards
took possession of Nules, and purchasing horses at Castillon de la Plana,
began to form a body of cavalry which did good service in the sequel.
Having assembled a little army, consisting of ten squadrons of horse and
dragoons, and four battalions of regular troops, with about three thousand
militia, he marched to Molviedro, which was surrendered to him by the
governor, brigadier Mahoni. Between this officer and the duke d’Arcos, the
Spanish general, he excited such jealousies by dint of artifices, not
altogether justifiable even in war, that the duke was more intent upon
avoiding the supposed treachery of Mahoni than upon interrupting the
earl’s march to Valencia, where the inhabitants expressed uncommon marks
of joy at his arrival. About this period a very obstinate action happened
at St. Istevan de Litera, where the chevalier d’Asfeldt, with nine
squadrons of horse and dragoons, and as many battalions of French
infantry, attacked colonel Wills at the head of a small detachment; but
this last being supported by lieutenant-general Cunningham, who was
mortally wounded in the engagement, repulsed the enemy, though three times
his number, with the loss of four hundred men killed upon the spot. The
troops on both sides fought with the most desperate valour, keeping up
their fire until the muzzles of their pieces met, and charging each other
at the point of the bayonet. The only misfortune that attended the English
arms in the course of this year, was the capture of the Baltic fleet
homeward-bound, with their convoy of three ships of war, which were taken
by the Dunkirk squadron under the command of the count de St. Paul, though
he himself was killed in the engagement. When an account of this advantage
was communicated to the French king, he replied with a sigh, “Very well, I
wish the ships were safe again in any English port, provided the count de
St. Paul could be restored to life.” After the death of the famous du
Bart, this officer was counted the best seaman in France.

NEW PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND.

The kingdom of England was now wholly engrossed by the election of members
for the new parliament. The tories exerted themselves with great industry,
and propagated the cry of the church’s being in danger; a cry in which the
Jacobites joined with great fervour; but, notwithstanding all their
efforts in words and writing, a majority of whigs was returned; and now
the lord Godolphin, who had hitherto maintained a neutrality, thought
proper openly to countenance that faction. By his interest, co-operating
with the influence of the duchess of Marlborough, sir Nathan Wright was
deprived of the great seal, which was committed to Mr. William Cowper,
with the title of lord-keeper. This was a lawyer of good extraction,
superior talents, engaging manners, and eminence in his profession. He was
staunch to whig principles, and for many years had been considered as one
of their best speakers in the house of commons. The new parliament meeting
on the twenty-fifth day of October, a violent contest arose about the
choice of a speaker. Mr. Bromley was supported by the tories, and the
whigs proposed Mr. John Smith, who was elected by a majority of
forty-three voices. The queen in her speech represented the necessity of
acting vigorously against France, as a common enemy to the liberties of
Europe; she commended the fortitude of the duke of Savoy, which she said
was without example; she told them her intention was to expedite
commissions for treating of an union with Scotland; she earnestly
recommended an union of minds and affections among her people; she
observed, that some persons had endeavoured to foment animosities, and
even suggested in print that the established church was in danger; she
affirmed that such people were enemies to her and the kingdom, and meant
only to cover designs which they durst not publicly own, by endeavouring
to distract the nation with unreasonable and groundless distrusts and
jealousies; she declared she would always affectionately support and
countenance the church of England, as by law established; that she would
inviolably maintain the toleration; that she would promote religion and
virtue, encourage trade, and every thing else that might make them a happy
and flourishing people.

BILL FOR A REGENCY.

The majority in both houses now professed the same principles, and were
well disposed to support the queen in all her designs. They first
presented the usual addresses in the warmest terms of duty and affection.
Then the commons drew up a second, assuring her they would, to the utmost
of their power, assist her in bringing the treaty of union to a happy
conclusion. They desired that the proceedings of the last session of
parliament, relating to the union and succession, might be laid before the
house. The lords had solicited the same satisfaction; and her majesty
promised to comply with their request. The lower house having heard and
decided in some cases of controverted elections, proceeded to take into
consideration the estimates for the service of the ensuing year, and
granted the supplies without hesitation. In the house of lords, while the
queen was present, lord Haversham, at the end of a long speech, in which
he reflected upon the conduct of the duke of Marlborough, both on the
Moselle and in Brabant, moved for an address to desire her majesty would
invite the presumptive heir to the crown of England to come and reside in
the kingdom. This motion was earnestly supported by the duke of
Buckingham, the earls of Rochester, Nottingham, and Anglesea. They said
there was no method so effectual to secure the succession as that of the
successor’s being upon the spot, ready to assume and maintain his or her
right against any pretender; and they observed, that in former times, when
the throne of England was vacant, the first comer had always succeeded in
his pretensions. The proposal was vehemently opposed by the whigs, who
knew it was disagreeable to the queen, whom they would not venture to
disoblige. They argued, that a rivalry between the two courts might
produce distractions, and be attended with very ill consequences; and
observed, that the princess Sophia had expressed a full satisfaction in
the assurances of the queen, who had promised to maintain her title. The
question being put, was carried in the negative by a great majority. The
design of the tories in making this motion, was to bring the other party
into disgrace either with the queen or with the people. Their joining in
the measure would have given umbrage to their sovereign; and, by opposing
it, they ran the risk of incurring the public odium as enemies to the
protestant succession: but the pretence of the tories was so thin, the
nation saw through it; and the sole effect the motion produced was the
queen’s resentment against the whole party. Burnet, bishop of Sarum,
proposed, that provision might be made for maintaining the public quiet in
the interval between the queen’s decease and the arrival of her successor;
the motion was seconded by the lord-treasurer, and a bill brought in for
the better security of her majesty’s person and government, and of the
succession to the crown of England. By this act a regency was appointed,
of the seven persons that should possess the offices of archbishop of
Canterbury, lord-chancellor, or lord-keeper, lord-treasurer,
lord-president, lord privy-seal, lord high-admiral, and the lord
chief-justice of the queen’s bench. Their business was to proclaim the
next successor through the kingdom of England, and join with a certain
number of persons named as regents by the successor, in three lists to be
sealed up and deposited with the archbishop of Canterbury, the
lord-keeper, and the ministry residentiary of Hanover. It was enacted,
that these joint regencies should conduct the administration; that the
last parliament, even though dissolved, should reassemble, and continue
sitting for six months after the decease of her majesty. The bill met with
a warm opposition from the tories, and did not pass the upper house
without a protest. It was still further obstructed in the house of commons
even by some of the whig party, who were given to understand that the
princess Sophia had expressed an inclination to reside in England.
Exceptions were likewise taken to that clause in the bill, enacting, that
the last parliament should be reassembled. They affirmed, that this was
inconsistent with part of the act by which the succession was at first
settled; for among other limitations, the parliament had provided, that
when the crown should devolve to the house of Hanover, no man who had
either place or pension should be capable of sitting in the house of
commons. After tedious disputes and zealous altercations, they agreed that
a certain number of offices should be specified as disqualifying places.
This self-denying clause, and some other amendments, produced conferences
between the two houses, and at length the bill passed by their mutual
assent. Lord Haversham moved for an inquiry into the miscarriages of the
last campaign, hoping to find some foundation for censure in the conduct
of the duke of Marlborough; but the proposal was rejected as invidious;
and the two houses presented an address to the queen, desiring she would
preserve a good correspondence among all the confederates. They likewise
concurred in repealing the act by which the Scots had been alienated, and
all the northern counties alarmed with the apprehension of a rupture
between the two nations. The lord Shannon and brigadier Stanhope arriving
with an account of the expedition to Catalonia, the queen communicated the
good news in a speech to both houses, expressing her hope that they would
enable her to prosecute the advantages which her arms had acquired. The
commons were so well pleased with the tidings, that they forthwith granted
two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for her majesty’s proportion in the
expense of prosecuting the successes already gained by king Charles III.
for the recovery of the monarchy of Spain to the house of Austria. On the
fifteenth day of November, the queen gave the royal assent to an act for
exhibiting a bill to naturalize the princess Sophia, and the issue of her
body.

These measures being taken, the sixth day of December was appointed for
inquiring into those dangers to which the tories affirmed the church was
exposed; and the queen attended in person, to hear the debates on this
interesting subject. The earl of Eochester compared the expressions in the
queen’s speech at the beginning of the session, to the law enacted in the
reign of Charles II. denouncing the penalties of treason against those who
should call the king a papist; for which reason, he said, he always
thought him of that persuasion. He affirmed that the church’s danger arose
from the act of security in Scotland, the absence of the successor to the
crown, and the practice of occasional conformity. He was answered by lord
Halifax, who, by way of recrimination, observed that king Charles II. was
a Roman-catholic, at least his brother declared him a papist after his
death; that his brother and successor was a known Roman-catholic, yet the
church thought herself secure; and those patriots who stood up in its
defence were discountenanced and punished: nay, when the successor
ascended the throne, and the church was apparently in the most imminent
danger by the high commission court and otherwise, the nation was then
indeed generally alarmed; and every body knew who sat in that court, and
entered deeply into the measures which were then pursued. Compton, bishop
of London, declared that the church was in danger, from profaneness,
irreligion, and the licentiousness of the press. He complained, that
sermons were preached wherein rebellion was countenanced, and resistance
to the higher powers encouraged. He alluded to a sermon preached before
the lord mayor by Mr. Hoadly, now bishop of Winchester. Burnet of Sarum
said, the bishop of London was the last man who ought to complain of that
sermon; for if the doctrine it contained was not good, he did not know
what defence his lordship could make for his appearing in arms at
Nottingham. He affirmed the church would be always subject to profaneness
and irreligion, but that they were not now so flagrant as they usually had
been; he said the society set up for reformation in London and other
cities, had contributed considerably to the suppression of vice; he was
sure the corporation for propagating the gospel had done a great deal
towards instructing men in religion, by giving great numbers of books in
practical divinity; by erecting libraries in country parishes; by sending
many able divines to the foreign plantations, and founding schools to
breed up children in the christian knowledge; though to this expense very
little had been contributed by those who appeared so wonderfully zealous
for the church. The archbishop of York expressed his apprehension of
danger from the increase of dissenters, particularly from the many
academies they had instituted; he moved, that the judges might be
consulted with respect to the laws that were in force against such
seminaries, and by what means they might be suppressed. Lord Wharton
moved, that the judges might also be consulted about means of suppressing
schools and seminaries held by non-jurors, in one of which the sons of a
noble lord in that house had been educated. To this sarcasm the archbishop
replied, that his sons were indeed taught by Mr. Ellis, a sober virtuous
man; but that when he refused the oath of abjuration, they were
immediately withdrawn from his instructions. Lord Wharton proceeded to
declare, that he had carefully perused a pamphlet entitled “The Memorial,”
which was said to contain a demonstration that the church was in danger;
but all he could learn was, that the duke of Buckingham, the earls of
Rochester and Nottingham, were out of place; that he remembered some of
these noblemen sat in the high commission court, and then made no
complaint of the church’s being in danger. Patrick, bishop of Ely,
complained of the heat and passion manifested by the gentlemen belonging
to the universities, and of the undutiful behaviour of the clergy towards
their bishops. He was seconded by Hough of Litchfield and Coventry, who
added, that the inferior clergy calumniated their bishops, as if they were
in a plot to destroy the church, and had compounded to be the last of
their order. Hooper of Bath and Wells, expatiated on the invidious
distinction implied in the terms “high church,” and “low church.” The duke
of Leeds asserted, that the church could not be safe without an act
against occasional conformity. Lord Somers recapitulated all the arguments
which had been used on both sides of the question: he declared his own
opinion was, that the nation was happy under a wise and just
administration; that for men to raise groundless jealousies at that
juncture, could mean no less than an intention to embroil the people at
home, and defeat the glorious designs of the allies abroad. The debate
being finished, the question was put, Whether the church of England was in
danger? and carried in the negative by a great majority: then the house
resolved, that the church of England, as by law established, which was
rescued from the extremest danger by king William III. of glorious memory,
is now, by God’s blessings under the happy reign of her majesty, in a most
safe and nourishing condition; and that whoever goes about to suggest or
insinuate that the church is in danger, under her majesty’s
administration, is an enemy to the queen, the church, and the kingdom.
Next day the commons concurred in this determination, and joined the lords
in an address to the queen, communicating this resolution, beseeching her
to take effectual measures for making it public, and also for punishing
the authors and spreaders of the seditious and scandalous reports of the
church’s being in danger. She accordingly issued a proclamation containing
the resolution of the two houses, and offering a reward for discovering
the author of the memorial of the church of England, and for apprehending
David Edwards, a professed papist, charged upon oath to be the printer and
publisher of that libel.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

After a short adjournment, a committee of the lower house presented the
thanks of the commons to the duke of Marlborough, for his great services
performed to her majesty and the nation in the last campaign, and for his
prudent negotiations with her allies. This nobleman was in such credit
with the people, that when he proposed a loan of five hundred thousand
pounds to the emperor, upon a branch of his revenue in. Silesia, the money
was advanced immediately by the merchants of London. The kingdom was
blessed with plenty; the queen was universally beloved; the people in
general were zealous for the prosecution of the war; the forces were well
paid; the treasury was punctual; and, though a great quantity of coin was
exported for the maintenance of the war, the paper currency supplied the
deficiency so well, that no murmurs were heard, and the public credit
flourished both at home and abroad. All the funds being established, one
in particular for two millions and a-half by way of annuities for
ninety-nine years, at six and a-half per cent., and all the bills having
received the royal assent, the queen went to the house of peers on the
nineteenth day of March, where, having thanked both houses for the
repeated instances of their affection which she had received, she
prorogued the parliament to the twenty-first day of May following.*

* Among other bills passed during this session, was an act
for abridging and reforming some proceedings in the common
law and in chancery.

The new convocation, instead of imitating the union and harmony of the
parliament, revived the divisions by which the former had been distracted,
and the two houses seemed to act with more determined rancour against each
other. The upper house having drawn tip a warm address of thanks to the
queen for her affectionate care of the church, the lower house refused to
concur, nor would they give any reason for their dissent. They prepared
another in a different strain, which was rejected by the archbishop. Then
they agreed to divers resolutions, asserting their right of having what
they offered to the upper house received by his grace and their lordships.
In consequence of this dissension the address was dropped, and a stop put
to all further communication between the two houses. The dean of
Peterborough protested against the irregularities of the lower house. The
queen, in a letter to the archbishop, signified her resolution to maintain
her supremacy, and the due subordination of presbyters to bishops. She
expressed her hope that he and his suffragans would act conformably to her
resolution, in which case they might be assured of the continuance of her
favour and protection: she required him to impart this declaration to the
bishops and clergy, and to prorogue the convocation to such time as should
appear most convenient. When he communicated this letter to the lower
house, the members were not a little confounded: nevertheless, they would
not comply with the prorogation, but continued to sit in defiance of her
majesty’s pleasure.

CONFERENCES OPENED FOR A TREATY OF UNION WITH SCOTLAND.

The eyes of Great Britain were now turned upon a transaction of the utmost
consequence to the whole island; namely, the treaty for an union of the
two kingdoms of England and Scotland. The queen having appointed the
commissioners 139 [See note 2 A, at the end of this Vol.]
on both sides, they met on the sixteenth day of April, in the council
chamber of the Cockpit near Whitehall, which was the place appointed for
the conferences. Their commissions being opened and read by the respective
secretaries, and introductory speeches being pronounced by the lord-keeper
of England, and the lord chancellor of Scotland, they agreed to certain
preliminary articles, importing, that all the proposals should be made in
writing; and every point, when agreed, reduced to writing; that no points
should be obligatory, till all matters should be adjusted in such a manner
as would be proper to be laid before the queen and the two parliaments for
their approbation; that a committee should be appointed from each
commission, to revise the minutes of what might pass, before they should
be inserted in the books by the respective secretaries; and that all the
proceedings during the treaty should be kept secret. The Scots were
inclined to a federal union, like that of the United Provinces; but the
English were bent upon an incorporation, so that no Scottish parliament
should ever have power to repeal the articles of the treaty. The
lord-keeper proposed that the two kingdoms of England and Scotland should
be for ever united into one realm, by the name of Great Britain: that it
should be represented by one and the same parliament; and that the
succession of this monarchy, failing of heirs of her majesty’s body,
should be according to the limitations mentioned in the act of parliament
passed in the reign of king William, intituled, an act for the further
limitation of the crown, and the better securing the rights and liberties
of the subject. The Scottish commissioners, in order to comply in some
measure with the popular clamour of their nation, presented a proposal
implying that the succession to the crown of Scotland should be
established upon the same persons mentioned in the act of king William’s
reign; that the subjects of Scotland should for ever enjoy all the rights
and privileges of the natives in England, and the dominions thereunto
belonging; and that the subjects of England should enjoy the like rights
and privileges in Scotland; that there should be a free communication and
intercourse of trade and navigation between the two kingdoms, and
plantations thereunto belonging; and that all laws and statutes in either
kingdom, contrary to the terms of this union, should be repealed. The
English commissioners declined entering into any considerations upon these
proposals, declaring themselves fully convinced that nothing but an entire
union could settle a perfect and lasting friendship between the two
kingdoms. The Scots acquiesced in this reply, and both sides proceeded in
the treaty without any other intervening dispute. They were twice visited
by the queen, who exhorted them to accelerate the articles of a treaty
that would prove so advantageous to both kingdoms. At length they were
finished, arranged, and mutually signed, on the twenty-second of July, and
next day presented to her majesty, at the palace of St. James’s, by the
lord-keeper, in the name of the English commissioners; at the same time a
sealed copy of the instrument was likewise delivered by the lord
chancellor of Scotland; and each made a short oration on the subject, to
which the queen returned a very gracious reply. That same day she dictated
an order of council, that whoever should be concerned in any discourse or
libel, or in laying wagers relating to the union, should be prosecuted
with the utmost rigour of the law.

SUBSTANCE OF THE TREATY.

In this famous treaty it was stipulated, that the succession to the united
kingdom of Great Britain should be vested in the princess Sophia, and her
heirs, according to the acts already passed in the parliament of England:
that the united kingdoms should be represented by one and the same
parliament: that all the subjects of Great Britain should enjoy a
communication of privileges and advantages: that they should have the same
allowances, encouragements, and drawbacks; and be under the same
prohibitions, restrictions, and regulations, with respect to commerce and
customs: that Scotland should not be charged with the temporary duties on
some certain commodities: that the sum of three hundred and ninety-eight
thousand and eighty-five pounds ten shillings, should be granted to the
Scots, as an equivalent for such parts of the customs and excise charged
upon that kingdom in consequence of the union, as would be applicable to
the payment of the debts of England, according to the proportion which the
customs and excise of Scotland bore co those of England: that, as the
revenues of Scotland might increase, a further equivalent should be
allowed for such proportion of the said increase as should be applicable
to the payment of the debts of England: that the sura to be paid at
present, as well as the monies arising from the future equivalents, should
be employed in reducing the coin of Scotland to the standard and value of
the English coin; in paying off the capital stock and interest due to the
proprietors of the African company, which should be immediately dissolved;
in discharging all the public debts of the kingdom of Scotland; in
promoting and encouraging manufactures and fisheries, under the direction
of commissioners to be appointed by her majesty, and accountable to the
parliament of Great Britain: that the laws concerning public right,
policy, and civil government, should be the same throughout the whole
united kingdom; but that no alteration should be made in laws which
concerned private right, except for evident utility of the subjects within
Scotland: that the court of session and all other courts of judicature in
Scotland, should remain as then constituted by the laws of that kingdom,
with the same authority and privileges as before the union; subject,
nevertheless, to such regulations as should be made by the parliament of
Great Britain: that all heritable offices, superiorities, heritable
jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life, should be
reserved to the owners, as rights and property, in the same manner as then
enjoyed by the laws of Scotland: that the rights and privileges of the
royal boroughs in Scotland should remain entire after the union: that
Scotland should be represented in the parliament of Great Britain by
sixteen peers and forty-five commoners, to be elected in such a manner as
should be settled by the present parliament of Scotland: that all peers of
Scotland, and the successors to their honours and dignities, should, from
and after the union, be peers of Great Britain, and should have rank and
precedency next and immediately after the English peers of the like orders
and degrees, at the time of the union; and before all peers of Great
Britain of the like orders and degrees, who might be created after the
union: that they should be tried as peers of Great Britain, and enjoy all
privileges of peers, as fully as enjoyed by the peers of England, except
the right and privilege of sitting in the house of lords, and the
privileges depending thereon, and particularly the right of sitting upon
the trials of peers: that the crown, sceptre, and sword of state, the
records of parliament, and all other records, rolls, and registers
whatsoever, should still remain as they were, within that part of the
united kingdom called Scotland: that all laws and statutes in either
kingdom, so far as they might be inconsistent with the terms of these
articles, should cease and be declared void by the respective parliaments
of the two kingdoms.—Such is the substance of that treaty of union
which was so eagerly courted by the English ministry, and proved so
unpalatable to the generality of the Scottish nation.

CHAPTER IX.

Battle of Ramillies, in which the French are defeated…..
The Siege of Barcelona raised by the English fleet….. Prince
Eugene obtains a complete victory over the French at
Turin….. Sir Cloudesley Shovel sails with a reinforcement
to Charles king of Spain….. the king of Sweden marches
into Saxony….. The French King demands Conferences for a
Peace….. Meeting of the Scottish Parliament….. Violent
Opposition to the Union….. The Scots in general averse to
the Treaty, which is nevertheless confirmed in their
Parliament….. Proceedings in the English Parliament…..
The Commons approve of the Articles of the Union….. The
Lords pass a Bill for the Security of the Church of
England….. Arguments used against the Articles of the
Union, which, however, are confirmed by Act of
Parliament….. The Parliament revived by Proclamation…..
The Queen gives audience to a Muscovite Ambassador…..
Proceedings in Convocation….. France threatened with total
Ruin….. The Allies are defeated at Almanza…..
Unsuccessful Attempt upon Toulon….. Sir Cloudesley Shovel
wrecked on the Rocks of Scilly….. Weakness of the Emperor
on the Upper Rhine….. Interview between the King of Sweden
and the Duke of Marlborough….. Inactive Campaign in the
Netherlands….. Harley begins to form a Party against the
Duke of Marlborough….. The Nation discontented with the
Whig Ministry….. Meeting of the first British
Parliament….. Inquiry into the State of the War in
Spain….. Gregg, a Clerk in the Secretary’s Office,
detected in a Correspondence with the French Ministry…..
Harley resigns his Employments….. The Pretender
embarks at Dunkirk for Scotland….. His design is
defeated….. State of the Nation at that Period…..
Parliament dissolved….. The French surprise Ghem and
Bruges….. They are routed at Oudenarde….. The Allies
invest Lisle….. They defeat a large Body of French Forces
at Wynendale….. The Elector of Bavaria attacks
Brussels….. Lisle surrendered….. Ghent taken, and Bruges
abandoned….. Conquest of Minorca by General Stanhope…..
Rupture between the Pope and the Emperor….. Death of
Prince George of Denmark….. The new Parliament
assembled….. Naturalization Bill….. Act of Grace…..
Disputes about the Muscovite Ambassador compromised.

THE FRENCH DEFEATED AT THE BATTLE OF RAMILLIES.

While this treaty was on the carpet at home, the allied arms prospered
surprisingly in the Netherlands, in Spain, and in Piedmont. The French
king had resolved to make very considerable efforts in these countries;
and, indeed, at the beginning of the campaign his armies were very
formidable. He hoped that, by the reduction of Turin and Barcelona, the
war would be extinguished in Italy and Catalonia. He knew that he could
out-number any body of forces that prince Louis of Baden should assemble
on the Rhine; and he resolved to reinforce his army in Flanders, so as to
be in a condition to act offensively against the duke of Marlborough. This
nobleman repaired to Holland in the latter end of April, and conferred
with the states-general. Then he assembled the army between Borschloen and
Groes Waren, and found it amounted to seventy-four battalions of foot, and
one hundred and twenty-three squadrons of horse and dragoons, well
furnished with artillery and pontoons. The court of France having received
intelligence that the Danish and Prussian troops had not yet joined the
confederates, ordered the elector of Bavaria and the mareschal Villeroy to
attack them before the junction could be effected. In pursuance of this
order they passed the Deule on the nineteenth day of May, and posted
themselves at Tirlemont, being superior in number to the allied army.
There they were joined by the horse of the army, commanded by mareschal
Marsin, and encamped between Tirlemont and Judoigne. On Whitsunday, early
in the morning, the duke of Marlborough advanced with his army in eight
columns towards the village of Ramillies, being by this time joined by the
Danes; and he learned that the enemy were in march to give him battle.
Next day the French generals perceiving the confederates so near them,
took possession of a strong camp, the right extending to the tomb of
Hautemont, on the side of the Mehaigne; their left to Anderkirk; and the
village of Ramillies being near their centre. The confederate army was
drawn up in order of battle, with the right wing near Foltz on the brook
of Yause, and the left by the village of Franquenies, which the enemy had
occupied. The duke ordered lieutenant-general Schultz, with twelve
battalions and twenty pieces of cannon, to begin the action by attacking
Eamillies, which was strongly fortified with artillery. At the same time
velt-mareschal d’Auverquerque on the left commanded colonel Wertmuller,
with four battalions and two pieces of cannon, to dislodge the enemy’s
infantry posted among the hedges of Franquenies. Both these orders were
successfully executed. The Dutch and Danish horse of the left wing charged
with great vigour and intrepidity, but were so roughly handled by the
troops of the French king’s household, that they began to give way, when
the duke of Marlborough sustained them with the body of reserve, and
twenty squadrons drawn from the right, where a morass prevented them from
acting. In the meantime, he in person rallied some of the broken
squadrons, in order to renew the charge, when his own horse falling, he
was surrounded by the enemy, and must have been either killed or taken
prisoner, had not a body of infantry come seasonably to his relief. When
he remounted his horse, the head of colonel Brienfield, his gentleman of
the horse, was carried off by a cannon ball while he held the duke’s
stirrup. Before the reinforcement arrived, the best part of the French
mousquetaires were cut in pieces. All the troops posted in Ramillies were
either killed or taken. The rest of the enemy’s infantry began to retreat
in tolerable order, under cover of the cavalry on their left wing, which
formed themselves in three lines between Ossuz and Anderkirk; but the
English horse having found means to pass the rivulet which divided them
from the enemy, fell upon them with such impetuosity, that they abandoned
their foot, and were terribly slaughtered in the village of Anderkirk.
They now gave way on all sides. The horse fled three different ways, but
were so closely pursued that very few escaped. The elector of Bavaria and
the mareschal de Villeroy saved themselves with the utmost difficulty.
Several waggons of the enemy’s van-guard breaking down in a narrow pass,
obstructed the way in such a manner that the baggage and artillery could
not proceed; nor could their troops defile in order. The victorious horse
being informed of this accident, pressed on them so vigorously that great
numbers threw down their arms and submitted. The pursuit was followed
through Judoigne till two o’clock in the morning, five leagues from the
field of battle, and within two of Louvaine. In a word, the confederates
obtained a complete victory. They took the enemy’s baggage and artillery,
about one hundred and twenty colours or standards, six hundred officers,
six thousand private soldiers, and about eight thousand were killed or
wounded.*

* The French impute the loss of this battle to the
misconduct of Villeroy, who, it must be owned, made a most
wretched disposition. When he returned to Versailles, where
he expected to meet with nothing else but reproaches, Louis
received him without the least mark of displeasure, saying,
“Mr. Mareschal, you and I are too old to be fortunate.”

Prince Maximilian and prince Monbason lost their lives; the major-general
Palavicini and Mizieres were taken, together with the marquasses de Bar,
de Nonant, and de la Beaume, (this last the son of the mareschal de
Tallard,) monsieur de Montmorency, nephew to the duke of Luxembourg, and
many other persons of distinction. The loss of the allies did not exceed
three thousand men, including prince Louis of Hesse, and Mr. Bentinck, who
were slain in the engagement. The French generals retired with
precipitation to Brussels, while the allies took possession of Louvaine,
and next day encamped at Bethlem. The battle of Eamillies was attended
with the immediate conquest of all Brabant. The cities of Louvaine,
Mechlin, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges, submitted without
resistance, and acknowledged king Charles. Ostend, though secured by a
strong garrison, was surrendered after a siege of ten days. Menin,
esteemed the most finished fortification in the Netherlands, and guarded
by six thousand men, met with the same fate. The garrison of Dendermonde
surrendered themselves prisoners of war; and Aeth submitted on the same
conditions. The French troops were dispirited. The city of Paris was
overwhelmed with consternation. Louis affected to bear his misfortunes
with calmness and composure; but the constraint had such an effect upon
his constitution, that his physicians thought it necessary to prescribe
frequent bleeding, which he accordingly underwent. At his court no mention
was made of military transactions: all was solemn, silent, and reserved.

THE SIEGE OF BARCELONA RAISED.

Had the issue of the campaign in Catalonia been such as the beginning
seemed to prognosticate, the French king might have in some measure
consoled himself for his disgraces in the Netherlands. On the sixth day of
April king Philip, at the head of a numerous army, undertook the siege of
Barcelona, while the count de Thoulouse blocked it up with a powerful
squadron. The inhabitants, animated by the presence of king Charles, made
a vigorous defence; and the garrison was reinforced with some troops from
Gironne and other places. But, after the fort of Montjuic was taken, the
place was so hard pressed, that Charles ran the utmost risk of falling
into the hands of the enemy; for the carl of Peterborough, who had marched
from Valencia with two thousand men, found it impracticable to enter the
city. Nevertheless, he maintained his post upon the hills; and, with
surprising courage and activity, kept the besiegers in continual alarm. At
length, sir John Leake sailed from Lisbon with thirty ships of the line;
and on the eighth day of May arrived in sight of Barcelona. The French
admiral no sooner received intelligence of his approach, than he set sail
for Toulon. In three days after his departure, king Philip abandoned the
siege and retired in great disorder, leaving behind his tents, with the
sick and wounded. On the side of Portugal, the duke of Berwick was left
with such an inconsiderable force as proved insufficient to defend the
frontiers. The earl of Galway, with an army of twenty thousand men,
undertook the siege of Alcantra; and in three days the garrison,
consisting of four thousand men, were made prisoners of war. Then he
marched to Placentia, and advanced as far as the bridge of Almaris; but
the Portuguese would penetrate no farther until they should know the fate
of Barcelona. When they understood the siege was raised, they consented to
proceed to Madrid. Philip guessed their intention, posted to that capital,
and sent his queen with all his valuable effects to Burgos, whither he
followed her in person, after having destroyed everything that he could
not carry away. About the latter end of June, the earl of Galway entered
the city without resistance; but the Spaniards were extremely mortified to
see an army of Portuguese, headed by an heretic, in possession of their
capital. King Charles loitered away his time in Barcelona, until his
competitor recovered his spirits, and received such reinforcements as
enabled him to return to Madrid with an army equal to that commanded by
the earl of Galway. This general made a motion towards Arragon, in order
to facilitate his conjunction with Charles, who had set out by the way of
Saragossa, where he was acknowledged as sovereign of Arragon and Valencia.
In the beginning of August this prince arrived at the Portuguese camp with
a small reinforcement; and in a few days was followed by the carl of
Peterborough, at the head of five hundred dragoons. The two armies were
now pretty equal in point of number; but as each expected farther
reinforcements, neither chose to hazard an engagement. The earl of
Peterborough, who aspired to the chief command, and hated the prince of
Lichtenstein, who enjoyed the confidence of king Charles, retired in
disgust; and embarking on board an English ship of war, set sail for
Genoa. The English fleet continued all the summer in the Mediterranean;
they secured Carthagena, which had declared for Charles; they took the
town of Alicant by assault, and the castle by capitulation. Then sailing
out of the Straits, one squadron was detached to the West Indies, another
to lie at Liston, and the rest were sent home to England.

PRINCE EUGENE OBTAINS A COMPLETE VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

Fortune was not more propitious to the French in Italy than in Flanders.
The duke de Vendôme having been recalled to assume the command in Flanders
after the-battle of Ramillies, the duke of Orleans was placed at the head
of the army in Piedmont, under the tutorage and direction of the mareschal
de Marsin. They were ordered to besiege Turin, which was accordingly
invested in the month of May, and the operations carried on till the
beginning of September. Great preparations had been made for this siege.
It was not undertaken until the duke of Savoy had rejected all the offers
of the French monarch, which were sufficient to have shaken a prince of
less courage and fortitude. The duke de la Feuillade having finished the
lines of circumvallation and contravallation, sent his
quarter-master-general with a trumpet to offer passports and a guard for
the removal of the duchess and her children. The duke of Savoy replied,
that he did not intend to remove his family, and that the mareschal might
begin to execute his master’s orders whenever he should think fit; but,
when the siege began with uncommon fury, and the French fired red-hot
balls into the place, the two duchesses, with the young prince and
princesses, quitted Turin, and retired to Quierasco, from whence they were
conducted through many dangers into the territories of Genoa. The duke
himself forsook his capital in order to put himself at the head of his
cavalry; and was pursued from place to place by five and forty squadrons,
under the command of the count d’Aubeterre. Notwithstanding the very noble
defence which was made by the garrison of Turin, which destroyed fourteen
thousand of the enemy during the course of the siege, the defences were
almost ruined, their ammunition began to fail, and they had no prospect of
relief but from prince Eugene, who had numberless difficulties to
en-counter before he could march to their assistance. The duke de Vendôme,
before he left Italy, had secured all the fords of the Adige, the Mincio,
and the Oglio, and formed such lines and intrenchments as he imagined
would effectually hinder the Imperial general from arriving in time to
relieve the city of Turin. But the prince surmounted all opposition;
passed four great rivers in despite of the enemy, and reached the
neighbourhood of Turin on the thirteenth day of August. There, being
joined by the duke of Savoy, he passed the Po between Montcalier and
Cavignan. On the fifth day of September they took a convoy of eight
hundred loaded mules: next day they passed the Doria, and encamped with
the right on the bank of that river before Pianessa, and the left on the
Stura before the Veneria. The enemy were intrenched, having the Stura on
their right, the Doria on their left, and the convent of Capuchins, called
Notre Dame de la Campagne, in their centre. When prince Eugene approached
Turin, the duke of Orleans proposed to march out of the intrenchments and
give him battle; and this proposal was seconded by all the general
officers, except Marsin, who, finding the duke determined, produced an
order from the French king commanding the duke to follow the mareschal’s
advice. The court of Versailles was now become afraid of hazarding an
engagement against those who had so often defeated their armies; and this
officer had private instructions to keep within the trenches. On the
seventh day of September the confederates marched up to the entrenchments
of the French in eight columns, through a terrible fire from forty pieces
of artillery, and were formed in order of battle within half cannon-shot
of the enemy. Then they advanced to the attack with surprising resolution,
and met with such a warm reception as seemed to stop their progress.
Prince Eugene perceiving this check, drew his sword, and putting himself
at the head of the battalions on the left, forced the entrenchments at the
first charge. The duke of Savoy met with the same success in the centre,
and on the right near Lucengo. The horse advanced through the intervals of
the foot, left for that purpose; and breaking in with vast impetuosity,
completed the confusion of the enemy, who were defeated on all hands, and
retired with precipitation to the other side of the Po, while the duke of
Savoy entered his capital in triumph. The duke of Orleans exhibited
repeated proofs of the most intrepid courage, and received several wounds
in the engagement. Mareschal de Marsin fell into the hands of the victors,
his thigh being shattered with a ball, and died in a few hours after the
amputation. Of the French army about five thousand men were slain on the
field of battle; a great number of officers, and upwards of seven thousand
men were taken, together with two hundred and fifty-five pieces of cannon,
one hundred and eighty mortars, an incredible quantity of ammunition, all
the tents and baggage, five thousand beasts of burden, ten thousand horses
belonging to thirteen regiments of dragoons, and the mules of the
commissary-general, so richly laden that this part of the booty alone was
valued at three millions of livres. The loss of the confederates did not
exceed three thousand men killed or disabled in the action, besides about
the same number at the garrison of Turin, which had fallen since the
beginning of the siege. This was such a fatal stroke to the interest of
Louis, that madame de Main-tenon would not venture to make him folly
acquainted with the state of his affairs. He was told that the duke of
Orleans had raised the siege of Turin at the approach of prince Eugene,
but he knew not that his own army was defeated and ruined. The spirits of
the French were a little comforted in consequence of an advantage gained
about this time by the count de Medavigrancey, who commanded a body of
troops left in the Mantuan territories. He surprised the prince of Hesse
in the neighbourhood of Castiglione, and obliged him to retire to the
Adige with the loss of two thousand men; but this victory was attended
with no consequence in their favour. The duke of Orleans retreated into
Dauphiné, while the French garrisons were driven out of every place they
occupied in Piedmont and Italy, except Cremona, Valenza, and the castle of
Milan, which were blocked up by the confederates.

ANNE, 1701—1714

SIR C. SHOVEL SAILS WITH A REINFORCEMENT TO CHARLES.

Over and above these disasters which the French sustained in the course of
this campaign, they were miserably alarmed by the project of an invasion
from Britain, formed by the marquis de Guiscard, who, actuated by a family
disgust, had abandoned his country and become a partisan of the
confederates. He was declared a lieutenant-general in the emperor’s army,
and came over to London, after having settled a correspondence with the
malcontents in the southern parts of France. He insinuated himself into
the friendship of Henry St. John, secretary of war, and other persons of
distinction. His scheme of invading France was approved by the British
ministry, and he was promoted to the command of a regiment of dragoons
destined for that service. About eleven thousand men were embarked under
the conduct of Earl Rivers, with a large train of artillery; and the
combined squadrons, commanded by sir Cloudesley Shovel, set sail from
Plymouth on the thirteenth day of August. Next day they were forced into
Torbay by contrary winds, and there they held a council of war to concert
their operations, when they discovered that Guiscard’s plan was altogether
chimerical, or at least founded upon such slight assurances and
conjectures as could not justify their proceeding to execution. An express
was immediately despatched to the admiralty with the result of this
council; and, in the meantime, letters arrived at court from the earl of
Galway, after his retreat from Madrid to Valencia, soliciting succours
with the most earnest entreaties. The expedition to France was immediately
postponed, and sir Cloudesley Shovel was ordered to make the best of his
way to Lisbon, there to take such measures as the state of the war in
Spain should render necessary. Guiscard and his officers being set on
shore, the fleet sailed with the first fair wind, and towards the latter
end of October arrived at Lisbon. On the twenty-eighth day of the next
month the king of Portugal died, and his eldest son and successor being
but eighteen years of age, was even more than his father influenced by a
ministry which had private connexions with the court of Versailles.
Nevertheless, sir Cloudesley Shovel and Earl Rivers, being pressed by
letters from king Charles and the earl of G-alway, sailed to their
assistance in the beginning of January; and on the twenty-eighth arrived
at Alicant, from whence the earl of Rivers proceeded by land to Valencia,
in order to assist at a general council of war. The operations of the
ensuing campaign being concerted, and the army joined by the reinforcement
from England, earl Rivers, disliking the country, returned with the
admiral to Lisbon.

THE KING OF SWEDEN MARCHES INTO SAXONY.

Poland was at length delivered from the presence of the king of Sweden,
who in the beginning of September suddenly marched through Lusatia into
Saxony; and in a little time laid that whole electorate under
contribution. Augustus being thus cut off from all resource, resolved to
obtain peace on the Swede’s own terms, and engaged in a secret treaty for
this purpose. In the meantime the Poles and Muscovites attacked the
Swedish forces at Kalish in Great Poland, and by dint of numbers routed
them with great slaughter. Notwithstanding this event, Augustus ratified
the treaty, by which he acknowledged Stanislaus as true and rightful king
of Poland, reserving to himself no more than the empty title of sovereign.
The confederates were not a little alarmed to find Charles in the heart of
Germany, and the French court did not fail to court his alliance; but he
continued on the reserve against all their solicitations. Then they
implored his mediation for a peace; and he answered, that he would
interpose his good offices as soon as he should know they would be
agreeable to the powers engaged in the grand alliance.

THE FRENCH KING DEMANDS CONFERENCES FOR A PEACE.

The pride of Louis was now humbled to such a degree as might have excited
the compassion of his enemies. He employed the elector of Bavaria to write
letters in his name to the duke of Marlborough and the deputies of the
states-general, containing proposals for opening a congress. He had
already tampered with the Dutch, in a memorial presented by the marquis
d’Alegre. He likewise besought the pope to interpose in his behalf. He
offered to cede either Spain and the West Indies, or Milan, Naples, and
Sicily, to king Charles; to give up a barrier for the Dutch in the
Netherlands; and to indemnify the duke of Savoy for the ravages that had
been committed in his dominions. Though his real aim was’ peace, yet he
did not despair of being able to excite such jealousies among the
confederates as might shake the basis of their union. His hope was not
altogether disappointed. The court of Vienna was so much alarmed at the
offers he had made, and the reports circulated by his emissaries, that the
emperor resolved to make himself master of Naples before the allies should
have it in their power to close with the proposals of France. This was the
true motive of his concluding a treaty with Louis in the succeeding
winter, by which the Milanese was entirely evacuated, and the French king
at liberty to employ those troops in making strong efforts against the
confederates in Spain and the Netherlands. The Dutch were intoxicated with
success, and their pensionary, Heinsius, entirely influenced by the duke
of Marlborough, who found his account in the continuance of the war, which
at once gratified his warice and ambition; for all his great qualities
were obscured by the sordid passion of accumulating wealth. During the
whole war the allies never had such an opportunity as they now enjoyed to
bridle the power of France effectually, and secure the liberties of the
empire; and indeed, if their real design was to establish an equal balance
between the houses of Austria and Bourbon, it could not have been better
effected than by dividing the Spanish monarchy between these two
potentates. The accession of Spain, with all its appendages, to either,
would have destroyed the equilibrium which the allies proposed to
establish. But other motives contributed to a continuation of the war. The
powers of the confederacy were fired with the ambition of making
conquests; and England in particular thought herself intitled to an
imdemnification for the immense sums she had expended. Animated by these
concurring considerations, queen Anne and the states-general rejected the
offers of France; and declared that they would not enter into any
negotiation for peace, except in concert with their allies.

MEETING OF THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

The tories of England began to meditate schemes of opposition against the
duke of Marlborough. They looked upon him as a selfish nobleman, who
sacrificed the interest of the nation, in protracting a ruinous war for
his own private advantage. They saw their country oppressed with an
increasing load of taxes, which they apprehended would in a little time
become an intolerable burden; and they did not doubt but at this period
such terms might be obtained as would fully answer the great purpose of
the confederacy. This indeed was the prevailing opinion among all the
sensible people of the nation who were not particularly interested in the
prosecution of the war, either by being connected with the general, or in
some shape employed in the management of the finances. The tories were
likewise instigated by a party spirit against Marlborough, who, by means
of his wife, was in full possession of the queen’s confidence, and openly
patronized the whig faction. But the attention of people in general was
now turned upon the Scottish parliament, which took into consideration the
treaty of union lately concluded between the commissioners of both
kingdoms. On the third day of October the duke of Queensberry, as high
commissioner, produced the queen’s letter, in which she expressed her hope
that the terms of the treaty would be acceptable to her parliament of
Scotland. She said, an entire and perfect union would be the solid
foundation of a lasting peace: it would secure their religion, liberty,
and property; remove the animosities that prevailed among themselves, and
the jealousies that subsisted between the two nations: it would increase
their strength, riches, and commerce: the whole island would be joined in
affection, and free from all apprehensions of different interests: it
would be enabled to resist all its enemies, support the protestant
interest everywhere, and maintain the liberties of Europe. She renewed her
assurance of maintaining the government of their church; and told them,
that now they had an opportunity of taking such steps as might be
necessary for its security after the union. She demanded the necessary
supplies. She observed, that the great success with which Almighty God had
blessed her arms, afforded the nearer prospect of a happy peace, with
which they would enjoy the full advantages of this union: that they had no
reason to doubt but the parliament of England would do all that should be
necessary on their part to confirm the union: finally, she recommended
calmness and unanimity in deliberating on this great and weighty affair,
of such consequence to the whole island of Great Britain.

VIOLENT OPPOSITION TO THE UNION.

Hitherto the articles of the union had been industriously concealed from
the knowledge of the people: but the treaty being recited in parliament,
and the particulars divulged, such a flame was kindled through the whole
nation as had not appeared since the restoration. The cavaliers or
Jacobites had always foreseen that this union would extinguish all their
hopes of a revolution in favour of the pretender. The nobility found
themselves degraded in point of dignity and influence, by being excluded
from their seats in parliament. The trading part of the nation beheld
their commerce saddled with heavy duties and restrictions, and considered
the privilege of trading to the English plantations as a precarious and
uncertain prospect of advantage. The barons, or gentlemen, were
exasperated at a coalition by which their parliament was annihilated, and
their credit destroyed. The people in general exclaimed, that the dignity
of their crown was betrayed; that the independency of their nation had
fallen a sacrifice to treachery and corruption; that whatever conditions
might be speciously offered, they could not expect they would be observed
by a parliament in which the English had such a majority. They exaggerated
the dangers to which the constitution of their church would be exposed
from a bench of bishops, and a parliament of episcopalians. This
consideration alarmed the presbyterian ministers to such a degree, that
they employed all their power and credit in waking the resentment of their
hearers against the treaty, which produced an universal ferment among all
ranks of people. Even the most rigid puritans joined the cavaliers in
expressing their detestation of the union; and laying aside their mutual
animosities, promised to co-operate in opposing a measure so ignominous
and prejudicial to their country. In parliament, the opposition was headed
by the dukes of Hamilton and Athol, and the marquis of Annandale. The
first of these noblemen had wavered so much in his conduct, that it is
difficult to ascertain his real political principles. He was generally
supposed to favour the claim of the pretender; but he was afraid of
embarking too far in his cause, and avoided violent measures in the
discussion of the treaty, lest he should incur the resentment of the
English parliament, and forfeit the estate he possessed in that kingdom.
Athol was more forward in his professions of attachment to the court of
St. Germain’s; but he had less ability, and his zeal was supposed to be
inflamed by resentment against the ministry. The debates upon the
different articles of the treaty were carried on with great heat and
vivacity, and many shrewd arguments were used against this scheme of
incorporating the union. One member affirmed, that it would furnish a
handle to any aspiring prince to overthrow the liberties of all Britain;
for if the parliament of Scotland could alter, or rather subvert its
constitution, this circumstance might be a precedent for the parliament of
Great Britain to assume the same power: that the representatives for
Scotland would, from their poverty, depend upon those who possessed the
means of corruption; and having expressed so little concern for the
support of their own constitution, would pay very little regard to that of
any other. “What!” said the duke of Hamilton, “shall we in half an hour
give up what our forefathers maintained with their lives and fortunes for
many ages? Are here none of the descendants of those worthy patriots who
defended the liberty of their country against all invaders; who assisted
the great king Robert Bruce to restore the constitution, and revenge the
falsehood of England and the usurpation of Baliol? Where are the
Douglasses and Campbells? Where are the peers, where are the barons, once
the bulwark of the nation? Shall we yield up the sovereignty and
independency of our country, when we are commanded by those we represent
to preserve the same, and assured of their assistance to support us?” The
duke of Athol protested against an incorporating union, as contrary to the
honour, interest, fundamental laws, and constitution of the kingdom of
Scotland, the birthright of the peers, the rights and privileges of the
barons and boroughs, and to the claim of right, property, and liberty of
the subjects. To this protest nineteen peers and forty-six commoners
adhered. The earl-marshal entered a protest, importing, that no person
being successor to the crown of England should inherit that of Scotland,
without such previous limitations as might secure the honour and
sovereignty of the Scottish crown and kingdom, the frequency and power of
parliament, the religion, liberty, and trade of the nation, from English
or any foreign influence. He was seconded by six-and-forty members. With
regard to the third article of the union, stipulating, that both kingdoms
should be represented by one and the same parliament, the country party
observed that, by assenting to this expedient, they did in effect sink
their own constitution, while that of England underwent no alteration:
that in all nations there are fundamentals which no power whatever can
alter: that the rights and privileges of parliament being one of those
fundamentals among the Scots, no parliament, or any other power, could
ever legally prohibit the meeting of parliaments, or deprive any of the
three estates of its right of sitting or voting in parliament, or give up
the rights and privileges of parliament: but that by this treaty the
parliament of Scotland was entirely abrogated, its rights and privileges
sacrificed, and those of the English parliament substituted in their
place. They argued that though the legislative power in parliament was
regulated and determined by a majority of voices; yet the giving up the
constitution, with the rights and privileges of the nation, was not
subject to suffrage, being founded on dominion and property, and therefore
could not be legally surrendered without the consent of every person who
had a right to elect and be represented in parliament. They affirmed, that
the obligation laid on the Scottish members to reside so long in London in
attendance on the British parliament, would drain Scotland of all its
money, impoverish the members, and subject them to the temptation of being
corrupted. Another protest was entered by the marquis of Annandale against
an incorporating union, as being odious to the people, subversive of the
constitution, sovereignty, and claim of right, and threatening ruin to the
church as by law established. Fifty-two members joined in this
protestation. Almost every article produced the most inflammatory
disputes. The lord Belhaven enumerated the mischiefs which would attend
the union in a pathetic speech, that drew tears from the audience, and is
at this day looked upon as a prophecy by great part of the Scottish
nation. Addresses against the treaty were presented to parliament by the
convention of boroughs, the commissioners of the general assembly, the
company trading to Africa and the Indies, as well as from several shires,
stewartries, boroughs, towns, and parishes, in all the different parts of
the kingdom, without distinction of whig or tory, episcopalian or
presbyterian. The earl of Buchan for the peers, Lockhart of Camwarth for
the barons, sir William Stuart in behalf of the peers, barons, boroughs,
the earls of Errol and Marischal for themselves, as high-constable and
earl-marshal of the kingdom, protested severally against the treaty of
union.

While this opposition raged within doors, the resentment of the people
rose to transports of fury and revenge. The more rigid presbyterians,
known by the name of Cameronians, chose officers, formed themselves into
regiments, provided horses, arms, and ammunition, and marching to
Dumfries, burned the articles of union at the Market-cross, justifying
their conduct in a public declaration. They made a tender of their
attachment to duke Hamilton, from whom they received encouragement in
secret. They reconciled themselves to the episcopalians and the cavaliers:
they resolved to take the route to Edinburgh, and dissolve the parliament;
while the duke of Athol undertook to secure the pass of Stirling with his
highlanders, so as to open the communication between the western and
northern parts of the kingdom. Seven or eight thousand men were actually
ready to appear in arms at the town of Hamilton, and march directly to
Edinburgh, under the duke’s command, when that nobleman altered his
opinion, and despatched private couriers through the whole country,
requiring the people to defer their meeting till further directions. The
more sanguine cavaliers accused his grace of treachery, but in all
likelihood he was actuated by prudential motives. He alleged, in his own
excuse, that the nation was not in a condition to carry on such an
enterprise, especially as the English had already detached troops to the
border, and might in a few days have wafted over a considerable
reinforcement from Holland. During this commotion among the Cameronians,
the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow were filled with tumults. Sir Patrick
Johnston, provost of Edinburgh, who had been one of the commissioners for
the union, was besieged in his own house by the populace, and would have
been torn in pieces had not the guards dispersed the multitude. The
privy-council issued a proclamation against riots, commanding all persons
to retire from the streets whenever the drum should beat; ordering the
guards to fire upon those who should disobey this command, and
indemnifying them from all prosecution for maiming or slaying the lieges.
These guards were placed all round the house in which the peers and
commons were assembled, and the council received the thanks of the
parliament for having thus provided for their safety. Notwithstanding
these precautions of the government, the commissioner was constantly
saluted with the curses and imprecations of the people as he passed along:
his guards were pelted, and some of his attendants wounded with stones as
they sat by him in the coach, so that he was obliged to pass through the
streets on full gallop.

Against all this national fury the dukes of Queensberry and Argyle, the
earls of Montrose, Seafield, and Stair, and the other noblemen attached to
the union, acted with equal prudence and resolution. They argued
strenuously against the objections that were started in the house. They
magnified the advantages that would accrue to the kingdom from the
privileges of trading to the English plantations, and being protected in
their commerce by a powerful navy; as well as from the exclusion of a
popish pretender, who they knew was odious to the nation in general. They
found means, partly by their promises, and partly by corruption, to bring
over the earls of Roxburgh and Marchmont, with the whole squadron who had
hitherto been unpropitious to the court. They disarmed the resentment of
the clergy, by promoting an act to be inserted in the union, declaring the
presbyterian discipline to be the only government in the church of
Scotland, unalterable in all succeeding times, and a fundamental article
of the treaty. They soothed the African company with the prospect of being
indemnified for the losses they had sustained. They amused individuals
with the hope of sharing the rest of the equivalent. They employed
emissaries to allay the ferment among the Cameronians, and disunite them
from the cavaliers, by canting, praying, and demonstrating the absurdity,
sinfulness, and danger of such a coalition. These remonstrances were
reinforced by the sum of twenty thousand pounds, which the queen privately
lent to the Scottish treasury, and which was now distributed by the
ministry in such a manner as might best conduce to the success of the
treaty. By these practices they diminished, though they could not silence,
the clamour of the people, and obtained a considerable majority in
parliament, which out-voted all opposition. Not but that the duke of
Queensberry at one time despaired of succeeding, and being in continual
apprehension for his life, expressed a desire of adjourning the
parliament, until by time and good management he should be able to remove
those difficulties that then seemed to be insurmountable. But the
lord-treasurer Godolphin, who foresaw that the measure would be entirely
lost by delay, and was no judge of the difficulties, insisted upon his
proceeding. It was at this period that he remitted the money, and gave
directions for having forces ready at a call, both in England and Ireland.
At length the Scottish parliament approved and ratified all the articles
of the union with some small variation. Then they prepared an act for
regulating the election of the sixteen peers and forty-five commoners to
represent Scotland in the British parliament. This being touched with the
sceptre, the three estates proceeded to elect their representatives. The
remaining part of the session was employed in making regulations
concerning the coin, in examining the accounts of their African company,
and providing for the due application of the equivalent, which was
scandalously misapplied. On the twenty-fifth day of March the commissioner
adjourned the parliament, after having, in a short speech, taken notice of
the honour they had acquired in concluding an affair of such importance to
their country. Having thus accomplished the great purpose of the court, he
set out for London, in the neighbourhood of which he was met by above
forty noblemen in their coaches, and about four hundred gentlemen on
horseback. Next day he waited upon the queen at Kensington, from whom he
met with a very gracious reception. Perhaps there is not another instance
upon record of a ministry’s having carried a point of this importance
against such a violent torrent of opposition, and contrary to the general
sense and inclination of a whole exasperated people. The Scots were
persuaded that their trade would be destroyed, their nation oppressed, and
their country ruined, in consequence of the union with England, and indeed
their opinion was supported by very plausible arguments. The majority of
both nations believed that the treaty would produce violent convulsions,
or at best prove ineffectual. But we now see it has been attended with
none of the calamities that were prognosticated; that it quietly took
effect, and fully answered all the purposes for which it was intended.
Hence we may learn that many great difficulties are surmounted, because
they are not seen by those who direct the execution of any great project;
and that many schemes, which theory deems impracticable, will yet succeed
in the experiment.

PROCEEDINGS in the ENGLISH PARLIAMENT.

The English parliament assembling on the third day of December, the queen,
in her speech to both houses, congratulated them on the glorious successes
of her arms. She desired the commons would grant such supplies as might
enable her to improve the advantages of this successful campaign. She told
them that the treaty of union, as concluded by the commissioners of both
kingdoms, was at that time under the consideration of the Scottish
parliament; and she recommended despatch in the public affairs, that both
friends and enemies might be convinced of the firmness and vigour of their
proceedings. The parliament was perfectly well disposed, to comply with
all her majesty’s requests. Warm debates were presented by both houses.
Then they proceeded to the consideration of the supply, and having
examined the estimates in less than a week, voted near six millions for
the service of the ensuing year. Nevertheless, in examining the accounts
some objections arose. They found that the extraordinary supplies for the
support of king Charles of Spain, amounted to eight hundred thousand
pounds more than the sums provided by parliament. Some members argued that
very ill consequences might ensue, if a ministry could thus run the nation
in debt, and expect the parliament should pay the money. The courtiers
answered, that if anything had been raised without necessity, or ill
applied, it was reasonable that those who were in fault should be
punished; but as this expense was incurred to improve advantages, at a
time when the occasion could not be communicated to parliament, the
ministry was rather to be applauded for their zeal, than condemned for
their liberality. The question being put, the majority voted that those
sums had been expended for the preservation of the duke of Savoy, for the
interest of king Charles against the common enemy, and for the safety and
honour of the nation. When the speaker presented the money-bills, he told
her, that as the glorious victory obtained by the duke of Marlborough at
Ramillies, was fought before it could be supposed the armies were in the
field, so it was no less surprising that the commons had granted supplies
to her majesty, before the enemy could well know that the parliament was
sitting. The general was again honoured with the thanks of both houses.
The lords in an address besought the queen to settle his honours on his
posterity. An act was passed for this purpose; and, in pursuance of
another address from the commons, a pension of five thousand pounds out of
the post-office was settled upon him and his descendants. The lords and
commons having adjourned themselves to the last day of December, the queen
closed the year with triumphal processions. As the standards and colours
taken at Blenheim had been placed in Westminster-hall, so now those that
had been brought from the field of Ramillies were put up in Guildhall, as
trophies of that victory. About this time the earls of Kent, Lindsey, and
Kingston, were raised to the rank of marquisses. The lords Wharton,
Paulet, Godolphin, and Cholmondeley, were created earls. Lord Walden, son
and heir-apparent to the earl of Suffolk, obtained the title of earl of
Bindon. The lord-keeper Cowper, and sir Thomas Pelham, were ennobled as
barons.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE COMMONS APPROVE OF THE ARTICLES OF THE UNION.

The parliament being assembled after their short recess, the earl of
Nottingham moved for an address to the queen, desiring her majesty would
order the proceedings of the commissioners for the union, as well as those
of the Scottish parliament on the said subject, to be laid before them. He
was seconded by the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Rochester; and
answered by the earl of Godolphin, who told them they needed not doubt but
that her majesty would communicate those proceedings, as soon as the
Scottish parliament should have discussed the subject of the union. The
lords Wharton, Somers, and Halifax observed, that it was for the honour of
the nation that the treaty of union should first come ratified from the
parliament of Scotland; and that then and not before, it would be a proper
time for the lords to take it into consideration. On the twenty-eighth
clay of January, the queen in person told both houses that the treaty of
union, with some additions and alterations, was ratified by an act of the
Scottish parliament: that she had ordered it to be laid before them; and
hoped it would meet with their concurrence and approbation. She desired
the commons would provide for the payment of the equivalent, in case the
treaty should be approved. She observed to both houses, that now they had
an opportunity of putting the last hand to a happy union of the two
kingdoms; and that she should look upon it as a particular happiness if
this great work, which had been so often attempted without success, could
be brought to perfection in her reign. When the commons formed themselves
into a committee of the whole house, to deliberate on the articles of the
union, and the Scottish act of ratification, the tory party, which was
very weak in that assembly, began to start some objections. Sir John
Packington disapproved of this incorporating union, which he likened to a
marriage with a woman against her consent. He said it was a union carried
on by corruption and bribery within doors, by force and violence without;
that the promoters of it had basely betrayed their trust, in giving up
their independent constitution, and he would leave it to the judgment of
the house, to consider whether or not men of such principles were fit to
be admitted into their house of representatives. He observed that her
majesty, by the coronation oath, was obliged to maintain the church of
England as by law established; and likewise bound by the same oath to
defend the presbyterian kirk of Scotland in one and the same kingdom. Now,
said he, after this union is in force, who shall administer this oath to
her majesty? It is not the business of the Scots, who are incapable of it,
and no well-wishers to the church of England. It is then only the part of
the bishops to do it, and can it be supposed that those reverend persons
will, or can act a thing so contrary to their own order and institution,
as thus to promote the establishment of the presbyterian church government
in the united kingdom? He added, that the church of England being
established jure divino, and the Scots pretending that the kirk was
also jure divino, he could not tell how two nations that clashed in
so essential an article could unite; he therefore thought it proper to
consult the convocation about this critical point. A motion was made, that
the first article of the treaty, which implies a peremptory agreement to
an incorporating union, should be postponed; and that the house should
proceed to the consideration of the terms of the intended union, contained
in the other articles. This proposal being rejected, some tory members
quitted the house; and all the articles were examined and approved without
further opposition. The whigs were so eager in the prosecution of this
point, that they proceeded in a very superficial manner, and with such
precipitation as furnished their enemies with a plausible pretence to
affirm, that they had not considered the treaty with the coolness and
deliberation which an affair of this importance required.

Before the lords began to investigate the articles of the union, they, at
the instance of the archbishop of Canterbury, brought in a bill for the
security of the church of England, to be inserted as a fundamental and
essential part of that treaty. It passed through both houses without
opposition, and received the royal assent. On the fifteenth clay of
February, the debates concerning the union began in the house of lords,
the queen being present, and the bishop of Sarum chairman of the
committee. The earls of Rochester, Anglesea, and Nottingham, argued
against the union; as did the bishop of Bath and Wells. Lord Haversham, in
a premeditated harangue, said the question was, whether two nations
independent in their sovereignties, that had their distinct laws and
interests, their different forms of worship, church-government, and order,
should be united into one kingdom? He supposed it a union made up of so
many mismatched pieces, of such jarring incongruous ingredients, that
should it ever take effect, it would carry the necessary consequences of a
standing power and force to keep them from falling asunder and breaking in
pieces every moment. Pie repeated what had been said by lord Bacon, that
an unity pieced up by direct admission of contrarieties in the fundamental
points of it, is like the toes of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, which were made
of iron and clay—-they may cleave together, but would never
incorporate. He dissented from the union for the sake of the good old
English constitution, in which he dreaded some alteration from the
additional weight of sixty-one Scottish members, and these too returned by
a Scottish privy-council. He took notice, that above one hundred Scottish
peers, and as many commoners, were excluded from sitting and voting in
parliament, though they had as much right of inheritance to sit there as
any English peer had of sitting in the parliament of England. He expressed
his apprehension of this precedent; and asked what security any peer of
England had for this right and privilege of peerage, which those lords had
not. He said, If the bishops would weaken their own cause, so far as to
give up the two great points of episcopal ordination and confirmation; if
they would approve and ratify the act for securing the presbyterian
church-government in Scotland, as the true protestant religion and purity
of worship; they must give up that which had been contended for between
them and the presbyterians for thirty years, and been defended by the
greatest and most learned men in the church of England. He objected to the
exempting articles, by which heritable offices and superiorities were
reserved. He affirmed that the union was contrary to the sense of the
Scottish nation; that the murmurs of the people had been so loud as to
fill the whole kingdom; and so bold as to reach even to the doors of the
parliament; that the parliament itself had suspended their beloved clause
in the act of security for arming the people; that the government had
issued a proclamation pardoning all slaughter, bloodshed, and maiming
committed upon those who should be found in tumults. From these
circumstances he concluded, that the Scottish nation was averse to an
incorporating union, which he looked upon as one of the most dangerous
experiments to both nations. Lord North and Grey complained of the small
and unequal proportion of the land-tax imposed upon Scotland. The earl of
Nottingham said it was highly unreasonable that the Scots, who were by the
treaty let into all the branches of the English trade, and paid so little
towards the expense of the government, should moreover have such a round
sum by way of equivalent. The same topics were insisted on by the lords
North and Grey, Guernsey, Granville, Stawel, and Abingdon. The earl of
Nottingham, after having opposed every article separately, concluded with
words to this effect; “As sir John Maynard said to the late king at the
revolution, that having buried all his contemporaries in Westminster-hall,
he was afraid, if his majesty had not come in that very juncture of time,
he might have likewise outlived the very laws; so, if this union do pass,
as I have no reason to doubt but it will, I may justly affirm I have
outlived all the laws, and the very constitution of England: I, therefore,
pray to God to avert the dire effects which may probably ensue from such
an incorporating union.”

These arguments and objections were answered by the lord-treasurer
Godolphin, the earls of Sunderland and Wharton, the lords Townshend,
Halifax, and So-mers, the bishops of Oxford, Norwich, and Sarum. They
observed that such an important measure could not be effected without some
inconveniences; but that these ought to be borne in consideration of the
greatness of the advantage: that the chief dangers to which the church was
exposed arose from France and popery; and this union would effectually
secure it against these evils: that Scotland lay on the weakest side of
England, which could not be defended but by an expensive army. Should a
war break out between the two nations, and Scotland be conquered, yet even
in that case it would be necessary to keep it under with a standing army,
which any enterprising prince might model for his ambitious purposes, and
joining with the Scots, enslave his English dominion; that any union after
a conquest would be compulsive, consequently of short duration; whereas
now it was voluntary, it would be lasting; that with regard to
ecclesiastical affairs, all heats and animosities might be allayed by soft
and gentle management. The cantons of Switzerland, though they professed
different religions, were yet united in one general body; and the diet of
Germany was composed of princes and states, among whom three different
persuasions prevailed; so that two sorts of discipline might very well
subsist under one legislature. If there was any danger on either side, it
threatened the Scots much more than the English, as five hundred and
thirteen members could certainly be too hard for forty-five; and in the
house of lords, six-and-twenty bishops would always preponderate against
sixteen peers from Scotland. Notwithstanding all the opposition made by
the lords of the tory interest, every article was approved by a great
majority, though not without a good number of protestations; and a bill of
ratification was prepared in the lower house by sir Simon Harcourt, the
solicitor-general, in such an artful manner as to prevent all debates. All
the articles, as they passed in Scotland, were recited by way of preamble,
together with the acts made in both parliaments for the security of the
several churches; and, in conclusion, there was one clause by which the
whole was ratified and enacted into a law. By this contrivance, those who
were desirous of starting new difficulties found themselves disabled from
pursuing their design. They could not object to the recital, which was
barely matter of fact; and they had not strength sufficient to oppose the
general enacting clause. On the other hand, the whigs promoted it with
such zeal that it passed by a majority of one hundred and fourteen, before
the others had recollected themselves from the surprise which the
structure of the bill had occasioned. It made its way through the house of
lords with equal despatch; and, when it received the royal sanction, the
queen expressed the utmost satisfaction. She said she did not doubt but it
would be remembered and spoke of hereafter to the honour of those who had
been instrumental in bringing it to such a happy conclusion. She desired
that her subjects of both kingdoms should from henceforward behave with
all possible respect and kindness towards one another, that so it might
appear to all the world they had hearts disposed to become one people.

1707

PARLIAMENT REVIVED BY PROCLAMATION.

As the act of union did not take place till the first of May, a great
number of traders in both kingdoms resolved to make advantage of this
interval. The English proposed to export into Scotland such commodities as
entitled them to a drawback, with a view to bring them back after the
first of May. The Scots, on the other hand, as their duties were much
lower than those in England, intended to import great quantities of wine,
brandy, and other merchandise, which they could sell at a greater
advantage in England after the union, when there would be a free
intercourse between the two nations. Some of the ministers had embarked in
this fraudulent design, which alarmed the merchants of England to such a
degree, that they presented a remonstrance to the commons. Resolutions
were immediately taken in the house against these practices, and a bill
was prepared; but the lords apprehending that it in some measure infringed
the articles of the union, and that it might give umbrage to the Scottish
nation, it was dropped. The frauds had been in a good measure prevented by
the previous resolutions of the house; and the first day of May was now at
hand; so that the bill was thought unnecessary. On the twenty-fourth day
of April the queen prorogued the parliament, after having given them to
understand that she would continue by proclamation the lords and commons
already assembled, as members in the first British parliament on the part
of England, pursuant to the powers vested in her by the acts of parliament
of both kingdoms, ratifying the treaty of union. The parliament was
accordingly revived by proclamation, and another issued to convoke the
first parliament of Great Britain for the twenty-third day of October. The
Scots repaired to London, where they were well received by the queen, who
bestowed the title of duke on the earls of Roxburgh and Montrose. She
likewise granted a commission for a new privy-council in that kingdom, to
be in force till the next session of parliament, that the nation might not
be disgusted by too sudden an alteration of outward appearances. The first
of May was appointed as a day of public thanksgiving; and congratulatory
addresses were sent up from all parts of England; but the university of
Oxford prepared no compliment; and the Scots were wholly silent on this
occasion.

THE QUEEN GIVES AUDIENCE TO A MUSCOVITE AMBASSADOR.

In the course of this session the commons, in an address to the queen,
desired she would resettle the islands of St. Christopher’s and Nevis in
the West Indies, which had been ravaged by the enemy. They likewise
resolved, that an humble address should be presented to her majesty,
praying she would concert measures for suppressing a body of pirates who
had made a settlement on the island of Madagascar, as also for recovering
and preserving the ancient possessions, trade, and fishery in
Newfoundland. The French refugees likewise delivered a remonstrance to the
queen, recapitulating the benefits which the persecuted protestants in
France had reaped from the assistance of her royal progenitors,
acknowledging their own happiness in living under her gentle government,
among a people by whom they had been so kindly entertained when driven
from their native country; and imploring her majesty’s interposition and
good offices in favour of their distressed and persecuted brethren abroad.
She graciously received this address, declaring she had always great
compassion for the unhappy circumstances of the protestants in France;
that she would communicate her thoughts on this subject to her allies; and
she expressed her hope that such measures might be taken as should
effectually answer the intent of their petition. In the month of May she
granted an audience to an ambassador-extraordinary from the czar of
Muscovy, who delivered a letter from his master, containing complaints of
king Augusts, who had maltreated the Russian troops sent to his
assistance, concluded a dishonourable peace with Charles king of Sweden,
without the knowledge of his allies, and surrendered count Patkul, the
Muscovite minister, as a deserter, to the Swedish monarch, contrary to the
law of nations, and even to the practice of barbarians. He therefore
desired her Britannic majesty would use her good offices for the
enlargement of the count, and the other Russian prisoners detained at
Stockholm; and that she would take into her protection the remains of the
Russian auxiliaries upon the Rhine, that they might either enter into the
service of the allies, or be at liberty to return in safety to their own
country. The queen actually interposed in behalf of Patkul; but her
intercession proved ineffectual, and that unhappy minister was put to
death with all the circumstances of wanton barbarity. As many severe and
sarcastic writings had lately appeared in which the whigs and ministry
were reviled, and reflections hinted to the prejudice of the queen’s
person, the government resolved to make examples of the authors and
publishers of these licentious productions. Dr. Joseph Browne was twice
pilloried for a copy of verses, intituled “The Country Parson’s Advice to
the Lord-Keeper,” and a letter which he afterwards wrote to Mr. Secretary
Hailey. William Stevens, rector of Sutton in Surrey, underwent the same
sentence, as author of a pamphlet called “A Letter to the Author of the
Memorial of the Church of England.” Edward Ward was fined and set in the
pillory, for having written a burlesque poem on the times, under the title
of “Hudibras Redivivus;” and the same punishment was inflicted upon
William Pittes, author of a performance, intituled “The Case of the Church
of England’s Memorial fairly stated.”

PROCEEDINGS IN CONVOCATION.

The lower house of convocation still continued to wrangle with their
superiors; and though they joined the upper house in a congratulatory
address to the queen on the success of her arms, they resolved to make
application to the commons against the union. The queen being apprised of
their design, desired the archbishop to prorogue them for three weeks,
before the expiration of which the act of union had passed in parliament.
The lower house delivered a representation to the bishops, in which they
affirmed no such prorogation had ever been ordered during the session of
parliament. The bishops found in their records seven or eight precedents
of such prorogations, and above thirty instances of the convocation having
sat sometimes before, and sometimes after, a session of parliament; nay,
sometimes even when the parliament was dissolved. The queen, informed of
these proceedings, wrote a letter to the archbishop, intimating that she
looked upon the lower house as guilty of an invasion of her royal
supremacy; and that if any thing of the same nature should be attempted
for the future, she would use such means for punishing offenders as the
law warranted. The prolocutor absenting himself from the convocation, the
archbishop pronounced sentence of contumacy against him. The lower house,
in a protestation, declared this sentence unlawful and altogether null.
Nevertheless the prolocutor made a full submission, with which the
archbishop was satisfied, and the sentence was repealed. About this period
the earl of Sunderland was appointed one of the secretaries of state, in
the room of sir Charles Hedges. This change was not effected without great
opposition from Harley, who was in his heart an enemy to the duke of
Marlborough and all his adherents; and had already, by his secret
intrigues, made considerable progress in a scheme for superseding the
influence of the duchess.

FRANCE THREATENED WITH TOTAL RUIN.

The French king at this juncture seemed to be entirely abandoned by his
former good fortune. He had sustained such a number of successive defeats
as had drained his kingdom of people, and his treasury was almost
exhausted. He endeavoured to support the credit of his government by
issuing mint-bills, in imitation of the bank-notes of England; but,
notwithstanding all his precautions, they passed at a discount of
three-and-fifty per cent. The lands lay uncultivated; the manufactures
could be no longer carried on; and the subjects perished with famine. The
allies, on the other hand, seemed to prosper in every quarter. They had
become masters of the greatest part of the Netherlands, in consequence of
the victory at Ramillies; the army of king Charles was considerably
reinforced; a scheme was formed for the conquest of Toulon, by the troops
of the emperor and the duke of Savoy, supplied with a large sum of money
by queen Anne, and assisted by the combined fleets of England and Holland,
under the command of sir Cloudesley Shovel. In a word, France seemed to be
reduced to the verge of destruction, from which nothing in all probability
could have saved her but the jealousy and misconduct of the confederates.
Louis, by virtue of his capitulation with the emperor in Italy, was
enabled to send such reinforcements into Spain as turned the fortune of
the war in that country; while the distractions in the council of king
Charles prevented that unanimity and concurrence without which no success
can be expected. The earl of Peterborough declared against an offensive
war, on account of the difficulty of finding subsistence in Castile; and
advised Charles to trust to the expedition against Toulon. This opinion he
sent from Italy, to which he had withdrawn.

THE ALLIES ARE DEFEATED AT ALMANZA.

Charles, however, was persuaded to penetrate once more to Madrid, and give
battle to the enemy wherever they should appear. On the thirteenth day of
March the army was assembled at Caudela, to the number of sixteen thousand
men; under the auspices of the marquis das Minas, to whom the earl of
Galway was second in command. They marched towards Yecla, and undertook
the siege of Vilena; but having received intelligence that the duke of
Berwick was in the neighbourhood, they advanced on the fourteenth day of
April in four columns towards the town of Almanza, where the enemy were
drawn up in order of battle, their number being considerably superior to
that of the confederates. The battle began about two in the afternoon, and
the whole front of each army was fully engaged. The English and Dutch
squadrons on the left, sustained by the Portuguese horse of the second
line, were overpowered after a gallant resistance. The centre, consisting
chiefly of battalions from Great Britain and Holland, obliged the enemy to
give way, and drove their first upon their second line; but the Portuguese
cavalry on the right being broken at the first charge, the foot betook
themselves to flight; so that the English and Dutch troops being left
naked on the flanks, were surrounded and attacked on every side. In this
dreadful emergency they formed themselves into a square, and retired from
the field of battle. By this time the men were quite spent with fatigue,
and all their ammunition exhausted: they were ignorant of the country,
abandoned by their horse, destitute of provisions, and cut off from all
hope of supply. Moved by these dismal considerations, they capitulated and
surrendered themselves prisoners of war, to the amount of thirteen
battalions. The Portuguese, and part of the English horse, with the
infantry that guarded the baggage, retreated to Alcira, where they were
joined by the earl of Galway, with about five and twenty hundred dragoons
which he had brought from the field of battle. About three thousand men of
the allied army were killed upon the spot, and among that number brigadier
Killegrew, with many officers of distinction. The earl of Galway, who
charged in person at the head of Guiscard’s dragoons, received two deep
cuts in the face. The marquis das Minas was run through the arm, and saw
his concubine, who fought in the habit of an Amazon, killed by his side:
the lords Tyrawley, Mark Ker, and colonel Glayton, were wounded: all their
artillery, together with an hundred and twenty colours and standards, and
about ten thousand men, were taken; so that no victory could be more
complete; yet it was not purchased without the loss of two thousand men
slain in the action, including some officers of eminence. The duke of
Berwick, who commanded the troops of king Philip, acquired a great
addition of fame by his conduct and behaviour before and during the
engagement; but his authority was superseded by the duke of Orleans, who
arrived in the army immediately after the battle. This prince seemed to
entertain some private views of his own; for he took no effectual step to
improve the victory. He began a private negotiation with the earl of
Galway, during which the two armies lay inactive on the banks of the
Cinca; and he concluded the campaign with the siege of Lerida, which was
surrendered by capitulation on the second day of November: then the troops
on both sides went into winter quarters. The earl of Galway and the
Marquis das Minas embarked at Barcelona for Lisbon, and general Carpenter
remained commander of the English forces quartered in Catalonia, which was
now the only part of Spain that remained to king Charles.

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT UPON TOULON.

The attempt upon Toulon by the duke of Savoy and prince Eugene might have
succeeded, if the emperor, notwithstanding the repeated remonstrances of
the maritime powers, had not divided his army in Italy, by detaching a
considerable body through the ecclesiastical state towards Naples, of
which he took possession without any difficulty. Besides, ten thousand
recruits destined for the Imperial forces in Italy were detained in
Germany, from an apprehension of the king of Sweden, who remained in
Saxony, and seemed to be upon very indifferent terms with the emperor.
With the assistance of the English and Dutch fleets, the duke of Savoy and
prince Eugene passed the Var 149 [See note 2 B, at the end of this Vol.]
on the eleventh day of July, at the head of an army of thirty thousand
men, and marched directly towards Toulon, whither the artillery and
ammunition were conveyed on board of the combined squadrons. The French
king was extremely alarmed at this attempt, as five thousand pieces of
cannon, vast magazines, and the best part of his fleet, were in the
harbour of Toulon, and ran the greatest risk of being entirely taken or
destroyed. The whole kingdom of France was filled with consternation when
they found their enemies were in the bosom of their country. The monarch
resolved to leave no stone unturned for the relief of the place, and his
subjects exerted themselves in a very extraordinary manner for its
preservation. The nobility of the adjacent provinces armed their servants
and tenants, at the head of whom they marched into the city: they coined
their plate, and pawned their jewels for money to pay the workmen employed
upon the fortifications; and such industry was used, that in a few days
the town and harbour, which had been greatly neglected, were put in a good
posture of defence. The allies took possession of the eminences that
commanded the city, and the ordnance being landed, erected batteries. From
these they began to cannonade and bombard the city, while the fleet
attacked and reduced two forts at the entrance of the Mole, and
co-operated in the siege with their great guns and bomb-ketches. The
garrison was numerous, and defended the place with great vigour. They sunk
ships in the entrance to the Mole: they kept up a prodigious fire from the
ramparts: they made desperate sallies, and even drove the besiegers from
one of their posts with great slaughter. The French king, alarmed at this
design of his enemies, ordered troops to march towards Toulon from all
parts of his dominions. He countermanded the forces that were on their
route to improve the victory of Almanza: a great part of the army under
Villars on the Bhine was detached to Provence, and the court of Versailles
declared, that the duke of Burgundy should march at the head of a strong
army to the relief of Toulon. The duke of Savoy being apprized of these
preparations, seeing no hope of reducing the place, and being apprehensive
that his passage would be intercepted, resolved to abandon his enterprise.
The artillery being re-embarked, with the sick and wounded, he decamped in
the night, under favour of a terrible bombardment and cannonading from the
English fleet, and retreated to his own country without molestation.* Then
he undertook the reduction of Susa, the garrison of which surrendered at
discretion. By this conquest he not only secured the key to his own
dominions, but also opened to himself a free passage into Dauphiné.

* Had the duke of Savoy marched with expedition from the
Var, he would have found Toulon defenceless; but he
lingered in such a manner as gives reason to believe he was
not hearty in the enterprise; and his operations were
retarded by a difference between him and his kinsman prince
Eugene.

SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL WRECKED.

Sir Cloudesley Shovel having left a squadron with sir Thomas Dilkes for
the Mediterranean service, set sail for England with the rest of the
fleet, and was in soundings on the twenty-second day of October. About
eight o’clock at night his own ship, the Association, struck upon the
rocks of Scilly, and perished with every person on board. This was
likewise the fate of the Eagle and the Romney: the Firebrand was dashed in
pieces on the rocks; but the captain and four-and-twenty men saved
themselves in the boat: the Phoenix was driven on shore: the Royal Anne
was saved by the presence of mind and uncommon dexterity of sir George
Byng and his officers: the St. George, commanded by lord Dursley, struck
upon the rocks, but a wave set her afloat again. The admiral’s body being
cast ashore, was stripped and buried in the sand; but afterwards
discovered and brought into Plymouth, from whence it was conveyed to
London, and interred in Westminster-abbey. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was born
of mean parentage in the county of Suffolk; but raised himself to the
chief command at sea, by his industry, valour, skill, and integrity. On
the upper Rhine the allies were unprosperous.150 [See note C, at the
end of this Vol.] The prince of Baden was dead, and the German army so
inconsiderable, that it could not defend the lines of Buhl against the
mareschal de Villars, who broke through this work, esteemed the rampart of
Germany, reduced Rastadt, defeated a body of horse, laid the duchy of
Wirtemberg under contribution, took Stutgard and Schorndorf; and routed
three thousand Germans intrenched at Lorch, under the command of general
Janus, who was made prisoner. In all probability, this active officer
would have made great progress towards the restoration of the elector of
Bavaria, had not he been obliged to stop in the middle of his career, in
consequence of his army’s being diminished by sending off detachments to
Provence. The Imperial army retired towards Hailbron, and the command of
it was, at the request of the emperor and allies, assumed by the elector
of Hanover, who restored military discipline, and acted with uncommon
prudence and circumspection; but he had not force sufficient to undertake
any enterprise of importance.

ANNE, 1701—1714

INTERVIEW BETWEEN THE KING OF SWEDEN AND THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

In the month of April, the duke of Marlborough set out from the Hague for
Leipsic, with a letter from the queen to Charles XII. of Sweden, whose
designs were still so mysterious, that the confederates could not help
being alarmed at his being in the heart of Germany. The duke was pitched
upon as the most proper ambassador, to soothe his vanity and penetrate
into his real intention.*

* When the duke arrived in his coach at the quarters of
count Piper, of whom he had demanded an audience, he was
given to understand that the count was busy, and obliged to
wait half an hour before the Swedish minister came down to
receive him. When he appeared at last, the duke alighted
from his coach, put on his hat, passed the count without
saluting him, and went aside to the wall, where having staid
some time, he returned and accosted him with the most polite
address.

He found this original character not simple, but sordid in his appearance
and economy, savage in his deportment, ferocious, illiterate, stubborn,
implacable, and reserved. The English general assailed him on the side of
his vanity, the only part by which he was accessible. “Sire,” said he, “I
present to your majesty a letter, not from the chancery, but from the
heart of the queen my mistress, and written with her own hand. Had not her
sex prevented her from taking so long a journey, she would have crossed
the sea to see a prince admired by the whole universe. I esteem myself
happy in having the honour of assuring your majesty of my regard; and I
should think it a great happiness, if my affairs would allow me, to learn
under so great a general as your majesty, what I want to know in the art
of war.” Charles was pleased with this overstrained compliment, which
seems to have been calculated for a raw unintelligent barbarian,
unacquainted with the characters of mankind. He professed particular
veneration for queen Anne, as well as for the person of her ambassador,
and declared he would take no steps to the prejudice of the grand
alliance. Nevertheless, the sincerity of this declaration has been
questioned. The French court is said to have gained over his minister,
count Piper, to their interest. Certain it is, he industriously sought
occasion to quarrel with the emperor, and treated him with great
insolence, until he submitted to all his demands. The treaty being
concluded upon the terms he thought proper to impose, he had no longer the
least shadow of pretence to continue his disputes with the court of
Vienna; and therefore began his march for Poland, which was by this time
overrun by the czar of Muscovy.

INACTIVE CAMPAIGN in the NETHERLANDS.

The duke of Marlborough returning from Saxony, assembled the allied army
at Anderlach near Brussels, about the middle of May; and, understanding
that the elector of Bavaria and the duke de Vendôme, who commanded the
French forces, had quitted their lines, he advanced to Soignies with a
design to engage them in the plain of Fleuras. But receiving certain
intelligence that the enemy were greatly superior to the allies in number,
by the help of drafts from all the garrisons, he retreated towards
Brussels, and took post at Mildert; while the French advanced to
Gemblours. Both armies lay inactive until the enemy sent off a large
detachment towards Provence. Then the duke of Marlborough and general
D’Auverquerque resolved to attack them in their fortified camp at
Gemblours. But they retreated with such celerity from one post to another,
that the confederates could not come up with them until they were safely
encamped with their right at Pont-a-Tresin, and their left under the
cannon of Lisle, covered with the river Schelde, and secured by
intrenchments. The allies chose their camp at Helchin, and foraged under
the cannon of Tournay, within a league of the enemy; but nothing could
induce them to hazard an engagement; and both armies went into winter
quarters in the latter end of October. The duke of Marlborough set out for
Franckfort, where he conferred with the electors of Mentz, Hanover, and
Palatine, about the operations of the next campaign: then he returned to
the Hague, and having concerted the necessary measures with the deputies
of the states-general, embarked for England in the beginning of November.

A PARTY FORMED AGAINST MARLBOROUGH.

The queen’s private favour was now shifted to a new object. The duchess of
Marlborough was supplanted by Mrs. Masham, her own kinswoman, whom she had
rescued from indigence and obscurity. This favourite succeeded to that
ascendancy over the mind of her sovereign which the duchess had formerly
possessed. She was more humble, pliable, and obliging than her first
patroness, who had played the tyrant, and thwarted the queen in some of
her most respected maxims. Her majesty’s prepossession in favour of the
tories and high-churchmen was no longer insolently condemned and violently
opposed. The new confidant conformed to all her prejudices, and encouraged
all her designs with assent and approbation. In political intrigues she
acted as associate, or rather auxiliary, to Mr. Secretary Harley, who had
insinuated himself into the queen’s good graces, and determined to sap the
credit of the duke of Marlborough and the earl of Godolphin. His aim was
to unite the tory interest under his own auspices, and expel the whigs
from the advantages they possessed under the government. His chief
coadjutor in this scheme was Henry St. John, afterwards lord Bolingbroke,
a man of warm imagination and elegant taste, penetrating, eloquent,
ambitious, and enterprising, whose talents were rather specious than
solid, and whose principles were loose and fluctuating. He was at first
contented to act in an inferior capacity, subservient to the designs of
the secretary; but, when he understood the full extent of his own parts
and influence, he was fired with the ambition of eclipsing his principal,
and from the sphere of his minister raised himself to the character of his
rival These politicians, with the assistance of sir Simon Har court, a
colleague of uncommon ability and credit, exerted their endeavours to
rally and reconcile the disunited tories, who were given to understand
that the queen could no longer bear the tyranny of the whigs: that she had
been always a friend in her heart to the tory and high-church party; and
that she would now exhibit manifest proof of her inclination. She
accordingly bestowed the bishoprics of Chester and Exeter upon sir William
Dawes and Dr. Blackall, who though otherwise of unblemished characters,
had openly condemned the revolution.

The people in general began to be sick of the whig ministry, whom they had
formerly caressed. To them they imputed the burdens under which they
groaned; burdens which they had hitherto been animated to bear by the pomp
of triumph and uninterrupted success. At present they were discouraged by
the battle of Almanza, the miscarriage of the expedition against Toulon,
the loss of sir Cloudesley Shovel, and the fate of four ships of the line,
destroyed or taken by a squadron under the command of messieurs Forbin and
Du Guai Trouin, two of the most enterprising sea-officers in the French
service. No new advantage had been obtained in the Netherlands: France,
instead of sinking under the weight of the confederacy, seemed to rise
with fresh vigour from every overthrow: the English traders had lately
sustained repeated losses for want of proper convoys; the coin of the
nation was visibly diminished, and the public credit began to decline. The
tories did not fail to inculcate and exaggerate these causes of
discontent, and the ministry were too remiss in taking proper steps for
the satisfaction of the nation. Instead of soothing, by gentle measures
and equal administration, the Scots, who had expressed such aversion to
the union, they treated them in such a manner as served to exasperate the
spirits of that people. A stop was put to their whole commerce for two
months before it was diverted into the new channel. Three months elapsed
before the equivalent was remitted to that kingdom, and it was afterwards
applied with the most shameful partiality. Seizures of wines and other
merchandise imported from thence into England, were made in all the
northern parts with an affectation of severity and disdain: so that the
generality of the Scottish nation loudly exclaimed against the union and
the government. The Jacobites were again in commotion. They held
conferences: they maintained a correspondence with the court of St.
Germains: a great number of the most rigid whigs entered so far into their
measures as to think a revolution was absolutely necessary to preserve the
liberties, independence, and commerce of their country: the pretender’s
birth-day was publicly celebrated in many different parts of the kingdom,
and everything seemed to portend an universal revolt. Ireland continued
quiet under the administration of the earl of Pembroke, whom the queen had
appointed lord-lieutenant of that kingdom. A parliament having met at
Dublin in the month of July, presented addresses of congratulation to her
majesty on the late union of the two kingdoms. The commons having
inspected the public accounts, resolved, that the kingdom had been put to
excessive charge, by means of great arrears of rent returned by the late
trustees, as due out of the forfeited estates, which returns were false
and unjust; and that an humble representation should be laid before her
majesty on this subject. They passed another laudable resolution in favour
of their own manufactures. They granted the necessary supplies, and having
finished several bills for the royal assent, were prorogued on the
twenty-ninth day of October.

MEETING OP THE FIRST BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

It was on the twenty-third of the same month that the first parliament of
Great Britain assembled at Westminster, when the queen in her speech to
both houses palliated the miscarriages in Provence and in Spain:
represented the necessity of making further efforts against the common
enemy; and exhorted them to be upon their guard against those who
endeavoured to sow jealousies in the commonwealth. The commons in their
address expressed the continuance of their former zeal and devotion to her
majesty’s government; but, in the house of lords, the earl of Wharton
expatiated upon the scarcity of money, the decay of trade, and the
mismanagement of the navy. He was seconded by lord Somers and the leaders
of the tory party, who proposed that, previous to every measure, they
should consider the state of the nation. The design of Wharton and Somers
was to raise the earl of Orford once more to the head of the admiralty;
and the tories, who did not perceive their drift, hoped, in the course of
the inquiry, to fix the blame of all mismanagement upon the whig
ministers. A day being fixed for this examination, the house received a
petition from the sheriffs and merchants of London, complaining of great
losses by sea for want of cruisers and convoys, and the complaints were
proved by witnesses. The report was sent to the lord-admiral, who answered
all the articles separately: then the tories moved for an address, in
which the blame of the miscarriages might be laid upon the ministry and
cabinet-council; but the motion was overruled: the queen was presented
with a bare representation of the facts, and desired that she would take
the proper measures for preventing such evils for the future. The commons
made some progress in an inquiry of the same nature, and brought in a bill
for the better securing the trade of the kingdom. They cheerfully granted
the supplies for the service of the ensuing year. They prepared another
bill for repealing the Scottish act of security, and that about peace and
war, which had excited such jealousy in the English nation. They resolved
that there should be but one privy-council in the kingdom of Great
Britain: that the militia of Scotland should be put on the same footing
with that of England: that the powers of the justices of the peace should
be the same through the whole island: that the lords of justiciary in
Scotland should go circuits twice in the year; that the writs for electing
Scottish members to serve in the house of commons should be directed, and
returns made, in the same manner as practised in England. An act being
formed on these resolutions, they brought in a bill for preserving the
trade with Portugal: then they considered the state of the war in Spain.

INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE WAR IN SPAIN.

When the queen passed these bills, she recommended an augmentation in the
aids and auxiliaries granted to the king of Spain and the duke of Savoy.
This intimation produced a debate in the house of lords on the affairs of
Spain. The services of the earl of Peterborough were extolled by the earl
of Rochester and lord Haver-sham, who levelled some oblique reflections on
the earl of Galway. Several lords enlarged upon the necessity of carrying
on the war until king Charles should be fully established upon the throne
of Spain. The earl of Peterborough said they ought to contribute nine
shillings in the pound rather than make peace on any other terms: he
declared himself ready to return to Spain, and serve even under the earl
of Galway. The earl of Rochester repeated a maxim of the old duke of
Schom-berg, that attacking France in the Netherlands was like taking a
bull by the horns. He therefore proposed that the allies should stand on
the defensive in Flanders, and detach from thence fifteen or twenty
thousand men into Catalonia. He was seconded by the earl of Nottingham;
but warmly opposed by the duke of Marlborough, who urged that the great
towns in Brabant which he had conquered could not be preserved without a
considerable number of men; and that if the French should gain any
advantage in Flanders from their superiority in point of number, the
discontented party in Holland, which was very numerous, and bore with
impatience the burden of the war, would not fail crying aloud for peace.
Being challenged by Rochester to show how troops could be procured for the
service of Italy and Spain, he assured the house that measures had been
already concerted with the emperor for forming an army of forty thousand
men under the duke of Savoy, for sending powerful succours to king
Charles. This declaration finished the debate, which issued in an
affectionate address to her majesty. The lords resolved, that no peace
could be safe and honourable for her majesty and her allies, if Spain and
the Spanish West Indies were suffered to continue in the power of the
house of Bourbon. They presented an address, in which they desired she
would press the emperor to send powerful succours to Spain under the
command of prince Eugene, with all possible expedition, to make good his
contract with the duke of Savoy, and strengthen the army on the Rhine,
which was now happily put under the conduct of that wise and valiant
prince, the elector of Hanover. The commons concurred in this
remonstrance, in consequence of which the queen desired the emperor to
bestow the command in Spain upon prince Eugene. The court of Vienna,
however, did not comply with this request, but sent thither count
Staremberg, who, of all the German generals, was next to the prince in
military reputation. The commons now proceeded to consider of ways and
means, and actually established funds for raising the supply, which
amounted to the enormous sum of six millions.

At this period Mr. Harley’s character incurred suspicion, from the
treachery of William Gregg, an inferior clerk in his office, who was
detected in a correspondence with monsieur Chamillard, the French king’s
minister. When his practices were detected he made an ample confession,
and pleading guilty to his indictment at the Old Bailey, was condemned to
death for high-treason. At the same time, John Bara and Alexander Valiere
were committed to Newgate for corresponding with the enemy; and Claude
Baud, secretary to the duke of Savoy’s minister, was, at the request of
his master, apprehended for traitorous practices against her majesty and
her government. A committee of seven lords being appointed to examine
these delinquents, made a report to the house, which was communicated to
the queen, in an address, importing, that Gregg had discovered secrets of
state to the French minister: that Alexander Valiere and John Bara had
managed a correspondence with the governors and commissaries of Calais and
Boulogn; and, in all probability, discovered to the enemy the stations of
the British cruisers, the strength of their convoys, and the times at
which the merchant ships proceeded on their voyages; that all the papers
in the office of Mr. Secretary Harley had been for a considerable time
exposed to the view of the meanest clerks, and that the perusal of all the
letters to and from the French prisoners had been chiefly trusted to
Gregg, a person of a very suspicious character, and known to be extremely
indigent. The queen granted a reprieve to this man, in hope of his making
some important discovery, but he really knew nothing of consequence to the
nation. He was an indigent Scot, who had been employed as a spy in his own
country, and now offered his services to Chamillard, with a view of being
rewarded for his treachery; but he was discovered before he had reaped any
fruits from his correspondence. As he had no secrets of importance to
impart, he was executed at Tyburn, where he delivered a paper to the
sheriff, in which he declared Mr. Harley entirely ignorant of all his
treasonable connexions, notwithstanding some endeavours that were made to
engage him in an accusation of that minister.

The queen had refused to admit the earl of Peterborough into her presence
until he should have vindicated his conduct, of which king Charles had
complained in divers letters. He was eagerly desirous of a parliamentary
inquiry. His military proceedings, his negotiations, his disposal of the
remittances, were taken into consideration by both houses; but he produced
such a number of witnesses and original papers to justify every
transaction, that his character triumphed in the inquiry, which was
dropped before it produced any resolution in parliament. Then they took
cognizance of the state of affairs in Spain, and found there had been a
great deficiency in the English troops at the battle of Almanza. This,
however, was explained so much to their satisfaction, that they voted an
address to the queen, thanking her for having taken measures to restore
the affairs in Spain, and provide foreign troops for that service. The
bill for rendering the union more complete, met with a vigorous opposition
in the house of lords from the court-party, on account of the clause
enacting, that, after the first of May, there should be but one
privy-council in the kingdom of Great Britain. The ministry, finding it
was strenuously supported by all the tories and a considerable number of
the other faction, would have compromised the difference, by proposing
that the privy-council of Scotland should continue to the first day of
October. They hinted this expedient, in hope of being able to influence
the ensuing elections; but their design being palpable, the motion was
overruled, and the bill received the royal assent: a court of exchequer,
however, was erected in Scotland upon the model of that in England. The
execution of Gregg, and the examination of Valiere and Bara, who had acted
as smugglers to the coast of France, under the protection of Harley, to
whom they engaged for intelligence, affected the credit of that minister,
who was reviled and traduced by the emissaries of the whig party. The duke
of Marlborough and the earl of Godolphin, being apprised of his secret
practices with Mrs. Masham, wrote to the queen that they could serve her
no longer, should Mr. Harley continue in the post of secretary. Being
summoned to the cabinet-council, they waited on her in person, and
expostulated on the same subject. She endeavoured to appease their
resentment with soft persuasion, which had no effect; and when they
retired from court, to the astonishment of all the spectators, she
repaired in person to the council. There Mr. Secretary Harley began to
explain the cause of their meeting, which was some circumstance relating
to foreign affairs. The duke of Somerset said, he did not see how they
could deliberate on such matters while the general and treasurer were
absent: the other members observed a sullen silence; so that the council
broke up, and the queen found herself in danger of being abandoned by her
ministers. Next day her majesty sent for the duke of Marlborough, and told
him that Harley should immediately resign his office, which was conferred
upon Mr. Henry Boyle, chancellor of the exchequer; but she deeply resented
the deportment of the duke and the earl of Godolphin, from whom she
entirely withdrew her confidence. Sir Simon Harcourt, attorney-general,
sir Thomas Mansel, comptroller of the household, and Mr. St. John,
relinquished their several posts upon the disgrace of Harley.

THE PRETENDER EMBARKS AT DUNKIRK FOR SCOTLAND.

The kingdom was at this period alarmed with a threatened invasion from
France. The court of St. Germain’s had sent over one colonel Hook with
credentials to Scotland, to learn the situation, number, and ability of
the pretender’s friends in that country. This minister, by his misconduct,
produced a division among the Scottish Jacobites. Being a creature of the
duke of Perth, he attached himself wholly to the duke of Athol, and those
other zealous partisans who were bent upon receiving the pretender without
conditions; and he neglected the duke of Hamilton, the earl-marshal, and
other adherents of that house, who adopted the more moderate principles
avowed by the earl of Middleton, At his return to France, he made such a
favourable report of the disposition and power of the Scottish nation,
that Louis resolved to equip an armament, and send over the pretender to
that kingdom. His pretence was to establish that prince on the throne of
his ancestors; but his real aim was to make a diversion from the
Netherlands, and excite a revolt in Great Britain, which should hinder
queen Anne from exerting herself against France on the continent. He began
to make preparations for this expedition at Dunkirk, where a squadron was
assembled under the command of the chevalier de Fourbin; and a body of
land forces were embarked with monsieur de Gace, afterwards known by the
appellation of the mareschal de Matignon. The pretender, who had assumed
the name of the chevalier de St. George, was furnished with services of
gold and silver plate, sumptuous tents, rich clothes for his life-guards,
splendid liveries, and all sorts of necessaries even to profusion. Louis
at parting presented him with a sword studded with valuable diamonds, and
repeated what he had formerly said to this adventurer’s father: “He hoped
he should never see him again.” The pope contributed to the expense of
this expedition, and accommodated him with divers religious inscriptions,
which were wrought upon his colours and standards. Queen Anne being
informed of these preparations, and the design of the French monarch,
communicated to the commons the advices which she had received from
Holland and the Netherlands, touching the destination of the Dunkirk
armament; both houses concurred in an address, assuring her they would
assist her majesty with their lives and fortunes against the pretended
prince of Wales, and all her other enemies. Then they passed a bill,
enacting, that the oath of abjuration should be tendered to all persons,
and such as refused to take it should be in the condition of convicted
recusants. By another, they suspended the habeas-corpus act till
October, with relation to persons apprehended by the government on
suspicion of treasonable practices. The pretender and his adherents were
proclaimed traitors and rebels; and a bill was passed, discharging the
clans of Scotland from all vassalage to those chiefs who should take up
arms against her majesty.

Transports were hired to bring over ten British battalions from Ostend; a
large fleet being equipped with incredible diligence, sailed from Deal
towards Dunkirk, under the conduct of sir John Leake, sir George Byng, and
lord Dursley. The French imagined that Leake had sailed to Lisbon, and
that Britain was unprovided of ships of war; so that they were amazed and
confounded when this fleet appeared off Mardyke: a stop was immediately
put to the embarkation of their troops; frequent expresses were despatched
to Paris; the count de Fourbin represented to the French king the little
probability of succeeding in this enterprise, and the danger that would
attend the attempt; but he received positive orders to embark the forces,
and set sail with the first favourable wind.

The British fleet being forced from their station by severe weather on the
fourteenth day of March, the French squadron sailed on the seventeenth
from the road of Dunkirk; but the wind shifting, it anchored in
Newport-pits till the nineteenth in the evening, when they set sail again
with a fair breeze, steering their course to Scotland. Sir George Byng
having received advice of their departure, from an Ostend vessel sent out
for that purpose by major-general Cadogan, gave chase to the enemy, after
having detached a squadron, under admiral Baker, to convoy the troops that
were embarked at Ostend for England. On the tenth day of March the queen
went to the house of peers, where, in a speech to both houses, she told
them that the French fleet had sailed; that sir George Byng was in pursuit
of them; and that ten battalions of her troops were expected every day in
England. This intimation was followed by two very warm addresses from the
lords and commons, in which they repeated their assurances of standing by
her against all her enemies. They exhorted her to persevere in supporting
the common cause, notwithstanding this petty attempt to disturb her
dominions; and levelled some severe insinuations against those who
endeavoured to foment jealousies between her majesty and her most faithful
servants. Addresses on the same occasion were sent up from different parts
of the kingdom; so that the queen seemed to look with contempt upon the
designs of the enemy. Several regiments of foot, with some squadrons of
cavalry, began their march for Scotland; the earl of Leven,
commander-in-chief of the forces in that country, and governor of the
castle of Edinburgh, hastened thither to put that fortress in a posture of
defence, and to make the proper dispositions to oppose the pretender at
his landing. But the vigilance of sir George Byng rendered all these
precautions unnecessary. He sailed directly to the Frith of Edinburgh,
where he arrived almost as soon as the enemy, who immediately took the
advantage of a land breeze, and bore away with all the sail they could
carry. The English admiral gave chase; and the Salisbury, one of their
ships, was boarded and taken. At night monsieur de Fourbin altered his
course, so that next day they were out of reach of the English squadron.
The pretender desired they would proceed to the northward, and land him at
Inverness, and Fourbin seemed willing to gratify his request; but the wind
changing, and blowing in their teeth with great violence, he represented
the danger of attempting to prosecute the voyage; and, with the consent of
the chevalier de St. George and his general, returned to Dunkirk, after
having been tossed about a whole month in very tempestuous weather. In the
meantime sir George Byng sailed up to Leith road, where he received the
freedom of the city of Edinburgh in a golden box, as a testimony of
gratitude for his having delivered them from the dreadful apprehensions
under which they laboured.

STATE OF THE NATION AT THAT PERIOD.

Certain it is, the pretender could not have chosen a more favourable
opportunity for making a descent upon Scotland. The people in general were
disaffected to the government on account of the union; the regular troops
under Leven did not exceed five-and-twenty hundred men, and even great
part of these would in all probability have joined the invader; the castle
of Edinburgh was destitute of ammunition, and would in all appearance have
surrendered at the first summons; in which case the Jacobites must have
been masters of the equivalent money lodged in that fortress: a good
number of Dutch ships, loaded with cannon, small arms, ammunition, and a
large sum of money, had been driven on shore in the shire of Angus, where
they would have been seized by the friends of the pretender, had the
French troops been landed; and all the adherents of that house were ready
to appear in arms. In England, such a demand was made upon the bank, by
those who favoured the invasion, and those who dreaded a revolution, that
the public credit seemed to be in danger. The commons resolved, that
whoever designedly endeavoured to destroy or lessen the public credit,
especially at a time when the kingdom was threatened with an invasion, was
guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor, and an enemy to her majesty and
the kingdom. The lord treasurer signified to the directors of the bank,
that her majesty would allow for six months an interest of six per cent,
upon their bills, which was double the usual rate; and considerable sums
of money were offered to them by this nobleman, as well as by the dukes of
Marlborough, Newcastle, and Somerset. The French, Dutch, and Jewish
merchants, whose interest was in a peculiar manner connected with the
safety of the bank, exerted themselves for its support; and the directors
having called in twenty per cent, upon their capital stock, were enabled
to answer all the demands of the timorous and disaffected. All the
noblemen and persons of distinction in Scotland, suspected of an
attachment to the court of St. Germain’s, were apprehended, and either
imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh, or brought up to London to be
confined in the Tower or in Newgate. Among these was the duke of Hamilton,
who found means to make his peace with the whig ministers; and, in a
little time, the other prisoners were admitted to bail. 153
[See note 2 D, at the end of this Vol.]

ANNE, 1701—1714

PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.

On the first day of April the parliament was prorogued, and afterwards
dissolved by proclamation. Writs were issued out for new elections,
together with a proclamation commanding all the peers of North Britain to
assemble at Holyrood-house in Edinburgh, on the seventeenth day of June,
to elect sixteen peers to represent them in the ensuing British
parliament, pursuant to the twenty-second article of the treaty of union.
After the dissolution of the parliament, the lords Griffin and Clermont,
two sons of the earl of Middleton, and several Scottish and Irish officers
who had been taken on board the Salisbury, were brought to London and
imprisoned in the Tower or in Newgate. Lord Griffin being attainted by
outlawry, for high treason committed in the reign of king William, was
brought to the bar of the court of king’s bench, and a rule made for his
execution; but he was reprieved from month to month, until he died a
natural death in prison. The privy-council of Scotland was dissolved; the
duke of Queensberry was created a British peer, by the title of baron of
Ripon, marquis of Beverley, and duke of Dover; and the office of secretary
at war, vacant by the resignation of Henry St. John, was bestowed upon
Robert Walpole, a gentleman who had rendered himself considerable in the
house of commons, and whose conduct Ave shall have occasion to mention
more at large in the sequel. About the same time a proclamation was issued
for distributing prizes, in certain proportions, to the different officers
and seamen of the royal navy; a regulation that still prevails.

THE FRENCH SURPRISE GHENT AND BRUGES.

The French king, not at all discouraged by the miscarriage of his
projected invasion, resolved to improve the advantages he had gained on
the continent during the last campaign, and indeed he made efforts that
were altogether incredible, considering the consumptive state of his
finances. 154 [See note 2 E, at the end of this Vol.]
He assembled a prodigious army in the Netherlands, under the command of
the duke of Burgundy, assisted by Vendôme, and accompanied by the duke of
Berry and the chevalier de St. George. The elector of Bavaria was destined
to the command of the troops on the Rhine, where he was seconded by the
duke of Berwick; and the mareschal de Villeroy was sent to conduct the
forces in Dauphiné. About the latter end of March, the duke of Marlborough
repaired to the Hague, where he was met by prince Eugene: these two
celebrated generals conferred with the pensionary Heinsius, and the
deputies of the states-general. Then they made an excursion to Hanover,
where they prevailed upon the elector to be satisfied with acting upon the
defensive in his command on the Rhine, and spare part of his forces, that
the confederates might be enabled to make vigorous efforts in the
Netherlands. The prince proceeded to Vienna, and the duke immediately
returned to Flanders, where he assembled the army towards the latter end
of May. On the twenty-fifth day of that month, the duke de Vendôme marched
to Soignies, and posted himself within three leagues of the confederates,
who were encamped at Billinghen and Halle. The duke of Marlborough having
received intelligence that the enemy were on their march by
Bois-Seigneur-Isaac to Braine-la-Leuwe, concluded their intention was to
take post on the banks of the Deule, to hinder the allies from passing
that river, and to occupy Louvaine. He, therefore, commanded the army to
march all night, and on the third day of June encamped at Terbank, general
d’Auverquerque fixing his quarters in the suburbs of Louvaine, while the
French advanced no farther than Genap and Braine-la-Leuwe. As they were
more numerous than the confederates, and headed by a prince of the blood,
the generals of the allies at first expected that they would hazard a
battle; but their scheme was to retrieve by stratagem the places they lost
in Flanders. The elector of Bavaria had rendered himself extremely popular
in the great towns; the count de Bergeyck, who had considerable interest
among them, was devoted to the house of Bourbon; the inhabitants of the
great cities were naturally inconstant and mutinous, and particularly
dissatisfied with the Dutch government. The French generals resolved to
profit by these circumstances. A detachment of their troops, under the
brigadiers la Faile and Pasteur, surprised the city of Ghent, in which
there was no garrison; at the same time the count de la Motte, with a
strong body of forces, appeared before Bruges, which was surrendered to
him without opposition; then he made a fruitless attempt upon Damme, and
marched to the little fort of Plassendhal, which he took by assault. The
duke of Marlborough was no sooner apprised of the enemy’s having sent a
strong detachment towards Tabize, than he marched from Terbank, passed the
canal, and encamped at Anderlach. The French crossed the Senne at Halle
and Tabize, and the allies resolved to attack them next morning; but the
enemy passed the Dender in the night with great expedition; and the duke
of Marlborough next day encamped at Asche, where he was joined by prince
Eugene, who had marched with a considerable reinforcement of Germans from
the Moselle. The enemy understanding that this general was on his march,
determined to reduce Oudenarde, the only pass on the Schelde possessed by
the confederates; and invested it on the ninth day of July, hoping to
subdue it before the allies could be reinforced. The duke of Marlborough
was immediately in motion, and made a surprising march from Asche, as far
as Herselingen, where he was joined by the reinforcement. Then he took
possession of the strong camp at Lessines, which the French had intended
to occupy in order to cover the siege of Oudenarde.

Thus disappointed, the French generals altered their resolution, abandoned
Oudenarde, and began to pass the Schelde at Gavre. The two generals of the
confederates were bent upon bringing them to an engagement. Cadogan was
sent with sixteen battalions and eight squadrons to repair the roads, and
throw bridges over the Schelde below Oudenarde. The army was in motion
about eight o’clock, and marched with such expedition, that by two in the
afternoon the horses had reached the bridges over which Cadogan and his
detachment were passing. The enemy had posted seven battalions in the
village of Heynem, situated on the banks of the Schelde, and the French
household troops were drawn up in order of battle on the adjacent plain,
opposite to a body of troops under major-general Bantzaw, who were posted
behind a rivulet that ran into the river. The duke de Vendôme intended to
attack the confederates when one half of their army should have passed the
Schelde; but he was thwarted by the duke of Burgundy, who seemed to be
perplexed and irresolute. This prince had ordered the troops to halt in
their march to Gavre, as if he had not yet formed any resolution; and now
he recalled the squadrons from the plain, determined to avoid a battle.
Vendôme remonstrated against this conduct, and the dispute continued till
three in the afternoon, when the greater part of the allied army had
passed the Schelde without opposition. Then the duke of Burgundy declared
for an engagement, and Vendôme submitted to his opinion with great
reluctance, as the opportunity was now lost, and the army unformed.
Major-general Grimaldi was ordered to attack Rantzaw with the horse of the
king’s household, who, finding the rivulet marshy, refused to charge, and
retired to the right. Meanwhile Cadogan attacked the village of Heynem,
which he took, with three of the seven battalions by which it was guarded.
Bantzaw, passing the rivulet, advanced into the plain and drove before him
several squadrons of the enemy. In this attack the electoral prince of
Hanover, his late majesty George IL, charged at the head of Bulau’s
dragoons with great intrepidity. His horse was shot under him, and colonel
Laschky killed by his side. Divers French regiments were entirely broken,
and a good number of officers and standards fell into the hands of the
Hanoverians. The confederates continued still passing the river, but few
or none of the infantry were come up till five in the afternoon, when the
duke of Argyle arrived with twenty battalions, which immediately sustained
a vigorous assault from the enemy. By this time the French were drawn up
in order of battle; and the allies being formed as they passed the river,
both armies were engaged through the whole extent of their lines about
seven in the evening. Europe had not for many years produced two such
noble armies: above one hundred general officers appeared in the field,
and two hundred and fifty colonels fought at the head of their respective
regiments. The number of the French exceeded that of the allies by twelve
thousand; but their generals were divided, their forces ill-disposed; and
the men dispirited by the uninterrupted success of their adversaries. They
seemed from the beginning averse to an engagement, and acted in hurry and
trepidation. Nevertheless, the action was maintained until general
d’Auverquerque and count Tilly, who commanded on the left of the allies,
obliged the right of the enemy to give ground; and the prince of Orange,
with count Oxienstern, attacked them in flank with the Dutch infantry.
Then they began to give way, and retired in great confusion. The duke de
Vendôme, alighting from his horse, rallied the broken battalions, called
the officers by name, conjured them to maintain the honour of their
country, and animated the men with his voice and example. But
notwithstanding all his endeavours, they were forced back among the
enclosures in great confusion. Some regiments were cut in pieces; others
desired to capitulate; and if the darkness had not interposed, their whole
army would have been ruined. The night coming on, so that it became
impossible to distinguish friends from enemies, the two generals ordered
the troops to cease firing, and the enemy took this opportunity of
escaping by the road which leads from Oudenarde to Ghent. The duke de
Vendôme seeing the French forces flying in the utmost terror and
precipitation, formed a rear-guard of about five-and-twenty squadrons, and
as many battalions, with which he secured the retreat. To this precaution
the safety of their army was entirely owing; for at day-break the duke of
Marlborough sent a large detachment of horse and foot, under the
lieutenant-generals Bulau and Lumley, to pursue the fugitives; but the
hedges and ditches that skirted the road were lined with the French
grenadiers in such a manner, that the cavalry could not form, and they
were obliged to desist. The French reached Ghent about eight in the
morning, and marching through the city, encamped at Lovendegen on the
canal. There they thought proper to cast up intrenchments, upon which they
planted their artillery, which they had left at Gavre with their heavy
baggage. About three thousand were slain on the field of battle; two
thousand deserted; and about seven thousand were taken, including a great
number of officers, together with ten pieces of cannon, above an hundred
standards and colours, and four thousand horses. The loss of the allies
did not amount to two thousand men; nor was one officer of distinction
killed on their side during the whole engagement.*

* Among the officers who were engaged in this battle, old
general d’Auverquerque and the duke of Argyle distinguished
themselves by the most extraordinary valour and activity.

After the confederates had rested two days on the field of battle, a
detachment was ordered to level the French lines between Ypres and the
Lys; another was sent to raise contributions as far as Arras; they ravaged
the country, and struck terror even into the city of Paris. While the
allies plundered the province of Picardy, a detachment from the French
army, under the chevalier de Rozen, made an irruption into Dutch-Flanders,
broke through the lines of Bervilet, which had been left unguarded, and
made a descent upon the island of Cadsandt, which they laid under
contribution.

THE ALLIES INVEST LISLE.

The generals of the allies now undertook an enterprise, which, in the
opinion of the French generals, savoured of rashness and inconsiderate
self-sufficiency. This was the siege of Lisle, the strongest town in
Flanders, provided with all necessaries, stores of ammunition, and a
garrison reinforced with one and twenty battalions of the best troops in
France, commanded by mareschal de Boufflers in person. But these were not
the principal difficulties which the allies encountered. The enemy had cut
off the communication between them and their magazines at Antwerp and
Sas-Fan-Ghent; so that they were obliged to bring their convoys from
Ostend along a narrow causeway, exposed to the attack of an army more
numerous than that with which they sat down before Lisle. On the
thirteenth of August it was invested on one side by prince Eugene, and on
the other by the prince of Orange-Nassau, stadtholder of Friesland; while
the duke of Marlborough encamped at Hel-chin, to cover the siege. The
trenches were opened on the twenty-second day of August, and carried on
with that vigour and alacrity which is always inspired by victory and
success. The dukes of Burgundy and Vendôme being now joined by the duke of
Berwick, resolved, if possible, to relieve the place; and made several
marches and counter-marches for this purpose. Marlborough being apprized
of their intention, inarched out of his lines to give them battle, being
reinforced by a considerable body of troops from the siege, including
Augustus king of Poland, and the landgrave of Hesse, as volunteers; but
the enemy declined an engagement, and the allies returned to their camp,
which they fortified with an intrenchment. On the seventh day of
September, the besiegers took by assault the counterscarp of Lisle, after
an obstinate action, in which they lost a thousand men. The French
generals continued to hover about the camp of the confederates, which they
actually cannonaded; and the duke of Marlborough again formed his army in
order of battle; but their design was only to harass the allies with
continual alarms, and interrupt the operations of the siege. They
endeavoured to surprise the town of Aeth, by means of a secret
correspondence with the inhabitants; but the conspiracy was discovered
before it took effect. Then they cut off all communication between the
besiegers and the Schelde, the banks of which they fortified with strong
intrenchments, and a prodigious number of cannon; so that now all the
stores and necessaries were sent to the camp of the confederates from
Ostend. On the twenty-first day of September, prince Eugene, who was in
the trenches, seeing the troops driven by the enemy from a lodgement they
had made on the counterscarp of the tenaille, rallied and led them back to
the charge; but being wounded over the left eye with a musket-shot, he was
obliged to retire, and for some days the duke of Marlborough sustained the
whole command, both in the siege and of the covering army. On the
twenty-third the tenaille was stormed, and a lodgement made along the
covered way. Mareschal Boufflers having found means to inform the duke de
Vendôme that his ammunition was almost expended, this general detached the
chevalier de Luxembourg, with a body of horse and dragoons, to supply the
place with gunpowder, every man carrying a bag of forty pounds upon the
crupper. They were discovered in passing through the camp of the allies,
and pursued to the barrier of the town, into which about three hundred
were admitted; but a great number were killed by the confederates, or
miserably destroyed by the explosion of the powder which they carried.

The next attempt of the French generals was to intercept a convoy from
Ostend. The count de la Motte marched from Ghent, with about two and
twenty thousand men, to attack this convoy, which was guarded by six
thousand of the allies, commanded by major-general Webb. This officer made
such an admirable disposition by the wood of Wynendale, and received the
enemy with such a close fire, that, after a very warm action that lasted
two hours, they retired in the utmost confusion, notwithstanding their
great superiority in number, leaving six thousand men killed upon the
field of battle; the loss of the allies not exceeding nine hundred and
twelve officers and soldiers. This was the most honourable exploit
performed during the whole war, and of such consequence to the
confederates, that if the convoy had been taken, the siege must have been
raised. The duke de Vendôme ordered the dikes between Bruges and Newport
to be cut, so as to lay the whole country under water, in hopes of
destroying the communication between Ostend and the camp of the
confederates; and, after a regular siege, he took colonel Caulfield, and a
body of British troops posted in the village of Leffinghen, by whose means
the convoys had been forwarded to the duke of Marlborough. On the
twenty-second of October, mareschal Boufflers desired to capitulate for
the town of Lisle: next day the articles were signed: on the twenty-fifth
the allies took possession of the place, and the mareschal retired into
the citadel with the remains of his garrison, which, from twelve thousand,
was reduced to less than the half of that number. A negotiation was begun
for the surrender of the citadel; but Boufflers made such extravagant
demands as were rejected with disdain. Hostilities were renewed on the
twenty-ninth day of the month; and the earl of Stair was detached to
provide corn for the army in the districts of Fumes and Dixmuyde. During
these transactions, veldt-mareschal D’Auverquerque died at Roselser, in
the sixty-seventh year of his age, after having, in above thirty
campaigns, exhibited innumerable proofs of uncommon courage, ability, and
moderation. The duke de Vendôme did not despair of obliging the
confederates to abandon their enterprise: the French ministers at Rome and
Venice publicly declared the allied army was cooped up in such a manner,
that it must either raise the siege or be famished. The elector of
Bavaria, with a detachment of ten thousand men, marched to Brussels, and
attacked the counterscarp with incredible fury; but was repulsed by the
garrison, under the command of general Paschal, and retired with
precipitation, when he understood that the duke of Marlborough was in
motion to relieve the place. This nobleman and prince Eugene no sooner
understood the danger to which Brussels was exposed, than they marched
with the covering army to the Schelde, which they passed in pontoons
without opposition, notwithstanding the formidable works which the French
had raised. They now abandoned them with precipitation, to the surprise of
the confederates, who had laid their account with the loss of a thousand
men in the attack. Having passed the river between Eskenaffe and
Hauterive, as well as at other places, they marched to Oudenarde, where
they received intelligence that the elector had retreated. Then prince
Eugene returned to Lisle, and the duke of Marlborough proceeded to
Brussels, where he was received with joy and acclamation. He afterwards
took post at Oudenarde, so as to maintain a communication with prince
Eugene.

LISLE SURRENDERED, GHENT TAKEN, AND BRUGES ABANDONED.

The besiegers having made lodgements and raised batteries on the second
counterscarp of the citadel, sent a message to Boufflers, intimating, that
if he would surrender before the opening of the batteries, he should have
an honourable capitulation; otherwise he and his garrison must be made
prisoners of war. He chose to avoid the last part of the alternative:
hostages were exchanged on the eighth day of December, and the articles
signed on the tenth; when the mareschal and his garrison marched out with
the honours of war, and were conducted to Douay. In this great enterprise,
spirit and perseverance made amends for want of foresight and skill, which
was flagrant on the side of the confederates; yet their success was owing
in a great measure to the improvidence and misconduct of the besieged. The
French generals never dreamed that the allies would attempt any thing of
consequence after the reduction of Lisle, considering the advanced season
of the year, and therefore they returned to Paris, after having
distributed their army into winter quarters. But their indefatigable
antagonists were determined to strike another stroke of importance before
their forces should separate. On the twentieth day of December they
invested the city of Ghent on all sides; and on the thirtieth, when the
batteries were ready to open, the count de la Motte, who commanded the
garrison, desired to capitulate. On the third day of January, 1708, he
marched out with thirty battalions and sixteen squadrons, which were
conducted to Tournay; while the duke of Argyle, with six British
battalions, took possession of the town and citadel. Then the enemy
abandoned Bruges, Plassendahl, and Leffengen; and the generals of the
allies, having settled the plan of winter quarters, repaired to Holland,
leaving their forces under the command of count Tilly. The French king was
confounded and dismayed at these conquests in the Netherlands. Nor was he
easy on the side of Dauphiné: in spite of all the vigilance and activity
of Villars, the duke of Savoy made himself master of the important
fortresses of Exilles, La Perouse, the valley of St. Martin, and
Fenestrells; so that by the end of the campaign he had secured a barrier
to his own frontiers, and opened a way into the French provinces, after
having made a diversion in favour of king Charles, by obliging the enemy
to send a strong detachment from Rousillon to the assistance of Villars.

1708

CONQUEST OF MINORCA.

The campaign in Catalonia was productive of a great event. Count Guido de
Staremberg arrived at Barcelona on the last day of April; but the Imperial
troops brought from Italy by admiral Leake did not land in time to relieve
Tortosa, which the duke of Orleans besieged and took, together with Denia,
the garrison of which were made prisoners of war, contrary to the articles
of capitulation. These losses, however, were abundantly made up to the
allies by the conquest of Sardinia and Minorca. Sir John Leake, having
taken on board a handful of troops, under the conduct of the marquis
d’Alconzel, set sail for Cagliari, and summoned the viceroy to submit to
king Charles. As he did not send an immediate answer, the admiral began to
bombard the city, and the inhabitants compelled him to surrender at
discretion. The greater part of the garrison enlisted themselves in the
service of Charles. The deputies of the states being assembled by the
marquis d’Alconzel, acknowledged that prince as their sovereign, and
agreed to furnish his army with thirty thousand sacks of corn, which were
accordingly transported to Catalonia, where there was a great scarcity of
provisions. Major-general Stanhope having planned the conquest of Minorca,
and concerted with the admiral the measures necessary to put it in
execution, obtained from count Staremberg a few battalions of Spaniards,
Italians, and Portuguese; at the head of these he embarked at Barcelona
with a fine train of British artillery, accompanied by brigadier Wade and
colonel Petit, an engineer of great reputation. They landed on the island
about ten miles from St. Philip’s fort, on the 26th of August, with about
eight hundred marines, which augmented their number to about three
thousand. Next day they erected batteries; and general Stanhope ordered a
number of arrows to be shot into a place, to which papers were affixed,
written in the Spanish and French languages, containing threats, that all
the garrison should be sent to the mines if they would not surrender
before the batteries were finished. The garrison consisted of a thousand
Spaniards, and six hundred French marines, commanded by colonel la
Jonquire, who imagined that the number of the besiegers amounted to at
least ten thousand, so artfully had they been drawn up in sight of the
enemy. The batteries began to play, and in a little time demolished four
towers that served as out-works to the fort; then they made a breach in
the outward wall, through which brigadier Wade, at the head of the
grenadiers, stormed a redoubt, with such extraordinary valour as struck
the besieged with consternation. On the second or third day they thought
proper to beat a parley, and capitulate, on condition that they should
march out with the honours of war: that the Spaniards should be
transported to Murcia, and the French to Toulon. These last, however, were
detained, by way of reprisal for the garrison of Denia. The Spanish
governor was so mortified when he learned the real number of besiegers,
that on his arrival at Murcia, he threw himself out of a window in
despair, and was killed upon the spot. La Jonquire was confined for life,
and all the French officers incurred their master’s displeasure. Fort St.
Philip being thus reduced, to the amazement of all Europe, and the
garrison of Fort Fornelles having surrendered themselves prisoners to the
admirals Leake and Whitaker, the inhabitants gladly submitted to the
English government, for king Philip had oppressed and deprived them of
their privileges: general Stanhope appointed colonel Petit governor of
Fort St. Philip, and deputy-governor of the whole island. After this
important conquest he returned to the army in Spain, where an unsuccessful
attempt to surprise Tortosa, finished the operations of the campaign.

RUPTURE BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR.

The British fleet not only contributed to the reduction of Minorca, but
likewise overawed the pope, who had endeavoured to form a league of the
princes in Italy against the emperor. This pontiff had manifested his
partiality to the house of Bourbon in such a palpable manner, that his
Imperial majesty ordered monsieur de Bonneval to march with the troops
that were in Italy, reinforced by those belonging to the duke of Modena,
and invade the duchy of Ferrara. He accordingly took possession of
Comachio and some other places, pretending they were allodial estates
belonging to the duke of Modena, and fiefs of the emperor, to which the
holy see had no lawful claim. The viceroy of Naples was forbid to remit
any money to Rome; and the council of the kingdom drew up a long memorial,
containing the pretensions of his catholic majesty, which struck at the
very foundation of the pope’s temporal power. His holiness wrote a long
remonstrance to the emperor on the injustice of those proceedings, and
declared that he would assert his cause though he should lose his life in
the contest. He forthwith began to raise an army, and revived a plan of
forming a league among the princes and states of Italy for their mutual
defence. Sir John Leake had received orders to bombard Civita-Vecchia, in
resentment for the pope’s having countenanced the pretender’s expedition
to Great Britain; but as the emperor and duke of Savoy hoped to effect an
accommodation with the court of Rome, they prevailed upon the English
admiral to suspend hostilities until they should have tried the method of
negotiation. The marquis de Prie, a Piedmontese nobleman, was sent as
ambassador to Rome; but the pope would not receive him in that quality.
Elated with the promises of France, he set the emperor at defiance; and
his troops having surprised a body of Imperialists, were so barbarous as
to cut them all in pieces. The duke of Savoy having ended the campaign,
the troops of the emperor, which had served under that prince, were
ordered to march into the papal territories, and drove the forces of his
holiness before them, without any regard to number. Bologna capitulated;
and Rome began to tremble with the apprehension of being once more sacked
by a German army. Then the pope’s courage failed; he was glad to admit the
marquis de Prie as envoy from the emperor. He consented to disband his new
levies; to accommodate the Imperial troops with winter quarters in the
papal territories; to grant the investiture of Naples to king Charles; and
to allow at all times a passage to the Imperial troops through his
dominions. On the Upper Rhine the electors of Bavaria and Hanover were so
weak, that they could not undertake any thing of consequence against each
other. In Hungary the disputes still continued between the emperor and the
malcontents. Poland was at length delivered from the oppression exercised
by the king of Sweden, who marched into the Ukraine against the czar of
Muscovy, notwithstanding the submission with which that monarch
endeavoured to appease his indignation. During the course of this year the
English merchants sustained no considerable losses by sea: the cruisers
were judiciously stationed, and the trade was regularly supplied with
convoys. In the West Indies, commodore Wager destroyed the admiral of the
galleons, and took the rear-admiral on the coast of Carthagena. Had the
officers of his squadron done their duty, the greatest part of the fleet
would have fallen into his hands. At his return to Jamaica, two of his
captains were tried by a court-martial and dismissed from the service.

DEATH OF PRINCE GEORGE OF DENMARK.

The court of England was about this time not a little disquieted by the
consequences of an outrage committed on the person of the count de
Matueof, the Muscovite ambassador. He was publicly arrested at the suit of
a laceman, and maltreated by the bailiffs, who dragged him to prison,
where he continued until he was bailed by the earl of Feversham. Incensed
at this insult, he demanded redress of the government, and was seconded in
his remonstrances by the ministers of the emperor, the king of Prussia,
and several other foreign potentates. The queen expressed uncommon
indignation against the authors of this violence, who were immediately
apprehended, and orders were given to prosecute them with the utmost
severity of the law. Matueof repealed his complaints with great acrimony;
and Mr. Secretary Boyle assured him, in the queen’s name, that he should
have ample satisfaction. Notwithstanding this assurance, he demanded a
pass for himself and family; refused the ordinary presents at his
departure; and retired to Holland. From thence he transmitted a memorial,
with a letter from the czar to the queen, insisting upon her punishing
with death all the persons concerned in violating the law of nations upon
the person of his ambassador. Such punishment being altogether
inconsistent with the laws of England, the queen and her ministry were
extremely perplexed, and held several councils to deliberate upon the
measures proper to be taken on such an occasion. On the twenty-eighth day
of October, prince George of Denmark died of an asthma and dropsy, with
which he had been long afflicted. He was a prince of an amiable rather
than a shining character, brave, good-natured, modest, and humane, but
devoid of great talents and ambition. He had always lived in harmony with
the queen, who, during the whole term of their union, and especially in
his last illness, approved herself a pattern of conjugal truth and
tenderness. At his death the earl of Pembroke was created
lord-high-admiral, the earl of Wharton promoted to the government of
Ireland, and lord Somers appointed president of the council.
Notwithstanding these promotions of the whig noblemen, the duke of
Marlborough declined apace in his credit with the queen, who privately
consulted and reposed her chief confidence in Mr. Harley, though he had no
visible concern in the administration.

THE NEW PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

The new parliament, in which the whig interest still preponderated, was
assembled on the sixteenth day of November, when they were given to
understand by a commission under the great seal, that the archbishop of
Canterbury, the chancellor, the lord-treasurer, the lord steward, and the
master of the horse, were appointed to represent the person of her
majesty, whom decency would not permit to appear in the house so soon
after the death of her consort. Sir Richard Onslow being chosen speaker of
the lower house with the queen’s approbation, the chancellor, in a speech
to both houses, recommended the vigorous prosecution of the war, telling
them her majesty hoped they would enable her to make a considerable
augmentation for preserving and improving the advantages which the allies
had gained in the Netherlands; that she desired they would prepare such
bills as might confirm and render the union effectual; and that if they
would propose means for the advancement of trade and manufacture, she
would take pleasure in enacting such provisions. Both houses having
presented addresses of condolence and congratulation, on the death of
prince George, and the success of her majesty’s arms during the last
campaign, the commons took cognizance of controverted elections, which
were decided with shameful partiality for the whig faction. Then they
proceeded to consider the different branches of the supply; they approved
of an augmentation of ten thousand men, which was judged necessary for the
more vigorous prosecution of the war; and they voted above seven millions
for the service of the ensuing year. The bank agreed to circulate two
millions five hundred thousand pounds in exchequer bills for the
government, on condition that the term of their continuance should be
prolonged for one-and-twenty years; and that their stock of two millions,
two hundred and one thousand, one hundred and seventy-one pounds, should
be doubled by a new subscription. The two-thirds subsidy was appropriated
for the interest of the money raised by this expedient.

ANNE, 1701—1714

NATURALIZATION BILL.

Great debates having arisen about Scottish elections, the house considered
the petitions and representations that were delivered, touching the
incapacity of the eldest sons of Scottish peers, excluded from sitting in
the parliament of Great Britain. Counsel being heard upon the subject,
that incapacity was confirmed; and new writs were issued, that new members
might be elected for the shires of Aberdeen and Linlithgow, in the room of
William lord Haddo, and James lord Johnston. Petitions were likewise
presented to the house of lords by some Scottish peers, concerning their
right of voting and signing proxies. After warm debates, the house, upon a
division, determined that a Scottish lord created a peer of Great Britain
should no longer retain his vote in Scotland; and that the noblemen who
were in the castle of Edinburgh had a right to sign proxies, after having
taken the oaths to the government. The Scottish peers and commoners that
sat in the British parliament were divided into two factions. The duke of
Queensberry was in great credit with the Queen and the lord-treasurer, by
whose interest he was appointed secretary of state for Scotland. His
influence in elections was so great, that all offices in that kingdom were
bestowed according to his recommendation. He was opposed by the dukes of
Hamilton, Montrose, and Roxburgh, who were supported by the earl of
Sunderland and lord Somers; so that the whole interest in that country was
engrossed by one or other member of the ministry. A bill for a general
naturalization of all protestants was brought into the house, and
notwithstanding violent opposition from the tories, both among the lords
and commons, was enacted into a law. The whigs argued for this bill, as a
measure that would encourage industry, improve trade and manufacture, and
repair the waste of men which the war had occasioned; but one of their
chief motives was to throw an addition of foreigners into the balance
against the landed interest. The tories pleaded that a conflux of aliens
might prove dangerous to the constitution; that they would retain a
fondness for their native countries, and, in times of war, act as spies
and enemies; that they would insinuate themselves into places of trust and
profit; become members of parliament; and by frequent intermarriages
contribute to the extinction of the English race: that they would add to
the number of the poor, already so expensive; and share the bread of the
labourers and tradesmen of England.

ACT OF GRACE.

An inquiry being set on foot in both houses concerning the late intended
invasion in Scotland, lord Haversham and the other tory members
endeavoured to demonstrate, that proper precautions had not been taken for
the security of that kingdom, even after the ministry had received
undoubted intelligence of the pretender’s design; that since the attempt
had miscarried, many persons of quality had been apprehended and severely
used by the government, on pretended suspicion of high treason; though in
all probability the aim of the ministry, in confining those persons, was
to remove all possibility of their opposing the court at the ensuing
elections for members of parliament. These assertions were supported by
many incontested facts and shrewd arguments, notwithstanding which, the
majority were so little disposed to find fault, that the inquiry issued in
a joint address to the queen, containing resolutions, that timely and
effectual care had been taken to disappoint the designs of her majesty’s
enemies, both at home and abroad. A bill, however, was brought into the
house of lords, under the title of “An act for improving the union of the
two kingdoms.” It related to trials for treason in Scotland, which by this
law were regulated according to the manner of proceeding in England, with
some small variation. The Scottish members opposed it as an encroachment
upon the form of their laws; and they were joined by those who had laid it
down as a maxim to oppose all the court measures; nevertheless, the bill
passed through both houses, and received the royal assent. Yet, in order
to sweeten this unpalatable medicine, the queen consented to an act of
grace, by which all treasons were pardoned, except those committed on the
high seas; an exception levelled at those who had embarked with the
pretender. Major-general Webb, who had been defrauded of his due honour,
in a partial representation of the battle of Wynendale, transmitted by
Cardonnel, secretary to the duke of Marlborough, was now thanked by the
house of commons for the great and eminent services which he had performed
in that engagement. This motion was made by the tories; and the whigs did
not fail to procure a compliment of the same nature to the duke of
Marlborough, even before he returned to England. When the news of Ghent’s
being taken arrived, the lords and commons congratulated the queen on this
last effort of a glorious campaign; and the duke at his arrival was
thanked, in the name of the peers, by the lord chancellor. As he was
supposed to have brought over proposals of peace, the two houses, in an
address, desired the queen would insist on the demolition of Dunkirk,
which was a nest of pirates that infested the ocean, and did infinite
prejudice to the commerce of England. The queen promised to comply with
their request. But she was not a little surprised at the next address they
presented, humbly entreating, that she would have such indulgence to the
hearty desires of her subjects, as to entertain thoughts of a second
marriage. She told them, that the provision she had made for the
protestant succession would always be a proof how much she had at heart
the future happiness of the kingdom; but the subject of this address was
of such a nature, that she was persuaded they did not expect a particular
answer.

1709

DISPUTES ABOUT THE MUSCOVITE AMBASSADOR COMPROMISED.

The laws having been found insufficient to punish capitally the authors of
the insult offered to the Muscovite ambassador, a bill was brought into
the house of commons for preserving the privileges of ambassadors and
other foreign ministers; and passed through both houses, as did another,
to prevent the laying of wagers relating to the public, a practice which
had been carried to a degree of infatuation; and by which many unwary
persons fell a sacrifice to crafty adventurers. On the fourteenth day of
March, the commons voted the sum of one hundred and three thousand, two
hundred and three pounds, for the relief of the inhabitants of Nevis and
St. Christopher’s, who had suffered by the late invasion; and on the
twenty-first day of April, the parliament was prorogued. The Muscovite
ambassador continued to write expostulatory letters to Mr. Secretary
Boyle, who at last owned that the laws of the kingdom did not admit of
such punishment as he demanded. An information was tried in the court of
king’s bench for her majesty against Thomas Morton, laceman, and thirteen
other persons concerned in the insult, of which they were found guilty;
and the special matter of the privileges of ambassadors was to be argued
next term before the judges. Meanwhile, the queen, by way of satisfaction
to the czar, condescended to make solemn excuses by her ambassador; to
repair Matueof’s honour by a letter, and indemnify him for all his costs
and damages: concessions with which the czar and his ambassador declared
themselves well satisfied. The convocation had been summoned, chosen, and
returned with a new parliament; but as the old spirit was supposed to
prevail in the lower house, the queen, by writ to the archbishop, ordered
him. to prorogue it from time to time, until the session of parliament was
finished.

CHAPTER X.

Negotiation for Peace ineffectual….. The Allied Army
besieges and takes Tour-nay….. The French are defeated at
Malplaquet….. Mons surrendered….. Campaign in Spain…..
The French King’s Proposals of treating rejected by the
States-general….. Account of Dr. Sacheverel….. He is
impeached by the Commons….. His Trial….. Debates upon it
in the House of Lords….. He is silenced for three
Years….. Conferences at Gertruydenburgh….. Pride and
Obstinacy of the Dutch….. Douay besieged and taken by the
Confederates, as well as Bethune, Aire, and St. Venant…..
King Charles obtains a Victory over Philip at Saragossa, and
enters Madrid….. Battle of Villaviciosa….. The Whig
Ministry disgraced….. The Parliament is dissolved…..
Meeting of the New Parliament….. The Duke of Marlborough
insulted and reviled….. Inquiry into the Conduct of the
War in Spain….. Severe Votes in the House of Commons
against those who invited over the poor Palatines…..
Harley stabbed at the Council Board by Guiscard; and
created Earl of Oxford….. Death of the Emperor Joseph…..
Representation by the Commons to the Queen….. Proceedings
in the Convocation….. The Duke of Marlborough continues
to command the Allied Army….. He surprises the French
Lines….. Reduces Bouchain….. The Duke of Argyle commands
the British Troops in Spain….. King Charles elected
Emperor….. Expedition to Canada….. Insolence of the
Jacobites in Scotland….. A Negotiation set on Foot between
the Courts of France and England….. Prior is sent to
Fountainbleau….. Ménager arrives privately in England…..
The French King’s Proposals disagreeable to the Allies…..
Violent Debate upon them in the House of Lords….. The Duke
of Hamilton’s Title of Duke of Brandon disallowed….. Bill
against occasional Conformity passes….. Duke of
Marlborough dismissed from all his Employments….. Twelve
new Peers created….. Prince Eugene of Savoy arrives in
England….. Walpole expelled the House of Commons…..
Votes against the Duke of Marlborough….. Resolutions
against the Barrier-treaty and the Dutch….. Acts
unfavourable to the Presbyterian Discipline in Scotland.

NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE INEFFECTUAL.

The French king was by this time reduced to such a state of humiliation by
the losses of the last campaign, and a severe winter, which completed the
misery of his subjects, that he resolved to sacrifice all the
considerations of pride and ambition, as well as the interest of his
grandson, to his desire of peace, which was now become so necessary and
indispensable. He despatched the president Rouillé privately to Holland,
with general proposals of peace, and the offer of a good barrier to the
states-general, still entertaining hopes of being able to detach them from
the confederacy. This minister conferred in secret with Buys and
Vanderdussen, the pensionaries of Amsterdam and Gouda, at Moerdyke, from
whence he was permitted to proceed to Woerden, between Leyden and Utrecht.
The states immediately communicated his proposals to the courts of Vienna
and Great Britain. Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough arrived at
the Hague in April, and conferred with the grand pensionary Heinsius,
Buys, and Vanderdussen, on the subject of the French proposals, which were
deemed unsatisfactory. Rouillé immediately despatched a courier to Paris,
for further instructions; and the duke of Marlborough returned to England,
to make the queen acquainted with the progress of the negotiation. Louis,
in order to convince the states of his sincerity, sent the marquis de
Torcy, his secretary for foreign affairs, to the Hague, with fresh offers,
to which the deputies would make no answer until they knew the sentiments
of the queen of Great Britain. The duke of Marlborough crossed the seas a
second time accompanied by the lord Townshend, as ambassador-extraordinary
and joint plenipotentiary; prince Eugene being likewise at the Hague, the
conferences were begun. The French minister declared that his master would
consent to the demolition of Dunkirk; that he would abandon the pretender,
and dismiss him from his dominions; that he would acknowledge the queen’s
title and the protestant succession; that he would renounce all
pretensions to the Spanish monarchy, and cede the places in the
Netherlands which the states-general demanded for their barrier; that he
would treat with the emperor on the footing of the treaty concluded at
Rys-wick, and even demolish the fortifications of Strasburgh. The
ministers of the allies, rendered proud and wanton by success, and seeing
their own private interest in the continuation of the war, insisted upon
the restitution of the Upper and Lower Alsace to the empire; upon the
French monarch’s restoring Strasburgh in its present condition; upon his
ceding the town and castellany of Lisle, demolishing Dunkirk, New Brisac,
Fort-Louis, and Hunningen. In a word, their demands were so insolent, that
Louis would not have suffered them to be mentioned in his hearing, had not
he been reduced to the last degree of distress. One can hardly read them
without feeling a sentiment of compassion for that monarch, who had once
given law to Europe, and been so long accustomed to victory and conquest.
Notwithstanding the discouraging despatches he had received from the
president Rouillé, after his first conferences with the deputies, he could
not believe that the Dutch would be so blind to their own interest, as to
reject the advantages in commerce, and the barrier which he had offered.
He could not conceive that they would choose to bear the burden of
excessive taxes in prosecuting a war, the events of which would always be
uncertain, rather than enjoy the blessings of peace, security, and
advantageous commerce: he flattered himself that the allies would not so
far deviate from their purposed aim of establishing a balance of power, as
to throw such an enormous weight into the scale of the house of Austria,
which cherished all the dangerous ambition and arbitrary principles,
without the liberality of sentiment peculiar to the house of Bourbon. In
proportion as they rose in their demands, Louis fell in his condescension.
His secretary of state, the marquis de Torcy, posted in disguise to
Holland, on the faith of a common blank passport. He solicited, he
soothed, he supplicated, and made concessions in the name of his
sovereign. He found the states were wholly guided by the influence of
prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough. He found these generals elated,
haughty, overbearing, and implacable. He in private attacked the duke of
Marlborough on his weakest side: he offered to that nobleman a large sum
of money, provided he would effect a peace on certain conditions. The
proposal was rejected. The duke found his enemies in England increasing,
and his credit at court in the wane; and he knew that nothing but a
continuation of the war, and new victories, could support his influence in
England. Torcy was sensible that his country was utterly exhausted, that
Louis dreaded nothing so much as the opening of the campaign; and he
agreed to those articles upon which they insisted as preliminaries. The
French king was confounded at these proposals; he felt the complicated
pangs of grief, shame, and indignation. He rejected the preliminaries with
disdain. He even deigned to submit his conduct to the judgment of his
subjects. His offers were published, together with the demands of the
allies. His people interested themselves in the glory of their monarch.
They exclaimed against the cruelty and arrogance of his enemies. Though
impoverished and half-starved by the war, they resolved to expend their
whole substance in his support; and rather to fight his battles without
pay, than leave him in the dire necessity of complying with such
dishonourable terms. Animated by these sentiments, they made such efforts
as amazed the whole world. The preliminaries being rejected by the French
king, Rouillé was ordered to quit Holland in four-and-twenty hours; and
the generals of the confederates resolved to open the campaign without
further hesitation.

THE ALLIED ARMY TAKE TOURNAY.

Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough proceeded to Flanders, and
towards the end of June the allied army encamped in the plain of Lisle, to
the number of one hundred and ten thousand fighting men. At the same time,
the mareschal Villars, accounted the most fortunate general in France,
assembled the French forces in the plain of Lens, where he began to throw
up intrenchments. The confederate generals having observed his situation,
and perceiving he could not be attacked with any probability of success,
resolved to undertake the siege of Tournay, the garrison of which Villars
had imprudently weakened. Accordingly, they made a feint upon Ypres, in
order to deceive the enemy, and convert all their attention to that side,
while they suddenly invested Tournay on the twenty-seventh day of June.
Though the garrison did not exceed twelve I weakened battalions, and four
squadrons of dragoons, the place was so strong, both by art and nature,
and lieutenant de Surville, the governor, possessed such admirable
talents, that the siege was protracted contrary to the expectation of the
allies, and cost them a great number of men, notwithstanding all the
precautions that could be taken for the safety of the troops. As the
besiegers proceeded by the method of sap, their miners frequently met with
those of the enemy under ground, and fought with bayonet and pistol. The
volunteers on both sides presented themselves to these subterraneous
combats, in the midst of mines and countermines ready primed for
explosion. Sometimes they were kindled by accident, and sometimes sprung
by design; so that great numbers of those brave men were stifled below,
and whole battalions blown into the air, or buried in the rubbish. On the
twenty-eighth day of July, the besiegers having effected a practicable
breach, and made the necessary dispositions for a general assault, the
enemy offered to capitulate: the town was surrendered upon conditions, and
the garrison retired to the citadel. Surville likewise entered into a
treaty about giving up the citadel: the articles being sent to the court
of Versailles, Louis would not ratify them, except upon condition that
there should be a general cessation in the Netherlands till the fifth day
of September. Hostilities were renewed on the eighth day of August, and
prosecuted with uncommon ardour and animosity. On the thirtieth, Surville
desired to capitulate on certain articles, which were rejected by the duke
of Marlborough, who gave him to understand that he had no terms to expect,
but must surrender at discretion. At length, his provisions being quite
exhausted, he was obliged io surrender himself and his garrison prisoners
of war, though they were permitted to return to France, on giving their
parole that they would not act in the field until a like number of the
allies should be released.

THE FRENCH ARE DEFEATED.

The next object that attracted the eyes of the confederates was the city
of Mons, which they resolved to besiege with all possible expedition. They
passed the Schelde on the third day of September, and detached the prince
of Hesse to attack the French lines from the Haisne to the Sombre, which
were abandoned at his approach. On the seventh day of September, mareschal
de Boufflers arrived in the French camp at Quievrain, content to act in an
inferior capacity to Villars, although his superior in point of seniority.
The duke of Marlborough having received advice that the French were on
their march to attack the advanced body under the prince of Hesse,
decamped from Havre in order to support that detachment. On the ninth the
allies made a motion to the left, by which the two armies were brought so
near each other that a mutual cannonading ensued. The French army,
amounting to one hundred and twenty thousand men, were posted behind the
woods of La Merte and Tanières, in the neighbourhood of Malplaquet. The
confederates, nearly of the same number, encamped with the right near Sart
and Bleron, and the left on the edge of the wood of Lanière; the head
quarters being at Blaregnies. The enemy, instead of attacking the allies,
began to fortify their camp, which was naturally strong, with triple
intrenchments. In a word, they were so covered with lines, hedges,
intrenchments, cannon and trees laid across, that they seemed to be quite
inaccessible. Had the confederates attacked them on the ninth, the battle
would not have been so bloody, and the victory would have proved more
decisive; for they had not then begun to secure the camp; but Marlborough
postponed the engagement until they should be reinforced by eighteen
battalions which had been employed in the siege of Tournay; and in the
meantime, the French fortified themselves with incredible diligence and
despatch. On the eleventh day of September, early in the morning, the
confederates, favoured by a thick fog, erected batteries on each wing and
in the centre; and about eight o’clock, the weather clearing up, the
attack began. Eighty-six battalions on the right, commmanded by general
Schuylemburgh, the duke of Argyle, and other generals, and supported by
two-and-twenty battalions under count Lottum, attacked the left of the
enemy with such vigour, that, notwithstanding their lines and barricadoes,
they were in less than an hour driven from their intrenchments into the
woods of Sart and Tanières. The prince of Orange and baron Fagel, with
six-and-thirty Dutch battalions, advanced against the right of the enemy,
posted in the wood of La Merte, and covered with three intrenchments. Here
the battle was maintained with the most desperate courage on both sides.
The Dutch obliged the French to quit the first intrenchment; but were
repulsed from the second with great slaughter. The prince of Orange
persisted in his efforts with incredible perseverance and intrepidity,
even after two horses had been killed under him, and the greater part of
his officers either slain or disabled. The French fought with an obstinacy
of courage that bordered on despair, till seeing their lines forced, their
left wing and centre giving way, and their general, Villars, dangerously
wounded, they made an excellent retreat towards Bavay, under the conduct
of Boufflers, and took post between Quesnoy and Valenciennes. The field of
battle they abandoned to the confederates, with about forty colours and
standards, sixteen pieces of artillery, and a good number of prisoners;
but this was the dearest victory the allies had ever purchased. About
twenty thousand of their best troops were killed in the engagement;
whereas the enemy did not lose half that number, and retired at leisure,
perfectly recovered of that apprehension with which they had been for some
years inspired and overawed by the successes of their adversaries. On the
side of the allies, count Lottum, general Tettau, count Oxienstern, and
the marquis of Tullibar-dine, were killed, with many other officers of
distinction. Prince Eugene was slightly wounded in the head;
lieutenant-general Webb received a shot in the groin. The duke of Argyle,
who distinguished himself by extraordinary feats of valour, escaped
unhurt; but several musket-balls penetrated through his clothes, his hat,
and periwig. In the French army, the chevalier de St. George charged
twelve times with the household troops, and in the last was wounded with a
sword in the arm. The mareschal de Villars confidently asserted, that if
he himself had not been disabled, the confederates would certainly have
been defeated.

MONS SURRENDERED.

Considering the situation of the French, the number of their troops, and
the manner in which they were fortified, nothing could be more rash and
imprudent than the attack, which cost the lives of so many gallant men,
and was attended with so little advantage to the conquerors. Perhaps the
duke of Marlborough thought a victory was absolutely necessary to support
his sinking interest at the court of Great Britain. His intention was to
have given battle before the enemy had intrenched themselves; but prince
Eugene insisted upon delaying the action until the reinforcement should
arrive from Tournay. The extraordinary carnage is imputed to the
impetuosity of the prince of Orange, whose aim through this whole war was
to raise himself into consideration with the states-general by signal acts
of military prowess. The French having retired to Valenciennes, the allies
were left at liberty to besiege Mons, which capitulated about the end of
October; and both armies were distributed in winter quarters. The campaign
on the Rhine produced nothing but one sharp action, between a detachment
of the French army commanded by the count de Borgh, and a body of troops
under count Merci, who had passed the Rhine in order to penetrate into
Franche-compte. The Imperial officer was worsted in this encounter, with
the loss of two thousand men; obliged to repass the river, and retire to
Fribourg. In Piedmont, velt-mareschal Thaun commanded the confederates in
the room of the duke of Savoy, who refused to take the field until some
differences, which had arisen between the emperor and him, should be
adjusted. Thaun’s design was to besiege Briançon; but the duke of Berwick
had taken such precautions as frustrated his intention, though part of the
troops under the French general were employed in suppressing an
insurrection of the Camisars, and other malcontents in the Vivaraz. These
were entirely defeated in a pitched battle; and Abraham, one of their
leaders, being taken, was broke alive upon the wheel; three-and-twenty
were hanged, and the other prisoners sent to the galleys. The pope delayed
acknowledging king Charles under various pretences, in hopes that the
campaign would prove favourable to the house of Bourbon; till at length
the emperor giving him to understand that his army should take up their
winter quarters in the ecclesiastical state, his holiness solemnly owned
Charles as king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily.

CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN.

The military operations in Spain and Portugal were unfavourable to the
allies. On the seventh of May, the Portuguese and English were defeated at
Caya by the Spaniards, under the command of the mareschal de Bay. The
castle of Alicant, guarded by two English regiments, had been besieged,
and held out during a whole winter. At length the chevalier d’Asfeldt
ordered the rock to be undermined, and having lodged two hundred barrels
of gunpowder, gave Syburg the governor to understand, that two of his
officers might come out and see the condition of the works. This offer
being accepted, Asfeldt in person accompanied them to the mine: he told
them he could not bear the thoughts of seeing so many brave men perish in
the ruins of a place they had so gallantly defended, and allowed them
four-and-twenty hours to consider on the resolution they should take.
Syburg continued deaf to his remonstrances; and, with an obstinacy that
savoured more of stupidity than of valour, determined to stand the
explosion. When the sentinels that were posted on the side of the hill
gave notice, by a preconcerted signal, that fire was set to the mine, the
governor ordered the guard to retire, and walked out to the parade
accompanied by several officers. The mine being sprung, the rock opened
under their feet, and they falling into the chasm, it instantly closed,
and crushed them to death. Notwithstanding this dreadful incident, colonel
d’Albon, who succeeded to the command, resolved to defend the place to the
last extremity. Sir Edward Whitaker sailed from Barcelona to the relief of
the place; but the enemy had erected such works as effectually hindered
the troops from landing. Then general Stanhope, who commanded them,
capitulated with the Spanish general for the garrison, which marched out
with all the honours of war, and was transported to Minorca, where the men
were put into quarters of refreshment. On the frontiers of Catalonia,
general Starem-berg maintained his ground, and even annoyed the enemy. He
passed the Segra, and reduced Balaguer; having left a strong garrison in
the place, he repassed the river, and sent his forces into winter
quarters. The most remarkable event of this summer was the battle of
Poultowa, in which the king of Sweden was entirely defeated by the czar of
Muscovy, and obliged to take refuge at Bender, a town of Moldavia, in the
Turkish dominions. Augustus immediately marched into Poland against
Stanislaus, and renounced his own resignation, as if it had been the
effect of compulsion. He formed a project with the kings of Denmark and
Prussia to attack the Swedish territories in three different places; but
the emperor and maritime powers prevented the execution of this scheme, by
entering into a guarantee for preserving the peace of the empire.
Nevertheless, the king of Denmark declared war against Sweden, and
transported an army over the Sound of Schonen; but they were attacked and
defeated by the Swedes, and obliged to re-embark with the utmost
precipitation. The war still continued to rage in Hungary, where, however,
the revolters were routed in many petty engagements.

FRENCH KING’S PROPOSALS OF TREATING REJECTED BY THE STATES-GENERAL.

Though the events of the summer had been less unfavourable to France than
Louis had reason to expect, he saw that peace was as necessary as ever to
his kingdom; but he thought he might now treat with some freedom and
dignity. His minister, Torcy, maintained a correspondence with Mr. Petkum,
resident of the duke of Holstein at the Hague: he proposed to this
minister, that the negotiation should be renewed; and demanded passes, by
virtue of which the French plenipotentiaries might repair in safety to
Holland. In the meantime, the French king withdrew his troops from Spain,
on pretence of demonstrating his readiness to oblige the allies in that
particular; though this measure was the effect of necessity, which obliged
him to recall those troops for the defence of his own dominions. The
states-general refused to grant passes to the French ministers; but they
allowed Petkum to make a journey to Versailles. In the interim king Philip
published a manifesto, protesting against all that should be transacted at
the Hague to his prejudice. Far from yielding Spain and the Indies to his
competitor, he declared his intention of driving Charles from those places
that were now in his possession. He named the duke of Alba and count
Bergheyck for his plenipotentiaries, and ordered them to notify their
credentials to the maritime powers; but no regard was paid to their
intimation. Philip tampered likewise with the duke of Marlborough; and the
marquis de Torcy renewed his attempts upon that general; but all his
application and address proved ineffectual. Petkum brought back from
Versailles a kind of memorial, importing, that those motives which
influenced the French before the campaign was opened, no longer subsisted;
that the winter season naturally produced a cessation of arms, during
which he would treat of a general and reasonable peace, without
restricting himself to the form of the preliminaries which the allies had
pretended to impose; that, nevertheless, he would still treat on the
foundation of those conditions to which he had consented, and send
plenipotentiaries to begin the conference with those of the allies on the
first day of January. The states-general inveighed against this memorial,
as a proof of the French king’s insincerity; though he certainly had a
right to retract those offers they had formerly rejected. They came to a
resolution, that it was absolutely necessary to prosecute the war with
rigour; and they wrote pressing letters on the subject to all their
allies.

ANNE, 1701—1714

ACCOUNT OF DE SACHEVEREL.

The parliament of Great Britain being assembled on the fifteenth day of
November, the queen in her speech told both houses that the enemy had
endeavoured, by false appearances and deceitful insinuations of a desire
after peace, to create jealousies among the allies: that God Almighty had
been pleased to bless the arms of the confederates with a most remarkable
victory and other successes, which had laid France open to the impression
of the allied arms, and consequently rendered peace more necessary to that
kingdom than it was at the beginning of the campaign. She insisted upon
the expediency of prosecuting the advantages she had gained, by reducing
that exorbitant and oppressive power which had so long threatened the
liberties of Europe. The parliament were as eager and compliant as ever..
They presented congratulatory addresses: they thanked the duke of
Marlborough for his signal services; while great part of the nation
reproached him with having wantonly sacrificed so many thousand lives to
his own private interest and reputation. In less than a month the commons
granted upwards of six millions for the service of the ensuing year, and
established a lottery, with other funds, to answer this enormous supply.
On the thirteenth day of December, Mr. Dolben, son to the late archbishop
of York, complained to the house of two sermons preached and published by
Dr. Henry Sacheverel, rector of St. Saviour’s in Southwark, as containing
positions contrary to revolution principles, to the present government,
and the protestant succession. Sacheverel was a clergyman of narrow
intellects, and an overheated imagination. He had acquired some popularity
among those who had distinguished themselves by the name of
high-churchmen, and took all occasions to vent his animosity against the
dissenters. At the summer assizes at Derby, he had held forth in that
strain before the judges; on the fifth day of November, in Saint Paul’s
church, he, in a violent declamation, defended the doctrine of
non-resistance; inveighed against the toleration and dissenters; declared
the church was dangerously attacked by her enemies, and slightly defended
by her false friends: he sounded the trumpet for the church, and exhorted
the people to put on the whole armour of God. Sir Samuel Garrard, the lord
mayor, countenanced this harangue, which was published under his
protection, extolled by the tories, and circulated all over the nation.
The complaint of Mr. Dolben against Sacheverel, was seconded in the house
of commons by sir Peter King and other members. The most violent
paragraphs were read: the sermons were voted scandalous and seditious
libels. Sacheverel, being brought to the bar of the house, acknowledged
himself the author of both, and mentioned the encouragement he had
received from the lord mayor to print that which was entitled, “The Perils
of False Brethren.” Sir Samuel, who was a member, denied he had ever given
him such encouragement. The doctor being ordered to withdraw, the house
resolved he should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors; and Mr.
Dolben was ordered to impeach him at the bar of the house of lords, in the
name of all the commons of England. A committee was appointed to draw up
articles, and Sacheverel was taken into custody. At the same time, in
order to demonstrate their own principles, they resolved that the reverend
Mr. Benjamin Hoadly, rector of St. Peter-le-Poor, for having often
justified the principles on which her majesty and the nation proceeded in
the late happy revolution, had justly merited the favour and
recommendation of the house; and they presented an address to the queen,
beseeching her to bestow some dignity in the church on Mr. Hoadly, for his
eminent service both to the church and state. The queen returned a civil
answer, though she paid no regard to their recommendation. Hoadly was a
clergyman of sound understanding, unblemished character, and uncommon
moderation, who, in a sermon preached before the lord mayor of London, had
demonstrated the lawfulness of resisting wicked and cruel governors, and
vindicated the late revolution. By avowing such doctrines, he incurred the
resentment of the high churchmen, who accused him of having preached up
rebellion. Many books were written against the maxims he professed. These
he answered; and, in the course of the controversy, acquitted himself with
superior temper, judgment, and solidity of argument. He as well as Bishop
Burnet and several other prelates, had been treated with great virulence
in Sacheverel’s sermon, and the-lord treasurer was scurrilously abused
under the name of Volpone. The doctor being impeached at the bar of the
upper house, petitioned that he might be admitted to bail; but this
indulgence was refused, and the commons seemed bent upon prosecuting him
with such severity as gave disgust to men of moderate principles.
Meanwhile the tories were not idle. They boldly affirmed that the whigs
had formed a design to pull down the church, and that this prosecution was
intended to try their strength before they could proceed openly to the
execution of their project. These assertions were supported, and even
credited by great part of the clergy, who did not fail to alarm and
inflame their hearers; while emissaries were employed to raise a ferment
among the populace, already prepared with discontent, arising from a
scarcity which prevailed in almost every country of Europe. The ministers
magnified the dangers to which the church was exposed, from dissenters,
whigs, and lukewarm prelates. These they represented as the authors of a
ruinous war, which in a little time would produce universal famine; and as
the immediate encouragers of those Palatine refugees who had been brought
over, to the number of six thousand, and maintained by voluntary
contributions, until they could be conveniently transported into Ireland
and the plantations of America. The charity bestowed upon those unhappy
strangers exasperated the poor of England, who felt severely the effects
of the dearth, and helped to fill up the measure of popular discontent.
The articles against Dr. Sacheverel being exhibited, his person was
committed to the deputy-usher of the black rod, but afterwards the lords
admitted him to bail. Then he drew up an answer to the charge, in which he
denied some articles, and others he endeavoured to justify or extenuate.
The commons having sent up a replication, declaring they were ready to
prove the charge, the lords appointed the twenty-seventh day of February
for the trial in Westminster-hall.

HIS TRIAL.

The eyes of the whole kingdom were turned upon this extraordinary trial.
It lasted three weeks, during which all other business was suspended; and
the queen herself was every day present, though in quality of a private
spectator. The managers for the commons were sir Joseph Jekyl, Mr. Eyre,
solicitor-general, sir Peter King, recorder of the city of London,
lieutenant-general Stanhope, sir Thomas Parker, and Mr. Robert Walpole,
treasurer of the navy. The doctor was defended by sir Simon Harcourt and
Mr. Phipps, and assisted by Dr. Atterbury, Dr. Smallridge, and Dr. Friend.
A vast multitude attended him every day to and from Westminster-hall,
striving to kiss his hand, and praying for his deliverance, as if he had
been a martyr and confessor. The queen’s sedan was beset by the populace,
exclaiming, “God bless your majesty and the church. We hope your majesty
is for Dr. Sacheverel.” They compelled all persons to lift their hats to
the doctor as he passed in his coach to the temple, where he lodged; and
among these some members of parliament, who were abused and insulted. They
destroyed several meeting houses; plundered the dwelling houses of eminent
dissenters; and threatened to pull down those of the lord chancellor, the
earl of Wharton, and the bishop of Sarum. They even proposed to attack the
bank, so that the directors were obliged to send to Whitehall for
assistance. The horse and foot guards were immediately sent to disperse
the rioters, who fled at their approach. Next day the guards were doubled
at Whitehall, and the train bands of Westminster continued in arms during
the whole trial. The commons entreated the queen, in an address, to take
effectual measures for suppressing the present tumults, set on foot and
fomented by papists, nonjurors, and other enemies to her title and
government. She expressed a deep sense of their care and concern, as well
as a just resentment at these tumultuous and violent proceedings. She
published a proclamation for suppressing the tumults; and several persons
being apprehended, were afterwards tried for high-treason. Two of them
were convicted and sentenced to die, but neither suffered. The commons
presented another address of thanks to her majesty for her gracious answer
to their first remonstrance. They took this occasion to declare, that the
prosecution of the commons against Dr. Henry Sacheverel proceeded only
from the indispensable obligation they lay under to vindicate the late
happy revolution, the glory of their royal deliverer, her own title and
administration, the present established and protestant succession,
together with the toleration and the quiet of the government. When the
doctor’s counsel had finished his defence, he himself recited a speech,
wherein he solemnly justified his intentions towards the queen and her
government, and spoke in the most respectful terms of the revolution and
the protestant succession. He maintained the doctrine of “non-resistance”
in all cases whatsoever, as a maxim of the church in which he was
educated, and by many pathetical expressions endeavoured to excite the
compassion of the audience. He was surrounded by the queen’s chaplains,
who encouraged and extolled him as the champion of the church; and he was
privately favoured by the queen herself, who could not but relish a
doctrine so well calculated for the support of regal authority.

DEBATES UPON IT IN THE LORDS.

On the tenth day of March, the lords being adjourned to their own house,
the earl of Nottingham proposed the following question:—“Whether, in
prosecutions by impeachments for high crimes and misdemeanors, by writing
or speaking, the particular words supposed to be criminal are necessary to
be expressly specified in such impeachments?” The judges being consulted,
were unanimously of opinion, that, according to law, the grounds of an
indictment or impeachment ought to be expressly mentioned in both. One of
the lords having suggested that the judges had delivered their opinions
according to the rules of Westminster-hall, and not according to the usage
of parliament, the house resolved, that in impeachments they should
proceed according to the laws of the land, and the law and usage of
parliament. On the sixteenth day of the month, the queen being in the
house incognita, they proceeded to consider whether or not the commons had
made good the articles exhibited against Dr. Sacheverel. The earl of
Wharton observed, that the doctor’s speech was a full confutation and
condemnation of his sermon: that all he had advanced about non-resistance
and unlimited obedience was false and ridiculous: that the doctrine of
passive obedience, as urged by the doctor, was not reconcileable to the
practice of churchmen: that if the revolution was not lawful, many in that
house, and vast numbers without, were guilty of blood, murder, rapine, and
injustice; and that the queen herself was no lawful sovereign, since the
best title she had to the crown was her parliamentary title, founded upon
the revolution. He was answered by the lord Haversham in a long speech.
Lord Ferrers said, if the doctor was guilty of some foolish unguarded
expressions, he ought to have been tried at common law. The earl of
Scarborough observed, the revolution was a nice point, and above the law;
he moved that they should adjourn the debate, and take time to consider
before they gave judgment. Dr. Hooper, bishop of Bath and Wells, allowed
the necessity and legality of resistance in some extraordinary cases; but
was of opinion, that this maxim ought to be concealed from the knowledge
of the people, who are naturally too apt to resist; that the revolution
was not to be boasted of, or made a precedent; but that a mantle ought to
be thrown over it, and it should be called a vacancy or abdication. He
said the original compact were dangerous words, not to be mentioned
without great caution; that those who examined the revolution too nicely
were no friends to it; and that there seemed to be a necessity for
preaching up non-resistance and passive obedience at that time, when
resistance was justified. The duke of Argyle affirmed, that the clergy in
all ages had delivered up the rights and privileges of the people,
preaching up the king’s power, in order to govern him the more easily; and
therefore they ought not to be suffered to meddle with politics. The earl
of Anglesea owned the doctor had preached nonsense; but said, that was no
crime. The duke of Leeds distinguished between resistance and revolution;
for had not the last succeeded, it would have certainly been rebellion,
since he knew of no other but hereditary right. The bishop of Salisbury
justified resistance from the book of Maccabees; he mentioned the conduct
of queen Elizabeth, who assisted the Scots, the French, and the
states-general, in resisting their different sovereigns, and was supported
in this practice both by her parliaments and her convocations. He observed
that king Charles I. had assisted the citizens of Rochelle in their
rebellion; that Manwayring incurred a severe censure from the parliament,
for having broached the doctrine of the divine right of kings; and that
though this became a favourite maxim after the restoration, yet its
warmest asserters were the first who pleaded for resistance when they
thought themselves oppressed. The archbishop of York, the duke of
Buckingham, and other leaders of the tory interest, declared that they
never read such a piece of madness and nonsense as Sacheverel’s sermon;
but they did not think him guilty of a misdemeanor. Next day, Dr. Wake,
bishop of Lincoln, accused Sacheverel of having made a strange and false
representation of the design for a comprehension, which had been set on
foot by archbishop Sancroft, and promoted by the most eminent divines of
the church of England. He was of opinion that some step should be taken
for putting a stop to such preaching, as, if not timely corrected, it
might kindle heats and animosities that would endanger both church and
state. Dr. Trimnel, bishop of Norwich, expatiated on the insolence of
Sacheverel, who had arraigned archbishop Grindal, one of the eminent
reformers, as a perfidious prelate, for having favoured and tolerated the
discipline of Geneva. He enlarged upon the good effects of the toleration.
He took notice of Sacheverel’s presumption in publishing inflammatory
prayers, declaring himself under persecution, while he was prosecuted for
offending against the law, by those who in common justice ought to be
thought the fairest accusers, and before their lordships, who were justly
acknowledged to be the most impartial judges. In discussing the fourth
article, the bishop of Salisbury spoke with great vehemence against
Sacheverel, who, by inveighing against the revolution, toleration, and
union, seemed to arraign and attack the queen herself; since her majesty
had so great a share in the first, had often declared she would maintain
the second, and that she looked upon the third as the most glorious event
of her reign. He affirmed that nothing could be more plain than the
doctor’s reflecting upon her majesty’s ministers; and that he had so well
marked out a noble peer there present, by an ugly and scurrilous epithet
which he would not repeat, that it was not possible to mistake his
meaning. Some of the younger peers could not help laughing at this
undesigned sarcasm upon the lord-treasurer, whom Sacheverel had reviled
under the name of Volpone; they exclaimed, “Name him, name him;” and in
all probability the zealous bishop, who was remarkable for absence of mind
and unguarded expressions, would have gratified their request, had not the
chancellor, interposing, declared that no peer Was obliged to say more
than he should think proper.

After obstinate disputes, and much virulent altercation, Sacheverel was
found guilty by a majority of seventeen voices; and four-and-thirty peers
entered a protest against this decision. He was prohibited from preaching
for the term of three years: his two sermons were ordered to be burnt by
the hands of the common hangman, in presence of the lord mayor and the two
sheriffs of London and Middlesex. The lords likewise voted that the
executioner should commit to the same fire the famous decree passed in the
convocation of the university of Oxford, asserting the absolute authority
and indefeasible right of princes. A like sentence was denounced by the
commons upon a book intituled, “Collections of Passages referred to by Dr.
Sacheverel, in his Answer to the Articles of Impeachment.” These he had
selected from impious books lately published, and they were read by his
counsel, as proofs that the church was in danger. The lenity of the
sentence passed upon Sacheverel, which was in a great measure owing to the
dread of popular resentment, his friends considered as a victory obtained
over a whig faction, and they celebrated their triumph with bonfires and
illuminations.

1710

On the fifth day of April, the queen ordered the parliament to be
prorogued, after having, in her speech to both houses, expressed her
concern for the necessary occasion which had taken up great part of their
time towards the latter end of the session. She declared that no prince
could have a more true and tender concern for the welfare and prosperity
of the church than she had, and should always have; and she said it was
very injurious to take a pretence from wicked and malicious libels, to
insinuate that the church was in danger by her administration.

CONFERENCES AT GERTRUYDENBURGH.

The French king, seeing the misery of his people daily increase, and all
his resources fail, humbled himself again before the allies, and by the
means of Petkum, who still corresponded with his ministers, implored the
states-general that the negotiation might be resumed. In order to
facilitate their consent, he despatched a new project of pacification, in
which he promised to renounce his grandson, and to comply with all their
other demands, provided the electors of Cologn and Bavaria should be
re-established in their estates and dignities. These overtures being
rejected, another plan was offered, and communicated to the
plenipotentiaries of the emperor and queen of Great Britain. Then Petkum
wrote a letter to the marquis de Torcy, intimating, that the allies
required his most christian majesty should declare, in plain and
expressive terms, that he consented to all the preliminaries, except the
thirty-seventh article, which stipulated a cessation of arms, in case the
Spanish monarchy should be delivered to king Charles in the space of two
months. He said the allies would send passports to the French ministers,
to treat of an equivalent for that article. Louis was even forced to
swallow this bitter draught. He signified his consent, and appointed the
mareschal D’Uxelles and the abbé Polignac his plenipotentiaries. They were
not suffered, however, to enter Holland, but were met by the deputies Buys
and Vanderdussen, at Gertruydenburgh. Meanwhile, the states desired the
queen of England to send over the duke of Marlborough to assist them with
his advice in these conferences. The two houses of parliament seconded
their request in a joint address to her majesty, who told them she had
already given directions for his departure; and said she was glad to find
they concurred with her in a just sense of the duke’s eminent services.
Both the letter and the addresses were procured by the interest of
Marlborough, to let the queen see how much that nobleman was considered
both at home and abroad. But she was already wholly alienated from him in
her heart, and these expedients served only to increase her disgust.

PRIDE AND OBSTINACY OF THE DUTCH.

The French ministers were subjected to every species of mortification.
They were in a manner confined to a small fortified town, and all their
conduct narrowly watched. Their accommodation was mean: their letters were
opened; and they were daily insulted by injurious libels. The Dutch
deputies would hear of no relaxation, and no expedient for removing the
difficulties that retarded the negotiation. In vain the plenipotentiaries
declared, that the French king could not with decency, or the least regard
to his honour, wage war against his own grandson: the deputies insisted
upon his effecting the cession of Spain and the Indies to the house of
Austria; and submitting to every other article specified in the
preliminaries. Nay, they even reserved to them selves a power of making
ulterior demands after the preliminaries should be adjusted. Louis
proposed that some small provision should be made for the duke of Anjou,
which might induce him to relinquish Spain the more easily. He mentioned
the kingdom of Arragon; and this hint being disagreeable to the allies, he
demanded Naples and Sicily. When they urged that Naples was already in
possession of the house of Austria, he restricted the provision to Sicily
and Sardinia. He offered to deliver up four cautionary towns in Flanders,
as a security for Philip’s evacuating Spain; and even promised to supply
the confederates with a monthly sum of money, to defray the expense of
expelling that prince from his dominions, should he refuse to resign them
with a good grace. The substance of all the conferences was communicated
to lord Townshend, and count Kinzendorf, the Imperial plenipotentiary; but
the conduct of the deputies was regulated by the pensionary Heinsius, who
was firmly attached to prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, more
averse than ever to a pacification. The negotiation lasted from the
nineteenth day of March to the twenty-fifth of July, during which term the
conferences were several times interrupted, and a great many despatches
and new proposals arrived from Versailles. At length the plenipotentiaries
returned to France, after having sent a letter to the pensionary, in which
they declared that the proposals made by the deputies were unjust and
impracticable; and complained of the unworthy treatment to which they had
been exposed. Louis resolved to hazard another campaign, not without hope
that there might be some lucky incident in the events of war, and that the
approaching revolution in the English ministry, of which he was well
apprized, would be productive of a more reasonable pacification. The
states-general resolved, that the enemy had departed from the foundation
on which the negotiation had begun, and studied pretences to evade the
execution of the capital points, the restitution of Spain and the Indies:
and, in short, that France had no other view than to sow and create
jealousy and disunion among the allies. Lord Townshend, in a memorial,
assured them that the queen entirely approved their resolution, and all
the steps they had taken in the course of the negotiation; and that she
was firmly resolved to prosecute the war with all possible vigour, until
the enemy should accept such terms of peace as might secure the
tranquillity of the christian world.

DOUAY, BETHUNE, AIRE, &c. TAKEN BY THE CONFEDERATES.

The conferences did not retard the operation of the campaign. Prince
Eugene and the duke of Marlborough set out from the Hague on the fifteenth
day of March for Tournay, in order to assemble the forces which were
quartered on the Maese, in Flanders, and Brabant. On the twentieth of
April, they suddenly advanced to Pont-a-Vendin, in order to attack the
lines upon which the French had been at work all the winter, hoping by
these to cover Douay and other frontier towns, which were threatened by
the confederates. The troops left for the defence of the lines retired
without opposition. The allies having laid bridges over the scarp, the
duke of Marlborough with his division passed the river and encamped at
Vitri. Prince Eugene remained on the other side and invested Douay, the
enemy retiring towards Cambray. Mareschal Villars still commanded the
French army, which was extremely numerous and well appointed, considering
the distress of that kingdom. Indeed, the number was augmented by that
distress; for many thousands saved themselves from dying of hunger, by
carrying arms in the service. The mareschal having assembled all his
forces, passed the Schelde, and encamped at Boucham, declaring that he
would give battle to the confederates: an alteration was immediately made
in the disposition of the allies, and proper precautions taken for his
reception. He advanced in order of battle; but having viewed the situation
of the confederates, he marched back to the heights of St. Lawrence, where
he fixed his camp. His aim was, by continual alarms, to interrupt the
siege of Douay, which was vigorously defended by a numerous garrison,
under the command of monsieur Albergotti, who made a number of successful
sallies, in which the besiegers lost a great number of men. They were
likewise repulsed in several assaults; but still proceeded with unremitted
vigour until the besieged, being reduced to the last extremity, were
obliged to capitulate on the twenty-sixth of June, fifty days after the
trenches had been opened. The generals finding it impracticable to attack
the enemy, who were posted within strong lines from Arras towards
Miramont, resolved to besiege Bethune, which was invested on the fifteenth
day of July, and surrendered on the twenty-ninth of August. Villars
marched out of his intrenchments with a view to raise the siege; but he
did not think proper to hazard an engagement: some warm skirmishes,
however, happened between the foragers of the two armies. After the
reduction of Bethune, the allies besieged at one time the towns of Aire
and St. Venant, which were taken without much difficulty. Then the armies
broke up, and marched into winter quarters.

KING CHARLES, OBTAINING A VICTORY AT SARAGOSSA, ENTERS MADRID.

The campaign on the Rhine was productive of no military event; nor was
anything of consequence transacted in Piedmont. The duke of Savoy being
indisposed and out of humour, the command of the forces still continued
vested in count Thaun, who endeavoured to pass the Alps, and penetrated
into Dauphiné; but the duke of Berwick had cast up intrenchments in the
mountains, and taken such precautions to guard them, as baffled all the
attempts of the Imperial general. Spain was much more fruitful of military
incidents. The horse and dragoons in the army of king Charles, headed by
general Stanhope, attacked the whole cavalry of the enemy at Almennara.
Stanhope charged in person, and with his own hand slew general Amessaga,
who commanded the guards of Philip. The Spanish horse were entirely
routed, together with nine battalions that escaped by favour of the
darkness; and the main body of the army retired with precipitation to
Lerida. General Starem-berg pursued them to Saragossa, where he found them
drawn up in order of battle; and an engagement ensuing on the ninth day of
August, the enemy were totally defeated: five thousand of their men were
killed, seven thousand taken, together with all their artillery, and a
great number of colours and standards. King Charles entered Saragossa in
triumph, while Philip with the wreck of his army retreated to Madrid.
Having sent his queen and son to Vittoria, he retired to Valladolid, in
order to collect his scattered forces so as to form another army. The good
fortune of Charles was of short duration. Stanhope proposed that he should
immediately secure Pampeluna, the only pass by which the French king could
send troops to Spain; but this salutary scheme was rejected. King Charles
proceeded to Madrid, which was deserted by all the grandees; and he had
the mortification to see that the Castilians were universally attached to
his competitor.

BATTLE OF VILLAVICIOSA.

While his forces continued cantoned in the neighbourhood of Toleda, the
king of France, at the request of Philip, sent the duke de Vendôme to take
the command of the Spanish army, which was at the same time reinforced by
detachments of French troops. Vendôme’s reputation was so high, and his
person so beloved by the soldiery, that his presence was almost equivalent
to an army. A great number of volunteers immediately assembled to
signalize themselves under the eye of this renowned general. The
Castilians were inspired with fresh courage, and made surprising efforts
in favour of their sovereign; so that in less than three months after his
defeat at Saragossa, he was in a condition to go in quest of his rival.
Charles, on the other hand, was totally neglected by the courts of Vienna
and Great Britain, which took no steps to supply his wants, or enable him
to prosecute the advantages he had gained. In the beginning of November
his army marched back to Saragossa, and was cantoned in the neighbourhood
of Cifuentes, where Staremberg established his head-quarters. General
Stanhope, with the British forces, was quartered in the little town of
Brihuega, where, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, he found himself
suddenly surrounded by the whole Spanish army. As the place was not
tenable, and he had very little ammunition, he was obliged, after a short
but vigorous resistance, to capitulate and surrender himself and all his
forces prisoners of war, to the amount of two thousand men, including
three lieutenant-generals, one major-general, one brigadier, with all the
colonels and officers of the respective regiments. He was greatly censured
for having allowed himself to be surprised; for if he had placed a guard
upon the neighbouring hills, according to the advice of general Carpenter,
he might have received notice of the enemy’s approach in time enough to
retire to Cifuentes. Thither he had detached his aide-camp with an account
of his situation on the appearance of the Spanish army; and Staremberg
immediately assembled his forces. About eleven in the forenoon, they began
to march towards Brihuega; but the roads were so bad that night overtook
them before they, reached the heights in the neighbourhood of that place.
Staremberg is said to have loitered away his time unnecessarily, from
motives of envy to the English general, who had surrendered before his
arrival. The troops lay all night on their arms near Villaviciosa, and on
the twenty-ninth were attacked by the enemy, who doubled their number.
Staremberg’s left wing was utterly defeated, all the infantry that
composed it having been either cut in pieces or taken; but the victors
instead of following up the blow began to plunder the baggage; and
Staremberg with his right wing fought their left with surprising valour
and perseverance till night. Then they retired in disorder, leaving him
master of the field of battle and of all their artillery. Six thousand of
the enemy were killed on the spot; but the allies had suffered so severely
that the general could not maintain his ground. He ordered the cannon to
be nailed up, and marched to Saragossa, from whence he retired to
Catalonia. Thither he was pursued by the duke de Vendôme, who reduced
Belaguer, in which he had left a garrison, and compelled him to take
shelter under the walls of Barcelona. At this period the duke de Noailles
invested Gironne, which he reduced notwithstanding the severity of the
weather; so that Philip, from a fugitive, became in three months absolute
master of the whole Spanish monarchy, except the province of Catalonia,
and even that lay open to his incursions. Nothing of consequence was
achieved on the side of Portugal, from whence the earl of Galway returned
to England by the queen’s permission. The operations of the British fleet,
during this summer, were so inconsiderable as scarce to deserve notice.
Sir John Norris commanded in the Mediterranean, and with a view to support
the Camisars, who were in arms in the Cevennois, sailed to Port Cette,
within a league of Marseilles, and at the distance of fifteen from the
insurgents. The place surrendered, without opposition, to about seven
hundred men that landed under the command of major-general Suissan, a
native of Languedoc. He likewise made himself master of the town and
castle of Eyde; but the duke de Noailles advancing with a body of forces
to join the duke de Roquelaire, who commanded in those parts, the English
abandoned their conquests, and re-embarked with precipitation. After the
battle of Poultowa the czar of Muscovy reduced all Livonia; but he and
king Augustus agreed to a neutrality for Pomerania. The king of Sweden
continued at Bender, and the grand seignor interested himself so much in
favour of that prince, as to declare war against the emperor of Russia.
Hostilities were carried on between the Swedish and Danish fleets with
various success. The malcontents in Hungary sustained repeated losses
during the summer; but they were encouraged to maintain the war by the
rupture between the Ottoman Porte and Russia. They were flattered with
hopes of auxiliaries from the Turks; and expected engineers and money from
the French monarch.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE WHIG MINISTRY DISGRACED.

In England, the effects of those intrigues which had been formed against
the whig ministers began to appear. The trial of Sacheverel had excited a
popular spirit of aversion to those who favoured the dissenters. From all
parts of the kingdom addresses were presented to the queen, censuring all
resistance as a rebellious doctrine, founded upon anti-monarchial and
republican principles. At the same time counter-addresses were procured by
the whigs, extolling the revolution and magnifying the conduct of the
present parliament. The queen began to express her attachment to the
tories, by mortifying the duke of Marlborough. Upon the death of the earl
of Essex, she wrote to the general desiring that the regiment which had
been commanded by that nobleman should be given to Mr. Hill, brother to
Mrs. Masham, who had supplanted the duchess of Marlborough in the queen’s
friendship, and was, in effect, the source of this political revolution.
The duke represented to her majesty in person, the prejudice that would
redound to the service from the promotion of such a young officer over the
heads of a great many brave men, who had exhibited repeated proofs of
valour and capacity. He expostulated with his sovereign on this
extraordinary mark of partial regard to the brother of Mrs. Masham, which
he could not help considering as a declaration against himself and his
family, who had so much cause to complain of that lady’s malice and
ingratitude. To this remonstrance the queen made no other reply, but that
he would do well to consult his friends. The earl of Godolphin enforced
his friend’s arguments, though without effect; and the duke retired in
disgust to Windsor. The queen appeared at council without taking the least
notice of his absence, which did not fail to alarm the whole whig faction.
Several noblemen ventured to speak to her majesty on the subject, and
explain the bad consequences of disobliging a man who had done such
eminent services to the nation. She told them his services were still
fresh in her memory; and that she retained all her former kindness for his
person. Hearing, however, that a popular clamour was raised, and that the
house of commons intended to pass some votes that would be disagreeable to
her and her new counsellors, she ordered the earl of Godolphin to write to
the duke to dispose of the regiment as he should think proper, and return
to town immediately. Before he received this intimation, he had sent a
letter to the queen desiring she would permit him to retire from business.
In answer to this petition, she assured him his suspicions were
groundless, and insisted upon his coming to council. The duchess demanded
an audience of her majesty, on pretence of vindicating her own character
from some aspersions. She hoped to work upon the queen’s tenderness, and
retrieve the influence she had lost. She protested, argued, wept, and
supplicated; but the queen was too well pleased with her own deliverance
from the tyranny of the other’s friendship, to incur such slavery for the
future. All the humiliation of the duchess served only to render herself
the more contemptible. The queen heard her without exhibiting the least
sign of emotion, and all she would vouchsafe, was a repetition of these
words—“You desired no answer, and you shall have none;” alluding to
an expression in a letter she had received from the duchess. As an
additional mortification to the ministry, the office of lord chamberlain
was transferred from the duke of Kent to the duke of Shrewsbury, who had
lately voted with the tories, and maintained an intimacy of correspondence
with Mr. Harley. The interest of the duke of Marlborough was not even
sufficient to prevent the dismissal of his own son-in-law, the earl of
Sunderland, from the post of secretary of state, in which he was succeeded
by lord Dartmouth.

The queen was generally applauded for thus asserting her just prerogative,
and setting herself free from an arbitrary cabal, by which she had been so
long kept in dependence. The duke of Beaufort went to court on this
occasion, and told her majesty he was extremely glad that he could now
salute her queen in reality. The whole whig party were justly alarmed at
these alterations. The directors of the bank represented to her majesty
the prejudice that would undoubtedly accrue to public credit from a change
of the ministry. The emperor and the states-general interposed in this
domestic revolution. Their ministers at London presented memorials,
explaining in what manner foreign affairs would be influenced by an
alteration in the British ministry. The queen assured them, that, whatever
changes might be made, the duke of Marlborough should be continued in his
employments. In the month of August the earl of Godolphin was divested of
his office, and the treasury put in commission, subjected to the direction
of Harley, appointed chancellor of the exchequer and under-treasurer. The
earl of Rochester was declared president of the council in the room of
lord Somers; the staff of lord steward being taken from the duke of
Devonshire, was given to the duke of Buckingham; and Mr. Boyle was removed
from the secretary’s office to make way for Mr. Henry St. John. The lord
chancellor having resigned the great seal, it was first put in commission,
and afterwards given to sir Simon Harcourt. The earl of Wharton
surrendered his commission of lord-lieutenant of Ireland, which the queen
conferred on the duke of Ormond. The earl of Orford withdrew himself from
the board of admiralty; and Mr. George Granville was appointed secretary
of war in the room of Mr. Eobert Walpole. The command of the forces in
Portugal was bestowed upon the earl of Portmore; the duke of Hamilton was
appointed lord-lieutenant of the county palatine of Lancaster. In a word,
there was not one whig left in any office of state, except the duke of
Marlborough, who would have renounced his command, had not he been
earnestly dissuaded by his particular friends from taking such a step as
might have been prejudicial to the interests of the nation. That the
triumph of the tories might be complete, the queen dissolved the whig
parliament, after such precautions were taken as could not fail to
influence the new election in favour of the other party.

To this end nothing so effectually contributed as did the trial of
Sacheverel, who was used as an instrument and tool to wind and turn the
passions of the vulgar. Having been presented to a benefice in North
Wales, he went in procession to that country with all the pomp and
magnificence of a sovereign prince. He was sumptuously entertained by the
university of Oxford, and different noblemen, who, while they worshipped
him as the idol of their faction, could not help despising the object of
their adoration. He was received in several towns by the magistrates of
the corporation in their formalities, and often attended by a body of a
thousand horse. At Bridgenorth he was met by Mr. Creswell, at the head of
four thousand horse, and the like number of persons on foot, wearing white
knots edged with gold, and three leaves of gilt laurel in their hats. The
hedges were for two miles dressed with garlands of flowers, and lined with
people; and the steeples covered with streamers, flags, and colours.
Nothing was heard but the cry of “The church and Dr. Sacheverel.” The
clergy were actuated by a spirit of enthusiasm, which seemed to spread
like a contagion through all ranks and degrees of people, and had such an
effect upon the elections for the new parliament, that very few were
returned as members but such as had distinguished themselves by their zeal
against the whig administration. Now the queen had the pleasure to see all
the offices of state, the lieutenancy of London, the management of
corporations, and the direction of both houses of parliament, in the hands
of the tories. When these met on the twenty-fifth day of November, Mr.
Bromley was chosen speaker without opposition. The queen, in her speech,
recommended the prosecution of the war with vigour, especially in Spain.
She declared herself resolved to support the church of England; to
preserve the British constitution according to the union; to maintain the
indulgence by law allowed to scrupulous consciences; and to employ none
but such as were heartily attached to the protestant succession in the
house of Hanover. The lords, in their address, promised to concur in all
reasonable measures towards procuring an honourable peace. The commons
were more warm and hearty in their assurances, exhorting her majesty to
discountenance all such principles and measures as had lately threatened
her royal crown and dignity—measures which, whenever they might
prevail, would prove fatal to the whole constitution, both in church and
state. After this declaration they proceeded to consider the estimates,
and cheerfully granted the supplies for the ensuing year, part of which
was raised by two lotteries. In the house of peers, the earl of
Scarborough moved that the thanks of the house should be returned to the
duke of Marlborough; but the duke of Argyle made some objections to* the
motion, and the general’s friends, dreading the consequence of putting the
question, postponed the consideration of this proposal until the duke
should return from the continent. The earl of Peterborough was appointed
ambassador-extraordinary to the Imperial court; the earl of Rivers was
sent in the same quality to Hanover; Mr. Richard Hill was nominated
envoy-extraordinary to the United Provinces, as well as to the council of
state appointed for the government of the Spanish Netherlands, in the room
of lieutenant-general Cadogan. Meredith, Macartney, and Honey wood, were
deprived of their regiments, because in their cups they had drank
confusion to the enemies of the duke of Marlborough.

DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH INSULTED.

This nobleman arrived in England towards the latter end of December. He
conferred about half an hour in private with the queen, and next morning
assisted at a committee of the privy-council. Her majesty give him to
understand that he needed not expect the thanks of the parliament as
formerly; and told him she hoped he would live well with her ministers. He
expressed no resentment at the alterations which had been made; but
resolved to acquiesce in the queen’s pleasure, and retain the command of
the army on her own terms. On the second day of January, the queen sent a
message to both houses, intimating that there had been an action in Spain
to the disadvantage of king Charles; that the damage having fallen
particularly on the English forces, she had given directions for sending
and procuring troops to repair their loss, and hoped the parliament would
approve her conduct. Both houses seized this opportunity of venting their
spleen against the old ministry. The history of England is disgraced by
the violent conduct of two turbulent factions, which, in their turn,
engrossed the administration and legislative power. The parliamentary
strain was quite altered. One can hardly conceive how resolutions so
widely different could be taken on the same subject, with any shadow of
reason and decorum. Marlborough, who but a few months before had been so
highly extolled and caressed by the representatives of the people, was now
become the object of parliamentary hatred and censure, though no sensible
alteration had happened in his conduct or success. That hero, who had
retrieved the glory of the British arms, won so many battles, subdued such
a number of towns and districts, humbled the pride and checked the
ambition of France, secured the liberty of Europe, and, as it were,
chained victory to his chariot wheels, was in a few weeks dwindled into an
object of contempt and derision. He was ridiculed in public libels, and
reviled in private conversation. Instances were every where repeated of
his fraud, warice, and extortion; his insolence, cruelty, ambition, and
misconduct; even his courage was called in question; and this consummate
general was represented as the lowest of mankind. So unstable is the
popularity of every character that fluctuates between two opposite tides
of faction.

INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR IN SPAIN.

The lords, in their answer to the queen’s message, declared, that as the
misfortune in Spain might have been occasioned by some preceding
mismanagement, they would use their utmost endeavours to discover it, so
as to prevent the like for the future. They set on foot an inquiry
concerning the affairs of Spain; and the earl of Peterborough being
examined before the committee, imputed all the miscarriages in the course
of that war to the earl of Galway and general Stanhope. Notwithstanding
the defence of Galway, which was clear and convincing, the house resolved,
that the earl of Peterborough had given a faithful and honourable account
of the councils of war in Valencia: that the earl of Galway, lord
Tyrawley, and general Stanhope, in advising an offensive war, had been the
unhappy occasion of the battle of Almanza, the source of our misfortunes
in Spain, and one great cause of the disappointment of the expedition to
Toulon, concerted with her majesty. They voted that the prosecution of an
offensive war in Spain was approved and directed by the ministers, who
were therefore justly blameable, as having contributed to all our
misfortunes in Spain, and to the disappointment of the expedition against
Toulon; that the earl of Peterborough, during his command in Spain, had
performed many great and eminent services; and if his opinion had been
followed, it might have prevented the misfortunes that ensued. Then the
duke of Buckingham moved, that the thanks of the house should be given to
the earl for his remarkable and eminent services; and these he actually
received from the mouth of the lord-keeper Harcourt, who took this
opportunity to drop some oblique reflections upon the mercenary
disposition of the duke of Marlborough. The house, proceeding in the
inquiry, passed another vote, importing, that the late ministry had been
negligent in managing the Spanish war, to the great prejudice of the
nation. Finding that the Portuguese troops were posted on the right of the
English at the battle of Almanza, they re solved, that the earl of Galway,
in yielding this point, had acted contrary to the honour of the imperial
crown of Great Britain. These resolutions they included in an address to
the queen, who had been present during the debates, which were extremely
violent; and to every separate vote was attached a severe protest. These
were not the proceedings of candour and national justice, but the
ebullitions of party zeal and rancorous animosity.

While the lords were employed in this inquiry, the commons examined
certain abuses which had crept into the management of the navy; and some
censures were passed upon certain persons concerned in contracts for
victualling the seamen. The inhabitants of St. Olave’s and other parishes
presented a petition, complaining that a great number of Palatines,
inhabiting one house, might produce among them a contagious distemper; and
in time become a charge to the public, as they were destitute of all
visible means of subsistence. This petition had been procured by the
tories, that the house of commons might have another handle for attacking
the late ministry. A committee was appointed to inquire upon what
invitation or encouragement those Palatines had come to England. The
papers relating to this affair being laid before them by the queen’s
order, and perused, the house resolved, that the inviting and bringing
over the poor Palatines of all religions, at the public expense, was an
extravagant and unreasonable charge to the kingdom, and a scandalous
misapplication of the public money, tending to the increase and oppression
of the poor, and of dangerous consequence to the constitution in church
and state; and that whoever advised their being brought over was an enemy
to the queen and kingdom. Animated by the heat of this inquiry, they
passed the bill to repeal the act for a general naturalization of all
protestants; but this was rejected in the house of lords. Another bill was
enacted into a law, importing, that no person should be deemed qualified
for representing a county in parliament, unless he possessed an estate of
six hundred pounds a-year; and restricting the qualification of burgess to
half that sum. The design of this bill was to exclude trading people from
the house of commons, and to lodge the legislative power with the
land-holders. A third act passed, permitting the importation of French
wine in neutral bottoms: a bill against which the whigs loudly exclaimed,
as a national evil, and a scandalous compliment to the enemy.

HARLEY STABBED AT THE COUNCIL BOARD.

A violent party in the house of commons began to look upon Harley as a
lukewarm tory, because he would not enter precipitately into all their
factious measures; they even began to suspect his principles, when his
credit was re-established by a very singular accident. Guiscard, the
French partisan, of whom mention hath already been made, thought himself
very ill rewarded for his services, with a precarious pension of four
hundred pounds, which he enjoyed from the queen’s bounty. He had been
renounced by St. John, the former companion of his pleasures; he had in
vain endeavoured to obtain an audience of the queen, with a view to demand
more considerable appointments. Harley was his enemy, and all access to
her majesty was denied. Enraged at these disappointments, he attempted to
make his peace with the court of France, and offered his services, in a
letter to one Moreau, a banker in Paris. This packet, which he endeavoured
to transmit by the way of Portugal, was intercepted, and a warrant issued
out to apprehend him for high-treason. When the messenger disarmed him in
St. James’s Park, he exhibited marks of guilty confusion and despair, and
begged that he would kill him directly. Being conveyed to the cockpit, in
a sort of frenzy, he perceived a penknife lying upon a table, and took it
up without being perceived by the attendants. A committee of council was
immediately summoned, and Guiscard brought before them to be examined.
Finding that his correspondence with Moreau was discovered, he desired to
speak in private with secretary St. John, whom in all probability he had
resolved to assassinate. His request being refused, he said, “That’s hard!
not one word!” St. John being out of his reach, he stepped up to Mr.
Harley, and exclaiming, “Have at thee, then!” stabbed him in the breast
with the penknife which he had concealed. The instrument broke upon the
bone, without penetrating into the cavity; nevertheless he repeated the
blow with such force that the chancellor of the exchequer fell to the
ground. Secretary St. John, seeing him fall, cried out, “The villain has
killed Mr. Harley!” and drew his sword. Several other members followed his
example, and wounded Guiscard in several places. Yet he made a desperate
defence, until he was overpowered by the messengers and servants, and
conveyed from the council-chamber, which he had filled with terror,
tumult, and confusion. His wounds, though dangerous, were not mortal; but
he died of a gangrene occasioned by the bruises he had sustained. This
attempt upon the life of Harley, by a person who wanted to establish a
traitorous correspondence with France, extinguished the suspicions of
those who began to doubt that minister’s integrity. The two houses of
parliament, in an address to the queen, declared their belief that Mr.
Harley’s fidelity to her majesty, and zeal for her service, had drawn upon
him the hatred of all the abettors of popery and faction. They besought
her majesty to take all possible care of her sacred person; and, for that
purpose, to give directions for causing papists to be removed from the
cities of London and Westminster. A proclamation was published, ordering
the laws to be strictly put in execution against papists. When Harley
appeared in the house of commons after his recovery, he was congratulated
upon it by the speaker, in a florid and fulsome premeditated speech. An
act was passed, decreeing, that an attempt upon the life of a
privy-counsellor should be felony without benefit of clergy. The earl of
Rochester dying, Harley became sole minister, was created baron of
Wigmore, and raised to the rank of earl by the noble and ancient title of
Oxford and Mortimer: to crown his prosperity, he was appointed
lord-treasurer, and vested with the supreme administration of affairs.

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR JOSEPH.

The commons empowered certain persons to examine all the grants made by
king William, and report the value of them, as well as the considerations
upon which they were made. Upon their report a bill was formed and passed
that house; but the lords rejected it at the first reading. Their next
step was to examine the public accounts, with a view to fix an imputation
on the earl of Godolphin. They voted that above five-and-thirty millions
of the money granted by parliament remained unaccounted for. This sum,
however, included some accounts in the reigns of king Charles and king
William. One half of the whole was charged to Mr. Bridges, the pay-master,
who had actually accounted for all the money he had received, except about
three millions, though these accounts had not passed through the auditor’s
office. The commons afterwards proceeded to inquire into the debts of the
navy, that exceeded five millions, which, with many other debts, were
thrown into one stock, amounting to nine millions four hundred and
seventy-one thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds. A fund was
formed for paying an interest or annuity of six per cent, until the
principal should be discharged; and with this was granted a monopoly of a
projected trade in the South Sea, vested in the proprietors of navy-bills,
debentures, and other public securities, which were incorporated for this
purpose. Such was the origin of the South Sea Company, founded upon a
chimerical supposition that the English would be permitted to trade upon
the coast of Peru in the West Indies. Perhaps the new ministry hoped to
obtain this permission, as an equivalent for their abandoning the interest
of king Charles, with respect to his pretensions upon Spain. By this time
the emperor Joseph had died of the small-pox without male issue; so that
his brother’s immediate aim was to succeed him on the Imperial throne.
This event was, on the twentieth day of April, communicated by a message
from the queen to both houses. She told them that the states-general had
concurred with her in a resolution to support the house of Austria; and
that they had already taken such measures as would secure the election of
Charles as head of the empire.

The house of commons, in order to demonstrate their attachment to the
church, in consequence of an address from the lower house of convocation,
and a quickening message from the queen, passed a bill for building fifty
new churches in the suburbs of London and Westminster, and appropriated
for this purpose the duty upon coals, which had been granted for the
building of St. Paul’s, now finished. This imposition was continued until
it should raise the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. At the
close of the session, the commons presented a remonstrance or
representation to the queen, in which they told her that they had not only
raised the necessary supplies, but also discharged the heavy debts of
which the nation had so long and justly complained. They said that, in
tracing the causes of this debt, they had discovered fraud, embezzlement,
and misapplication of the public money; that they who of late years had
the management of the treasury, were guilty of a notorious breach of trust
and injustice to the nation, in allowing above thirty millions to remain
unaccounted for; a purposed omission that looked like a design to conceal
embezzlements. They begged her majesty would give immediate directions for
compelling the several imprest accountants speedily to pass their
accounts. They expressed their hope that such of the accountants as had
neglected their duty in prosecuting their accounts, ought no longer to be
intrusted with the public money. They affirmed, that from all these evil
practices and worse designs of some persons, who had, by false professions
of love to their country, insinuated themselves into her royal favour,
irreparable mischief would have accrued to the public, had not her
majesty, in her great wisdom, seasonably discovered the fatal tendency of
such measures, and removed from the administration those who had so ill
answered her majesty’s favourable opinion, and in so many instances
grossly abused the trust reposed in them. They observed, that her people
could with greater patience have suffered the manifold injuries done to
themselves, by the frauds and depredations of such evil ministers, had not
the same men proceeded to treat her sacred person with undutifulness and
disregard. This representation being circulated through the kingdom,
produced the desired effect of inflaming the minds of the people against
the late ministry. Such expedients were become necessary for the execution
of Oxford’s project, which was to put a speedy end to a war that had
already subjected the people to grievous oppression, and even accumulated
heavy burdens to be transmitted to their posterity. The nation was
inspired by extravagant ideas of glory and conquest, even to a rage of
war-making; so that the new ministers, in order to dispel those dangerous
chimeras, were obliged to take measures for exciting their indignation and
contempt against those persons whom they had formerly idolized as their
heroes and patriots. On the twelfth day of June, the queen, having given
the royal assent to several public and private bills, made an affectionate
speech to both houses. She thanked the commons, in the warmest
expressions, for having complied with all her desires; for having baffled
the expectations of her enemies in finding supplies for the service of the
ensuing year; in having granted greater sums than were ever given to any
prince in one session; and in having settled funds for the payment of the
public debts, so that the credit of the nation was restored. She expressed
her earnest concern for the succession of the house of Hanover; and her
fixed resolution to support and encourage the church of England as by law
established. Then the parliament was prorogued.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVOCATION.

Of the convocation which was assembled with the new parliament, the lower
house chose Dr. Atterbury their prolocutor. He was an enterprising
ecclesiastic, of extensive learning, acute talents, violently attached to
tory principles, and intimately connected with the prime minister Oxford;
so that he directed all the proceedings in the lower house of convocation
in concert with that minister. The queen, in a letter to the archbishop,
signified her hope that the consultations of the clergy might be of use to
repress the attempts of loose and profane persons. She sent a license
under the broad seal, empowering them to sit and do business in as ample a
manner as ever had been granted since the reformation. They were ordered
to lay before the queen an account of the excessive growth of infidelity
and heresy, as well as of other abuses, that necessary measures might be
taken for a reformation. The bishops were purposely slighted and
overlooked, because they had lived in harmony with the late ministers. A
committee being appointed to draw up a representation of the present state
of the church and religion, Atterbury undertook the task, and composed a
remonstrance that contained the most keen and severe strictures upon the
administration, as it had been exercised since the time of the revolution.
Another was penned by the bishops in more moderate terms; and several
regulations were made, but in none of these did the two houses agree. They
concurred, however, in censuring some tenets favouring Arianism, broached
and supported by Mr. Whiston, mathematical professor in Cambridge. He had
been expelled the university, and wrote a vindication of himself,
dedicated to the convocation. The archbishop doubted whether this assembly
could proceed against a man for heresy: the judges were consulted, and the
majority of them gave in their opinion that the convocation had a
jurisdiction. Four of them professed the contrary sentiment, which they
maintained from the statutes made at the reformation. The queen, in a
letter to the bishops, said, that as there was now no doubt of their
jurisdiction, she expected that they would proceed in the matter before
them. Fresh scruples arising, they determined to examine the book, without
proceeding against the author, and this was censured accordingly. An
extract of the sentence was sent to the queen; but she did not signify her
pleasure on this subject, and the affair remained in suspense. Whiston
published a work in four volumes, justifying his doctrine, and maintaining
that the apostolical constitutions were not only canonical, but also
preferable in point of authority to the epistles and the gospels.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH CONTINUES TO COMMAND THE ALLIED ARMY.

The new ministry had not yet determined to supersede the duke of
Marlborough in the command of the army. This was a step which could not be
taken without giving umbrage to the Dutch and other allies. He therefore
set out for Holland in the month of February, after the queen had assured
him that he might depend upon the punctual payment of the forces. Having
conferred with the deputies of the states about the operations of the
campaign, he, about the middle of April, assembled the army at Orchies,
between Lisle and Douay; while mareschal de Villars drew together the
French troops in the neighbourhood of Cambray and Arras. Louis had by this
time depopulated as well as impoverished his kingdom; yet his subjects
still flocked to his standard with surprising spirit and attachment. Under
the pressure of extreme misery they uttered not one complaint of their
sovereign; but imputed all their calamities to the pride and obstinacy of
the allies. Exclusive of all the other impositions that were laid upon
that people, they consented to pay the tenth penny of their whole
substance; but all their efforts of loyalty and affection to their prince
would have been ineffectual, had not the merchants of the kingdom, by the
permission of Philip, undertaken repeated voyages to the South Sea, from
whence they brought home immense treasures; while the allies took no steps
for intercepting these supplies, though nothing could have been more easy
for the English than to deprive the enemy of this great resource, and
convert it to their own advantage. Had a squadron of ships been annually
employed for this purpose, the subjects of France and Spain must have been
literally starved, and Louis obliged to submit to such terms as the
confederates might have thought proper to impose. Villars had found means
to assemble a very numerous army, with which he encamped behind the river
Sanset, in such an advantageous post as could not be attacked with any
prospect of success. Meanwhile the duke of Marlborough passed the Scarpe,
and formed his camp between Douay and Bouchain, where he was joined by
prince Eugene on the twenty-third day of May. This general, however, did
not long remain in the Netherlands. Understanding that detachments had
been made from the army of Villars to the Rhine, and that the elector of
Bavaria intended to act in the empire, the prince, by order from the court
of Vienna, marched towards the upper Rhine with the Imperial and Palatine
troops, to secure Germany. The Duke of Marlborough repassing the Scarpe,
encamped in the plains of Lens, from whence he advanced towards Aire, as
if he had intended to attack the French lines in that quarter. These lines
beginning at Bouchain on the Schelde, were continued along the Sanset and
the Scarpe to Arras, and thence along the Upper Scarpe to Canché. They
were defended by redoubts and other works in such a manner, that Villars
judged they were impregnable, and called them the Ne plus ultra of
Marlborough.

This nobleman advancing within two leagues of the French lines, ordered a
great number of fascines to be made, declaring he would attack them the
next morning; so that Villars drew all his forces on that side, in full
expectations of an engagement. The duke, on the supposition that the
passage of the Sanset by Arleux would be left unguarded, had ordered the
generals Cadogan and Hompesch to assemble twenty battalions and seventeen
squadrons from Douay and the neighbouring garrisons, to march to Arleux,
where they should endeavour to pass the Sanset. Brigadier Sutton was
detached with the artillery and pontoons, to lay bridges over the canal
near Groulezen and over the Scarpe at Vitry, while the duke with the whole
confederate army began his march for the same place about nine in the
evening. He proceeded with such expedition, that by five in the morning he
passed the river at Vitry. There he received intelligence that Hompesch
had taken possession of the passes on the Sanset and Schelde without
opposition, the enemy having withdrawn their detachments from that side
just as he had imagined. He himself, with his vanguard of fifty squadrons,
hastened his march towards Arleux, and before eight of the clock arrived
at Bacá-Bachuel, where in two hours he was joined by the heads of the
columns into which he hadj divided his infantry. Villars being certified
of his intention, about two in the morning decamped with his whole army,
and putting himself at the head of the king’s household troops, marched
all night with such expedition, that about eleven in the forenoon he was
in sight of the duke of Marlborough, who had by this time joined count
Hompesch. The French general immediately retreated to the main body of his
army, which had advanced to the high road between Arras and Cambray, while
the allies encamped upon the Schelde, between Oisy and Estrun, after a
march of ten leagues without halting, scarce to be paralleled in history.
By this plan, so happily executed, the duke of Marlborough fairly
outwitted Villars, and, without the loss of one man, entered the lines
which he had pronounced impregnable. This stroke of the English general
was extolled as a masterpiece of military skill, while Villars was exposed
to the ridicule even of his own officers. The field-deputies of the
states-general proposed that he should give battle to the enemy, who
passed the Schelde at Crevecoeur in order to cover Bouchain; but the duke
would not hazard an engagement, considering how much the army was fatigued
by the long march; and that any misfortune, while they continued within
the French lines, might be fatal. His intention was to besiege Bouchain;
an enterprise that was deemed impracticable, inasmuch as the place was
situated in a morass, strongly fortified, and defended by a numerous
garrison, in the neighbourhood of an army superior in number to that of
the allies. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, and the dissuasions of
his own friends, he resolved to undertake the siege; and, in the meantime,
despatched brigadier Sutton to England with an account of his having
passed the French lines; which was not at all agreeable to his enemies.
They had prognosticated that nothing would be done during this campaign,
and began to insinuate that the duke could strike no stroke of importance
without the assistance of prince Eugene. They now endeavoured to lessen
the glory of his success; and even taxed him with having removed his camp
from a convenient situation to a place where the troops were in danger of
starving. Nothing could be more provoking than this scandalous malevolence
to a great man who had done so much honour to his country, and was then
actually exposing his life in her service.

BOUCHAIN REDUCED.

On the tenth day of August Bouchain was invested, and the duke of
Marlborough exerted himself to the utmost extent of his vigilance and
capacity, well knowing the difficulties of the undertaking, and how much
his reputation would depend upon his success. Villars had taken every
precaution that his skill and experience could suggest, to baffle the
endeavours of the English general. He had reinforced the garrison to the
number of six thousand chosen men, commanded by officers of known courage
and ability. He made some efforts to raise the siege; but they were
rendered ineffectual by the consummate prudence and activity of the duke
of Marlborough. Then he laid a scheme for surprising Douay, which likewise
miscarried. If we consider that the English general, in the execution of
his plan, was obliged to form lines, erect regular forts, raise batteries,
throw bridges over a river, make a causeway through a deep morass, provide
for the security of convoys against a numerous army on the one side, and
the garrisons of Condé and Valenciennes on the other, we must allow this
was the boldest enterprise of the whole war; that it required all the
fortitude, skill, and resolution of a great general, and all the valour
and intrepidity of the confederate troops, who had scarce ever exhibited
such amazing proofs of courage upon any other occasion as they now
displayed at the siege of Bouchain. In twenty days after the trenches were
opened, the garrison were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of
war; and this conquest was the last military exploit performed by the duke
of Marlborough: the breaches of Bouchain were no sooner repaired than the
opposite armies began to separate, and the allied forces were quartered in
the frontier towns, that they might be at hand to take the field early in
the spring. They were now in possession of the Maese, almost as far as the
Sambre; of the Schelde from Tournay; and of the Lys as far as it is
navigable. They had reduced Spanish Guelderland, Limburg, Brabant,
Flanders, and the greatest part of Hainault; they were masters of the
Scarpe; and by the conquest of Bouchain, they had opened to themselves a
way into the very bowels of France. All these acquisitions were owing to
the valour and conduct of the duke of Marlborough, who now returned to the
Hague, and arrived in England about the middle of November.

DUKE OF ARGYLE COMMANDS THE BRITISH TROOPS IN SPAIN.

The queen had conferred the command of her forces in Spain upon the duke
of Argyle, who was recalled from the service in Flanders for that purpose.
He had long been at variance with the duke of Marlborough; a circumstance
which recommended him the more strongly to the ministry. He landed at
Barcelona on the twenty-ninth of May, and found the British troops in the
utmost distress for want of subsistence. The treasurer had promised to
supply him liberally; the commons had granted one million five hundred
thousand pounds for that service. All their hopes of success were fixed on
the campaign in that kingdom; and indeed the army commanded by the duke de
Vendôme was in such a wretched condition, that if Staremberg had been
properly supported by the allies, he might have obtained signal
advantages. The duke of Argyle, having waited in vain for the promised
remittances, was obliged, to borrow money on his own credit, before the
British troops could take the field. At length Staremberg advanced towards
the enemy, who attacked him at the pass of Prato del Key, where they were
repulsed with considerable damage. After this action the duke of Argyle
was seized with a violent fever, and conveyed back to Barcelona. Vendôme
invested the castle of Cardona, which was vigorously defended till the end
of December, when a detachment being sent to the relief of the place,
defeated the besiegers, killed two thousand on the spot, and took all
their artillery, ammunition, and baggage. Staremberg was unable to follow
the blow; the duke of Argyle wrote pressing letters to the ministry, and
loudly complained that he was altogether unsupported; but all his
remonstrances were ineffectual: no remittances arrived; and he returned to
England without having been able to attempt any thing of importance. In
September, king Charles, leaving his queen at Barcelona, set sail for
Italy, and at Milan had an interview with the duke of Savoy, where all
disputes were compromised. That prince had forced his way into Savoy and
penetrated as far as the Rhine; but he suddenly halted in the middle of
his career, and after a short campaign repassed the mountains. Prince
Eugene, at the head of the German forces, protected the electors at
Frankfort from the designs of the enemy, and Charles was unanimously
chosen emperor; the electors of Cologn and Bavaria having been excluded
from voting, because they lay under the ban of the empire. The war between
the Ottoman Porte and the Muscovites was of short duration. The czar
advanced so far into Moldavia, that he was cut off from all supplies, and
altogether in the power of his enemy. In this emergency, he found means to
corrupt the grand vizier in private, while in public he proposed articles
of peace that were accepted. The king of Sweden, who was in the Turkish
army, charged the vizier with treachery, and that minister was actually
disgraced. The grand seignor threatened to renew the war; but he was
appeased by the czar’s surrendering Azoph.

EXPEDITION TO CANADA.

The English ministry had conceived great expectations from an expedition
against Quebec and Placentia, in North America, planned by colonel
Nicholson, who had taken possession of Nova Scotia, and garrisoned Porte
Royal, to which he gave the name of Anapolis. He had brought four Indian
chiefs to England, and represented the advantages that would redound to
the nation in point of commerce, should the French be expelled from North
America. The ministers relished the proposal. A body of five thousand men
was embarked in transports, under the command of brigadier Hill, brother
to Mrs. Masham; and they sailed from Plymouth in the beginning of May,
with a strong squadron of ships commanded by sir Hovenden Walker. At
Boston in New England, they were joined by two regiments of provincials;
and about four thousand men, consisting of American planters, Palatines,
and Indians, rendezvoused at Albany, in order to march by land into
Canada, while the fleet sailed up the river of that name. On the
twenty-first day of August they were exposed to a violent storm, and
driven among rocks, where eight transports perished, with about eight
hundred men. The admiral immediately sailed back to Spanish-river bay,
where it was determined, in a council of war, that as the fleet and forces
were victualled for ten weeks only, and they could not depend upon a
supply of provisions from New England, they should return home without
making any further attempt. Such was the issue of this paltry expedition,
intrusted to the direction of an officer without talents and experience.

In the Irish parliament held during the summer, the duke of Ormond and the
majority of the peers supported the tory interest, while the commons
expressed the warmest attachment to revolution principles. The two houses
made strenuous representations, and passed severe resolutions against each
other. After the session, sir Constantine Phipps, the chancellor, and
general Ingoldsby, were appointed justices in the absence of the duke of
Ormond, who returned to England in the month of November. In Scotland the
Jacobites made no scruple of professing their principles and attachments
to the pretender. The duchess of Gordon presented the faculty of advocates
with a silver medal, representing the chevalier de St. George; and on the
reverse the British islands, with the motto “Redditte.” After some
debate, it was voted, by a majority of sixty-three voices against twelve,
that the duchess should be thanked for this token of her regard. This task
was performed by Dundas of Arnistoun, who thanked her grace for having
presented them with a medal of their sovereign lord the king; hoping, and
being confident, that her grace would very soon have an opportunity to
compliment the faculty with a second medal, struck upon the restoration of
the king and royal family, upon the finishing rebellion, usurping tyranny,
and whiggery. An account of this transaction being laid before the queen,
the lord-advocate was ordered to inquire into the particulars. Then the
faculty were so intimidated that they disowned Dundas, and Home his
accomplice. They pretended that the affair of the medal had been
transacted by a party at an occasional meeting, and not by general
consent; and, by a solemn act, they declared their attachment to the queen
and the protestant succession. The court was satisfied with this
atonement; but the resident from Hanover having presented a memorial to
the queen, desiring that Dundas and his associates might be prosecuted,
the government removed sir David Dalrymple from his office of
lord-advocate, on pretence of his having been too remiss in prosecuting
those delinquents; and no further inquiry was made into the affair.

NEGOTIATION BETWEEN THE COURTS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

For some time the negotiation for peace had been carried on between the
court of France and the new ministers, who had a double aim in this
measure; namely, to mortify the whigs and the Dutch, whom they detested,
and to free their country from a ruinous war, which had all the appearance
of becoming habitual to the constitution. They foresaw the risk they would
run by entering into such measures, should ever the opposite faction
regain the ascendency; they knew the whigs would employ all their art and
influence, which was very powerful, in obstructing the peace, and in
raising of popular clamour against the treaty. But their motives for
treating were such as prompted them to undervalue all those difficulties
and dangers. They hoped to obtain such advantages in point of commerce for
the subject? of Great Britain, as would silence all detraction. They did
not doubt of being able to maintain the superiority which they had
acquired in parliament; and perhaps some of them cherished views in favour
of the pretender, whose succession to the crown would have effectually
established their dominion over the opposite party. The earl of Jersey,
who acted in concert with Oxford, sent a private message to the court of
France, importing the queen’s desire of peace, representing the
impossibility of a private negotiation, as the ministry was obliged to act
with the utmost circumspection, and desiring that Louis would propose to
the Dutch a renewal of the conferences, in which case the English
plenipotentiaries should have such instructions that it would be
impossible for the states-general to prevent the conclusion of the treaty.
This intimation was delivered by one Gualtier, an obscure priest, who
acted as chaplain to count Gallas the Imperial ambassador, and had been
employed as a spy by the French ministry, since the commencement of
hostilities. His connexion with lord Jersey was by means of that
nobleman’s lady, who professed the Roman catholic religion. His message
was extremely agreeable to the court of Versailles. He returned to London
with a letter of compliment from the marquis de Torcy to the earl of
Jersey, in which that minister assured him of his master’s sincere
inclination for peace, though he was averse to a renewal of the
conferences with the states-general. Gualtier wrote a letter to
Versailles, desiring, in the name of the English ministry, that his most
christain majesty would communicate to them his proposals for a general
peace, which they would communicate to the states-general, that they might
negotiate in concert with their allies. A general answer being made to
this intimation, Gualtier made a second journey to Versailles, and brought
over a memorial, which was immediately transmitted to Holland. In the
meantime, the pensionary endeavoured to renew the conferences in Holland.
Petkum wrote to the French ministry, that if his majesty would resume the
negotiation, in concert with the queen of Great Britain, he should
certainly have reason to be satisfied with the conduct of the Dutch
deputies. This proposal Louis declined, at the desire of the English
ministers.

The states-general having perused the memorial, assured queen Anne that
they were ready to join with her in contributing to the conclusion of a
durable peace; but they expressed a desire that the French king would
communicate a more particular plan for securing the interest of the allied
powers, and for settling the repose of Europe. Gualtier was once more sent
to Versailles, accompanied by Mr. Prior, who had resided in France as
secretary to the embassies of the earls of Portland and Jersey. This
gentleman had acquired some reputation by his poetical talents; was a man
of uncommon ability, and insinuating address, and perfectly devoted to the
tory interest. He was empowered to communicate the preliminary demands of
the English; to receive the answer of the French king; and demand whether
or not king Philip had transmitted a power of treating to his grandfather.
He arrived incognito at Fontainbleau, and presented the queen’s memorial,
in which she demanded a barrier for the Dutch in the Netherlands, and
another on the Rhine for the empire; a security for the Dutch commerce,
and a general satisfaction to all her allies. She required that the strong
places taken from the duke of Savoy should be restored; and that he should
possess such towns and districts in Italy as had been ceded to him in
treaties between him and his allies: that Louis should acknowledge queen
Anne and the protestant succession; demolish the fortifications of
Dunkirk; and agree to a new treaty of commerce; that Gibraltar and Port
Mahon should be yielded to the crown of England; that the negro trade in
America, at that time carried on by the French, should be ceded to the
English, together with some towns on that continent, where the slaves
might be refreshed. She expected security that her subjects trading to
Spain should enjoy all advantages granted by that crown to the most
favoured nation; that she should be put in possession of Newfoundland and
Hudson’s Bay, either by way of restitution or cession; and that both
nations should continue to enjoy whatever territories they might be
possessed of in North America at the ratification of the treaties. She
likewise insisted upon a security that the crowns of France and Spain
should never be united on the same head. Her majesty no longer insisted
upon Philip’s being expelled from the throne of Spain by the arms of his
own grandfather. She now perceived that the exorbitant power of the house
of Austria would be as dangerous to the liberty of Europe as ever that of
the family of Bourbon had been, in the zenith of its glory. She might have
remembered the excessive power, the insolence, the ambition of Charles V.
and Philip II. who had enslaved so many countries, and embroiled all
Europe. She was sincerely desirous of peace, from motives of humanity and
compassion to her subjects and fellow-creatures; she was eagerly bent upon
procuring such advantages to her people as would enable them to discharge
the heavy load of debt under which they laboured, and recompense them in
some measure for the blood and treasure they had so lavishly expended in
the prosecution of the war. These were the sentiments of a christian
princess; of an amiable and pious sovereign, who bore a share in the
grievances of her subjects, and looked upon them with the eyes of maternal
affection. She thought she had the better title to insist upon those
advantages, as they had been already granted to her subjects in a private
treaty with king Charles.

MENAGER ARRIVES PRIVATELY in ENGLAND.

As Prior’s powers were limited in such a manner that he could not
negotiate, Mr. Ménager, deputy from the city of Rouen to the board of
trade, accompanied the English minister to London, with full powers to
settle the preliminaries of the treaty. On his arrival in London, the
queen immediately commissioned the duke of Shrewsbury, the earls of
Jersey, Dartmouth, Oxford, and Mr. St. John, to treat with him; and the
conferences were immediately begun. After long and various disputes, they
agreed upon certain preliminary articles, which, on the eighth day of
October, were signed by the French minister, and by the two secretaries of
state, in consequence of a written order from her majesty. Then Ménager
was privately introduced to the queen at Windsor. She told him she was
averse to war; that she would exert all her power to conclude a speedy
peace; that she should be glad to live upon good terms with the king of
France, to whom she was so nearly allied in blood; she expressed her hope
that there would be a closer union after the peace between them, and
between their subjects, cemented by a perfect correspondence and
friendship. The earl of Strafford, who had been lately recalled from the
Hague where he resided as ambassador, was now sent back to Holland, with
orders to communicate to the pensionary the proposals of peace which
France had made; to signify the queen’s approbation of them, and propose a
place where the plenipotentiaries should assemble. The English ministers
now engaged in an intimate correspondence with the court of Versailles;
and mareschal Tallard being released from his confinement at Nottingham,
was allowed to return to his own country on his parole. After the
departure of Ménager, the preliminaries were communicated to count Gallas
the emperor’s minister, who, in order to inflame the minds of the people,
caused them to be translated, and inserted in one of the daily papers.
This step was so much resented by the queen, that she sent a message
desiring he would come no more to court; but that he might leave the
kingdom as soon as he should think proper. He took the hint, and retired
accordingly; but the queen gave the emperor to understand, that any other
minister he should appoint would be admitted by her without hesitation.

THE FRENCH KING’S PROPOSALS DISAGREEABLE TO THE ALLIES.

The states of Holland, alarmed at the preliminaries, sent over Buys, as
envoy-extraordinary, to intercede with the queen that she would alter her
resolutions: but she continued steady to her purpose; and the earl of
Strafford demanded the immediate concurrence of the states, declaring, in
the queen’s name, that she would look upon any delay, on their part, as a
refusal to comply with her propositions. Intimidated by this declaration,
they agreed to open the general conferences at Utrecht on the first day of
January. They granted passports to the French ministers; while the queen
appointed Robinson, bishop of Bristol, and the earl of Strafford, her
plenipotentiaries at the congress. Charles, the new emperor, being at
Milan, when he received a copy of the preliminaries, wrote circular
letters to the electors and the princes of the empire, exhorting them to
persist in their engagements to the grand alliance. He likewise desired
the states-general to join councils with him in persuading the queen of
England to reject the proposals of France, and prosecute the war; or at
least to negotiate on the foundation of the first preliminaries, which had
been signed by the marquis de Torcy. He wrote a letter to the same purpose
to the queen of Great Britain, who received it with the most mortifying
indifference. No wonder that he should zealously contend for the
continuance of a war, the expense of which she and the Dutch had hitherto
almost wholly defrayed. The new preliminaries were severely attacked by
the whigs, who ridiculed and reviled the ministry in word and writing.
Pamphlets, libels, and lampoons, were today published by one faction, and
to-morrow answered by the other. They contained all the insinuations of
malice and contempt, all the bitterness of reproach, and all the rancour
of recrimination. In the midst of this contention, the queen despatched
the earl of Rivers to Hanover, with an assurance to the elector that his
succession to the crown should be effectually ascertained in the treaty.
The earl brought back an answer in writing; but, at the same time, his
electoral highness ordered baron de Bothmar, his envoy in England, to
present a memorial to the queen, representing the pernicious consequences
of Philip’s remaining in possession of Spain and the West Indies. This
remonstrance the baron published, by way of appeal to the people, and the
whigs extolled it with the highest encomiums; but the queen and her
ministers resented this step as an officious and inflammatory
interposition.

The proposals of peace made by the French king were disagreeable even to
some individuals of the tory party; and certain peers, who had hitherto
adhered to that interest, agreed with the whigs to make a remonstrance
against the preliminary articles. The court being apprised of their
intention, prorogued the parliament till the seventh day of December, in
expectation of the Scottish peers, who would cast the balance in favour of
the ministry. In her speech, at the opening of the session, she told them
that notwithstanding the arts of those who delighted in war, the place and
time were appointed for a congress; and that the states-general had
expressed their entire confidence in her conduct. She declared her chief
concern should be to secure the succession of the crown in the house of
Hanover; to procure all the advantages to the nation which a tender and
affectionate sovereign could procure for a dutiful and loyal people; and
to obtain satisfaction for all her allies. She observed, that the most
effectual way to procure an advantageous peace, would be to make
preparations for carrying on war with vigour. She recommended unanimity,
and prayed God would direct their consultations. In the house of lords,
the earl of Nottingham, who had now associated himself with the whigs,
inveighed against the preliminaries as captious and insufficient, and
offered a clause to be inserted in the address of thanks, representing to
her majesty that, in the opinion of the house, no peace could be safe or
honourable to Great Britain or Europe, if Spain and the West Indies should
be allotted to any branch of the house of Bourbon. A violent debate
ensued, in the course of which the earl of Anglesea represented the
necessity of easing the nation of the burdens incurred by an expensive
war. He affirmed that a good peace might have been procured immediately
after the battle of Ramillies, if it had not been prevented by some
persons who prolonged the war for their own private interest. This
insinuation was levelled at the duke of Marlborough, who made a long
speech in his own vindication. He bowed to the place where the queen sat
incognito; and appealed to her, whether, while he had the honour to serve
her majesty as a general and plenipotentiary, he had not constantly
informed her and her council of all the proposals of peace which had been
made; and had not desired instructions for his conduct on that subject. He
declared, upon his conscience, and in presence of the Supreme Being,
before whom he expected soon to appear, that he was ever desirous of a
safe, honourable, and lasting peace; and that he was always very far from
entertaining any design of prolonging the war for his own private
advantage, as his enemies had most falsely insinuated. At last the
question being put, whether the earl of Nottingham’s advice should be part
of the address; it was carried in the affirmative by a small majority. The
address was accordingly presented, and the queen, in her answer, said she
should be very sorry any one could think she would not do her utmost to
recover Spain and the West Indies from the house of Bourbon. Against this
advice, however, several peers protested, because there was no precedent
for inserting a clause of advice in an address of thanks; and because they
looked upon it as an invasion of the royal prerogative. In the address of
the commons there was no such article; and, therefore, the answer they
received was warm and cordial.

The duke of Hamilton claiming a seat in the house of peers, as duke of
Brandon, a title he had lately received, was opposed by the
anti-courtiers, who pretended to foresee great danger to the constitution
from admitting into the house a greater number of Scottish peers than the
act of union allowed. Counsel was heard upon the validity of his patent.
They observed that no objection could be made to the queen’s prerogative
in conferring honours; and that all the subjects of the united kingdom
were equally capable of receiving honour. The house of lords had already
decided the matter, in admitting the duke of Queensberry upon his being
created duke of Dover. The debate was managed with great ability on both
sides; the Scottish peers united in defence of the duke’s claim; and the
court exerted its whole strength to support the patent. Nevertheless, the
question being put, whether Scottish peers, created peers of Great Britain
since the union, had a right to sit in that house; it was carried in the
negative by a majority of five voices; though not without a protest signed
by the lords in the opposition. The Scottish peers were so incensed at
this decision, that they drew up a representation to the queen,
complaining of it as an infringement of the union, and a mark of disgrace
put upon the whole peerage of Scotland. The bill against occasional
conformity was revived by the earl of Nottingham, in more moderate terms
than those that had been formerly rejected; and it passed both houses by
the connivance of the whigs, upon the earl’s promise, that if they would
consent to this measure, he would bring over many friends to join them in
matters of greater consequence. On the twenty-second day of December, the
queen, being indisposed, granted a commission to the lord-keeper and some
other peers to give the royal assent to this bill, and another for the
land-tax. The duke of Devonshire obtained leave to bring in a bill for
giving precedence over all peers to the electoral prince of Hanover, as
the duke of Cambridge. An address was presented to the queen, desiring she
would give instructions to her plenipotentiaries to consult with the
ministers of the allies in Holland before the opening of the congress,
that they might concert the necessary measures for proceeding with
unanimity, the better to obtain the great ends proposed by her majesty.

ANNE, 1701—1714

DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH DISMISSED FROM ALL HIS EMPLOYMENTS.

The commissioners for examining the public accounts having discovered that
the duke of Marlborough had received an annual present of five or six
thousand pounds from the contractors of bread to the army, the queen
declared in council that she thought fit to dismiss him from all his
employments, that the matter might be impartially examined. This
declaration was imparted to him in a letter under her own hand, in which
she took occasion to complain of the treatment she had received. She
probably alluded to the insolence of his duchess; the subjection in which
she had been kept by the late ministry; and the pains lately taken by the
whigs to depreciate her conduct, and thwart her measures with respect to
the peace. The duke wrote an answer to her majesty, vindicating himself
from the charge which had been brought against his character; and his two
daughters, the countess of Sunderland and the lady Railton, resigned their
places of ladies in the bed-chamber. The ministry, in order to ascertain a
majority in the house of lords, persuaded the queen to take a measure
which nothing but necessity could justify. She created twelve peers at
once, 173
[See note 2 F, at the end of this Vol.] and on the second of
January they were introduced into the upper house without opposition. The
lord-keeper delivered to the house a message from the queen, desiring they
would adjourn to the fourteenth day of the month. The anti-courtiers
alleged, that the queen could not send a message to any one house to
adjourn, but ought to have directed it to both houses. This objection
produced a debate, which was terminated in favour of the court by the
weight of the twelve new peers.

PRINCE EUGENE ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.

At this period prince Eugene arrived in England with a letter to the queen
from the emperor, and instructions to propose a new scheme for prosecuting
the war. His errand was far from being agreeable to the ministry; and they
suspected that his real aim was to manage intrigues among the discontented
party who opposed the peace. Nevertheless, he was treated with that
respect which was due to his quality and eminent talents. The ministers,
the nobility, and officers of distinction, visited him at his arrival. He
was admitted to an audience of the queen, who received him with great
complacency. Having perused the letter which he delivered, she expressed
her concern that her health did not permit her to speak with his highness
as often as she could wish; but that she had ordered the treasurer and
secretary St. John to receive his proposals, and confer with him as
frequently as he should think proper. He expressed extraordinary respect
for the duke of Marlborough, notwithstanding his disgrace. The
lord-treasurer, while he entertained him at dinner, declared that he
looked upon that day as the happiest in the whole course of his life,
since he had the honour to see in his house the greatest captain of the
age. The prince is said to have replied, “If I am, it is owing to your
lordship.” Alluding to the disgrace of Marlborough, whom the earl’s
intrigues had deprived of all military command. When bishop Burnet
conversed with him about the scandalous libels that were every day
published against the duke, and in particular mentioned one paragraph, in
which the author allowed he had been once fortunate, the prince observed,
it was the greatest commendation that could be bestowed upon him, as it
implied that all his other successes were owing to his courage and
conduct. While the nobility of both parties vied with each other in
demonstrations of respect for this noble stranger; while he was adored by
the whigs, and admired by the people, who gazed at him in crowds when he
appeared in public; even in the midst of all these caresses, party riots
were excited to insult his person, and some scandalous reflections upon
his mother were inserted in one of the public papers. The queen treated
him with distinguished marks of regard; and, on her birth-day, presented
him with a sword worth five thousand pounds. Nevertheless, she looked upon
him as a patron and friend of that turbulent faction to which she owed so
much disquiet. She knew he had been pressed to come over by the whig
noblemen, who hoped his presence would inflame the people to some
desperate attempt upon the new ministry; she was not ignorant that he held
private conferences with the duke of Marlborough, the earl of Sunderland,
the lord Somers, Halifax, and all the chiefs of that party; and that he
entered into a close connexion with the baron de Bothmar, the Hanoverian
envoy, who had been very active in fomenting the disturbances of the
people.

WALPOLE EXPELLED.

Her majesty, who had been for some time afflicted with the gout, sent a
message to both houses on the seventeenth day of January, signifying that
the plenipotentiaries were arrived at Utrecht; and that she was employed
in making preparations for an early campaign; she hoped, therefore, that
the commons would proceed in giving the necessary despatch to the
supplies. The lord-treasurer, in order to demonstrate his attachment to
the protestant succession, brought in a bill which had been proposed by
the duke of Devonshire, giving precedence to the whole electoral family,
as children and nephews of the crown; and, when it was passed into an act,
he sent it over to Hanover by Mr. Thomas Harley. The sixteen peers for
Scotland were prevailed upon, by promise of satisfaction, to resume their
seats in the upper house, from which they had absented themselves since
the decision against the patent of the duke of Hamilton; but whatever
pecuniary recompence they might have obtained from the court, on which
they were meanly dependent, they received no satisfaction from the
parliament. The commons, finding Mr. Walpole very troublesome in their
house, by his talents, activity, and zealous attachment to the whig
interest, found means to discover some clandestine practices in which he
was concerned as secretary at war, with regard to the forage-contract in
Scotland. The contractors, rather than admit into their partnership a
person whom he had recommended for that purpose, chose to present his
friend with five hundred pounds. Their bill was addressed to Mr. Walpole,
who endorsed it, and his friend touched the money. 174 [See note 2 G, at
the end of this Vol.] This transaction was interpreted into a bribe.
Mr. Walpole was voted guilty of corruption, imprisoned in the Tower, and
expelled the house. Being afterwards re-chosen by the same borough of
Lynn-Begis, which he had before represented, a petition was lodged against
him, and the commons voted him incapable of being elected a member to
serve in the present parliament.

Their next attack was upon the duke of Marlborough, who was found to have
received a yearly sum from sir Solomon Medina, a Jew, concerned in the
contract for furnishing the army with bread; to have been gratified by the
queen with ten thousand pounds a-year to defray the expenses of
intelligence; and to have pocketed a deduction of two and a half per cent,
from the pay of the foreign troops maintained by England. It was alleged,
in his justification, that the present from the Jew was a customary
perquisite, which had always been enjoyed by the general of the Dutch
army; that the deduction of two and a half per cent, was granted to him by
an express warrant from her majesty; that all the articles of the charge
joined together did not exceed thirty thousand pounds, a sum much inferior
to that which had been allowed to king William for contingencies; that the
money was expended in procuring intelligence, which was so exact that the
duke was never surprised; that none of his parties were ever intercepted
or cut off; and all the designs were by these means so well concerted,
that he never once miscarried. Notwithstanding these representations, the
majority voted that his practices had been unwarrantable and illegal; and
that the deduction was to be accounted for as public money. These
resolutions were communicated to the queen, who ordered the
attorney-general to prosecute the duke for the money he had deducted by
virtue of her own warrant. Such practices were certainly mean and
mercenary, and greatly tarnished the glory which the duke had acquired by
his military talents, and other shining qualities.

RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE BARRIER-TREATY AND THE DUTCH.

The commons now directed the stream of their resentment against the Dutch,
who had certainly exerted all their endeavours to overwhelm the new
ministry, and retard the negotiations for peace. They maintained an
intimate correspondence with the whigs of England. They diffused the most
invidious reports against Oxford and secretary St. John. Buys, their envoy
at London, acted the part of an incendiary, in suggesting violent measures
to the malcontents, and caballing against the government. The ministers,
by way of reprisal, influenced the house of commons to pass some
acrimonious resolutions against the states-general. They alleged that the
states had been deficient in their proportion of troops, both in Spain and
in the Netherlands, during the whole course of the war; and that the queen
had paid above three millions of crowns in subsidies, above what she was
obliged to advance by her engagements. They attacked the barrier-treaty,
which had been concluded with the states by lord Townshend after the
conferences at Gertruydenburgh. By this agreement, England guaranteed a
barrier in the Netherlands to the Dutch; and the states bound themselves
to maintain, with their whole force, the queen’s title and the protestant
succession. The tories affirmed that England was disgraced by engaging any
other state to defend a succession which the nation might see cause to
alter; that, by this treaty, the states were authorized to interpose in
British councils; that, being possessed of all those strong towns, they
might exclude the English from trading to them, and interfere with the
manufactures of Great Britain. The house of commons voted, that in the
barrier-treaty there were several articles destructive to the trade and
interest of Great Britain, and therefore highly dishonourable to her
majesty; that the lord viscount Townshend was not authorized to conclude
several articles in that treaty; that he and all those who had advised its
being ratified were enemies to the queen and kingdom. All their votes were
digested into a long representation presented to the queen, in which they
averred that England, during the war, had been overcharged nineteen
millions; a circumstance that implied mismanagement or fraud in the old
ministry. The states, alarmed at these resolutions, wrote a respectful
letter to the queen, representing the necessity of a barrier for the
mutual security of England and the United Provinces. They afterwards drew
up a large memorial in vindication of their proceedings during the war;
and it was published in one of the English papers. The commons immediately
voted it a false, scandalous, and malicious libel, reflecting upon the
resolutions of the house; and the printer and publisher were taken into
custody, as guilty of a breach of privilege.

ACTS UNFAVOURABLE TO THE PRESBYTERIAN DISCIPLINE IN SCOTLAND.

They now repealed the naturalization act. They passed a bill granting a
toleration to the episcopal clergy in Scotland, without paying the least
regard to a representation from the general assembly to the queen,
declaring that the act for securing the presbyterian government was an
essential and fundamental condition of the treaty of union. The house,
notwithstanding this remonstrance, proceeded with the bill, and inserted a
clause prohibiting civil magistrates from executing the sentences of the
kirk-judicatories. The episcopal, as well as the presbyterian clergy, were
required to take the oaths of abjuration, that they might be upon an equal
footing in case of disobedience; for the commons well knew that this
condition would be rejected by both from very different motives. In order
to exasperate the presbyterians with further provocations, another act was
passed for discontinuing the courts of judicature during the Christmas
holidays, which had never been kept by persons of that persuasion. When
this bill was read for the third time, sir David Dalrymple said, “Since
the house is resolved to make no toleration on the body of this bill, I
acquiesce; and only desire it may be intituled, A bill for establishing
jacobitism and immorality.” The chagrin of the Scottish presbyterians was
completed by a third bill, restoring the right of patronage, which had
been taken away when the discipline of the kirk was last established.
Prince Eugene having presented a memorial to the queen touching the
conduct of the emperor during the war, and containing a proposal with
relation to the affairs of Spain, the queen communicated the scheme to the
house of commons, who treated it with the most contemptuous neglect. The
prince, finding all his efforts ineffectual, retired to the continent, as
much displeased with the ministry, as he had reason to be satisfied with
the people of England. The commons having settled the funds for the
supplies of the year, amounting to six millions, the treasurer formed the
plan of a bill appointing commissioners to examine the value and
consideration of all the grants made since the revolution. His design was
to make a general resumption; but, as the interest of so many noblemen was
concerned, the bill met with a very warm opposition; notwithstanding which
it would have certainly passed, had not the duke of Buckingham and the
earl of Strafford absented themselves from the house during the debate.

CHAPTER XI.

The Conferences opened at Utrecht….. The Queen’s Measures
obstructed by the Allies….. Death of the Dauphin and his
Son….. The Queen demands Philip’s Renunciation of the
Crown of France….. The Duke of Ormond takes the Command of
the British Forces in Flanders….. He is restricted from
acting against the Enemy….. Debate in the House of Lords
on this Subject….. A loyal Address of the Commons…..
Philip promises to renounce the Crown of France….. The
Queen communicates the Plan of the Peace in a Speech to both
Houses of Parliament….. Exceptions taken to some of the
Articles in the House of Lords….. A motion for a Guaranty
of the Protestant Succession by the Allies rejected in the
House of Commons….. The Duke of Ormond declares to Prince
Eugene, that he can no longer cover the siege of
Quesnoy….. Irruption into France by General
Grovestein….. The Foreign Troops in British pay refuse to
march with the Duke of Ormond, who proclaims a Cessation of
Arms, and seizes Ghent and Bruges….. The Allies defeated
at Denain….. Progress of the Conferences at Utrecht…..
The Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun are killed in a
Duel….. The Duke of Marlborough retires to the
Continent….. The States-general sign the Barrier-
treaty….. The other Allies become more tractable….. The
Peace with France signed at Utrecht….. Both Houses of
Parliament congratulate the Queen on the Peace…..
Substance of the Treaty with France….. Objections to the
Treaty of Commerce….. Debates in the House of Lords on the
Malt-tax for Scotland….. The Scottish Lords move for a
Bill to dissolve the Union….. Address of the Commons about
Dunkirk….. Violence of Parties in England….. Proceedings
of the Parliament of Ireland….. New Parliament in
England….. Writers employed by both Parties….. Treaty of
Rastadt between the Emperor and France—Principal Articles
in the Treaty between Great Britain and Spain….. Meeting
of the Parliament….. The House of Lords takes Cognizance
of a Libel against the Scots….. Mr. Steel expelled the
House of Commons….. Precautions by the Whigs for the
Security of the Protestant Succession….. Debates in the
House of Lords concerning the Pretender and the
Catalans….. They Address the Queen to set a Price on the
Head of the Pretender….. A Writ demanded for the Electoral
Prince of Hanover, as Duke of Cambridge….. Death of the
Princess Sophia….. Bill to prevent the growth of
Schism….. Another against all who should list, or be
enlisted, in a Foreign Service….. The Parliament
prorogued….. The Treasurer disgraced….. Precautions
taken for securing the Peace of the Kingdom….. Death and
Character of Queen Anne.

In the month of January the conferences for peace began at Utrecht. The
earl of Jersey would have been appointed the plenipotentiary for England,
but he dying after the correspondence with the court of France was
established, the queen conferred that charge upon Robinson, bishop of
Bristol, lord privy-seal, and the earl of Strafford. The chief of the
Dutch deputies named for the congress, were Buys and Vanderdussen; the
French king granted his powers to the mareschal D’Uxelles, the abbot
(afterwards cardinal) de Polignac, and Menager, who had been in England.
The ministers of the emperor and Savoy likewise assisted at the
conferences, to which the empire and the other allies likewise sent their
plenipotentiaries, though not without reluctance. As all these powers,
except France, entertained sentiments very different from those of her
Britannic majesty, the conferences seemed calculated rather to retard than
accelerate a pacification. The queen of England had foreseen and provided
against these difficulties. Her great end was to free her subjects from
the miseries attending an unprofitable war, and to restore peace to
Europe; and this aim she was resolved to accomplish in spite of all
opposition. She had also determined to procure reasonable terms of
accommodation for her allies, without, however, continuing to lavish the
blood and treasure of her people in supporting their extravagant demands.
The emperor obstinately insisted upon his claim to the whole Spanish
monarchy, refusing to give up the least tittle of his pretensions; and the
Dutch adhered to the old preliminaries which Louis had formerly rejected.
The queen saw that the liberties of Europe would be exposed to much
greater danger from an actual union of the Imperial and Spanish crowns in
one head of the house of Austria, than from a bare possibility of Spain’s
being united with France in one branch of the house of Bourbon. She knew
by experience the difficulty of dethroning Philip, rooted as he was in the
affections of a brave and loyal people; and that a prosecution of this
design would serve no purpose but to protract the war, and augment the
grievances of the British nation. She was well acquainted with the
distresses of the French, which she considered as pledges of their
monarch’s sincerity. She sought not the total ruin of that people, already
reduced to the brink of despair. The dictates of true policy dissuaded her
from contributing to her further conquest in that kingdom, which would
have proved the source of contention among the allies, depressed the house
of Bourbon below the standard of importance which the balance of Europe
required it should maintain, and aggrandize the states-general at the
expense of Great Britain. As she had borne the chief burden of the war,
she had a right to take the lead, and dictate a plan of pacification; at
least, she had a right to consult the welfare of her own kingdom, in
delivering, by a separate peace, her subjects from those enormous loads
which they could no longer sustain; and she was well enough aware of her
own consequence, to think she could not obtain advantageous conditions.

THE QUEEN’S MEASURES OBSTRUCTED.

Such were the sentiments of the queen; and her ministers seem to have
acted on the same principles, though perhaps party motives may have helped
to influence their conduct. The allies concurred in opposing with all
their might any treaty which could not gratify their different views of
avarice, interest, and ambition. They practised a thousand little
artifices to intimidate the queen, to excite a jealousy of Louis, to
blacken the characters of her ministers, to raise and keep up a dangerous
ferment among the people, by which her life and government were
endangered. She could not fail to resent these efforts, which greatly
perplexed her measures, and obstructed her design. Her ministers were
sensible of the dangerous predicament in which they stood. The queen’s
health was much impaired; and the successor countenanced the opposite
faction. In case of their sovereign’s death, they had nothing to expect
but prosecution and ruin for obeying her commands; they saw no hope
of safety, except in renouncing their principles, and submitting to their
adversaries; or else in taking such measures as would hasten the
pacification, that the troubles of the kingdom might be appeased, and the
people be satisfied with their conduct, before death should deprive them
of their sovereign’s protection. With this view they advised her to set on
foot a private negotiation with Louis, to stipulate certain advantages for
her own subjects in a concerted plan of peace; to enter into such mutual
confidence with that monarch, as would anticipate all clandestine
transactions to her prejudice, and in some measure enable her to prescribe
terms for her allies. The plan was judiciously formed; but executed with
too much precipitation. The stipulated advantages were not such as she had
a right to demand and insist upon; and without all doubt better might have
been obtained, had not the obstinacy of the allies abroad, and the violent
conduct of the whig faction at home, obliged the ministers to relax in
some material points, and hasten the conclusion of the treaty.

DEATH OF THE DAUPHIN AND HIS SON.

The articles being privately regulated between the two courts of London
and Versailles, the English plenipotentiaries at Utrecht were furnished
with general powers and instructions, being ignorant of the agreement
which the queen had made with the French monarch touching the kingdom of
Spain, which was indeed the basis of the treaty. This secret plan of
negotiation, however, had well nigh been destroyed by some unforeseen
events that were doubly afflicting to Louis. The dauphin died of the
small-pox in the course of the preceding year, and his title had been
conferred upon his son the duke of Burgundy, who now expired on the last
day of February, six days after the death of his wife, Mary Adelaide of
Savoy. The parents were soon followed to the grave by their eldest
offspring the duke of Bretagne, in the sixth year of his age; so that of
the duke of Burgundy’s children, none remained alive but the duke of
Anjou, the late French king, who was at that time a sickly infant. Such a
series of calamities could not fail of being extremely shocking to Louis
in his old age; but they were still more alarming to the queen of England,
who saw that nothing but the precarious life of an unhealthy child divided
the two monarchies of France and Spain, the union of which she resolved by
all possible means to prevent. She therefore sent the abbé Gualtier to
Paris, with a memorial representing the danger to which the liberty of
Europe would be exposed, should Philip ascend the throne of France; and
demanding that his title should be transferred to his brother the duke of
Berry, in consequence of his pure, simple, and voluntary renunciation.

THE QUEEN DEMANDS PHILIP’S RENUNCIATION OF THE CROWN.

Meanwhile the French plenipotentiaries at Utrecht were prevailed upon to
deliver their proposals in writing, under the name of specific offers,
which the allies received with indignation. They were treated in England
with universal scorn. Lord Halifax, in the house of peers, termed them
trifling, arrogant, and injurious to her majesty and her allies. An
address was presented to the queen, in which they expressed their
resentment against the insolence of France, and promised to assist her
with all their power in prosecuting the war until a safe and honourable
peace should be obtained. The plenipotentiaries of the allies were not
less extravagant in their specific demands, than the French had been
arrogant in their offers. In a word, the ministers seemed to have been
assembled at Utrecht rather to start new difficulties, and widen the
breach, than to heal animosities and concert a plan of pacification. They
amused one another with fruitless conferences, while the queen of Great
Britain endeavoured to engage the states-general in her measures, that
they might treat with France upon moderate terms, and give law to the rest
of the allies. She departed from some of her own pretensions, in order to
gratify them with the possession of some towns in Flanders She consented
to their being admitted into a participation of some advantages in
commerce; and ordered the English ministers at the congress to tell them,
that she would take her measures according to the return they should make
on this occasion. Finding them still obstinately attached to their first
chimerical preliminaries, she gave them to understand that all her offers
for adjusting the differences were founded upon the express condition,
that they should come into her measures, and co-operate with her openly
and sincerely; but they had made such bad returns to all her condescension
towards them, that she looked upon herself as released from all
engagements. The ministers of the allies had insisted upon a written
answer to their specific demands; and this the French plenipotentiaries
declined, until they should receive fresh instructions from their master.
Such was the pretence for suspending the conferences; but the real bar to
a final agreement between England and France, was the delay of Philip’s
renunciation, which at length however arrived, and produced a cessation of
arms.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE DUKE OF ORMOND TAKES THE COMMAND OF THE BRITISH FORCES.

In the meantime the duke of Ormond, who was now invested with the supreme
command of the British forces, received a particular order that he should
not hazard an engagement. Louis had already undertaken for the compliance
of his grandson. Reflecting on his own great age, he was shocked at the
prospect of leaving his kingdom involved in a pernicious war during a
minority; and determined to procure a peace at all events. The queen,
knowing his motives, could not help believing his protestations, and
resolved to avoid a battle, the issue of which might have considerably
altered the situation of affairs, and consequently retarded the conclusion
of the treaty. Preparations had been made for an early campaign. In the
beginning of March the earl of Albemarle, having assembled a body of
thirty-six battalions, marched towards Arras, which he reduced to a heap
of ashes by a most terrible cannonading and bombardment. In May the duke
of Ormond conferred with the deputies of the states-general at the Hague,
and assured them that he had orders to act vigorously in the prosecution
of the war. He joined prince Eugene at Tournay; and on the twenty-sixth
day of May, the allied army passing the Schelde, encamped at Haspre and
Solemnes. The Imperial general proposed that they should attack the French
army under Villars; but by this time the duke was restrained from
hazarding a siege or battle; a circumstance well known to the French
commander, who therefore abated of his usual vigilance. It could not be
long concealed from prince Eugene and the deputies, who forthwith
despatched an express to their principals on this subject, and afterwards
presented a long memorial to the duke, representing the injury which the
grand alliance would sustain from his obedience of such an order. He
seemed to be extremely uneasy at his situation; and in a letter to
secretary St. John, expressed a desire that the queen would permit him to
return to England.

Prince Eugene, notwithstanding the queen’s order, which Ormond had not yet
formally declared, invested the town of Quesnoy, and the duke furnished
towards this enterprise seven battalions and nine squadrons of the foreign
troops maintained by Great Britain. The Dutch deputies at Utrecht
expostulating with the bishop of Bristol upon the duke’s refusing to act
against the enemy, that prelate told them that he had lately received an
express, with a letter from her majesty, in which she complained, that, as
the states-general had not properly answered her advances, they ought not
to be surprised if she thought herself at liberty to enter into separate
measures in order to obtain a peace for her own conveniency. When they
remonstrated against such conduct as contradictory to all the alliances
subsisting between the queen and the states-general, the bishop declared
his instructions further imported, that considering the conduct of the
states towards her majesty, she thought herself disengaged from all
alliances and engagements with their high mightinesses. The states and the
ministers of the allies were instantly in commotion. Private measures were
concerted with the elector of Hanover, the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and
some other princes of the empire, concerning the troops belonging to those
powers in the pay of Great Britain. The states-general wrote a long letter
to the queen, and ordered their envoy at London to deliver it into her own
hand. Count Zinzendorf, the emperor’s plenipotentiary, despatched
expresses to his master, to prince Eugene, and to the Imperial ambassador
at London. The queen held a council at Kensington upon the subject of the
letter; and a fresh order was sent to the duke of Ormond, directing him to
concur with the general of the allies in a siege.

On the twenty-eighth day of May, lord Halifax, in the house of peers,
descanted upon the ill consequences of the duke’s refusing to co-operate
with prince Eugene, and moved for an address, desiring her majesty would
order the general to act offensively in concert with her allies. The
treasurer observed, it was prudent to avoid a battle on the eve of a
peace, especially considering they had to do with an enemy so apt to break
his word. The earl of Wharton replied, this was a strong reason for
keeping no measures with such an enemy. When Oxford declared that the duke
of Ormond had received orders to join the allies in a siege, the duke of
Marlborough affirmed it was impossible to carry on a siege without either
hazarding a battle, in case the enemy should attempt to relieve the place,
or shamefully abandoning the enterprise. The duke of Argyle having
declared his opinion, that since the time of Julius Caesar there had not
been a greater captain than prince Eugene of Savoy, observed, that,
considering the different interests of the house of Austria and of Great
Britain, it might not consist with prudence to trust him with the
management of the war, because a battle won or lost might entirely break
off a negociation of peace, which in all probability was near being
concluded. He added, that two years before, the confederates might have
taken Arras and Cambray, instead of amusing themselves with the
insignificant conquests of Aire, Bethune, and St. Venant. The duke of
Devonshire said he was, by proximity of blood, more concerned than any
other in the reputation of the duke of Ormond; and therefore could not
help expressing his surprise, that any one would dare to make a nobleman
of the first rank, and so distinguished a character, the instrument of
such proceedings. Earl Paulet answered, that nobody could doubt the duke
of Ormond’s courage; but he was not like a certain general, who led troops
to the slaughter to cause a great number of officers to be knocked on the
head, that he might fill his pockets by disposing of their commissions.
The duke of Marlborough was so deeply affected by this reflection, that
though he suppressed his resentment in the house, he took the first
opportunity to send lord Mohun to the earl with a message, importing, that
he should be glad to come to an explanation with his lordship about some
expressions he had used in that clay’s debate; and desiring his company to
take the air in the country. The earl understood his meaning; but could
not conceal his emotion from the observation of his lady, by whose means
the affair was communicated to the earl of Dartmouth, secretary of state.
Two sentinels were immediately placed at his lordship’s gate: the queen,
by the canal of lord Dartmouth, desired the duke of Marlborough would
proceed no farther in the quarrel; and he assured her he would punctually
obey her majesty’s commands. The earl of Oxford assured the house, that a
separate peace was never intended; that such a peace would be so base, so
knavish, and so villanous, that every one who served the queen knew they
must answer it with their heads to the nation; but that it would appear to
be a safe and glorious peace, much more to the honour and interest of the
nation, than the first preliminaries insisted upon by the allies. The
question being put for adjourning, was, after a long debate, carried in
the affirmative; but twenty lords entered a protest. The earl of
Strafford, who had returned from Holland, proposed that they should
examine the negotiations of the Hague and Gertruyden-burgh, before they
considered that of Utrecht. He observed, that in the former negotiations
the French ministers had conferred only with the pensionary, who
communicated no more of it to the ministers of the allies than what was
judged proper to let them know; so that the Dutch were absolute masters of
the secret. He asserted that the states-general had consented to give
Naples and Sicily to king Philip; a circumstance which proved that the
recovery of the whole Spanish monarchy was looked upon as impracticable.
He concluded with a motion for an address to her majesty, desiring that
the papers relating to the negotiations of the Hague and Gertruydenburgh
should be laid before the house. This was carried without a division.

In the house of commons Mr. Pulteney moved for an address, acquainting her
majesty that her faithful commons were justly alarmed at the intelligence
received from abroad, that her general in Flanders had declined acting
offensively against France in concurrence with her allies; and beseeching
her majesty that he might receive speedy instructions to prosecute the war
with the utmost vigour. This motion was rejected by a great majority. A
certain member having insinuated that the present negotiation had been
carried on in a clandestine and treacherous manner, Mr. secretary St. John
said, he hoped it would not be accounted treachery to act for the good and
advantage of Great Britain; that he gloried in the small share he had in
the transaction; and whatever censure he might undergo for it, the bare
satisfaction of acting in that view would be a sufficient recompence and
comfort to him during the whole course of his life. The house resolved,
that the commons had an entire confidence in her majesty’s promise, to
communicate to her parliament the terms of the peace before it should be
concluded; and that they would support her against all such persons,
either at home or abroad, as should endeavour to obstruct the
pacification. The queen thanked them heartily for this resolution, as
being dutiful to her, honest to their country, and very seasonable at a
time when so many artifices were used to obstruct a good peace, or to
force one disadantageous to Britain. They likewise presented an address,
desiring they might have an account of the negotiations and transactions
at the Hague and Gertruydenburgh, and know who were then employed as her
majesty’s plenipotentiaries.

PHILIP PROMISES TO RENOUNCE THE CROWN OF FRANCE.

The ministry, foreseeing that Philip would not willingly resign his hopes
of succeeding to the crown of France, proposed an alternative, that, in
case of his preferring his expectation of the crown of France to the
present possession of Spain, this kingdom, with the Indies, should be
forthwith ceded to the duke of Savoy; that Philip, in the meantime, should
possess the duke’s hereditary dominions, and the kingdom of Sicily,
together with Montserrat and Mantua; all which territories should be
annexed to France at Philip’s succession to that crown, except Sicily,
which should revert to the house of Austria. Louis seemed to relish this
expedient, which, however, was rejected by Philip, who chose to make the
renunciation rather than quit the throne upon which he was established.
The queen demanded that the renunciation should be ratified in the most
solemn manner by the states of France; but she afterwards waived this
demand, in consideration of its being registered in the different
parliaments. Such forms are but slender securities against the power,
ambition, and interest of princes. The marquis de Torcy frankly owned,
that Philip’s renunciation was of itself void, as being contrary to the
fundamental laws and constitution of the French monarchy; but it was found
necessary for the satisfaction of the English people. Every material
article being now adjusted between the two courts, particularly those
relating to the king of Spain, the commerce of Great Britain, and the
delivery of Dunkirk, a suspension of arms prevailed in the Netherlands,
and the duke of Ormond acted in concert with mareschal de Villars.

THE QUEEN COMMUNICATES THE PLAN OF THE PEACE TO PARLIAMENT.

On the sixth day of June, the queen going to the house of peers
communicated the plan of peace to her parliament, according to the promise
she had made. After having premised that the making peace and war was the
undoubted prerogative of the crown, and hinted at the difficulties which
had arisen both from the nature of the affair, and numberless obstructions
contrived by the enemies of peace, she proceeded to enumerate the chief
articles to which both crowns had agreed, without, however, concluding the
treaty. She told them she had secured the protestant succession, which
France had acknowledged in the strongest terms; and that the pretender
would be removed from the French dominions; that the duke of Anjou should
renounce for himself and his descendants all claim to the crown of France;
so that the two monarchies would be for ever divided. She observed, that
the nature of this proposal was such as would execute itself; that it
would be the interest of Spain to support the renunciation; and in France,
the persons entitled to the succession of that crown upon the death of the
dauphin, were powerful enough to vindicate their own right. She gave them
to understand that a treaty of commerce between England and France had
been begun, though not yet adjusted; but provision was made, that England
should enjoy the same privileges that France granted to the most favoured
nation; that the French king had agreed to make an absolute cession of the
island of St. Christopher’s, which had hitherto been divided between the
two nations, that he had also consented to restore the whole bay and
straits of Hudson; to deliver the island of Newfoundland, with Placentia;
to cede Annapolis, with the rest of Arcadia or Nova Scotia; to demolish
the fortifications of Dunkirk; to leave England in possession of
Gibraltar, Port-Mahon, and the whole island of Minorca; to let the trade
of Spain in the West Indies be settled as it was in the reign of his late
catholic majesty; she signified that she had obtained for her subjects the
assiento, or contract, for furnishing the Spanish West Indies with negroes
for the term of thirty years, in the same manner as it had been enjoyed by
the French. With respect to the allies, they declared, that France offered
to make the Rhine the barrier of the empire; to yield Brisac, Fort Kehl,
and Landau, and raze all the fortresses both on the other side of the
Rhine, and in the islands of that river; that the protestant interest in
Germany would be re-settled on the footing of the treaty of Westphalia;
that the Spanish Netherlands, the kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia, the
duchy of Milan, and the places belonging to Spain on the coast of Tuscany,
might be yielded to his Imperial majesty; but the disposition of Sicily
was not yet determined; that the demands of the states-general with
relation to commerce, and the barrier in the Low Countries, would be
granted with a few exceptions, which might be compensated by other
expedients; that no great progress had yet been made upon the pretensions
of Portugal; but that those of Prussia would be admitted by France without
much difficulty; that the difference between the barrier demanded by the
duke of Savoy in the year one thousand seven hundred and nine, and that
which France now offered, was very inconsiderable; that the elector
palatine should maintain his present rank among the electors; and that
France would acknowledge the electoral dignity in the house of Hanover.
Such, were the conditions which the queen hoped would make some amends to
her subjects, for the great and unequal burden they had borne during the
whole course of the war. She concluded with saying, she made no doubt but
they were fully persuaded that nothing would be neglected on her part, in
the progress of this negotiation, to bring the peace to a happy and speedy
issue; and she expressed her dependence upon the entire confidence and
cheerful concurrence of her parliament. An address of thanks and
approbation was immediately voted, drawn up, and presented to the queen by
the commons in a body. When the house of lords took the speech into
consideration, the duke of Marlborough asserted, that the measures pursued
for a year past were directly contrary to her majesty’s engagements with
the allies; that they sullied the triumphs and glories of her reign, and
would render the English name odious to all nations. The earl of Strafford
said, that some of the allies would not have shown such backwardness to a
peace, had they not been persuaded and encouraged to carry on the war by a
member of that illustrious assembly, who maintained a secret
correspondence with them, and fed them with hopes that they would be
supported by a strong party in England. In answer to this insinuation
against Marlborough, lord Cowper observed, that it could never be
suggested as a crime in the meanest subject, much less in any member of
that august assembly, to hold correspondence with the allies of the
nation; stich allies especially whose interest her majesty had declared to
be inseparable from her own, in her speech at the opening of the session;
whereas it would be a hard matter to justify and reconcile either with our
laws, or with laws of honour and justice, the conduct of some persons in
treating clandestinely with the common enemy without the participation of
the allies. This was a frivolous argument. A correspondence with any
persons whatsoever becomes criminal, when it tends to foment the divisions
of one’s country, and arm the people against their sovereign. If England
had it not in her power, without infringing the laws of justice and
honour, to withdraw herself from a confederacy which she could no longer
support, and treat for peace on her own bottom, then was she not an
associate but a slave to the alliance. The earl of Godolphin affirmed,
that the trade to Spain was such a trifle as deserved no consideration;
and that it would continually diminish until it should be entirely
engrossed by the French merchants. Notwithstanding these remonstrances
against the plan of peace, the majority agreed to an address, in which
they thanked the queen for her extraordinary condescension in
communicating those conditions to her parliament; and expressed an entire
satisfaction with her conduct. A motion was made for a clause in the
address, desiring her majesty would take such measures in concert with her
allies, as might induce them to join with her in a mutual guarantee. A
debate ensued: the question was put, and the clause rejected. Several
noblemen entered a protest, which was expunged from the journals of the
house by the decision of the majority.

In the house of commons, a complaint was exhibited against bishop
Fleetwood, who, in a preface to four sermons which he had published, took
occasion to extol the last ministry at the expense of the present
administration. This piece was voted malicious and factious, tending to
create discord and sedition amongst her majesty’s subjects, and condemned
to be burned by the hands of the common hangman. They presented an address
to the queen, assuring her of the just sense they had of the indignity
offered to her, by printing and publishing a letter from the
states-general to her majesty; and desiring she would so far resent such
insults, as to give no answer for the future to any letters or memorials
that should be thus ushered into the world as inflammatory appeals to the
public. Mr. Hampden moved for an address to her majesty, that she would
give particular instructions to her plenipotentiaries, that in the
conclusion of the treaty of peace, the several powers in alliance with her
majesty might be guarantees for the protestant succession in the
illustrious house of Hanover. The question being put, was carried in the
negative. Then the house resolved, that they had such confidence in the
repeated declarations her majesty had made of her concern for assuring to
these kingdoms the protestant succession, as by law established, that they
could never doubt of her taking the proper measures for the security
thereof; that the house would support her against faction at home and her
enemies abroad; and did humbly beseech her, that she would be pleased to
discountenance all those who should endeavour to raise jealousies between
her majesty and her subjects, especially by misrepresenting her good
intentions for the welfare of her people. The queen was extremely pleased
with this resolution. When it was presented, she told them that they had
shown themselves honest asserters of the monarchy, zealous defenders of
the constitution, and real friends to the protestant succession. She
thought she had very little reason to countenance a compliment of
supererogation to a prince who had caballed with the enemies of her
administration. On the twenty-first day of June the queen closed the
session with a speech, expressing her satisfaction at the addresses and
supplies she had received; she observed, that should the treaty be broke
off, their burdens would be at least continued, if not increased; that
Britain would lose the present opportunity of improving her own commerce,
and establishing a real balance of power in Europe; and that though some
of the allies might be gainers by a continuance of the war, the rest would
suffer in the common calamity. Notwithstanding the ferment of the people,
which was now risen to a very dangerous pitch, addresses approving the
queen’s conduct, were presented by the city of London and all the
corporations in the kingdom that espoused the tory interest. At this
juncture the nation was so wholly possessed by the spirit of party, that
no appearance of neutrality or moderation remained.

During these transactions the trenches were opened before Quesnoy, and the
siege carried on with uncommon vigour under cover of the forces commanded
by the duke of Ormond. This nobleman, however, having received a copy of
the articles signed by the marquis de Torcy, and fresh instructions from
the queen, signified to the prince Eugene and the Dutch deputies, that the
French king had agreed to several articles demanded by the queen, as the
foundation of an armistice; and among others to put the English troops in
immediate possession of Dunkirk; that he could therefore no longer cover
the siege of Quesnoy, as he was obliged by his instructions to march with
the British troops, and those in the queen’s pay, and declare a suspension
of arms as soon as he should be possessed of Dunkirk. He expressed his
hope that they would readily acquiesce in these instructions, seeing their
concurrence would act as the most powerful motive to induce the queen to
take all possible care of their interests at the congress; and he
endeavoured to demonstrate that Dunkirk, as a cautionary town, was a place
of greater consequence to the allies than Quesnoy. The deputies desired he
would delay his march for five days, that they might have time to consult
their principals, and he granted three days without hesitation. Prince
Eugene observed, that his marching off with the British troops, and the
foreigners in the queen’s pay, would leave the allies at the mercy of the
enemy; but he hoped these last would not obey the duke’s order. He and the
deputies had already tampered with their commanding officers, who
absolutely refused to obey the duke of Ormond, alleging, that they could
not separate from the confederacy without express directions from their
masters, to whom they had despatched couriers. An extraordinary assembly
of states was immediately summoned to meet at the Hague. The ministers of
the allies were invited to the conferences. At length the princes, whose
troops were in the pay of Britain, assured them that they would maintain
them under the command of Prince Eugene for one month at their own
expense, and afterwards sustain half the charge, provided the other half
should be defrayed by the emperor and states-general.

IRRUPTION INTO FRANCE BY GENERAL GROVESTEIN.

The bishop of Bristol imparted to the other plenipotentiaries at Utrecht
the concessions which France would make to the allies; and proposed a
suspension of arms for two months, that they might treat in a friendly
manner, and adjust the demands of all the confederates. To this proposal
they made no other answer but that they had no instructions on the
subject. Count Zinzendorf, the first Imperial plenipotentiary, presented a
memorial to the states-general, explaining the danger that would result to
the common cause from a cessation of arms; and exhorting them to persevere
in their generous and vigorous resolutions. He proposed a renewal of the
alliance for recovering the Spanish monarchy to the house of Austria, and
a certain plan for prosecuting the war with redoubled ardour. Prince
Eugene, in order to dazzle the confederates with some bold enterprise,
detached major-general Grovestein with fifteen hundred cavalry to
penetrate into the heart of France. This officer, about the middle of
June, advanced into Champaigne, passed the Noire, the Maese, the Moselle,
and the Saar, and retired to Traerbach with a rich booty and a great
number of hostages, after having extorted contributions as far as the
gates of Metz, ravaged the country, and reduced a great number of villages
and towns to ashes. The consternation produced by this irruption reached
the city of Paris; the king of France did not think himself safe at
Versailles with his ordinary guards; all the troops in the neighbourhood
of the capital were assembled about the palace. Villars sent a detachment
after Grovestein, as soon as he understood his destination; but the other
had gained a day’s march of the French troops, which had the mortification
to follow him so close, that they found the flames still burning in the
villages he had destroyed. By way of retaliation, major-general Pasteur, a
French partisan, made an excursion beyond Bergen-op-zoom, and ravaged the
island of Tortola belonging to Zealand.

FOREIGN TROOPS IN BRITISH PAY REFUSE TO MARCH WITH ORMOND.

The earl of Strafford having returned to Holland, proposed a cessation of
arms to the states-general, by whom it was rejected. Then he proceeded to
the army of the duke of Ormond, where he arrived in a few days after the
reduction of Quesnoy, the garrison of which were made prisoners of war on
the fourth day of July. The officers of the foreign troops had a second
time refused to obey a written order of the duke; and such a spirit of
animosity began to prevail between the English and allies, that it was
absolutely necessary to effect a speedy separation. Prince Eugene resolved
to undertake the siege of Landresy: a design is said to have been formed
by the German generals, to confine the duke on pretence of the arrears
that were due to them, and to disarm the British troops lest they should
join the French army. In the meantime, a literary correspondence was
maintained between the English general and the mareschal de Villars.
France having consented to deliver up Dunkirk, a body of troops was
transported from England under the command of brigadier Hill, who took
possession of the place on the seventh day of July; the French garrison
retired to Winoxberg. On the sixteenth of the same month prince Eugene
marched from his camp at Haspre, and was followed by all the auxiliaries
in the British pay, except a few battalions of the troops of
Holstein-Gottorp, and Walef’s regiment of dragoons, belonging to the state
of Liege.

Landresy was immediately invested; while the duke of Ormond, with the
English forces, removed from Chateau-Cambresis, and encamped at
wensne-le-Secq, proclaimed by sound of trumpet a cessation of arms for two
months. On the same day the like armistice was declared in the French
army. The Dutch were so exasperated at the secession of the English
troops, that the governors would not allow the earl of Strafford to enter
Bouchain, nor the British army to pass through Douay, though in that town
they had left a great quantity of stores, together with their general
hospital. Prince Eugene and the Dutch deputies, understanding that the
duke of Ormond had begun his march towards Ghent, began to be in pain for
that city, and sent count Nassau Woodenburgh to him with a written
apology, condemning and disavowing the conduct and commandants of Bouchain
and Douay; but, notwithstanding these excuses, the English troops
afterwards met with the same treatment at Tournay, Oudenarde, and Lisle:
insults which were resented by the whole British nation. The duke,
however, pursued his march, and took possession of Ghent and Bruges for
the queen of England; then he reinforced the garrison of Dunkirk, which he
likewise supplied with artillery and ammunition. His conduct was no less
agreeable to his sovereign, than mortifying to the Dutch, who never
dreamed of leaving Ghent and Bruges in the hands of the English, and were
now fairly outwitted and anticipated by the motions and expedition of the
British general.

THE ALLIES DEFEATED AT DENAIN.

The loss of the British forces was soon severely felt in the allied army.
Villars attacked a separate body of their troops, encamped at Denain,
under the command of the earl of Albemarle. Their intrenchments were
forced, and seventeen battalions either killed or taken. The earl himself
and all the surviving officers were made prisoners. Five hundred waggons
loaded with bread, twelve pieces of brass cannon, a large quantity of
ammunition and provisions, a great number of horses, and considerable
booty fell into the hands of the enemy. This advantage they gained in
sight of prince Eugene, who advanced on the other side of the Schelde to
sustain Albemarle; but the bridge over that river was broke down by
accident, so that he was prevented from lending the least assistance.
Villars immediately invested Marchiennes, where the principal stores of
the allies were lodged. The place was surrendered on the last day of July;
and the garrison, consisting of five thousand men, were conducted
prisoners to Valenciennes. He afterwards undertook the siege of Douay; an
enterprise, in consequence of which prince Eugene abandoned his design on
Landresy, and marched towards the French in order to hazard an engagement.
The states, however, would not run the risk; and the prince had the
mortification to see Douay reduced by the enemy. He could not even prevent
their retaking Quesnoy and Bouchain, of which places they were in
possession before the tenth day of October. The allies enjoyed no other
compensation for their great losses, but the conquest of Fort Knocque,
which was surprised by one of their partisans.

PROGRESS OF THE CONFERENCES AT UTRECHT.

The British ministers at the congress continued to press the Dutch and
other allies to join in the armistice; but they were deaf to the proposal,
and concerted measures for a vigorous prosecution of the war. Then the
earl of Strafford insisted upon their admitting to the congress the
plenipotentiaries of king Philip; but he found them equally averse to this
expedient. In the beginning of August, secretary St. John, now created
lord viscount Bolingbroke, was sent to the court of Versailles incognito,
to remove all obstructions to the treaty between England and France. He
was accompanied by Mr. Prior and the Abbé Gualtier, treated with the most
distinguished marks of respect, caressed by the French king and the
marquis de Torcy, with whom he adjusted the principal interests of the
duke of Savoy and the elector of Bavaria. He settled the time and manner
of the renunciation, and agreed to a suspension of arms by sea and land
for four months between the crowns of France and England; this was
accordingly proclaimed at Paris and London. The negotiation being finished
in a few days, Bolingbroke returned to England, and Prior remained as
resident at the court of France. The states-general breathed nothing but
war; the pensionary Heinsius pronounced an oration in their assembly,
representing the impossibility of concluding a peace without losing the
fruits of all the blood and treasure they had expended. The conferences at
Utrecht were interrupted by a quarrel between the domestics of Ménager and
those of the count de Rechteren, one of the Dutch plenipotentiaries. The
populace insulted the earl of Strafford and the marquis del Borgo,
minister of Savoy, whose master was reported to have agreed to the
armistice. These obstructions being removed, the conferences were renewed,
and the British plenipotentiaries exerted all their rhetoric, both in
public and private, to engage the allies! in the queen’s measures. At
length the duke of Savoy was prevailed upon to acquiesce in the offers of
France. Mr. Thomas Harley had been sent ambassador to Hanover, with a view
to persuade the elector that it would be for his interest to co-operate
with her majesty; but that prince’s resolution was already taken.
“Whenever it shall please God,” said he, “to call me to the throne of
Britain, I hope to act as becomes me for the advantage of my people; in
the meantime, speak to me as to a German prince, and a prince of the
empire.” Nor was she more successful in her endeavours to bring over the
king of Prussia to her sentiments. In the meantime, lord Lexington was
appointed ambassador to Madrid, where king Philip solemnly swore to
observe the renunciation, which was approved and confirmed by the Cortez.
The like renunciation to the crown of Spain was afterwards made by the
princes of France; and Philip was declared incapable of succeeding to the
crown of that realm. The court of Portugal held out against the
remonstrances of England, until the Marquis de Bay invaded that kingdom at
the head of twenty thousand men, and undertook the siege of Campo-Major,
and they found they had no longer any hope of being assisted by her
Britannic majesty. The Portuguese minister at Utrecht signed the
suspension of arms on the seventh day of November, and excused this step
to the allies as the pure effect of necessity. The English troops in Spain
were ordered to separate from the army of count Starem-berg, and march to
the neighbourhood of Barcelona, where they were embarked on board an
English squadron commanded by sir John Jennings, and transported to
Minorca.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE DUKE OF HAMILTON AND LORD MOHUN ARE KILLED IN A DUEL.

The campaign being at an end in the Netherlands, the duke of Ormond
returned to England, where the party disputes were become more violent
than ever. The whigs affected to celebrate the anniversary of the late
king’s birth-day, in London, with extraordinary rejoicings. Mobs were
hired by both factions; and the whole city was filled with riot and
uproar. A ridiculous scheme was contrived to frighten the lord-treasurer
with some squibs in a band-box, which the ministers magnified into a
conspiracy. The duke of Hamilton having been appointed
ambassador-extraordinary to the court of France, the whigs were alarmed on
the supposition that this nobleman favoured the pretender. Some dispute
arising between the duke and lord Mohun, on the subject of a lawsuit,
furnished a pretence for a quarrel. Mohun, who had been twice tried for
murder, and was counted a mean tool, as well as the hector of the whig
party, sent a message by general Macartney to the duke, challenging him to
single combat. The principals met by appointment in Hyde Park, attended by
Macartney and colonel Hamilton. They fought with such fury, that Mohun was
killed upon the spot, and the duke expired before he could be conveyed to
his own house. Macartney disappeared, and escaped in disguise to the
continent. Colonel Hamilton declared upon oath before the privy-council,
that when the principals engaged, he and Macartney followed their example;
that Macartney was immediately disarmed; but the colonel seeing the duke
fall upon his antagonist, threw away the swords, and ran to lift him up;
that while he was employed in raising the duke, Macartney, having taken up
one of the swords, stabbed his grace over Hamilton’s shoulder and retired
immediately. A proclamation was issued, promising a reward of five hundred
pounds to those who should apprehend or discover Macartney, and the
duchess of Hamilton offered three hundred pounds for the same purpose. The
tories exclaimed against this event as a party-duel; they treated
Macartney as a cowardly assassin; and affirmed that the whigs had posted
others of the same stamp all round Hyde Park, to murder the duke of
Hamilton, in case he had triumphed over his antagonist, and escaped the
treachery of Macartney. The whigs, on the other hand, affirmed that it was
altogether a private quarrel; that Macartney was entirely innocent of the
perfidy laid to his charge; that he afterwards submitted to a fair trial,
at which colonel Hamilton prevaricated in giving his evidence, and was
contradicted by the testimony of divers persons who saw the combat at a
distance. The duke of Marlborough, hearing himself accused as the author
of those party mischiefs, and seeing his enemies grow every day more and
more implacable, thought proper to retire to the continent, where he was
followed by his duchess. His friend Godolphin had died in September, with
the general character of an able, cool, dispassionate minister, who had
rendered himself necessary to four successive sovereigns, and managed the
finances with equal skill and integrity. The duke of Shrewsbury was
nominated ambassador to France in the room of the duke of Hamilton; the
duke d’Aumont arrived at London in the same quality from the court of
Versailles; and about the same time the queen granted an audience to the
marquis de Monte-leone, whom Philip had appointed one of his
plenipotentiaries at the congress.

THE STATES-GENERAL SIGN THE BARRIER-TREATY.

In vain had the British ministers in Holland endeavoured to overcome the
obstinacy of the states-general, by alternate threats, promises, and
arguments. In vain did they represent that the confederacy against France
could be no longer supported with any prospect of success; that the
queen’s aim had been to procure reasonable terms for her allies; but that
their opposition to her measures prevented her from obtaining such
conditions as she would have a right to demand in their favour, were they
unanimous in their consultations. In November, the earl of Strafford
presented a new plan of peace, in which the queen promised to insist upon
France’s ceding to the states the city of Tournay, and some other places
which they could not expect to possess should she conclude a separate
treaty. They now began to waiver in their councils. The first transports
of their resentment having subsided, they plainly perceived that the
continuation of the war would entail upon them a burden which they could
not bear, especially since the duke of Savoy and the king of Portugal had
deserted the alliance; besides, they were staggered by the affair of the
new barrier, so much more advantageous than that which France had proposed
in the beginning of the conferences. They were influenced by another
motive, namely, the apprehension of new mischiefs to the empire from the
king of Sweden, whose affairs seemed to take a favourable turn at the
Ottoman Porte, through the intercession of the French monarch. The czar
and king Augustus had penetrated into Pomerania; the king of Denmark had
taken Staden, reduced Bremen, and laid Hamburgh under contribution; but
count Steenbock, the Swedish general, defeated the Danish army in
Mecklenburg, ravaged Holstein with great barbarity, and reduced the town
of Altena to ashes. The grand seignor threatened to declare war against
the czar, on pretence that he had not performed some essential articles of
the late peace; but his real motive was an inclination to support the king
of Sweden. This disposition, however, was defeated by a powerful party at
the Porte, who were averse to war. Charles, who still remained at Bender,
was desired to return to his own kingdom, and given to understand that the
sultan would procure him a safe passage. He treated the person who brought
this intimation with the most outrageous insolence, rejected the proposal,
fortified his house, and resolved to defend himself to the last extremity.
Being attacked by a considerable body of Turkish forces, he and his
attendants fought with the most frantic valour. They slew some hundreds of
the assailants; but at last the Turks set fire to the house, so that he
was obliged to surrender himself and his followers, who were generally
sold for slaves. He himself was conveyed under a strong guard to
Adrianople. Meanwhile the czar landed with an army in Finland, which he
totally reduced. Steenbock maintained himself in Tonningen until all his
supplies were cut off; and then he was obliged to deliver himself and his
troops prisoners of war. But this reverse was not foreseen when the Dutch
dreaded a rupture between the Porte and the Muscovites, and were given to
understand that the Turks would revive the troubles in Hungary. In that
case, they knew the emperor would recall great part of his troops from the
Netherlands, where the burden of the war must lie upon their shoulders.
After various consultations in their different assemblies, they came into
the queen’s measures, and signed the barrier-treaty.

Then the plenipotentiaries of the four associated circles presented a
remonstrance to the British ministers at Utrecht, imploring the queen’s
interposition in their favour, that they might not be left in the
miserable condition to which they had been reduced by former treaties.
They were given to understand, that if they should not obtain what they
desired, they themselves would be justly blamed as the authors of their
own disappointment; that they had been deficient in furnishing their
proportion of troops and other necessaries, and left the whole burden of
the war to fall upon the queen and the states in the Netherlands; that
when a cessation was judged necessary, they had deserted her majesty to
follow the chimerical projects of prince Eugene; that while she prosecuted
the war with the utmost vigour, they had acted with coldness and
indifference; but when she inclined to peace they began to exert
themselves in prosecuting hostilities with uncommon eagerness; that,
nevertheless, she would not abandon their interests, but endeavour to
procure for them as good conditions as their preposterous conduct would
allow her to demand. Even the emperor’s plenipotentiaries began to talk in
more moderate terms. Zinzendorf declared that his master was very well
disposed to promote a general peace, and no longer insisted on a cession
of the Spanish monarchy to the house of Austria. Philip’s ministers,
together with those of Bavaria and Cologn, were admitted to the congress;
and now the plenipotentiaries of Britain acted as mediators for the rest
of the allies.

1713

PEACE WITH FRANCE.

The pacification between France and England was retarded, however, by some
unforeseen difficulties that arose in adjusting the commerce and the
limits of the countries possessed by both nations in North America. A long
dispute ensued; and the duke of Shrewsbury and Prior held many conferences
with the French ministry; at length it was compromised, though not much to
the advantage of Great Britain; and the English plenipotentiaries received
an order to sign a separate treaty. They declared to the ministers of the
other powers, that they and some other plenipotentiaries were ready to
sign their respective treaties on the eleventh day of April. Count
Zinzendorf endeavoured to postpone this transaction until he should be
furnished with fresh instructions from Vienna; and even threatened that if
the states should sign the peace contrary to his desire, the emperor would
immediately withdraw his troops from the Netherlands. The ministers of
Great Britain agreed with those of France, that his Imperial majesty
should have time to consider whither he would or would not accept the
proposals; but this time was extended no farther than the first day of
June; nor would they agree to a cessation of arms during that interval.
Meanwhile the peace with France was signed in different treaties by the
plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Savoy, Prussia, Portugal, and the
states-general. On the fourteenth day of the month, the British
plenipotentiaries delivered to count Zinzendorf, in writing, “Offers and
demands of the French king for making peace with the house of Austria and
the empire.” The count and the ministers of the German princes exclaimed
against the insolence of France, which had not even bestowed the title of
emperor on Joseph; but wanted to impose terms upon them with relation to
the electors of Cologn and Bavaria.

The treaties of peace and commerce between England and France being
ratified by the queen of England, the parliament was assembled on the
ninth day of April. The queen told them the treaty was signed, and that in
a few days the ratifications would be exchanged. She said, what she had
done for the protestant succession, and the perfect friendship subsisting
between her and the house of Hanover, would convince those who wished well
to both, and desired the quiet and safety of their country, how vain all
attempts were to divide them. She left it entirely to the house of commons
to determine what force might be necessary for the security of trade by
sea, and for guards and garrisons. “Make yourselves safe,” said she, “and
I shall be satisfied. Next to the protection of the Divine Providence, I
depend upon the loyalty and affection of my people. I want no other
guarantee.” She recommended to their protection those brave men who had
exposed their lives in the service of their country, and could not be
employed in time of peace. She desired they would concert proper measures
for easing the foreign trade of the kingdom, for improving and encouraging
manufactures and the fishery, and for employing the hands of idle people.
She expressed her displeasure at the scandalous and seditious libels which
had been lately published.

She exhorted them to consider of new laws to prevent this licentiousness,
as well as for putting a stop to the impious practice of duelling. She
conjured them to use their utmost endeavours to calm the minds of men at
home, that the arts of peace might be cultivated; and that groundless
jealousies, contrived by a faction, and fomented by party rage, might not
effect that which their foreign enemies could not accomplish. This was the
language of a pious, candid, and benevolent sovereign, who loved her
subjects with a truly parental affection. The parliament considered her in
that light. Each house presented her with a warm address of thanks and
congratulation, expressing, in particular, their inviolable attachment to
the protestant succession in the illustrious house of Hanover. The
ratifications of the treaty being exchanged, the peace was proclaimed on
the fifth of May, with the usual ceremonies, to the inexpressible joy of
the nation in general. It was about this period that the chevalier de St.
George conveyed a printed remonstrance to the ministers at Utrecht,
solemnly protesting against all that might be stipulated to his prejudice.
The commons, in a second address, had besought her majesty to communicate
to the house in due time the treaties of peace and commerce with France;
and now they were produced by Mr. Benson, chancellor of the exchequer.

THE TREATY WITH FRANCE.

By the treaty of peace the French king obliged himself to abandon the
pretender, and acknowledge the queen’s title and the protestant
succession; to raze the fortifications of Dunkirk within a limited time,
on condition of receiving an equivalent; to cede Newfoundland, Hudson’s
Bay, and St. Christopher’s to England; but the French were left in
possession of Cape Breton, and at liberty to dry their fish in
Newfoundland. By the treaty of commerce a free trade was established,
according to the tariff of the year one thousand six hundred and
sixty-four, except in some commodities that were subjected to new
regulations in the year sixteen hundred and ninety-nine. It was agreed
that no other duties should be imposed on the productions of France
imported into England than those that were laid on the same commodities
from other countries; and that commissaries should meet at London to
adjust all matters relating to commerce; as for the tariff with Spain, it
was not yet finished. It was stipulated, that the emperor should possess
the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, and the Spanish Netherlands;
that the duke of Savoy should enjoy Sicily, with the title of king; that
the same title, with the island of Sardinia, should be allotted to the
elector of Bavaria, as an indemnification for his losses; that the
states-general should restore Lisle and its dependencies; that Namur,
Charleroy, Luxembourg, Ypres, and Newport, should be added to the other
places they already possessed in Flanders; and that the king of Prussia
should have Upper Gueldre, in lieu of Orange and the other states
belonging to that family in Franche Compté. The king of Portugal was
satisfied; and the first day of June was fixed as the period of time
granted to the emperor for consideration.

A day being appointed by the commons to deliberate upon the treaty of
commerce, very just and weighty objections were made to the eighth and
ninth articles, importing, that Great Britain and France should mutually
enjoy all the privileges in trading with each other that either granted to
the most favoured nation; and that no higher customs should be exacted
from the commodities of France, than those that were drawn from the same
productions of any other people. The balance of trade having long inclined
to the side of France, severe duties had been laid on all the productions
and manufactures of that kingdom, so as almost to amount to a total
prohibition. Some members observed, that by the treaty between England and
Portugal, the duties charged upon the wines of that country were lower
than those laid upon the wines of France; that should they now be reduced
to an equality, the difference of freight was so great, that the French
wines would be found much cheaper than those of Portugal; and, as they
were more agreeable to the taste of the nation in general, there would be
no market for the Portuguese wines in England; that should this be the
case, the English would lose their trade with Portugal, the most
advantageous of any traffic which they now carried on; for it consumed a
great quantity of their manufactures, and returned a yearly sum of six
hundred thousand pounds in gold. Mr. Nathaniel Gould, formerly governor of
the bank, affirmed, that as France had since the revolution encouraged
woollen manufactures, and prepared at home several commodities which
formerly they drew from England; so the English had learned to make silk
stuffs, paper, and all manner of toys, formerly imported from France; by
which means an infinite number of artificers were employed, and a vast sum
annually saved to the nation; but these people would now be reduced to
beggary, and that money lost again to the kingdom, should French
commodities of the same kind be imported under ordinary duties, because
labour was much cheaper in France than in England, consequently the
British manufactures would be undersold and ruined. He urged, that the
ruin of the silk manufacture would be attended with another disadvantage.
Great quantities of woollen cloths were vended in Italy and Turkey, in
consequence of the raw silk which the English merchants bought up in those
countries; and, should the silk manufacture at home be lost, those markets
for British commodities would fail of course. Others alleged, that if the
articles of commerce had been settled before the English troops separated
from those of the confederates, the French king would not have presumed to
insist upon such terms, but have been glad to comply with more moderate
conditions. Sir William Wyndham reflected on the late ministry, for having
neglected to make an advantageous peace when it was in their power. He
said that Portugal would always have occasion for the woollen manufactures
and the corn of England, and be obliged to buy them at all events. After a
violent debate, the house resolved, by a great majority, that a bill
should be brought in to make good the eighth and ninth articles of the
treaty of commerce with France. Against these articles, however, the
Portuguese minister presented a memorial, declaring, that should the
duties on French wines be lowered to the same level with those that were
laid on the wines of Portugal, his master would renew the prohibition of
the woollen manufactures and other products of Great Britain. Indeed, all
the trading part of the nation exclaimed against the treaty of commerce,
which seems to have been concluded in a hurry, before the ministers fully
understood the nature of the subject. This precipitation was owing to the
fears that their endeavours after peace would miscarry, from the intrigues
of the whig faction, and the obstinate opposition of the confederates.

THE SCOTTISH LORDS MOVE FOR A BILL TO DISSOLVE THE UNION.

The commons having granted an aid of two shillings in the pound, proceeded
to renew the duty on malt for another year, and extended this tax to the
whole island, notwithstanding the warm remonstrances of the Scottish
members, who represented it as a burden which their country could not
bear. They insisted upon an express article of the union, stipulating,
that no duty should be laid on the malt in Scotland during the war which
they affirmed was not yet finished, inasmuch as the peace with Spain had
not been proclaimed. During the adjournment of the parliament, on account
of the Whit-sun-holidays, the Scots of both houses, laying aside all party
distinctions, met and deliberated on this subject. They deputed the duke
of Argyle, the earl of Mar, Mr. Lockhart, and Mr. Cockburn, to lay their
grievances before the queen. They represented that their countrymen bore
with great impatience the violation of some articles of the union; and
that the imposition of such an insupportable burden as the malt-tax would
in all probability prompt them to declare the union dissolved. The queen,
alarmed at this remonstrance, answered, that she wished they might not
have cause to repent of such a precipitate resolution; but she would
endeavour to make all things easy. On the first day of June, the earl of
Findlater, in the house of peers, represented that the Scottish nation was
aggrieved in many instances: that they were deprived of a privy-council,
and subjected to the English laws in cases of treason: that their nobles
were rendered incapable of being created British peers; and that now they
were oppressed with the insupportable burden of a malt-tax, when they had
reason to expect they should reap the benefit of peace: he therefore
moved, that leave might be given to bring in a bill for dissolving the
union, and securing the protestant succession to the house of Hanover.
Lord North and Grey affirmed, that the complaints of the Scots were
groundless; that the dissolution of the union was impracticable; and he
made some sarcastic reflections on the poverty of that nation. He was
answered by the earl of Eglinton, who admitted the Scots were poor, and
therefore unable to pay the malt-tax. The earl of Hay, among other
pertinent remarks upon the union, observed, that when the treaty was made,
the Scots took it for granted that the parliament of Great Britain would
never load them with any imposition that they had reason to believe
grievous. The earl of Peterborough compared the union to a marriage. He
said that though England, who must be supposed the husband, might in some
instances prove unkind to the lady, she ought not immediately to sue for a
divorce, the rather because she had very much mended her fortune by the
match. Hay replied, that marriage was an ordinance of God, and the union
no more than a political expedient. The other affirmed, that the contract
could not have been more solemn, unless, like the ten commandments, it had
come from heaven: he inveighed against the Scots, as a people that would
never be satisfied; that would have all the advantages resulting from the
union, but would pay nothing by their good will, although they had
received more money from England than the amount of all their estates. To
these animadversions the duke of Argyle made a very warm reply. “I have
been reflected on by some people,” said he, “as if I was disgusted, and
had changed sides; but I despise their persons, as much as I undervalue
their judgment.” He urged, that the malt-tax in Scotland was like taxing
land by the acre throughout England, because land was worth five pounds an
acre in the neighbourhood of London, and would not fetch so many shillings
in the remote countries. In like manner, the English malt was valued at
four times the price of that which was made in Scotland; therefore, the
tax in this country must be levied by a regiment of dragoons. He owned he
had a great share in making the union, with a view to secure the
protestant succession; but he was now satisfied this end might be answered
as effectually if the union was dissolved; and, if this step should not be
taken, he did not expect long to have either property left in Scotland, or
liberty in England. All the whig members voted for the dissolution of that
treaty which they had so eagerly promoted; while the tories strenuously
supported the measure against which they had once argued with such
vehemence. In the course of the debate, the lord-treasurer observed, that
although the malt-tax were imposed, it might be afterwards remitted by the
crown. The earl of Sunderland expressed surprise at hearing that noble
lord broach a doctrine which tended to establish a despotic dispensing
power and arbitrary government. Oxford replied, his family had never been
famous, as some others had been, for promoting and advising arbitrary
measures. Sunderland, considering this expression as a sarcasm levelled at
the memory of his father, took occasion to vindicate his conduct, adding,
that in those days the other lord’s family was hardly known. Much violent
altercation was discharged At length the motion for the bill was rejected
by a small majority, and the malt-bill afterwards passed with great
difficulty.

Another bill being brought into the house of commons for rendering the
treaty of commerce effectual, such a number of petitions were delivered
against it, and so many solid arguments advanced by the merchants who were
examined on the subject, that even a great number of tory members were
convinced of the bad consequences it would produce to trade, and voted
against the ministry on this occasion; so that the bill was rejected by a
majority of nine voices. At the same time, however, the house agreed to an
address thanking her majesty for the great care she had taken of the
security and honour of her kingdoms in the treaty of peace; as also for
having laid so good a foundation for the interest of her people in trade.
They likewise besought her to appoint commissioners to treat with those of
France, for adjusting such matters as should be necessary to be settled on
the subject of commerce, that the treaty might be explained and perfected
for the good and welfare of her people. The queen interpreted this address
into a full approbation of the treaties of peace and commerce, and thanked
them accordingly in the warmest terms of satisfaction and acknowledgment.
The commons afterwards desired to know what equivalent should be given for
the demolition of Dunkirk; and she gave them to understand that this was
already in the hands of his most christian majesty: then they besought her
that she would not evacuate the towns of Flanders that were in her
possession, until those who were entitled to the sovereignty of the
Spanish Netherlands should agree to such articles for regulating trade as
might place the subjects of Great Britain upon an equal footing with those
of any other nation. The queen made a favourable answer to all their
remonstrances. Such were the steps taken by the parliament during this
session with relation to the famous treaty of Utrecht, against which the
whigs exclaimed so violently, that many well-meaning people believed it
would be attended with the immediate ruin of the kingdom; yet under the
shadow of this very treaty, Great Britain enjoyed a long term of peace and
tranquillity. Bishop Burnet was heated with an enthusiastic terror of the
house of Bourbon. He declared to the queen in private, that any treaty by
which Spain and the West Indies were left in the hands of king Philip,
must in a little time deliver all Europe into the hands of France: that,
if any such peace was made, the queen was betrayed, and the people ruined:
that in less than three years she would be murdered, and the fires would
blaze again in Smithfield. This prelate lived to see his prognostic
disappointed; therefore he might have suppressed this anecdote of his own
conduct.

VIOLENCE OF PARTIES IN ENGLAND.

On the twenty-fifth day of June the queen signified, in a message to the
house of commons, that her civil list was burdened with some debts
incurred by several articles of extraordinary expense; and that she hoped
they would empower her to raise such a sum of money upon the funds for
that provision as would be sufficient to discharge the incumbrances, which
amounted to five hundred thousand pounds. A bill was immediately prepared
for raising this sum on the civil list revenue, and passed through both
houses with some difficulty. Both lords and commons addressed the queen
concerning the chevalier de St. George, who had repaired to Lorraine. They
desired she would press the duke of that name, and all the princes and
states in amity with her, to exclude from their dominions the pretender to
the imperial crown of Great Britain. A public thanksgiving for the peace
was appointed and celebrated with great solemnity; and on the sixteenth
day of July the queen closed the session with a speech which was not at
all agreeable to the violent whigs, because it did not contain one word
about the pretender and the protestant succession. From these omissions,
they concluded that the dictates of natural affection had biassed her in
favour of the chevalier de St. George. Whatever sentiments of tenderness
and compassion she might feel for that unfortunate exile, the acknowledged
son of her own father, it does not appear that she ever entertained a
thought of altering the succession as by law established. The term of
Sacheverel’s suspension being expired, extraordinary rejoicings were made
upon the occasion. He was desired to preach before the house of commons,
who thanked him for his sermon; and the queen promoted him to the rich
benefice of St. Andrew’s, Holborn. On the other hand the duke d’Aumont,
ambassador from France, was insulted by the populace. Scurrilous ballads
were published against him both in the English and French languages. He
received divers anonymous letters, containing threats of setting fire to
his house, which was accordingly burned to the ground, though whether by
accident or design he could not well determine. The magistracy of Dunkirk,
having sent a deputation with an address to the queen, humbly imploring
her majesty to spare the port and harbour of that town, and representing
that they might be useful to her own subjects, the memorial was printed
and dispersed, and the arguments it contained were answered and refuted by
Addison, Steele, and Maynwaring. Commissioners were sent to see the
fortifications of Dunkirk demolished. They were accordingly razed to the
ground; the harbour was filled up; and the duke d’Aumont returned to Paris
in the month of November. The queen, by her remonstrances to the court of
Versailles, had procured the enlargement of one hundred and thirty-six
protestants from the galleys: understanding afterwards that as many more
were detained on the same account, she made such application to the French
ministry that they too were released. Then she appointed general Ross her
envoy-extraordinary to the king of France.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

The duke of Shrewsbury being nominated lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
assembled the parliament of that kingdom on the twenty-fifth day of
November, and found the two houses still at variance, on the opposite
principles of whig and tory. Allan Broderick being chosen speaker of the
commons, they ordered a bill to be brought in to attaint the pretender and
all his adherents. They prosecuted Edward Lloyd for publishing a book
entitled, “Memoirs of the chevalier de St. George;” and they agreed upon
an address to the queen, to remove from the chancellorship sir Constantine
Phipps, who had countenanced the tories of that kingdom. The lords,
however, resolved that chancellor Phipps had, in his several stations,
acquitted himself with honour and integrity. The two houses of convocation
presented an address to the same purpose. They likewise complained of Mr.
Molesworth for having insulted them, by saying, when they appeared in the
castle of Dublin, “They that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also:” and he was removed from the privy-council. The duke of
Shrewsbury received orders to prorogue this parliament, which was divided
against itself, and portended nothing but domestic broils. Then he
obtained leave to return to England, leaving chancellor Phipps, with the
archbishop of Armagh and Tuam, justices of the kingdom.

ANNE, 1701—1714

NEW PARLIAMENT IN ENGLAND.

The parliament of England had been dissolved; and the elections were
managed in such a manner as to retain the legislative power in the hands
of the tories; but the meeting of the new parliament was delayed by
repeated prorogations to the tenth day of December; a delay partly owing
to the queen’s indisposition; and partly to the contests among her
ministers. Oxford and Bolingbroke were competitors for power, and rivals
in reputation for ability. The treasurer’s parts were deemed the more
solid; the secretary’s more shining; but both ministers were aspiring and
ambitious. The first was bent upon maintaining the first rank in the
administration, which he had possessed since the revolution in the
ministry; the other disdained to act as a subaltern to the man whom he
thought he excelled in genius, and equalled in importance. They began to
form separate cabals, and adopt different principles. Bolingbroke
insinuated himself into the confidence of lady Masham, to whom Oxford had
given some cause of disgust. By this communication he gained ground in the
good opinion of his sovereign, while the treasurer lost it in the same
proportion. Thus she who had been the author of his elevation, was now
used as the instrument of his disgrace. The queen was sensibly affected
with these dissensions, which she interposed her advice and authority, by
turns, to appease; but their mutual animosity continued to rankle under an
exterior accommodation. The interest of Bolingbroke was powerfully
supported by sir Simon Harcourt, the chancellor, sir William Wyndham, and
Mr. Secretary Bromley. Oxford perceived his own influence was on the wane,
and began to think of retirement. Meanwhile the earl of Peterborough was
appointed ambassador to the king of Sicily, and set out for Turin. The
queen retired to Windsor, where she was seized with a very dangerous
inflammatory fever. The hopes of the Jacobites visibly rose; the public
funds immediately fell; a great run was made upon the bank, the directors
of which were overwhelmed with consternation, which was not a little
increased by the reports of an armament equipped in the ports of France.
They sent one of their members to represent to the treasurer the danger
that threatened the public credit. The queen being made acquainted with
these occurrences, signed a letter to sir Samuel Stancer, lord-mayor of
London, declaring, that now she was recovered of her late indisposition,
she would return to the place of her usual residence, and open the
parliament on the sixteenth day of February. This intimation she sent to
her loving subjects of the city of London, to the intent that all of them,
in their several stations, might discountenance those malicious rumours,
spread by evil-minded persons, to the prejudice of credit, and the eminent
hazard of the public peace and tranquillity. The queen’s recovery,
together with certain intelligence that the armament was a phantom, and
the pretender still in Lorraine, helped to assuage the ferment of the
nation, which had been industriously raised by party-writings. Mr. Richard
Steele published a performance, intituled, “The Crisis,” in defence of the
revolution and the protestant establishment, and enlarging upon the danger
of a popish successor. On the other hand, the hereditary right to the
crown of England was asserted in a large volume, supposed to be written
with a view to pave the way for the pretender’s accession. One Bedford was
apprehended, tried, convicted, and severely punished, as the publisher of
this treatise.

TREATY OF RASTADT BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND FRANCE.

While England was harrassed by these intestine commotions, the emperor,
rejecting the terms of peace proposed by France, resolved to maintain the
war at his own expense, with the assistance of the empire. His forces on
the Rhine commanded by prince Eugene, were so much out-numbered by the
French under Villars, that they could not prevent the enemy from reducing
the two important fortresses of Landau and Fribourg. His imperial majesty
hoped that the death of Queen Anne, or that of Louis XIV. would produce an
alteration in Europe that might be favourable to his interest; and he
depended on the conduct and fortune of prince Eugene for some lucky event
in war. But finding himself disappointed in all these expectations, and
absolutely unable to support the expense of another campaign, he hearkened
to overtures of peace that were made by the electors of Cologn and
Palatine; and conferences were opened at the castle of Al-Rastadt, between
prince Eugene and mareschal de Villars, on the twenty-sixth day of
November. In the beginning of February these ministers separated, without
seeming to have come to any conclusion; but all the articles being settled
between the two courts of Vienna and Versailles, they met again in the
latter end of the month: the treaty was signed on the third day of March,
and orders were sent to the governors and commanders on both sides to
desist from all hostilities. By this treaty, the French king yielded to
the emperor old Brisac, with all its dependencies, Fribourg, the forts in
the Brisgau and Black Forest, together with Fort Khel. He engaged to
demolish the fortifications opposite to Huningen, the fort of Sellingen,
and all between that and Fort Louis. The town and fortress of Landau were
ceded to the king of France, who acknowledged the elector of Hanover. The
electors of Bavaria and Cologn were restored to all their dignities and
dominions. The emperor was put in immediate possession of the Spanish
Netherlands; and the king of Prussia was permitted to retain the high
quarters of Guelders. Finally, the contracting parties agreed that a
congress should be opened on the first of May, at Baden in Switzerland,
for terminating all differences; and prince Eugene and mareschal de
Villars were appointed their first plenipotentiaries.

The ratifications of the treaty between Great Britain and Spain being
exchanged, the peace was proclaimed on the first day of March, in London;
and the articles were not disagreeable to the English nation. The kingdoms
of France and Spain were separated for ever. Philip acknowledged the
protestant succession, and renounced the pretender. He agreed to a renewal
of the treaty of navigation and commerce concluded in the year one
thousand six hundred and sixty seven. He granted an exclusive privilege to
the English for furnishing the Spanish West Indies with negroes, according
to the assiento contract.*

* The assiento contract stipulated that from the first day
of May, 1713, to the first of May, 1743, the company should
transport into the West Indies one hundred forty-four
thousand negroes, at the rate of four thousand eight hundred
negroes a year; and pay for each negro thirty-three pieces
of eight and one third, in full for all royal duties.

He ceded Gibraltar to England, as well as the island of Minorca, on
condition that the Spanish inhabitants should enjoy their estates and
religion. He obliged himself to grant a full pardon to the Catalans, with
the possession of all their estates, honours, and privileges, and to yield
the kingdom of Sicily to the duke of Savoy. The new parliament was opened
by commission in February, and sir Thomas Hanmer was chosen speaker of the
house of commons. On the second day of March, the queen being carried in a
sedan to the house of lords, signified to both houses that she had
obtained an honourable and advantageous peace for her own people, and for
the greatest part of her allies; and she hoped her interposition might
prove effectual to complete the settlement of Europe. She observed, that
some persons had been so malicious as to insinuate that the protestant
succession, in the house of Hanover, was in danger under her government;
but that those who endeavoured to distract the minds of men with imaginary
dangers, could only mean to disturb the public tranquillity. She said,
that after all she had done to secure the religion and liberties of her
people, she could not mention such proceedings without some degree of
warmth; and she hoped her parliament would agree with her, that attempts
to weaken her authority, or to render the possession of the crown uneasy
to her, could never be proper means to strengthen the protestant
succession. Affectionate addresses were presented by the lords, the
commons, and the convocation; but the ill-humour of party still subsisted,
and was daily inflamed by new pamphlets and papers. Steele, supported by
Addison and Halifax, appeared in the front of those who drew their pens in
defence of whig principles; and Swift was the champion of the ministry.

THE LORDS TAKE COGNIZANCE OF A LIBEL AGAINST THE SCOTS.

The earl of Wharton complained in the house of lords of a libel, intitled,
“The public spirit of the whigs set forth in their generous encouragement
of the author of the Crisis.” It was a sarcastic performance, imputed to
lord Bolingbroke and Swift, interspersed with severe reflections upon the
union, the Scottish nation, and the Duke of Argyle in particular. The
lord-treasurer disclaimed all knowledge of the author, and readily
concurred in an order for taking into custody John Mor-phew the publisher,
as well as John Barber, printer of the gazette, from whose house the
copies were brought to Morphew. The earl of Wharton said it highly
concerned the honour of that august assembly, to find out the villain who
was author of that false and scandalous libel, that justice might be done
to the Scottish nation. He moved, that Barber and his servants might be
examined; but next clay the earl of Mar, one of the secretaries of state,
declared, that, in pursuance to her majesty’s command, he had directed
John Barber to be prosecuted. Notwithstanding this interposition, which
was calculated to screen the offenders, the lords presented an address,
beseeching her majesty to issue out her royal proclamation, promising a
reward to any person who should discover the author of the libel, which
they conceived to be false, malicious, and factious, highly dishonourable
and scandalous to her majesty’s subjects of Scotland, most injurious to
her majesty, and tending to the ruin of the constitution. In compliance
with their request, a reward of three hundred pounds was offered; but the
offender remained safe from all detection.

MR. STEELE EXPELLED THE HOUSE.

The commons having granted the supplies, ordered a bill to be brought in
for securing the freedom of parliaments, by limiting the number of
officers in the house of commons, and it passed through both houses with
little difficulty. In March, a complaint was made of several scandalous
papers, lately published under the name of Richard Steele, esquire, a
member of the house. Sir William Wyndham observed, that some of that
author’s writings contained insolent injurious reflections on the queen
herself, and were dictated by the spirit of rebellion. Steele was ordered
to attend in his place; some paragraphs of his works were read; and he
answered them with an affected air of self-confidence and unconcern. A day
being appointed for his trial, he acknowledged the writings, and entered
into a more circumstantial defence. He was assisted by Mr. Addison,
general Stanhope, and Mr. Walpole; and attacked by sir William Wyndham,
Mr. Foley, and the attorney-general. Whatever could be urged in his favour
was but little regarded by the majority, which voted, that two pamphlets,
entitled, “The Englishman, and the Crisis,” written by Richard Steele,
esquire, were scandalous and seditious libels; and that he should be
expelled the house of commons.

WHIGS’ PRECAUTION FOR SECURING THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION.

The lords taking into consideration the state of the nation, resolved upon
addresses to the queen, desiring they might know what steps had been taken
for removing the pretender from the dominions of the duke of Lorraine;
that she would impart to them a detail of the negotiations for peace, a
recital of the instances which had been made in favour of the Catalans,
and an account of the monies granted by parliament since the year one
thousand seven hundred and ten, to carry on the war in Spain and Portugal.
They afterwards agreed to other addresses, beseeching her majesty to lay
before them the debts and state of the navy, the particular writs of Noli
Prosequi granted since her accession to the throne, and a list of such
persons as, notwithstanding sentence of outlawry or attainder, had
obtained licenses to return into Great Britain, or other of her majesty’s
dominions, since the revolution. Having voted an application to the queen
in behalf of the distressed Catalans, the house adjourned itself to the
last day of March. As the minds of men had been artfully irritated by
false reports of a design undertaken by France in behalf of the pretender,
the ambassador of that crown at the Hague disowned it in a public paper,
by command of his most christian majesty. The suspicions of many people,
however, had been too deeply planted, by the arts and insinuations of the
whig leaders, to be eradicated by this or any other declaration; and what
served to rivet their apprehensions, was a total removal of the whigs from
all the employments, civil and military, which they had hitherto retained.
These were now bestowed upon professed tories, some of whom were attached
at bottom to the supposed heir of blood. At a time when the queen’s views
were maliciously misrepresented; when the wheels of her government were
actually impeded, and her servants threatened with proscription by a
powerful, turbulent, and implacable faction; no wonder that she discharged
the partisans of that faction from her service, and filled their places
with those who were distinguished by a warm affection to the house of
Stuart, and by a submissive respect for the regal authority. Those were
steps which her own sagacity must have suggested; and which her ministers
would naturally advise, as necessary for their own preservation. The whigs
were all in commotion, either apprehending or affecting to apprehend that
a design was formed to secure the pretender’s succession to the throne of
Great Britain.

1714.

Their chiefs held secret consultations with baron Schutz, the resident
from Hanover. They communicated their observations to the elector; they
received his instructions; they maintained a correspondence with the duke
of Marlborough; and they concerted measures for opposing all efforts that
might be made against the protestant succession upon the death of the
queen, whose health was by this time so much impaired, that every week was
believed to be the last of her life. This conduct of the whigs was
resolute, active, and would have been laudable, had their zeal been
confined within the bounds of truth and moderation; but they, moreover,
employed all their arts to excite and encourage the fears and jealousies
of the people.

The house of peers resounded with debates upon the Catalans, the
pretender, and the danger that threatened the protestant succession. With
respect to the Catalans, they represented, that Great Britain had
prevailed upon them to declare for the house of Austria, with promise of
support; and that these engagements ought to have been made good. Lord
Bolingbroke declared that the queen had used all her endeavours in their
behalf; and that the engagements with them subsisted no longer than king
Charles resided in Spain. They agreed, however, to an address,
acknowledging her majesty’s endeavours in favour of the Catalans, and
requesting she would continue her interposition in their behalf. With
respect to the pretender, the whig lords expressed such a spirit of
persecution and rancorous hate, as would have disgraced the members of
any, even the lowest assembly of christians. Not contented with hunting
him from one country to another, they seemed eagerly bent upon extirpating
him from the face of the earth, as if they had thought it was a crime in
him to be born. The earl of Sunderland declared, from the information of
the minister of Lorraine, that, notwithstanding the application of both
houses to her majesty during the last session, concerning the pretender’s
being removed from Lorraine, no instances had yet been made to the duke
for that purpose. Lord Bolingbroke affirmed that he himself had made those
instances, in the queen’s name, to that very minister before his departure
from England. The earl of Wharton proposed a question: “Whether the
protestant succession was in danger under the present administration?” A
warm debate ensued, in which the archbishop of York and the earl of
Anglesea joined in the opposition to the ministry. The earl pretended to
be convinced and converted by the arguments used in the course of the
debate. He owned he had given his assent to the cessation of arms, for
which he took shame to himself, asking pardon of God, his country, and his
conscience. He affirmed, that the honour of his sovereign, and the good of
his country, were the rules of his actions; but that, without respect of
persons, should he find himself imposed upon, he durst pursue an evil
minister from the queen’s closet to the Tower, and from the Tower to the
scaffold. This conversion, however, was much more owing to a full
persuasion that a ministry divided against itself could not long subsist,
and that the protestant succession was firmly secured. He therefore
resolved to make a merit of withdrawing himself from the interests of a
tottering administration, in whose ruin he might be involved. The duke of
Argyle charged the ministers with mal-administration, both within those
walls and without: he offered to prove that the lord-treasurer had yearly
remitted a sum of money to the Highland clans of Scotland, who were known
to be entirely devoted to the pretender. He affirmed that the
new-modelling of the army, the practice of disbanding some regiments out
of their turn, and removing a great number of officers, on account of
their affection to the house of Hanover, were clear indications of the
ministry’s designs: that it was a disgrace to the nation to see men, who
had never looked an enemy in the face, advanced to the posts of several
brave officers, who, after they had often exposed their lives for their
country, were now starving in prison for debt, on account of their pay
being detained. The treasurer, laying his hand upon his breast, said he
had on so many occasions given such signal proofs of affection to the
protestant succession, that he was sure no member of that august assembly
did call it in question. He owned he had remitted, for two or three years
past, between three and four thousand pounds to the Highland clans; and he
hoped the house would give him an opportunity to clear his conduct in that
particular: with respect to the reformed officers, he declared he had
given orders for their being immediately paid. The protestant succession
was voted out of danger by a small majority.

Lord Halifax proposed an address to the queen, that she would renew her
instances for the speedy removing the pretender out of Lorraine; and that
she would, in conjunction with the states-general, enter into a guarantee
of the protestant succession in the house of Hanover. The earl of Wharton
moved, that in the address her majesty should be desired to issue a
proclamation, promising a reward to any person who should apprehend the
pretender dead or alive. He was seconded by the duke of Bolton, and the
house agreed that an address should be presented. When it was reported by
the committee, lord North and Grey expatiated upon the barbarity of
setting a price on any one’s head: he proved it was an encouragement to
murder and assassination; contrary to the precepts of Christianity;
repugnant to the law of nature and nations; inconsistent with the dignity
of such an august assembly, and with the honour of a nation famed for
lenity and mercy. He was supported by lord Trevor, who moved that the
reward should be promised for apprehending and bringing the pretender to
justice, in case he should land or attempt to land in Great Britain or
Ireland. The cruelty of the first clause was zealously supported and
vindicated by the lords Cowper and Halifax; but by this time the earl of
Anglesea and some others, who had abandoned the ministry, were brought
back to their former principles by promise of profitable employments, and
the mitigation was adopted by a majority of ten voices. To this address,
which was delivered by the chancellor and the whig lords only, the queen
replied in these words: “My lords, it would be a real strengthening to the
succession in the house of Hanover, as well as a support to my government,
that an end were put to those groundless fears and jealousies which have
been so industriously promoted. I do not at this time see any occasion for
such a proclamation. Whenever I judge it to be necessary, I shall give my
orders for having it issued. As to the other particulars of this address,
I will give proper directions therein.” She was likewise importuned, by
another address, to issue out a proclamation against all Jesuits, popish
priests, and bishops, as well as against all such as were outlawed for
adhering to the late king James and the pretender. The house resolved that
no person, not included in the articles of Limerick, and who had borne
arms in France and Spain, should be capable of any employment, civil or
military: and that no person, a natural born subject of her majesty,
should be capable of sustaining the character of a public minister from
any foreign potentate. These resolutions were aimed at sir Patrick
Lawless, an Irish papist, who had come to England with a credential letter
from king Philip, but now thought proper to quit the kingdom.

A WRIT DEMANDED FOR THE ELECTORAL PRINCE OF HANOVER.

Then the lords in the opposition made an attack upon the treasurer,
concerning the money he had remitted to the Highlanders; but Oxford
silenced his opposers, by asserting, that in so doing he had followed the
example of king William, who, after he had reduced that people, thought
fit to allow yearly pensions to the heads of clans, in order to keep them
quiet. His conduct was approved by the house; and lord North and Grey
moved that a day might be appointed for considering the state of the
nation, with regard to the treaties of peace and commerce. The motion was
seconded by the earl of Clarendon, and the thirteenth day of April fixed
for this purpose. In the meantime, baron Schutz demanded of the chancellor
a writ for the electoral prince of Hanover, to sit in the house of peers
as duke of Cambridge, intimating that his design was to reside in England.
The writ was granted with reluctance; but the prince’s design of coming to
England was so disagreeable to the queen, that she signified her
disapprobation of such a step in a letter to the princess Sophia. She
observed, that such a method of proceeding would be dangerous to the
succession itself, which was not secure any other way, than as the prince
who was in actual possession of the throne maintained her authority and
prerogative: she said a great many people in England were seditiously
disposed; so she left her highness to judge what tumults they might be
able to raise, should they have a pretext to begin a commotion; she,
therefore, persuaded herself that her aunt would not consent to any thing
which might disturb the repose of her and her subjects. At the same time
she wrote a letter to the electoral prince, complaining that he had formed
such a resolution without first knowing her sentiments on the subject; and
telling him plainly that nothing could be more dangerous to the
tranquillity of her dominions, to the right of succession in the
Hanoverian line, or more disagreeable to her, than such conduct at this
juncture. A third letter was written to the elector, his father; and the
treasurer took this opportunity to assure that prince of his inviolable
attachment to the family of Hanover.

The whig lords were dissatisfied with the queen’s answer to their address
concerning the pretender, and they moved for another address on the same
subject, which was resolved upon, but never presented. They took into
consideration the treaties of peace and commerce, to which many exceptions
were taken; and much sarcasm was expended on both sides of the dispute;
but at length the majority carried the question in favour of an address,
acknowledging her majesty’s goodness in delivering them, by a safe,
honourable, and advantageous peace with France, from the burden of a
consuming land war, unequally carried on, and become at last
impracticable. The house of commons concurred in this address, after
having voted that the protestant succession was out of danger; but these
resolutions were not taken without violent opposition, in which general
Stanhope, Mr. Lechmere, and Mr. Walpole, chiefly distinguished themselves.
The letters which the queen had written to the electoral house of Hanover
were printed and published in England, with a view to inform the friends
of that family of the reasons which prevented the duke of Cambridge from
executing his design of residing in Great Britain. The queen considered
this step as a personal insult, as well as an attempt to prejudice her in
the opinion of her subjects: she therefore ordered the publisher to be
taken into custody. At this period the princess Sophia died, in the
eighty-fourth year of her age; and her death was intimated to the queen by
baron Bothmar, who arrived in England with the character of
envoy-extraordinary from the elector of Hanover. This princess was the
fourth and youngest daughter of Frederick, elector Palatine, king of
Bohemia, and Elizabeth daughter of king James I. of England. She enjoyed
from nature an excellent capacity, which was finely cultivated; and was in
all respects one of the most accomplished princesses of the age in which
she lived. At her death the court of England appeared in mourning; and the
elector of Brunswick was prayed for by name in the liturgy of the church
of England. On the twelfth day of May, sir William Wyndham made a motion
for a bill to prevent the growth of schism, and for the further security
of the church of England as by law established. The design of it was to
prohibit dissenters from teaching in schools and academies. It was
accordingly prepared, and eagerly opposed in each house as a species of
persecution. Nevertheless, it made its way through both, and received the
royal assent; but the queen dying before it took place, this law was
rendered ineffectual.

Her majesty’s constitution was now quite broken; one fit of sickness
succeeded another; what completed the ruin of her health was the anxiety
of her mind, occasioned partly by the discontents which had been raised
and fomented by the enemies of her government; and partly by the
dissensions among her ministers, which were now become intolerable. The
council chamber was turned into a scene of obstinate dispute and bitter
altercation. Even in the queen’s presence the treasurer and secretary did
not restrain from mutual obliquy and reproach. Oxford advised moderate
measures, and is said to have made advances towards a reconciliation with
the leaders of the whig party. As he foresaw it would soon be their turn
to domineer, such precautions were necessary for his own safety.
Bolingbroke affected to set the whigs at defiance; he professed a warm
zeal for the church; he soothed the queen’s inclinations with the most
assiduous attention. He and his coadjutrix insinuated, that the treasurer
was biassed in favour of the dissenters, and even that he acted as a spy
for the house of Hanover. In the midst of these disputes and commotions
the Jacobites were not idle. They flattered themselves that the queen in
secret favoured the pretensions of her brother; and they depended upon
Bolingbroke’s attachment to the same interest. They believed the same
sentiments were cherished by the nation in general. They held private
assemblies both in Great Britain and in Ireland. They concerted measures
for turning the dissensions of the kingdom to the advantage of their
cause. They even proceeded so far as to enlist men for the service of the
pretender. Some of these practices were discovered by the earl of Wharton,
who did not fail to sound the alarm. A proclamation was immediately
published, promising a reward of five thousand pounds for apprehending the
pretender, whenever he should land or attempt to land in Great Britain.
The commons voted an address of thanks for the proclamation; and assured
her majesty, that they would cheerfully aid and assist her, by granting
the sum of a hundred thousand pounds, as a further reward to any who
should perform so great a service to her majesty and her kingdom. The
lords likewise presented an address on the same subject. Lord Bolingbroke
proposed a bill, decreeing the penalties of high treason against those who
should list or be enlisted in the pretender’s service. The motion was
approved, and the penalty extended to all those who should list or be
enlisted in the service of any foreign prince or state, without a license
under the sign manual of her majesty, her heirs, or successors.

ANNE, 1701—1714

THE PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

On the second day of July, the lords took into consideration the treaty of
commerce with Spain; and a great number of merchants being examined at the
bar of tha house, declared that unless the explanation of the third,
fifth, and eighth articles, as made at Madrid after the treaty was signed,
were rescinded, they could not carry on their commerce without losing five
and twenty per cent. After a long debate, the house resolved to address
the queen for all the papers relating to the negotiation of the treaty of
commerce with Spain, with the names of the persons who advised her majesty
to that treaty. To this address she replied, that understanding the three
explanatory articles of the treaty were not detrimental to the trade of
her subjects, she had consented to their being ratified with the treaty.
The earl of Wharton represented, that if so little regard was shown to the
addresses of that august assembly to the sovereign, they had no business
in that house. He moved for a remonstrance, to lay before her majesty the
insuperable difficulties that attended the Spanish trade on the footing of
the late treaty; and the house agreed to his motion. Another member moved,
that the house should insist on her majesty’s naming the person who
advised her to ratify the three explanatory articles. This was a blow
aimed at Arthur Moore, a member of the lower house, whom lord Bolingbroke
had consulted on the subject of the treaty. He was screened by the
majority in parliament; but a general court of the South Sea company
resolved, upon a complaint exhibited by captain Johnson, that Arthur
Moore, while a director, was privy to and encouraged the design of
carrying on a clandestine trade, to the prejudice of the corporation,
contrary to his oath, and in breach of the trust reposed in him; that
therefore, he should be declared incapable of being a director of, or
having any employment in, this company. The queen had reserved to herself
the quarter-part of the assiento contract, which she now gave up to the
company, and received the thanks of the upper house; but she would not
discover the names of those who advised her to ratify the explanatory
articles. On the ninth day of July, she thought proper to put an end to
the session with a speech on the usual subjects. After having assured them
that her chief concern was to preserve the protestant religion, the
liberty of her subjects, and to secure the tranquillity of her kingdom,
she concluded in these words—“But I must tell you plainly, that
these desirable ends can never be obtained, unless you bring the same
dispositions on your parts; unless all groundless jealousies, which create
and foment divisions among you, be laid aside; and, unless you show the
same regard for my just prerogative, and for the honour of my government,
as I have always expressed for the rights of my people.”

After the peace had thus received the sanction of the parliament, the
ministers, being no longer restrained by the tie of common danger, gave a
loose to their mutual animosity. Oxford wrote a letter to the queen
containing a detail of the public transactions; in the course of which he
endeavoured to justify his own conduct, and expose the turbulent and
ambitious spirit of his rival. On the other hand, Bolingbroke charged the
treasurer with having invited the duke of Marlborough to return from his
voluntary exile, and maintained a private correspondence with the house of
Hanover. The duke of Shrewsbury likewise complained of his having presumed
to send orders to him in Ireland, without the privity of her majesty and
the council. In all probability his greatest crime was his having given
umbrage to the favourite, lady Masham. Certain it is, on the
twenty-seventh day of July, a very acrimonious dialogue passed between
that lady, the chancellor, and Oxford, in the queen’s presence. The
treasurer affirmed he had been wronged and abused by lies and
misrepresentations, but he threatened vengeance, declaring that he would
leave some people as low as he had found them when they first attracted
his notice. In the meantime he was removed from his employment; and
Bolingbroke seemed to triumph in the victory he had obtained. He laid his
account with being admitted as chief minister into the administration of
affairs; and is said to have formed a design of a coalition with the duke
of Marlborough, who at this very time embarked at Ostend for England.
Probably, Oxford had tried to play the same game, but met with a repulse
from the duke, on account of the implacable resentment which the duchess
had conceived against that minister.

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN FOR SECURING THE PEACE OF THE KINGDOM.

Whatever schemes might have been formed, the fall of the treasurer was so
sudden, that no plan was established for supplying the vacancy occasioned
by his disgrace. The confusion that incessantly ensued at court, and the
fatigue of attending a long cabinet-council on this event, had such an
effect upon the queen’s spirits and constitution, that she declared she
should not outlive it, and was immediately seized with a lethargic
disorder. Notwithstanding all the medicines which the physicians could
prescribe, the distemper gained ground so fast, that next day, which was
the thirtieth of July, they despaired of her life. Then the committee of
the council assembled at the Cockpit adjourned to Kensington. The dukes of
Somerset and Argyle, informed of the desperate situation in which she lay,
repaired to the palace; and, without being summoned, entered the
council-chamber. The members were surprised at their appearance; but the
duke of Shrewsbury thanked them for their readiness to give their
assistance at such a critical juncture, and desired they would take their
places. The physicians having declared that the queen was still sensible,
the council unanimously agreed to recommend the duke of Shrewsbury as the
fittest person to fill the place of lord-treasurer. When this opinion was
intimated to the queen, she said they could not have recommended a person
she liked better than the duke of Shrewsbury. She delivered to him the
white staff, bidding him use it for the good of her people. He would have
returned the lord-chamberlain’s staff, but she desired he would keep them
both; so that he was at one time possessed of the three greatest posts in
the kingdom, under the titles of lord-treasurer, lord-chamberlain, and
lord-lieutenant of Ireland. No nobleman in England better deserved such
distinguishing marks of his sovereign’s favour. He was modest, liberal,
disinterested, and a warm friend to his country. Bolingbroke’s ambition
was defeated by the vigour which the dukes of Somerset and Argyle exerted
on this occasion. They proposed that all privy-counsellors in or about
London should be invited to attend, without distinction of party. The
motion was approved; and lord Somers, with many other whig members,
repaired to Kensington. The council being thus reinforced, began to
provide for the security of the kingdom. Orders were immediately
despatched to four regiments of horse and dragoons quartered in remote
counties, to march up to the neighbourhood of London and Westminster.
Seven of the ten British battalions in the Netherlands were directed to
embark at Ostend for England with all possible expedition; an embargo was
laid upon all shipping; and directions given for equipping all the ships
of war that could be soonest in a condition for service. They sent a
letter to the elector of Brunswick, signifying that the physicians had
despaired of the queen’s life; informing him of the measures they had
taken; and desiring he would, with all convenient speed, repair to
Holland, where he should be attended by a British squadron to convey him
to England, in case of her majesty’s decease. At the same time they
despatched instructions to the earl of Strafford, to desire the
states-general would be ready to perform the guarantee of the protestant
succession. The heralds-at-arms were kept in waiting with a troop of horse
guards, to proclaim the new king as soon as the throne should become
vacant. Precautions were taken to secure the sea-ports; to overawe the
Jacobites in Scotland; and the command of the fleet was bestowed upon the
earl of Berkeley.

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF ANNE.

The queen continued to doze in a lethargic insensibility, with very short
intervals, till the first day of August in the morning, when she expired
in the fiftieth year of her age, and in the thirteenth of her reign. Anne
Stuart, queen of Great Britain, was in her person of the middle size, well
proportioned. Her hair was of the dark brown colour, her complexion ruddy;
her features were regular, her countenance was rather round than oval, and
her aspect more comely than majestic. Her voice was clear and melodious,
and her presence engaging. Her capacity was naturally good, but not much
cultivated by learning; nor did she exhibit any marks of extraordinary
genius or personal ambition. She was certainly deficient in that vigour of
mind by which a prince ought to preserve his independence, and avoid the
snares and fetters of sycophants and favourites; but whatever her weakness
in this particular might have been, the virtues of her heart were never
called in question. She was a pattern of conjugal affection and fidelity,
a tender mother, a warm friend, an indulgent mistress, a munificent
patron, a mild and merciful princess, during whose reign no subject’s
blood was shed for treason. She was zealously attached to the church of
England from conviction rather than from prepossession, unaffectedly
pious, just, charitable, and compassionate. She felt a mother’s fondness
for her people, by whom she was universally beloved with a warmth of
affection which even the prejudice of party could not abate. In a word, if
she was not the greatest, she was certainly one of the best and most
unblemished sovereigns that ever sat upon the throne of England, and well
deserved the expressive, though simple epithet, of “The good queen Anne.”

NOTES:

107 (return)
[ Note P, p. 107. In
their hours of debauch, they drank to the health of Sorrel, meaning the
horse that fell with the king; and, under the appellation of the little
gentleman in velvet, toasted the mole that raised the hill over which the
horse had stumbled. As the beast had formerly belonged to sir John
Fenwick, they insinuated that William’s fate was a judgment upon him for
his cruelty to that gentleman; and a Latin epigram was written on the
occasion.]

108 (return)
[ Note Q, p. 107. Doctor
Binkes, in a sermon preached before the convocation, on the thirtieth day
of January, drew a parallel between the sufferings of Christ and those of
king Charles, to which last he gave the preference, in point of right,
character, and station.]

109 (return)
[ Note R, p. 107. During
this short session, the queen gave her assent to an act for laying a duty
upon land; to another for encouraging the Greenland trade; to a third for
making good the deficiencies and the public credit; to a fourth for
continuing the imprisonment of Counter, and other conspirators against
king William; to a fifth for the relief of protestant purchasers of the
forfeited estates of Ireland; to a sixth, enlarging the time for taking
the oath of abjuration; to a seventh, obliging the Jews to maintain and
provide for their protestant children.]

112 (return)
[ Note S, p. 112. When
one of his lieutenants expressed his sorrow for the loss of the admiral’s
leg, “I am sorry for it too (replied the gallant Benbow), but I had rather
have lost them both than have seen this dishonour brought upon the English
nation. But, do you hear? If another shot should take me off, behave like
brave men, and fight it out.” When Du Casse arrived at Carthagena, he
wrote a letter to Benbow to this effect:

“Sir, I had little
hope on Monday last but to have supped in your cabin; but it pleased God
to order it otherwise. I am thankful for it. As for those cowardly
captains who deserted you, hang them up; for, by God they deserve it.—Yours,
“Du Casse.”]

114 (return)
[ Note T p. 114. While
this bill was depending, Daniel De Foe published a pamphlet, intituled,
“The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; or, Proposals for the Establishment
of the Church.” The piece was a severe satire on the violence of the
church party. The commons ordered it to be burned by the hands of the
common hangman, and the author to be prosecuted. He was accordingly
committed to Newgate, tried, condemned to pay a fine of two hundred
pounds, and stand in the pillory.]

115 (return)
[ Note U, p. 115. These
were John Granville, created baron Granville of Potheridge, in the county
of Devon; Heneage Finch, baron of Guernsey, in the county of Southampton;
sir John Leveson Gower, baron Gower of Sittenham, in Yorkshire; and
Francis Seymour Conway, youngest son of sir Edward Seymour, made baron
Conway of Bagley, in the county of Warwick. At the same time, however,
John Harvey, of the opposite faction, was created baron of Ickworth, in
the county of Suffolk; and the marquis of Normanby was honoured with the
title of duke of Buckinghamshire.]

117 (return)
[ Note X, p. 117. Though
the queen refused to pass the act of security, the royal assent was
granted to an act of limitation on the successor, in which it was
declared, that no king or queen of Scotland should have power to make war
or peace without consent of parliament. Another law was enacted, allowing
French wines and other liquors to be imported in neutral bottoms. Without
this expedient, it was alleged that the revenue would have been
insufficient to maintain the government. An act passed in favour of the
company trading to Africa and the Indies; another for a commission
concerning the public accounts; a third for punishing slanderous speeches
and writings. The commission for treating of a union with England was
vacated, with a prohibition to grant any other commission for that purpose
without consent of parliament; and no supply having been provided before
the adjournment, the army and expense of government were maintained upon
credit.]

118 (return)
[ Note Y, p. 117. The
marquis of Athol, and the marquis of Douglas, though this last was a
minor, were created dukes. Lord Tarbat was invested with the title of earl
of Cromarty; the viscount Stair and Roseberry were promoted to the same
dignity; lord Boyle was created earl of Glasgow; James Stuart of Bute,
earl of Bute; Charles Hope of Hopetoun, earl of Hopetoun; John Crawford of
Kilbirnie, viscount Garnock; and sir James Primrose of Carrington,
viscount Primrose.]

119 (return)
[ Note Z, p.118. They
had, besides the bills already mentioned, passed an act for an additional
excise on beer, ale, and other liquors; another encouraging the
importation of iron and staves; a third for preventing popish priests from
coming into the kingdom; a fourth securing the liberty of the subject, and
for prevention of imprisonment beyond seas; and a fifth for naturalizing
all protestant strangers.]

136 (return)
[ Note K, p. 136
Voltaire, upon what authority we know not, tells us, that during the
capitulation the German and Catalonian troops found means to climb over
the ramparts into the city, and began to commit the most barbarous
excesses. The viceroy complained to Peterborough that his soldiers had
taken an unfair advantage of the treaty, and were actually employed in
burning, plundering, murdering, and violating the inhabitants. The earl
replied, “They must then be the troops of the prince of Hesse: allow me to
enter the city with my English forces; I will save it from ruin, oblige
the Germans to retire, and march back again to our present situation.” The
viceroy trusted his honour, and forthwith admitted the earl with his
troops. He soon drove out the Germans and Catalonians, after having
obliged them to quit the plunder they had taken; and by accident he
rescued the duchess of Popoli from the hands of two brutal soldiers, and
delivered her to her husband. Having thus appeased the tumult, and
dispelled the horrors of the citizens, he returned to his former station,
leaving the inhabitants of Barcelona amazed at such an instance of
magnanimity and moderation in a people whom they had been taught to
consider as the most savage barbarians.]

139 (return)
[ Note 2 A, p. 139. The
English commissioners were, Thomas lord archbishop of Canterbury; William
Cowper, lord-keeper of the great seal; John lord archbishop of York;
Sidney lord Godolphin, lord-high-treasurer of England; Thomas earl of
Pembroke and Montgomery, president of the council; John duke of Newcastle,
keeper of the privy-seal; William duke of Devonshire, steward of the
household; Charles duke of Somerset, master of the horse; Charles duke of
Bolton, Charles earl of Sunderland, Evelyn earl of Kingston, Charles earl
of Carlisle, Edward earl of Orford, charles viscount Townshend, Thomas
lord Wharton, Ralph lord Grey, John lord Powlet, John lord Somers, Charles
lord Halifax, William Cavendish marquis of Harrington, John Manners
marquis of Grandby; sir Charles Hedges and Robert Harley, principal
secretaries of state; John Smith; Henry Boyle, chancellor of the
exchequer; sir John Holt, chief justice of the Queen’s Bench; sir Thomas
Trevor, chief justice of the Common Pleas; sir Edward Northey,
attorney-general; sir Simon Harcourt, solicitor-general; sir John Cook;
and Stephen Waller, doctor of laws.—The Scottish commissioners were,
James earl of Seafield, lord-chancellor of Scotland; James duke of
Queensberry, lord-privy-seal; John earl of Mar, and Hugh earl of Loudon,
principal secretaries of state; John earl of Sutherland, John earl of
Morton, David earl of Wemys, David earl of Leven, John earl of Stair,
Archibald earl of Eoseberry, David earl of Glasgow, lord Archibald
Campbell, Thomas viscount Duplin, lord William Eoss, sir Hugh Dalrymple,
president of the session; Adam Cockbum of Ormistoun, lord-justice-clerk;
sir Eobert Dundas, of Arnistoun, Eobert Stuart of Tillieultrie, lords of
the session; Mr. Francis Montgomery, one of the commissioners of the
treasury; sir David Dalrymple, one of her majesty’s solicitors; sir
Alexander Ogilvie, receiver-general; sir Patrick Johnston, provost of
Edinburgh; sir James Smollet of Bonhill; George Lock-hart of Carwath;
William Morrison of Petgongrange; Alexander Grant; William Seton of
Pitmidden, John Clerk of Pennycook, Hugh Montgomery, Daniel Stuart, and
Daniel Campbell.]

149 (return)
[ Note 2 B, p. 149 This
passage was effected to the astonishment of the French, who thought the
works they had raised on that river were impregnable. The honour of the
enterprise was in a great measure owing to the gallantry of sir John
Norris and the English seamen. That brave officer, embarking in boats with
six hundred sailors and marines, entered the river, and were rowed within
musket shot of the enemy’s works, where they made such a vigorous and
unexpected attack, that the French were immediately driven from that part
of their in-trenchments; then sir John landed with his men, clambered over
the works that were deemed inaccessible, and attacking the defendants
sword in hand, compelled them to fly with the utmost precipitation. This
detachment was sustained by sir Cloudesly Shovel in person. The duke of
Savoy, taking advantage of the enemy’s consternation, passed the river
almost without opposition.]

150 (return)
[ Note 2C, p. 149. In the
month of May, three ships of the line, namely, the Royal Oak, of
seventy-six guns, commanded by commodore baron Wyldo; the Grafton, of
seventy guns, captain Edward Acton; and the Hampton-Court, of seventy
guns, captain George Clements, sailed as convoy to the West India and
Portugal fleet of merchant-ships, amounting to five-and-forty sail. They
fell in with the Dunkirk squadron, consisting of ten ships of war, one
frigate, and four privateers, under the command of M. de Forbin. A furious
action immediately ensued, and notwithstanding the vast disproportion in
point of number, was maintained by the English commodore with great
gallantry, until captain Acton was killed, captain Clements mortally
wounded, and the Grafton and Hampton-Court were taken, after having sunk
the Salisbury, at that time in the hands of the French; then the
commodore, having eleven feet water in his hold, disengaged himself from
the enemy, by whom he had been surrounded, and ran his ship aground near
Dungenness; but she afterwards floated, and he brought her safe into the
Downs. In the meantime, the French frigate and privateers made prize of
twenty-one English merchant-ships of great value, which, with the Grafton
and Hampton-Court, Forbin conveyed in triumph to Dunkirk. In July, the
same active officer took fifteen ships belonging to the Eussian company,
off the coast of Lapland; in September, he joined another squadron fitted
out at Brest, under the command of the celebrated M. du Guai Tronin, and
these attacked, off the Lizard, the convoy of the Portugal fleet,
consisting of the Cumberland, captain Richard Edwards, of eighty guns; the
Devonshire, of eighty; the Royal Oak, of seventy-six; the Chester and
Ruby, of fifty guns each. Though the French squadron did not fall short of
twelve sail of the line, the English captains maintained the action for
many hours with surprising valour. At length the Devonshire was obliged to
yield to superior numbers; the Cumberland blew up; the Chester and Ruby
were taken; the Royal Oak fought her way through the midst of her enemies,
and arrived safe in the harbour of Kinsale; and the Lisbon fleet saved
themselves, by making the best of their way during the engagement. Since
the battle off Malaga, the French king had never dared to keep the sea
with a large fleet, but carried on a kind of piratical war of this sort,
in order to distress the trade of England. He was the more encouraged to
pursue these measures, by the correspondence which his ministers carried
on with some wretches belonging to the admiralty, and other officers, who
basely betrayed their country in transmitting to France such intelligence
concerning the convoys appointed for the protection of commerce, as
enabled the enemy to attack them at advantage. In the course of this year
the French fishery, stages, ships, and vessels in Newfoundland were taken,
burned, and destroyed, by captain John Underdown, of the Falkland.]

153 (return)
[ Note 2 D, p. 153. Three
Camisars, or protestants, from the Cevennois, having made their escape,
and repaired to London, acquired about this time the appellation of French
prophets, from their enthusiastic gesticulations, effusions, and
convulsions; and even formed a sect of their countrymen. The French
refugees, scandalized at their behaviour, and authorized by the bishop of
London, as superior of the French congregations, resolved to inquire into
the mission of these pretended prophets, whose names were Elias Marion,
John Cavalier, and Durand Rage. They were declared impostors and
counterfeits. Notwithstanding this decision, which was confirmed by the
bishops, they continued their assemblies in Soho, under the countenance of
sir Richard Bulkeley and John Lacy. They reviled the ministers of the
established church; they denounced judgments against the city of London,
and the whole British nation; and published their predictions, composed of
unintelligible jargon. Then they were prosecuted at the expense of the
French churches, as disturbers of the public peace, and false prophets.
They were sentenced to pay a fine of twenty marks each, and stand twice on
a scaffold, with papers on their breasts, denoting their offence; a
sentence which was executed accordingly at Charing-Cross, and the Royal
Exchange.

In the course of this year, Mr. Stanhope, who was
resident from the queen at the court of Charles, concluded a treaty of
commerce with this monarch, which would have proved extremely advantageous
to Great Britain, had he been firmly established on the throne of Spain.
It was stipulated that the English merchants should enjoy the privilege of
importing all kinds of merchandise from the coast of Barbary into the
maritime places of Spain, without paying any higher duty than if that
merchandise had been the produce of Great Britain; and that even these
duties should not be paid till six months after the merchandise should be
landed and sold, and merchants giving security for the customs. It was
agreed that the whole commerce of the Spanish West Indies should be
carried on by a joint company of Spanish and British merchants; and in the
interim, as the greater part of that country was in the hands of Philip,
his competitor consented that the British subjects should trade freely in
all the ports of the West Indies with ten ships of five hundred tons each,
under such convoy as her Britannic majesty should think fit to appoint.]

154 (return)
[ Note 2 E, p. 154.
Before the opening of the campaign, a very daring enterprise was formed by
one colonel Queintern, a partisan in the Imperial army. This man laid a
scheme for carrying off the dauphin of France from the court of
Versailles. He selected thirty men of approved valour for this
undertaking. He procured passes for them, and they rendezvoused in the
neighbourhood of Paris. On the twenty-fourth day of March, in the evening,
he and his accomplices stopped a coach and six, with the king’s liveries,
and arrested the person who was in it, on the supposition of his being a
prince of the blood. It was, however, M. de Barringhen, the king’s first
equerry. This officer they mounted on a spare horse, and set out for the
Low Countries; but, being little acquainted with the roads, they did not
reach Chantilly till next morning, when they heard the tocsin, or
alarm-bell, and thence concluded that detachments were sent out in pursuit
of them. Nevertheless, they proceeded boldly, and would certainly have
carried the point, had not Queintern halted three hours for the
refreshment of his prisoner, who complained of his being indisposed. He
likewise procured a chaise, and ordered the back of it to be lowered for
his convenience. These acts of humanity retarded him so much, that he was
overtaken by a detachment of horse at Ham, within three hours’ ride of a
place of safety. Finding himself surrounded, he thought proper to
surrender, and M. de Berringhen treated him with great generosity, for the
civilities he had experienced at his hands. He carried him back to
Versailles, and lodged him in his own apartments. Madame de Berringhen
made him a considerable present; and the king ordered him and his
companions to be discharged, on account of the courage and humanity they
had displayed.]

173 (return)
[ Note 2 F, p. 173. Lord
Compton and lord Bruce, sons of the earls of Northampton and Aylesbury,
were called up by writ to the house of peers. The other ten were these:
lord Duplin of the kingdom of Scotland, created baron Hay of Bed warden,
in the county of Hereford; lord viscount Windsor of Ireland, made baron
Mountjoy, in the Isle of Wight; Henry Paget, son of lord Paget, created
baron Burton, in the county of Stafford; sir Thomas Mansel, baron Mansel
of Margam, in the county of Glamorgan; sir Thomas Willoughby, baron
Middleton, of Mittleton, in the county of Warwick; sir Thomas Trevor,
baron Trevor of Bronham, in the county of Bedford; George Granville, baron
Lansdown of Bidde-ford, in the county of Devon; Samuel Masham, baron
Masham of Oats, in the county of Essex; Thomas Foley, baron Foley of
Kidderminster, in the county of Worcester; and Allen Bathurst, baron
Bathurst of Bathels-den, in the county of Bedford. On the first day of
their being introduced, when the question was put about adjourning, the
earl of Wharton asked one of them, “Whether they voted by their foreman?”]

174 (return)
[ Note 2 G, p. 174. The
commissioners appointed for taking, stating, and examining the public
accounts, having made their report touching the conduct of Mr. Walpole,
the house, after a long debate, came to the following resolutions: 1. That
Robert Walpole, esq., a member of this house, in receiving the sum of five
hundred guineas, and in taking a note for five hundred more, on account of
two contracts for forage of her majesty’s troops, quartered in North
Britain, made by him when secretary at war, pursuant to a power granted to
him by the late lord-treasurer, is guilty of a high breach of trust and
notorious corruption. 2. That the said Robert Walpole, esq., be, for the
said offence, committed prisoner to the Tower of London, during the
pleasure of this house; and that Mr. Speaker do issue his warrant
accordingly. 3. That the said Robert Walpole, esq., be, for the said
offence, also expelled the house, and that the report of the commissioners
of public accounts be taken into further consideration this day se’nnight.
It appeared from the depositions of witnesses, that the public had been
defrauded considerably by these contracts. Very severe speech was made in
the house, and next day published, reflecting upon Mr. Walpole, as guilty
of the worst kind of corruption; and sir Peter King declared in the house,
that he deserved hanging as well as he deserved imprisonment and
expulsion.]

MAPS:

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Map of British Colonies in North America

GEORGE I.

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CHAPTER I.

GEORGE I.

State of Parties in Great Britain….. King George
proclaimed….. The Civil List presennted to his Majesty by
the Parliament….. The Electoral Prince created Prince of
Wales….. The King arrives in England….. The Tories
totally excluded from the Royal Favour….. Pretender’s
Manifesto….. New Parliament….. Substance of the King’s
first Speech….. Lord Bolingbroke withdraws himself to
France….. Sir William Wyndham reprimanded by the
Speaker….. Committee of Secrecy….. Sir John Norris sent
with a Fleet to the Baltic….. Discontent of the
Nation….. Report of the Secret Committee….. Resolutions
to impeach Lord Bolingbroke, the Earl of Oxford, the Duke of
Or-mond, and the Earl of Strafford….. The Earl of Oxford
sent to the Tower….. The Proclamation Act….. The King
declares to both Houses that a Rebellion is begun….. The
Duke of Ormond and Lord Bolingbroke attainted….. Intrigues
of the Jacobites….. Death of Louis XIV….. The Earl of
Marsets up the Pretender’s Standard in Scotland….. Divers
Members of the Lower House taken into custody….. The
Pretender proclaimed in the North of England by the Earl of
Derwentwater and Mr. Forster….. Mackintosh crosses the
Frith of Forth into Lothian and joins the English
Insurgents….. who are attacked at Preston, and surrender
at Discretion….. Battle at Dunblane….. The Pretender
arrives in Scotland….. He retires again to France…..
Proceedings of the Irish Parliament….. The Rebel Lords are
impeached, and plead Guilty….. The Earl of Derwentwater
and Lord Kenmuir are beheaded….. Trials of Rebels….. Act
for Septennial Parliaments….. Duke of Argyle
disgraced….. Triple Alliance between England, France, and
Holland….. Count Gyllenburgh, the Swedish Minister in
London, arrested….. Account of the Oxford Riot….. The
King demands an extraordinary Supply off the Commons…..
Division in the Ministry….. The Commons pass the South Sea
Act, the Bank Act, and the General Fund Act….. Trial of
the Earl of Oxford….. Act of Indemnity….. Proceedings in
the Convocation with regard to Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of
Bangor.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

STATE OF PARTIES.

It may be necessary to remind the reader of the state of parties at this
important juncture. The Jacobites had been fed with hopes of seeing the
succession altered by the earl of Oxford. These hopes he had conveyed to
them in a distant, undeterminate, and mysterious manner, without any other
view than that of preventing them from taking violent measures to
embarrass his administration. At least, if he actually entertained at one
time any other design, he had, long before his disgrace, laid it wholly
aside, probably from an apprehension of the danger with which it must have
been attended, and seemed bent upon making a merit of his zeal for the
house of Hanover; but his conduct was so equivocal and unsteady, that he
ruined himself in the opinion of one party without acquiring the
confidence of the other. The friends of the pretender derived fresh hopes
from the ministry of Bolingbroke. Though he had never explained himself on
this subject, he was supposed to favour the heir of blood, and known to be
an implacable enemy to the whigs, who were the most zealous advocates for
the protestant succession. The Jacobites promised themselves much from his
affection, but more from his resentment; and they believed the majority of
the tories would join them on the same maxims. All Bolingbroke’s schemes
of power were defeated by the promotion of the duke of Shrewsbury to the
office of treasurer; and all his hopes blasted by the death of the queen,
on whose personal favour he depended. The resolute behaviour of the dukes
of Somerset and Argyle, together with the diligence and activity of a
council in which the whig interest had gained the ascendancy, completed
the confusion of the tories, who found themselves without a head, divided,
distracted, and irresolute. Upon recollection, they saw nothing so
eligible as silence and submission to those measures which they could not
oppose with any prospect of success. They had no other objection to the
succession in the house of Hanover but the fear of seeing the whig faction
once more predominant; yet they were not without hope that their new
sovereign, who was reputed a prince of sagacity and experience, would
cultivate and conciliate the affection of the tories, who were the
landholders and proprietors of the kingdom, rather than declare himself
the head of a faction which leaned for support on those who were enemies
to the church and monarchy, on the bank and the monied interest, raised
upon usury and maintained by corruption. In a word, the whigs were elated
and overbearing; the tories abashed and humble; the Jacobites eager,
impatient, and alarmed at a juncture which, with respect to them, was
truly critical.

KING GEORGE PROCLAIMED.

The queen had no sooner resigned her last breath than the privy-council
met, and the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord-chancellor, and the
Hanoverian resident, Kreyenburgh, produced the three instruments in which
the elector of Brunswick had nominated the persons * to be added as
lords-justices to the seven great officers of the realm.

* These were the dukes of Shrewsbury, Somerset, Bolton,
Devonshire, Kent, Argyle, Montrose, and Roxburgh; the earls
of Pomfret, Anglesea, Carlisle, Nottingham, Abingdon,
Scarborough, and Or-ford; lord viscount Townshend, and lords
Halifax and Cowper.

Orders were immediately issued for proclaiming king George in England,
Scotland, and Ireland. The regency appointed the earl of Dorset to carry
to Hanover the intimation of his majesty’s accession, and attend him in
his journey to England. They sent the general officers in whom they could
confide to their respective posts; they reinforced the garrison of
Portsmouth; they appointed Mr. Addison their secretary; while Bolingbroke
was obliged to stand at the door of the council-chamber with his bag and
papers, and underwent every species of mortification. On the whole, king
George ascended the throne of Great Britain in the fifty-fifth year of his
age, without the least opposition, tumult, or sign of popular discontent;
and the unprejudiced part of the nation was now fully persuaded that no
design had ever been concerted by Queen Anne and her ministry in favour of
the pretender. The mayor of Oxford received a letter, requiring him to
proclaim the pretender. This being communicated to the vice-chancellor, a
copy of it was immediately transmitted to Mr. secretary Bromley, member of
Parliament for the university; and the vice-chancellor offered a reward of
one hundred pounds to any person who should discover the author. It was
either the production of some lunatic, or a weak contrivance to fix an
odium on that venerable body.

THE CIVIL LIST GRANTED TO THE KING.

The parliament having assembled pursuant to the act which regulated the
succession, the lord chancellor, on the fifth day of August, made a speech
to both houses in the name of the regency. He told them that the
privy-council appointed by the elector of Brunswick had proclaimed that
prince under the name of king George, as the lawful and rightful sovereign
of these kingdoms; and that they had taken the necessary care to maintain
the public peace. He observed, that the several branches of the public
revenue were expired by the demise of her late majesty; and recommended to
the commons the making such provision, in that respect, as might be
requisite to support the honour and dignity of the crown. He likewise
expressed his hope that they would not be wanting in anything that might
conduce to the establishing and advancing of the public credit. Both
houses immediately agreed to addresses, containing the warmest expressions
of duty and affection to their new sovereign, who did not fail to return
such answers as were very agreeable to the parliament of Great Britain. In
the meantime the lower house prepared and passed a bill, granting to his
majesty the same civil list which the queen had enjoyed, with additional
clauses for the payment of arrears due to the troops of Hanover which had
been in the service of Great Britain; and for a reward of one hundred
thousand pounds, to be paid by the treasury to any person who should
apprehend the pretender in landing, or attempting to land, in any part of
the British dominions. Mr. Craggs, who had been despatched to Hanover
before the queen died, returning on the thirteenth day of August with
letters from the king to the regency, they went to the house of peers;
then the chancellor, in another speech to both houses, intimated his
majesty’s great satisfaction in the loyalty and affection which his people
had universally expressed at his accession. Other addresses were voted on
this occasion. The commons finished the bill for the civil list, and one
for making some alterations in an act for a state-lottery, which received
the royal assent from the lords-justices. Then the parliament was
prorogued.

THE ELECTORAL PRINCE CREATED PRINCE OF WALES.

Mr. Prior having notified the queen’s death to the court of Versailles,
Louis declared that he would inviolably maintain the treaty of peace
concluded at Utrecht, particularly with relation to the settlement of the
British crown in the house of Hanover. The earl of Strafford having
signified the same event to the states of Holland, and the resident of
Hanover having presented them with a letter, in which his master claimed
the performance of their guarantee, they resolved to perform their
engagements, and congratulated his electoral highness on his succession to
the throne of Great Britain. They invited him to pass through their
dominions, and assured him that his interests were as dear to them as
their own. The chevalier de St. George no sooner received the news of the
queen’s death, than he posted to Versailles, where he was given to
understand that the king of France expected he should quit his territories
immediately; and he was accordingly obliged to return to Lorraine. By this
time Mr. Murray had arrived in England from Hanover, with notice that the
king had deferred his departure for some days. He brought orders to the
regency to prepare a patent for creating the prince-royal prince of Wales;
and for removing lord Bolingbroke from his post of secretary. The seals
were taken from this minister by the dukes of Shrewsbury and Somerset, and
lord Cowper, who at the same time sealed up all the doors of his office.

THE KING ARRIVES IN ENGLAND.

King George having vested the government of his German dominions in a
council, headed by his brother prince Ernest, set out with the electoral
prince from Herenhausen on the thirty-first day of August; and in fire
days arrived at the Hague, where he conferred with the states-general. On
the sixteenth day of September he embarked at Orange Polder, under convoy
of an English and Dutch squadron, commanded by the earl of Berkeley, and
next day arrived at the Hope. In the afternoon the yacht sailed up the
river; and his majesty, with the prince, were landed from a barge at
Greenwich about six in the evening. There he was received by the duke of
Northumberland, captain of the life-guards, and the lords of the regency.
From the landing place he walked to his house in the park, accompanied by
a great number of the nobility and other persons of distinction, who had
the honour to kiss his hand as they approached. When he retired to his
bed-chamber, he sent for those of the nobility who had distinguished
themselves by their zeal for his succession; but the duke of Ormond, the
lord-chancellor, and lord Trevor, were not of the number. Next morning the
earl of Oxford presented himself with an air of confidence, as if he had
expected to receive some particular mark of his majesty’s favour; but he
had the mortification to remain a considerable time undistinguished among
the crowd, and then was permitted to kiss the king’s hand without being
honoured with any other notice. On the other hand, his majesty expressed
uncommon regard for the duke of Marlborough, who had lately arrived in
England, as well as for all the leaders of the whig party.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

THE TORIES TOTALLY EXCLUDED FROM THE ROYAL FAVOUR.

It was the misfortune of this prince, as well as a very great prejudice to
the nation, that he had been misled into strong prepossessions against the
tories, who constituted such a considerable part of his subjects. They
were now excluded from all share of the royal favour, which was wholly
engrossed by their enemies; these early marks of aversion, which he was at
no pains to conceal, alienated the minds of many from his person and
government, who would otherwise have served him with fidelity and
affection. An instantaneous and total change was effected in all offices
of honour and advantage. The duke of Ormond was dismissed from his
command, which the king restored to the duke of Marlborough, whom he
likewise appointed colonel of the first regiment of foot guards, and
master of the ordnance. The great seal was given to lord Cowper; the privy
seal to the earl of Wharton; the government of Ireland to the earl of
Sunderland. The duke of Devonshire was made steward of the household; lord
Townshend and Mr. Stanhope were appointed secretaries of state; the post
of secretary for Scotland was bestowed upon the duke of Montrose. The duke
of Somerset was constituted master of the horse; the duke of St. Alban’s
captain of the band of pensioners; and the duke of Argyle
commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland. Mr. Pulteney became
secretary at war; and Mr. Walpole, who had already undertaken to manage
the house of commons, was gratified with the double place of paymaster to
the army and to Chelsea-hospital. A new privy-council was appointed, and
the earl of Nottingham declared president; but all affairs of consequence
were concerted by a cabinet-council, or junto, composed of the duke of
Marlborough, the earls of Nottingham and Sunderland, the lords Halifax,
Townshend, and Somers, and general Stanhope. The regency had already
removed sir Constantine Phipps and the archbishop of Armagh from the
office of lords-justices in Ireland, and filled their places in the
regency of that kingdom with the archbishop of Dublin and tire earl of
Kildare. Allan Broderick was appointed chancellor; another privy-council
was formed, and the duke of Ormond was named as one of the members. The
treasury and admiralty were put into commission; all the governments were
changed; and, in a word, the whole nation was delivered into the hands of
the whigs. At the same time the prince-royal was declared prince of Wales,
and took his place in council. The king was congratulated on his accession
in addresses from the two universities, and from all the cities and
corporations in the kingdom. He expressed particular satisfaction at these
expressions of loyalty and affection. He declared in council his firm
purpose to support and maintain the churches of England and Scotland as
they were by law established; an aim which he imagined might be
effectually accomplished, without impairing the toleration allowed by law
to protestant dissenters, and so necessary to the trade and riches of the
kingdom; he, moreover, assured them he would earnestly endeavour to render
property secure; the good effects of which were no where so clearly seen
as in this happy nation. Before the coronation he created some new peers,
and others were promoted to higher titles.* On the twentieth day of
October he was crowned in Westminster with the usual solemnity, at which
the earl of Oxford and lord Bolingbroke assisted.**

* James lord Chandos, was created earl of Carnarvon; Lewis
lord Kockingham, earl of that name; Charles lord Ossulton,
earl of Tankerville; Charles lord Halifax, earl of Halifax;
Heneage lord Guernsey, earl of Aylesford; John lord Hervey,
earl of Bristol; Thomas lord Pelham, earl of Clare; Henry
earl of Thommond, in Ireland, viscount Tadcaster; James
viscount Castleton, in Ireland, baron Sanderson; Bennet lord
Sherrard, in Ireland, baron of Har-borough; Gervase lord
Pierrepont, in Ireland, baron Pierrepont in the county of
Bucks; Henry Boyle, baron of Carleton in the county of
York; sir Richard Temple, baron of Cobham; Henry lord Paget,
earl of Uxbridge.

** In the month of October the princess of Wales arrived in
England with her two eldest daughters, the princesses Anne
and Amelia.

On that very day the university of Oxford, in full convocation,
unanimously conferred the degree of doctor of civil law on sir Constantine
Phipps, with particular marks of honour and esteem. As the French king was
said to protract the demolition of Dunkirk, Mr. Prior received orders to
present a memorial to hasten this work, and to prevent the canal of
Mardyke from being finished. The answer which he received being deemed
equivocal, this minister was recalled, and the earl of Stair appointed
ambassador to the court of France, where he prosecuted this affair with
uncommon vigour. About the same time general Cadogan was sent as
plenipotentiary to Antwerp, to assist at the barrier-treaty, negotiated
there between the emperor and the states-general.

PRETENDER’S MANIFESTO.

Meanwhile the number of malcontents in England was considerably increased
by the king’s attachment to the whig faction. The clamour of the church’s
being in danger was revived; jealousies were excited; seditious libels
dispersed; and dangerous tumults raised in different parts of the kingdom.
Birmingham, Bristol, Chippenham, Norwich, and Reading, were filled with
licentious riot. The party cry was, “Down with the whigs! Sacheverel for
ever!” Many gentlemen of the whig faction were abused; magistrates in
towns, and justices in the country, were reviled and insulted by the
populace in the execution of their office. The pretender took this
opportunity to transmit, by the French mail, copies of a printed manifesto
to the dukes of Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Argyle, and other noblemen of the
first distinction. In this declaration he mentioned the good intentions of
his sister towards him, which were prevented by her deplorable death. He
observed that his people, instead of doing him and themselves justice, had
proclaimed for their king a foreign prince, contrary to the fundamental
and incontestable laws of hereditary right, which their pretended acts of
settlement could never abrogate. These papers being delivered to the
secretaries of state, the king refused an audience to the marquis de
Lamberti, minister from the duke of Lorraine, on the supposition that this
manifesto could not have been prepared or transmitted without the
knowledge and countenance of his master. The marquis having communicated
this circumstance to the duke, that prince absolutely denied his having
been privy to the transaction, and declared that the chevalier de St.
George came into Lorraine by the directions of the French king, whom the
duke could not disoblige without exposing his territories to invasion.
Notwithstanding this apology, the marquis was given to understand that he
could not be admitted to an audience until the pretender should be removed
from the dominions of his master; he therefore quitted the kingdom without
further hesitation. Religion was still mingled in all political disputes.
The high churchmen complained that impiety and heresy daily gained ground
from the connivance, or at least the supine negligence, of the whig
prelates. The lower house of convocation had, before the queen’s death,
declared that a book published by Dr. Samuel Clarke, under the title of
“The Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity,” contained assertions contrary to
the catholic faith. They sent up extracts from this performance to the
bishops, and the doctor wrote an answer to their objections. He was
prevailed upon to write an apology, which he presented to the upper house;
but apprehending it might be published separately, and misunderstood, he
afterwards delivered an explanation to the bishop of London. This was
satisfactory to the bishops; but the lower house resolved that it was no
recantation of his heretical assertions. The disputes about the Trinity
increasing, the archbishops and bishops received directions, which were
published, for preserving unity in the church, the purity of the christian
faith concerning the holy Trinity, and for maintaining the peace and quiet
of the state. By these every preacher was restricted from delivering any
other doctrine than what is contained in the holy scriptures with respect
to the Trinity, and from intermeddling in any affairs of state or
government. The like prohibition was extended to those who should write,
harangue, or dispute on the same subjects.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

NEW PARLIAMENT.

The parliament being dissolved, another was called by a very extraordinary
proclamation, in which the king complained of the evil designs of men
disaffected to his succession; and of their having misrepresented his
conduct and principles. He mentioned the perplexity of public affairs, the
interruption of commerce, and the heavy debts of the nation. He expressed
his hope that his loving subjects would send up to parliament the fittest
persons to redress the present disorders; and that in the elections, they
would have a particular regard to such as had expressed a firm attachment
to the protestant succession when it was in danger. It does not appear
that the protestant succession was ever in danger. How then was this
declaration to be interpreted? People in general construed it into a
design to maintain party distinctions, and encourage the whigs to the full
exertion of their influence in the elections; into a renunciation of the
tories; and as the first flash of that vengeance which afterwards was seen
to burst upon the heads of the late ministry. When the earl of Strafford
returned from Holland, all his papers were seized by an order from the
secretary’s office. Mr. Prior was recalled from France, and promised to
discover all he knew relating to the conduct of Oxford’s administration.
Uncommon vigour was exerted on both sides in the elections; but, by dint
of the monied interest, which prevailed in most of the corporations
through the kingdom, and the countenance of the ministry, which will
always have weight with needy and venal electors, a great majority of
whigs was returned both in England and Scotland.

THE KING’S FIRST SPEECH.

When this new parliament assembled on the seventeenth day of March, at
Westminster, Mr. Spencer Compton was chosen speaker of the commons. On the
twenty-first day of the month, the king appeared in the house of lords and
delivered to the chancellor a written speech, which was read in presence
of both houses. His majesty thanked his faithful and loving subjects for
that zeal and firmness they had shown in defence of the protestant
succession, against all the open and secret practices which had been used
to defeat it. He told them that some conditions of the peace, essential to
the security and trade of Great Britain, were not yet duly executed; and
that the performance of the whole might be looked upon as precarious,
until defensive alliances should be formed to guarantee the present
treaties. He observed, that the pretender boasted of the assistance he
expected in England, to repair his former disappointment; that great part
of the national trade was rendered impracticable; and that the public
debts were surprisingly increased ever since the fatal cessation of arms.
He gave the commons to understand that the branches of the revenue,
formerly granted for the support of the civil government, were so far
encumbered and alienated, that the produce of the funds which remained,
and had been granted to him, would fall short of what was at first
designed for maintaining the honour and dignity of the crown; that as it
was his and their happiness to see a prince of Wales who might in due time
succeed him on the throne, and to see him blessed with many children,
these circumstances would naturally occasion an expense to which the
nation had not been for many years accustomed; and, therefore, he did not
doubt but they would think of it with that affection which he had reason
to hope from his commons. He desired that no unhappy divisions of parties
might divert them from pursuing the common interests of their country. He
declared that the established constitution in church and state should be
the rule of his government; and that the happiness, ease, and prosperity
of his people should be the chief care of his life. He concluded with
expressing his confidence, that with their assistance he should disappoint
the designs of those who wanted to deprive him of that blessing which he
most valued—the affection of his people.

Speeches suggested by a vindictive ministry better became the leader of an
incensed party, than the father and sovereign of a divided people. This
declaration portended measures which it was the interest of the crown to
avoid, and suited the temper of the majority in both houses, which
breathed nothing but destruction to their political adversaries. The
lords, in their address of thanks, professed their hope that his majesty,
assisted by the parliament, would be able to recover the reputation of the
kingdom in foreign parts, the loss of which they hoped to convince the
world by their actions was by no means to be imputed to the nation in
general. The tories said this was an invidious reflection, calculated to
mislead and inflame the people, for the reputation of the kingdom had
never been so high as at this very juncture. The commons pretended
astonishment to find that any conditions of the late peace should not yet
be duly executed; and that care was not taken to form such alliances as
might have rendered the peace not precarious. They declared their
resolution to inquire into these fatal miscarriages; to trace out those
measures whereon the pretender placed his hopes, and bring the authors of
them to condign punishment. These addresses were not voted without
opposition. In the house of lords, the dukes of Buckingham and Shrewsbury,
the earl of Anglesea, the archbishop of York, and other peers both secular
and ecclesiastical, observed, that their address was injurious to the late
queen’s memory, and would serve only to increase those unhappy divisions
that distracted the kingdom. In the lower house, sir William Wyndham, Mr.
Bromley, Mr. Ship-pen, general Ross, sir William Whitelock, and other
members, took exceptions to passages of the same nature in the address
which the commons had prepared. They were answered by Mr. Walpole, Mr.
Pulteney, and Mr. secretary Stanhope. These gentlemen took occasion to
declare, that notwithstanding the endeavours which had been used to
prevent a discovery of the late mismanagements, by conveying away several
papers from the secretary’s office, yet the government had sufficient
evidence left to prove the late ministry the most corrupt that ever sat at
the helm; that those matters would soon be laid before the house, when it
would appear that a certain English general had acted in concert with, if
not received orders from, mareschal de Villars. Lord Bolingbroke, who had
hitherto appeared in public, as usual, with remarkable serenity, and spoke
in the house of lords with great freedom and confidence, thought it was
now high time to consult his personal safety. He accordingly withdrew to
the continent, leaving a letter which was afterwards printed in his
justification. In this paper, he declared he had received certain and
repeated informations, that a resolution was taken to pursue him to the
scaffold; that if there had been the least reason to hope for a fair and
open trial, after having been already prejudged, unheard, by the two
houses of parliament, he should not have declined the strictest
examination. He challenged the most inveterate of his enemies to produce
any one instance of criminal correspondence, or the least corruption in
any part of the administration in which he was concerned. He said, if his
zeal for the honour and dignity of his royal mistress, and the true
interest of his country, had any where transported him to let slip a warm
and unguarded expression, he hoped the most favourable interpretation
would be put upon it. He affirmed that he had served her majesty
faithfully and dutifully in that especially which she had most at heart,
relieving her people from a bloody and expensive war; and that he had
always been too much an Englishman to sacrifice the interest of his
country to any foreign ally whatsoever.

1715

In the midst of all this violence against the late ministers, friends were
not wanting to espouse their cause in the face of opposition; and even in
some addresses to the king their conduct was justified. Nay, some
individuals had courage enough to attack the present administration. When
a motion was made in the house of commons to consider the king’s
proclamation for calling a new parliament, sir William Whitelock, member
for the university of Oxford, boldly declared it was unprecedented and
unwarrantable. Being called upon to explain himself, he made an apology.
Nevertheless, sir William Wyndham rising up said, the proclamation was not
only unprecedented and unwarrantable, but even of dangerous consequence to
the very being of parliaments. When challenged to justify his charge, he
observed, that every member was free to speak his thoughts. Some
exclaimed, “The Tower! the Tower!” A warm debate ensued; sir William being
ordered to withdraw, was accompanied by one hundred and twenty-nine
members; and those who remained in the house resolved, that he should be
reprimanded by the speaker. He was accordingly rebuked, for having
presumed to reflect on his majesty’s proclamation, and having made an
unwarrantable use of the freedom of speech granted by his majesty. Sir
William said he was not conscious of having offered any indignity to his
majesty, or of having been guilty of a breach of privilege; that he
acquiesced in the determination of the house; but had no thanks to give to
those gentlemen who, under pretence of lenity, had subjected him to this
censure.

COMMITTEE OF SECRECY.

On the ninth day of April, general Stanhope delivered to the house of
commons fourteen volumes, consisting of all the papers relating to the
late negotiations of peace and commerce, as well as to the cessation of
arms; and moved that they might be referred to a select committee of
twenty persons, who should digest the substance of them under proper
heads, and report them, with their observations, to the house. One more
was added to the number of this secret committee, which was chosen by
ballot, and met that same evening. Mr. Eobert Wal-pole, original chairman,
being taken ill, was succeeded in that place by Mr. Stanhope. The whole
number was subdivided into three committees. To each a certain number of
books was allotted; and they carried on the inquiry with great eagerness
and expedition. Before this measure was taken, Dr. Gilbert Burnet, bishop
of Sarum, died of a pleuritic fever, in the seventy-second year of his
age. Immediately after the committee had begun to act, the whig party lost
one of their warmest champions, by the death of the marquis of Wharton, a
nobleman possessed of happy talents for the cabinet, the senate, and the
common scenes of life; talents which a life of pleasure and libertinism
did not prevent him from employing with surprising vigour and application.
The committee of the lower house taking the civil list into consideration,
examined several papers relating to that revenue. The tories observed,
that from the seven hundred thousand pounds granted annually to king
William, fifty thousand pounds were allotted to the late queen, when
princess of Denmark; twenty thousand pounds to the duke of Gloucester; and
twice that sum, as a dowry, to James’ queen; that nearly two hundred
thousand pounds had been yearly deducted from the revenues of the late
queen’s civil list, and applied to other uses; notwithstanding which
deduction, she had honourably maintained her family, and supported the
dignity of the crown. In the course of the debate, some warm altercation
passed between lord Guernsey and one of the members, who affirmed that the
late ministry had used the whigs, and indeed the whole nation, in such a
manner, that nothing they should suffer could be deemed a hardship. At
length the house agreed that the sum of seven hundred thousand pounds
clear should be granted for the civil list during his majesty’s life. A
motion being made for an address against pensions, it was opposed by Mr.
Walpole, and over-ruled by the majority. The lords passed the bill for
regulating the land forces, with some amendments.

SIR JOHN NORRIS SENT WITH A FLEET TO THE BALTIC.

On the eighteenth day of May, sir John Norris sailed with a strong
squadron to the Baltic, in order to protect the commerce of the nation,
which had suffered from the king of Sweden, who caused all ships trading
to those parts to be seized and confiscated. That prince had rejected the
treaty of neutrality concerted by the allies for the security of the
empire; and considered the English and Dutch as his enemies. The ministers
of England and the states-general had presented memorials to the regency
of Sweden; but finding no redress, they resolved to protect their trade by
force of arms. After the Swedish general, Steenbock, and his army were
made prisoners, count Wellen concluded a treaty with the administrator of
Holstein-Gottorp, by which the towns of Stetin and Wisma were sequestered
into the hands of the king of Prussia; the administrator engaged to secure
them, and all the rest of Swedish Pomerania, from the Poles and
Muscovites; but as the governor of Pomerania refused to comply with this
treaty, those allies marched into the province, subdued the island of
Eugen, and obliged Stetin to surrender. Then the governor consented to the
sequestration, and paid to the Poles and Muscovites four hundred thousand
rix dollars, to indemnify them for the expense of the siege. The king of
Sweden returning from Turkey, rejected the treaty of sequestration, and
insisted upon Stetin’s being restored, without his repaying the money. As
this monarch likewise threatened to invade the electorate of Saxony, and
chastise his false friend; king George, for the security of his German
dominions, concluded a treaty with the king of Denmark, by which the
duchies of Bremen and Verden, which had been taken from the Swedes in his
absence, were made over to his Britannic majesty, on condition that he
should immediately declare war against Sweden. Accordingly he took
possession of the duchies in October, published a declaration of war
against Charles in his German dominions; and detached six thousand
Hanoverians to join the Danes and Prussians in Pomerania. These allies
reduced the islands of Rugen and Uledon, and attacked the towns of Wismar
and Stralsund, from which last place Charles was obliged to retire in a
vessel to Schohen. He assembled a body of troops with which he proposed to
pass the Sound upon the ice, and attack Copenhagen; but was disappointed
by a sudden thaw. Nevertheless he refused to return to Stockholm, which he
had not seen for sixteen years; but remained at Carlscroon, in order to
hasten his fleet for the relief of Wismar.

DISCONTENT OF THE NATION.

The spirit of discontent and disaffection seemed to gain ground every day
in England. Notwithstanding proclamations against riots, and orders of the
justices for maintaining the peace, repeated tumults were raised by the
malcontents in the cities of London and Westminster. Those who celebrated
the anniversary of the king’s birth-day with the usual marks of joy and
festivity, were insulted by the populace; but next day, which was the
anniversary of the restoration, the whole city was lighted up with
bonfires and illuminations, and echoed with the sound of mirth and
tumultuous rejoicing. The people even obliged the life-guards, who
patroled through the streets, to join in the cry of “High-church and
Ormond!” and in Smithfield they burned the picture of king William. Thirty
persons were imprisoned for being concerned in these riots. One Bournois,
a schoolmaster, who affirmed that king George had no right to the crown,
was tried and scourged through the city, with such severity that in a few
days he expired in the utmost torture. A frivolous incident served to
increase the popular ferment. The shirts allowed to the first regiment of
guards, commanded by the duke of Marlborough, were so coarse that the
soldiers could hardly be persuaded to wear them. Some were thrown into the
garden of the king’s palace, and into that which belonged to the duke of
Marlborough. A detachment, in marching through the city, produced them to
the view of the shop-keepers and passengers, exclaiming, “These are the
Hanover shirts.” The court being informed of this clamour, ordered those
new shirts to be burned immediately; but even this sacrifice, and an
advertisement published by the duke of Marlborough in his own vindication,
did not acquit that general of suspicion that he was concerned in this
mean species of peculation. A reward of fifty pounds was offered by the
government to any person that would discover one captain Wight, who, by an
intercepted letter, appeared to be disaffected to king George; and Mr.
George Jefferies was seized at Dublin with a packet directed to Dr.
Jonathan Swift, dean of St. Patrick’s. Several treasonable papers being
found in this packet, were transmitted to England; Jefferies was obliged
to give bail for his appearance; and Swift thought proper to abscond.

REPORT OF THE SECRET COMMITTEE.

The house of lords, to demonstrate their abhorrence of all who should
engage in conspiracies against their sovereign, rejected with indignation
a petition presented to them in behalf of Blackburne, Casils, Barnarde,
Meldrum, and Chambers, who had hitherto continued prisoners, for having
conspired against the life of king William. On the ninth day of June, Mr.
Walpole, as chairman of the secret committee, declared to the house of
commons that the report was ready; and in the meantime moved, that a
warrant might be issued by Mr. Speaker, for apprehending several persons,
particularly Mr. Matthew Prior and Mr. Thomas Harley, who being in the
house, were immediately taken into custody. Then he recited the report,
ranged under these different heads: the clandestine negotiation with
monsieur Ménager; the extraordinary measures pursued to form the congress
at Utrecht; the trifling of the French plenipotentiaries, by the
connivance of the British ministers; the negotiation about the
renunciation of the Spanish monarchy; the fatal suspension of arms; the
seizure of Ghent and Bruges, in order to distress the allies and favour
the French; the duke of Ormond’s acting in concert with the French
general; the lord Bolingbroke’s journey to France to negotiate a separate
peace; Mr. Prior’s and the duke of Shrewsbury’s negotiation in France; the
precipitate conclusion of the peace at Utrecht. The report being read, sir
Thomas Hanmer moved that the consideration of it should be adjourned to a
certain day; and that in the meantime the report should be printed for the
perusal of the members: he was seconded by the tories: a debate ensued;
and the motion was rejected by a great majority.

This point being gained, Mr. Walpole impeached Henry lord viscount
Bolingbroke of high treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Mr.
Hungerford declared his opinion, that nothing mentioned in the report, in
relation to lord Bolingbroke, amounted to high treason; and general Eoss
expressed the same sentiment. Then lord Coningsby standing up, “The worthy
chairman,” said he, “has impeached the hand, but I impeach the head: he
has impeached the clerk, and I the justice; he has impeached the scholar,
and I the master. I impeach Eobert earl of Oxford and earl Mortimer of
high treason, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Mr. Auditor Harley,
the earl’s brother, spoke in vindication of that minister. He affirmed he
had done nothing but by the immediate command of his sovereign; that the
peace was a good peace, and approved as such by two parliaments; and that
the facts charged to him in the report amounted only to misdemeanors; if
the sanction of a parliament, which is the representative and legislature
of the nation, be not sufficient to protect a minister from the vengeance
of his enemies, he can have no security. Mr. Atiditor Foley, the earl’s
brother-in-law, made a speech to the same purpose; sir Joseph Jekyll, a
staunch whig, and member of the secret committee, expressed his doubt
whether they had sufficient matter or evidence to impeach the earl of high
treason. Nevertheless the house resolved to impeach him without a
division. When he appeared in the house of lords next day, he found
himself deserted by his brother peers as infectious; and retired with
signs of confusion. Prior and Harley having been examined by such of the
committee as were justices of the peace for Middlesex, Mr. Walpole
informed the house that matters of such importance appeared in Prior’s
examination, that he was directed to move them for that member’s being
closely confined. Prior was accordingly imprisoned, and cut off from all
communication. On the twenty-first day of June, Mr. Secretary Stanhope
impeached James duke of Ormond of high treason, and other high crimes and
misdemeanors. Mr. Archibald Hutchinson, one of the commissioners of trade,
spoke in favour of the duke. He expatiated on his noble birth and
qualifications; he enumerated the great services performed to the crown
and nation by his grace and his ancestors; he observed, that in the whole
course of his late conduct, he had only obeyed the queen’s commands; and
he affirmed that all allegations against him could not in the rigour of the
law be construed into high treason. Mr. Hutchinson was seconded by general
Lumley, who urged that the duke of Ormond had on all occasions given
signal proofs of his affection for his country, as well as of personal
courage; and that he had generously expended the best part of his estate,
by living abroad in a most noble and splendid manner, for the honour of
his sovereign. Sir Joseph Jekyll said, if there was room for mercy, he
hoped it would be shown to that noble, generous, and courageous peer, who
had in a course of many years exerted those great accomplishments for the
good and honour of his country; that, as the statute of Edward III., on
which the charge of high treason against him was to be grounded, had been
mitigated by subsequent acts, the house ought not, in his opinion, to take
advantage of that act against the duke, but only impeach him of high
crimes and misdemeanors. General Ross, sir William Wyndham, and the
speakers of that party, did not abandon the duke in this emergency; but
all their arguments and eloquence were lost upon the other faction, by
which they were greatly out-numbered The question being put, was carried
for the impeachment of the duke of Ormond, who perceiving every thing
conducted by a furious spirit of revenge, and that he could not expect the
benefit of an impartial trial, consulted his own safety by withdrawing
himself from the kingdom. On the twenty-second day of June, the earl of
Strafford was likewise impeached by Mr. Aislaby, for having advised the
fatal suspension of arms, and the seizing of Ghent and Bruges; as well as
for having treated the most serene house of Hanover with insolence and
contempt. He was also defended by his friends, but overpowered by his
enemies.

EARL OF OXFORD SENT TO THE TOWER.

When the articles against the earl of Oxford were read in the house, a
warm debate arose upon the eleventh, by which he was charged with having
advised the French king in what manner Tournay might be gained from the
states-general. The question being put, whether this article amounted to
high-treason; sir Robert Raymond, formerly solicitor-general, maintained
the negative, and was supported not only by sir William Wyndham and the
tories, but also by sir Joseph Jekyll. This honest patriot said it was
ever his principle to do justice to every body, from the highest to the
lowest; and that it was the duty of an honest man never to act by a spirit
of party; that he hoped he might pretend to have some knowledge of the
laws of the kingdom; and would not scruple to declare, that in his
judgment the charge in question did not amount to high-treason. Mr.
Walpole answered with great warmth, that there were several persons both
in and out of the committee, who did not in the least yield to that member
in point of honesty, and who were superior to him in the knowledge of the
laws, yet were satisfied that the charge specified in the eleventh article
amounted to high-treason. This point being decided against the earl, and
the other articles approved by the house, lord Conningsby, attended by the
whig members, impeached the earl of Oxford at the bar of the house of
lords, demanding at the same time that he might be sequestered from
parliament, and committed to safe custody. A motion was made, that the
consideration of the articles might be adjourned. After a short debate the
articles were read; then the tory lords moved that the judges might be
consulted. The motion being rejected, another was made, that the earl
should be committed to safe custody. This occasioned another debate, in
which he himself spoke to the following purpose: that the whole charge
might be reduced to the negotiations and conclusions of the peace; that
the nation wanted a peace, he said, nobody would deny; that the conditions
of the peace were as good as could be expected, considering the
backwardness and reluctancy which some of the allies showed to come into
the queen’s measures; that the peace was approved by two successive
parliaments; that he had no share in the affair of Tournay, which was
wholly transacted by that unfortunate nobleman who has thought fit to step
aside; that for his own part, he always acted by the immediate directions
and commands of the late queen, without offending against any known law;
and, being justified by his own conscience, was unconcerned for the life
of an insignificant old man; that, if ministers of state, acting by the
immediate commands of their sovereign, are afterwards to be made
accountable for their proceedings, it might one day or other be the case
with all the members of that august assembly; that he did not doubt their
lordships, out of regard to themselves, would give him an equitable
hearing; and that in the prosecution of the inquiry it would appear he had
merited not only the indulgence, but even the favour of his government.
“My lords,” said he, “I am now to take my leave of your lordships, and of
this honourable house, perhaps for ever; I shall lay down my life with
pleasure in a cause favoured by my late dear royal mistress. When I
consider that I am to be judged by the justice, honour, and virtue of my
peers, I shall acquiesce, and retire with great content; and, my lords,
God’s will be done.” The duke of Shrewsbury having acquainted the house
that the earl was very much indisposed with the gravel, he was suffered to
remain at his own house in custody of the black-rod; in his way thither he
was attended by a great multitude of people crying, “High-church, Ormond
and Oxford for ever!” Next day he was brought to the bar; where he
received a copy of the articles, and was allowed a month to prepare his
answer. Though Dr. Mead declared that if the earl should be sent to the
Tower his life would be in danger, it was carried, on a division, that he
should be conveyed thither on the sixteenth day of July. During the
debate, the earl of Anglesea observed, that these impeachments were
disagreeable to the nation, and that it was to be feared such violent
measures would make the sceptre shake in the king’s hands. This expression
kindled the whole house into a flame. Some members cried, “To the Tower!”
some, “To order!” The earl of Sunderland declared, that if these words had
been spoken in another place, he would have called the person that had
spoken them to an account; in the meantime he moved that the noble lord
should explain himself. Anglesea, dreading the resentment of the house,
was glad to make an apology; which was accepted. The earl of Oxford was
attended to the Tower by a prodigious concourse of people, who did not
scruple to exclaim against his persecutors. Tumults were raised in
Staffordshire, and other parts of the kingdom, against the whig party,
which had depressed the friends of the church and embroiled the nation.
The house of commons presented an address to the king, desiring that the
laws might be vigorously executed against the rioters. They prepared the
proclamation-act, decreeing, that if any persons to the number of twelve,
unlawfully assembled, should continue together one hour after having been
required to disperse by a justice of peace or other officer, and heard the
proclamation against riots read in public, they should be deemed guilty of
felony without benefit of clergy.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

THE KING DECLARES TO BOTH HOUSES THAT A REBELLION IS BEGUN.

When the king went to the house of peers on the twentieth day of July, to
give the royal assent to this and some other bills, he told both houses
that a rebellion was actually begun at home; and that the nation was
threatened with an invasion from abroad. He therefore expected that the
commons would not leave the kingdom in a defenceless condition, but enable
him to take such measures as should be necessary for the public safety.
Addresses in the usual style were immediately presented by the parliament,
the convocation, the common-council and lieutenancy of London, and the two
universities; but that of Oxford was received in the most contemptuous
manner; and the deputies were charged with disloyalty, on account of a
fray which had happened between some recruiting officers and the scholars
of the university. The addresses from the kirk of Scotland, and the
dissenting ministers of London and Westminster, met with a much more
gracious reception. The parliament forthwith passed a bill, empowering the
king to secure suspected persons, and to suspend the habeas-corpus
act in that time of danger. A clause was added to a money-bill, offering
the reward of one hundred thousand pounds to such as should seize the
pretender dead or alive. Sir George Byng was sent to take the command of
the fleet. General Earle repaired to his government of Portsmouth; the
guards were encamped in Hyde-park; lord Irwin was appointed governor of
Hull, in the room of brigadier Sutton, who, together with lord Windsor,
the generals Ross, Webb, and Stuart, were dismissed from the service.
Orders were given for raising thirteen regiments of dragoons, and eight of
infantry; and the trained bands were kept in readiness to suppress
tumults. In the midst of these transactions, the commons added six
articles to those exhibited against the earl of Oxford. Lord Bolingbroke
was impeached at the bar of the house of lords by Mr. Walpole. Bills being
brought in to summon him and the duke of Ormond to surrender themselves by
the tenth of September, or, in default thereof, to attaint them of high
treason, they passed both houses and received the royal assent. On the
last day of August, the commons agreed to the articles against the earl of
Strafford, which being presented to the house of lords, the earl made a
speech in his own vindication. He complained that his papers had been
seized in an unprecedented manner. He said, if he had in his letters or
discourse dropped any unguarded expressions against some foreign
ministers, while he had the honour to represent the crown of Great
Britain, he hoped they would not be accounted criminal by a British house
of peers; he desired he might be allowed a competent time to answer the
articles brought against him, and have duplicates of all the papers which
had either been laid before the committee of secrecy, or remained in the
hands of government, to be used occasionally in his justification. This
request was vehemently opposed by the leaders of the other party, until
the earl of Hay represented that, in all civilized nations, all courts of
judicature, except the inquisition, allowed the persons arraigned all that
was necessary for their justification; and that the house of peers of
Great Britain ought not, in this case, to do any thing contrary to that
honour and equity for which they were so justly renowned throughout all
Europe. This observation made an impression on the house, which resolved
that the earl should be indulged with copies of such papers as he might
have occasion to use in his defence.

DUKE OF ORMOND AND LORD BOLINGBROKE ATTAINTED.

On the third day of September, Oxford’s answer was delivered to the house
of lords, who transmitted it to the commons. Mr. Walpole, having heard it
read, said it contained little more than a repetition of what had been
suggested in some pamphlets and papers which had been published in
vindication of the late ministry; that it was a false and malicious libel,
laying upon his royal mistress the blame of all the pernicious measures he
had led her into, against her own honour, and the good of his country;
that it was likewise a libel on the proceedings of the commons, since he
endeavoured to clear those persons who had already confessed their guilt
by flight. After some debate, the house resolved, that the answer of
Robert earl of Oxford should be referred to the committee appointed to
draw up articles of impeachment, and prepare evidence against the
impeached lords; and that the committee should prepare a replication to
the answer. This was accordingly prepared and sent up to the lords. Then
the committee reported, that Mr. Prior had grossly prevaricated on his
examination, and behaved with great contempt of their authority. The duke
of Ormond and lord viscount Bolingbroke having omitted to surrender
themselves within the limited time, the house of lords ordered the
earl-marshal to raze out of the list of peers their names and armorial
bearings. Inventories were taken of their personal estates; and the duke’s
achievements, as knight of the garter, were taken down from St. George’s
chapel at Windsor. A man of candour cannot, without an emotion of grief
and indignation, reflect upon the ruin of the noble family of Ormond, in
the person of a brave, generous, and humane nobleman, to whom no crime was
imputed but that of having obeyed the commands of his sovereign. About
this period the royal assent was given to an act for encouraging loyalty
in Scotland. By this law the tenant who continued peaceable while his lord
took arms in favour of the pretender, was invested with the property of
the lands he rented; on the other hand, it was decreed that the lands
possessed by any person guilty of high treason should revert to the
superior of whom they were held, and be consolidated with the superiority;
and that all entails and settlements of estates, since the first day of
August, in favour of children, with a fraudulent intent to avoid the
punishment of the law due to the offence of high treason, should be null
and void. It likewise contained a clause for summoning suspected persons
to find bail for their good behaviour, on pain of being denounced rebels.
By virtue of this clause all the heads of the jacobite clans, and other
suspected persons, were summoned to Edinburgh; and those who did not
appear were declared rebels.

INTRIGUES OF THE JACOBITES.

By this time the rebellion was actually begun in Scotland. The dissensions
occasioned in that country by the union had never been wholly appeased.
Ever since the queen’s death, addresses were prepared in different parts
of Scotland against the union, which was deemed a national grievance; and
the Jacobites did not fail to encourage this aversion. Though the hopes of
dissolving that treaty were baffled by the industry and other arts of the
revolutioners, who secured a majority of whigs in parliament, they did not
lay aside their designs of attempting something of consequence in favour
of the pretender; but maintained a correspondence with the malcontents of
England, a great number of whom were driven by apprehension, hard usage,
and resentment, into a system of politics which otherwise they would not
have espoused. The tories finding themselves totally excluded from any
share in the government and legislature, and exposed to the insolence and
fury of a faction which they despised, began to wish in earnest for a
revolution. Some of them held private consultations, and communicated with
the Jacobites, who conveyed their sentiments to the chevalier de St.
George, with such exaggerations as were dictated by their own eagerness
and extravagance. They assured the pretender that the nation was wholly
disaffected to the new government; and indeed the clamours, tumults, and
conversation of the people in general countenanced this assertion. They
promised to take arms, without further delay, in his favour; and engaged
that the tories should join them at his first landing in Great Britain.
They therefore besought him to come over with all possible expedition,
declaring that his appearance would produce an immediate revolution. The
chevalier resolved to take the advantage of this favourable disposition.
He had recourse to the French king, who had always been the refuge of his
family. Louis favoured him in secret; and, notwithstanding his late
engagements with England, cherished the ambition of raising him to the
throne of Great Britain. He supplied him privately with sums of money to
prepare a small armament in the port of Havre, which was equipped in the
name of Depine d’Anicaut; and, without all doubt, his design was to assist
him more effectually in proportion as the English should manifest their
attachment to the house of Stuart. The duke of Ormond and lord
Bolingbroke, who had retired to France, finding themselves condemned
unheard, and attainted, engaged in the service of the chevalier, and
corresponded with the tories of England.

DEATH OF LOUIS XIV.

All these intrigues and machinations were discovered and communicated to
the court of London by the earl of Stair, who then resided as English
ambassador at Paris. He was a nobleman of unquestioned honour and
integrity, generous, humane, discerning, and resolute. He had signalized
himself by his valour, intrepidity, and other military talents, during the
war in the Netherlands; and he now acted in another sphere with uncommon
vigour, vigilance, and address. He detected the chevalier’s scheme while
it was yet in embryo, and gave such early notice of it as enabled the king
of Great Britain to take effectual measures for defeating the design. All
the pretender’s interest in France expired with Louis XIV., that
ostentatious tyrant, who had for above half a century sacrificed the
repose of Christendom to his insatiate vanity and ambition. At his death,
which happened on the first day of September, the regency of the kingdom
devolved to the duke of Orleans, who adopted a new system of politics, and
had already entered into engagements with the king of Great Britain.
Instead of assisting the pretender, he amused his agents with mysterious
and equivocal expressions, calculated to frustrate the design of the
expedition. Nevertheless, the more violent part of the Jacobites in Great
Britain believed he was at bottom a friend to their cause, and depended
upon him for succour. They even extorted from him a sum of money by dint
of importunities, and some arms; but the vessel was shipwrecked, and the
cargo lost upon the coast of Scotland.

THE EARL OF MAR SETS UP THE PRETENDER’S STANDARD.

The partisans of the pretender had proceeded too far to retreat with
safety, and therefore resolved to try their fortune in the field. The earl
of Mar repaired to the Highlands, where he held consultations with the
marquasses of Huntley and Tullibardine, the earls Marischal and Southesk,
the generals Hamilton and Gordon, with the chiefs of the Jacobite clans.
Then he assembled three hundred of his own vassals, proclaimed the
pretender at Castletown, and set up his standard at Brae-Mar, on the sixth
day of September. By this time the earls of Home, Winton, and Kinnoul,
lord Deskford, and Lockhart of Carnwath, with other persons suspected of
disaffection to the present government, were committed prisoners to the
castle of Edinburgh; and major-general Whetham marched with the regular
troops which were in that kingdom to secure the bridge at Stirling. Before
these precautions were taken, two vessels had arrived at Arbroath from
Havre, with arms, ammunition, and a great number of officers, who assured
the earl of Mar that the pretender would soon be with them in person. The
death of Louis the XIV. struck a general damp upon their spirits; but they
laid their account with being joined by a powerful body in England. The
earl of Mar, by letters and messages, pressed the chevalier to come over
without further delay. He, in the meantime, assumed the title of
lieutenant-general of the pretender’s forces, and published a declaration,
exhorting the people to take arms for their lawful sovereign. This was
followed by a shrewd manifesto, explaining the national grievances, and
assuring the people of redress. Some of his partisans attempted to
surprise the castle of Edinburgh; but were prevented by the vigilance and
activity of colonel Stuart, lieutenant-governor of that fortress. The duke
of Argyle set out for Scotland, as commander-in-chief of the forces in
North Britain: the earl of Sutherland set sail in the Queen-borough
ship-of-war for the North, where he proposed to raise his vassals for the
service of government; and many other Scottish peers returned to their own
country in order to signalize their loyalty to king George.

In England the practices of the Jacobites did not escape the notice of the
ministry. Lieutenant-colonel Paul was imprisoned in the gate-house for
enlisting men in the service of the pretender. The titular duke of Powis
was committed to the Tower; lords Lansdown-e and Duplin were taken into
custody; and a warrant was issued for apprehending the earl of Jersey. The
king desired the consent of the lower house to seize and detain sir
William Wyndham, sir John Packington, Mr. Edward Harvey of Combe, Mr.
Thos. Forster, Mr. John Anstis, and Mr. Corbet Kynaston, who were members
of the house, and suspected of favouring the invasion. The commons
unanimously agreed to the proposal, and presented an address signifying
their approbation. Harvey and Anstis were immediately secured. Forster,
with the assistance of some popish lords, assembled a body of men in
Northumberland’ sir John Packington being examined before the council, was
dismissed for want of evidence: Mr. Kynaston absconded; sir William
Wyndham was seized at his own house in Somersetshire, by colonel Huske and
a messenger, who secured his papers: he found means, however, to escape
from them; but afterwards surrendered himself: and, having been examined
at the council-board, was committed to the Tower. His father-in-law, the
duke of Somerset, offered to become bound for his appearance; and being
rejected as bail, expressed his resentment so warmly that the king thought
proper to remove him from the office of master of the horse. On the
twenty-first day of September, the king went to the house of lords and
passed the bills that were ready for the royal assent. Then the chancellor
read his majesty’s speech, expressing his acknowledgment and satisfaction,
in consequence of the uncommon marks of their affection he had received;
and the parliament adjourned to the sixth day of October.

The friends of the house of Stuart were very numerous in the western
counties, and began to make preparations for an insurrection. They had
concealed some arms and artillery at Bath, and formed a design to surprise
Bristol; but they were betrayed and discovered by the emissaries of the
government, which baffled all their schemes, and apprehended every person
of consequence suspected of attachment to that cause. The university of
Oxford felt the rod of power on that occasion. Major-general Pepper, with
a strong detachment of dragoons, took possession of the city at day-break,
declaring he would use military execution on all students who should
presume to appear without the limits of their respective colleges. He
seized tenor eleven persons, among whom was one Lloyd, a coffee-man; and
made prize of some horses and furniture belonging to colonel Owen and
other gentlemen. With this booty he retreated to Abingdon; and Handasyde’s
regiment of foot was afterwards quartered in Oxford to overawe the
university. The ministry found it more difficult to suppress the
insurgents in the northern counties. In the month of October the earl of
Derwentwater and Mr. Forster took the field with a body of horse, and
being joined by some gentlemen from the borders of Scotland, proclaimed
the pretender in Warkworth, Morpeth, and Alnwick. The first design was to
seize the town of Newcastle, in which they had many friends; but they
found the gates shut upon them, and retired to Hexham; while general
Carpenter having assembled a body of dragoons, resolved to march from
Newcastle and attack them before they should be reinforced. The rebels
retiring northward to Woller, were joined by two hundred Scottish horse
under the lord viscount Kenmuir, and the earls of Carnwath and Winton, who
had set up the pretender’s standard at Moffat, and proclaimed him in
different parts of Scotland. The rebels thus reinforced advanced to Kelso,
having received advice that they would be joined by Mackintosh, who had
crossed the Forth with a body of Highlanders.

MACKINTOSH JOINS THE ENGLISH INSURGENTS.

By this time the earl of Mar was at the head of ten thousand men well
armed. He had secured the pass of the Tay at Perth, where his
head-quarters were established, and made himself master of the whole
fruitful province of Fife, and all the sea-coast on that side of the Frith
of Edinburgh. He selected two thousand five hundred men, commanded by
brigadier Mackintosh, to make a descent upon the Lothian side, and join
the Jacobites in that county, or such as should take arms on the borders
of England. Boats were assembled for this purpose; and notwithstanding all
the precautions that could be taken by the king’s ships in the Frith to
prevent the design, about fifteen hundred chosen men made good their
passage in the night, and landed on the coast of Lothian, having crossed
an arm of the sea about sixteen miles broad, in open boats that passed
through the midst of the king’s cruisers. Nothing could be better
concerted, or executed with more conduct and courage, than was this
hazardous enterprise. They amused the king’s ships with marches and
counter-marches along the coast, in such a manner that they could not
possibly know where they intended to embark. The earl of Mar, in the
meantime, marched from Perth to Dumblane as if he had intended to cross
the Forth at Stirling bridge; but his real design was to divert the duke
of Argyle from attacking his detachment which had landed in Lothian. So
far the scheme succeeded. The duke, who had assembled some troops in
Lothian, returned to Stirling with the utmost expedition, after having
secured Edinburgh and obliged Mackintosh to abandon his design on that
city. This partisan had actually taken possession of Leith, from whence he
retired to Seaton-house, near Prestonpans, which he fortified in such a
manner that he could not be forced without artillery. Here he remained
until he received an order across the Frith from the earl of Mar to join
lord Kenmuir and the English at Kelso, for which place he immediately
began his march, and reached it on the twenty-second day of October,
though a good number of his men had deserted on the route.

The lord Kenmuir, with the earls of Winton, Nithsdale, and Carnwath, the
earl of Derwentwater, and Mr. Forster with the English insurgents,
arriving at the same time, a council of war was immediately called. Winton
proposed that they should march immediately into the western parts of
Scotland and join general Gordon, who commanded a strong body of
Highlanders in Argyleshire. The English insisted upon crossing the Tweed
and attacking general Carpenter, whose troops did not exceed nine hundred
dragoons. Neither scheme was executed. They took the route to Jedburgh,
where they resolved to leave Carpenter on one side and penetrate into
England by the western border. The Highlanders declared they would not
quit their own country, but were ready to execute the scheme proposed by
the earl of Winton. Means however were found to prevail upon one half of
them to advance, while the rest returned to the Highlands. At Brampton,
Forster opened his commission of general, which had been sent to him by
the earl of Mar, and proclaimed the pretender. They continued their march
to Penrith, where the sheriff, assisted by lord Lonsdale and the bishop of
Carlisle, had assembled the whole posse-comitatus of Cumberland, amounting
to twelve thousand men, who dispersed with the utmost precipitation at the
approach of the rebels. From Penrith, Forster proceeded by way of Kendal
and Lancaster to Preston, from whence Stanhope’s regiment of dragoons and
another of militia immediately retired, so that he took possession of the
place without resistance. General Willis marched against the enemy with
six regiments of horse and dragoons, and one battalion of foot commanded
by colonel Preston. They had advanced to the bridge of Ribble before
Forster received intelligence of their approach. He forthwith began to
raise barricadoes, and put the place in a posture of defence. On the
twelfth day of November the town was briskly attacked in two different
places; but the king’s troops met with a very warm reception, and were
repulsed with considerable loss. Next day general Carpenter arrived with a
reinforcement of three regiments of dragoons, and the rebels were invested
on all sides. The Highlanders declared they would make a sally sword in
hand, and either cut their way through the king’s troops or perish in the
attempt, but they were over-ruled. Forster sent colonel Oxburgh with a
trumpet to general Willis, to propose a capitulation. He was given to
understand that the general would not treat with rebels; but in case of
their surrendering at discretion, he would prevent his soldiers from
putting them to the sword until he should receive further orders. He
granted them time to consider till next morning, upon their delivering the
earl of Derwentwater and Mackintosh as hostages. When Forster submitted,
this Highlander declared he could not promise the Scots would surrender in
that manner. The general desired him to return to his people, and he would
forthwith attack the town, in which case every man of them should be cut
to pieces. The Scottish noblemen did not choose to run the risk, and
persuaded the Highlanders to accept the terms that were offered. They
accordingly laid down their arms, and were put under a strong guard. All
the noblemen and leaders were secured. Major Nairn, captain Lockhart,
captain Shaftoe, and ensign Erskine, were tried by a court-martial as
deserters, and executed. Lord Charles Murray, son of the duke of Athol,
was likewise condemned for the same crime, but reprieved. The common men
were imprisoned at Chester and Liverpool, the noblemen and considerable
officers were sent to London, conveyed through the streets pinioned like
malefactors, and committed to the Tower and to Newgate.

BATTLE AT DUMBLANE.

The day on which the rebels surrendered at Preston was remarkable for the
battle of Dumblane, fought between the duke of Argyle and the earl of Mar,
who commanded the pretender’s forces. This nobleman had retreated to his
camp at Perth, when he understood the duke was returned from Lothian to
Stirling. But being now joined by the northern clans under the earl of
Sea-forth, and those of the west commanded by general Gordon, who had
signalized himself in the service of the czar of Muscovy, he resolved to
pass the Forth in order to join his southern friends, that they might
march together into England. With this view he advanced to Auchterarder,
where he reviewed his army, and rested on the eleventh day of November.
The duke of Argyle, apprised of his intention, and being joined by some
regiments of dragoons from Ireland, determined to give him battle in the
neighbourhood of Dumblane. On the twelfth day of the month, Argyle passed
the Forth at Stirling, and encamped with his left at the village of
Dumblane, and his right towards Sheriffmuir. The earl of Mar advanced
within two miles of his camp, and remained till day-break in order of
battle; his army consisted of nine thousand effective men, cavalry as well
as infantry. In the morning the duke, understanding they were in motion,
drew up his forces, which did not exceed three thousand five hundred men,
on the heights to the north-east of Dumblane; but he was outflanked both
on the right and left. The clans that formed part of the centre and right
wing of the enemy, with Glengary and Clanronald at their head, charged the
left of the king’s army sword in hand, with such impetuosity that in seven
minutes both horse and foot were totally routed with great slaughter; and
general Whetham, who commanded them, fled at full gallop to Stirling,
where he declared that the royal army was totally defeated. In the
meantime the duke of Argyle, who commanded in person on the right,
attacked the left of the enemy, at the head of Stair’s and Evan’s
dragoons, and drove them two miles before him, as far as the water of
Allan; yet in that space they wheeled about and attempted to rally ten
times; so that he was obliged to press them hard that they might not
recover from their confusion. Brigadier Wightman followed in order to
sustain him with three battalions of infantry; while the victorious right
wing of the rebels having pursued Whetham a considerable way, returned to
the field and formed in the rear of Wightman to the amount of five
thousand men. The duke of Argyle returning from the pursuit, joined
Wightman, who had faced about and taken possession of some enclosures and
mud wails in expectation of being attacked. In this posture both armies
fronted each other till the evening, when the duke drew off towards
Dumblane, and the rebels retired to Ardoch, without mutual molestation.
Next day the duke marching back to the field of battle, carried off the
wounded, with four pieces of cannon left by the army, and retreated to
Stirling. Few prisoners were taken on either side: the number of the slain
might be about five hundred of each army, and both generals claimed the
victory. This battle was not so fatal to the Highlanders as the loss of
Inverness, from which sir John Mackenzie was driven by Simon Fraser, lord
Lovat, who, contrary to the principles he hitherto professed, secured this
important post for the government; by which means a free communication was
opened with the north of Scotland, where the earl of Sutherland had raised
a considerable body of vassals. The marquis of Huntley and the earl of
Seaforth were obliged to quit the rebel army, in order to defend their own
territories; and in a little time submitted to king George: a good number
of the Frasers declared with their chief against the pretender: the
marquis of Tullibardine withdrew from the army to cover his own country;
and the clans, seeing no likelihood of another action, began to disperse
according to custom.

THE PRETENDER ARRIVES IN SCOTLAND.

The government was now in a condition to send strong reinforcements to
Scotland. Six thousand men that were claimed of the states-general, by
virtue of the treaty, landed in England, and began their march for
Edinburgh: general Cadogan set out for the same place, together with
brigadier Petit, and six other engineers; and a train of artillery was
shipped at the Tower for that country, the duke of Argyle resolving to
drive the earl of Mar out of Perth, to which town he retired with the
remains of his forces. The pretender having been amused with the hope of
seeing the whole kingdom of England rise up as one man in his behalf; and
the duke of Ormond having made a fruitless voyage to the western coast, to
try the disposition of the people, he was now convinced of the vanity of
his expectation in that quarter; and, as he knew not what other course to
take, he resolved to hazard his person among his friends in Scotland, at a
time when his affairs in that kingdom were absolutely desperate. From
Bretagne he posted through part of France in disguise, and embarking in a
small vessel at Dunkirk, hired for that purpose, arrived on the
twenty-second day of December at Peterhead with six gentlemen in his
retinue, one of whom was the marquis of Tynemouth, son to the duke of
Berwick. He passed through Aberdeen incognito, to Fetterosse, where he was
met by the earls of Mar and Marischal, and about thirty noblemen and
gentlemen of the first quality. Here he was solemnly proclaimed: his
declaration, dated at Com-mercy, was printed and circulated through all
the parts in that neighbourhood; and he received addresses from the
episcopal clergy, and the laity of that communion in the diocese of
Aberdeen. On the fifth day of January he made his public entry into
Dundee; and on the seventh arrived at Scone, where he seemed determined to
stay until the ceremony of his coronation should be performed. From thence
he made an excursion to Perth, where he reviewed his forces. Then he
formed a regular council; and published six proclamations: one for a
general thanksgiving on account of his safe arrival; another enjoining the
ministers to pray for him in the churches; a third establishing the
currency of foreign coins; a fourth summoning the meeting of the
convention of estates; a fifth ordering all sensible men to repair to his
standard; and a sixth, fixing the twenty-third day of January for his
coronation. He made a pathetic speech in a grand council, at which all the
chiefs of his party assisted. They determined, however, to abandon the
enterprise, as the king’s army was reinforced by the Dutch auxiliaries,
and they themselves were not only reduced to a small number, but likewise
destitute of money, arms, ammunition, forage, and provision; for the duke
of Argyle had taken possession of Burntisland, and transported a
detachment to Fife, so as to cut off Mar’s communication with that fertile
country.

Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, and a prodigious fall of snow
which rendered the roads almost impassable, the duke, on the twenty-ninth
of January began his march for Dumblane, and next day reached
Tullibardine, where he received intelligence that the pretender and his
forces had, on the preceding day, retired towards Dundee. He forthwith
took possession of Perth; and then began his march to Aberbrothick, in
pursuit of the enemy. The chevalier de St. George being thus hotly
pursued, was prevailed upon to embark on board a small French ship that
lay in the harbour of Montrose. He was accompanied by the earls of Mar and
Melfort, the lord Drummond, lieutenant-general Bulkley, and other persons
of distinction, to the number of seventeen. In order to avoid the English
cruisers, they stretched over to Norway, and coasting along the German and
Dutch shores, arrived in five days at Grave-line. General Gordon, whom the
pretender had left commander-in-chief of the forces, assisted by the earl
Marischal, proceeded with them to Aberdeen, where he secured three vessels
to sail northward, and take on board the persons who intended to make
their escape to the continent. Then they continued their march through
Strathspey and Strathdown, to the hills of Badenoch, where the common
people were quietly dismissed. This retreat was made with such expedition,
that the duke of Argyle, with all his activity, could never overtake their
rear-guard, which consisted of a thousand horse commanded by the earl
Marischal. Such was the issue of a rebellion that proved fatal to many
noble families; a rebellion which in all probability would never have
happened, had not the violent measures of a whig ministry kindled such a
flame of discontent in the nation, as encouraged the partisans of the
pretender to hazard a revolt.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

The parliament of Ireland, which met at Dublin on the twelfth day of
November, seemed even more zealous, if possible, than that of England, for
the present administration. They passed bills for recognizing the king’s
title; for the security of his person and government; for setting a price
on the pretender’s head; and for attainting the duke of Ormond. They
granted the supplies without opposition. All those who had addressed the
late queen in favour of sir Constantine Phipps, then lord chancellor of
Ireland, were now brought upon their knees, and censured as guilty of a
breach of privilege. They desired the lords-justices would issue a
proclamation against the popish inhabitants of Limerick and Gal-way, who,
presuming upon the capitulation signed by king William, claimed an
exemption from the penalties imposed upon other papists. They engaged in
an association against the pretender, and all his abettors. They voted the
earl of Anglesea an enemy to the king and kingdom, because he advised the
queen to break the army, and prorogue the late parliament; and they
addressed the king to remove him from his council and service. The
lords-justices granted orders for apprehending the earls of Antrim and
Westmeath, the lords Natterville, Cahir, and Dillon, as persons suspected
of disaffection to the government. Then they adjourned the two houses.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

THE REBEL LORDS ARE IMPEACHED.

The king in his speech to the English parliament, which met on the ninth
of January, told them he had reason to believe the pretender was landed in
Scotland; he congratulated them on the success of his arms in suppressing
the rebellion; on the conclusion of the barrier-treaty between the emperor
and the states-general, under his guarantee; on a convention with Spain
that would deliver the trade of England to that kingdom, from the new
impositions and hardships to which it was subjected in consequence of the
late treaties. He likewise gave them to understand, that a treaty for
renewing all former alliances between the crown of Great Britain and the
states-general was almost concluded; and he assured the commons he would
freely give up all the estates that should become forfeited to the crown
by this rebellion, to be applied towards defraying the extraordinary
expense incurred on this occasion. The commons, in their address of
thanks, declared that they would prosecute, in the most vigorous and
impartial manner, the authors of those destructive councils which had
drawn down such miseries upon the nation. Their resolutions were speedy,
and exactly conformable to this declaration. They expelled Mr. Forster
from the house. They forthwith impeached the earls of Derwentwater,
Nithsdale, Carnwath, and Winton; lords Widdrington, Kenmuir, and Nairn.
These noblemen being brought to the bar of the house of lords, heard the
articles of impeachment read on the tenth day of January, and were ordered
to put in their answers on the sixteenth. The impeachments being lodged,
the lower house ordered a bill to be brought in for continuing the
suspension of the habeas-corpus act; then they prepared another to
attaint the marquis of Tullibardine, the earls of Mar and Linlithgow, and
lord John Drummond. On the twenty-first day of January, the king gave the
royal assent to the bill for continuing the suspension of the habeas-corpus
act. He told the parliament that the pretender was actually in Scotland
heading the rebellion, and assuming the style and title of king of these
realms; he demanded of the commons such supply as might discourage any
foreign power from assisting the rebels. On Thursday the nineteenth day of
January, all the impeached lords pleaded guilty to the articles exhibited
against them, except the earl of Winton, who petitioned for a longer time
on various pretences. The rest received sentence of death on the ninth day
of February, in the court erected in Westminster-hall, where the
lord-chancellor Cowper presided as lord high-steward on that occasion. The
countess of Nithsdale and lady Nairn threw themselves at the king’s feet,
as he passed through the apartments of the palace, and implored his mercy
in behalf of their husbands; but their tears and entreaties produced no
effect. The council resolved that the sentence should be executed, and
orders were given for that purpose to the lieutenant of the Tower, and the
sheriffs of London and Middlesex.

EARL OF DEEWENTWATER AND LORD KENMUIR ARE BEHEADED.

The countess of Derwentwater, with her sister, accompanied by the
duchesses of Cleveland and Bolton, and several other ladies of the first
distinction, was introduced by the dukes of Richmond and St. Alban’s into
the king’s bed-chamber, where she invoked his majesty’s clemency for her
unfortunate consort. She afterwards repaired to the lobby of the house of
peers, attended by the ladies of the other condemned lords, and above
twenty others of the same quality, and begged the intercession of the
house; but no regard was paid to their petition. Next day they petitioned
both houses of parliament. The commons rejected their suit. In the upper
house, the duke of Richmond delivered a petition from the earl of
Derwentwater, to whom he was nearly related, at the same time declaring
that he himself should oppose his solicitation. The earl of Derby
expressed some compassion for the numerous family of lord Nairn. Petitions
from the rest were presented by other lords, moved with pity and humanity.
Lord Town-shend and others vehemently opposed their being read. The earl
of Nottingham thought this indulgence might be granted; the house assented
to his opinion, and agreed to an address, praying his majesty would
reprieve such of the condemned lords as should seem to deserve his mercy.
To this petition the king answered, that on this and all other occasions,
he would do what he thought most consistent with the dignity of his crown
and the safety of his people. The earl of Nottingham, president of the
council, his brother the earl of Aylesbury, chancellor of the duchy of
Lancaster, his son lord Finch, one of the lords of the treasury, his
kinsman lord Guernsey, master of the jewel-office, were altogether
dismissed from his majesty’s service. Orders were despatched for executing
the earls of Derwentwater and Nithsdale, and the viscount of Kennruir,
immediately; the others were respited to the seventh day of March.
Nithsdale made his escape in woman’s apparel, furnished and conveyed to
him by his own mother. On the twenty-fourth day of February, Derwentwater
and Kenmuir were beheaded on Tower-hill. The former was an amiable youth,
brave, open, generous, hospitable, and humane. His fate drew tears from
the spectators, and was a great misfortune to the country in which he
lived. He gave bread to multitudes of people whom he employed on his
estate; the poor, the widow, and the orphan rejoiced in his bounty.
Kenmuir was a virtuous nobleman, calm, sensible, resolute, and resigned.
He was a devout member of the English church; but the other died in the
faith of Rome: both adhered to their political principles. On the
fifteenth day of March, Winton was brought to trial, and being convicted,
received sentence of death.

1716

TRIALS OF REBELS.

When the king passed the land-tax bill, which was ushered in with a very
extraordinary preamble, he informed both houses of the pretender’s flight
from Scotland. In the beginning of April a commission for trying the
rebels met in the court of common-pleas, when bills of high treason were
found against Mr. Forster, Mackintosh, and twenty of their confederates.
Forster escaped from Newgate, and reached the continent in safety; the
rest pleaded not guilty, and were indulged with time to prepare for their
trials. The judges appointed to try the rebels at Liverpool, found a
considerable number guilty of high treason. Two-and-twenty were executed
at Preston and Manchester; about a thousand prisoners submitted to the
king’s mercy, and petitioned for transportation. Pitts, the keeper of
Newgate, being suspected of having connived at Forster’s escape, was tried
for his life at the Old-Bailey, and acquitted. Notwithstanding this
prosecution, which ought to have redoubled the vigilance of the jailors,
brigadier Mackintosh, and several other prisoners, broke from Newgate,
after having mastered the keeper and turnkey, and disarmed the sentinel.
The court proceeded with the trials of those that remained, and a great
number were found guilty; four or five were hanged, drawn, and quartered,
at Tyburn; and among these was one William Paul, a clergyman, who, in his
last speech, professed himself a true and sincere member of the church of
England, but not of the revolution schismatical church, whose bishops had
abandoned the king, and shamefully given up their ecclesiastical rights,
by submitting to the unlawful, invalid, lay-deprivations authorized by the
prince of Orange.

ACT FOR SEPTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS.

Though the rebellion was extinguished, the flame of national
dissatisfaction still continued to rage: the severities exercised against
the rebels increased the general discontent; for now the danger was blown
over, their humane passions began to prevail. The courage and fortitude
with which the condemned persons encountered the pains of death in its
most dreadful force, prepossessed many spectators in favour of the cause
by which those unhappy victims were animated. In a word, persecution, as
usual, extended the heresy. The ministry, perceiving this universal
dissatisfaction, and dreading the revolution of a new parliament, which
might wrest the power from their faction, and retort upon them the
violence of their own measures, formed a resolution equally odious and
effectual to establish their administration. This was no other than a
scheme to repeal the triennial act, and by a new law to extend the term of
parliaments to seven years. On the tenth day of April, the duke of
Devonshire represented, in the house of lords, that triennial elections
served to keep up party divisions; to raise and foment feuds in private
families; to produce ruinous expenses, and give occasion to the cabals and
intrigues of foreign princes; that it became the wisdom of such an august
assembly to apply proper remedies to an evil that might be attended with
the most dangerous consequences, especially in the present temper of the
nation, as the spirit of rebellion still remained unconquered. He
therefore proposed a bill for enlarging the continuance of parliaments. He
was seconded by the earls of Dorset and Rockingham, the duke of Argyle,
Lord Townshend, and the other chiefs of that party. The motion was opposed
by the earls of Nottingham, Abingdon, and Paulet. They observed, that
frequent parliaments were required by the fundamental constitution of the
kingdom, ascertained in the practice of many ages; that the members of the
lower house were chosen by the body of the nation, for a certain term of
years, at the expiration of which they could be no longer representatives
of the people, who, by the parliament’s protracting its own authority,
would be deprived of the only remedy which they have against those who,
through ignorance or corruption, betrayed the trust reposed in them; that
the reasons in favour of such a bill were weak and frivolous; that, with
respect to foreign alliances, no prince or state could reasonably depend
upon a people to defend their liberties and interests, who should be
thought to have given up so great a part of their own; nor would it be
prudent in them to wish for a change in that constitution under which
Europe had of late been so powerfully supported; on the contrary, they
might be deterred from entering into any engagements with Great Britain,
when informed by the preamble of the bill, that the popish faction was so
dangerous as to threaten destruction to the government; they would
apprehend that the administration was so weak as to want so extraordinary
a provision for its safety; that the gentlemen of Britain were not to be
trusted; and that the good affections of the people were restrained within
the limits of the house of commons. They affirmed that this bill, far from
preventing the expense of elections, would rather increase it, and
encourage every species of corruption; for the value of a seat would
always be in proportion to the duration of a parliament, and the purchase
would rise accordingly; that a long parliament would yield a greater
temptation, as well as a better opportunity to a vicious ministry, to
corrupt the members, than they could possibly have when the parliaments
were short and frequent; that the same reasons urged for passing the bill
to continue this parliament for seven years, would be at least as strong,
and, by the conduct of the ministry, might be made much stronger before
the end of that term, for continuing and even perpetuating their
legislative power, to the absolute subversion of the third estate of the
realm. These arguments served only to form a decent debate, after which
the bill for septennial parliaments passed by a great majority, though
twenty peers entered a protest. It met with the same fate in the lower
house, where many strong objections were stated to no purpose. They were
represented as the effects of party spleen; and, indeed, this was the
great spring of action on both sides. The question for the bill was
carried in the affirmative; and in a little time it received the royal
sanction.

DUKE OF ARGYLE DISGRACED.

The rebellion being utterly quelled, and all the suspected persons of
consequence detained in safe custody, the king resolved to visit his
German dominions, where he foresaw a storm gathering from the quarter of
Sweden. Charles XII. was extremely exasperated against the elector of
Hanover, for having entered into the confederacy against him in his
absence, particularly for his having purchased the duchies of Bremen and
Verden, which constituted part of his dominions; and he breathed nothing
but revenge against the king of Great Britain. It was with a view to avert
this danger, or prepare against it, that the king now determined upon a
voyage to the continent. But as he was restricted from leaving his British
dominions by the act for the further limitation of the crown, this clause
was repealed in a new bill that passed through both houses without the
least difficulty. On the twenty-sixth day of June, the king closed the
session with a speech upon the usual tonics, in which, however, he
observed, that the numerous instances of mercy he had shown served only to
encourage the faction of the pretender, whose partisans acted with such
insolence and folly, as if they intended to convince the world that they
were not to be reclaimed by gentle methods. He intimated his purpose of
visiting his dominions in Germany; and gave them to understand, that he
had constituted his beloved son, the prince of Wales, guardian of the
kingdom in his absence. About this period general Macartney, who had
returned to England at the accession of king George, presented himself to
trial for the murder of the duke of Hamilton. The deposition of colonel
Hamilton was contradicted by two park-keepers; the general was acquitted
of the charge, restored to his rank in the army, and gratified with the
command of a regiment. The king’s brother, prince Ernest, bishop of
Osnabruck, was created duke of York and Albany, and earl of Ulster. The
duke of Argyle, and his brother the earl of Hay, to whom his majesty owed,
in a great measure, his peaceable accession to the throne, as well as the
extinction of the rebellion in Scotland, were now dismissed from all their
employments. General Carpenter succeeded the duke in the chief command of
the forces in North Britain, and in the government of Port Mahon; and the
duke of Montrose was appointed lord-register of Scotland in the room of
the earl of Hay.

THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE.

On the seventh day of July, the king embarked at Gravesend, landed on the
ninth in Holland, through which he passed incognito to Hanover, and from
thence set out for Pyrmont. His aim was to secure his German dominions
from the Swede, and Great Britain from the pretender. These two princes
had already begun to form a design, in conjunction, of invading his
kingdom. He knew the duke of Orleans was resolved to ascend the throne of
France, in case the young king, who was a sickly child, should die without
male issue. The regent was not ignorant that Philip of Spain would
powerfully contest that succession, notwithstanding his renunciation; and
he was glad of an opportunity to strengthen his interest by an alliance
with the maritime powers of England and Holland. The king of England
sounded him on this subject, and found him eager to engage in such an
association. The negotiation was carried on by general Cadogan for
England, the abbé du Bois for France, and the pensionary Heinsius for the
states-general. The regent readily complied with all their demands. He
engaged that the pretender should immediately depart from Wignon to the
other side of the Alps, and never return to Lorraine or France on any
pretence whatsoever; that no rebellious subjects of Great Britain should
be allowed to reside in that kingdom; and that the treaty of Utrecht, with
respect to the demolition of Dunkirk, should be fully executed to the
satisfaction of his Britannic majesty. The treaty contained a mutual
guarantee of all the places possessed by the contracting powers; of the
protestant succession on the throne of England, as well as of that of the
duke of Orleans to the crown of France, and a defensive alliance,
stipulating the proportion of ships and forces to be furnished to that
power which should be disturbed at home or invaded from abroad. The
English people murmured at this treaty. They said an unnecessary umbrage
was given to Spain, with which the nation had great commercial connexions;
and that on pretence of an invasion, a body of foreign troops might be
introduced to enslave the kingdom.

COUNT GYLLENBURGH ARRESTED.

His majesty was not so successful in his endeavours to appease the king of
Sweden, who refused to listen to any overtures until Bremen and Verden
should be restored. These the elector of Hanover resolved to keep as a
fair purchase; and he engaged in a confederacy with the enemies of
Charles, for the maintenance of this acquisition. Meanwhile his rupture
with Sweden was extremely prejudicial to the commerce of England, and had
well nigh entailed upon the kingdom another invasion, much more formidable
than that which had so lately miscarried. The ministers of Sweden resident
at London, Paris, and the Hague, maintained a correspondence with the
disaffected subjects of Great Britain. A scheme was formed for the Swedish
king’s landing on this island with a considerable body of forces, where he
should be joined by the malcontents of the united kingdom. Charles
relished the enterprise, which flattered his ambition and revenge; nor was
it disagreeable to the czar of Muscovy, who resented the elector’s offer
of joining the Swede against the Russians, provided he would ratify the
cession of Bremen and Verden. King George having received intimation of
these intrigues, returned to England towards the end of January, and
ordered a detachment of foot-guards to secure count Gyllenburgh, the
Swedish minister, with all his papers. At the same time, sir Jacob Bancks
and Mr. Charles Caesar were apprehended. The other foreign ministers took
the alarm, and remonstrated to the ministry upon this outrage committed
against the law of nations. The two secretaries, Stanhope and Methuen,
wrote circular letters to them, assuring them that in a clay or two they
should be acquainted with the reasons that induced the king to take such
an extraordinary step. They were generally satisfied with this intimation;
but the marquis de Monteleone, ambassador from Spain, expressed his
concern that no other way could be found to preserve the peace of the
kingdom, without arresting the person of a public minister, and seizing
all his papers, which were the sacred repositories of his masters’s
secrets; he observed, that in whatever manner these two facts might seem
to be understood, they very sensibly wounded the law of nations. About the
same time baron Gortz, the Swedish residentiary in Holland, was seized
with his papers at Arnheim, at the desire of king George, communicated to
the states by Mr. Loathes, his minister at the Hague. The baron owned he
had projected the invasion, a design that was justified by the conduct of
king George, who had joined the princes in confederacy against the king of
Sweden, without having received the least provocation; who had assisted
the king of Denmark in subduing the duchies of Bremen and Verden, and then
purchased them of the usurper; and who had, in the course of this very
summer, sent a strong squadron of ships to the Baltic, where it joined the
Danes and Russians against the Swedish fleet.

ACCOUNT OF THE OXFORD RIOT.

When the parliament of Great Britain met on the twentieth day of February,
the king informed them of the triple alliance he had concluded with France
and Holland. He mentioned the projected invasion; told them he had given
orders for laying before them copies of the letters which had passed
between the Scottish ministers on that subject; and he demanded of the
commons such supplies as should be found necessary for the defence of the
kingdom. By those papers it appeared that the scheme projected by baron
Gortz was very plausible, and even ripe for execution; which, however, was
postponed until the army should be reduced, and the Dutch auxiliaries sent
back to their own country. The letters being read in parliament, both
houses presented addresses, in which they extolled the king’s prudence in
establishing such conventions with foreign potentates as might repair the
gross defects, and prevent the pernicious consequences, of the treaty of
Utrecht, which they termed a treacherous and dishonourable peace; and they
expressed their horror and indignation at the malice and ingratitude of
those who had encouraged an invasion of their country. He likewise
received an address of the same kind from the convention; another from the
dissenting ministers; a third from the university of Cambridge; but Oxford
was not so lavish of her compliments. At a meeting of the vice-chancellor
and heads of that university, a motion was made for an address to the
king, on the suppression of the late unnatural rebellion, his majesty’s
safe return, and the favour lately shown to the university, in omitting,
at their request, the ceremony of burning in effigy the devil, the pope,
the pretender, the duke of Ormond, and the earl of Mar, on the anniversary
of his majesty’s accession. Dr. Smallridge, bishop of Bristol, observed,
that the rebellion had been long suppressed; that there would be no end of
addresses should one be presented every time that his majesty returned
from his German dominions; that the late favour they had received was
overbalanced by a whole regiment now quartered upon them; and that there
was no precedent for addressing a king upon his return from his German
dominions. The university thought they had reason to complain of the
little regard paid to their remonstrances, touching a riot raised in that
city by the soldiers there quartered, on pretence that the anniversary of
the prince’s birthday had not been celebrated with the usual rejoicings.
Affidavits had been sent up to the council, which seemed to favour the
officers of the regiment. When the house of lords deliberated upon the
mutiny-bill, by which the soldiers were exempted from arrests for debts,
complaint was made of their licentious behaviour at Oxford; and a motion
was made that they should inquire into the riot. The lords presented an
address to the king, desiring that the papers relating to that affair
might be laid before the house. These being perused, were found to be
recriminations between the Oxonians and the officers of the regiment. A
warm debate ensued, during which the earl of Abingdon offered a petition
from the vice-chancellor of the university, the mayor and magistrates of
Oxford, praying to be heard. One of the court members observing that it
would be irregular to receive a petition while the house was in a grand
committee, a motion was made that the chairman should leave the chair; but
this being carried in the negative, the debate was resumed, and the
majority agreed to the following resolutions:—That the heads of the
university, and mayor of the city, neglected to make public rejoicings on
the prince’s birth-day; that the officers having met to celebrate that
day, the house in which they had assembled was assaulted, and the windows
were broken by the rabble; that this assault was the beginning and
occasion of the riots that ensued. That the conduct of the mayor seemed
well justified by the affidavits produced on his part; that the printing
and publishing the depositions upon which the complaints relating to the
riots at Oxford were founded, while that matter was under the examination
of the lords of the committee of the council, before they had time to come
to any resolution touching the same, was irregular, disrespectful to his
royal highness, and tending to sedition. An inquiry of this nature, so
managed, did not much redound to the honour of such an august assembly.

1717

The commons passed a bill prohibiting all commerce with Sweden, a branch
of trade which was of the utmost consequence to the English merchants.
They voted ten thousand seamen for the ensuing year; granted about a
million for the maintenance of guards, garrisons, and land-forces; and
passed the bill relating to mutiny and desertion. The house likewise voted
four-and-twenty thousand pounds for the payment of four battalions of
Munster, and two of Saxe-Gotha, which the king had taken into his service,
to supply the place of such as might be, during the rebellion, drawn from
the garrisons of the states-general to the assistance of England. This
vote, however, was not carried without a violent debate. The demand was
inveighed against as an imposition, seeing no troops had ever served. A
motion was made for an address, desiring that the instructions of those
who concluded the treaties might be laid before the house; but this was
over-ruled by the majority. The supplies were raised by a land-tax of
three shillings in the pound, and a malt-tax. What the commons had given
was not thought sufficient for the expense of the year; therefore Mr.
secretary Stanhope brought a message from his majesty, demanding an
extraordinary supply, that he might be the better enabled to secure his
kingdoms against the danger with which they were threatened from Sweden;
and he moved that a supply should be granted to his majesty for this
purpose. Mr. Shippen observed it was a great misfortune that the king was
as little acquainted with the parliamentary proceedings as with the
language of the country: that the message was unparliamentary and
unprecedented; and, in his opinion, penned by some foreign minister: he
said he had been often told that his majesty had retrieved the honour and
reputation of the nation; a truth which appeared in the flourishing
condition of trade; but that the supply demanded seemed to be inconsistent
with the glorious advantages which his majesty had obtained for the
people. He was seconded by Mr. Hungerford, who declared that for his part
he could not understand what occasion there was for new alliances; much
less that they should be purchased with money. He expressed his surprise
that a nation so lately the terror of France and Spain should now seem to
fear so inconsiderable an enemy as the king of Sweden. The motion was
supported by Mr. Boscawen, sir Gilbert Heathcote, and others; but some of
the whigs spoke against it; and Mr. Robert Walpole was silent. The
speaker, and Mr. Smith, one of the tellers of the exchequer, opposed this
unparliamentary way of demanding the supply: the former proposed that part
of the army should be disbanded, and the money applied towards the making
good such new engagements as were deemed necessary. After several
successive debates, the resolution for a supply was carried by a majority
of four voices.

* This year was rendered famous by a complete victory which,
prince Eugene obtained over the Turks at Peterwaradin upon
the Danube. The battle was fought upon the fifth day of
August. The Imperial army did not exceed sixty thousand men;
that of the infidels amounted to one hundred and fifty
thousand, commanded by the grand vizier, who was mortally
wounded in the engagement. The infidels were totally
defeated, with the loss of all their tents, artillery, and
baggage, so that the victors obtained an immense booty.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

DIVISION IN THE MINISTRY.

The ministry was now divided within itself. Lord Townshend had been
removed from the office of secretary of state, by the intrigues of the
earl of Sunderland; and he was now likewise dismissed from the place of
lord-lieutenant of Ireland. Mr. Robert Walpole resigned his posts of first
commissioner of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer: his example
was followed by Mr. Pulteney, secretary at war, and Mr. Methuen, secretary
of state. When the affair of the supply was resumed in the house of
commons, Mr. Stanhope made a motion for granting two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds for that purpose. Mr. Pulteney observed, that having
resigned his place, he might no w act with the freedom becoming an
Englishman: he declared against the manner of granting the supply, as
unparliamentary and unprecedented. He said he could not persuade himself
that any Englishman advised his majesty to send such a message; but he
doubted not the resolution of a British parliament would make a German
ministry tremble. Mr. Stanhope having harangued the house in vindication
of the ministry, Mr. Smith answered every article of his speech: he
affirmed, that if an estimate of the conduct of the ministry in relation
to affairs abroad was to be made from a comparison of their conduct at
home, they would not appear altogether so faultless as they were
represented. “Was it not a mistake,” said he, “not to preserve the peace
at home, after the king had ascended the throne with the universal
applause and joyful acclamations of all his subjects? Was it not a
mistake, upon the breaking out of the rebellion, not to issue a
proclamation, to offer pardon to such as should return home peaceably,
according to the custom on former occasions of the same nature? Was it not
a mistake, after the suppression of the rebellion and the trial and
execution of the principal authors of it, to keep up animosities, and
drive people to despair, by not passing an act of indemnity, by keeping so
many persons under hard and tedious confinement; and by granting pardons
to some, without leaving them any means to subsist? Is it not a mistake,
not to trust a vote of parliament for making good such engagements as his
majesty should think proper to enter into; and instead of that, to insist
on the granting this supply in such an extraordinary manner? Is it not a
mistake, to take this opportunity to create divisions, and render some of
the king’s best friends suspected and obnoxious? Is it not a mistake, in
short, to form parties and cabals in order to bring in a bill to repeal
the act of occasional conformity?” A great number of members had agreed to
this measure in private, though at this period it was not brought into the
house of commons. After a long debate the sum was granted. These were the
first-fruits of Britain’s being wedded to the interests of the continent.
The elector of Hanover quarrelled with the king of Sweden; and England was
not only deprived of a necessary branch of commerce, but even obliged to
support him in the prosecution of the war. The ministry now underwent a
new revolution. The earl of Sunderland and Mr. Addison were appointed
secretaries of state; Mr. Stanhope became first commission of the treasury
and chancellor of the exchequer.

THE COMMONS PASS THE SOUTH-SEA ACT, &c.

On the sixth day of May, the king, going to the house of peers, gave the
parliament to understand that the fleet under sir George Byng, which had
sailed to the Baltic to observe the motions of the Swedes, was safely
arrived in the Sound. He said he had given orders for the immediate
reduction of ten thousand soldiers, as well as directions to prepare an
act of indemnity. He desired they would take proper measures for reducing
the public debts with a just regard to parliamentary credit; and that they
would go through the public business with all possible despatch and
unanimity. Some progress had already been made in deliberations upon the
debt of the nation, which was comprehended under the two heads of
redeemable and irredeemable incumbrances. The first had been contracted
with a redeemable interest; and these the public had a right to discharge:
the others consisted of long and short annuities granted for a greater or
less number of years, which could not be altered without the consent of
the proprietors. Mr. Robert Walpole had projected a scheme for lessening
the interest and paying the capital of those debts, before he resigned his
place in the exchequer. He proposed, in the house of commons, to reduce
the interest of redeemable funds, and offer an alternative to the
proprietors of annuities. His plan was approved; but, when he resigned his
places, the ministers made some small alterations in it, which furnished
him with a pretence for opposing the execution of the scheme. In the
course of the debate, some warm altercation passed between him and Mr.
Stanhope, by which it appeared they had made a practice of selling places
and reversions. Mr. Hungerford, standing up, said he was sorry to see two
such great men running foul of one another; that, however, they ought to
be looked upon as patriots and fathers of their country; and since they
had by mischance discovered their nakedness, the other members ought,
according to the custom of the East, to turn their backs upon them, that
they might not be seen in such a shameful condition. Mr. Boscawen moved
that the house would lay their commands upon them, that no further notice
should be taken of what had passed. He was seconded by Mr. Methuen: tha
house approved of the motion; and the speaker took their word and honour
that they should not prosecute their resentment. The money corporations
having agreed to provide cash for such creditors as should be willing to
receive their principal, the house came to certain resolutions, on which
were founded the three bills that passed into laws, under the names of
“The South-Sea act, the Bank act, and the General Fund act.” The original
stock of the South-Sea company did not exceed nine millions four hundred
and seventy-one thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds; but the
funds granted being sufficient to answer the interest of ten millions at
six per cent., the company made up that sum to the government, for which
they received six hundred thousand pounds yearly, and eight thousand
pounds a-year for management. By this act they declared themselves willing
to receive five hundred thousand pounds, and the eight thousand for
management. It was enacted, that the company should continue a corporation
until the redemption of their annuity, towards which not less than a
million should be paid at a time. They were likewise required to advance a
sum not exceeding two millions, towards discharging the principal and
interest due on the four lottery funds of the ninth and tenth years of
queen Anne. By the Bank act the governors and company declared themselves
willing to accept an annuity of eighty-eight thousand seven hundred and
fifty-one pounds, seven shillings and tenpence halfpenny, or the principal
of one million seven hundred and seventy-five thousand and twenty-seven
pounds, seventeen shillings and tenpence halfpenny, in lieu of the present
annuity, amounting to one hundred and six thousand five hundred and one
pounds, thirteen shillings and fivepence. They also declared themselves
willing to discharge, and deliver up to be cancelled, as many
exchequer-bills as amounted to two millions, and to accept of an annuity
of one hundred thousand pounds, being after the rate of five per cent,
redeemable after one year’s notice; to circulate the remaining
exchequer-bills at three per cent, and one penny per day. It was enacted,
that the former allowances should be continued to Christmas, and then the
bank should have for circulating the two millions five hundred and
sixty-one thousand and twenty-five pounds remaining exchequer-bills, an
annuity of seventy-six thousand eight hundred and thirty pounds, fifteen
shillings, at the rate of three pounds per cent, till redeemed, over and
above the one penny a-day for interest. By the same acts the bank was
required to advance a sum not exceeding two millions five hundred thousand
pounds, towards discharging the national debt, if wanted, on condition
that they should have five pounds per cent, for as much as they might
advance, redeemable by parliament. The General Fund act recited several
acts of parliament, for establishing the four lotteries in the ninth and
tenth years of the late queen, and stated the annual produce of the
several funds, amounting in all to seven hundred and twenty-four thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine pounds, six shillings and tenpence one-fifth.
This was the General Fund; the deficiency of which was to be made good
annually out of the first aids granted by parliament. For the regular
payment of all such annuities as should be made payable by this act, it
was enacted, that all the duties and revenues mentioned therein should
continue for ever, with the proviso, however, that the revenues rendered
by this act perpetual should be subject to redemption. This act contained
a clause by which the sinking fund was established. The reduction of
interest to five per cent, producing a surplus or excess upon the
appropriated funds, it was enacted, that all the monies arising from time
to time, as well for the surplus, by virtue of the acts for redeeming the
funds of the hank and of the South-Sea Company, as also for the surplus of
the duties and revenues by this act appropriated to make good the general
fund, should be appropriated and employed for the discharging the
principal and interest of such national debt as was incurred before the
twenty-fifth of December of the preceding year, in such a manner as should
be directed and appointed by any future act of parliament, to be
discharged out of the game, and for no other use, intent, or purpose
whatsoever.

TRIAL OF THE EARL OF OXFORD.

The earl of Oxford, who had now remained almost two years a prisoner in
the Tower, presented a petition to the house of lords, praying that his
imprisonment might not be indefinite. Some of the tory lords affirmed that
the impeachment was destroyed and determined by the prorogation of
parliament, which superseded the whole proceedings; but the contrary was
voted by a considerable majority. The thirteenth day of June was fixed for
the trial; and the house of commons made acquainted with this
determination. The commons appointed a committee to inquire into the state
of the earl’s impeachment; and, in consequence of their report, sent a
message to the lords demanding longer time to prepare for trial.
Accordingly the day was prolonged to the twenty-fourth of June; and the
commons appointed the committee, with four other members, to be managers
for making good the articles of impeachment. At the appointed time the
peers repaired to the court in Westminster-hall, where lord Cowper
presided as lord steward. The commons were assembled as a committee of the
whole house; the king, the rest of the royal family, and the foreign
ministers, assisted at the solemnity; the earl of Oxford was brought from
the Tower; the articles of impeachment were read, with his answers, and
the replication of the commons. Sir Joseph Jekyll standing up to make good
the first article, lord Har-court signified to their lordships that he had
a motion to make, and they adjourned to their own house. There he
represented that a great deal of time would be unnecessarily consumed in
going through all the articles of the impeachment; that if the commons
would make good the two articles for high treason, the earl of Oxford
would forfeit both life and estate, and there would be an end of the
matter; whereas to proceed on the method proposed by the commons, would
draw the trial on to a prodigious length. He therefore moved that the
commons might not be permitted to proceed until judgment should be first
given upon the articles of high treason. He was supported by the earls of
Anglesea and Nottingham, the lord Trevor, and a considerable number of
both parties; and though opposed by the earl of Sunderland, the lords
Coningsby and Parker, the motion was carried in the affirmative. It
produced a dispute between the two houses. The commons, at a conference,
delivered a paper containing their reasons for asserting it as their
undoubted right to impeach a peer either for treason, or for high crimes
and misdemeanors; or, should they see occasion, to mix both in the same
accusation. The house of lords insisted on their former resolution; and,
in another conference, delivered a paper wherein they asserted it to be a
right inherent in every court of justice, to order and direct such methods
of proceeding as it should think fit to be observed in all causes that
fell under its cognizance. The commons demanded a free conference, which
was refused. The dispute grew more and more warm. The lords sent a message
to the lower house, importing that they intended presently to proceed on
the trial of the earl of Oxford. The commons paid no regard to this
intimation; but adjourned to the third day of July. The lords, repairing
to Westminster-hall, took their places, ordered the earl to be brought to
the bar, and made proclamation for his accusers to appear. Having waited a
quarter of an hour, they adjourned to their own house, where, after some
debate, the earl was acquitted upon a division; then returning to the
hall, they voted that he should be set at liberty. Oxford owed his safety
to the dissensions among the ministers, and to the late change in the
administration. In consequence of this, he was delivered from the
persecution of Walpole; and numbered among his friends the dukes of
Devonshire and Argyle, the earls of Nottingham and Hay, and lord
Townshend. The commons, in order to express their sense of his demerit,
presented an address to the king, desiring he might be excepted out of the
intended act of grace. The king promised to comply with their request; and
in the meantime forbade the earl to appear at court. On the fifteenth day
of July, the earl of Sunderland delivered in the house of peers the act of
grace, which passed through both houses with great expedition. From this
indulgence were excepted the earl of Oxford, Mr. Prior, Mr. Thomas Harley,
Mr. Arthur Moore; Crisp, Nodes, O’Bryan, Redmarne the printer, and
Thompson; as also the assassinators in Newgate, and the clan of Macgregor
in Scotland. By virtue of this act, the earl of Carnwath, the lords
Widrington and Nairn, were immediately discharged; together with all the
gentlemen under sentence of death in Newgate, and those that were confined
on account of the rebellion in the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and other
prisons of the kingdom. The act of grace being prepared for the royal
assent, the king went to the house of peers on the fifteenth day of July,
and having given his sanction to all the bills that were ready, closed the
session with a speech on the usual topics.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONVOCATION WITH REGARD TO DR. HOADLEY.

The proceedings in the convocation turned chiefly upon two performances of
Dr. Hoadley, bishop of Bangor. One was intituled, “A Preservative against
the Principles and Practices of the Nonjurors;” the other was a sermon
preached before the king, under the title of “The Nature of the Kingdom of
Christ.” An answer to this discourse was published by Dr. Snape, master of
Eton college, and this convocation appointed a committee to examine the
bishop’s two performances. They drew up a representation in which the
Preservative and the Sermon were censured, as tending to subvert all
government and discipline in the church of Christ; to reduce his kingdom
to a state of anarchy and confusion; to impugn and impeach the royal
supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, and the authority of the legislature
to enforce obedience in matters of religion by civil sanctions. The
government thought proper to put a stop to these proceedings by a
prorogation; which, however, inflamed the controversy. A great number of
pens were drawn against the bishop, but his chief antagonists were Dr.
Snape and Dr. Sherlock, whom the king removed from the office of his
chaplains; and the convocation has not been permitted to sit and do
business since that period.

CHAPTER II.

Difference between King George and the Czar of Muscovy…..
The King of Sweden is killed at Frederickstadt…..
Negotiation for a Quadruple Alliance….. Proceedings in
Parliament….. James Shepherd executed for a Design against
the King’s Life….. Parliament prorogued….. Nature of the
quadruple Alliance….. Admiral Byng sails to the
Mediterranean….. He destroys the Spanish Fleet off Cape
Passaro….. Remonstrances of the Spanish Ministry…..
Disputes in Parliament touching the Admiral’s attacking the
Spanish Fleet….. Act for strengthening the Protestant
Interest——War declared against Spain….. Conspiracy
against the Regent of France….. Intended Invasion by the
Duke of Ormond….. Three hundred Spaniards land and are
taken in Scotland….. Account of the Peerage Bill…..
Count Merci assumes the Command of the Imperial Army in
Sicily….. Activity of Admiral Byng….. The Spanish Troops
evacuate Sicily….. Philip obliged to accede to the
quadruple Alliance….. Bill for securing the Dependency of
Ireland upon the Crown of Great Britain….. South Sea
Act….. Charters granted to the Royal and London Assurance
Offices….. Treaty of Alliance with Sweden….. The Prince of
Hesse elected King of Sweden….. Effects of the South Sea
Scheme….. The Bubble breaks….. A Secret Committee
appointed by the House of Commons….. Inquiry carried on by
both Houses….. Death of Earl Stanhope and Mr. Craggs, both
Secretaries of State….. The Estates of the Directors of
the South Sea Company are confiscated….. Proceedings of the
Commons with respect to the Stock of the South Sea Company.

1717

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KING AND THE CZAR OF MUSCOVY.

During these transactions, the negotiations of the north were continued
against the king of Sweden, who had penetrated into Norway, and advanced
towards Christianstadt, the capital of that kingdom. The czar had sent
five-and-twenty thousand Russians to assist the allies in the reduction of
Wismar, which he intended to bestow upon his niece, lately married to the
duke of Mecklenburgh-Schwerin: but before his troops arrived the place had
surrendered, and the Russians were not admitted into the garrison; a
circumstance which increased the misunderstanding between him and the king
of Great Britain. Nevertheless, he consented to a project for making a
descent upon Schonen, and actually took upon him the command of the allied
fleet; though he was not at all pleased to see sir John Norris in the
Baltic, because he had formed designs against Denmark, which he knew the
English squadron would protect. He suddenly desisted from the expedition
against Schonen, on pretence that the season was too far advanced; and the
king of Denmark published a manifesto, remonstrating against his conduct
on this occasion. By this time baron Gortz had planned a pacification
between his master and the czar, who was discontented with all his German
allies, because they opposed his having any footing in the empire. This
monarch arrived at Amsterdam in December, whether he was followed by the
czarina; and he actually resided at the Hague when king George passed
through it, in returning to his British dominions, but he declined an
interview with the king of England. When Gyllenburgh’s letters were
published in London, some passages seemed to favour the supposition of the
czar’s being privy to the conspiracy. His minister at the English court
presented a long memorial, complaining that the king had caused to be
printed the malicious insinuations of his enemies. He denied his having
the least concern in the design of the Swedish king. He charged the court
of England with having privately treated of a separate peace with Charles,
and even with having promised to assist him against the czar, on condition
that he would relinquish his pretensions to Bremen and Verden.
Nevertheless, he expressed an inclination to re-establish the ancient good
understanding, and to engage in vigorous measures for prosecuting the war
against the common enemy. The memorial was answered by the king of Great
Britain, who assured the czar he should have reason to be fully satisfied,
if he would remove the only obstacle to their mutual good understanding;
in other words, withdraw the Russian troops from the empire.
Notwithstanding these professions, the two monarchs were never perfectly
reconciled.

THE KING OF SWEDEN IS KILLED.

The czar made an excursion to the court of France, where he concluded a
treaty of friendship with the regent, at whose earnest desire he promised
to recall his troops from Mecklenburgh. At his return to Amsterdam, he had
a private interview with Gortz, who, as well as Gyllenburgh, had been set
at liberty. Gortz undertook to adjust all difference between the czar and
the king of Sweden within three months; and Peter engaged to suspend all
operations against Sweden until that term should be expired. A congress
was opened at Abo, between the Swedish and Russian ministers, but the
conferences were afterwards removed to Aland. By this convention, the czar
obliged himself to assist Charles in the conquest of Norway; and they
promised to unite all their forces against the king of Great Britain
should he presume to interpose. Both were incensed against that prince;
and one part of their design was to raise the pretender to the throne of
England. Baron Gortz set out from Aland for Frederickstadt in Norway, with
the plan of peace: but, before he arrived, Charles was killed by a cannon
ball from the town, as he visited the trenches, on the thirtieth of
November. Baron Gortz was immediately arrested, and brought to the
scaffold by the nobles of Sweden, whose hatred he had incurred by his
insolence of behaviour. The death of Charles was fortunate for king
George. Sweden was now obliged to submit; while the czar, the king of
Denmark, and the elector of Hanover, kept possession of what they had
acquired in the course of the war.

NEGOTIATION FOR A QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE.

Thus Bremen and Verden were secured in the house of Hanover; an
acquisition towards which the English nation contributed by her money, as
well as by her arms; an acquisition made in contradiction to the
engagements into which England entered when king William became guarantee
for the treaty of Travendahl; an acquisition that may be considered as the
first link of a political chain by which the English nation were dragged
back into expensive connexions with the continent. The king had not yet
received the investiture of the duchies; and, until that should be
procured, it was necessary to espouse with warmth the interests of the
emperor. This was another source of misunderstanding between Great Britain
and Spain. Prince Eugene gained another complete victory over a prodigious
army of the Turks at Belgrade, which was surrendered to him after the
battle. The emperor had engaged in this war as an ally of the Venetians,
whom the Turks had attacked and driven from the Morea. The pope considered
it as a religious war against the infidels, and obtained repeated
assurances from the king of Spain that he would not undertake any thing
against the emperor while he was engaged in such a laudable quarrel.
Philip had even sent a squadron of ships and galleys to the assistance of
the Venetians. In the course of this year, however, he equipped a strong
armament, the command of which was bestowed on the marquis de Lede, who
sailed from Barcelona in July, and landing at Cagliari in Sardinia, which
belonged to the emperor, made a conquest of the whole island. At the same
time, the king of Spain endeavoured to justify these proceedings by a
manifesto, in which he alleged that the archduke, contrary to the faith of
treaties, encouraged and supported the rebellion of his subjects in
Catalonia, by frequent succours from Naples and other places; and that the
great inquisitor of Spain had been seized, though furnished with a
passport from his holiness. He promised however to proceed no further, and
suspend all operations, that the powers of Europe might have time and
opportunity to contrive expedients for reconciling all differences, and
securing the peace and balance of power in Italy; nay, he consented that
this important affair should be left to the arbitration of king George and
the states-general. These powers undertook the office. Conferences were
begun between the ministers of the emperor, France, England, and Holland;
and these produced, in the course of the following year, the famous
quadruple alliance. In this treaty it was stipulated, that the emperor
should renounce all pretensions to the crown of Spain, and exchange
Sardinia for Sicily with the duke of Savoy; that the succession to the
duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, which the queen of Spain claimed
by inheritance as princess of the house of Farnese, should be settled on
her eldest son, in case the present possessors should die without male
issue. Philip, dissatisfied with this partition, continued to make
formidable preparations by sea and land. The king of England and the
regent of France interposed their admonitions to no purpose. At length his
Britannic majesty had recourse to more substantial arguments, and ordered
a strong squadron to be equipped with all possible expedition. 206
[See note 2 H, at the end of this Vol.]

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

On the third day of November, the princess of Wales was delivered of a
prince, the ceremony of whose baptism was productive of a difference
between the grandfather and the father. The prince of Wales intended that
his uncle, the duke of York, should stand godfather. The king ordered the
duke of Newcastle to stand for himself. After the ceremony, the prince
expressed his resentment against this nobleman in very warm terms. The
king ordered the prince to confine himself within his own apartment; and
afterwards signified his pleasure that he should quit the palace of St.
James’. He retired with the princess to a house belonging to the earl of
Grantham; but the children were detained at the palace. All peers and
peeresses, and all privy-counsellors and their wives, were given to
understand, that in case they visited the prince and princess they should
have no access to his majesty’s presence; and all who enjoyed posts and
places under both king and prince, were obliged to quit the service of one
or other at their option. When the parliament met on the twenty-first day
of November, the king, in his speech, told both houses that he had reduced
the army to very near one half, since the beginning of the last session:
he expressed his desire that all those who were friends to the present
happy establishment, might unanimously concur in some proper method for
the greater strengthening the protestant interest, of which, as the church
of England was unquestionably the main support and bulwark, so would she
reap the principal benefit of every advantage accruing from the union and
mutual charity of all protestants. After the addresses of thanks, which
were couched in the usual style, the commons proceeded to take into
consideration the estimates and accounts, in order to settle the
establishment of the army, navy, and ordnance. Ten thousand men were voted
for the sea service. When the supply for the army fell under deliberation,
a very warm debate ensued upon the number of troops necessary to be
maintained. Sir William Wyndham, Mr. Shippen, and Mr. Walpole, in a long
elaborate harangue, insisted upon its being reduced to twelve thousand.
They were answered by Mr. Craggs, secretary at war, and sir David
Dalrymple. Mr. Shippen, in the course of the debate, said the second
paragraph of the king’s speech seemed rather to be calculated for the
meridian of Germany than for Great Britain; and it was a great misfortune
that the king was a stranger to our language and constitution. Mr.
Lechmere affirmed this was a scandalous invective against the king’s
person and government; and moved that he who uttered it should be sent to
the Tower. Mr. Shippen, refusing to retract or excuse what he had said,
was voted to the Tower by a great majority; and the number of standing
forces was fixed at sixteen thousand three hundred and forty-seven
effective men.

On account of the great scarcity of silver coin, occasioned by the
exportation of silver and the importation of gold, a motion was made to
put a stop to this growing evil, by lowering the value of gold specie. The
commons examined a representation which had been made to the treasury by
sir Isaac Newton, master of the mint, on this subject. Mr. Caswel
explained the nature of a clandestine trade carried on by the Dutch and
Ham-burghers, in concert with the Jews of England and other traders, for
exporting the silver coin and importing gold, which being coined at the
mint yielded a profit of fifteen pence upon every guinea. The house, in an
address to the king, desired that a proclamation might be issued,
forbidding all persons to utter or receive guineas at a higher rate than
one-and-twenty shillings each. His majesty complied with that request: but
people hoarding up their silver in hopes that the price of it would be
raised, or in apprehension that the gold would be lowered still farther,
the two houses resolved that the standard of the gold and silver coins of
the kingdom should not be altered in fineness, weight, or denomination,
and they ordered a bill to be brought in to prevent the melting down of
the silver coin. At this period, one James Shepherd, a youth of eighteen,
apprentice to a coachmaker, and an enthusiast in jacobitism, sent a letter
to a nonjuring clergyman, proposing a scheme for assassinating king
George. He was immediately apprehended, owned the design, was tried,
condemned, and executed at Tyburn. This was likewise the fate of the
marquis de Palleotti, an Italian nobleman, brother to the duchess of
Shrewsbury. He had, in a transport of passion, killed his own servant; and
seemed indeed to be disordered in his brain. After he had received
sentence of death, the king’s pardon was earnestly solicited by his sister
the duchess, and many other persons of the first distinction; but the
common people became so clamorous, that it was thought dangerous to rescue
him from the penalties of the law, which he accordingly underwent in the
most ignominious manner. No subject produced so much heat and altercation
in parliament during this session, as did the bill for regulating the
land-forces, and punishing mutiny and desertion: a bill which was looked
upon as an encroachment upon the liberties and constitution of England,
inasmuch as it established martial law, which wrested from the civil
magistrate the cognizance of crimes and misdemeanors committed by the
soldiers and officers of the army; a jurisdiction inconsistent with the
genius and disposition of the people. The dangers that might accrue from
such a power were explained in the lower house by Mr. Hutchinson, Mr.
Harley, and Mr. Robert Walpole, which last, however, voted afterwards for
the bill. In the house of lords, it was strenuously opposed by the earls
of Oxford, Strafford, and lord Harcourt. Their objections were answered by
lord Carteret. The bill passed by a great majority; but divers lords
entered a protest. This affair being discussed, a bill was brought in for
vesting in trustees the forfeited estates in Britain and Ireland, to be
sold for the use of the public; for giving relief to lawful creditors by
determining the claims, and for the more effectual bringing into the
respective exchequers the rents and profits of the estates till sold. The
time of claiming was prolonged; the sum of twenty thousand pounds was
reserved out of the sale of the estates in Scotland, for erecting schools;
and eight thousand pounds for building barracks in that kingdom. The king
having signified, by a message to the house of commons, that he had lately
received such information from abroad, as gave reason to believe that a
naval force employed where it should be necessary, would give weight to
his endeavours; he therefore thought fit to acquaint the house with this
circumstance, not doubting but that in case he should be obliged, at this
critical juncture, to exceed the number of men granted this year for the
sea-service, the house would provide for such exceeding. The commons
immediately drew up and presented an address, assuring his majesty that
they would make good such exceedings of seamen as he should find necessary
to preserve the tranquillity of Europe. On the twenty-first day of March,
the king went to the house of peers, and having passed the bills that were
ready for the royal assent, ordered the parliament to be prorogued.*

* Earl Cowper, lord chancellor, resigned the great seal,
which was at first put in commission, but afterwards given
to lord Parker, as high chancellor. The earl of Sunderland
was made president of the council, and first commissioner of
the treasury. Lord Stanhope and Mr. Craggs were appointed
secretaries of state. Lord Stanhope and lord Cadogan were
afterwards created earls.

1718

NATURE OF THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE.

The king of Spain, by the care and indefatigable diligence of his prime
minister, cardinal Alberoni, equipped a very formidable armament, which,
in the beginning of June, set sail from Barcelona towards Italy; but the
destination of it was not known. A strong squadron having been fitted out
in England, the marquis de Monteleone, ambassador from Spain, presented a
memorial to the British ministry, importing that so powerful an armament
in time of peace could not but give umbrage to the king his master, and
alter the good intelligence that subsisted between the two crowns. In
answer to this representation, the ministers declared that the king
intended to send admiral Byng with a powerful squadron into the
Mediterranean, to maintain the neutrality in Italy. Meanwhile, the
negotiations between the English and French ministers produced the
quadruple alliance, by which king George and the regent prescribed a peace
between the emperor, the king of Spain, and the king of Sicily, and
undertook to compel Philip and the Savoyard to submit to such conditions
as they had concerted with his Imperial majesty. These powers were allowed
only three months to consider the articles, and declare whether they would
reject them, or acquiesce in the partition. Nothing could be more
contradictory to the true interests of Great Britain than this treaty,
which destroyed the balance in Italy, by throwing such an accession of
power into the hands of the house of Austria. It interrupted the commerce
with Spain; involved the kingdom in an immediate war with that monarchy;
and gave rise to all the quarrels and disputes which have arisen between
England and Spain in the sequel. The states-general did not approve of
such violent measures, and for some time kept aloof; but at length they
acceded to the quadruple alliance, which indeed was no other than a very
expensive compliment to the emperor, who was desirous of adding Sicily to
his other Italian dominions.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

ADMIRAL BYNG SAILS.

The king of England had used some endeavours to compromise the difference
between his Imperial majesty and the Spanish branch of the house of
Bourbon. Lord Stanhope had been sent to Madrid with a plan of
pacification, which being rejected by Philip as partial and iniquitous,
the king determined to support his mediation by force of arms. Sir George
Byng sailed from Spithead on the fourth day of June, with twenty ships of
the line, two fire-ships, two bomb-vessels, and ample instructions how to
act on all emergencies. He arrived off Cape St. Vincent on the thirtieth
day of the month, and despatched his secretary to Cadiz, with a letter to
colonel Stanhope, the British minister at Madrid, desiring him to inform
his most catholic majesty of the admiral’s arrival in those parts, and lay
before him this article of his instructions: “You are to make instances
with both parties to cease from using any further acts of hostility: but
in case the Spaniards do still insist, with their ships of war and forces,
to attack the kingdom of Naples, or other the territories of the emperor
in Italy, or to land in any part of Italy, which can only be with a design
to invade the emperor’s dominions, against whom only they have declared
war by invading Sardinia; or, if they should endeavour to make themselves
masters of the kingdom of Sicily, which must be with a design to invade
the kingdom of Naples; in which case you are, with all your power, to
hinder and obstruct the same. If it should so happen that at your arrival
with our fleet under your command, in the Mediterranean, the Spaniards
should already have landed any troops in Italy in order to invade the
emperor’s territories, you shall endeavour amicably to dissuade them from
persevering in such an attempt, and offer them your assistance to help
them to withdraw their troops, and put an end to all further acts of
hostility. But in case these your friendly endeavours should prove
ineffectual, you shall, by keeping company with, or intercepting their
ships or convoy; or if it be necessary, by openly opposing them, defend
the emperor’s territories from any further attempt.” When cardinal
Alberoni perused these instructions, he told colonel Stanhope, with some
warmth, that his master would run all hazards, and even suffer himself to
be driven out of Spain, rather than recall his troops, or consent to a
suspension of arms. He said the Spaniards were not to be frightened; and
he was so well convinced that the fleet would do their duty, that in case
of their being attacked by Admiral Byng, he should be in no pain for the
success. Mr. Stanhope presenting him with a list of the British squadron,
he threw it upon the ground with great emotion. He promised, however, to
lay the admiral’s letter before the king, and to let the envoy know his
majesty’s resolution. Such an interposition could not but be very
provoking to the Spanish minister, who had laid his account with the
conquest of Sicily, and for that purpose prepared an armament which was
altogether surprising, considering the late shattered condition of the
Spanish affairs. But he seems to have put too much confidence in the
strength of the Spanish fleet. In a few days he sent back the admiral’s
letter to Mr. Stanhope, with a note under it, importing that the chevalier
Byng might execute the orders he had received from the king his master.

HE DESTROYS THE SPANISH FLEET.

The admiral, in passing by Gibraltar, was joined by vice-admiral Cornwall
with two ships. He proceeded to Minorca, where he relieved the garrison of
Port-Mahon. Then he sailed for Naples, where he arrived on the first day
of August, and was received as a deliverer; for the Neapolitans had been
under the utmost terror of an invasion from the Spaniards. Sir George Byng
received intelligence from the viceroy, count Daun, who treated him with
the most distinguishing marks of respect, that the Spanish army, amounting
to thirty thousand men, commanded by the marquis de Lede, had landed in
Sicily, reduced Palermo and Messina, and were then employed in the siege
of the citadel belonging to this last city; that the Piedmontese garrison
would be obliged to surrender if not speedily relieved; that an alliance
was upon the carpet between the emperor and the king of Sicily, which last
had desired the assistance of the Imperial troops, and agreed to receive
them into the citadel of Messina. The admiral immediately resolved to sail
thither, and took under his convoy a reinforcement of two thousand Germans
for the citadel, under the command of general Wetzel. He forthwith sailed
from Naples, and on the ninth day of August was in sight of the Faro of
Messina. He despatched his own captain with a polite message to the
marquis de Lede, proposing a cessation of arms in Sicily for two months,
that the powers of Europe might have time to concert measures for
restoring a lasting peace; and declaring, that should this proposal be
rejected, he would, in pursuance of his instructions, use all his force to
prevent further attempts to disturb the dominions his master had engaged
to defend. The Spanish general answered, that he had no powers to treat,
and consequently could not agree to an armistice, but should obey his
orders, which directed him to reduce Sicily for his master the king of
Spain. The Spanish fleet had sailed from the harbour of Messina on the day
before the English squadron appeared. Admiral Byng supposed they had
retired to Malta, and directed his course towards Messina, in order to
encourage and support the garrison in the citadel. But in doubling the
point of Faro, he descried two Spanish scouts, and learned from the people
of a felucca from the Calabrian shore, that they had seen from the hills
the Spanish fleet lying to in order of battle. The admiral immediately
detached the German troops to Reggio, under the convoy of two ships of
war. Then he stood through the Faro after the Spanish scouts that led him
to their main fleet, which before noon he descried in line of battle,
amounting to seven-and-twenty sail large and small, besides two
fire-ships, four bomb-vessels, and seven galleys. They were commanded in
chief by don Antonio de Castanita, under whom were the four rear-admirals
Chacon, Mari, Guevara, and Cammock. At sight of the English squadron they
stood away large, and Byng gave chase all the rest of the day. In the
morning, which was the eleventh of August, rear-admiral de Mari, with six
ships of war, the galleys, fire-ships, and bomb-ketches, separated from
the main fleet, and stood in for the Sicilian shore. The English admiral
detached captain Walton with five ships in pursuit of them; and they were
soon engaged. He himself continued to chase their main fleet; and about
ten o’clock the battle began. The Spaniards seemed to be distracted in
their councils, and acted in confusion. They made a running fight; yet the
admirals behaved with courage and activity, in spite of which they were
all taken, except Cammock, who made his escape with three ships of war and
three frigates. In this engagement, which happened off Cape Passaro,
captain Haddock of the Grafton signalized his courage in an extraordinary
manner. On the eighteenth the admiral received a letter* from captain
Walton, dated off Syracuse, intimating that he had taken four Spanish
ships of war, together with a bomb-ketch, and a vessel laden with arms:
and that he had burned four ships of the line, a fire-ship, and a bomb
vessel.

* This letter is justly deemed a curious specimen of the
laconic style. “Sir,—We have taken and destroyed all the
Spanish ships and vessels which were upon the coast; the
number as per margin. I am, &c.
G. WALTON.”

Had the Spaniards followed the advice of rear-admiral Cammock, who was a
native of Ireland, sir George Byng would not have obtained such an easy
victory. That officer proposed that they should remain at anchor in the
road of Paradise, with their broadsides to the sea; in which case the
English admiral would have found it a very difficult task to attack them;
for the coast is so bold, that the largest ships could ride with a cable
ashore; whereas farther out the currents are so various and rapid, that
the English squadron could not have come to anchor, or lie near them in
order of battle; besides the Spaniards might have been reinforced from the
army on shore, which would have raised batteries to annoy the assailants.
Before king George had received an account of this engagement from the
admiral, he wrote him a letter with his own hand, approving his conduct.
When sir George’s eldest son arrived in England with a circumstantial
account of the action, he was graciously received, and sent back with
plenipotentiary powers to his father, that he might negotiate with the
several princes and states of Italy, as he should see occasion. The son
likewise carried the king’s royal grant to the officers and seamen, of all
the prizes they had taken from the Spaniards. Notwithstanding this
victory, the Spanish army carried on the siege of the citadel of Messina
with such vigour, that the governor surrendered the place by capitulation
on the twenty-ninth day of September. A treaty was now concluded at Vienna
between the emperor and the duke of Savoy. They agreed to form an army for
the conquest of Sardinia in behalf of the duke; and in the meantime this
prince engaged to evacuate Sicily; but until his troops could be conveyed
from that island, he consented that they should co-operate with the
Germans against the common enemy. Admiral Byng continued to assist the
Imperialists in Sicily during the best part of the winter, by scouring the
seas of the Spaniards, and keeping the communication open between the
German forces and the Calabrian shore, from whence they were supplied with
provisions. He acted in this service with equal conduct, courage,
resolution, and activity. He conferred with the viceroy of Naples and the
other Imperial generals, about the operations of the ensuing campaign, and
count Hamilton was despatched to Vienna to lay before the emperor the
result of their deliberations; then the admiral set sail for Mahon, where
the ships might be refitted and put in a condition to take the sea in the
spring.

REMONSTRANCES OF THE SPANISH MINISTRY.

The destruction of the Spanish fleet was a subject that employed the
deliberations and conjectures of all the politicians in Europe. Spain
exclaimed against the conduct of England, as inconsistent with the rules
of good faith, for the observation of which she had always been so famous.
The marquis de Monteleone wrote a letter to Mr. secretary Craggs, in which
he expostulated with him upon such an unprecedented outrage. Cardinal
Alberoni, in a letter to that minister, inveighed against it as a base
unworthy action. He said the neutrality of Italy was a weak pretence,
since every body knew that neutrality had long been at an end; and that
the prince’s guarantees of the treaty of Utrecht were entirely discharged
from their engagements, not only by the scandalous infringements committed
by the Austrians in the evacuation of Catalonia and Majorca; but also
because the guarantee was no longer binding than till a peace was
concluded with France. He taxed the British ministry with having revived
and supported this neutrality, not by an amicable mediation, but by open
violence, and artfully abusing the confidence and security of the
Spaniards. This was the language of disappointed ambition. Nevertheless it
must be owned that the conduct of England, on this occasion, was
irregular, partial, and precipitate.

The parliament meeting on the eleventh day of November, the king in his
speech declared that the court of Spain had rejected all his amicable
proposals, and broke through their most solemn engagements for the
security of the British commerce. To vindicate, therefore, the faith of
his former treaties, as well as to maintain those he had lately made, and
to protect and defend the trade of his subjects, which had in every branch
been violently and unjustly oppressed, it became necessary for his naval
forces to check their progress; that notwithstanding the success of his
arms, that court had lately given orders at all the ports of Spain and of
the West Indies to fit out privateers against the English. He said he was
persuaded that a British parliament would enable him to resent such
treatment; and he assured them that his good brother, the regent of
France, was ready to concur with him in the most vigorous measures. A
strong opposition was made in both houses to the motion for an address of
thanks and congratulation proposed by lord Carteret. Several peers
observed that such an address was, in effect, to approve a sea-fight,
which might be attended with dangerous consequences, and to give the
sanction of that august assembly to measures which, upon examination,
might appear either to clash with the law of nations or former treaties,
or to be prejudicial to the trade of Great Britain; that they ought to
proceed with the utmost caution and maturest deliberation, in an affair
wherein the honour as well as the interest of the nation were so highly
concerned. Lord Strafford moved for an address, that sir George Byng’s
instructions might be laid before the house. Earl Stanhope replied, that
there was no occasion for such an address, since by his majesty’s command
he had already laid before the house the treaties of which the late
sea-fight was a consequence; particularly the treaty for a defensive
alliance between the emperor and his majesty, concluded at Westminster on
the twenty-fifth day of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
sixteen; and the treaty of alliance for restoring and settling the public
peace, signed at London on the twenty-second day of July. He affirmed that
the court of Spain had violated the treaty of Utrecht, and acted against
the public faith in attacking the emperor’s dominions, while he was
engaged in a war against the enemies of Christendom; that they had
rejected his majesty’s friendly offices and offers for mediating an
accommodation. He explained the cause of his own journey to Spain, and his
negotiations at Madrid. He added, it was high time to check the growth of
the naval power of Spain, in order to protect and secure the trade of the
British subjects which had been violently oppressed by the Spaniards.
After a long debate, the motion was carried by a considerable majority.
The same subject excited disputes of the same nature in the house of
commons, where lord Hinchinbroke moved that, in their address of thanks,
they should declare their entire satisfaction in those measures which the
king had already taken for strengthening the protestant succession, and
establishing a lasting tranquillity in Europe. The members in the
opposition urged that it was unparliamentary and unprecedented, on the
first day of the session, to enter upon particulars; that the business in
question was of the highest importance, and deserved the most mature
deliberation; that, before they approved the measures which had been
taken, they ought to examine the reasons on which those measures were
founded. Mr. Robert Walpole affirmed that the giving sanction, in the
manner proposed, to the late measures, could have no other view than that
of screening ministers, who were conscious of having begun a war against
Spain, and now wanted to make it the parliament’s war. He observed, that
instead of an entire satisfaction, they ought to express their entire
dissatisfaction with such conduct as was contrary to the law of nations,
and a breach of the most solemn treaties. Mr. secretary Craggs, in a long
speech, explained the nature of the quadruple alliance, and justified all
the measures which had been taken. The address, as moved by lord
Hinchinbroke, was at length carried, and presented to his majesty. Then
the commons proceeded to consider the supply. They voted thirteen thousand
five hundred sailors; and twelve thousand four hundred and thirty-five men
for the land service. The whole estimate amounted to two millions two
hundred and fifty-seven thousand five hundred eighty-one pounds, nineteen
shillings. The money was raised by a land-tax, malt-tax, and lottery.

ACT FOR STRENGTHENING THE PROTESTANT INTEREST.

On the thirteenth day of December, earl Stanhope declared, in the house of
lords, that in order to unite the hearts of the well affected to the
present establishment, he had a bill to offer under the title of “An act
for strengthening the protestant interest in these kingdoms.” It was
accordingly read, and appeared to be a bill repealing the acts against
occasional conformity, the growth of schism, and some clauses in the
corporation and test acts. This had been concerted by the ministry in
private meetings with the most eminent dissenters. The tory lords were
astonished at this motion, for which they were altogether unprepared.
Nevertheless they were strenuous in their opposition. They alleged that
the bill, instead of strengthening, would certainly weaken the church of
England, by plucking off her best feathers, investing her enemies with
power, and sharing with churchmen the civil and military employments of
which they were then wholly possessed. Earl Cowper declared himself
against that part of the bill by which some clauses of the test and
corporation acts were repealed; because he looked upon those acts as the
main bulwark of our excellent constitution in church and state, which
ought to be inviolably preserved. The earl of Hay opposed the bill,
because, in his opinion, it infringed the pacta conventa of the
treaty of union, by which the bonds both of the church of England and of
the church of Scotland were fixed and settled; and he was apprehensive, if
the articles of the union were broke with respect to one church, it might
afterwards be a precedent to break them with respect to the other. The
archbishop of Canterbury said the acts which by this bill would be
repealed, were the main bulwark and supporters of the English church; he
expressed all imaginable tenderness for well-meaning conscientious
dissenters; but he could not forbear saying, some among that sect made a
wrong use of the favour and indulgence shown to them at the revolution,
though they had the least share in that happy event; it was therefore
thought necessary for the legislature to interpose, and put a stop to the
scandalous practice of occasional conformity. He added, that it would be
needless to repeal the act against schism, since no advantage had been
taken of it to the prejudice of the dissenters. Dr. Hoadley, bishop of
Bangor, endeavoured to prove that the occasional and schism acts were in
effect persecuting laws; and that by admitting the principle of
self-defence and self-preservation in matters of religion, all the
persecutions maintained by the heathens against the professors of
Christianity, and even the popish inquisition, might be justified. With
respect to the power of which many clergymen appeared so fond and so
zealous, he owned the desire of power and riches was natural to all men;
but that he had learned both from reason and from the gospel, that this
desire must be kept within due bounds, and not intrench upon the rights
and liberties of their fellow-creatures and countrymen. After a long
debate, the house agreed to leave out some clauses concerning the test and
corporation acts: then the bill was committed, and afterwards passed. In
the lower house it met with violent opposition, in spite of which it was
carried by the majority.

WAR DECLARED AGAINST SPAIN.

The king on the seventeenth day of December, sent a message to the
commons, importing that all his endeavours to procure redress for the
injuries done to his subjects by the king of Spain having proved
ineffectual, he had found it necessary to declare war against that
monarch. When a motion was made for an address, to assure the king they
would cheerfully support him in the prosecution of the war, Mr. Shippen
and some other members said, they did not see the necessity of involving
the nation in a war on account of some grievances of which the merchants
complained, as these might be amicably redressed. Mr. Stanhope assured the
house that he had presented five-and-twenty memorials to the ministry of
Spain on that subject without success. Mr. Methuen accounted for the
dilatory proceeds of the Spanish court in commercial affairs, by
explaining the great variety of regulations in the several provinces and
ports of that kingdom. It was suggested that the ministry paid very little
regard to the trade and interest of the nation, inasmuch as it appeared by
the answer from the secretary of state to the letter of the marquis de
Monteleone, that they would have overlooked the violation of the treaties
of commerce, provided Spain had accepted the conditions stipulated in the
quadruple alliance; for it was there expressly said, that his majesty the
king of Great Britain did not seek to aggrandize himself by any new
acquisitions, but was rather inclined to sacrifice something of his own to
procure the general quiet and tranquillity of Europe. A member observed,
that nobody could tell how far that sacrifice would have extended, but
certainly it was a very uncommon stretch of condescension. This sacrifice
was said to be the cession of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, which the regent
of France had offered to the king of Spain, provided he would accede to
the quadruple alliance. Horatio Walpole observed, that the disposition of
Sicily in favour of the emperor was an infraction of the treaty of
Utrecht; and his brother exclaimed against the injustice of attacking the
Spanish fleet before a declaration of war. Notwithstanding all these
arguments and objections, the majority agreed to the address; and such
another was carried in the upper house without a division. The declaration
of war against Spain was published with the usual solemnities; but this
war was not a favourite of the people, and therefore did not produce those
acclamations that were usual on such occasions.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE REGENT OF FRANCE.

Meanwhile cardinal Alberoni employed all his intrigues, power, and
industry, for the gratification of his revenge. He caused new ships to be
built, the sea ports to be put in a posture of defence, succours to be
sent to Sicily, and the proper measures to be taken for the security of
Sardinia. He, by means of the prince de Cellamare, the Spanish ambassador
at Paris, caballed with the malcontents of that kingdom, who were numerous
and powerful. A scheme was actually formed for seizing the regent, and
securing the person of the king. The duke of Orleans owed the first
intimation of this plot to king George, who gave him to understand that a
conspiracy was formed against his person and government. The regent
immediately took measures for watching the conduct of all suspected
persons; but the whole intrigue was discovered by accident. The prince de
Cellamare intrusted his despatches to the abbé Portocarrero, and to a son
of the marquis de Monteleone. These emissaries set out from Paris in a
post-chaise, and were overturned. The postillion overheard Portocarrero
say, he would not have lost his portmanteau for a hundred thousand
pistoles. The man, at his return to Paris, gave notice to the government
of what he had observed. The Spaniards, being pursued, were overtaken and
seized at Poictiers, with the portmanteau, in which the regent found two
letters that made him acquainted with the particulars of the conspiracy.
The prince de Cellamare was immediately conducted to the frontiers: the
duke of Maine, the marquis de Pompadore, the cardinal de Polignac, and
many other persons of distinction, were committed to different prisons.
The regent declared war against Spain on the twenty-ninth day of December;
and an army of six-and-thirty thousand men began its march towards that
kingdom in January, under the command of the duke of Berwick.

INTENDED INVASION BY ORMOND.

Cardinal Alberoni had likewise formed a scheme in favour of the pretender.
The duke of Ormond repairing to Madrid, held conferences with his
eminence; and measures were concerted for exciting another insurrection in
Great Britain. The chevalier de St. George quitted Urbino by stealth; and
embarking at Netteno, landed at Cagliari in March. From thence he took his
passage to Roses in Catalonia, and proceeded to Madrid, where he was
received with great cordiality, and treated as king of Great Britain. An
armament had been equipped of ten ships of war and transports, having on
board six thousand regular troops, with arms for twelve thousand men. The
command of this fleet was bestowed on the duke of Ormond, with the title
of captain-general of his most catholic majesty. He was provided with
declarations in the name of that king, importing, that for many good
reasons he had sent part of his land and sea forces into England and
Scotland, to act as auxiliaries to king James. His Britannic majesty,
having received from the regent of France timely notice of this intended
invasion, offered, by proclamations, rewards to those that should
apprehend the duke of Ormond, or any gentleman embarked in that
expedition. Troops were ordered to assemble in the north, and in the west
of England: two thousand men were demanded of the states-general: a strong
squadron was equipped to oppose the Spanish armament; and the duke of
Orleans made a proffer to king George of twenty battalions for his
service.

THREE HUNDRED SPANIARDS LAND AND ARE TAKEN IN SCOTLAND.

His majesty having communicated to both houses of parliament the repeated
advices he had received touching this projected descent, they promised to
support him against all his enemies. They desired he would augment his
forces by sea and land, and assured him they would make good the
extraordinary expense. Two thousand men were landed from Holland, and six
battalions of Imperialists from the Austrian Netherlands. The duke of
Ormond sailed from Cadiz, and proceeded as far as Cape Finisterre, where
his fleet was dispersed and disabled by a violent storm, which entirely
defeated the purposed expedition. Two frigates, however, arrived in
Scotland, with the earls Marischal and Seaforth, the marquis of
Tullibardine, some field-officers, three hundred Spaniards, and arms for
two thousand men. They were joined by a small body of Highlanders, and
possessed themselves of Donan castle. Against these adventurers general
Wightman marched with a body of regular troops from Inverness. They had
taken possession of the pass at Glenshiel; but, at the approach of the
king’s forces, retired to the pass at Strachell, which they resolved to
defend. They were attacked and driven from one eminence to another till
night, when the Highlanders dispersed; and next day the Spaniards
surrendered themselves prisoners of war. Marischal, Seaforth, and
Tullibardine, with some officers, retired to one of the western isles, in
order to wait an opportunity of being conveyed to the continent.

ACCOUNT OF THE PEERAGE BILL.

On the last day of February the duke of Somerset represented, in the house
of lords, that the number of peers being very much increased, especially
since the union of the two kingdoms, it seemed absolutely necessary to
take effectual measures for preventing the inconveniences that might
attend the creation of a great number of peers to serve a present purpose;
an expedient which had been actually taken in the late reign. He therefore
moved that a bill should be brought in to settle and limit the peerage, in
such a manner that the number of English peers should not be enlarged
beyond six above the present number, which, upon failure of male issue,
might be supplied by new creations: that instead of the sixteen elective
peers from Scotland, twenty-five should be made hereditary on the part of
that kingdom; and that this number, upon failure of heirs-male, should be
supplied from the other members of the Scottish peerage. This bill was
intended as a restraint upon the prince of Wales, who happened to be at
variance with the present ministry. The motion was supported by the duke
of Argyle, now lord-steward of the household, the earls of Sunderland and
Carlisle. It was opposed by the earl of Oxford, who said, that although he
expected nothing from the crown, he would never give his vote for lopping
off so valuable a branch of the prerogative, which enabled the king to
reward merit and virtuous actions. The debate was adjourned to the second
day of March, when earl Stanhope delivered a message from the king,
intimating, that as they had under consideration the state of the British
peerage, he had so much at heart the settling it upon such a foundation as
might secure the freedom and constitution of parliaments in till future
ages, that he was willing his prerogative should not stand in the way of
so great and necessary a work. Another violent debate ensued between the
two factions. The question here, as in almost every other dispute, was not
whether the measure proposed was advantageous to the nation? but, whether
the tory or the whig interest should predominate in parliament? Earl
Cowper affirmed, that the part of the bill relating to the Scottish
peerage, was a manifest violation of the treaty of union, as well as a
flagrant piece of injustice, as it would deprive persons of their right,
without being heard, and without any pretence or forfeiture on their part.
He observed, that the Scottish peers excluded from the number of the
twenty-five, would be in a worse condition than any other subjects in the
kingdom; for they would be neither electing nor elected, neither
representing nor represented. These objections were overruled; several
resolutions were taken agreeably to the motion, and the judges were
ordered to prepare and bring in the bill. This measure alarmed the
generality of Scottish peers, as well as many English commoners, who saw
in the bill the avenues of dignity and title shut up against them; and
they did not fail to exclaim against it as an encroachment upon the
fundamental maxims of the constitution. Treaties were written and
published on both sides of the question; and a national clamour began to
arise, when earl Stanhope observed, in the house, that as the bill had
raised strange apprehensions, he thought it advisable to postpone the
further consideration of it till a more proper opportunity. It was
accordingly dropped, and the parliament prorogued on the eighteenth day of
April, on which occasion his majesty told both houses that the Spanish
king had acknowledged the pretender.

1719

COUNT MERCI ASSUMES THE COMMAND OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY

The king having appointed lords-justices to rule the kingdom in his
absence, embarked in May for Holland, from whence he proceeded to Hanover,
where he concluded a peace with Ulrica, the new queen of Sweden. By this
treaty Sweden yielded for ever to the royal and electoral house of
Brunswick the duchies of Bremen and Verden, with all their dependencies;
king George obliged himself to pay a million of rix-dollars to the queen
of Sweden; and to renew, as king of Great Britain and elector of Hanover,
the alliances formerly subsisting between his predecessors and that
kingdom. He likewise mediated a peace between Sweden and his former
allies, the Danes, the Prussians, and the Poles. The czar, however,
refused to give up his schemes of conquest. He sent his fleet to the
Scheuron, or Bates of Sweden, where his troops landing to the number of
fifteen thousand, committed dreadful outrages: but sir John Norris, who
commanded an English squadron in those seas, having orders to support the
negotiations, and oppose any hostilities that might be committed, the
czar, dreading the fate of the Spanish navy, thought proper to recall his
fleet. In the Mediterranean, admiral Byng acted with unwearied vigour in
assisting the Imperialists to finish the conquest of Sicily. The court of
Vienna had agreed to send a strong body of forces to finish the reduction
of that island; and the command in this expedition was bestowed upon the
count de Merci, with whom sir George Byng conferred at Naples. This
admiral supplied them with ammunition and artillery from the Spanish
prizes. He took the whole reinforcement under his convoy, and saw them
safely landed in the bay of Patti, to the number of three thousand five
hundred horse, and ten thousand infantry. Count Merci thinking himself
more than a match for the Spanish forces commanded by the marquis de Lede,
attacked him in a strong camp at Franca-Villa, and was repulsed with the
loss of five thousand men, himself being dangerously wounded in the
action. Here his army must have perished for want of provisions, had they
not been supplied by the English navy.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

ACTIVITY OF ADMIRAL BYNG.

Admiral Byng no sooner learned the bad success of the attack at
Franca-Villa, than he embarked two battalions from the garrison of
Melazzo, and about a thousand recruits, whom he sent under a convoy
through the Baro to Scheso-bay, in order to reinforce the Imperial army.
He afterwards assisted at the council ol war with the German generals,
who, in consequence of his advice, undertook the siege of Messina. Then he
repaired to Naples, where he proposed to count Gallas, the new viceroy,
that the troops destined for the conquest of Sardinia should be first
landed in Sicily, and co-operate towards the conquest of that island. The
proposal was immediately despatched to the court of Vienna. In the
meantime, the admiral returned to Sicily, and assisted at the siege of
Messina. The town surrendered; the garrison retired into the citadel; and
the remains of the Spanish navy, which had escaped at Passaro, were now
destroyed in the Mole. The emperor approved of the scheme proposed by the
English admiral, to whom he wrote a very gracious letter, intimating that
he had despatched orders to the governor of Milan to detach the troops
designed for Sardinia to Vado, in order to be transported into Italy. The
admiral charged himself with the performance of this service. Having
furnished the Imperial army before Messina with another supply of cannon,
powder, and shot, upon his own credit, he set sail for Vado, where he
surmounted numberless difficulties started by the jealousy of count
Bonneval, who was unwilling to see his troops, destined for Sardinia, now
diverted to another expedition, in which he could not enjoy the chief
command. At length admiral Byng saw the forces embarked, and convoyed them
to Messina, the citadel of which surrendered in a few days after their
arrival. By this time the marquis de Lede had fortified a strong post at
Castro-Giovanne, in the centre of the island; and cantoned his troops
about Aderno, Palermo, and Catenea. The Imperialists could not pretend to
attack him in this situation, nor could they remain in the neighbourhood
of Messina on account of the scarcity of provisions. They would,
therefore, have been obliged to quit the island during the winter, had not
the admiral undertaken to transport them by sea to Trapani, where they
could extend themselves in a plentiful country. He not only executed this
enterprise, but even supplied them with corn from Tunis, as the harvests
of Sicily had been gathered into the Spanish magazines. It was the second
day of March before the last embarkation of the Imperial troops were
landed at Trapani.

THE SPANISH TROOPS EVACUATE SICILY.

The marquis de Lede immediately retired with his army to Alcamo, from
whence he sent his mareschal de camp to count Merci and the English
admiral, with overtures for evacuating Sicily. The proposals were not
disagreeable to the Germans: but sir George Byng declared that the
Spaniards should not quit the island while the war continued, as he
foresaw that these troops would be employed against France or England. He
agreed however with count Merci, in proposing that if the marquis would
surrender Palermo and retire into the middle part of the island, they
would consent to an armistice for six weeks, until the sentiments of their
different courts should be known. The marquis offered to surrender
Palermo, in consideration of a suspension of arms for three months; but,
while this negotiation was depending, he received advice from Madrid that
a general peace was concluded. Nevertheless, he broke off the treaty in
obedience to a secret order for that purpose. The king of Spain hoped to
obtain the restitution of St. Sebastian’s, Fontarabia, and other places
taken in the course of the war, in exchange for the evacuation of Sicily,
Hostilities were continued until the admiral received advice from the earl
of Stair, at Paris, that the Spanish ambassador at the Hague had signed
the quadruple alliance. By the same courier packets were delivered to the
count de Merci and the marquis de Lede, which last gave the admiral and
Imperial general to understand that he looked upon the peace as a thing
concluded, and was ready to treat for a cessation of hostilities. They
insisted on his delivering up Palermo; on the other hand he urged, that,
as their masters were in treaty for settling the terms of evacuating
Sicily and Sardinia, he did not think himself authorised to agree to a
cessation, except on condition that each party should remain on the ground
they occupied, and expect further orders from their principals. After a
fruitless interview between the three chiefs at the Cassine de Rossignola,
the Imperial general resolved to undertake the siege of Palermo; with this
view he decamped from Alcamo on the eighteenth day of April, and followed
the marquis de Lede, who retreated before him and took possession of the
advantageous posts that commanded the passes into the plain of Palermo;
but count Merci, with indefatigable diligence, marched over the mountains,
while the admiral coasted along shore, attending the motions of the army.
The Spanish general perceiving the Germans advancing into the plain,
retired under the cannon of Palermo, and fortified his camp with strong
entrenchments. On the second day of May the Germans took one of the
enemy’s redoubts by surprise, and the marquis de Lede ordered all his
forces to be drawn out to retake this fortification: both armies were on
the point of engaging, when a courier arrived in a felucca with a packet
for the marquis, containing full powers to treat and agree about the
evacuation of the island, and the transportation of the army to Spain. He
forthwith drew off his army; and sent a trumpet to the general and
admiral, with letters, informing them of the orders he had received:
commissioners were appointed on each side, the negotiations begun, and the
convention signed in a very few days. The Germans were put in possession
of Palermo, and the Spanish army marched to Tauromini, from whence they
were transported to Barcelona.

PHILIP OBLIGED TO ACCEDE TO THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE.

The admiral continued in the Mediterranean until he had seen the islands
of Sicily and Sardinia evacuated by the Spaniards, and the mutual cessions
executed between the emperor and the duke of Savoy, in consequence of
which four battalions of Piedmontese troops were transported from Palermo
to Sardinia, and took possession of Cagliari in the name of their master.
In a word, admiral Byng bore such a considerable share in this war of
Sicily, that the fate of the island depended wholly on his courage,
vigilance, and conduct. When he waited on his majesty at Hanover, he met
with a very gracious reception. The king told him he had found out the
secret of obliging his enemies as well as his friends; for the court of
Spain had mentioned him in the most honourable terms, with respect to his
candid and friendly deportment in providing transports and other
necessaries for the embarkation of their troops, and in protecting them
from oppression. He was appointed treasurer of the navy, and rear-admiral
of Great Britain: in a little time the king ennobled him, by the title of
viscount Torrington: he was declared a privy-counsellor, and afterwards
made knight of the bath at the revival of that order. During these
occurrences in the Mediterranean, the duke of Berwick advanced with the
French army to the frontiers of Spain, where he took Port-Passage and
destroyed six ships of war that were on the stocks; then he reduced
Fontarabia and St. Sebastian’s, together with Port Antonio in the bottom
of the bay of Biscay. In this last exploit the French were assisted by a
detachment of English seamen, who burned two large ships unfinished, and a
great quantity of naval stores. The king of England, with a view to
indemnify himself for the expense of the war, projected the conquest of
Corunna in Biscay, and of Peru in South America. Four thousand men,
commanded by lord Cobham, were embarked at the Isle of Wight, and sailed
on the twenty-first day of September, under convoy of five ships of war
conducted by admiral Mighels. Instead of making an attempt upon Corunna,
they reduced Vigo with very little difficulty; and Point-a-Vedra submitted
without resistance: here they found some brass artillery, small arms, and
military stores, with which they returned to England. In the meantime
captain Johnson, with two English ships of war, destroyed the same number
of Spanish ships in the port of Ribadeo, to the eastward of Cape Ortegas,
so that the naval power of Spain was totally ruined. The expedition to the
West Indies was prevented by the peace. Spain being oppressed on all
sides, and utterly exhausted, Philip saw the necessity of a speedy
pacification. He now perceived the madness of Alberoni’s ambitious
projects. That minister was personally disagreeable to the emperor, the
king of England, and the regent of France, who had declared they would
hearken to no proposals while he should continue in office: the Spanish
monarch, therefore, divested him of his employment, and ordered him to
quit the kingdom in three weeks. The marquis de Beretti Landi, minister
from the court of Madrid at the Hague, delivered a plan of pacification to
the states; hat it was rejected by the allies; and Philip was obliged at
last to accede to the quadruple alliance.

BILL FOR SECURING THE DEPENDENCY OF IRELAND UPON THE CROWN.

On the fourteenth day of November, king George returned to England, and on
the twenty-third opened the session of parliament with a speech, in which
he told them that all Europe, as well as Great Britain, was on the point
of being delivered from the calamities of war by the influence of British
arms and councils. He exhorted the commons to concert proper means for
lessening the debts of the nation, and concluded with a panegyric upon his
own government. It must be owned he had acted with equal vigour and
deliberation in all the troubles he had encountered since his accession to
the throne. The addresses of both houses were as warm as he could desire.
They in particular extolled him for having interposed in behalf of the
protestants of Hungary, Poland, and Germany, who had been oppressed by the
practices of the popish clergy, and presented to him memorials containing
a detail of their grievances. He and all the other protestant powers
warmly interceded in their favour, but the grievances were not redressed.
The peerage bill was now revived by the duke of Buckingham; and, in spite
of all opposition, passed through the house of lords. It had been
projected by earl Stanhope, and eagerly supported by the earl of
Sunderland; therefore, Mr. Robert Walpole attacked it in the house of
commons with extraordinary vehemence. Here too it was opposed by a
considerable number of whig members; and, after warm debates, rejected by
a large majority. The next object that engrossed the attention of the
parliament was a bill for better securing the dependency of Ireland upon
the crown of Great Britain. Maurice Annesley had appealed to the house of
peers in England, from a decree of the house of peers in Ireland, which
was reversed. The British peers ordered the barons of the exchequer in
Ireland to put Mr. Annesley in possession of the lands he had lost by the
decree in that kingdom. The barons obeyed this order; and the Irish house
of peers passed a vote against them, as having acted in derogation to the
king’s prerogative in his high court of parliament in Ireland, as also of
the rights and privileges of that kingdom, and of the parliament thereof;
they likewise ordered them to be taken into custody of the usher of the
black rod: they transmitted a long representation to the king,
demonstrating their right to the final judicature of causes: and the duke
of Leeds, in the upper house, urged fifteen reasons to support the claim
of the Irish peers. Notwithstanding these arguments, the house of lords in
England resolved that the barons of the exchequer in Ireland had acted
with courage, according to law, in support of his majesty’s prerogative,
and with fidelity to the crown of Great Britain. They addressed the king
to confer on them some marks of his royal favour, as a recompence for the
ill usage they had undergone. Finally, they prepared the bill, by which
the Irish house of lords was deprived of all right to pass sentence,
affirm, or reverse any judgment or decree, given or made in any court
within that kingdom. In the house of commons it was opposed by Mr. Pitt,
Mr. Hungerford, lords Molesworth and Tyr-connel; but was carried by the
majority, and received the royal assent.

SOUTH-SEA ACT

The king having recommended to the commons the consideration of proper
means for lessening the national debt, was a prelude to the famous
South-Sea act, which became productive of so much mischief and infatuation
The scheme was projected by sir John Blunt, who had been bred a scrivener,
and was possessed of all the cunning, plausibility, and boldness requisite
for such an undertaking. He communicated his plan to Mr. Aislaby, the
chancellor of the exchequer, as well as to one of the secretaries of
state. He answered all their objections; and the project was adopted. They
foresaw their own private advantage in the execution of their design,
which was imparted in the name of the South-Sea company, of which Blunt
was a director, who influenced all their proceedings. The pretence for the
scheme was to discharge the national debt, by reducing all the funds into
one. The bank and South-Sea company outbid each other. The South-Sea
company altered their original plan, and offered such high terms to
government, that the proposals of the bank were rejected; and a bill was
ordered to be brought into the house of commons, formed on the plan
presented by the South-Sea company. While this affair was in agitation,
the stock of that company rose from one hundred and thirty to near four
hundred, in consequence of the conduct of the commons, who had rejected a
motion for a clause in the bill, to fix what share in the capital stock of
the company should be vested in those proprietors of the annuities who
might voluntarily subscribe; or how many year’s purchase in money they
should receive in subscribing, at the choice of the proprietors.

1720

In the house of lords, the bill was opposed by lord North and Grey, earl
Cowper, the dukes of Wharton, Buckingham, and other peers; they affirmed
it was calculated for enriching a few and impoverishing a great number:
that it countenanced the fraudulent and pernicious practice of
stock-jobbing, which diverted the genius of the people from trade and
industry: that it would give foreigners the opportunity to double and
treble the vast sums they had in the public funds; and they would be
tempted to realize and withdraw their capital and immense gains to other
countries; so that Great Britain would be drained of all its gold and
silver; that the artificial and prodigious rise of the South-Sea stock was
a dangerous bait, which might decoy many unwary people to their ruin,
alluring them by a false prospect of gain to part with the fruits of their
industry, to purchase imaginary riches; that the addition of above thirty
millions capital would give such power to the South-Sea company, as might
endanger the liberties of the nation; for by their extensive interest they
would be able to influence most, if not all the elections of the members;
and, consequently, over-rule the resolutions of the house of commons. Earl
Cowper urged, that in all public bargains the individuals of the
administration ought to take care, that thay shall be more advantageous to
the state than to private persons; but that a contrary method had been
followed in the contract made with the South-Sea company; for, should the
stocks be kept at the advanced price to which they had been raised by the
oblique arts of stock-jobbing, either that company or its principal
members would gain above thirty millions, of which no more than one-fourth
part would be given towards the discharge of the national debts. He
apprehended that the re-purchase of annuities would meet with insuperable
difficulties; and, in such case, none but a few persons who were in the
secret, who had bought stocks at a low rate, and afterwards sold them at a
high price, would in the end be gainers by the project. The earl of
Sunderland answered their objections. He declared that those who
countenanced the scheme of the South-Sea company, had nothing in view but
the advantage of the nation. He owned that the managers for that company
had undoubtedly a prospect of private gain, either to themselves or to
their corporation; but, he said, when the scheme was accepted, neither the
one nor the other could foresee that the stocks would have risen to such a
height; that if they had continued as they were, the public would have had
the far greater share of the advantage accruing from the scheme; and
should they be kept up to the present high price, it was but reasonable
that the South-Sea company should enjoy the profits procured to it by the
wise management and industry of the directors, which would enable it to
make large dividends, and thereby accomplish the purpose of the scheme.
The bill passed without amendment or division; and on the seventh day of
April received the royal assent. By this act the South-Sea company was
authorised to take in, by purchase or subscription, the irredeemable debts
of the nation, stated at sixteen millions five hundred forty-six thousand
four hundred and eighty-two pounds, seven shillings and one penny
farthing, at such times as they should find convenient before the first
day of March of the ensuing year, and without any compulsion on any of the
proprietors, at such rates and prices as should be agreed upon between the
company and the respective proprietors. They were likewise authorised to
take in all the redeemable debts, amounting to the same sum as that of the
irredeemables, either by purchase, by taking subscriptions, or by paying
off the creditors. For the liberty of taking in the national debts, and
increasing their capital stock accordingly, the company consented that
their present, and to be increased annuity, should be continued at five
per cent, till Midsummer, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
twenty-seven; from thence to be reduced to four per cent, and be
redeemable by parliament. In consideration of this, and other advantages
expressed in the act, the company declared themselves willing to make such
payments into the receipt of the exchequer as were specified for the use
of the public, to be applied to the discharge of the public debts incurred
before Christmas, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixteen. The
sums they were obliged to pay for the liberty of taking in the redeemable
debts, four years and a half’s purchase for all long and short annuities
that should be subscribed, and one year’s purchase for such long annuities
as should not be subscribed, amounted on the execution of the act to about
seven millions. For enabling the company to raise this sum, they were
empowered to make calls for money from their members; to open books of
subscription; to grant annuities redeemable by the company; to borrow
money upon any contract or bill under their common seal, or on the credit
of their capital stock; to convert the money demanded of their members
into additional stock, without, however, making any addition to the
company’s annuities, payable out of the public duties. It was enacted,
that out of the first monies arising from the sums paid by the company
into the exchequer, such public debts, carrying interest at five per cent,
incurred before the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixteen, founded upon any former act of parliament, as
were now redeemable, or might be redeemed by the twenty-fifth day of
December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, should be
discharged in the first place: that then all the remainder should be
applied towards paying off so much of the capital stock of the company as
should then carry an interest of five per cent. It was likewise provided,
that, after Midsummer in the year one thousand seven hundred and
twenty-seven, the company should not be paid off in any sums being less
than one million at a time.

CHARTERS GRANTED TO THE ROYAL AND LONDON ASSURANCE OFFICES.

The heads of the Royal-Assurance and London-Assurance companies,
understanding that the civil-list was considerably in arrears, offered to
the ministry six hundred thousand pounds towards the discharge of that
debt, on condition of their obtaining the king’s charter, with a
parliamentary sanction, for the establishment of their respective
companies. The proposal was embraced; and the king communicated it in a
message to the house of commons, desiring their concurrence. A bill was
immediately passed, enabling his majesty to grant letters of incorporation
to the two companies. It soon obtained the royal assent; and, on the
eleventh day of June, an end was put to the session. This was the age of
interested projects, inspired by a venal spirit of adventure, the natural
consequence of that warice, fraud, and profligacy, which the monied
corporations had introduced. This of all others is the most unfavourable
era for an historian. A reader of sentiment and imagination cannot be
entertained or interested by a dry detail of such transactions as admit of
no warmth, no colouring, no embellishment, a detail which serves only to
exhibit an inanimate picture of tasteless vice and mean degeneracy.

TREATY OF ALLIANCE WITH SWEDEN.

By this time an alliance offensive and defensive was concluded at
Stockholm between king George and the queen of Sweden, by which his
majesty engaged to send a fleet into the Baltic to act against the czar of
Muscovy, in case that monarch should reject reasonable proposals of peace.
Peter loudly complained of the insolent interposition of king George,
alleging that he had failed in his engagements, both as elector of Hanover
and king of Great Britain. His resident at London presented a long
memorial on this subject, which was answered by the British and Hanoverian
ministry. These recriminations served only to inflame the difference. The
czar continued to prosecute the war, and at length concluded a peace
without a mediator. At the instances, however of king George and the
regent of France, a treaty of peace was signed between the queen of Sweden
and the king of Prussia, to whom that princess ceded the city of Stetin,
the district between the rivers Oder and Pehnne, with the isles of Wollin
and Usedom. On the other hand, he engaged to join the king of Great
Britain in his endeavours to effect a peace between Sweden and Denmark, on
condition that the Danish king should restore to queen Ulrica that part of
Pomerania which he had seized; he likewise promised to pay to that queen
two millions of rix-dollars in consideration of the cessions she had made.
The treaty between Sweden and Denmark was signed at Frederickstadt in the
month of June, through the mediation of the king of Great Britain, who
became guarantee for the Dane’s keeping possession of Sleswick. He
consented, however, to restore the Upper Pomerania, the isle of Rugen, the
city of Wismar, and whatever he had taken from Sweden during the war, in
consideration of Sweden’s renouncing the exemption from toll in the Sound
and the two Belts, and paying to Denmark six hundred thousand rix-dollars.

THE PRINCE OF HESSE ELECTED KING OF SWEDEN.

Sir John Norris had again sailed to the Baltic with a strong squadron to
give weight to the king’s mediation. When he arrived at Copenhagen he
wrote a letter to prince Dolgorouki, the czar’s ambassador at the court of
Denmark, signifying that he and the king’s envoy at Stockholm were vested
with full powers to act jointly or separately in quality of
plenipotentiaries, in order to effect a peace between Sweden and Muscovy,
in the way of mediation. The prince answered that the czar had nothing
more at heart than peace and tranquillity; and in case his Britannic
majesty had any proposals to make to that prince, he hoped the admiral
would excuse him from receiving them, as they might be delivered in a much
more compendious way. The English fleet immediately joined that of Sweden
as auxiliaries; but they had no opportunity of acting against the Russian
squadron, which secured itself in Revel. Ulrica, queen of Sweden, and
sister to Charles XII., had married the prince of Hesse, and was extremely
desirous that he should be joined with her in the administration of the
regal power. She wrote a separate letter to each of the four States,
desiring they would confer on him the sovereignty; and after some
opposition from the nobles, he was actually elected king of Sweden. He
sent one of his general officers to notify his elevation to the czar, who
congratulated him upon his accession to the throne: this was the beginning
of a negotiation which ended in peace, and established the tranquillity of
the North. In the midst of these transactions, king George set out from
England for his Hanoverian dominions; but before he departed from Great
Britain, he was reconciled to the prince of Wales, through the endeavours
of the duke of Devonshire and Mr. Walpole, who, with earl Cowper, lord
Townshend, Mr. Methuen, and Mr. Pulteney, were received into favour, and
re-united with the ministry. The earls of Dorset and Bridgewater were
promoted to the title of dukes; lord viscount Castleton was made an earl;
Hugh Boscawen was created a baron, and viscount Falmouth; and John Wallop
baron, and viscount Lymington.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

EFFECTS OF THE SOUTH-SEA SCHEME.

While the king was involved at Hanover in a labyrinth of negotiations, the
South-Sea scheme produced a kind of national delirium in his English
dominions. Blunt, the projector, had taken the hint of his plan from the
famous Mississippi scheme formed by Law, which in the preceding year had
raised such a ferment in France, and entailed rain upon many thousand
families of that kingdom. In the scheme of Law there was something
substantial. An exclusive trade to Louisiana promised some advantage;
though the design was defeated by the frantic eagerness of the people. Law
himself became the dupe of the regent, who transferred the burden of
fifteen hundred millions of the king’s debts to the shoulders of the
subjects, while the projector was sacrificed as the scape-goat of the
political iniquity. The South-Sea scheme promised no commercial advantage
of any consequence. It was buoyed up by nothing but the folly and
rapaciousness of individuals, which became so blind and extravagant, that
Blunt, with moderate talents, was able to impose upon the whole nation,
and make tools of the other directors, to serve his own purposes and those
of a few associates. When this projector found that the South-Sea stock
did not rise according to his expectation upon the bill’s being passed, he
circulated a report that Gibraltar and Port-Mahon would be exchanged for
some places in Teru; by which means the English trade to the South-Sea
would be protected and enlarged. This rumour, diffused by his emissaries,
acted like a contagion. In five days the directors opened their books for
a subscription of one million, at the rate of three hundred pounds for
every hundred pounds capital. Persons of all ranks crowded to the house in
such a manner that the first subscription exceeded two millions of
original stock. In a few days this stock advanced to three hundred and
forty pounds; and the subscriptions were sold for double the price of the
first payment. Without entering into a detail of the proceedings, or
explaining the scandalous arts that were practised to enhance the value of
the stock, and decoy the unwary, we shall only observe, that by the
promise of prodigious dividends and other infamous arts, the stock was
raised to one thousand; and the whole nation infected with the spirit of
stock-jobbing to an astonishing degree. All distinction of party,
religion, sex, character, and circumstances, were swallowed up in this
universal concern, or in some such pecuniary project. Exchange-Alley was
filled with a strange concourse of statesmen and clergymen, churchmen and
dissenters, whigs and tories, physicians, lawyers, tradesmen, and even
with multitudes of females. All other professions and employments were
utterly neglected; and the people’s attention wholly engrossed by this and
other chimerical schemes, which were known by the denomination of bubbles.
New companies started up every day under the countenance of the prime
nobility. The prince of Wales was constituted governor of the Welsh copper
company; the duke of Chandos appeared at the head of the York-buildings
company; the duke of Bridgewater formed a third, for building houses in
London and Westminster. About an hundred such schemes were projected and
put in execution, to the ruin of many thousands. The sums proposed to be
raised by these expedients amounted to three hundred millions sterling,
which exceeded the value of all the lands in England. The nation was so
intoxicated with the spirit of adventure, that people became a prey to the
grossest delusion. An obscure projector, pretending to have formed a very
advantageous scheme, which, however, he did not explain, published
proposals for a subscription, in which he promised that in one month the
particulars of his project should be disclosed. In the meantime he
declared that every person paying two guineas should be entitled to a
subscription for one hundred pounds, which would produce that sum yearly.
In one forenoon this adventurer received a thousand of these
subscriptions; and in the evening set out for another kingdom. The king,
before his departure, had issued a proclamation against these unlawful
projects; the lords-justices afterwards dismissed all the petitions that
had been presented for charters and patents; and the prince of Wales
renounced the company of which he had been elected governor. The South-Sea
scheme raised such a flood of eager avidity and extravagant hope, that the
majority of the directors were swept along with it, even contrary to their
own sense and inclination; but Blunt and his accomplices still directed
the stream.

The infatuation prevailed till the eighth day of September, when the stock
began to fall. Then did some of the adventurers awake from their delirium.
The number of the sellers daily increased. On the twenty-ninth day of the
month the stock had sunk to one hundred and fifty; several eminent
goldsmiths and bankers, who had lent great sums upon it, were obliged to
stop payment and abscond. The ebb of this portentous tide was so violent,
that it bore down everything in its way; and an infinite number of
families were overwhelmed with ruin. Public credit sustained a terrible
shock; the nation was thrown into a dangerous ferment; and nothing was
heard but the ravings of grief, disappointment, and despair. Some
principal members of the ministry were deeply concerned in these fradulent
transactions; when they saw the price of stock sinking daily, they
employed all their influence with the bank to support the credit of the
South-Sea company. That corporation agreed, though with reluctance, to
subscribe into the stock of the South-Sea company, valued at four hundred
per cent., three millions five hundred thousand pounds, which the company
was to repay to the bank on Lady-day and Michaelmas of the ensuing year.
This transaction was managed by Mr. Robert Walpole, who, with his own
hand, wrote the minute of agreement, afterwards known by the name of the
bank contract. Books were opened at the bank to take in a subscription for
the support of public credit; and considerable sums of money were brought
in. By this expedient the stock was raised at first, and those who
contrived it seized the opportunity to realize. But the bankruptcy of
goldsmiths and the sword-blade company, from the fall of South-Sea stock,
occasioned such a run upon the bank, that the money was paid away faster
than it could be received from the subscription. Then the South-Sea stock
sunk again; and the directors of the bank, finding themselves in danger of
being involved in that company’s ruin, renounced the agreement; which
indeed they were under no obligation to perform, for it was drawn up in
such a manner as to be no more than the rough draft of a subsequent
agreement, without due form, penalty, or clause of obligation. All
expedients having failed, and the clamours of the people daily increasing,
expresses were despatched to Hanover, representing the state of the
nation, and pressing the king to return. He accordingly shortened his
intended stay in Germany, and arrived in England on the eleventh day of
November.

A SECRET COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The parliament being assembled on the eighth day of December, his majesty
expressed his concern for the unhappy turn of affairs, which had so deeply
affected the public credit at home: he earnestly desired the commons to
consider of the most effectual and speedy methods to restore the national
credit, and fix it upon a lasting establishment. The lower house was too
much interested in the calamity to postpone the consideration of that
subject. The members seemed to lay aside all party distinctions, and vie
with each other in promoting an inquiry, by which justice might be done to
the injured nation. They ordered the directors to produce an account of
all their proceedings. Sir Joseph Jekyll moved that a select committee
might be appointed to examine the particulars of this transaction. Mr.
Walpole, now paymaster of the forces, observed, that such a method would
protract the inquiry, while the public credit lay in a bleeding condition.
He told the house he had formed a scheme for restoring public credit; but,
before he would communicate this plan, desired to know whether the
subscriptions of public debts and incumbrances, money-subscriptions and
other contracts made with the South-Sea company, should remain in the
present state. After a warm debate, the question was carried in the
affirmative, with this addition, “Unless altered for the ease and relief
of the proprietors, by a general court of the South-Sea company, or set
aside in due course of law.” Next day Walpole produced his scheme,—to
ingraft nine millions of South-Sea stock into the bank of England, and the
like sum into the East India company, on certain conditions. The house
voted, that proposals should be received from the bank, and those two
companies on this subject. These being delivered the commons resolved,
that an engrossment of nine millions of the capital stock of the South-Sea
company into the capital stock of the bank and East-India company, as
proposed by these companies, would contribute very much to the restoring
public credit. A bill upon this resolution was brought in, passed through
both houses, and received the royal assent. Another bill was enacted into
a law, for restraining the sub-governor, deputy-governor, directors,
treasurer, under-treasurer, cashier, secretary, and accountants, of the
South-Sea company, from quitting the kingdom till the end of the next
session of parliament; and for discovering their estates and effects, so
as to prevent them from being transported or alienated. A committee of
secrecy was chosen by ballot, to examine all the books, papers, and
proceedings relating to the execution of the South-Sea act.

The lords were not less eager than the commons to prosecute this inquiry,
though divers members in both houses were deeply involved in the guilt and
infamy of the transaction. Earl Stanhope said the estates of the
criminals, whether directors or not directors, ought to be confiscated, to
repair the public losses. He was seconded by lord Carteret, and even by
the earl of Sunderland. The duke of Wharton declared he would give up the
best friend he had should he be found guilty. He observed, that the nation
had been plundered in a most flagrant and notorious manner; therefore,
they ought to find out and punish the offenders severely, without respect
to persons. The sub and deputy-governors, the directors and officers of
the South-Sea company, were examined at the bar of the house. Then a bill
was brought in, disabling them to enjoy any office in that company, or in
the East-India company, or in the bank of England. Three brokers were
likewise examined, and made great discoveries. Knight, the treasurer of
the South-Sea company, who had been entrusted with the secrets of the
whole affair, thought proper to withdraw himself from the kingdom. A
proclamation was issued to apprehend him; and another for preventing any
of the directors from escaping out of the kingdom. At this period, the
secret committee informed the house of commons that they had already
discovered a train of the deepest villany and fraud that hell ever
contrived to ruin a nation, which in due time they would lay before the
house; in the meanwhile, they thought it highly necessary to secure the
persons of some of the directors and principal officers of the South-Sea
company, as well as to seize their papers. An order was made to secure the
books and papers of Knight, Surman, and Turner. The persons of sir George
Caswell, sir John Blunt, sir John Lambert, sir John Fellows, and Mr.
Grigsby, were taken into custody; sir Theodore Janssen, Mr. Sawbridge, sir
Robert Chaplain, and Mr. Eyles, were expelled the house and apprehended.
Mr. Aislaby resigned his employments of chancellor of the exchequer and
lord of the treasury; and orders were given to remove all directors of the
South-Sea company from the places they possessed under the government.

The lords, in the course of their examination, discovered that large
portions of South-Sea stock had been given to several persons in the
administration and house of commons, for promoting the passing of the
South-Sea act. The house immediately resolved, that this practice was a
notorious and most dangerous species of corruption: that the directors of
the South-Sea company having ordered great quantities of their stock to be
bought for the service of the company, when it was at a very high price,
and on pretence of keeping up the price of stock; and at the same time
several of the directors, and other officers belonging to the company,
having, in a clandestine manner, sold their own stock to the company, such
directors and officers were guilty of a notorious fraud and breach of
trust, and their so doing was one great cause of the unhappy turn of
affairs that had so much affected public credit. Many other resolutions
were taken against that infamous confederacy, in which, however, the
innocent were confounded with the guilty. Sir John Blunt refusing to
answer certain interrogations, a violent debate arose about the manner in
which he should be treated. The duke of Wharton observed, that the
government of the best princes was sometimes rendered intolerable to their
subjects by bad ministers: he mentioned the example of Sejanus, who had
made a division in the imperial family, and rendered the reign of Cladius
hateful to the Romans. Earl Stanhope conceiving this reflection was aimed
at him, was seized with a transport of anger. He undertook to vindicate
the ministry; and spoke with such vehemence as produced a violent
headache, which obliged him to retire. He underwent proper evacuations,
and seemed to recover; but next day, in the evening, became lethargic, and
being seized with a suffocation, instantly expired. The king deeply
regretted the death of this favourite minister, which was the more
unfortunate as it happened at such a critical conjuncture; and he
appointed lord Town-shend to fill his place of secretary. Earl Stanhope
was survived but a few days by the other secretary Mr. Craggs, who died of
the small-pox on the sixteenth day of February. Knight, the cashier of the
South-Sea company, being seized at Tirlemont by the vigilance of Mr.
Gandot, secretary to Mr. Loathes the British resident at Brussels, was
confined in the citadel of Antwerp. Application was made to the court of
Vienna, that he should be delivered to such persons as might be appointed
to receive him; but he had found means to interest the states of Brabant
in his behalf. They insisted upon their privilege granted by charter, that
no person apprehended for any crime in Brabant should be tried in any
other country. The house of commons expressed their indignation at this
frivolous pretence; instances were renewed to the emperor; and in the
meantime Knight escaped from the citadel of Antwerp.

SEVERE RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE SOUTH-SEA COMPANY.

The committee of secrecy found, that, before any subscription could be
made, a fictitious stock of five hundred and seventy-four thousand pounds
had been disposed of by the directors, to facilitate the passing the bill.
Great part of this was distributed among the earl of Sunderland, Mr.
Craggs, senior, the duchess of Kendal, the countess of Platen and her two
nieces, Mr. Secretary Craggs, and Mr. Aislaby chancellor of the exchequer.
In consequence of the committee’s report, the house came to several
severe, though just, resolutions against the directors and officers of the
South-Sea company; and a bill was prepared for the relief of the unhappy
sufferers. Mr. Stanhope, one of the secretaries of the treasury, charged
in the report with having large quantities of stock and subscriptions,
desired that he might have an opportunity to clear himself. His request
was granted; and the affair being discussed, he was cleared by a majority
of three voices. Fifty thousand pounds in stock had been taken by Knight
for the use of the earl of Sunderland. Great part of the house entered
eagerly into this inquiry; and a violent dispute ensued. The whole
strength of the ministry was mustered in his defence. The majority
declared him innocent: the nation in general was of another opinion. He
resigned his place of first commissioner in the treasury, which was
bestowed upon Mr. Robert Walpole; but he still retained the confidence of
his master. With respect to Mr. Aislaby, the evidence appeared so strong
against him, that the commons resolved, he had promoted the distinctive
execution of the South-Sea scheme, with a view to his own exorbitant
profit, and combined with the directors in their pernicious practices to
the ruin of public credit. He was expelled the house, and committed to the
Tower. Mr. Craggs, senior, died of a lethargy, before he underwent the
censure of the house. Nevertheless they resolved that he was a notorious
accomplice with Robert Knight, and some of the directors, in carrying on
their scandalous practices; and therefore, that all the estate of which he
was possessed, from the first day of December in the preceding year,
should be applied towards the relief of the unhappy sufferers in the
South-Sea company. The directors, in obedience to the orders of the house,
delivered in inventories of their estates, which were confiscated by act
of parliament, towards making good the damages sustained by the company,
after a certain allowance was deducted for each according to his conduct
and circumstances.

1721

The delinquents being thus punished by the forfeiture of their fortunes,
the house converted their attention to means for repairing the mischiefs
which the scheme had produced. This was a very difficult task, on account
of the contending interests of those engaged in the South-Sea company,
which rendered it impossible to relieve some but at the expense of others.
Several wholesome resolutions were taken, and presented with an address to
the king, explaining the motives of their proceedings. On the twenty-ninth
day of July, the parliament was prorogued for two days only. Then his
majesty going to the house of peers, declared that he had called them
together again so suddenly, that they might resume the consideration of
the state of public credit. The commons immediately prepared a bill upon
the resolutions they had taken. The whole capital stock, at the end of the
year one thousand seven hundred and twenty, amounted to about thirty-seven
millions eight hundred thousand pounds. The stock allotted to all the
proprietors did not exceed twenty-four millions five hundred thousand
pounds; the remaining capital stock belonged to the company in their
corporate capacity. It was the profit arising from the execution of the
South-Sea scheme; and out of this the bill enacted, that seven millions
should be paid to the public. The present act likewise directed several
additions to be made to the stock of the proprietors, out of that
possessed by the company in their own right; it made a particular
distribution of stock, amounting to two millions two hun dred thousand
pounds; and upon remitting five millions of the seven to be paid to the
public, annihilated two millions of their capital. It was enacted, that,
after these distributions, the remaining capital stock should be divided
among all the proprietors. This dividend amounted to thirty-three pounds
six shillings and eight-pence per cent, and deprived the company of eight
millions nine hundred thousand pounds. They had lent above eleven millions
on stock unredeemed; of which the parliament discharged all the debtors,
upon their paying ten per cent. Upon this article the company’s loss
exceeded six millions nine hundred thousand pounds, for many debtors
refused to make any payment. The proprietors of the stock loudly
complained of their being deprived of two millions; and the parliament in
the sequel revived that sum which had been annihilated. While this affair
was in agitation, petitions from counties, cities, and boroughs, in all
parts of the kingdom, were presented to the house, crying for justice
against the villany of the directors. Pamphlets and papers were daily
published on the same subject; so that the whole nation was exasperated to
the highest pitch of resentment. Nevertheless, by the wise and vigorous
resolutions of the parliament, the South-Sea company was soon in a
condition to fulfil their engagements with the public; the ferment of the
people subsided; and the credit of the nation was restored.

CHAPTER III.

Bill against Atheism and Immorality postponed….. Session
closed….. Alliances between Great Britain, France, and
Spain….. Plague at Marseilles….. Debates in the House of
Lords about Mr. Law the Projector….. Sentiments of some
Lords touching the War with Spain….. Petition of the
Quakers….. The Parliament dissolved….. Rumours of a
Conspiracy….. The Bishop of Rochester is committed to the
Tower….. New Parliament….. Declaration of the
Pretender….. Report of the Secret Committee….. Bill of
Pains and Penalties against the Bishop of Rochester….. Who
is deprived and driven into perpetual Exile….. Proceedings
against those concerned in the Lottery at Hamburgh…..
Affairs of the Continent….. Clamour in Ireland on account
of Wood’s Coinage….. Death of the Duke of Orleans….. An
Act for lessening the Public Debts….. Philip King of Spain
abdicates the Throne….. Abuses in Chancery….. Trial of
the Earl of Macclesfield….. Debates about the Debts of the
Civil List….. A Bill in favour of the late Lord
Bolingbroke….. Treaty of Alliance between the Courts of
Vienna and Madrid….. Treaty of Hanover….. Approved in
Parliament….. Riots in Scotland on account of the Malt-
tax….. A small Squadron sent to the Baltic….. Admiral
Hosier’s Expedition to the West Indies….. Disgrace of the
Duke de Ripperda….. Substance of the King’s Speech to
Parliament….. Debate in the House of Lords upon the
approaching Rupture with the Emperor and Spain….. Memorial
of Mr. Palms, the Imperial Resident at London…..
Conventions with Sweden and Hesse-Cassel….. Vote of
Credit….. Siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards…..
Preliminaries of Peace….. Death and Character of George I.
King of Great Britain.

GEORGE I., 1714-1727

BILL AGAINST ATHEISM.

During the infatuation produced by this infamous scheme, luxury, vice, and
profligacy, increased to a shocking degree of extravagance. The
adventurers, intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered themselves
with the rarest dainties, and the most expensive wines that could be
imported; they purchased the most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and
apparel, though without taste or discernment; they indulged their criminal
passions to the most scandalous excess; their discourse was the language
of pride, insolence, and the most ridiculous ostentation; they affected to
scoff at religion and morality, and even to set heaven at defiance. The
earl of Nottingham complained in the house of lords of the growth of
atheism, profaneness, and immorality; and a bill was brought in for
suppressing blasphemy and profaneness. It contained several articles
seemingly calculated to restrain the liberty granted to nonconformists by
the laws of the last session: for that reason it met with violent
opposition. It was supported by the archbishop of Canterbury, the earl of
Nottingham, lords Bathurst and Trevor, the bishops of London, Winchester,
and Litchfield and Coventry. One of these said, he verily believed the
present calamity occasioned by the South-Sea project, was a judgment of
God on the blasphemy and profaneness of the nation. Lord Onslow replied,
“That noble peer must then be a great sinner, for he has lost considerably
by the South-Sea scheme.” The duke of Wharton, who had rendered himself
famous by his wit and profligacy, said he was not insensible of the common
opinion of the town concerning himself, and gladly seized this opportunity
of vindicating his character, by declaring he was far from being a patron
of blasphemy, or an enemy to religion. On the other hand, he could not but
oppose the bill, because he conceived it to be repugnant to the holy
scripture. Then pulling an old family bible from his pocket, he quoted
several passages from the epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul; concluding
with a desire that the bill might be thrown out. The earl of Peterborough
declared, that though he was for a parliamentary king, yet he did not
desire to have a parliamentary God, or a parliamentary religion; and,
should the house declare for one of this kind, he would go to Rome and
endeavour to be chosen a cardinal; for he had rather sit in a conclave
than with their lordships upon those terms. After a vehement debate, the
bill was postponed to a long day, by a considerable majority. The season
was far advanced before the supplies were granted; and at length they were
not voted with that cheerfulness and good humour which the majority had
hitherto manifested on such occasions. On the sixteenth day of June, the
king sent a message to the house of commons, importing, that he had agreed
to pay a subsidy to the crown of Sweden, and he hoped they would enable
him to make good his engagements. The leaders of the opposition took fire
at this intimation. They desired to know whether this subsidy, amounting
to seventy-two thousand pounds, was to be paid to Sweden over and above
the expense of maintaining a strong squadron in the Baltic? Lord
Molesworth observed, that, by our late conduct, we were become the allies
of the whole world, and the bubbles of all our allies: for we were obliged
to pay them well for their assistance. He affirmed that the treaties which
had been made with Sweden at different times, were inconsistent and
contradictory; that our late engagements with that crown were contrary to
the treaties subsisting with Denmark, and directly opposite to the
measures formerly concerted with the czar of Muscovy. He said, that in
order to engage the czar to yield what he had gained in the course of the
war, the king of Prussia ought to give up Stetin, and the elector of
Hanover restore Bremen and Verden; that, after all, England had no
business to intermeddle with the affairs of the empire; that we reaped
little or no advantage by our trade to the Baltic, but that of procuring
naval stores; he owned that hemp was a very necessary commodity,
particularly at this juncture; but he insisted that if due encouragement
were given to some of our plantations in America, we might be supplied
from thence at a much cheaper rate than from Sweden and Norway.
Notwithstanding these arguments, the Swedish supply was granted; and, in
about three weeks, their complaisance was put to another proof. They were
given to understand, by a second message, that the debts of the civil list
amounted to five hundred and fifty thousand pounds; and his majesty hoped
they would empower him to raise that sum upon the revenue, as he proposed
it should be replaced in the civil list, and reimbursed by a deduction
from the salaries and wages of all officers, as well as from the pensions
and other payments from the crown. A bill was prepared for this purpose,
though not without warm opposition; and, at the same time, an act passed
for a general pardon. On the tenth day of August, the king closed the
session with a speech, in which he expressed his concern for the
sufferings of the innocent, and a just indignation against the guilty,
with respect to the South-Sea scheme. These professions were judged
necessary to clear his own character, which had incurred the suspicion of
some people, who whispered that he was not altogether free from connexions
with the projectors of that design; that the emperor had, at his desire,
refused to deliver up Knight; and that he favoured the directors and their
accomplices.

ALLIANCE BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND SPAIN.

Lords Townshend and Carteret were now appointed Secretaries of state; and
the earl of Hay was vested with the office of lord privy-seal of Scotland.
In June the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain was signed at
Madrid. The contracting parties engaged to restore mutually all the
effects seized and confiscated on both sides. In particular, the king of
England promised to restore all the ships of the Spanish fleet which had
been taken in the Mediterranean, or the value of them, if they were sold.
He likewise promised, in a secret article, that he would no longer
interfere in the affairs of Italy: and the king of Spain made an absolute
cession of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. At the same time a defensive alliance
was concluded between Great Britain, France, and Spain. All remaining
difficulties were referred to a congress at Cambray, where they hoped to
consolidate a general peace, by determining all differences between the
emperor and his catholic majesty. In the meantime the powers of Great
Britain, France, and Spain, engaged, by virtue of the present treaty, to
grant to the duke of Parma a particular protection for the preservation of
his territories and rights, and for the support of his dignity. It was
also stipulated that the states-general should be invited to accede to
this alliance. The congress at Cambray was opened; but the demands on both
sides were so high, that it proved ineffectual. In the meantime, the peace
between Russia and Sweden was concluded, on condition that the czar should
retain Livonia, Ingria, Estonia, part of Carelia, and of the territory of
Wyburg, Riga, Revel, and Nerva, in consideration of his restoring part of
Finland, and paying two millions of rix-dollars to the king of Sweden. The
personal animosity subsisting between king George and the czar seemed to
increase. Bastagif, the Russian resident at London, having presented a
memorial that contained some unguarded expressions, was ordered to quit
the kingdom in a fortnight. The czar published a declaration at
Petersburgh, complaining of this outrage, which, he said, ought naturally
to have engaged him to use reprisals; but as he perceived it was done
without any regard to the concerns of England, and only in favour of the
Hanoverian interest, he was unwilling that the English nation should
suffer for a piece of injustice in which they had no share. He, therefore,
granted to them all manner of security, and free liberty to trade in all
his dominions. To finish this strange tissue of negotiations, king George
concluded a treaty with the Moors of Africa, against which the Spaniards
loudly exclaimed.

PLAGUE AT MARSEILLES.

In the course of this year pope Clement XI. died; and the princess of
Wales was delivered of a prince, baptized by the name of William-Augustus,
the late duke of Cumberland. A dreadful plague raging at Marseilles, a
proclamation was published, forbidding any person to come into England,
from any part of France between the Bay of Biscay and Dunkirk, without
certificates of health. Other precautions were taken to guard against
contagion. An act of parliament had passed in the preceding session, for
the prevention of infection, by building pest-houses, to which all
infected persons, and all persons of an infected family, should be
conveyed; and by drawing trenches and lines round any city, town, or place
infected. The king, in his speech at opening the session of parliament on
the nineteenth day of October, intimated the pacification of the north, by
the conclusion of the treaty between Muscovy and Sweden. He desired the
house of commons to consider of means for easing the duties upon the
imported commodities used in the manufactures of the kingdom. He observed,
that the nation might be supplied with naval stores from our own colonies
in North America; and that their being employed in this useful and
advantageous branch of commerce, would divert them from setting up
manufactures which directly interfered with those of Great Britain. He
expressed a desire that, with respect to the supplies, his people might
reap some immediate benefit from the present circumstances of affairs
abroad; and he earnestly recommended to their consideration, means for
preventing the plague, particularly by providing against the practice of
smuggling.

DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS ABOUT MR. LAW.

One of the first objects that attracted the attention of the upper house
was the case of John Law, the famous projector. The resentment of the
people on account of his Mississippi scheme had obliged him to leave
France. He retired to Italy; and was said to have visited the pretender at
Rome. From thence he repaired to Hanover; and returned to England from the
Baltic, in the fleet commanded by sir John Norris. The king favoured him
with a private audience; he kept open house, and was visited by great
numbers of persons of the first quality. Earl Coningsby represented in the
house of lords that he could not but entertain some jealousy of a person
who had done so much mischief in a neighbouring kingdom; who, being
immensely rich, might do a great deal more hurt here, by tampering with
those who were grown desperate, in consequence of being involved in the
calamity occasioned by the fatal imitation of his pernicious projects. He
observed, that this person was the more dangerous, as he had renounced his
natural affection to his country, his allegiance to his lawful sovereign,
and his religion, by turning Roman catholic. Lord Carteret replied, that
Mr. Law had, many years ago, the misfortune to kill a gentleman in a duel;
but, having at last received the benefit of the king’s clemency, and the
appeal lodged by the relations of the deceased being taken off, he was
come over to plead his majesty’s pardon. He said there was no law to keep
an Englishman out of his country; and, as Mr. Law was a subject of Great
Britain, it was not even in the king’s power to hinder him from coming
over. After some dispute, the subject was dropped, and this great
projector pleaded his pardon in the king’s bench according to the usual
form.

SENTIMENTS OF SOME LORDS TOUCHING THE WAR.

The ministry had by this time secured such a majority in both houses, as
enabled them to carry any point without the least difficulty. Some chiefs
of the opposition they had brought over to their measures, and among the
rest lord Harcourt, who was created a viscount, and gratified with a
pension of four thousand pounds. Nevertheless they could not shut the
mouths of the minority, who still preserved the privilege of complaining.
Great debates were occasioned by the navy debt, which was increased to one
million seven hundred thousand pounds. Some members in both houses
affirmed, that such extraordinary expense could not be for the immediate
service of Great Britain; but, in all probability, for the preservation of
foreign acquisitions. The ministers answered, that near two-thirds of the
navy debts were contracted in the late reign; and the parliament
acquiesced in this declaration; but in reality the navy debt had been
unnecessarily increased, by keeping seamen in pay during the winter, and
sending fleets to the Mediterranean and Baltic in order to support the
interests of Germany. The duke of Wharton moved that the treaty with Spain
might be laid before the house. The earl of Sunderland said it contained a
secret article which the king of Spain desired might not be made public
until after the treaty of Cambray should be discussed. The question was
put, and the duke’s motion rejected. The earl of Strafford asserted, that
as the war with Spain had been undertaken without necessity or just
provocation, so the peace was concluded without any benefit or advantage;
that, contrary to the law of nations, the Spanish fleet had been attacked
without any declaration of war; even while a British minister and a
secretary of state were treating amicably at Madrid; that the war was
neither just nor politic, since it interrupted one of the most valuable
branches of the English commerce, at a time when the nation groaned under
the pressure of heavy debts, incurred by the former long expensive war. He
therefore moved for an address to his majesty, desiring that the
instructions given to sir George Byng, now lord Torrington, should be laid
before the house. This motion being likewise, upon the question, rejected,
a protest was entered. They voted an address, however, to know in what
manner the king had disposed of the ships taken from the Spaniards.
Disputes arose from the bill to prevent infection. Earl Cowper
represented, that the removal of persons to a lazaret, or pest-house, by
order of the government, and the drawing lines and trenches round places
infected, were powers unknown to the British constitution; inconsistent
with the lenity of a free government, such as could never be wisely or
usefully put in practice; the more odious, because copied from the
arbitrary government of France; and impracticable, except by military
compulsion. Those obnoxious clauses were accordingly repealed, though not
without great opposition. Indeed, nothing can be more absurd than a
constitution that will not admit of just and necessary laws and
regulations to prevent the dire consequences of the worst of all
calamities. Such restrictions, instead of favouring the lenity of a free
government, would be the most cruel imposition that could be laid on a
free people, as it would act in diametrical opposition to the great
principles of society, which is the preservation of the individual.

PETITION OF THE QUAKERS..

The quakers having presented a petition to the house of commons, praying
that a bill might be brought in for omitting in their solemn affirmation
the words “In the presence of Almighty God,” the house complied with their
request: but the bill gave rise to a warm debate among the peers. Dr.
Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, said he did not know why such a
distinguishing mark of indulgence should be allowed to a set of people who
were hardly christians. He was supported by the archbishop of York, the
earl of Strafford, and lord North and Grey. A petition was presented
against the bill by the London clergy, who expressed a serious concern
lest the minds of good men should be grieved and wounded, and the enemies
of Christianity triumph, when they should see such condescension made by a
christian legislature to a set of men who renounce the divine institutions
of Christ; particularly that by which the faithful are initiated into his
religion, and denominated christians. The petition, though presented by
the archbishop of York, was branded by the ministry as a seditious libel,
and rejected by the majority. Then, upon a motion by the earl of
Sunderland, the house resolved that such lords as might enter
protestations with reasons, should do it before two o’clock on the next
sitting day, and sign them before the house rises. The supplies being
granted, and the business of the session despatched as the court was
pleased to dictate, on the seventh day of March the parliament was
prorogued. In a few days it was dissolved, and another convoked by
proclamation. In the election of members for the new parliament, the
ministry exerted itself with such success as returned a great majority in
the house of commons, extremely well adapted for all the purposes of an
administration. *

* The earl of Sunderland died in April, after having
incurred a great load of popular odium, from his supposed
connexions with the directors of the South-Sea company. He
was a minister of abilities, but violent, impetuous, and
headstrong. His death was soon followed by that of his
father-in-law, the great duke of Marlborough, whose
faculties had been for some time greatly impaired. He was
interred in Westminster-abbey, with such profusion of
funeral pomp, as evinced the pride and ostentation, much
more than the taste and concern, of those who directed his
obsequies. He was succeeded as master of the ordnance, and
colonel of the first regiment of foot guards, by earl
Cadogan.

1722

In the beginning of May, the king is said to have received from the duke
of Orleans full and certain information of a fresh conspiracy formed
against his person and government. A camp was immediately formed in
Hyde-Park. All military officers were ordered to repair to their
respective commands. Lieutenant-general Macartney was despatched to
Ireland, to bring over some troops from that kingdom. Some suspected
persons were apprehended in Scotland: the states of Holland were desired
to have their auxiliary or guarantee troops in readiness to be embarked;
and colonel Churchill was sent to the court of France with a private
commission. The apprehension raised by this supposed plot affected the
public credit. South-Sea stock began to fall, and crowds of people called
in their money from the bank. Lord Townshend wrote a letter to the mayor
of London, by the king’s command, signifying his majesty’s having received
unquestionable advices that several of his subjects had entered into a
wicked conspiracy, in concert with traitors abroad, for raising a
rebellion in favour of a popish pretender; but that he was firmly assured
the authors of it neither were nor would be supported by any foreign
power. This letter was immediately answered by an affectionate address
from the court of aldermen; and the example of London was followed by many
other cities and boroughs. The king had determined to visit Hanover, and
actually settled a regency, in which the prince of Wales was not included:
but now this intended journey was laid aside; the court was removed to
Kensington, and the prince retired to Richmond. The bishop of Rochester
having been seized with his papers, was examined before a committee of the
council, who committed him to the Tower for high-treason. The earl of
Orrery, lord North and Grey, and Mr. Cockran and Mr. Smith from Scotland,
and Mr. Christopher Layer, a young gentleman of the Temple, were confined
in the same place. Mr. George Kelly, an Irish clergyman, Mr. Robert Cotton
of Huntingdonshire, Mr. Bingly, Mr. Fleetwood, Neynoe, an Irish priest,
and several persons, were taken into custody; and Mr. Shippen’s house was
searched. After bishop Atterbury had remained a fortnight in the Tower,
sir Constantine Phipps presented a petition to the court at the Old
Bailey, in the name of Mrs. Morris, that prelate’s daughter, praying that,
in consideration of the bishop’s ill state of health, he might be either
brought to a speedy trial, bailed, or discharged: but this was over-ruled.
The churchmen through the whole kingdom were filled with indignation at
the confinement of a bishop, which they said was an outrage upon the
church of England, and the episcopal order. Far from concealing their
sentiments on this subject, the clergy ventured to offer up public prayers
for his health, in almost all the churches and chapels of London and
Westminster. In the meantime, the king, attended by the prince of Wales,
made a summer progress through the western counties.

NEW PARLIAMENT.

The new parliament being assembled on the ninth day of October, his
majesty made them acquainted with the nature of the conspiracy. He said
the conspirators had, by their emissaries, made the strongest instances
for succours from foreign powers, but were disappointed in their
expectations. That nevertheless, confiding in their numbers, they had
resolved once more, upon their own strength, to attempt the subversion of
his government. He said they had provided considerable sums of money,
engaged great numbers of officers from abroad, secured large quantities of
arms and ammunition; and, had not the plot been timely discovered, the
whole nation, and particularly the city of London, would have been
involved in blood and confusion. He expatiated upon the mildness and
integrity of his own government; and inveighed against the ingratitude,
the implacability, and madness of the disaffected, concluding with an
assurance that he would steadily adhere to the constitution in church and
state, and continue to make the laws of the realm the rule and measure of
all his actions. Such addresses were presented by both houses, as the
fears and attachment of the majority may be supposed to have dictated on
such an occasion. A bill was brought into the house of lords for
suspending the habeas-corpus act for a whole year, but they were
far from being unanimous in agreeing to such an unusual length of time. By
this suspension they, in effect, vested the ministry with a dictatorial
power over the liberties of the people.

DECLARATION OF THE PRETENDER.

The opposition in the house of commons was so violent, that Mr. Robert
Walpole found it necessary to alarm their apprehensions by a dreadful
story of a design to seize the bank and exchequer, and to proclaim the
pretender on the Royal Exchange. Their passions being inflamed by this
ridiculous artifice, they passed the bill, which immediately received the
royal assent. The duke of Norfolk being brought from Bath, was examined
before the council, and committed to the Tower on suspicion of
high-treason. On the sixteenth day of November, the king sent to the house
of peers the original and printed copy of a declaration signed by the
pretender. It was dated at Lucca, on the twentieth day of September, in
the present year, and appeared to be a proposal addressed to the subjects
of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as to all foreign princes and
states. In this paper, the chevalier de St. George having mentioned the
late violation of the freedom of elections, conspiracies invented to give
a colour to new oppressions, infamous informers, and the state of
proscription in which he supposed every honest man to be, very gravely
proposed, that if king George would relinquish to him the throne of Great
Britain, he would, in return, bestow upon him the title of king in his
native dominions, and invite all Other states to confirm it; he likewise
promised to leave to king George his succession to the British dominions
secure, whenever, in due course, his natural right should take place. The
lords unanimously resolved that this declaration was a false, insolent,
and traitorous libel; and ordered it to be burned at the Royal Exchange.
The commons concurred in these resolutions. Both houses joined in an
address, expressing their utmost astonishment and indignation at the
surprising insolence of the pretender; and assuring his majesty they were
determined to support his title to the crown with their lives and
fortunes. The commons prepared a bill for raising one hundred thousand
pounds upon the real and personal estates of all papists, or persons
educated in the popish religion, towards defraying the expenses occasioned
by the late rebellion and disorders. This bill, though strenuously opposed
by some moderate members as a species of persecution, was sent up to the
house of lords; together with another obliging all persons being papists
in Scotland, and all persons in Great Britain, refusing or neglecting to
take the oaths appointed for the security of the king’s person and
government, to register their names and real estates. Both these bills
passed through the upper house without amendment, and received the royal
sanction.

REPORT OF THE SECRET COMMITTEE.

Mr. Layer being brought to his trial at the king’s bench, on the
twenty-first day of November, was convicted for having enlisted men for
the pretender’s service, in order to stir up a rebellion, and received
sentence of death. He was reprieved for some time, and examined by a
committee of the house of commons: but he either could not, or would not,
discover the particulars of the conspiracy, so that he suffered death at
Tyburn, and his head was fixed up at Temple-bar. Mr. Pulteney, chairman of
the committee, reported to the house, that, from the examination of Layer
and others, a design had been formed by persons of figure and distinction
at home, in conjunction with traitors abroad, for placing the pretender on
the throne of these realms: that their first intention was to procure a
body of foreign troops to invade the kingdom at the time of the late
elections; but that the conspirators being disappointed in this
expectation, resolved to make an attempt at the time that it was generally
believed the king intended to go to Hanover, by the help of such officers
and soldiers as could pass into England unobserved, from abroad, under the
command of the late duke of Ormond, who was to have landed in the river
with a great quantity of arms provided in Spain for that purpose; at which
time the Tower was to have been seized. That this scheme being also
defeated by the vigilance of the government, they deferred their
enterprise till the breaking up of the camp; and, in the meantime,
employed their agents to corrupt and seduce the officers and soldiers of
the army: that it appeared from several letters and circumstances, that
the late duke of Ormond, the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Orrery, lord
North and Grey, and the bishop of Rochester, were concerned in this
conspiracy; that their acting agents were Christopher Layer and John
Plunket, who travelled together to Rome; Dennis Kelly, George Kelly, and
Thomas Carte, nonjuring clergymen; Neynoe the Irish priest, who by this
time was drowned in the river Thames in attempting to make his escape from
the messenger’s house; Mrs. Spilman, alias Yallop, and John Sample.

BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES AGAINST THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

This pretended conspiracy, in all likelihood, extended no farther than the
first rudiments of a design that was never digested into any regular form;
otherwise the persons said to be concerned in it must have been infatuated
to a degree of frenzy: for they were charged with having made application
to the regent of France, who was well known to be intimately connected
with the king of Great Britain. The house of commons, however, resolved,
that it was a detestable and horrid conspiracy for raising a rebellion,
seizing the Tower and the city of London, laying violent hands upon the
persons of his most sacred majesty and the prince of Wales, in order to
subvert our present happy establishment in church and state, by placing a
popish pretender upon the throne: that it was formed and carried on by
persons of figure and distinction, and their agents and instruments, in
conjunction with traitors abroad. Bills were brought in and passed, for
inflicting pains and penalties against John Plunket and George Kelly, who
were by these acts to be kept in close custody during his majesty’s
pleasure, in any prison in Great Britain; and that they should not attempt
to escape on pain of death, to be inflicted upon them and their
assistants. Mr. Yonge made a motion for a bill of the same nature against
the bishop of Rochester. This was immediately brought into the house,
though sir William Wyndham affirmed that there was no evidence against him
but conjectures and hearsay. The bishop wrote a letter to the speaker,
importing, that, though conscious of his own innocence, he should decline
giving the house any trouble that day, contenting himself with the
opportunity of making his defence before another, of which he had the
honour to be a member. Counsel being heard for the bill, it was committed
to a grand committee on the sixth day of April, when the majority of the
tory members quitted the house. It was then moved, that the bishop should
be deprived of his office and benefice, and banished the kingdom for ever.
Mr. Lawson and Mr. Oglethorpe spoke in his favour.

1723

The bill being passed, and sent up to the lords, the bishop was brought to
his trial before them on the ninth of May. Himself and his counsel having
been heard, the lords proceeded to consider the articles of the bill. When
they read it a third time, a motion was made to pass it, and then a long
and warm debate ensued. Earl Paulet demonstrated the danger and injustice
of swerving in such an extraordinary manner from the fixed rules of
evidence. The duke of Wharton having summed up the depositions, and proved
the insufficiency of them, concluded with saying, that, let the
consequences be what they would, he hoped such a hellish stain would never
sully the lustre and glory of that illustrious house, as to condemn a man
without the least evidence. Lord Bathurst spoke against the bill with
equal strength and eloquence. He said, if such extraordinary proceedings
were countenanced, he saw nothing remaining for him and others to do, but
to retire to their country houses, and there, if possible, quietly enjoy
their estates within their own families, since the least correspondence,
the least intercepted letter, might be made criminal. He observed, that
cardinal Mazarin boasted, that if he had but two lines of any man’s
writing, he could, by means of a few circumstances, attested by witnesses,
deprive him of his life at his pleasure. Turning to the bench of bishops,
who had been generally unfavourable to Dr. Atterbury, he said he could
hardly account for the inveterate hatred and malice some persons bore the
learned and ingenuous bishop of Rochester, unless they were intoxicated
with the infatuation of some savage Indians, who believe they inherited
not only the spoils, but even the abilities of any great enemy whom they
had killed in battle. The bill was supported by the duke of Argyle, the
earl of Seafield, and Lord Lechmere, which last was answered by earl
Cowper. This nobleman observed, that the strongest argument urged in
behalf of the bill was necessity; but that, for his part, he saw no
necessity that could justify such unprecedented and such dangerous
proceedings, as the conspiracy had above twelve months before been happily
discovered, and the effects of it prevented: that, besides the intrinsic
weight and strength of the government, the hands of those at the helm had
been still further fortified by the suspension of the habeas-corpus
act, and the additional troops which had been raised. He said the known
rules of evidence, as laid down at first and established by the law of the
land, were the birth-right of every subject in the nation, and ought to be
constantly observed, not only in the inferior courts of judicature, but
also in both houses of parliament, till altered by the legislature; that
the admitting of the precarious and uncertain evidence of the clerks of
the post-office, was a very dangerous precedent. In former times, said he,
it was thought very grievous that in capital cases a man should be
affected by similitude of hands; but here the case is much worse, since it
is allowed that the clerks of the post-office should carry the similitude
of hands four months in their minds. He applauded the bishop’s noble
deportment in declining to answer before the house of commons, whose
proceedings in this unprecedented manner, against a lord of parliament,
was such an encroachment on the prerogative of the peerage, that if they
submitted to it, by passing the bill, they might be termed the last of
British peers, for giving up their ancient privileges. The other party
were not so solicitous about answering reasons, as eager to put the
question, when the bill passed, and a protest was entered. By this act the
bishop was deprived of all offices, benefices, and dignities, and rendered
incapable of enjoying any for the future: he was banished the realm, and
subjected to the pains of death in case he should return, as were all
persons who should correspond with him during his exile. Dr. Friend, the
celebrated physician, who was a member of the house of commons, and had
exerted himself strenuously in behalf of the bishop, was now taken into
custody on suspicion of treasonable practices.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THOSE CONCERNED IN THE LOTTERY AT HAMBURGH.

The next object that excited the resentment of the commons was the scheme
of a lottery to be drawn at Hamburgh in the king’s German dominions. The
house appointed a committee to inquire into this and other lotteries at
that time on foot in London. The scheme was published, on pretence of
raising a subscription for maintaining a trade between Great Britain and
the king’s territories on the Elbe; but it was a mysterious scene of
iniquity, which the committee, with all their penetration, could not fully
discover. They reported, however, that it was an infamous fraudulent
undertaking, whereby many unwary persons had been drawn in, to their great
loss: that the manner of carrying it on had been a manifest violation of
the laws of the kingdom: that the managers and agents of this lottery had,
without any authority for so doing, made use of his majesty’s royal name,
thereby to give countenance to the infamous project, and induce his
majesty’s subjects to engage or be concerned therein. A bill was brought
in to suppress this lottery; and to oblige the managers of it to make
restitution of the money they had received from the contributors. At the
same time the house resolved, That John lord viscount Barrington had been
notoriously guilty of promoting, abetting, and carrying on their
fraudulent undertaking; for which offence he should be expelled the house.
The court of Vienna having erected an East-India company at Os-tend, upon
a scheme formed by one Colebrooke an English merchant, sir Nathaniel Gould
represented to the house of commons the great detriment which the English
East-India company had already received, and were likely further to
sustain, by this Ostend company. The house immediately resolved, That for
the subjects of this kingdom to subscribe, or be concerned in encouraging
any subscription, to promote an East-India company now erecting in the
Austrian Netherlands, was a high crime and misdemeanor; and a law was
enacted for preventing British subjects from engaging in that enterprise.
By another act, relating to the South-Sea company, the two millions of
stock which had been annihilated were revived, added to the capital, and
divided among the proprietors. A third law passed, for the more effectual
execution of justice in a part of Southwark called the Mint, where a great
number of debtors had taken sanctuary, on the supposition that it was a
privileged place. On the twenty-seventh clay of May the session was
closed, with a speech that breathed nothing but panegyric, acknowledgment,
and affection to a parliament which had complied with all his majesty’s
wishes.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.

His majesty having ennobled the son of Mr. Robert Walpole, in
consideration of the father’s services, made a good number of church
promotions. He admitted the imprisoned lords and gentlemen to bail;
granted a pardon to lord Bolingbroke; and ordered the bishop of Rochester
to be conveyed to the continent. Then he himself set out for Hanover,
leaving the administration of his kingdoms in the hands of a regency, lord
Har-court being one of the justices. The king was attended by the two
secretaries, lords Townshend and Carteret, who were counted able
negotiators. The affairs of the continent had begun to take a new turn.
The interests and connexions of the different princes were become
perplexed and embarrassed; and king George resolved to unravel them by
dint of negotiation. Understanding that a treaty was on the carpet between
the czar and the king of Sweden, favourable to the duke of Holstein’s
pretensions to Sleswick, the possession of which the elector of Hanover
had guaranteed to Denmark, his majesty began to be in pain for Bremen and
Verden. The regent of France and the king of Spain had now compromised all
differences; and their reconciliation was cemented by a double marriage
between Philip’s sons and the regent’s daughters. The former proposed new
treaties to England; but insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar and
Port-Mahon, as well as upon the king’s openly declaring against the Ostend
company. His Britannic majesty was apprehensive, that, should the emperor
be hard pressed on that subject, he might join the czar and the king of
Sweden, and promote their designs in favour of the duke of Holstein. On
the other hand, all the Italian powers exclaimed against the treaty of
London. The pope had protested against any thing that might have been
decided at Cambray to the prejudice of his right. Memorials to the same
effect had been presented by the king of Sardinia, the dukes of Tuscany,
Parma, and Modena. France and Spain were inclined to support these
potentates against the house of Austria. Europe seemed to be on the eve of
a new war. King George was entangled in such a variety of treaties and
interests, that he knew not well how to extricate himself from the
troublesome engagements he had contracted. By declaring for the emperor,
he must have countenanced the new establishment at Ostend, which was so
prejudicial to his British subjects, and incurred the resentment of
France, Spain, and their allies of Italy. In renouncing the interest of
the emperor, he would have exposed his German dominions. In vain he
exhorted the emperor to relax in his disputes with Spain, and give up the
Ostend company, which was so detrimental and disagreeable to his faithful
allies; the court of Vienna promised in general to observe the treaties
which it had concluded, but declined entering into any particular
discussion; so that all his majesty’s endeavours ended in contracting
closer connexions with Prussia and Denmark. All those negotiations carried
on, all those treaties concluded by king George, with almost every prince
and state in Christendom, which succeeded one another so fast, and appear
at first view so intricate and unaccountable, were founded upon two simple
and natural principles, namely, the desire of ascertaining his
acquisitions as elector of Hanover, and his resolution to secure himself
against the disaffection of his British subjects, as well as the efforts
of the pretender.

CLAMOUR IN IRELAND ON ACCOUNT OF WOOD’S COINAGE.

Great Britain at this period enjoyed profound tranquillity. Ireland was a
little ruffled by an incident which seemed to have been misrepresented to
the people of that kingdom. William Wood had obtained a patent for
furnishing Ireland with copper currency, in which it was deficient. A
great clamour was raised against this coin. The parliament of that
kingdom, which met in September, resolved, that it would be prejudicial to
the revenue, destructive of trade, and of dangerous consequence to the
rights of the subject; that the patent had been obtained by
misrepresentation; that the halfpence wanted weight; that, even if the
terms of the patent had been complied with, there would have been a great
loss to the nation; that granting the power of coinage to a private person
had ever been highly prejudicial to the kingdom, and would at all times be
of dangerous consequence. Addresses from both houses were presented to the
king on this subject. The affair was referred to the lords of the
privy-council of England. They justified the conduct of the patentee, upon
the report of Sir Isaac Newton and other officers of the Mint, who had
made an assay and trial of Wood’s halfpence, and found he had complied
with the terms of the patent. They declared that this currency exceeded in
goodness, fineness, and value of metal, all the copper money which had
been coined for Ireland, in the reigns of king Charles II., king James
II., king William and queen Mary. The privy-council likewise demonstrated,
that his majesty’s predecessors had always exercised the undoubted
prerogative of granting patents for copper coinage in Ireland to private
persons: that none of these patents had been so beneficial to the kingdom
as this granted to William Wood, who had not obtained it in an
unprecedented manner, but after a reference to the attorney and
solicitor-general, and after Sir Isaac Newton had been consulted in every
particular: finally, they proved, by a great number of witnesses, that
there was a real want of such money in Ireland. Notwithstanding this
decision, the ferment of the Irish nation was industriously kept up by
clamour, pamphlets, papers, and lampoons, written by dean Swift and other
authors; so that Wood voluntarily reduced his coinage from the value of
one hundred thousand to forty thousand pounds. Thus the noise was
silenced. The commons of Ireland passed an act for accepting the
affirmation of the quakers instead of an oath; and voted three hundred and
forty thousand pounds towards discharging the debt of the nation, which
amounted to about double that sum.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS.

In the month of October, England lost a worthy nobleman in the death of
earl Cowper, who had twice discharged the office of lord-chancellor, with
equal discernment and integrity. He was profoundly skilled in the laws of
his country; in his apprehension quick and penetrating; in his judgment
clear and determinate. He possessed a manly eloquence; his manner was
agreeable, and his deportment graceful. This year was likewise remarkable
for the death of the duke of Orleans, regent of France, who, since the
decease of Louis XIV., had ruled that nation with the most absolute
authority. He was a prince of taste and spirit, endowed with shining
talents for empire, which he did not fail to display, even in the midst of
effeminate pursuits and idle debauchery. From the infirm constitution of
the infant king, he had conceived hopes of ascending the throne, and taken
his measures accordingly; but the young monarch’s health began to be
established, and all the duke’s schemes were defeated by an apoplexy, of
which he died, in the fiftieth year of his age, after having nominated the
duke of Bourbon as prime-minister. King George immediately received
assurances of the good disposition of the French court, to cultivate and
even improve the good understanding so happily established between France
and Great Britain. The king arrived in England on the eighteenth day of
December; and on the ninth day of January the parliament was assembled.
His majesty, in his speech, recommended to the commons the care of the
public debts; and he expressed his satisfaction at seeing the sinking fund
improved and augmented, so as to put the debt of the nation into a method
of being speedily and gradually discharged.

AN ACT FOR LESSENING THE PUBLIC DEBTS.

This was the repeated theory of patriotism, which unhappily for the
subjects, was never reduced to practice; not but that a beginning of such
a laudable work was made in this very session, by an act for lessening the
public debts. This law provided that the annuities at five per cent,
charged on the general fund by a former act, except such as had been
subscribed into the South-Sea, together with the unsubscribed blanks of
the lottery in the year one thousand seven hundred and fourteen, should be
paid off at Lady-day of the year next ensuing, with the money arising from
the sinking fund. The ministry, however, did not persevere in this path of
prudent economy. The commons granted all the supplies that were demanded.
They voted ten thousand seamen; and the majority, though not without
violent opposition, agreed to maintain four thousand additional troops,
which had been raised in the preceding year; so that the establishment of
the land-forces amounted to eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty-four.
The expense of the year was defrayed by a land-tax and malt-tax. The
commons having despatched the supply, took into consideration a grievance
arising from protections granted by foreign ministers, peers and members
of parliament, under which profligate persons used to screen themselves
from the prosecution of their just creditors. The commons resolved, That
all protections granted by members of that house should be declared void,
and immediately withdrawn. The lords made a declaration to the same
purpose, with an exception to menial servants, and those necessarily
employed about the estates of peers.*

* The duke of Newcastle was now appointed secretary of
state; the duke of Grafton, lord-chamberlain; and lord
Carteret, lord-lieutenant of Ireland.—The king instituted a
professorship for the modern languages in each university.—
In the month of May died Robert Harley, earl of Oxford and
earl Mortimer, who had been a munificent patron of genius
and literature; and completed a very valuable collection of
manuscripts.—The practice of inoculation for the small-pox
was by this time introduced into England from Turkey. Prince
Frederic, the two princesses Amelia and Carolina, the duke
of Bedford and his sister, with many other persons of
distinction, underwent the operation with success.—Dr.
Henry Sacheverel died in June, after having bequeathed five
hundred pounds to the late bishop of Rochester.

1724

On the twenty-fourth day of April, his majesty closed the session in the
usual manner, made some alterations in the disposition of the great
officers of state, and sent Mr. Horatio Walpole as
ambassador-extraordinary to the court of France.

PHILIP, KING OF SPAIN, ABDICATES THE THRONE.

In the beginning of this year, Philip king of Spain, retiring with his
queen to the monastery of St. Ildefonso, sent the marquis of Grimaldi, his
principal secretary of state, to his son Louis prince of Asturias, with a
solemn renunciation of the crown, and a letter of advice in which he
exhorted him to cultivate the Blessed Virgin with the warmest devotion,
and put himself and his kingdoms under her protection. The renunciation
was published through the whole monarchy of Spain; and the council of
Castile resolved, That Louis might assume the reins of government without
assembling the Cortez. The English minister at Paris was instructed to
interpose in behalf of the French protestants, against whom a severe edict
had been lately published; but his remonstrances produced no effect.
England, in the meantime, was quite barren of such events as deserve a
place in history. The government was now firmly established on the neck of
opposition; and commerce flourished even under the load of grievous
impositions.

ABUSES IN CHANCERY.

The next parliament, which met on the twelfth day of November, seemed to
be assembled for no other purpose than that of establishing funds for the
expense of the ensuing year; yet the session was distinguished by a
remarkable incident—namely, the trial of the earl of Macclesfield,
lord-chancellor of England. This nobleman had connived at certain venal
practices touching the sale of places, and the money of suitors deposited
with the masters of chancery, so as to incur the general reproach of the
nation. He found it necessary to resign the great seal in the beginning of
January, 1725. On the ninth day of the ensuing month, the king sent a
message to the commons, importing, That his majesty having reason to
apprehend that the suitors in the court of chancery were in danger of
losing a considerable sum of money, from the insufficiency of some of the
masters, thought himself obliged, in justice and compassion to the said
sufferers, to take the most speedy and proper method the law would allow
for inquiring into the state of the master’s accounts, and securing their
effects for the benefit of the suitors; and his majesty having had several
reports laid before him, in pursuance of the directions he had given, had
ordered the reports to be communicated to the house, that they might have
as full and as perfect a view of this important affair as the shortness of
the time, and the circumstances and nature of the proceedings, would
admit.

TRIAL OF THE EARL OF MACCLESFIELD.

These papers being taken into consideration, sir George Oxenden observed,
that enormous abuses had crept into the high court of chancery; that the
crimes and misdemeanors of the late lord-chancellor were many and various,
but might be reduced to the following heads —that he had embezzled
the estates and effects of many widows, orphans, and lunatics; that he had
raised the offices of masters in chancery to an exorbitant price; trusting
in their hands large sums of money belonging to suitors, that they might
be enabled to comply with his exorbitant demands, and that in several
cases he had made divers irregular orders. He therefore moved, That Thomas
earl of Macclesfield should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Mr. Pulteney moved, That this affair might be left to the consideration of
a select committee. Sir William Wyndham asserted, That in proceeding by
way of impeachment upon reports from above, they would make a dangerous
precedent; and seem to give up the most valuable of their privileges, the
inquest after state criminals. The question being put, it was carried for
the impeachment. The earl was accordingly impeached at the bar of the
upper house; a committee was appointed to prepare articles; and a bill was
brought in, to indemnify the masters in chancery from the penalties of the
law, upon discovering what consideration they had paid for their admission
to their respective offices. The trial lasted twenty days; the earl was
convicted of fradulent practices; and condemned in a fine of thirty
thousand pounds, with imprisonment until that sum should be paid. He was
immediately committed to the Tower, where he continued about six weeks;
but upon producing the money he was discharged; and sir Peter King, now
created baron of Oakham, succeeded him in the office of chancellor.

DEBATES ABOUT THE DEBTS OF THE CIVIL LIST.

His majesty, on the eighth day of April, gave the house of commons to
understand, that having been engaged in some extraordinary expenses, he
hoped he should be enabled to raise a sum of money, by making use of the
funds lately established for the payment of the civil list annuities, in
order to discharge the debts contracted in the civil government. Mr.
Pulteney, cofferer of the household, moved for an address, That an account
should be laid before the house of all monies paid for secret service,
pensions, and bounties, from the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and one, to the twenty-fifth of the same month
in the present year. This address being voted, a motion was made to
consider the king’s message. Mr. Pulteney urged, that this consideration
should be postponed until the house should have examined the papers that
were the subject of the address. He expressed his surprise that a debt
amounting to above five hundred thousand pounds should be contracted in
three years; he said, he did not wonder that some persons should be so
eager to make good the deficiencies of the civil-list, since they and
their friends enjoyed such a share of that revenue; and he desired to know
whether this was all that was due, or whether they should expect another
reckoning? This gentleman began to be dissatisfied with the measures of
the ministry; and his sarcasms were aimed at Mr. Walpole, who undertook to
answer his objections. The commons took the message into consideration,
and passed a bill, enabling his majesty to raise a sum, not exceeding one
million, by exchequer bills, loans, or otherwise, on the credit of the
deductions of sixpence per pound, directed by an act of parliament of the
seventh year of his majesty, and of the civil-list revenues, at an
interest not exceeding three pounds per cent, till repayment of the
principal.

BILL IN FAVOUR OF THE LATE LORD BOLINGBROKE.

On the twentieth day of April, a petition was presented to the house by
lord Finch in behalf of Henry St. John, late viscount Bolingbroke, praying
that the execution of the law with respect to his forfeitures might be
suspended, as a pardon had suspended it with respect to his life. Mr.
Walpole signified to the house, by his majesty’s command, that, seven
years before, the petitioner had made humble application and submission to
the king, with assurances of duty, allegiance, and fidelity; that, from
his behaviour since that time, his majesty was convinced of his being a
fit object of his mercy, and consented to his petitioning the house. The
petition being read, Mr. Walpole declared himself fully satisfied that the
petitioner had sufficiently atoned for his past offences; and therefore
deserved the favour of that house, so far as to enable him to enjoy the
family inheritance that was settled upon him, which he could not do by
virtue of his majesty’s pardon, without an act of parliament. Lord Finch
moved, That a bill might be brought in for this purpose, and was warmly
opposed by Mr. Methuen, comptroller of the household, who represented
Bolingbroke as a monster of iniquity. His remonstrance was supported by
lord William Paulet and Mr. Onslow; nevertheless, the bill was prepared,
passed through both houses, and received the royal assent. An act being
passed for disarming the highlanders of Scotland, another for regulating
elections within the city of London, a third for reducing the interest of
several bank annuities, together with some bills of a private nature, the
parliament was prorogued in May, after the king had, in the warmest terms
of acknowledgment, expressed his approbation of their conduct. Then he
appointed lords-justices to govern the nation in his absence; and set out
in June for his German dominions.*

* On the fifth day of December the princess of Wales was
delivered of a princess, christened by the name of Lotvisa,
and afterwards married to the king of Denmark. She died
December the nineteenth, one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-one.—Immediately after the session of parliament, the
king revived the order of the Bath, thirty-eight in number,
including the sovereign.—William Bateman was created baron
of Calmore in Ireland, and viscount Bateman; and sir Kobert
Walpole, who had been one of the revived knights of the
Bath, was now honoured with the order of the Garter.

TREATY OF ALLIANCE.

The tide of political interest on the continent had begun to flow in a new
channel, so as to render ineffectual the mounds which his Britannic
majesty had raised by his multiplicity of negotiations. Louis, the Spanish
monarch, dying soon after his elevation to the throne, his father Philip
resumed the crown which he had resigned, and gave himself up implicitly to
the conduct of his queen, who was a princess of indefatigable intrigue and
insatiate ambition. The infanta, who had been married to Louis XV. of
France, was so disagreeable to her husband, that the whole French nation
began to be apprehensive of a civil war in consequence of his dying
without male issue; he therefore determined, with the advice of his
council, to send back the infanta, as the nuptials had not been
consummated; and she was attended to Madrid by the marquis de. Monteleone.
The queen of Spain resented this insult offered to her daughter; and, in
revenge, dismissed mademoiselle de Beaujolois, one of the regent’s
daughters, who had been betrothed to her son don Carlos. As the congress
at Cambray had proved ineffectual, she offered to adjust her differences
with the emperor, under the sole mediation of Great Britain. This was an
honour which king George declined. He was averse to any undertaking that
might interrupt the harmony subsisting between him and the court of
Versailles; and he had taken umbrage at the emperor’s refusing to grant
the investiture of Bremen and Verden except upon terms which he did not
choose to embrace. The peace between the courts of Vienna and Madrid,
which he refused to mediate, was effected by a private negotiation, under
the management of the duke de Ripperda, a native of the states-general,
who had renounced the protestant religion, and entered into the service of
his catholic majesty. By two treaties, signed at Vienna in the month of
April, the emperor acknowledged Philip as king of Spain and the Indies,
promised that he would not molest him in the possession of those dominions
that were secured to him by the treaty of Utrecht. Philip renounced all
pretensions to the dominions in Italy and the Netherlands, adjudged to the
emperor by the treaty of London; Charles granted the investiture of the
dukedoms of Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, to the eldest son of the queen
of Spain, in default of heirs in the present possessors, as masculine
fiefs of the empire. Spain became guarantee of the Austrian succession,
according to the pragmatic sanction, by which the dominions of that house
were settled on the emperors’s heirs general, and declared to be a
perpetual, indivisible, and inseparable feoffment of the primogeniture. By
the commercial treaty of Vienna, the Austrian subjects were entitled to
advantages in trade with Spain, which no other nation enjoyed. His
catholic majesty guaranteed the Ostend East India company; and agreed to
pay an annual subsidy of four millions of piastres to the emperor. Great
sums were remitted to Vienna; the Imperial forces were augmented to a
formidable number; and other powers were solicited to engage in this
alliance, to which the court of Petersburgh actually acceded.

TREATY OF HANOVER.

The kind of Great Britain took the alarm. The emperor and he had for some
time treated each other with manifest coolness. He had reason to fear some
attempts upon his German dominions, and projected a defensive treaty with
France and Prussia. This alliance, limited to the term of fifteen years,
was negotiated and concluded at Hanover in the month of September. It
implied a mutual guarantee of the dominions possessed by the contracting
parties, their rights and privileges, those of commerce in particular, and
an engagement to procure satisfaction to the protestants of Thorn, who had
lately been oppressed by the catholics, contrary to the treaty of Oliva.
The king having taken these precautions at Hanover, set out on his return
for England; embarked at Helvoetsluys in the middle of December; and after
having been exposed to the fury of a dreadful storm, was landed with great
difficulty at Rye, from whence he proceeded by land to London. The
parliament meeting on the twentieth day of the next month, he gave them to
understand that the distressed condition of some of their protestant
brethren abroad, and the negotiations and engagements contracted by some
foreign powers, which seemed to have laid the foundation of new troubles
and disturbances in Europe, and to threaten his subjects with the loss of
several of the most advantageous branches of their trade, had obliged him
to concert with other powers such measures as might give a check to the
ambitious views of those who were endeavouring to render themselves
formidable, and put a stop to the further progress of such dangerous
designs. He told them that the enemies of his government were already very
busy, by their instruments and emissaries in those courts whose measures
seemed most to favour their purposes, in soliciting and promoting the
cause of the pretender. One sees, at first sight, that the interests of
Germany dictated the treaty of Hanover; but, in order to secure the
approbation of Great Britain, upon which the support of this alliance
chiefly depended, it was judged necessary to insert the articles relating
to commerce and the protestant religion, as if the engagement had been
contracted purely for the advantage and glory of England. In a word, the
ministry began now to ring the changes upon a few words that have been
repeated ever since, like cabalistical sounds, by which the nation has
been enchanted into a very dangerous connexion with the concerns of the
continent. They harangued, they insisted upon the machinations of the
disaffected, the designs of a popish pretender, the protestant interest,
and the balance of power, until these expressions became absolutely terms
of ridicule with every person of common sense and reflection. The people
were told that the emperor and the king of Spain, exclusive of the public
treaties concluded at Vienna, had entered into private engagements,
importing that the Imperialists should join the Spaniards in recovering
Gibraltar and Port-Mahon by force of arms, in case the king of England
should refuse to restore them amicably, according to a solemn promise he
had made: that a double marriage should take place between the two infants
of Spain, and the two archduchesses of Austria; and that means should be
taken to place the pretender on the throne of Great Britain.

When the treaties of Vienna and Hanover fell under consideration of the
house of commons, Horatio Walpole, afterwards termed in derision, “the
balance master,” opened the debate with a long unanimated oration, giving
a detail of the affairs of Europe since the treaty of Utrecht. He
enumerated the barrier-treaty, the convention for executing that treaty,
the defensive alliance with the emperor, the other with the most christian
king and the states-general, another convention, the quadruple alliance,
the congress at Cambray, the treaty of Hanover, and that of Vienna. He
explained the nature of each engagement. He said the main design of the
treaty of commerce concluded between the emperor and the king of Spain,
was to countenance and support the East-India company established at
Ostend, which interfered so essentially with the East-India companies of
England and Holland, and was directly contrary to several solemn treaties
still in force. He enlarged upon the danger to which the balance of power
would be exposed, should the issue male of this projected marriage between
the houses of Austria and Spain ever possess the imperial dignity and the
kingdom of Spain together. The reader will take notice that this very man
was one of those who exclaimed against that article of the treaty of
Utrecht, which prevented the power of those two houses from being
immediately united in the person of the emperor. He did not forget to
expatiate upon the pretended secret engagement concerning Gibraltar and
Minorca, and the king’s pious concern for the distressed protestants of
Thorn in Poland. In vain did Mr. Shippen urge that the treaty of Hanover
would engage the British nation in a war for the defence of the king’s
German dominions, contrary to an express provision made in the act of
limitation. These arguments had lost all weight. The opposition was so
inconsiderable, that the ministry had no reason to be in pain about any
measure they should propose. An address was voted and delivered to his
majesty, approving the alliance he had concluded at Hanover, in order to
obviate and disappoint the dangerous views and consequences of the treaty
of peace betwixt the emperor and the king of Spain: and promising to
support his majesty against all insults and attacks that should be made
upon any of his territories, though not belonging to the crown of Great
Britain. An address of the same kind was presented by the house of lords
in a body. A bill was brought in, empowering the commissioners of the
treasury to compound with Mr. Richard Hampden, late treasurer of the navy,
for a debt he owed to the crown, amounting to eight-and-forty thousand
pounds. This deficiency was occasioned by his embarking in the South-Sea
scheme. The king recommended his petition; and the house complied with his
request, in consideration of his great-grandfather, the famous John
Hampden, who made such a noble stand against the arbitrary measures of the
first Charles.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

RIOTS IN SCOTLAND.

The malt-tax was found so grievous to Scotland, that the people refused to
pay it, and riots were excited in different parts of the kingdom. At
Glasgow, the populace, armed with clubs and staves, rifled the house of
Daniel Campbell, their representative in parliament, who had voted for the
bill, and maltreated some excisemen who attempted to take an account of
the malt. General Wade, who commanded the forces in Scotland, had sent two
companies of soldiers, under the command of captain Bushel, to prevent or
appease a disturbance of this nature. That officer drew up his men in the
street, where they were pelted with stones by the multitude, which he
endeavoured to disperse by firing among them without shot. This expedient
failing, he ordered his men to load their pieces with ball, and at a time
when the magistrates were advancing towards him in a body, to assist him
with their advice and influence, he commanded the soldiers to fire four
different ways, without the sanction of the civil authority. About twenty
persons were killed or wounded on this occasion. The people seeing so many
victims fall, were exasperated beyond all sense of danger. They began to
procure arms, and breathed nothing but defiance and revenge. Bushel
thought proper to retreat to the castle of Dumbarton, and was pursued
above five miles hy the enraged multitude. General Wade being informed of
this transaction, assembled a body of forces; and being accompanied by
Duncan Forbes, lord-advocate, took possession of Glasgow. The magistrates
were apprehended and conveyed prisoners to Edinburgh, where the lords
justiciary having taken cognizance of the affair, declared them innocent;
so that they were immediately discharged. Bushel was tried for murder,
convicted, and condemned; but instead of undergoing the penalties of the
law, he was indulged with a pardon, and promoted in the service. Daniel
Campbell having petitioned the house of commons, that he might be
indemnified for the damage he had sustained from the rioters, a bill
passed in his favour, granting him a certain sum to be raised from an
imposition laid upon all the beer and ale brewed in the city of Glasgow.
The malt-tax was so sensibly felt in Scotland, that the convention of the
royal burghs presented a remonstrance against it, as a grievous burden,
which their country could not bear: petitions to the same purpose were
delivered to the commons from different shires in that kingdom.

1726

On the twenty-fourth day of March, the king sent a message to the house by
sir Paul Methuen, desiring an extraordinary supply, that he might be able
to augment his maritime force, and concert such other measures as should
be necessary in the present conjuncture. A debate ensued, but the majority
complied with the demand. Some members in the upper house complained that
the message was not sent to both houses of parliament, and this suggestion
gave rise to another debate, in which lord Bathurst and others made some
melancholy reflections upon the state of insignificance to which the peers
of England were reduced. Such remarks, however, were very little minded by
the ministry, who had obtained a complete victory over all opposition. The
supplies, ordinary and extraordinary, being granted, with every thing else
which the court thought proper to ask, and several bills passed for the
regulation of civil economy, the king dismissed the parliament on the
twenty-fourth day of May.

A SQUADRON SENT TO THE BALTIC.

By this time Peter the czar of Muscovy was dead, and his empress Catharine
had succeeded him on the Russian throne. This princess had begun to
assemble forces in the neighbourhood of Petersburgh, and to prepare a
formidable armament for a naval expedition. King George, concluding that
her design was against Sweden, sent a strong squadron into the Baltic,
under the command of sir Charles Wager, in order to anticipate her views
upon his allies. The English fleet being joined at Copenhagen by a Danish
squadron, alarmed the court of Russia, which immediately issued orders for
reinforcing the garrisons of Wilbourg, Cronstadt, Revel, and Riga. The
English admiral, having had an audience with his Swedish majesty, steered
towards Revel, and sent thither a lieutenant, with a letter from the king
of Great Britain to the czarina. This was an expostulation, in which his
majesty observed, that he and his allies could not fail of being alarmed
at her great preparations by sea and land. He complained that measures had
been taken at her court in favour of the pretender; that his repeated
instances for establishing a lasting friendship with the crown of Russia
had been treated with neglect; and he gave her to understand, that he had
ordered his admiral to prevent her ships from coming out of her harbours,
should she persist in her resolution to execute the designs she had
projected. The czarina, in her answer to the king, expressed her surprise
that she had not received his majesty’s letter until his fleet was at
anchor before Revel, since it would have been more agreeable to the custom
established among sovereigns, and to the amity which had so long subsisted
between her kingdoms and the crown of Great Britain, to expostulate with
her on her armament, and expected her answer before he had proceeded to
such an offensive measure. She assured him that nothing was farther from
her thoughts than any design to disturb the peace of the North; and with
regard to the pretender, it was a frivolous and stale accusation, which
had been frequently used as a pretext to cover all the unkind steps lately
undertaken against the Russian empire. Sir Charles Wager continued in his
station until he received certain intelligence that the Russian galleys
were laid up in their winter harbour; then he set sail for the coast of
Denmark, from whence he returned to England in the month of November.

ADMIRAL HOSIER’S EXPEDITION.

King George, that he might not seem to convert all his attention to the
affairs of the North, had equipped two other squadrons, one of which was
destined for the West Indies, under the command of admiral Hosier: the
other, conducted by sir John Jennings, having on board a body of
land-forces, sailed from St. Helen’s on the twentieth day of July, entered
the bay of St. Antonio, then visited Lisbon, from whence he directed his
course to the bay of Bulls near Cadiz, and cruised off Cape St. Mary’s, so
as to alarm the coast of Spain and fill Madrid with consternation. Yet he
committed no act of hostility: but was treated with great civility by the
Spanish governor of Cadiz, who supplied him with refreshments.
Rear-admiral Hosier, with seven ships of war, had sailed in April for the
Spanish West-Indies, with instructions to block up the galleons in the
port of that country; or should they presume to come out, to seize and
bring them to England. Before his arrival at the Bastimentos, near
Porto-Bello, the treasure, consisting of above six millions sterling, had
been unloaded and carried back to Panama, in pursuance of an order sent by
an advice-boat which had the start of Hosier. This admiral lay inactive on
that station, until he became the jest of the Spaniards. He returned to
Jamaica, where he found means to reinforce his crews; then he stood over
to Carthagena. The Spaniards had by this time seized the English South-Sea
ship at La Vera Cruz, together with all the vessels and effects belonging
to that company. Hosier in vain demanded restitution: he took some Spanish
ships by way of reprisal, and continued cruising in those seas until the
greater part of his men perished deplorably by the diseases of that
unhealthy climate, and his ships were totally rained by the worms. This
brave officer, being restricted by his orders from obeying the dictates of
his courage, seeing his best officers and men daily swept off by an
outrageous distemper, and his ships exposed to inevitable destruction, is
said to have died of a broken heart; while the people of England loudly
clamoured against this unfortunate expedition, in which so many lives were
thrown away, and so much money expended, without the least advantage to
the nation. It seems to have been a mean piratical scheme to rob the court
of Spain of its expected treasure, even while a peace subsisted between
the two nations. The ministry of Great Britain indeed alleged, that the
Spanish king had entered into engagements in favour of the pretender.

DISGRACE OF THE DUKE DE RIPPERDA.

The dukes of Ormond and Wharton,* and the earl Marischal, were certainly
at Madrid; and the duke de Ripperda, now prime-minister of Spain, dropped
some expressions to the English envoy that implied some such design, which
however the court of Madrid positively denied.

* The duke of Wharton having consumed his fortune in riot
and extravagance, repaired to the court of Vienna, from
whence he proceeded to Rome, and offered his service to the
pretender. There he received the order of the garter, and
the title of duke of Northumberland. He was sent by the
chevalier de St. George with credentials to the court of
Madrid, where he abjured the protestant religion, married a
lady of the queen of Spain’s bed-chamber, and obtained the
rank and appointment of a lieutenant-colonel in the Spanish
service.

Ripperda, as a foreigner, fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Spanish
ministers. He was suddenly dismissed from his employments, with a pension
of three thousand pistoles. He forthwith took refuge in the house of
Vandermeer the Dutch ambassador, who was unwilling to be troubled with
such a guest. He therefore conveyed the duke in his coach to the house of
colonel Stanhope, the British minister, whose protection he craved and
obtained. Nevertheless, he was dragged from thence by force, and committed
prisoner to the castle of Segovia. He afterwards made his escape, and
sheltered himself in England from the resentment of his catholic majesty.
Colonel Stanhope complained of this violation of the law of nations, which
the Spanish ministers endeavoured to excuse. Memorials and letters passed
between the two courts, and every thing tended to a rupture. The king of
Spain purchased ships of war; began to make preparations for some
important undertaking; and assembled an army of twenty thousand men at St.
Roch, on pretence of rebuilding the old castle of Gibraltar. Meanwhile the
states-general and the king of Sweden acceded to the treaty of Hanover:
but the king of Prussia, though his majesty’s son-in-law, was detached
from the alliance by the emperor, with whom he contracted new engagements.

SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.

On the seventeenth day of January, the British parliament was opened with
a long elaborate speech, importing that the proceedings and transactions
of the emperor and king of Spain, and the secret offensive alliance
concluded between them, had laid the foundation of a most exorbitant and
formidable power; that they were directly levelled against the most
valuable and darling interests and privileges of the British nation, which
must either give up Gibraltar to Spain, and acquiesce in the emperor’s
usurped exercise of commerce, or resolve vigorously to defend their
undoubted rights against those reciprocal engagements, contracted in
defiance and violation of all national faith, and the most solemn
treaties. He assured them, that one of those secret articles was the
placing the pretender on the throne of Great Britain; and another the
conquest of Gibraltar and Port Mahon. He affirmed that those combinations
extended themselves into Russia; and that the English fleet seasonably
prevented such designs as would have opened a way to the invasion of these
kingdoms. He exhorted the commons to grant such supplies as should be
necessary for the defence of then-country, and for making good his
engagements with the allies of Great Britain. He told them that the king
of Spain had ordered his minister residing in England to quit the kingdom;
and that he had left a memorial little short of a declaration, in which he
insisted upon the restitution of Gibraltar. He did not fail to touch the
energetic strings which always moved their passions: the balance of power
in Europe, the security of the British commerce, the designs of a popish
pretender, the present happy establishment, the religion, liberties, and
properties of a protestant people. Such addresses of thanks were penned in
both houses as the ministers were pleased to dictate; yet not without
opposition from a minority, which was far from being formidable, though
headed by chiefs of uncommon talents and resolution. The commons voted
twenty thousand seamen, besides six-and-twenty thousand three hundred and
eighty-three men for the land service; and, to defray the extraordinary
expense, a land-tax of four shillings in the pound was granted.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727

DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

The house of lords having taken into consideration the letters and
memorials between the ministers of Great Britain, France, and Spain, and
the papers relating to the accession of the states-general to the treaty
of Hanover, a warm debate ensued. Lord Bathurst took notice that the
accession of the states-general to the treaty was upon condition that this
their act should be approved and ratified by the king of Great Britain,
the most christian king, and the king of Prussia; but that the minister of
his Prussian majesty had refused to sign the act of accession, which was
therefore of no effect: that if the court of France should, for the same
reason, think itself disengaged from the Hanover alliance, Britain alone
would be obliged to bear the burden of an expensive war against two of the
greatest potentates of Europe. He said he could not see any just reason
for a rupture with Spain; that indeed the duke de Ripperda might have
dropped some indiscreet expressions; he was known to be a man of violent
temper; and he had been solemnly disavowed by his catholic majesty; that,
in the memorial left by the Spanish ambassador, he imputed the violent
state of affairs between the two crowns to the ministers of England; and
mentioned a positive promise made by the king of Great Britain for the
restitution of Gibraltar; that methods of accommodation might be tried
before the kingdom engaged in a war which must be attended with dangerous
consequences; that the nation was loaded with a debt of fifty millions;
and, in order to maintain such a war, would be obliged to raise seven
millions yearly; an annual sum by which the people would soon be
exhausted. He observed, that in some papers laid before the house, mention
was made of great sums distributed in divers places, to bring certain
measures to bear. He declared, that for his own part, he had touched
neither Spanish nor English gold; he was neither a Spaniard nor a
Frenchman, but a true Englishman, and so long as he had the honour to sit
in that house, he would speak and act for the good of his country. He
therefore desired their lordships seriously to consider the matter before
them, which was of the last consequence and importance to the whole
nation. He said nothing could be gained by the war, should it prove
successful: and every thing would be lost should it be unprosperous. He
was answered by lord Town-shend, Who affirmed that his majesty had
received positive and certain information with respect to the secret
article of alliance between the courts of Vienna and Madrid, in favour of
the pretender, though the safety of the state did not permit him to lay
these advices before the parliament. After much altercation, the majority
resolved, that the measures his majesty had thought fit to take were
honourable, just, and necessary for preventing the execution of the
dangerous engagement entered into in favour of the pretender; for
preserving the dominions belonging to the crown of Great Britain by solemn
treaties, and particularly those of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca;
and for maintaining to his people their most valuable rights and
privileges of commerce, and the peace and tranquillity of Europe.
Seventeen lords entered a protest against this resolution. Disputes of the
same nature arose from the same subject in the lower house. Lord Townshend
had affirmed in the house of peers, that no promise of restoring Gibraltar
bad been made: sir Kobert Walpole owned such a promise in the house of
commons: a motion was made for an address, desiring these engagements
might be laid before the house; another member moved for a copy of the
memorial presented by Mr. Pointz to the king of Sweden, and for the secret
offensive article between the courts of Vienna and Madrid; a third motion
was made to address the king for such memorials and representations from
the courts of Sweden and Denmark, as induced him, in the course of the
preceding year, to send a squadron to the Baltic. In the account of the
money granted for the service of the last year, there was an article of
one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds charged in general terms as
issued out for other engagements and expenses, over and above such as were
specified. Mr. Pulteney moved for an address on this subject; but each of
these motions was rejected on a division: and the majority concurred in an
address of thanks to his majesty, for the great wisdom of his conduct.
They expressed the most implicit confidence in his goodness and
discretion: they promised to support him in all such further measures as
he should find necessary and expedient for preventing a rupture, as well
as for consulting the honour and advantage of these kingdoms.

His majesty’s speech gave such umbrage to the court of Vienna, that Mr.
Palms, the Imperial resident at London, was ordered to present a warm
memorial to the king, and afterwards to publish it to the whole nation. In
this bold remonstrance, the king was charged with having declared from the
throne, as certain and undoubted facts, several things that were either
wrested, misrepresented, or void of all foundation. The memorialist
affirmed, that the treaty of Vienna was built on the quadruple alliance;
that the treaty of commerce was calculated to promote the mutual and
lawful advantages of the subjects of both parties, agreeably to the law of
nations; and in no respect prejudicial to the British nation. He declared
that there was no offensive alliance concluded between the two crowns;
that the supposed article relating to the pretender was an absolute
falsehood; that the insinuation with respect to the siege of Gibraltar was
equally untrue, his master having made no engagements with the king of
Spain, but such as were specified in the treaty communicated to his
Britannic majesty. He said, however, the hostilities notoriously committed
in the West Indies, and elsewhere, against the king of Spain, in violation
of treaties, seemed to justify that prince’s undertaking the siege of
Gibraltar. Finally, he demanded, in the name of his Imperial majesty,
suitable reparation for the injury his honour had sustained from such
calumnious imputations. Both houses of parliament expressed their
indignation at the insolence of this memorial, in an address to his
majesty; and Mr. Palms was ordered to depart the kingdom. Virulent
declarations were presented by the ministers of the emperor and the king
of Great Britain to the diet of the empire at Ratisbon; and such personal
reflections retorted between these two potentates, that all hope of
reconciliation vanished.

CONVENTIONS WITH SWEDEN AND HESSE-CASSEL.

King George, in order to secure himself against the impending storm,
entered into more strict engagements with the French king; and agreed to
pay fifty thousand pounds for three years to the king of Sweden, in
consideration of that prince’s holding in readiness a body of ten thousand
troops for the occasions of the alliance. He concluded a fresh treaty with
the king of Denmark, who promised to furnish a certain number of
auxiliaries, on account of a large subsidy granted by the king of France.
The proportions of troops to be sent into the field in case of a rupture
were ascertained. His Britannic majesty engaged for four-and-twenty
thousand men, and a strong squadron to be sent into the Baltic. He made a
convention with the prince of Hesse-Cassel, who undertook to provide eight
thousand infantry, and four thousand horse, in consideration of
seventy-four thousand pounds, to be paid by Great Britain immediately, and
fifty thousand pounds more in case the troops should be required, besides
their pay and subsistence. Such was the fruit of all the alliances so
industriously planned since the accession of king George to the throne of
Great Britain. In the day of his trouble the king of Prussia, who had
espoused his daughter, deserted his interest; and the states-general stood
aloof. For the security of his German dominions, he had recourse to the
king of France, who was a precarious ally; to the kings of Sweden and
Denmark, and the principality of Hesse-Cassel: but none of these powers
would contribute their assistance without being gratified with exorbitant
subsidies, though the danger was common, and the efforts ought to have
been equal. Instead of allies, they professed themselves mercenaries.
Great Britain paid them for the defence of their own dominions: she,
moreover, undertook to maintain a powerful fleet for their safety. Is
there any Britain so weak as to think, or so fool-hardy as to affirm, that
this was a British quarrel?

1727

VOTE OF CREDIT.

For the support of those expensive treaties, Mr. Scroope, secretary of the
treasury, moved in the house of commons, that in the malt-tax bill they
should insert a clause of appropriation, empowering the king to apply such
sums as should be necessary for defraying the expenses and engagements
which had been, or should be made before the twenty-fifth day of
September, in concerting such measures as he should think most conducive
to the security of trade, and restoring the peace of Europe. To little
purpose did the members in the opposition urge that this method of asking
and granting supplies was unparliamentary; that such a clause would render
ineffectual that appropriation of the public money, which the wisdom of
all parliaments had thought a necessary security against misapplication,
which was the more to be feared as no provision was made to call any
person to account for the money that should be disposed of by virtue of
this clause; that great sums had already been granted; that such an
unlimited power ought never to be given in a free government; that such
confidence in the crown might, through the influence of evil ministers, be
attended with the most dangerous consequences; that the constitution could
not be preserved, but by a strict adherence to those essential
parliamentary forms of granting supplies upon estimates, and of
appropriating these supplies to services and occasions publicly avowed and
judged necessary; that such clauses, if not seasonably checked, would
become so frequent as in time to lodge in the crown and in the ministers
an absolute and uncontrollable power of raising money upon the people,
which by the constitution is, and with safety can only be, lodged in the
whole legislature. The motion was carried, the clause added, and the bill
passed through the other house without amendment, though not without
opposition. Notwithstanding this vote of credit, sir William Yonge moved,
that towards the supply granted to the king, the sum of three hundred and
seventy thousand pounds should be raised by loans on exchequer bills, to
be charged on the surplus of the duties on coal and culm, which was
reserved for the parliament’s disposal. Though this motion was vigorously
opposed by sir Joseph Jekyll and Mr. Pulteney, as a dangerous deviation
from several votes and acts of parliament, by which the exceed-ings of the
public funds were appropriated to the discharge of the national debt, or
to the increase of the sinking fund, it was carried by the majority.

SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR

On the fifteenth day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king
had acknowledged their zeal, liberality, and despatch; and given them to
understand that the siege of Gibraltar was actually begun. The trenches
were opened before this fortress on the eleventh day of February, by the
Conde de las Torres, at the head of twenty thousand men. The place was
well provided for a defence; and the old earl of Portmore, who was
governor, embarked with a reinforcement from England, under convoy of a
fleet commanded by sir Charles Wager. He arrived at Gibraltar in the
beginning of April, where he landed the troops, with a great quantity of
ammunition, warlike stores, and four-and-twenty pieces of cannon. At the
same time, five hundred men arrived from Minorca; so that the garrison
amounted to six thousand, plentifully supplied with fresh provisions from
the coast of Barbary, and treated the efforts of the besiegers with great
contempt. The states-general, being apprehensive of an attempt upon their
barrier in the Netherlands, desired the king would hold in readiness the
ten thousand auxiliaries stipulated in the treaty. These were immediately
prepared for embarkation, and the forces of England were augmented with
thirty new raised companies. Sir John Norris set sail with a powerful
fleet for the Baltic, and was joined by a Danish squadron; but the czarina
dying on the seventeenth day of May, he had no occasion to commit
hostilities, as the Russian armament was laid aside.

PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE.

Meanwhile the powers at variance, though extremely irritated against each
other, were all equally averse to a war that might again embroil all
Europe. The king of France interposed his mediation, which was conducted
by the duke de Richlieu, his ambassador at Vienna. Plans and counterplans
of pacification were proposed between the two crowns and the allies. At
length all parties agreed to twelve preliminary articles which were signed
in May at Paris, by the ministers of the Hanoverian alliance, and
afterwards at Vienna, by the Imperial and Spanish ambassadors. These
imported, that hostilities should immediately cease; that the charter of
the Ostend company should be suspended for seven years; and that a
congress should in four months be opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, for adjusting
all differences, and consolidating the peace of Europe. This congress was
afterwards transferred to Soissons, for the conveniency of the French
minister, whose presence was necessary at court. The siege of Gibraltar
was raised, after it had lasted four months, during which the Spaniards
lost a great number of men by sickness, while the garrison sustained very
little damage. The court of Madrid, however, started some new
difficulties, and for some time would not consent to the restitution of
the South-Sea ship, which had been detained at La Vera-Cruz, in the West
Indies; so that sir Charles Wager continued to cruise on the coast of
Spain: but these objections were removed in the sequel.

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF GEORGE I.

King George, having appointed a regency, embarked at Greenwich on the
third day of June, and landing in Holland on the seventh, set out on his
journey to Hanover. He was suddenly seized with a paralytic disorder on
the road: he forthwith lost the faculty of speech, became lethargic, and
was conveyed in a state of insensibility to Osnabruck. There he expired on
Sunday the eleventh day of June, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and
in the thirteenth of his reign.—George I. was plain and simple in
his person and address, grave and composed in his deportment, though easy,
familiar, and facetious in his hours of relaxation. Before he ascended the
throne of Great Britain, he had acquired the character of a circumspect
general, a just and merciful prince, a wise politician, who perfectly
understood, and steadily pursued, his own interest. With these qualities,
it cannot be doubted but that he came to England extremely well disposed
to govern his new subjects according to the maxims of the British
constitution, and the genius of the people; and if ever he seemed to
deviate from these principles, we may take it for granted that he was
misled by the venal suggestions of a ministry whose power and influence
were founded on corruption. 229 [See note 2 I, at the end of this Vol.]

NOTES:

206 (return)
[ Note 2 H, p. 206. The
pretender, who resided at Urbino, having received intelligence from Paris,
that there was a design formed against his life, pope Clement XL gave
directions that all foreigners in that neighbourhood, especially English,
should be arrested. The earl of Peterborough arriving at Bologna, with a
few armed followers, was seized with all his papers. Being interrogated,
he said he came to pass some time in Italy for the benefit of the air. He
was close confined for a whole month in fort Urbino, and his attendants
were sent to prison. Nothing appearing to justify the suspicion, he was
dismissed with uncommon civility. The king demanding reparation for this
insult, the pope wrote with his own hand a letter to an ally of Great
Britain, declaring that the legate of Bologna had violently and unjustly,
without the knowledge of his holiness, caused the earl of Peterborough to
be seized upon suspicions which proved to be ill-grounded. The cardinal
legate sent a declaration to the English admiral in the Mediterranean,
that he had asked forgiveness of his holiness, and now begged pardon of
his Britannic majesty, for having unadvisedly arrested a peer of Great
Britain on his travels.]

229 (return)
[ Note 2 I, p. 229.
George I. married the princess Sophia Dorothy, daughter and heiress of the
duke of Zell, by whom he had king George II. and the late queen of
Prussia. The king’s body was conveyed to Hanover, and interred among his
ancestors. From the death of Charles II. to this period, England had made
a considerable figure in every branch of literature. Dr. Atterbury and Dr.
Clarke distinguished themselves in divinity—Mr. Whiston wrote in
defence of Arianism—John Locke shone forth the great restorer of
human reason—the earl of Shaftesbury raised an elegant, though
feeble, system of moral philosophy—Berkeley, afterwards bishop of
Cloyne in Ireland, surpassed all his contemporaries in subtle and variety
of metaphysical arguments, as well as in the art of deduction—lord
Bolingbroke’s talents as a metaphysician have been questioned since his
posthumous works appeared—great progress was made in mathematics and
astronomy, by Wallis, Halley, and Flamstead—the art of medicine owed
some valuable improvements to the classical Dr. Friend, and the elegant
Dr. Mead. Among the poets of this era, we number John Philips, author of a
didactic poem, called Cyder, a performance of real merit; he lived and
died in obscurity—William Congreve, celebrated for his comedies,
which are not so famous for strength of character and power of humour, as
for wit, elegance, and regularity—Vanburgh, who wrote with more
nature and fire, though with less art and precision—Steele, who in
his comedies successfully engrafted modern characters on the ancient drama—Farquhar,
who drew his pictures from fancy rather than from nature, and whose chief
merit consists in the agreeable pertness and vivacity of his dialogue—Addison,
whose fame as a poet greatly exceeded his genius, which was cold and
enervate; though he yielded to none in the character of an essayist,
either for style or matter—Swift, whose muse seems to have been mere
misanthropy; he was a cynic rather than a poet, and his natural dryness
and sarcastic severity would have been unpleasing, had not he qualified
them, by adopting the extravagant humour of Lueian and Rabelais—Prior,
lively, familiar, and amusing—Rowe, solemn, florid, and declamatory—Pope,
the prince of lyric poetry; unrivalled in satire, ethics, and polished
versification—the agreeable Parnel—the wild, the witty, and
the whimsical Garth—Gay, whose fables may vie with those of La
Fontaine, in native humour, ease, and simplicity, and whose genius for
pastoral was truly original. Dr. Bentley stood foremost in the list of
critics and commentators. Sir Christopher Wren raised some noble monuments
of architecture. The most remarkable political writers were Davenant,
Hare, Swift, Steele, Addison, Bolingbroke, and Trenchard.]

==============================

GEORGE II.

1727

CHAPTER I.

George II. ascends the Throne of Great Britain…..
Characters of the principal Persons concerned in the
ministry….. Debates in Parliament concerning the Civil-
list….. Changes and Promotions….. New Parliament…..
Violent Dispute concerning the National Debt….. Vote of
Credit….. A double Marriage between the Houses of Spain
and Portugal….. liberality of the Commons….. Debates on
the Subsidies of Hesse-Cassel and Wolfenbuttle…..
Committee for inspecting the Gaols——Address touching the
Spanish Depredations….. A Sum voted to the King on account
of Arrears due on the Civil-list Revenue….. Proceedings in
the House of Lords….. Wise conduct of the Irish
Parliament….. Abdication of the King of Sardinia…..
Death of Pope Benedict XIII….. Substance of the King’s
Speech to both Houses….. Objections to the Treaty of
Seville in the House of Lords….. Opposition in the Lower
House to a standing Army….. Bill prohibiting Loans to
Foreign Princes or States….. Charter of the East-India
Company prolonged….. The Emperor resents the Treaty of
Seville….. Seven Indian Chiefs arrive in England…..
Revolution at Constantinople….. England infested with
Robbers, Assassins, and Incendiaries….. Bill against
Pensioners sitting as Members in the House of Commons…..
Treaty of Vienna….. Death of the Duke of Parma….. Don
Carlos takes Possession of his Territories—France
distracted by religious Disputes….. The Ministry violently
opposed in Parliament….. Debate on a standing Army…..
Account of the Charitable Corporation….. Revival of the
Salt-tax….. Mr. Pulteney’s name struck out of the List of
Privy-counsellors….. The King sets out for Hanover

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

GEORGE II. ASCENDS THE THRONE.

At the accession of George II. the nation had great reason to wish for an
alteration of measures. The public debt, notwithstanding the boasted
economy and management of the ministers; notwithstanding the sinking fund,
which had been extolled as a growing treasure sacred to the discharge of
national incumbrances, was now increased to fifty millions two hundred and
sixty-one thousand two hundred and six pounds, nineteen shillings and
eightpence three farthings. The kingdom was bewildered in a labyrinth of
treaties and conventions, by which it stood engaged in pecuniary subsidies
to many powers upon the continent, with whom its real interests could
never be connected. The wealth of the nation had been lavished upon those
foreign connexions, upon unnecessary wars, and fruitless expeditions.
Dangerous encroachments had been made upon the constitution, by the repeal
of the act for triennial parliaments; by frequent suspensions of the habeas-corpus
act upon frivolous occasions; by repealing clauses in the act of
settlement; by votes of credit; by habituating the people to a standing
army; and, above all, by establishing a system of corruption, which at all
times would secure a majority in parliament. The nature of prerogative, by
which the liberties of the nation had formerly been often endangered, was
now so well understood, and so securely restrained, that it could no
longer be used for the same oppressive purposes; besides, an avowed
extension of the prerogative required more ability, courage, and
resolution, than the present ministry could exert. They understood their
own strength, and had recourse to a more safe and effectual expedient. The
vice, luxury, and prostitution of the age, the almost total extinction of
sentiment, honour, and public spirit, had prepared the minds of men for
slavery and corruption. The means were in the hands of the ministry; the
public treasure was at their devotion; they multiplied places and
pensions, to increase the number of their dependants; they squandered away
the money of the nation without taste, discernment, decency, or remorse;
they enlisted an army of the most abandoned emissaries, whom they employed
to vindicate the worst measures, in the face of truth, common sense, and
common honesty; and they did not fail to stigmatize as Jacobites, and
enemies to the government, all those who presumed to question the merit of
their administration.

CHARACTERS OF THE PRINCIPAL PERSONS CONCERNED IN THE MINISTRY.

The supreme direction of affairs was not yet engrossed by a single
minister. Lord Townshend had the reputation of conducting the external
transactions relating to treaties and negotiations. He is said to have
understood that province, though he did not always follow the dictates of
his own understanding. He possessed an extensive fund of knowledge; and
was well acquainted with the functions of his office. The duke of
Newcastle, his colleague, was not remarkable for any of these
qualifications; he owed his promotion to his uncommon zeal for the
illustrious house of Hanover, and to the strength of his interest in
parliament, rather than to his judgment, precision, or any other
intellectual merit. Lord Carteret, who may be counted an auxiliary, though
not immediately concerned in the administration, had distinguished himself
in the character of envoy at several courts in Europe. He had attained an
intimate knowledge of all the different interests and connexions
subsisting among the powers of the continent; and he infinitely surpassed
all the ministers in learning and capacity. He was indeed the only man of
genius employed under this government. He spoke with ease and propriety,
his conceptions were just and lively; his inferences bold; his counsels
vigorous and warm. Yet he depreciated his talents, by acting in a
subordinate character to those whom he despised; and seemed to look upon
the pernicious measures of a bad ministry with silent contempt, rather
than with avowed detestation. The interior government of Great Britain was
chiefly managed by sir Robert Walpole, a man of extraordinary talents, who
had from low beginnings raised himself to the head of the treasury. Having
obtained a seat in the lower house, he declared himself one of the most
forward partisans of the whig faction. He was endued with a species of
eloquence, which, though neither nervous nor elegant, flowed with great
facility, and was so plausible on all subjects, that even when he
misrepresented the truth, whether from ignorance or design, he seldom
failed to persuade that part of his audience for whose hearing his
harangue was chiefly intended. He was well acquainted with the nature of
the public funds, and understood the whole mystery of stock-jobbing. This
knowledge produced a connexion between him and the money-corporations,
which served to enhance his importance. He perceived the bulk of mankind
were actuated by a sordid thirst of lucre; he had sagacity enough to
convert the degeneracy of the times to his own advantage; and on this, and
this alone, he founded the whole superstructure of his subsequent
administration. In the late reign he had by dint of speaking decisively to
every question, by boldly impeaching the conduct of the tory ministers, by
his activity in elections, and engaging as a projector in the schemes of
the monied interest, become a leading member in the house of commons. By
his sufferings under the tory parliament, he attained the rank of a martyr
to his party. His interest, his reputation, and his presumption daily
increased; he opposed Sunderland as his rival in power, and headed a
dangerous defection from the ministry, which evinced the greatness of his
influence and authority. He had the glory of being principally concerned
in effecting a reconciliation between the late king and the prince of
Wales; then he was re-associated in the administration with additional
credit; and, from the death of the earls of Sunderland and Stanhope, he
had been making long strides towards the office of prime minister. He knew
the maxims he had adopted would subject him to the hatred, the ridicule,
and reproach of some individuals, who had not yet resigned all sentiments
of patriotism, nor all views of opposition; but the number of these was
inconsiderable, when compared to that which constituted the body of the
community; and he would not suffer the consideration of such antagonists
to come in competition with his schemes of power, affluence, and
authority. Nevertheless, low as he had humbled anti-ministerial
association, it required all his artifice to elude, all his patience and
natural phlegm to bear, the powerful arguments that were urged, and the
keen satire that was exercised against his measures and management, by a
few members in the opposition. Sir William Wyndham possessed all the
energy of elocution; Mr. Shippen was calm, intrepid, shrewd and sarcastic;
Mr. Pulteney inherited from nature a good understanding, which he had
studiously cultivated. He was one of the most learned members in the house
of commons, extremely well qualified to judge of literary productions;
well read in history and politics; deeply skilled in the British
constitution, the detail of government, and the nature of the finances. He
spoke with freedom, fluency, and uncommon warmth of declamation, which was
said to be the effect of personal animosity to sir Robert Walpole, with
whom he had been formerly connected.

DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT CONCERNING THE CIVIL LIST.

An express arriving on the fourteenth day of June, with an account of the
king’s death, his late majesty king George II. repaired from Richmond,
where he received this intelligence, to Leicester-house; and the members
of the privy-council being assembled, were sworn a-new. The king declared
his firm purpose to preserve the constitution in church and state, and to
cultivate those alliances which his father had made with foreign princes.
At the same time, he took and subscribed the oath for the security of the
church of Scotland, as required by the act of union. Next day he was
proclaimed king of Great Britain. The parliament assembled in pursuance of
the act made for that purpose; but was immediately prorogued by commission
to the twenty-seventh day of the month. All the great officers of state
continued in their places; sir Robert Walpole kept possession of the
treasury; and the system of politics which the late king had established
underwent no sort of alteration. The king, in his speech to both houses at
the opening of the session, professed a fixed resolution to merit the love
and affection of his people, by maintaining them in the full enjoyment of
their religious and civil rights. He promised to lessen the public expense
as soon as the circumstances of affairs would permit: he observed to the
commons, that the grant of the greatest part of the civil list revenues
was now determined; and that it would be necessary for them to make a new
provision for the support of him and his family: lastly, he recommended it
to both houses to dispatch the business that should be necessarily brought
before them, as the season of the year and the circumstances of time
required their presence in the country. Addresses of condolence and
congratulation being drawn up and presented, the commons, in a committee
of the whole house, took into consideration a motion for a supply to his
majesty. Sir Robert Walpole having observed, that the annual sum of seven
hundred thousand pounds granted to, and settled on, the late king, had
fallen short every year; and that his present majesty’s expenses were
likely to increase, by reason of the largeness of his family, moved, that
the entire revenues of the civil list, which produced about eight hundred
thousand pounds per annum, should be settled on the king during his life.
Mr. Shippen opposed this motion, as inconsistent with the trust reposed in
them as representatives of the people, who ought to be very frugal in
exercising the right of giving away the public money. He said, the sum of
seven hundred thousand pounds was not obtained for his late majesty
without a long and solemn debate; and every member who contended for it at
that time, allowed it to be an ample royal revenue: that, although his
majesty’s family should be enlarged, a circumstance which had been urged
as one reason for the motion, he presumed the appointments of prince
Frederick would not be much inferior to those settled on his present
majesty when he was prince of Wales: besides, it was to be hoped that many
personal, many particular expenses in the late reign, especially those for
frequent journeys to Hanover, would be discontinued, and entirely cease.
He observed, that the civil list branches in the queen’s reign did not
often exceed the sum of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds;
nevertheless, she called upon her parliament but once, in a reign of
thirteen years, to pay the debts contracted in her civil government; and
these were occasioned by the unparalleled instances of her piety and
generosity. She gave the first-fruits and tenths, arising to nineteen
thousand pounds a-year, as an augmentation of the maintenance of the poor
clergy. She bestowed five thousand pounds per annum, out of the
post-office, on the duke of Marlborough: she suffered seven hundred pounds
to be charged weekly on the same office, for the service of the public:
she expended several hundred thousand pounds in building the castle of
Blenheim: she allowed four thousand pounds annually to prince Charles of
Denmark: she sustained great loses by the tin contract: she supported the
poor Palatines: she exhibited many other proofs of royal bounty: and
immediately before her death she had formed a plan of retrenchment, which
would have reduced her yearly expenses to four hundred and fifty-nine
thousand nine hundred and forty-one pounds. He affirmed, that a million
a-year would not be sufficient to carry on the exorbitant expenses, so
often and so justly complained of in the house of commons: that over and
above the yearly allowance of seven hundred thousand pounds, many
occasional taxes, many excessive sums were raised, and all sunk in the
bottomless gulf of secret service. Two hundred and fifty thousand pounds
were raised in defiance of the ancient parliamentary methods, to secure
the kingdom from a Swedish invasion; then the two insurance offices were
erected, and paid near three hundred thousand pounds for their charters:
our enmity with Sweden being changed into an alliance, a subsidy of
seventy-two thousand pounds was implicitly granted, to fulfil some secret
engagements with that crown: four and twenty thousand pounds were given
for burning merchant ships arrived from infected places, though the goods
which ought to have been destroyed for the public safety were afterwards
privately sold: a sum of five hundred thousand pounds was demanded, and
granted, for paying the debts of the civil list; and his majesty declared
by message, he was resolved to retrench his expenses for the future.
Notwithstanding this resolution, in less than four years, a new demand of
the like sum was made and granted to discharge new incumbrances: the
Spanish ships of war which admiral Byng took in the Mediterranean, were
sold for a considerable sum of money: one hundred and twenty-five thousand
pounds were granted in the last session, to be secretly disposed of for
the public utility; and there was still a debt in the civil government,
amounting to above six hundred thousand pounds. He took notice, that this
amazing extravagance happened under the conduct of persons pretending to
surpass all their predecessors in the knowledge and care of the public
revenue: that as none of these sums had been accounted for, they were, in
all probability, employed in services not fit to be owned. He said, he
heartily wished that Time, the great discoverer of hidden truths and
concealed iniquities, might produce a list of all such as had been
perverted from their public duty by private pensions: who had been the
hired slaves and the corrupt instruments of a profuse and vain-glorious
administration. He proposed, that instead of granting an addition to the
civil list, they should restrict that revenue to a certain sum, by
concluding the question with these words, “in like manner as they were
granted and continued to his late majesty, so as to make up the clear
yearly sum of seven hundred thousand pounds.” To these particulars, which
were indeed unanswerable, no reply was made. Even this mark of decency was
laid aside, as idle and superfluous. The house agreed to the motion; and a
bill was brought in for the better support of his majesty’s household. The
commons having received a message from the king, desiring they would make
further provision for the queen his consort, resolved, That in case she
should survive his majesty, the sum of one hundred thousand pounds should
be settled upon her for life, charged upon the revenues of the civil list,
together with his majesty’s palace of Somerset-house, and Richmond
Old-park. A bill was formed on this resolution, which, as well as the
other, passed both bouses, and received the royal assent on the
seventeenth day of July, when the king, in a speech to both houses,
expressed his satisfaction with their conduct, and congratulated them on
the wealth and glory of the nation, by which they had acquired such weight
in holding the balance of Europe. Then the lord-chancellor prorogued the
parliament to the twenty-ninth day of August; but on the seventh day of
that month a proclamation was issued for dissolving this, and convoking
another.

In the interim some changes were made in different departments of civil
economy. Lord viscount Torrington was placed at the head of the admiralty;
the earl of Westmoreland was appointed first lord commissioner of trade
and plantations. Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of Chesterfield, a nobleman
remarkable for his wit, eloquence, and polished manners, was nominated
ambassador to the Hague. The privy-council being dissolved, another was
appointed of the members then present. The duke of Devonshire was
dignified with the place of president; and the duke of St. Alban’s was
appointed master of the horse. On the eleventh day of October, the
coronation of the king and queen was performed at Westminster-Abbey, with
the usual solemnity.* By this time the courts of France and Spain were
perfectly reconciled; all Europe was freed from the calamities of war; and
the peace of Great Britain suffered no interruption, except from some
transient tumults among the tinners of Cornwall, who, being provoked by a
scarcity of corn, rose in arms and plundered the granaries of that county.

* King George II. ascended the throne in the forty-fourth
year of his age. On the second day of September, 1705, he
espoused the princess Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline,
daughter to John Frederick, marquis of Brandenburgh Anspach,
by whom he had two sons, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales,
born at Hanover on the thirty-first day of January, 1707,
and William Augustus, born at London on the fifteenth day of
April, 1721. She had likewise borne four princesses, namely,
Anne, Amelia, Caroline, Mary, and was afterwards delivered
of Louisa, married in the sequel to the king of Denmark.

NEW PARLIAMENT.

The elections in England and Scotland for the parliament having succeeded
on the new system, according to the wishes of the ministry, the two houses
met on the twenty-third day of January, when the commons unanimously chose
for their speaker Arthur Onslow, esquire, knight of the shire for Surrey,
a gentleman of extensive knowledge, worth, and probity; grave, eloquent,
venerable, and every way qualified for the discharge of that honourable
and important office. The king, in his speech to this new parliament,
declared, that by the last advices from abroad, he had reason to hope the
difficulties which had hitherto retarded the execution of the
preliminaries, and the opening of the congress, would soon be entirely
removed; in the meantime, he represented the absolute necessity of
continuing the preparation which had hitherto secured the nation, and
prevented an open rupture in Europe. He promised, that his first care
should be to reduce, from time to time, the expense of the public, as
often, and as soon as the interest and safety of his people would permit
such reduction. He expressed an earnest desire of seeing the foundation
laid of an effectual scheme for the increase and encouragement of seamen
in general, that they might be invited rather than compelled into the
service of their country. Finally, he recommended unanimity, zeal, and
despatch of the public business. Those speeches, penned by the minister,
were composed with a view to soothe the minds of the people into an
immediate concurrence with the measures of the government; but without any
intention of performing those promises of economy, reformation, and
national advantage. The two houses seemed to vie with each other in
expressions of applause and affection to his majesty. The lords, in their
address, hailed him as the best of kings, and the true father of his
country. The commons expressed the warmest sense of gratitude for the
blessings they enjoyed in his reign, though it was not yet eight months
old. They approved of all his transactions; they promised to support him
in all his undertakings; and declared they would cheerfully grant whatever
supplies should be wanted for the public service. Having considered the
estimates which were laid before them by order of his majesty, they voted
two-and-twenty thousand nine hundred and fifty-five men for guards and
garrisons; and fifteen thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing
year. They granted two hundred and thirty thousand nine hundred and
twenty-three pounds, for the maintenance of twelve thousand Hessian
troops; a subsidy of fifty thousand pounds to the king of Sweden; and half
that sum to the duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle.* The expense of the year
amounted to four millions, raised by a land-tax of three shillings in the
pound, a malt-tax, and by borrowing of the bank one million seven hundred
and fifty thousand pounds, for which annuities to the amount of seventy
thousand pounds, to be raised by duties on coals imported into the city of
London, were granted to that corporation.

* Nothing could be a greater burlesque upon the negotiation
than this treaty of alliance concluded with the petty duke
of Wolfenbuttle, who very gravely guarantees to his
Britannic majesty the possession of his three kingdoms, and
obliges himself to supply his majesty with five thousand
men, in consideration of an annual subsidy of five-and-
twenty thousand pounds for four years.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

VIOLENT DISPUTE CONCERNING THE NATIONAL DEBT.

All these sums, however, were not granted without question. The number of
land-forces occasioned a debate; and the Hessian auxiliaries were not
allowed without dispute and opposition. When they deliberated on the loan
of the bank, Mr. Pulteney observed, that the shifting of funds was but
perpetuating taxes, and putting off the evil day; that notwithstanding the
great merit which some persons had built on the sinking fund, it appeared
that the national debt had been increased since the setting up of that
pompous project. Some warm altercation passed between him and sir Robert
Walpole on this subject. The lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of
London, presented a petition, setting forth, that the duties already laid
upon coals and culm imported into London, affected the trade of that city
only; that the inequality of the burden was a great discouragement to
their manufactures, and a hardship upon all the trading inhabitants. The
petition was rejected, and the tax imposed. The house having addressed the
king for a particular and distinct account of the distribution of two
hundred and fifty thousand pounds, charged to have been issued for
securing the trade and navigation of the kingdom, and preserving and
restoring the peace of Europe, he declined granting their request, but
signified in general that part of the money had been issued and disbursed
by his late majesty, and the remainder by himself, for carrying on the
same necessary services, which required the greatest secrecy. Such a
message in the reign of King William would have raised a dangerous flame
in the house of commons.

1728

Mr. W. Pulteney inveighed against such a vague and general way of
accounting for the public money, as tending to render parliaments
altogether insignificant, to cover embezzlements, and to screen corrupt
and rapacious ministers. The commons having taken into consideration the
state of the national debt, examined the accounts, and interrogated the
proper officers. A motion was made by a court member, that it appeared the
monies already issued and applied towards discharging the national debts,
together with a sum to be issued at Lady-day, amounted to six millions six
hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred and sixty two pounds, five
shillings and one penny one farthing. In vain did the leaders of the
opposition expose the fallacious tendency of this motion. In vain did they
demonstrate the fraudulent artifice used in drawing up the accounts; the
motion was carried; and several resolutions were taken on the state of the
national debts. In the particular account of these debts, upon which the
house resolved to form a representation to his majesty, an article of
three hundred thousand pounds relating to the duty upon wrought plate was
totally omitted. This extraordinary omission being discovered, gave rise
to a very warm debate, and to very severe reflection against those who
superintended the public accounts. This error being rectified, a committee
appointed for the purpose drew up the representation, containing a
particular detail of the national debts discharged and incurred since the
twenty-fifth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
sixteen, with a state of the sinking fund and of the public credit. The
draft being approved by the house, was presented to the king-, who
received it graciously. He took this opportunity of saying, that the
provision made for gradually discharging the national debts was now become
so certain and considerable, that nothing but some unforeseen event could
alter or diminish it; a circumstance that afforded the fairest prospect of
seeing the old debts discharged without any necessity of incurring new
incumbrances.

This answer, fraught with many other expressions of fatherly tenderness
for his people, paved the way for a message to the house, demanding a vote
of credit to fulfil certain engagements entered into, and concerted, with
the advice and concurrence of the last parliament, for securing the trade
and navigation of the kingdom, and for restoring and preserving the peace
of Europe. Though a debate ensued upon this message, the majority resolved
that an address should be presented to his majesty, declaring the duty and
fidelity of the commons, their entire confidence in his royal care and
goodness, and their readiness to enable his majesty to fulfil his
engagements, A vote of credit passed accordingly. During this session, the
peers were chiefly employed in examining copies of several treaties and
alliances which the king submitted to their perusal; they likewise
prepared a bill for amending the statute of limitation, which, however,
did not pass into a law; they considered the state of the national debt, a
subject fruitful of debates; they passed the mutiny bill, and those that
were sent up from the commons touching the supplies; together with an act
obliging ships arriving from infected places, to perform quarantine; and
some others of a more private nature. These bills having received the
royal assent, the king closed the session on the twenty-eighth day of May,
when he thanked the commons for the effectual supplies they had raised,
and, in particular, for having empowered him to borrow five hundred
thousand pounds for the discharge of wages due to the seamen employed in
the navy.

A DOUBLE MARRIAGE BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

England was at this period quite barren of remarkable events. The king’s
uncle, Ernest Augustus, prince of Brunswick, duke of York, and bishop of
Osnabruck, died on the third day of August, and was succeeded in the
bishopric by the elector Cologn, according to the pactum by which
Osnabruck is alternately possessed by the house of Brunswick and that
elector. In the beginning of December, his majesty’s eldest son prince
Frederick arrived in England from Hanover, where he had hitherto resided,
was introduced into the privy-council, and created prince of Wales.
Signior Como, resident from the duke of Parma, was ordered to quit the
kingdom, because his master paid to the pretender the honours due to the
king of Great Britain. The congress opened at Soissons, for determining
all disputes among the powers of Europe, proved ineffectual. Such
difficulties occurred in settling and reconciling so many different
pretensions and interests, that the contracting parties in the alliance of
Hanover proposed a provisional treaty, concerning which no definitive
answer was given as yet by the courts of Vienna and Madrid. The fate of
Europe, therefore, continued in suspense; the English fleet lay inactive
and rotting in the West-Indies; the sailors perished miserably, without
daring to avenge their country’s wrongs; while the Spanish cruisers
committed depredations with impunity on the commerce of Great Britain. The
court of Spain, at this juncture, seemed cold and indifferent with regard
to a pacification with England. It had renewed a good understanding with
France, and now strengthened its interests by a double alliance of
marriage with the royal family of Portugal. The infanta of this house was
betrothed to the prince of Asturias; while the Spanish infanta, formerly
affianced to the French king, was now matched with the prince of Brazil,
eldest son of his Portuguese majesty. In the month of January, the two
courts met in a wooden house built over the little river Coya, that
separates the two kingdoms, and there the princesses were exchanged.

LIBERALITY OF THE COMMONS.

The parliament of Great Britain meeting according to their last
prorogation on the twenty-first day of January, the king in his speech
communicated the nature of the negotiation at the congress. Pie demanded
such supplies as might enable him to act vigorously in concert with his
allies, provided his endeavours to establish an advantageous peace should
miscarry; and he hinted that the dilatory conduct of the courts of Vienna
and Madrid proceeded in a great measure from the hopes that were given of
creating discontents and divisions among the subjects of Great Britain.
This suggestion was a ministerial artifice to inflame the zeal and
resentment of the nation, and intimidate the members in the opposition.
Accordingly the hint was pursued, and in the addresses from both houses,
that could not fail of being agreeable, considering the manner in which
they were dictated, particular notice was taken of this article; both
peers and commons expressed their detestation and abhorrence of those,
who, by such base and unnatural artifices, suggested the means of
distressing their country, and clamoured at the inconveniencies which they
themselves had occasioned. In these addresses, likewise, the parliament
congratulated his majesty on the arrival of the prince of Wales in his
British dominions; and the commons sent a particular compliment to his
royal highness on that occasion, The estimates having been examined in the
usual form, the house voted fifteen thousand seamen for the ensuing year;
but the motion for continuing the same number of land-forces which had
been allowed in the preceding year, was not carried without dispute. All
the arguments against a standing army in time of peace, as inconsistent
with the British constitution, and dangerous to the liberties of the
people, were repeated with great vivacity by Mr. Shippen and Mr. W.
Pulteney. These, however, were answered, and represented as absurd, by Mr.
Horatio Walpole and Mr. D., two staunch adherents of the minister. The
first had, in despite of nature, been employed in different negotiations;
he was blunt, awkward, and slovenly, an orator without eloquence, an
ambassador without dignity, and a plenipotentiary without address. The
other had natural parts and acquired knowledge; spoke with confidence; and
in dispute was vain, sarcastic, petulant, and verbose.

DEBATES ON THE SUBSIDIES OF HESSE-CASSEL AND WOLFENBUTTLE.

The subsidies to Sweden, Hesse-Cassel, and Wolfen-buttle were continued,
notwithstanding the remonstrances of sir Joseph Jekyll, Mr. Lutwyche, and
Mr. Pulteney; which last observed, that as the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel,
and the duke of Brunswick-Wolfen-buttle, usually maintained a certain
number of troops in their pay, it was but reasonable that Great Britain
should defray no more than the expense of the additional forces which
those powers had raised, in consequence of their conventions with the king
of England. Sir Robert Walpole perceiving that this remark made an
impression on the house, thought it necessary to vindicate his measure. He
expatiated upon the wisdom of the late king, in concluding the Hanover
alliance. He affirmed, that the convention with Hesse-Cassel had prevented
a war in the empire, for which the court of Vienna had made great
preparations; that the emperor had not only augmented his own forces by
the help of Spanish subsidies, but also retained the troops of three
electors; and if he had not been overawed by the Hessians, would certainly
have rejected the preliminaries, and all other advances towards a
pacification; that, therefore, they ought not to grudge an expense which
had already proved so beneficial to the tranquillity of Europe. Sir Joseph
Jekyll replied, that whatever gloss might be put upon such measures, they
were repugnant to the maxims by which England in former times had steered
and squared its conduct with relation to its interest abroad; that the
navy was the natural strength of Great Britain—its best defence and
security; but if, in order to avoid a war, they should be so free-hearted
as to buy and maintain the forces of foreign princes, they were never like
to see an end of such extravagant expenses. This gentleman, who exercised
the office of master of the rolls, had approved himself a zealous defender
of whig principles, was an able lawyer, a sensible speaker, and a
conscientious patriot. The supplies were raised by a continuation of the
land-tax, the duties upon malt, cyder, and perry, an additional imposition
on unmalted corn used in distilling, and by sale of annuities to the bank
not exceeding fifty thousand pounds per annum.

COMMITTEE FOR INSPECTING THE GAOLS.

Petitions were delivered to the house of commons from the merchants of
London, Liverpool, and Bristol, complaining of the interruptions they had
suffered in their trade for several years, by the depredations of the
Spaniards in the West Indies. These being considered, the house ordered
the lords of the admiralty to produce the other memorials of the same kind
which they had received, that they might be laid before the congress at
Soissons: then they addressed his majesty for copies of all the letters
and instructions which had been sent to admiral Hosier, and those who
succeeded him in the command of the West-India squadron. Mr. Oglethorpe,
having been informed of shocking cruelties and oppressions exercised by
gaolers upon their prisoners, moved for an examination into these
practices, and was chosen chairman of a committee appointed to inquire
into the state of the gaols in the kingdom. They began with the
Fleet-prison, which they visited in a body; there they found sir William
Rich, baronet, loaded with irons, by order of Bambridge the warden, to
whom he had given some slight cause of offence. They made a discovery of
many inhuman barbarities which had been committed by that ruffian, and
detected the most iniquitous scenes of fraud, villany, and extortion. When
the report was made by the committee, the house unanimously resolved, That
Thomas Bambridge, acting warden of the Fleet, had wilfully permitted
several debtors to escape; had been guilty of the most notorious breaches
of trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanors in the
execution of his office; that he had arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded
with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt, under his
charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner, in high
violation and contempt of the laws of the kingdom. John Huggins, esquire,
who had been warden of the Fleet-prison, was subjected to a resolution of
the same nature. The house presented an address to the king, desiring he
would direct his attorney-general forthwith to prosecute these persons and
their accomplices, who were committed prisoners to Newgate. A bill was
brought in, disabling Bambridge to execute the office of warden; another
for the better regulating the prison of the Fleet, and for more
effectually preventing and punishing arbitrary and illegal practices of
the warden of the said prison.*

* It afterwards appeared that some of the members of this
inquest were actuated by other motives than those they
professed; and the committee was suffered to sink into
oblivion.

ADDRESS TOUCHING THE SPANISH DEPREDATIONS.

Other merchants complained by petition of the losses they sustained by the
Spaniards. The house, in a grand committee, deliberated on this subject,
inquired into the particulars, examined evidence, and drew up an address
to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously pleased to use his
utmost endeavours for preventing such depredations; for procuring just and
reasonable satisfaction; and for securing to his subjects the free
exercise of commerce and navigation to and from the British colonies in
America. The king assured them he would use his best endeavours to answer
the desires and expectations of his people, in an affair of so much
importance; and they, in another address, thanked him for his gracious
answer. They did not, however, receive such a satisfactory reply to a
former address, touching the sum of sixty thousand pounds that had been
stated in the public account, without specification of the particular uses
to which it was applied. His majesty gave them to understand that the
money had been issued and disbursed for secret services; and that a
distinct and particular account of the distribution of it could not be
given without a manifest prejudice to the public. A bill was prepared for
the more effectual preventing bribery and corruption in elections for
members of parliament; and it passed through the house without opposition;
but their attention was chiefly employed upon the Spanish depredations,
which had raised a great clamour through the whole kingdom, and excited
very warm disputes in parliament; for they were generally reputed the
fruits of negligence, incapacity, or want of vigour in the ministers.. The
commons having made further progress in the inquiry, and received fresh
petitions from the merchants, passed some resolutions, in which the
Spaniards were accused of having violated the treaties subsisting between
the two crowns; and with having treated inhumanly the masters and crews of
ships belonging to Great Britain. They justified the instructions given to
admiral Hosier, to seize and detain the flota and galleons of Spain, until
justice and satisfaction should be rendered to his majesty and his allies;
nay, even declared that such seizure would have been just, prudent, and
necessary, tending to prevent an open rupture, and to preserve the peace
and tranquillity of Europe. They again addressed the king to use his
endeavours to procure satisfaction; and he promised to comply with their
request.

Mr. Scroope, member for Bristol, moved for an address entreating his
majesty to order an account of the produce of the civil list revenues for
one year to be laid before the house. The address was presented, the
account produced, and the house, in a grand committee, took this affair
into consideration. The courtiers affirmed that they fell short of the
eight hundred thousand pounds settled upon his majesty; and Mr. Scroope
proposed that the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds should be
granted to the king, on account of those deficiencies and arrears. The
motion was vigorously opposed by Mr. Pulteney and other members. They
expressed their surprise that it should be made so late in the session,
when no further demand of money could be reasonably expected; and they
said it was the more extraordinary, because it appeared in the former
session, from the examination of the accounts then before the house, that
the revenues of the civil list produced yearly a much greater sum than
that for which they were given. Mr. Pulteney moved, that the accounts and
papers should be referred to the examination of a select committee,
properly empowered to investigate the truth. The ministers opposed this
motion; and the question being put, it passed in the negative. The
majority voted the sum demanded; and in a bill for settling the price of
imported corn, they inserted the resolution for granting to his majesty
the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand pounds, on account of arrears
due on the civil list revenues.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

The house of lords having prepared a bill for the more effectual
punishment of forgery, which was passed into a law, and ordered the judges
to bring in another on the report of a committee appointed to consider the
case of imprisoned debtors, at length deliberated upon the state of the
nation, particularly the positive demand made by the court of Spain for
the restitution of Gibraltar, grounded in a letter written by the late
king to his catholic majesty. From a copy of the letter laid before the
house, it plainly appeared that king George I. had consented to this
restitution. A motion being made for a resolution, importing, that for the
honour of his majesty, and the preservation and security of the trade and
commerce of the kingdom, effectual care should be taken in the present
treaty that the king of Spain should renounce all claim and pretension to
Gibraltar and Minorca, in plain and strong terms; a debate ensued, and the
question being put, passed in the negative, though not without a protest.
Then the majority resolved, that the house did entirely rely upon his
majesty, that he would, for maintaining the honour and securing the trade
of this kingdom, take effectual care in the present treaty to preserve his
undoubted right to Gibraltar and Minorca. When the house examined the
papers relating to the Spanish depreciations, many severe reflections were
uttered against the conduct of the ministry; and a motion was made, to
resolve that Hosier’s expedition was an unreasonable burden on the nation;
but this too was rejected, and occasioned another protest. Nor did the
clause in the corn-bill, for granting one hundred and fifteen thousand
pounds to his majesty, pass through the house of peers without warm
opposition. Divers lords alleged, that, instead of a deficiency in the
civil list revenues, there was a considerable surplus; that this was a new
grant, and a new burden on the people; that the nation was loaded, not to
complete but to augment the surplus designed for the civil list; and this
at a time when the public debts were increased; when the taxes were
heavily felt in all parts of the country; when the foreign trade of
Britain was encumbered and diminished; when her manufactures were decayed,
her poor multiplied, and she was surrounded by many other national
calamities. They observed, that if the produce of the civil list revenue
should not amount to the yearly sum of eight hundred thousand pounds, the
deficiency must be made good to his majesty by the public; whereas no
provision was made, by which, if the produce of these revenues should
exceed that sum, the surplus could accrue to the benefit of the public;
that, by this precedent, not only real deficiencies were to be made good,
but also supplies were to be given for arrears standing out at the end of
the year, which should come on before the supplies could be granted,
though the supply given to make good arrears in one year would certainly
increase the surplusages in another; that the revenues of the civil list
were variable in their own nature, and even when there is a deficiency in
the produce, there might be arrears in the receipt; these might be easily
increased by the management of designing ministers, by private directions
to receivers, and by artful methods of stating accounts. All these
arguments, and other objections equally strong and plausible, against this
unconsionable and unparliamentary motion, served only to evince the
triumph of the ministry over shame and sentiment, their contempt of public
spirit, and their defiance of the national reproach.*

* The peers that distinguished themselves in the opposition
were Beaufort, Strafford, Craven, Foley, Litchfield,
Scarsdale, Grower, Mountjoy, Plymouth, Bathurst,
Northampton, Coventry, Oxford and Mortimer, Willoughby de
Broke, Boyle, and Warrington.

1729

WISE CONDUCT OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

The king had, on the twenty-fourth day of March, given the royal assent to
five bills; and on the fourteenth day of May the same sanction was given
to thirty other bills, including an act enabling the queen to be regent in
the kingdom during his majesty’s absence without taking the oaths, and
another for the relief of insolvent debtors. At the same time
two-and-thirty private bills were passed: then the king expressed his
approbation of the parliament, signified his intention to visit his German
dominions, and ordered the chancellor to prorogue both houses. His majesty
having appointed the queen regent of the realm, set out for Hanover on the
seventeenth day of May, in order to remove a petty misunderstanding which
had happened between that electorate and the court of Berlin. Some
Hanoverian subjects had been pressed or decoyed into the service of
Prussia; and the regents of Hanover had seized certain Prussian officers
by way of reprisal. The whole united kingdom of Great Britain at this
juncture enjoyed uninterrupted repose; and commerce continued to increase,
in spite of all restriction and discouragement. The people of Ireland
found themselves happy under the government of lord Carteret; and their
parliament, assembling in the month of September, approved themselves the
fathers of their country. They established funds for the discharge of
their national debt, and for maintaining the expense of government: they
enacted wholesome laws for the encouragement of manufactures, trade, and
agriculture; and they formed wise regulations in different branches of
civil economy. Some time after this session, which was conducted with so
much harmony and patriotism, lord Carteret returned to England; and was
succeeded by the duke of Dorset in the government of that kingdom. In the
month of May, Charles lord Townshend resigned the seals, which were given
to colonel Stanhope, now created earl of Harrington; so that sir Robert
Walpole now reigned without a rival. James earl of Waldegrave was
appointed ambassador to the court of France, which about that time was
filled with joy by the birth of a dauphin.

ABDICATION OF THE KING OF SARDINIA.

In the month of September, Victor Amadeus king of Sardinia, resigned his
crown to his son Charles Emanuel, prince of Piedmont. The father reserved
to himself a revenue of one hundred thousand pistoles per annum, retired
to the castle of Chamberry, and espoused the countess dowager of St.
Sebastian, who declined the title of queen, but assumed that of
marchioness of Somerive. Though the congress at Soissons proved abortive,
conferences were begun at Seville between the plenipotentiaries of
England, France, and Spain; and a treaty was concluded on the ninth day of
November, not only without the concurrence of the emperor, but even
contrary to his right, as established by the quadruple alliance. On this
subject he communicated an imperial commissorial decree to the states of
the empire assembled in the diet at Eatisbon, which was answered by the
French minister de Chavigny. In October, Peter II., czar of Muscovy and
grandson of Peter I., died in the fifteenth year of his age, at Muscow,
and was succeeded on the Russian throne by the princess Anne Ivanowna,
second daughter of John Alexowitz, elder brother of the first Peter, and
widow of Frederic William duke of Courland. The following month was
rendered remarkable by the death of pope Benedict XIII., in whose room
cardinal Laurence Corsini was raised to the pontificate, and assumed the
name of Clement XII.

SUBSTANCE OF THE KING’S SPEECH.

The British parliament assembling on the thirteenth day of January, the
king gave them to understand that the peace of Europe was now established
by the treaty of Seville, built upon the foundation of former treaties,
and tending to render more effectual what the contracting powers in the
quadruple alliance were before engaged to see performed. He assured them
that all former conventions made with Spain in favour of the British trade
and navigation were renewed and confirmed: that the free uninterrupted
exercise of their commerce was restored: that the court of Spain had
agreed to an ample restitution and reparation for unlawful seizures and
depredations: that all rights, privileges, and possessions, belonging to
him and his allies, were solemnly re-established, confirmed, and
guaranteed; and that not one concession was made to the prejudice of his
subjects. He told them he had given orders for reducing a great number of
his land-forces, and for laying up great part of the fleet; and observed
‘that there would be a considerable saving in the expense of the current
year. After both houses had presented their addresses of thanks and
congratulation to the king on the peace of Seville, the lords took that
treaty into consideration, and it did not pass inquiry without severe
animadversion.

OBJECTIONS TO THE TREATY OF SEVILLE.

The lords in the opposition excepted to the article by which the merchants
of Great Britain were obliged to make proof of their losses at the court
of Spain. They said this stipulation was a hardship upon British subjects,
and dishonourable to the nation: that few would care to undertake such a
troublesome and expensive journey, especially as they had reason to
apprehend their claims would be counterbalanced by the Spaniards; and
after all they would have no more than the slender comfort of hoping to
obtain that redress by commissaries which they had not been able to
procure by plenipotentiaries. They thought it very extraordinary that
Great Britain should be bound to ratify and guarantee whatever agreement
should be made between the king of Spain and the duke of Parma and
Tuscany, concerning the garrisons once established in their countries;
that the English should be obliged to assist in effectuating the
introduction of six thousand Spanish troops into the towns of Tuscany and
Parma, without any specification of the methods to be taken, or the charge
to be incurred, in giving that assistance: that they should guarantee for
ever, not only to Don Carlos, but even to all his successors, the
possession of the estates of Tuscany and Parma; a stipulation which in all
probability would involve Great Britain in endless quarrels and disputes
about a country with which they had no concern. They affirmed that the
treaty of Seville, instead of confirming other treaties, was contradictory
to the quadruple alliance, particularly in the article of introducing
Spanish troops into Tuscany and Parma in the room of neutral forces
stipulated by the former alliance; and agreeing that they should there
remain until Don Carlos and his successors should be secure and exempt
from all events. They complained that these alterations from the tenor of
the quadruple alliance, were made without the concurrence of the emperor,
and even without inviting him to accede; an affront which might alienate
his friendship from England, and hazard the loss of such an ancient,
powerful, and faithful ally; they declared that throughout the whole
treaty there seemed to be an artful omission of any express stipulation to
secure Great Britain in her right to Gibraltar and Minorca. Such was the
substance of the objections made to the peace: then lord Bathurst moved
for a resolution that the agreement on the treaty of Seville, to secure
the succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and
Placentia, with Spanish troops, was a manifest violation of the fifth
article of the quadruple alliance, tending to involve the nation in a
dangerous and expensive war, and to destroy the balance of power in
Europe. The question was put, and the motion rejected. Such too was the
fate of two other motions, to resolve that Great Britain’s right of
sovereignty, dominion, possession, and claim to Gibraltar and Minorca,
were not ascertained by the treaty of Seville: and that the stipulations
in that treaty for repairing the losses of the British merchants were
insufficient and precarious. The majority, far from stigmatizing this
transaction, resolved, that the treaty did contain all necessary
stipulations for maintaining and securing the honour, dignity, rights, and
possessions of the crown: that all due care was taken therein for the
support of the trade of the king dom, and for repairing the losses
sustained by the British merchants. On these resolutions an address of
approbation was founded: but when a motion was made for an address to his
majesty, that he would order to be laid before the house a list of all
pensions payable to the crown, it was immediately resolved in the
negative. Divers contests of the same kind arose upon the mutiny-bill, the
pension-bill, and the maintenance of twelve thousand Hessians; but the
ministry bore down all opposition, though their triumphs were clogged with
vigorous protests, which did not fail to make impression upon the body of
the people.

OPPOSITION TO A STANDING ARMY.

Nor was the success of the court interest in the house of commons
altogether pure, and free from exception and dispute. When the charge of
the land forces fell under the consideration of the commons, and Mr. Henry
Pelham, secretary at war, moved that the number of effective men for the
land service of the ensuing year should be fixed at seventeen thousand
seven hundred and nine, Mr. Pulteney insisted upon its being reduced to
twelve thousand. Mr. Shippen affirmed that Mr. Pelham’s motion was a flat
negative to the address for which he voted on the first day of the
session, as it plainly implied a distrust of the validity of the late
treaty, which he then assured the house would immediately produce all the
blessings of an absolute peace, and deliver the kingdom from the
apprehensions and inconveniences of a war. He said the motion tended
directly towards the establishment of an army in Great Britain, which he
hoped would never be so far germanized as tamely to submit to a military
government. He observed, that the nation could have no occasion for all
the troops that were demanded, considering the glorious scene of affairs
which was now opened to all Europe. “They are not necessary,” said he, “to
awe Spain into a firm adherence to its own treaty; they are not necessary
to force the emperor into an immediate accession, nor are they in any sort
necessary for the safety of his majesty’s person and government. Force and
violence are the resort of usurpers and tyrants only; because they are,
with good reason, distrustful of the people whom they oppress; and because
they have no other security for the continuance of their unlawful and
unnatural dominion, than what depends entirely on the strength of their
armies.” The motion, however, was carried in the affirmative.

BILL PROHIBITING LOANS.

Another warm debate was excited by a bill which the courtiers brought in,
to prevent any subjects of Great Britain from advancing sums of money to
foreign princes or states, without having obtained license from his
majesty, under his privy-seal or some great authority. The minister
pretended that this law was proposed to disable the emperor, who wanted to
borrow a great sum of the English merchants, from raising and maintaining
troops to disturb the tranquillity of Europe. The bill contained a clause
empowering the king to prohibit by proclamation all such loans of money,
jewels, or bullion: the attorney-general was empowered to compel, by
English bill, in the court of exchequer, the effectual discovery, on oath,
of any such loans; and it was enacted, that in default of an answer to any
such bill, the court should decree a limited sum against the person
refusing to answer. Mr. Daniel Pulteney, a gentleman of uncommon talents
and ability, and particularly acquainted with every branch of commerce,
argued strenuously against this bill, as a restraint upon trade that would
render Holland the market of Europe, and the mart of money to the nations
of the continent. He said that by this general prohibition, extending to
all princes, states, or potentates, the English were totally disabled from
assisting their best allies: that, among others, the king of Portugal
frequently borrowed money of the English merchants residing within his
dominions; that while the licensing power remained in the crown, the
licenses would be issued through the hands of the minister, who by this
new trade might gain twenty, thirty, or forty thousand a-year: that the
bill would render the exchequer a court of inquisition: and that whilst it
restrained our merchants from assisting the princes and powers of Europe,
it permitted our stockjobbers to trade in their funds without
interruption. Other arguments of equal weight were enforced by Mr.
Barnard, a merchant of London, who perfectly understood trade in all its
branches, spoke with judgment and precision, and upon all occasions
steadily adhered to the interest and liberties of his country. After
having explained his reasons, he declared he should never consent to a
bill which he deemed a violation of our fundamental laws, a breach of our
dearest liberties, and a very terrible hardship on mankind. Sir William
Wyndham distinguished himself on the same side of the question: the bill
was vindicated by sir Robert Walpole, Mr. Pelham, and sir Philip Yorke,
attorney-general; and being supported by the whole weight of ministerial
influence, not only passed through the house, but was afterwards enacted
into a law.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

CHARTER OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY.

The subsidies were continued to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the duke
of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttle, in spite of all that could be urged against
these extraneous incumbrances; and the supply for the ensuing year was
granted according to the estimates which the ministry thought proper to
produce, amounting to about two millions two hundred and eighty thousand
pounds. It must be owned, however, for the credit of the session, that the
house appropriated one million of the surplusses arising from the sinking
fund towards the discharge of the national debt; and by another act
extinguished the duties upon salt, by which expedient the subject was
eased of a heavy burden, not only in being freed from the duty, but also
from a considerable charge of salaries given to a great number of officers
employed to collect this imposition. They likewise encouraged the colony
of Carolina with an act, allowing the planters and traders of that
province to export rice directly to any part of Europe southward of Cape
Finisterre; and they permitted salt from Europe to be imported into the
colony of New York. The term of the exclusive trade granted by act of
parliament to the East India company drawing towards a period, many
considerable merchants and others made application forbeing incorporated
and vested with the privilege of trading to those countries, proposing to
lay that branch of trade open to all the subjects of Great Britain on
certain conditions. In consideration of an act of parliament for this
purpose, they offered to advance three millions two hundred thousand
pounds, for redeeming the fund and trade of the present East India
company. This proposal was rejected; and the exclusive privilege vested in
the company was, by act of parliament, protracted to the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty-six, upon the following conditions: That they
should pay into the exchequer the sum of two hundred thousand pounds
towards the supplies of the year, without interest or addition to their
capital stock: that the annuity or yearly fund of one hundred and sixty
thousand pounds, payable to them from the public, should be reduced to one
hundred and twenty-eight thousand: that after the year one thousand seven
hundred and sixty-six, their right to the exclusive trade should be liable
to be taken away by parliament, on three years’ notice, and repayment of
their capital.

1730

THE EMPEROR RESENTS THE TREATY OF SEVILLE.

On the fifteenth day of May, the king went to the house of peers and
closed the session. In his speech he expressed his joy, that,
notwithstanding all the clamours which were raised, the parliament had
approved of those matters which, he said, could not fail to inspire all
mankind with a just detestation of those incendiaries, who, by scandalous
libels, laboured to alienate the affections of his people; to fill their
minds with groundless jealousies and unjust complaints, in dishonour of
him and his government, and in defiance of the sense of both houses of
parliament.*

* In the course of the session the commons passed a bill for
making more effectual the laws in being, for disabling
persons from being chosen members of parliament who enjoyed
any pension during pleasure, or for any number of years, or
any offices holden in trust for them, by obliging all
persons hereafter to be chosen to serve the commons in
parliament to take the oath therein mentioned. In all
probability this bill would not have made its way through
the house of commons, had not the minister been well assured
it would stick with the upper house, where it was rejected
at the second reading, though not without violent
opposition.

The emperor was so much incensed at the insult offered him in the treaty
of Seville, with respect to the garrisons of Tuscany and Parma, that he
prohibited the subjects of Great Britain from trading in his dominions: he
began to make preparations for war, and actually detached bodies of troops
to Italy with such despatch as had been very seldom exerted by the house
of Austria. Yet the article of which he complained was not so much a real
injury as an affront put upon the head of the empire; for eventual
succession to those Italian duchies had been secured to the infant, Don
Carlos, by the quadruple alliance; and all that the emperor required was,
that this prince should receive the investiture of them as fiefs of the
empire.

ARRIVAL OF SEVEN INDIAN CHIEFS.

In Great Britain, this year was not distinguished by any transaction of
great moment. Seven chiefs of the Cherokee nations of Indians in America
were brought to England by sir Alexander Cumin. Being introduced to the
king, they laid their crown and regalia at his feet; and by an authentic
deed acknowledged themselves subjects to his dominion, in the name of all
their compatriots, who had vested them with full powers for this purpose.
They were amazed and confounded at the riches and magnificence of the
British court: they compared the king and queen to the sun and moon, the
princes to the stars of heaven, and themselves to nothing. They gave their
assent in the most solemn manner to articles of friendship and commerce,
proposed by the lords commissioners of trade and plantations; and being
loaded with presents of necessaries, arms, and ammunition, were
re-conveyed to their own country, which borders on the province of South
Carolina. In the month of September, a surprising revolution was effected
at Constantinople, without bloodshed or confusion. A few mean Janissaries
displayed a flag in the streets, exclaiming that all true Mussulmen ought
to follow them, and assist in reforming the government. They soon
increased to the number of one hundred thousand, marched to the seraglio,
and demanded the grand vizier, the kiaja, and captain pacha. These unhappy
ministers were immediately strangled. Their bodies being delivered to the
insurgents, were dragged through the streets, and afterwards thrown to the
dogs to be devoured. Not content with this sacrifice, the revolters
deposed the grand seignor Achmet, who was confined to the same prison from
whence they brought his nephew Machmut, and raised this last to the
throne, after he had lived seven-and-twenty years in confinement.

England was at this period, infested with robbers, assassins, and
incendiaries, the natural consequences of degeneracy, corruption, and the
want of police in the interior government of the kingdom. This defect, in
a great measure, arose from an absurd notion, that laws necessary to
prevent those acts of cruelty, violence, and rapine, would be incompatible
with the liberty of British subjects; a notion that confounds all
distinctions between liberty and brutal licentiousness, as if that freedom
was desirable, in the enjoyment of which people find no security for their
lives or effects. The peculiar depravity of the times was visible even in
the conduct of those who preyed upon the commonwealth. Thieves and robbers
were now become more desperate and savage than ever they had appeared
since mankind was civilized. In the exercise of their rapine, they
wounded, maimed, and even murdered the unhappy sufferers, through a
wantonness of barbarity. They circulated letters demanding sums of money
from certain individuals, on pain of reducing their houses to ashes, and
their families to ruin; and even set fire to the house of a rich merchant
in Bristol, who had refused to comply with their demand. The same species
of villany was practised in different parts of the kingdom; so that the
government was obliged to interpose, and offer a considerable reward for
discovering the ruffians concerned in such execrable designs.

BILL AGAINST PENSIONERS SITTING AS MEMBERS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

In the speech with which the king opened the session of parliament on the
twenty-first day of January, he told them that the present critical
conjuncture seemed in a very particular manner to deserve their attention;
that as the transactions then depending in the several courts of Europe
were upon the point of being determined, the great event of peace or war
might be very much affected by their first resolutions, which were
expected by different powers with great impatience. He said, the
continuance of that zeal and vigour with which they had hitherto supported
him and his engagements, must at this time be of the greatest weight and
importance, both with regard to his allies, and to those who might be
disposed before the season of action to prevent, by an accommodation, the
fatal consequences of a general rupture. The former scene was repeated.
Both houses, in their addresses, promised to support his majesty in all
his engagements; yet the members of the opposition demonstrated the
absurdity of promising to fulfil engagements before they could possibly
know whether or not they were for the service of Great Britain. Another
bill was brought into the house of commons, to prevent pensioners from
sitting as members of parliament; and, after a third reading, carried up
to the lords for their concurrence. When the supply fell under
consideration, the debates were renewed upon the subsidies to the
landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and the duke of Wolfenbuttle, which, however,
were continued; and every article was granted according to the estimates
given in for the expense of the ensuing year. Two petitions being
presented to the commons, representing the delays of justice occasioned by
the use of the Latin tongue in proceedings at law, a bill was brought in
for changing this practice, and enacting, that all those processes and
pleadings should be entered in the English language. Though one would
imagine that very little could be advanced against such a regulation the
bill met with warm opposition, on pretence that it would render useless
the ancient records which were written in that language, and introduce
confusion and delay of justice, by altering the established form and
method of pleading: in spite of these objections it passed through both
houses, and obtained the royal assent. A great number of merchants from
different parts of the kingdom having repeated their complaints of
depredations and cruelties committed by the Spaniards in the West Indies,
their petitions were referred to the consideration of a grand committee.
Their complaints upon examination appeared to be well founded. The house
presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty would be graciously
pleased to continue his endeavours to prevent such depredations for the
future; to procure full satisfaction for the damages already sustained;
and to secure to the British subjects the full and uninterrupted exercise
of their trade and navigation to and from the British colonies in America.
The hill against pensions produced a warm debate in the house of lords,
where it was violently opposed by the dukes of Newcastle and Argyle; the
earl of Hay, and Dr. Sherlock, bishop of Bangor. This prelate, in a
remarkable speech, represented it as a scheme to enlarge the power of the
house of commons, and to break the balance between the powers essential to
the constitution, so as sooner or later to prove the ruin of the whole.
The great barrier provided against bribery and corruption by this bill,
consisted in an oath to be imposed on all members of the lower house, by
which they must have solemnly sworn and declared, that they had not
directly, nor indirectly, any pension during pleasure, or for any number
of years, or any office in part, or in the whole, held for them, or for
their benefit, by any persons whatsoever; and that they would not accept
any such pensions or offices, without signifying the same to the house
within fourteen days after they should be received or accepted. The bill
was vindicated as just and necessary by the earls of Winchelsea and
Strafford, lord Bathurst, and lord Carteret, who had by this time joined
as an auxiliary in the opposition. 237 [See note 2 K, at
the end of this Vol.]

1731

TREATY OF VIENNA.

The house of peers proceeded to consider the state of the national debt:
they read a bill for the free importation of wool from Ireland into
England, which was fiercely opposed, and laid aside, contrary to all the
rules of sound policy. They passed the bill for carrying on proceedings at
law in the English language; and a fruitless motion was made by lord
Bathurst for an address, to desire his majesty would give directions for
discharging the Hessian troops that were in the pay of Great Britain. On
the seventh day of May the parliament was prorogued, after the king had
given them to understand that all apprehensions of war were now happily
removed, by a treaty signed at Vienna between him and the emperor. He said
it was communicated to the courts of France and Spain, as parties to the
treaty of Seville, the execution of which it principally regarded; and
that it likewise was submitted to the consideration of the states-general.
He observed, that the conditions and engagements into which he had entered
on this occasion were agreeable to that necessary concern which the
British nation must always have for the security and preservation of the
balance of power in Europe; and that this happy turn, duly improved with a
just regard to former alliances, yielded a favourable prospect of seeing
the public tranquillity re-established.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF PARMA.

In the month of January the duke of Parma died, after having made a will,
in which he declared his duchess was three months advanced in her
pregnancy; entreating the allied powers of Europe to have compassion upon
his people, and defer the execution of their projects until his consort
should be delivered. In case the child should be still-born, or die after
the birth, he bequeathed his dominions and allodial estates to the infant
Don Carlos of Spain; and appointed five regents to govern the duchy.
Notwithstanding this disposition, a body of Imperial troops immediately
took possession of Parma and Placentia, under the command of general
Stampa, who declared they should conduct themselves with all possible
regularity and moderation, and leave the administration entirely to the
regents whom the duke had appointed. They publicly proclaimed in the
market-place, that they took possession of these duchies for the infant
Don Carlos; and that if the duchess dowager should not be delivered of a
prince, the said infant might receive the investiture from the emperor
whenever he would, provided he should come without an army. Though these
steps seemed to threaten an immediate war, the king of Great Britain and
the states-general interposed their mediation so effectually with the
court of Vienna, that the emperor desisted from the prosecution of his
design; and on the sixteenth day of March concluded at Vienna a treaty
with his Britannic majesty, by which he consented to withdraw his troops
from Parma and Placentia. He agreed, that the king of Spain might take
possession of these places in favour of his son Don Carlos, according to
the treaty of Seville. He likewise agreed that the Ostend company, which
had given such umbrage to the maritime powers, should be totally
dissolved, on condition that the contracting powers concerned in the
treaty of Seville should guarantee the pragmatic sanction, or succession
of the Austrian hereditary dominion to the heirs female of the emperor, in
case he should die without male issue. The Dutch minister residing at the
Imperial court did not subscribe this treaty, because, by the maxims
received in that republic, and the nature of her government, he could not
be vested with full powers so soon as it would have been necessary:
nevertheless the states-general were, by a separate article, expressly
named as a principal contracting party.

DON CARLOS TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TERRITORIES.

On the twenty-second day of July, a new treaty was signed at Vienna
between the emperor and the kings of Great Britain and Spain, tending to
confirm the former. In August, a treaty of union and defensive alliance
between the electorates of Saxony and Hanover was executed at Dresden. The
court of Spain expressing some doubts with regard to the pregnancy of the
duchess of Parma, she underwent a formal examination by five midwives of
different nations, in presence of the elder duchess dowager, several
ladies of quality, three physicians and a surgeon; and was declared with
child: nevertheless, after having kept all Europe in suspense for six
months, she owned she had been deceived; and general Stampa, with the
Imperial forces, took formal possession of the duchies of Parma and
Placenta. Spain and the great duke of Tuscany having acceded to the last
treaty of Vienna, the crown of Great Britain engaged to equip an armament
that should convoy Don Carlos to his new dominions. Accordingly, sir
Charles Wager sailed with a strong squadron from Portsmouth on the
twenty-sixth day of August; and in September arrived at Barcelona, where-,
being joined by the Spanish fleet and transports, they sailed together to
Leghorn; from whence the admiral returned to England. Don Carlos passed
through part of France, and embarking at Anti-bes on board of the Spanish
galleys, arrived at Leghorn in December. Then the Imperial general
withdrew his forces into the Milanese; and the infant took possession of
his new territories.

FRANCE DISTRACTED BY RELIGIOUS DISPUTES.

During these transactions France was distracted by religious disputes,
occasioned by the bull Unigenitus thundered against the doctrines of
Jansenius; a bull which had produced a schism in the Gallican church, and
well nigh involved that country in civil war and confusion. It was opposed
by the parliaments and lay tribunals of the kingdom; but many bishops, and
the Jesuits in general, were its most strenuous assertors. All the
artifices of priestcraft were practised on both sides to inflame the
enthusiasm, and manage the superstition of the people. Pretended miracles
were wrought at the tomb of abbé Paris, who had died without accepting the
bull, consequently was declared damned by the abettors of that
constitution. On the other hand, the Jesuites exerted all their abilities
and industry in preaching against the Jansenists; in establishing an
opinion of their superior sanctity; and inspiring a spirit of quietism
among their votaries, who were transported into the delirium of
possession, illumination, and supernatural converse. These arts were often
used for the most infamous purposes. Female enthusiasts were wrought up to
such a violence of agitation, that nature fainted under the struggle, and
the pseudo saint seized this opportunity of violating the chastity of his
penitent. Such was said to be the case of mademoiselle la Cadiere, a young
gentlewoman of Toulon, abused in this manner by the lust and villany of
Père Girard, a noted Jesuit, who underwent a trial before the parliament
of Aix, and very narrowly escaped the stake.

THE MINISTRY VIOLENTLY OPPOSED.

The parliament of Great Britain meeting on the thirteenth day of January,
the king in his speech declared, that the general tranquillity of Europe
was restored and established by the last treaty of Vienna; and Don Carlos
was actually possessed of Parma and Placentia; that six thousand Spaniards
were quietly admitted and quartered in the duchy of Tuscany, to secure, by
the express consent and agreement of the great duke, the reversion of his
dominions; and that a family convention was made between the courts of
Spain and Tuscany for preserving mutual peace and friendship in the two
houses. He told the commons, that the estimates for the service of the
current year would be considerably less than those of former years. He
recommended unanimity; he observed that his government had no security but
what was equally conducive to their happiness, and to the protection of
his people: that their prosperity had no foundation but in the defence and
support of his government. “Our safety,” said he, “is mutual, and our
interests are inseparable.” The opposition to the court measures appears
to have been uncommonly spirited during the course of this session. The
minister’s motions were attacked with all the artillery of elocution. His
principal emissaries were obliged to task their faculties to their full
exertion, to puzzle and perplex where they could not demonstrate and
convince, to misrepresent what they could not vindicate, and to elude the
arguments which they could not refute. In the house of commons, lord
Hervey, lately appointed vice-chamberlain of his majesty’s household, made
a motion for an address of thanks, in which they should declare their
entire approbation of the king’s conduct, acknowledge the blessings they
enjoyed tinder his government, express their confidence in the wisdom of
his councils, and declare their readiness to grant the necessary supplies.
This member, son to the earl of Bristol, was a nobleman of some parts,
which, however, were more specious than solid. He condescended to act as a
subaltern to the minister, and approved himself extremely active in
forwarding all his designs, whether as a secret emissary or public orator;
in which last capacity he appears to have been pert, frivolous, and
frothy. His motion was seconded by Mr. Clutterbuck, and opposed by sir
Wilfred Lawson, Mr. Shippen, Mr. W. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and Mr.
Oglethorpe. They did not argue against a general address of thanks; but
exposed the absurdity and bad tendency of expressions which implied a
blind approbation of all the measures of the ministry. Sir Wilfred Lawson
observed, that notwithstanding the great things we had done for the crown
of Spain, and the favours we had procured for the royal family of that
kingdom, little or no satisfaction had as yet been received for the
injuries our merchants had sustained from that nation. Mr. Pulteney took
notice, that the nation, by becoming guarantee to the pragmatic sanction,
laid itself under an obligation to assist the Austrian family when
attacked by any potentate whatever, except the grand seignor; that they
might be attacked when it would be much against the interest of the
kingdom to engage itself in a war upon any foreign account; that it might
one day be for the interest of the nation to join against them, in order
to preserve the balance of Europe, the establishing of which had already
cost England such immense sums of money. He insisted upon the absurdity of
concluding such a number of inconsistent treaties; and concluded with
saying, that if affairs abroad were now happily established, the ministry
which conducted them might be compared to a pilot, who, though there was a
clear, safe, and straight channel into port, yet took it in his head to
carry the ship a great way about, through sands, rocks, and shallows; who,
after having lost a great number of seamen, destroyed a great deal of
tackle and rigging, and subjected the owners to an enormous expense, at
last by chance hits the port, and triumphs in his good conduct. Sir
William Wyndham spoke to the same purpose. Mr. Oglethorpe, a gentlemen of
unblemished character, brave, generous, and humane, affirmed that many
other things related more nearly to the honour and interest of the nation,
than did the guarantee of the pragmatic sanction. He said he wished to
have heard that the new works at Dunkirk had been entirely razed and
destroyed; that the nation had received full and complete satisfaction for
the depredations committed by the natives of Spain; that more care was
taken in disciplining the militia, on whose valour the nation must chiefly
depend in case of invasion; and that some regard had been shown to the
oppressed protestants in Germany. He expressed his satisfaction to find
that the English were not so closely united to France as formerly; for he
had generally observed that when two dogs were in a leash together, the
stronger generally ran away with the weaker; and this he was afraid had
been the case between France and Great Britain. The motion was vigorously
defended by Mr. Pelham, paymaster of the forces, and brother to the duke
of Newcastle, a man whose greatest fault was his being concerned in
supporting the measures of a corrupt ministry. In other respects he was
liberal, candid, benevolent, and even attached to the interest of his
country, though egregiously mistaken in his notions of government. On this
occasion, he insisted that it was no way inconsistent with the honour or
dignity of that house to thank his majesty in the most particular terms,
for every thing he had been pleased to communicate in his speech from the
throne; that no expressions of approbation in the address could be any way
made use of to prevent an inquiry into the measures which had been
pursued, when the treaties should be laid before the house. He said, at
the opening of a session the eyes of all Europe were turned towards Great
Britain, and from the parliament’s first resolves all the neighbouring
powers judged of the unanimity that would ensue between his majesty and
the representatives of his people; that their appearing jealous or
diffident of his majesty’s conduct, would weaken his influence upon the
councils of foreign states and potentates, and perhaps put it out of his
power to rectify any false step that might have been made by his
ministers. His arguments were reinforced by a long speech from Mr. H.
Walpole. The question was put, the motion carried, and the address
presented.

DEBATE ON A STANDING ARMY.

The next subject of debate was the number of land-forces. When the supply
fell under consideration, sir W. Strickland, secretary at war, moved that
the same number which had been maintained in the preceding year should be
continued in pay. On the other hand, lord Morpeth having demonstrated the
danger to which the liberties of the nation might be exposed, by
maintaining a numerous standing army in time of peace, made a motion that
the number should be reduced to twelve thousand. A warm debate ensuing,
was managed in favour of the first motion by lord Hervey, sir Robert
Walpole and his brother, Mr. Pelham, and sir Philip Yorke,
attorney-general. This gentleman was counted a better lawyer than a
politician, and shone more as an advocate at the bar than as an orator in
the house of commons. The last partisan of the ministry was sir William
Yonge, one of the lords commissioners in the treasury; a man who rendered
himself serviceable and necessary by stooping to all compliances, running
upon every scent, and haranguing on every subject, with an even
uninterrupted tedious flow of full declamation, composed of assertions
without veracity, conclusions from false premises, words without meaning,
and language without propriety. Lord Morpeth’s motion was espoused by Mr.
Watkin Williams Wynne, a gentleman of an ancient family and opulent
fortune in Wales, brave, open, hospitable, and warmly attached to the
ancient constitution and hierarchy; he was supported by Mr. Walter
Plummer, who spoke with weight, precision, and severity; by sir W,
Wyndham, Mr. Shippen, Mr. W. Pulteney, and Mr. Barnard. The courtiers
argued that it was necessary to maintain such a number of land-forces as
might defeat the designs of malcontents, secure the interior tranquillity
of the kingdom, defend it from external assaults, overawe its neighbours,
and enable it to take vigorous measures in case the peace of Europe should
be re-embroiled. They affirmed, the science of war was so much altered,
and acquired so much attention, that no dependance was to be placed upon a
militia; that all nations were obliged to maintain standing armies, for
their security against the encroachments of neighbouring powers; that the
number of troops in Great Britain was too inconsiderable to excite the
jealousy of the people, even under an ambitious monarch; that his majesty
never entertained the least thought of infringing the liberties of his
subjects; that it could not be supposed that the officers, among whom were
many gentlemen of family and fortune, would ever concur in a design to
enslave their country; and that the forces now in pay could not be
properly deemed a standing army, inasmuch as they were voted and
maintained from year to year by the parliament, which was the
representative of the people. To these arguments the members in the
opposition replied, that a standing force in time of peace was
unconstitutional, and had been always thought dangerous; that a militia
was as capable of discipline as a standing army, and would have more
incentives to courage and perseverance; that the civil magistrate was able
to preserve the peace of the country; that the number of the malcontents
was altogether contemptible, though it might be considerably augmented by
maintaining a standing army, and other such arbitrary measures; that other
nations had been enslaved by standing armies; and howsoever they might
find themselves necessitated to depend upon a military force for security
against encroaching neighbours, the case was very different with regard to
Great Britain, for the defence of which nature had provided in a peculiar
manner; that this provision was strengthened and improved by a numerous
navy, which secured her dominion of the sea; and, if properly disposed,
would render all invasion impracticable, or at least ineffectual; that the
land-army of Great Britain, though sufficient to endanger the liberties of
an unarmed people, could not possibly secure such an extent of coast, and
therefore could be of very little service in preventing an invasion; that
though they had all imaginable confidence in his majesty’s regard to the
liberty of the subjects, they could not help apprehending, that should a
standing army become part of the constitution, another prince of more
dangerous talents, and more fatal designs, might arise, and employ it for
the worst purposes of ambition; that though many officers were gentlemen
of honour and probity, these might be easily discarded, and the army
gradually moulded into quite a different temper. By these means, practised
in former times, an army had been new modelled to such a degree, that they
turned their swords against the parliament for whose defence they had been
raised, and destroyed the constitution both in church and state; that with
respect to its being wholly dependent on the parliament, the people of
England would have reason to complain of the same hardship, whether a
standing army should be declared at once indispensable, or regularly voted
from year to year, according to the direction of the ministry; that the
sanction of the legislature granted to measures which in themselves are
unconstitutional, burdensome, odious, and repugnant to the genius of the
nation, instead of yielding consolation, would serve only to demonstrate
that the most effectual method of forging the chains of national slavery,
would be that of ministerial influence operating upon a venal parliament.
Such were the reasons urged against a standing army, of what number soever
it might be composed; but the expediency of reducing the number from about
eighteen thousand to twelve thousand, was insisted upon as the natural
consequence of his majesty’s declaration, by which they were given to
understand that the peace of Europe was established; and that he had
nothing so much at heart as the ease and prosperity of his people. It was
suggested, that if eighteen thousand men were sufficient on the supposed
eve of a general war in Europe, it was surely reasonable to think that a
less number would suffice when peace was perfectly re-established.
Whatever effect these reasons had upon the body of the nation, they made
no converts in the house, where the majority resolved that the standing
army should be maintained without reduction. Mr. Plummer complained that
the country was oppressed by an arbitrary method of quartering soldiers,
in an undue proportion, upon those publicans who refused to vote in
elections according to the direction of the ministry. Mr. Pulteney
asserted, that the money raised for the subsistence of eighteen thousand
men in England, would maintain sixty thousand French or Germans, or the
same number of almost any other people on the continent. Sir William
Wyndham declared, that eighteen thousand of the English troops in the late
war were maintained on less than two-thirds of the sum demanded for the
like number; but no regard was paid to these allegations.

THE CHARITABLE CORPORATION.

The next object of importance that attracted the notice of the house, was
the state of the charitable corporation. This company was first erected in
the year one thousand seven hundred and seven. Their professed intention
was to lend money at legal interest to the poor upon small pledges; and to
persons of better rank upon an indubitable security of goods impawned.
Their capital was at first limited to thirty thousand pounds, but, by
licenses from the crown, they increased it to six hundred thousand pounds,
though their charter was never confirmed by act of parliament. In the
month of October, George Robinson, esquire, member for Mar-low, the
cashier, and John Thompson, warehouse-keeper of the corporation,
disappeared in one day. The proprietors, alarmed at this incident, held
several general courts, and appointed a committee to inspect the state of
their affairs. They reported, that for a capital of above five hundred
thousand pounds no equivalent was found; inasmuch as their effects did not
amount to the value of thirty thousand, the remainder having been
embezzled by means which they could not discover. The proprietors, in a
petition to the house of commons, represented that by the most notorious
breach of trust in several persons to whom the care and management of
their affairs were committed, the corporation had been defrauded of the
greatest part of their capital; and that many of the petitioners were
reduced to the utmost degree of misery and distress; they therefore
prayed, that as they were unable to detect the combinations of those who
had ruined them, or to bring the delinquents to justice, without the aid
of the power and authority of parliament, the house would vouchsafe to
inquire into the state of the corporation, and the conduct of their
managers; and give such relief to the petitioners as to the house should
seem meet. The petition was graciously received, and a secret committee
appointed to proceed on the inquiry. They soon discovered a most
iniquitous scene of fraud, which had been acted by Robinson and Thompson,
in concert with some of the directors, for embezzling the capital, and
cheating the proprietors. Many persons of rank and quality were concerned
in this infamous conspiracy; some of the first characters in the nation
did not escape suspicion and censure. Sir Robert Sutton and sir Archibald
Grant were expelled the house of commons, as having had a considerable
share in those fraudulent practices; a bill was brought in to restrain
them and other delinquents from leaving the kingdom, or alienating their
effects. In the meantime, the committee received a letter from signior
John Angelo Belloni, an eminent banker at Rome, giving them to understand,
that Thompson was secured in that city, with all his papers, and confined
to the castle of St. Angelo; and that the papers were transmitted to his
correspondent at Paris, who would deliver them up, on certain conditions
stipulated in favour of the prisoner. This letter was considered as an
artifice to insinuate a favourable opinion of the pretender, as if he had
taken measures for securing Thompson, from his zeal for justice and
affection for the English people. On this supposition, the proposals were
rejected with disdain; and both houses concurred in an order that the
letter should be burned at the Royal Exchange, by the hands of the common
hangman. The lower house resolved, that it was an insolent and audacious
libel, absurd and contradictory; that the whole transaction was a
scandalous artifice, calculated to delude the unhappy, and to disguise and
conceal the wicked practices of the professed enemies to his majesty’s
person, crown, and dignity.

REVIVAL OF THE SALT-TAX.

No motion during this session produced such a warm contest, as did that of
sir Robert Walpole, when, after a long preamble, he proposed that the
duties on salt, which about two years before had been abolished, should
now be revived and given to his majesty, his heirs and successors, for the
term of three years. In order to sweeten this proposal, he declared that
the land-tax for the ensuing year should be reduced to one shilling in the
pound. All the members of the country party were immediately in commotion.
They expressed their surprise at the grossness of the imposition. They
observed, that two years had scarcely elapsed since the king, in a speech
from the throne, had exhorted them to abolish some of the taxes that were
the most burdensome to the poor: the house was then of opinion, that the
tax upon salt was the most burdensome and the most pernicious to the trade
of the kingdom, of all the impositions to which the poor was subjected,
and therefore it was taken off; but that no good reason could be produced
for altering their opinion so suddenly, and resolving to grind the faces
of the poor, in order to ease a few rich men of the landed interest. They
affirmed, that the most general taxes are not always the least burdensome:
that after a nation is obliged to extend their taxes farther than the
luxuries of their country, those taxes that can be raised with the least
charge to the public are the most convenient and easiest to the people:
but they ought carefully to avoid taxing those things which are necessary
for the subsistence of the poor. The price of all necessaries being thus
enhanced, the wages of the tradesman and manufacturer must be increased;
and where these are high the manufacturers will be undersold by those of
cheaper countries. The trade must of consequence be ruined; and it is not
to be supposed that the landed gentlemen would choose to save a shilling
in the pound from the land-tax, by means of an expedient that would ruin
the manufactures of his country, and decrease the value of his own
fortune. They alleged that the salt-tax particularly affected the poor,
who could not afford to eat fresh provisions; and that, as it formerly
occasioned murmurs and discontents among the lower class of people, the
revival of it would, in all probability, exasperate them into open
sedition. They observed, that while it was exacted in England, a great
number of merchants sent their ships to Ireland, to be victualled for
their respective voyages; that since it had been abolished, many
experiments had been successfully tried with salt for the improvement of
agriculture, which would be entirely defeated by the revival of this
imposition. They suggested that the land-tax was raised at a very small
expense, and subject to no fraud, whereas that upon salt would employ a
great number of additional officers in the revenue, wholly depending upon
the ministry, whose influence in elections they would proportionably
increase. They even hinted, that this consideration was one powerful
motive for proposing the revival of an odious tax, which was in effect an
excise, and would be deemed a step towards a general excise upon all sorts
of provisions. Finally, they demonstrated that the salt-tax introduced
numberless frauds and perjuries in different articles of traffic. Sir
Robert Walpole endeavoured to obviate all these objections in a long
speech, which was minutely answered and refuted in every article by Mr.
Pulteney. Nevertheless, the question being put, the minister’s motion was
carried in the affirmative, and the duty revived; yet, before the bill
passed, divers motions were made, and additional clauses proposed by the
members in the opposition. New debates were raised on every new objection,
and the courtiers were obliged to dispute their ground by inches.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MR. PULTENEY’S NAME STRUCK OUT OF THE LIST OF PRIVY-COUNSELLORS.

The pension-bill was revived, and for the third time rejected in the house
of lords. A bill for the encouragement of the sugar colonies passed
through the lower house with great difficulty, but was lost among the
peers: another, for the better securing the freedom of parliaments, by
further qualifying members to sit in the house of commons, was read the
third time, and thrown out upon the question. A committee had been
appointed to inquire into a sale of the estate which had belonged to the
late earl of Denventwater. It appeared by the report, that the sale had
been fraudulent; a bill was prepared to make it void; Dennis Bond,
esquire, and Serjeant Birch, commissioners for the sale of the forfeited
estates, were declared guilty of notorious breach of trust, and expelled
the house, of which they were members: George Robinson, esquire, underwent
the same sentence on account of the part he acted in the charitable
corporation, as he and Thompson had neglected to surrender themselves,
according to the terms of a bill which had passed for that purpose. During
this session, five members of parliament were expelled for the most sordid
acts of knavery; a sure sign of national degeneracy and dishonour. All the
supplies were granted, and among other articles, the sum of two-and-twenty
thousand six hundred and ninety-four pounds, seven shillings and sixpence,
for the agio or difference of the subsidies payable to the crown of
Denmark, in pursuance of the treaty subsisting between the late king and
that monarch; but this was not obtained without a violent dispute. Mr.
Pulteney, who bore a considerable share in all these debates, became in a
little time so remarkable as to be thought worthy of a very particular
mark of his majesty’s displeasure. The king, on the first day of July,
called for the council-book, and with his own hand struck the name of
William Pulteney, esquire, out of the list of privy-counsellors; his
majesty further ordered him to be put out of all the commissions of the
peace. The several lord-lieutenants, from whom he had received
deputations, were commanded to revoke them; and the lord-chancellor and
secretaries of state were directed to give the necessary orders for that
purpose.

THE KING SETS OUT FOR HANOVER.

Nor did the house of peers tamely and unanimously submit to the measures
of the ministry. The pension-bill being read, was again rejected, and a
protest entered. A debate arose about the number of standing forces; and
the earl of Chesterfield argued for the court motion. The earl of Oxford
moved that they might be reduced to twelve thousand effective men. The
earl of Winchelsea observed, that a standing army rendered ministers of
state more daring than otherwise they would be, in contriving and
executing projects that were grievous to the people; schemes that could
never enter into the heads of any but those who were drunk with excess of
power. The marquis of Tweedale, in reasoning against such a number as the
ministry proposed, took occasion to observe, that not one shilling of the
forfeited estates was ever applied to the use of the public; he likewise
took notice, that the eighteen thousand men demanded as a standing force,
were modelled in such a manner, that they might be speedily augmented to
forty thousand men on any emergency. The duke of Argyle endeavoured to
demonstrate the danger of depending for the safety of the kingdom upon an
undisciplined militia, a fleet, or an army of auxiliaries. Then he
represented the necessity of having recourse to a regular army in case of
invasion; and, after all, acknowledged that the number proposed was no way
sufficient for that purpose. All his arguments were answered and refuted
in an excellent speech by lord Carteret; nevertheless, victory declared
for the minister. The parliament having granted every branch of the
supply, towards the payment of which they borrowed a sum from the sinking
fund, and passed divers other acts for the encouragement of commerce and
agriculture, the king, on the first day of June, gave the royal assent to
the bills that were prepared, and closed the session, after having
informed both houses that the states-general had acceded to the treaty of
Vienna; that he had determined to visit his German dominions, and to leave
the queen regent in his absence. He accordingly set out for Hanover in the
beginning of June. By this time the pragmatic sanction was confirmed by
the diet of the empire, though not without a formal protest by the
electors Palatine, Bavaria, and Saxony.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

CHAPTER II.

Remarkable Instance of Suicide….. Affairs of the
Continent….. Meeting of the Parliament….. Address to the
King touching the Spanish Depredations….. The Excise
Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole….. Opposition to the
Scheme….. Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal——Debate
in the House of Lords concerning the Estates of the late
Directors of the South-Sea Company….. Double Election of a
King in Poland….. The Kings of France, Spain, and
Sardinia, join against the Emperor….. The Prince of Orange
arrives in England….. Altercation in the House of
Commons….. Debate about the Removal of the Duke of Bolton
and Lord Viscount Cobham from their respective
Regiments….. Motion for the Repeal of the Septennial
Act….. Conclusion of a remarkable Speech by Sir W.
Wyndham…… Message from the King for Powers to augment
the Forces in the Intervals between the two Parliaments…..
Opposition in the House of Peers….. Parliament
dissolved….. Dantzic besieged by the Russians…..
Philipsburgh taken by the French….. Don Carlos takes
possession of Naples….. Battle of Parma….. The
Imperialists are again worsted at Gustalla….. An Edict in
France, compelling the British Subjects in that Kingdom to
enlist in the French Army….. New Parliament in Great
Britain….. Debate on a Subsidy to Denmark….. Petition of
some Scottish Noblemen to the House of Peers….. Bill
explaining an Act of the Scottish Parliament touching
wrongous Imprisonment….. Misunderstanding between the
Courts of Spain and Portugal….. Sir John Norris sails with
a strong Squadron to Lisbon….. Preliminaries signed by the
Emperor and the King of France….. Proceedings in
Parliament….. Bill for preventing the Retail of Spiritous
Liquors….. Another for the Relief of Quakers in the
Article of Tithes….. Mortmain Act….. Remarkable Riot at
Edinburgh….. Rupture between the Czarina and the Ottoman
Porte….. The Session of Parliament opened by
Commission….. Motion in both Houses for a Settlement on
the Prince of Wales….. Fierce Debate on this Subject…..
Scheme by Sir John Barnard for reducing the Interest of the
National Debt….. Bill against the City of Edinburgh…..
Play-house Bill.

1732

REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF SUICIDE.

The most remarkable incident that distinguished this year in England was a
very uncommon instance of suicide; an act of despair so frequent among the
English, that in other countries it is objected to them as a national
reproach. Though it may be generally termed the effect of lunacy
proceeding from natural causes operating on the human body, in some few
instances it seems to have been the result of cool deliberation. Richard
Smith, a bookbinder, and prisoner for debt within the liberties of the
king’s bench, persuaded his wife to follow his example in making away with
herself, after they had murdered their little infant. This wretched pair
were, in the month of April, found hanging in their bed-chamber, at about
a yard’s distance from each other; and in a separate apartment the child
lay dead in a cradle. They left two papers enclosed in a short letter to
their landlord, whose kindness they implored in favour of their dog and
cat. They even left money to pay the porter who should carry the enclosed
papers to the person for whom they were addressed. In one of these the
husband thanked that person for the marks of friendship he had received at
his hands; and complained of the ill offices he had undergone from a
different quarter. The other paper, subscribed by the husband and wife,
contained the reasons which induced them to act such a tragedy on
themselves and their offspring. This letter was altogether surprising for
the calm resolution, the good humour, and the propriety with which it was
written. They declared, that they withdrew themselves from poverty and
rags—evils that, through a train of unlucky accidents, were become
inevitable. They appealed to their neighbours for the industry with which
they had endeavoured to earn a livelihood. They justified the murder of
their child, by saying, it was less cruelty to take her with them, than to
leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance and misery. They
professed their belief and confidence in Almighty God, the fountain of
goodness and beneficence, who could not possibly take delight in the
misery of his creatures; they therefore resigned up their lives to him
without any terrible apprehensions; submitting themselves to those ways
which, in his goodness, he should appoint after death. These unfortunate
suicides had been always industrious and frugal, invincibly honest, and
remarkable for conjugal affection.

AFFAIRS OF THE CONTINENT.

Trustees having been appointed by charter to superintend a new settlement
in Georgia, situated to the southward of Carolina in America, Mr.
Oglethorpe, as general and governor of the province, embarked at
Gravesend, with a number of poor families, to plant that colony. The king
of Spain having equipped a very powerful armament, the fleet sailed on the
fourth of June from the road of Alicant, under the command of the count de
Montemar, and arrived on the coast of Barbary in the neighbourhood of
Oran, where a considerable body of troops was landed without much
opposition. Next day, however, they were attacked by a numerous army of
Moors, over whom they obtained a complete victory. The bey or governor of
Oran immediately retired with his garrison, and the Spaniards took
possession of the place, from which they had been driven in the year one
thousand seven hundred and eight. The strong fort of Mazalaquivir was
likewise surrendered to the victors at the first summons; so that this
expedition answered all the views with which it had been projected. Victor
Amadasus, the abdicated king of Sardinia, having, at the instigation of
his wife, engaged in some intrigues in order to reascend the throne, his
son, the reigning king, ordered his person to be seized at Montcalier, and
conveyed to Rivoli, under a strong escort. His wife, the marchioness de
Spigno, was conducted to Seva. The old king’s confessor, his physician,
and eight-and-forty persons of distinction, were imprisoned. The citadel
of Turin was secured with a strong garrison; and new instructions were
given to the governor and senate of Chamberri. The dispute which had long
subsisted between the king of Prussia and the young prince of Orange,
touching the succession to the estates possessed by king William III. as
head of the house of Orange, was at last accommodated by a formal treaty
signed at Berlin and Dieren. The Dutch were greatly alarmed about this
time with an apprehension of being overwhelmed by an inundation,
occasioned by worms, which were said to have consumed the piles and
timber-work that supported their dykes. They prayed and fasted with
uncommon zeal, in terror of this calamity, which they did not know how to
avert in any other manner. At length they were delivered from their fears
by a hard frost, which effectually destroyed those dangerous animals.
About this time, Mr. Dieden, plenipotentiary from the elector of Hanover,
received, in the name of his master, the investiture of Bremen and Verden
from the hands of the emperor.

MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT.

The history of England at this period cannot be very interesting, as it
chiefly consists in an annual revolution of debates in parliament,—debates,
in which the same arguments perpetually recur on the same subjects. When
the session was opened on the sixteenth day of January, the king declared
that the situation of affairs, both at home and abroad, rendered it
unnecessary for him to lay before the two houses any other reasons for
calling them together, but the ordinary dispatch of the public business,
and his desire of receiving their advice in such affairs as should require
the care and consideration of parliament. The motion made in the house of
commons for an address of thanks, implied, that they should express their
satisfaction at the present situation of affairs both at home and abroad.
The motion was carried, notwithstanding the opposition of those who
observed, that the nation had very little reason to be pleased with the
present posture of affairs; that the French were employed in fortifying
and restoring the harbour of Dunkirk, contrary to the faith of the most
solemn treaties; that the British merchants had received no redress for
the depredations committed by the Spaniards; that the commerce of England
daily decreased; that no sort of trade throve but the traffic of
Change-alley, where the most abominable frauds were practised; and that
every session of parliament opened a new scene of villany and imposition.

ADDRESS TO THE KING.

The pension-bill was once more revived, and lost again in the house of
peers. All the reasons formerly advanced against a standing army were now
repeated; and a reduction of the number insisted upon with such warmth,
that the ministerial party were obliged to have recourse to the old
phantom of the pretender. Sir Archer Croft said, a continuation of the
same number of forces was the more necessary, because, to his knowledge,
popery was increasing very fast in the country; for in one parish which he
knew, there were seven popish priests; and that the danger from the
pretender was the more to be feared, because they did not know but he was
then breeding his son a protestant. Sir Robert Walpole observed, that a
reduction of the army was the chief thing wished for and desired by all
the Jacobites in the kingdom; that no reduction had ever been made but
what gave fresh hopes to that party, and encouraged them to raise tumults
against the government; and he did not doubt but that, if they should
resolve to reduce any part of the army, there would be post-horses
employed that very night to carry the good news beyond sea to the
pretender. His brother Horatio added, that the number of troops then
proposed was absolutely necessary to support his majesty’s government, and
would be necessary as long as the nation enjoyed the happiness of having
the present illustrious family on the throne. The futility, the
self-contradiction, and the ridiculous absurdity of these suggestions,
were properly exposed; nevertheless, the army was voted without any
reduction. Sir Wilfred Lawson having made a motion for an address to the
king, to know what satisfaction had been made by Spain for the
depredations committed on the British merchants, it was, after a violent
debate, approved and the address presented. The king in answer to this
remonstrance gave them to understand, that the commissaries of the two
crowns had been so long delayed by unforeseen accidents, that the
conferences were not opened till the latter end of the preceding February;
and that as the courts of London and Madrid had agreed that the term of
three years stipulated for finishing the commission should be computed
from their first meeting, a perfect account of their proceedings could not
as yet be laid before the house of commons. A bill had been long depending
for granting encouragement to the sugar colonies in the West Indies; but,
as it was founded upon a prohibition that would have put a stop to all
commerce between the French islands and the British settlements in North
America, it met with a very warm opposition from those who had the
prosperity of those northern colonies at heart. But the bill being
patronised and supported by the court interest, surmounted all objections,
and afterwards passed into a law. While the commons deliberated upon the
supply, sir Robert Walpole moved, that five hundred thousand pounds should
be issued out of the sinking fund for the service of the ensuing year. Sir
William Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and sir John Barnard, expatiated upon the
iniquity of pillaging a sacred deposit, solemnly appropriated to the
discharge of the national debt. They might have demonstrated the egregious
folly of a measure, by which the public, for a little temporary ease, lost
the advantage of the accumulating interest which would have arisen from
the sinking fund, if properly managed and reserved. All objections
vanished before the powers of ministerial influence, which nothing now
could check but the immediate danger of popular commotion. Such hazardous
interposition actually defeated a scheme which had been adopted by the
minister, and even before its appearance alarmed all the trading part of
the nation.

THE EXCISE SCHEME PROPOSED.

The house having resolved itself into a committee, to deliberate upon the
most proper methods for the better security and improvement of the duties
and revenues charged upon tobacco and wines, all the papers relating to
these duties were submitted to the perusal of the members; the
commissioners of the customs and excise were ordered to attend the house,
the avenues of which were crowded with multitudes of people; and the
members in the opposition waited impatiently for a proposal, in which they
thought the liberties of their country so deeply interested. In a word,
there had been a call of the house on the preceding day. The session was
frequent and full; and both sides appeared ready and eager for the contest
when sir Robert Walpole broached his design. He took notice of the arts
which had been used to prejudice the people against his plan before it was
known. He affirmed that the clamours occasioned by these prejudices had
originally risen from smugglers and fradulent dealers, who had enriched
themselves by cheating the public; and that these had been strenuously
assisted and supported by another set of men, fond of every opportunity to
stir up the people of Great Britain to mutiny and sedition. He expatiated
on the frauds that were committed in that branch of the revenue arising
from the duties on tobacco; upon the hardships to which the American
planters were subjected by the heavy duties payable on importation, as
well as by the ill usage they had met with from their factors and
correspondents in England, who, from being their servants, were now become
their masters; upon the injury done to the fair trader; and the loss
sustained by the public with respect to the revenue. He asserted that the
scheme he was about to propose would remove all these inconveniencies,
prevent numberless frauds, perjuries, and false entries, and add two or
three hundred thousand pounds per annum to the public revenue. He entered
into a long detail of frauds practised by the knavish dealers in those
commodities; he recited the several acts of parliament that related to the
duties on wine and tobacco; he declared he had no intention to promote a
general excise; he endeavoured to obviate some objections that might be
made to his plan, the nature of which he at length explained. He proposed
to join the laws of excise to those of the customs; that the further
subsidy of three farthings per pound charged upon imported tobacco, should
be still levied at the custom-house, and payable to his majesty’s civil
list as heretofore; that then the tobacco should be lodged in warehouses,
to be appointed for that purpose by the commissioners of the excise; that
the keeper of each warehouse, appointed likewise hy the commissioners,
should have one lock and key, and the merchant-importer have another; and
that the tobacco should be thus secured until the merchant should find
vent for it, either by exportation or home consumption; that the part
designed for exportation should be weighed at the customhouse, discharged
of the three farthings per pound which had been paid at its first
importation, and then exported without further trouble; that the portion
destined for home consumption should, in presence of the warehouse-keeper,
be delivered to the purchaser, upon his paying the inland duty of
fourpence per pound weight, to the proper officer appointed to receive it;
by which means the merchant would be eased of the inconvenience of paying
the duty upon importation, or of granting bonds and finding sureties for
the payment, before he had found a market for the commodity; that all
penalties and forfeitures, so far as they formerly belonged to the crown,
should for the future be applied to the use of the public; that appeals in
this, as well as in all other cases relating to the excise, should be
heard and determined by two or three of the judges, to be named by his
majesty; and in the country, by the judge of assize upon the next circuit,
who should hear and determine such appeals in the most summary manner,
without the formality of proceedings in courts of law or equity.

Such was the substance of the famous excise scheme, in favour of which sir
Robert Walpole moved that tha duties and subsidies on tobacco should, from
and after the twenty-fourth day of June, cease and determine. The debate
which ensued was managed and maintained by all the able speakers on both
sides of the question. Sir Robert Walpole was answered by Mr. Perry,
member for the city of London. Sir Paul Methuen joined in the opposition.
Sir John Barnard, another representative of London, distinguished himself
in the same cause.

He was supported by Mr. Pulteney, sir William Wyndham, and other patriots.
The scheme was espoused by sir Philip Yorke, appointed lord-chief-justice
of the king’s-bench, and ennobled in the course of the ensuing year. Sir
Joseph Jekyll approved of the project, which was likewise strenuously
defended by lord Hervey, sir Thomas Robinson, sir William Yonge, Mr.
Pelham, and Mr. Wilmington, which last excelled all his contemporaries of
the ministry in talents and address. Those who argued against the scheme,
accused the minister of having misrepresented the frauds and made false
calculations. With respect to the supposed hardships under which the
planters were said to labour, they affirmed that no planter had ever
dreamed of complaining, until instigated by letters and applications from
London: that this scheme, far from relieving the planters, would expose
the factors to such grievous oppression, that they would not be able to
continue the trade, consequently the planters would be entirely ruined;
and, after all, it would not prevent those frauds against which it was
said to be provided: that from the examination of the commissioners of the
customs, it appeared that those frauds did not exceed forty thousand
pounds per annum, and might in a great measure be abolished, by a due
execution of the laws in being; consequently this scheme was unnecessary,
would be ineffectual in augmenting the revenue, destructive to trade, and
dangerous to the liberties of the subject, as it tended to promote a
general excise, which was in all countries considered as a grievous
oppression. They suggested that it would produce an additional swarm of
excise officers and warehouse-keepers, appointed and paid by the treasury,
so as to multiply the dependents on the crown, and enable it still further
to influence the freedom of elections: that the traders would become
slaves to excisemen and warehouse-keepers, as they would be debarred all
access to their commodities, except at certain hours, when attended by
those officers: that the merchant, for every quantity of tobacco he could
sell, would be obliged to make a journey, or send a messenger to the
office for a permit, which could not be obtained without trouble, expense,
and delay: and that should a law be enacted in consequence of this motion,
it would in all probability be some time or other used as a precedent for
introducing excise laws into every branch of the revenue; in which case
the liberty of Great Britain would be no more. In the course of this
debate, sir Robert Walpole took notice of the multitudes which had beset
all the approaches to the house. He said it would be an easy task for a
designing seditious person to raise a tumult and disorder among them: that
gentlemen might give them what name they should think fit, and affirm they
were come as humble suppliants; but he knew whom the law called sturdy
beggars: and those who brought them to that place could not be certain but
that they might behave in the same manner. This insinuation was resented
by sir John Barnard, who observed that merchants of character had a right
to come down to the court of requests, and lobby of the house of commons,
in order to solicit their friends and acquaintance against any scheme or
project which they might think prejudicial to their commerce: that when he
came into the house, he saw none but such as deserved the appellation of
sturdy beggars as little as the honourable gentleman himself, or any
gentleman whatever.

1733

After a warm dispute, the motion was carried by a majority of sixty-one
voices. Several resolutions were founded on the proposal: and to these the
house agreed, though not without another violent contest. The resolutions
produced a bill, against which petitions were preferred by the lord-mayor,
aldermen, and common-council of London, the city of Coventry and
Nottingham. A motion was made that counsel should be heard for the city of
London; but it was rejected by the majority, and the petitions were
ordered to lie upon the table. Had the minister encountered no opposition
but that which appeared within doors, his project would have certainly
been carried into execution; but the whole nation was alarmed, and
clamoured loudly against the excise-bill. The populace still crowded
around Westminster-hall, blocking up all the avenues to the house of
commons. They even insulted the persons of those members who had voted for
the ministry on this occasion; and sir Robert Walpole began to be in fear
of his life. He therefore thought proper to drop the design, by moving
that the second reading of the bill might be postponed till the twelfth
day of June. Then complaint being made of the insolence of the populace,
who had maltreated several members, divers resolutions were taken against
those tumultuous crowds and their abettors; these resolves were
communicated to the lord-mayor of London, the sheriff of Middlesex, and
the high-bailiff of Westminster. Some individuals were apprehended in the
court of requests, as having fomented the disturbances; but they were soon
released. The miscarriage of the bill was celebrated with public
rejoicings in London and Westminster, and the minister was burned in
effigy by the populace. After the miscarriage of the excise scheme, the
house unanimously resolved to inquire into the frauds and abuses in the
customs; and a committee of twenty-one persons was chosen by ballot for
this purpose.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

BILL FOR A DOWER TO THE PRINCESS ROYAL.

The subsequent debates of this session were occasioned by a bill to
prevent the infamous practice of stock-jobbing, which with great
difficulty made its way to the house of lords, who proposed some
amendments, in consequence of which it was laid aside; and succeeded by
another bill establishing a lottery, to raise five hundred thousand pounds
for the relief of those who had suffered by the charitable corporation.
After having undergone some alteration, it passed through both houses and
obtained the royal assent. The king, by message to parliament, had
signified his intention to give the princess royal in marriage to the
prince of Orange, promising himself their concurrence and assistance, that
he might be enabled to bestow such a portion with his eldest daughter as
should be suitable to the occasion. The commons immediately resolved, that
but of the monies arising from the sale of lands in the island of St.
Christopher’s, his majesty should be empowered to apply fourscore thousand
pounds as a marriage dower for his daughter; and a clause for this purpose
was inserted in the bill, for enabling his majesty to apply five hundred
thousand pounds out of the sinking fund for the service of the current
year.

The opposition in the house of lords was still more animated, though
ineffectual. The debates chiefly turned upon the pension bill, the number
of land forces, and a motion made by lord Bathurst for an account of the
produce of the forfeited estates which had belonged to the directors of
the South-Sea company. The trustees for these estates had charged
themselves with a great sum of money, and the lords in the opposition
thought they had a right to know how it had been disposed. The ministry
had reasons to stifle this inquiry, and therefore opposed it with all
their vigour. Nevertheless, the motion was carried after a warm dispute,
and the directors of the South-Sea company were ordered to lay the
accounts before the house. From this it appeared that the large sums of
money arising from the forfeited estates had been distributed among the
proprietors, by way of dividend, even before recourse was had to
parliament for directions in what manner that produce should be applied:
lord Bathurst, therefore, moved for a resolution of the house that the
disposal of this money, by way of dividend, without any order or direction
of a general court for that purpose, was a violation of the act of
parliament made for the disposal thereof, and a manifest injustice done to
the proprietors of that stock. The duke of Newcastle, in order to gain
time, moved, that as the account was confused, and almost unintelligible,
the present directors of the company might be ordered to lay before the
house a further and more distinct account of the manner in which the money
had been disposed. A violent contest ensued, in the course of which the
house divided, and of fifty-seven peers who voted for the delay, forty-six
were such as enjoyed preferment in the church, commissions in the army, or
civil employments under the government. At length lord Bathurst waived his
motion for that time; then the house ordered that the present and former
directors of the South-Sea company, together with the late inspectors of
their accounts, should attend and be examined. They were accordingly
interrogated, and gave so little satisfaction, that lord Bathurst moved
for a committee of inquiry; but the question being put, was carried in the
negative: yet a very strong protest was entered by the lords in the
opposition. The next subject of altercation was the bill for misapplying
part of the produce of the sinking fund. It was attacked with all the
force of argument, wit, and declamation, by the earl of Strafford, lords
Bathurst and Carteret, and particularly by the earl of Chesterfield, who
had by this time resigned his staff of lord-steward of the household, and
renounced all connexion with the ministry. Lord Bathurst moved for a
resolution, importing that, in the opinion of the house, the sinking fund
ought for the future to be applied, in time of peace and public
tranquillity, to the redemption of those taxes which were most prejudicial
to the trade, most burdensome on the manufactures, and most oppressive on
the poor of the nation. This motion was overruled, and the bill adopted by
the majority. On the eleventh of June, the king gave the royal assent to
the bills that were prepared, and closed the session with a speech, in
which he took notice of the wicked endeavours that had been lately used to
inflame the minds of the people by the most unjust misrepresentations.

DOUBLE ELECTION OF A KING OF POLAND.

Europe was now reinvolved in fresh troubles by a vacancy on the throne of
Poland. Augustus died at Warsaw in the end of January, and the
neighbouring powers were immediately in commotion. The elector of Saxony,
son to the late king, and Stanislaus, whose daughter was married to the
French monarch, declared themselves candidates for the Polish throne. The
emperor, the czarina, and the king of Prussia, espoused the interests of
the Saxon: the king of France supported the pretensions of his
father-in-law. The foreign ministers at Warsaw forthwith began to form
intrigues among the electors: the marquis de Monti, ambassador from
France, exerted himself so successfully, that he soon gained over the
primate, and a majority of the catholic dietines, to the interests of
Stanislaus; while the Imperial and Russian troops hovered on the frontiers
of Poland. The French king no sooner understood that a body of the
emperor’s forces was encamped at Silesia, than he ordered the duke of
Berwick to assemble an army on the Rhine, and take measures for entering
Germany in case the Imperialists should march into Poland. A French fleet
set sail for Dantzic, while Stanislaus travelled through Germany in
disguise to Poland, and concealed himself in the house of the French
ambassador at Warsaw. As the day of election approached, the Imperial,
Russian, and Prussian ministers delivered in their several declarations,
by way of protest, against the contingent election of Stanislaus, as a
person proscribed, disqualified, depending upon a foreign power, and
connected with the Turks and other infidels. The Russian general Lasci
entered Poland at the head of fifty thousand men: the diet of the election
was opened with the usual ceremony on the twenty-fifth day of August.
Prince Viesazowski, chief of the Saxon interest, retired to the other side
of the Vistula, with three thousand men, including some of the nobility
who adhered to that party. Nevertheless, the primate proceeded to the
election: Stanislaus was unanimously chosen king; and appeared in the
electoral field, where he was received with loud acclamations. The
opposite party soon increased to ten thousand men; protested against the
election, and joined the Russian army, which advanced by speedy marches.
King Stanislaus finding himself unable to cope with such adversaries,
retired with the primate and French ambassador to Dantzic, leaving the
palatine of Kiow at Warsaw. This general attacked the Saxon palace, which
was surrendered upon terms: then the soldiers and inhabitants plundered
the houses belonging to the grandees who had declared for Augustus, as
well as the hotel of the Russian minister. In the meantime, the Poles, who
had joined the Muscovites, finding it impracticable to pass the Vistula
before the expiration of the time fixed for the session of the diet,
erected a kelo at Cracow, where the elector of Saxony was chosen and
proclaimed by the bishop of Cracow, king of Poland, under the name of
Augustus III., on the sixth day of October. They afterwards passed the
river, and the palatine of Kiow retiring towards Cracow, they took
possession of Warsaw, where in their turn they plundered the palaces and
houses belonging to the opposite party.

CONFEDERACY AGAINST THE EMPEROR.

During these transactions, the French king concluded a treaty with Spain
and Sardinia, by which those powers agreed to declare war against the
emperor. Manifestoes were published reciprocally by all the contracting
powers. The duke of Berwick passed the Rhine in October, and undertook the
seige of fort Kehl, which in a few days was surrendered on capitulation:
then he repassed the river and returned to Versailles. The king of
Sardinia having declared war against the emperor, joined a body of French
forces commanded by mareschal de Villars, and drove the Imperialists out
of the Milanese. His Imperial majesty, dreading the effects of such a
powerful confederacy against him, offered to compromise all differences
with the crown of Spain, under the mediation of the king of Great Britain;
and Mr. Keene, the British minister at Madrid, proposed an accommodation.
Philip expressed his acknowledgments to the king of England, declaring,
however, that the emperor’s advances were too late, and that his own
resolutions were already taken. Nevertheless, he sent orders to the count
de Montijo, his ambassador at London, to communicate to his Britannic
majesty the motives which had induced him to take these resolutions. In
the meantime he detached a powerful armament to Italy, where they invested
the Imperial fortress of Aula, the garrison of which was obliged to
surrender themselves prisoners of war. The republic of Venice declared she
would take no share in the disputes of Italy; the states-general signed a
neutrality with the French king for the Austrian Netherlands, without
consulting the emperor or the king of Great Britain; and the English
councils seemed to be altogether pacific.

ARRIVAL OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.

In November the prince of Orange arrived at Greenwich, in order to espouse
the princess royal; but the marriage was postponed on account of his being
taken ill: and he repaired to Bath, in Somersetshire, to drink the water
for the recovery of his strength. Henrietta, the young duchess of
Marlborough, dying about this time, the title devolved to her sister’s
son, the earl of Sunderland. Lord King resigning his office of chancellor,
it was conferred upon Mr. Talbot, solicitor-general, together with the
title of baron; a promotion that reflected honour upon those by whom it
was advised. He possessed the spirit of a Roman senator, the elegance of
an Atticus, and the integrity of a Cato. At the meeting of the parliament
in January, the king told them, in his speech, that though he was no way
engaged in the war which had begun to rage in Europe, except by the good
offices he had employed among the contending powers, he could not sit
regardless of the present events, or be unconcerned for the consequences
of a war undertaken and supported by such a powerful alliance. He said, he
had thought proper to take time to examine the facts alleged on both
sides, and to wait the result of the councils of those powers that were
more immediately interested in the consequences of the rupture. He
declared he would concert with his allies, more particularly with the
states-general of the United Provinces, such measures as should be thought
most advisable for their common safety, and for restoring the peace of
Europe. In the meantime, he expressed his hope that they would make such
provision as should secure his kingdom, rights, and possessions from all
dangers and insults, and maintain the respect due to the British nation.
He said, that whatever part it might in the end be most reasonable for him
to act, it would in all views be necessary, when all Europe was preparing
for arms, to put his kingdom in a posture of defence. The motion for an
address of thanks produced as usual a debate in both houses, which, it
must be owned, appears to have proceeded from a spirit of cavilling,
rather than from any reasonable cause of objection.

ALTERCATION IN THE COMMONS.

The house of commons resolved to address his majesty for a copy of the
treaty of Vienna. Sir John Rushout moved for another, desiring that the
letters and instructions relating to the execution of the treaty of
Seville, should be submitted to the inspection of the commons; but, after
a hard struggle, it was over-ruled. The next motion was made by Mr.
Sandys, a gentleman who had for some time appeared strenuous in the
opposition, and wrangled with great perseverance. He proposed that the
house should examine the instructions which had been given to the British
minister in Poland, some years before the death of king Augustus, that
they might be the better able to judge of the causes which produced this
new rupture among the powers of Europe. The motion being opposed by all
the court members, a contest ensued, in the course of which Mr. Pulteney
compared the ministry to an empyric, and the constitution of England to
his patient. This pretender in physic, said he, being consulted, tells the
distempered person there were but two or three ways of treating his
disease; and he was afraid that none of them would succeed. A vomit might
throw him into convulsions that would occasion immediate death; a purge
might bring on a diarrhoea that would carry him off in a short time; and
he had been already bled so much, and so often, that he could bear it no
longer. The unfortunate patient, shocked at this declaration, replies,
“Sir, you have always pretended to be a regular doctor; but now I find you
are an arrant quack. I had an excellent constitution when I first fell
into your hands, but you have quite destroyed it; and now I find I have no
other chance for saving my life, but by calling for the help of some
regular physician.” In the debate, the members on both sides seemed to
wander from the question, and indulge themselves in ludicrous
personalities. Mr. H. Walpole took occasion to say, that the opposition
treated the ministry as he himself was treated by some of his
acquaintances with respect to his dress. “If I am in plain clothes,” said
he, “then they call me a slovenly dirty fellow; and if by chance I wear a
laced suit, they cry, What, shall such an awkward fellow wear fine
clothes?” He continued to sport in this kind of idle buffoonery. He
compared the present administration to a ship at sea. As long as the wind
was fair, and proper for carrying us to our designed port, the word was,
“Steady! steady!” but when the wind began to shift and change, the word
was necessarily altered to “Thus, thus, and no nearer.” The motion was
overpowered by the majority; and this was the fate of several other
proposals made by the members in the opposition. Sir John Barnard
presented a petition from the druggists, and other dealers in tea,
complaining of the insults and oppression to which they were subjected by
the excise laws, and imploring relief. Sir John and Mr. Perry, another of
the city members, explained the grievous hardships which those traders
sustained, and moved that the petition might be referred to the
consideration of the whole house. They were opposed by Mr. Winnington, sir
W. Yonge, and other partisans of the ministry; and these skirmishes
brought on a general engagement of the two parties, in which every weapon
of satire, argument, reason, and truth, was wielded against that odious,
arbitrary, and oppressive method of collecting the public revenue.
Nevertheless, the motion in favour of the sufferers was rejected. When the
commons deliberated upon the supply, Mr. Andrews, deputy-paymaster of the
army, moved for an addition of eighteen hundred men to the number of land
forces which had been continued since the preceding year. The members in
the opposition disputed this small augmentation with too much heat and
eagerness. It must be acknowledged, they were by this time irritated into
such personal animosity against the minister, that they resolved to oppose
all his measures, whether they might or might not be necessary for the
safety and advantage of the kingdom. Nor indeed were they altogether
blameable for acting on this maxim, if their sole aim was to remove from
the confidence and councils of their sovereign, a man whose conduct they
thought prejudicial to the interests and liberties of their country. They
could not, however, prevent the augmentation proposed; but they resolved,
if they could not wholly stop the career of the ministry, to throw in such
a number of rubs as should at least retard their progress. The duke of
Bolton and lord Cobham had been deprived of the regiments they commanded,
because they refused to concur in every project of the administration. It
was in consequence of their dismission, that lord Morpeth moved for a bill
to prevent any commissioned officer, not above the rank of a colonel, from
being removed, unless by a court-martial, or by address of either house of
parliament. Such an attack on the prerogative might have succeeded in the
latter part of the reign of the first Charles; but at this juncture could
not fail to miscarry; yet it was sustained with great vigour and address.
When the proposal was set aside by the majority, Mr. Sandys moved for an
address to the king, desiring to know who advised his majesty to remove
the duke of Bolton and lord Cob-ham from their respective regiments. He
was seconded by Mr. Pulteney and sir William Wyndham; but the ministry
foreseeing another tedious dispute, called for the question, and the
motion was carried in the negative. The next source of contention was a
bill for securing the freedom of parliament, by limiting the number of
officers in the house of commons. It was read a first and second time; but
when a motion was made for its being committed, it met with a powerful
opposition, and produced a warm debate that issued in a question which,
like the former, passed in the negative. A clergyman having insinuated in
conversation that sir William Milner, baronet, member for York, received a
pension from the ministry, the house took cognizance of this report; the
clergyman acknowledged at the bar that he might have dropped such a hint
from hearsay. The accused member protested, upon his honour, that he never
did nor ever would receive place, pension, gratuity, or reward from the
court, either directly or indirectly, for voting in parliament, or upon
any other account whatever. The accusation was voted false and scandalous,
and the accuser taken into custody; but in a few days he was discharged
upon his humble petition, and his begging pardon of the member whom he had
calumniated. The duty upon salt was prolonged for eight years; and a bill
passed against stock-jobbing.

MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE SEPTENNIAL ACT.

But the subject which of all others employed the eloquence and abilities
on both sides to the most vigorous exertion, was a motion made by Mr.
Bromley, who proposed that a bill should be brought in for repealing the
septenntal act, and for the more frequent meeting and calling of
parliaments. The arguments for and against septennial parliaments have
already been stated. The ministry now insisted upon the increase of
papists and Jacobites, which rendered it dangerous to weaken the hands of
the government; they challenged the opposition to produce one instance in
which the least encroachment had been made on the liberties of the people
since the septennial act took place; and they defied the most ingenious
malice to prove that his present majesty had ever endeavoured to extend
any branch of the prerogative beyond its legal bounds. Sir John Hinde
Cotton affirmed, that in many parts of England the papists had already
begun to use all their influence in favour of those candidates who were
recommended by the ministers as members in the ensuing parliament. With
respect to his majesty’s conduct, he said he would not answer one word;
but as to the grievances introduced since the law was enacted for
septennial parliaments, he thought himself more at liberty to declare his
sentiments. He asserted, that the septennial law itself was an
encroachment on the rights of the people; a law passed by a parliament
that made itself septennial. He observed, that the laws of treason with
regard to trials were altered since that period; that in former times a
man was tried by a jury of his neighbours, within the county where the
crimes alleged against him were said to be committed; but by an act of a
septennial parliament he might be removed and tried in any place where the
crown, or rather the ministry, could find a jury proper for their purpose;
where the prisoner could not bring any witnesses in his justification,
without an expense which perhaps his circumstances would not bear. He
asked, if the riot act was not an encroachment on the rights of the
people? An act by which a little dirty justice of the peace, the meanest
and vilest tool a minister can use, who, perhaps subsists by his being in
the commission, and may be deprived of that subsistence at the pleasure of
his patron, had it in his power to put twenty or thirty of the best
subjects in England to immediate death, without any trial or form but that
of reading a proclamation. “Was not the fatal South-Sea scheme,” said he,
“established by the act of a septennial parliament? And can any man ask,
whether that law was attended with any inconvenience; to the glorious
catalogue I might have added the late excise bill, if it had passed into a
law; but, thank heaven, the septennial parliament was near expiring before
that famous measure was introduced.”

CONCLUSION OF A REMARKABLE SPEECH BY SIR W. WYNDHAM.

Sir William Wyndham concluded an excellent speech, that spoke him the
unrivalled orator, the uncorrupted Briton, and the unshaken patriot, in
words to this effect:—“Let us suppose a man abandoned to all notions
of virtue and honour, of no great family, and but a mean fortune, raised
to be chief minister of state, by the concurrence of many whimsical
events; afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of his own making;
lost to all sense of shame and reputation; ignorant of his country’s true
interest; pursuing no aim but that of aggrandizing himself and his
favourites; in foreign affairs trusting none but those who, from the
nature of their education, cannot possibly be qualified for the service of
their country, or give weight and credit to their negotiations. Let us
suppose the true interest of the nation by such means neglected, or
misunderstood, her honour tarnished, her importance lost, her trade
insulted, her merchants plundered, and her sailors murdered; and all these
circumstances overlooked, lest his administration should be endangered.
Suppose him next possessed of immense wealth, the plunder of the nation,
with a parliament chiefly composed of members whose seats are purchased,
and whose votes are bought at the expense of the public treasure. In such
a parliament suppose all attempts made to inquire into his conduct, or to
relieve the nation from the distress which has been entailed upon it by
his administration. Suppose him screened by a corrupt majority of his
creatures, whom he retains in daily pay, or engages in his particular
interest, by distributing among them those posts and places which ought
never to be bestowed upon any but for the good of the public. Let him
plume himself upon his scandalous victory, because he has obtained a
parliament like a packed jury ready to acquit him at all adventures. Let
us suppose him domineering with insolence over all the men of ancient
families, over all the men of sense, figure, or fortune in the nation; as
he has no virtue of his own, ridiculing it in others, and endeavouring to
destroy and corrupt it in all. With such a minister, and such a
parliament, let us suppose a case which I hope will never happen: a prince
upon the throne, uninformed, ignorant, and unacquainted with the
inclinations and true interest of his people, weak, capricious,
transported with unbounded ambition, and possessed with insatiable warice.
I hope such a case will never occur; but, as it possibly may, could any
greater curse happen to a nation than such a prince on the throne,
advised, and solely advised by such a minister, and that minister
supported by such a parliament? The nature of mankind cannot be altered by
human laws; the existence of such a prince or such a minister we cannot
prevent by act of parliament; but the existence of such a parliament I
think we may prevent; as it is much more likely to exist, and may do more
mischief, while the septennial law remains in force than if it were
repealed; therefore, I am heartily for its being repealed.”
Notwithstanding the most warm, the most nervous, the most pathetic
remonstrances in favour of the motion, the question was put, and it was
suppressed by mere dint of number.

1734

The triumph of the ministry was still more complete in the success of a
message delivered from the crown in the latter end of the session, when a
great many members of the other party had retired to their respective
habitations in the country. Sir Robert Wal-pole delivered this commission
to the house, importing that his majesty might be enabled to augment his
forces, if occasion should require such an augmentation, between the
dissolution of this parliament and the election of another. Such an
important point, that was said to strike at the foundation of our
liberties, was not tamely yielded; but, on the contrary, contested with
uncommon ardour. The motion for taking the message into consideration was
carried in the affirmative; and an address presented to the king,
signifying their compliance with his desire. In consequence of a
subsequent message, they prepared and passed a bill, enabling his majesty
to settle an annuity of five thousand pounds for life on the princess
royal, as a mark of his paternal favour and affection.

PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.

The opposition in the house of peers kept pace with that in the house of
commons, and was supported with equal abilities, under the auspices of the
lords Bathurst and Carteret, the earls of Chesterfield and Abingdon. The
duke of Marlborough made a motion for a bill to regulate the army,
equivalent to that which had been rejected in the lower house; and it met
with the same fate after a warm dispute. Then lord Carteret moved for an
address to the king, that he would be graciously pleased to acquaint the
house who advised his majesty to remove the duke of Bolton and lord
viscount Cobham from their respective regiments, and what crimes were laid
to their charge. This proposal was likewise rejected, at the end of a
debate in which the duke of Argyle observed, that two lords had been
removed, but only one soldier lost his commission. Such a great majority
of the Scottish representatives had always voted for the ministry since
the accession of the late king, and so many of these enjoyed places and
preferments in the gift of the crown, that several attempts were made by
the lords in the opposition to prevent for the future the ministerial
influence from extending itself to the elections of North Britain.
Accordingly, two motions for this purpose were made by the carl of
Marchmont and the duke of Bedford; and sustained by the earls of
Chesterfield, Winchelsea, and Stair, lords Willoughby de Broke, Bathurst,
and Carteret. They were opposed by the dukes of Newcastle and Argyle, the
earl of Cholmondeley, earl Paulet, lord Hervey, now called up by a writ to
the house of peers, and lord Talbot. The question being put on both, they
were of course defeated; and the earl of Stair was deprived of his
regiment of dragoons, after having performed the most signal services to
the royal family, and exhausted his fortune in supporting the interest and
dignity of the crown. Strenuous protests were entered against the decision
of the majority concerning the king’s message, demanding a power to
augment his forces during the recess of parliament; as also against a bill
for enabling his majesty to apply the sum of one million two hundred
thousand pounds out of the sinking fund for the service of the current
year. The business of the session being despatched, the king repaired to
the house of lords on the sixteenth day of April, and having passed all
the bills that were ready for the royal assent, took leave of this
parliament, with the warmest acknowledgment of their zeal, duty, and
affection. It was at first prorogued, then dissolved, and another convoked
by the same proclamation. On the fourteenth day of March, the nuptials of
the prince of Orange and the princess royal were solemnized with great
magnificence; and this match was attended with addresses of congratulation
to his majesty from different parts of the kingdom.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DANTZIC BESIEGED BY THE RUSSIANS.

The powers at war upon the continent acted with surprising vigour. The
Russian and Saxon army invested the city of Dantzic, in hopes of securing
the person of king Stanislaus. The town was strong, the garrison numerous,
and animated by the examples of the French and Poles, made a very
obstinate defence. For some time they were supplied by sea with recruits,
arms, and ammunition. On the eleventh day of May a reinforcement of
fifteen hundred men was landed from two French ships of war and some
transports, under fort Wechselmunde, which was so much in want of
provisions, that they were not admitted; they therefore re-embarked, and
sailed back to Copenhagen. But afterwards a larger number was landed in
the same place, and attacked the Russian intrenchments, in order to force
their way into the city. They were repulsed in this attempt, but retired
in good order. At length the Russian fleet arrived, under the command of
Admiral Gordon, and now the siege was carried on with great fury. Fort
Wechselmunde was surrendered; the French troops capitulated, and were
embarked in the Russian ships, to be conveyed to some port in the Baltic.
Stanislaus escaped in the disguise of a peasant to Marienwarder in the
Prussian territories. The city of Dantzic submitted to the dominion of
Augustus III., king of Poland, and was obliged to defray the expense of
the war to the Russian general count de Munich, who had assumed the
command after the siege was begun. The Polish lords at Dantzic signed an
act of submission to king Augustus, who, on the tenth day of July, arrived
at the convent of Oliva. There a council was held in his presence. The
recusant noblemen took the oath which he proposed. Then a general amnesty
was proclaimed; and the king set out on his return to Dresden.

PHILIPSBURGH TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.

On the Rhine the French arms bore down all resistance. The count de
Belleisle besieged and took Traerbach. The duke of Berwick, at the head of
sixty thousand men, invested Philipsburgh, while prince Eugene was obliged
to remain on the defensive, in the strong camp at Heilbron, waiting for
the troops of the empire. On the twelfth day of June, the duke of Berwick,
in visiting the trenches, was killed by a cannon-ball, and the command
devolved upon the marquis d’Asfeldt who carried on the operations of the
siege with equal vigour and capacity. Prince Eugene being joined by the
different reinforcements he expected, marched towards the French lines;
but found them so strong that he would not hazard an attack; and such
precautions taken, that with all his military talents he could not relieve
the besieged. At length general Watgenau, the governor, capitulated, after
having made a noble defence, and obtained the most honourable conditions.
Prince Eugene retired to Heidelberg; and the campaign ended about the
beginning of October. The Imperial arms were not more successful in Italy.
The infant Don Carlos had received so many invitations from the Neapolitan
nobility, that he resolved to take possession of that kingdom. He began
his march in February, at the head of the Spanish forces; published a
manifesto, declaring he was sent by his father to relieve the kingdom of
Naples from the oppression under which it groaned; and entered the capital
amidst the acclamations of the people; while the count de Visconti, the
German viceroy, finding himself unable to cope with the invaders, thought
proper to retire, after having thrown succours into Gaeta and Capua. When
he arrived at Nocera, he began to assemble the militia, with intent to
form a camp at Barletta. The count de Montemar marched with a body of
forces against this general, and obtained over him a complete victory at
Bitonto in Apuglia, on the twenty-fifth of May, when the Imperialists were
entirely routed, and a great number of principal officers taken prisoners.
Don Carlos being proclaimed, and acknowledged king of Naples, created the
count de Montemar duke of Bitonto; reduced Gaeta, and all other parts of
the kingdom which were garrisoned with Imperial troops; and resolved to
subdue the island of Sicily. About twenty thousand troops being destined
for this expedition, were landed in the road of Solanto in August, under
the command of the new duke of Bitonto, who being favoured by the natives,
proceeded in his conquests with great rapidity. The people acknowledged
Don Carlos as their sovereign, and took arms in support of his government;
so that the Imperial troops were driven before them, and the Spaniards
possessed the whole kingdom, except Messina, Syracuse, and Trepani, when
the infant determined to visit the island in person.

BATTLE OF PARMA.

While Don Carlos was thus employed in the conquest of Naples and Sicily,
the Imperialists were hard pressed in Lombardy by the united forces of
France and Piedmont, commanded by the king of Sardinia and the old
mareschal duke de Villars. In the month of January they undertook the
siege of Tortona, which they reduced; while the troops of the emperor
began to pour in great numbers into the Mantuan. In the beginning of May,
count Merci, who commanded them, passed the Po in the face of the allies,
notwithstanding all the skill of Villars, obliged him to retreat from the
banks of that river, and took the castle of Colorno. The old French
general being taken ill, quitted the army, and retired to Turin, where in
a little time he died; and the king of Sardinia retiring to the same
place, the command of the allied forces devolved upon the mareschal de
Coigny. The confederates were posted at Sanguina, and the Imperialists at
Sorbola, when the count de Merci made a motion to San Prospero, as if he
intended either to attack the enemy, or take possession of Parma. The
mareschal de Coigny forthwith made a disposition for an engagement; and,
on the twenty-ninth day of June, the Imperial general having passed the
Parma, began the attack with great impetuosity. He charged in person at
the head of his troops, and was killed soon after the battle began.
Nevertheless, the prince of Wirtem-berg assuming the command, both armies
fought with great obstinacy from eleven in the forenoon till four in the
afternoon, when the Imperialists retired towards Monte Cirugalo, leaving
five thousand men dead on the field of battle, and among these many
officers of distinction. The loss of the allies was very considerable, and
they reaped no solid fruits from their victory.

THE IMPERIALISTS ARE AGAIN WORSTED.

The Imperial forces retreated to Reggio, and from thence moved to the
plains of Carpi, on the right of the Secchia, where they received some
reinforcements; then general count Konigsegg arriving in the camp, took
upon himself the command of the army. His first step was to take post at
Quingentolo, by which motion he secured Mirandola, that was threatened
with a siege. On the fifteenth of February he forded the river Secchia,
and surprised the quarters of mareschal de Broglio, who escaped in his
shirt with great difficulty. The French retired with such precipitation,
that they left all their baggage behind, and above two thousand were taken
prisoners. They posted themselves under Gustalla, where, on the nineteenth
day of the month, they were vigorously attacked by the Imperialists, and a
general engagement ensued. Konigsegg made several desperate efforts to
break the French cavalry, upon which, however, he could make no
impression. The infantry on both sides fought with uncommon ardour for six
hours, and the field was covered with carnage. At length the Imperial
general retreated to Lazara, after having lost above five thousand men,
including the prince of Wirtemberg, the generals Valpareze and Colminero,
with many other officers of distinction; nor was the damage sustained by
the French greatly inferior to that of the Germans, who repassed the Po,
and took post on the banks of the Oglio. The allies crossed the same
river, and the marquis de Maillibois was sent with a detachment to attack
Mirandola; but the Imperialists marching to the relief of the place,
compelled him to abandon the enterprise; then he rejoined his army, which
retired under the walls of Cremona, to wait for succours from Don Carlos.
So little respect did the French court pay to the British nation at this
juncture, that in the month of November, an edict was published at Paris,
commanding all the British subjects in France, who were not actually in
employment, from the age of eighteen to fifty, to quit the kingdom in
fifteen days, or enlist in some of the Irish regiments, on pain of being
treated as vagabonds, and sent to the galleys. This edict was executed
with the utmost rigour. The prisons of Paris were crowded with the
subjects of Great Britain, who were surprised and cut off from all
communication with their friends, and must have perished by cold and
hunger, had not they been relieved by the active charity of the
Jansenists. The earl of Waldegrave, who then resided at Paris, as
ambassador from the king of Great Britain, made such vigorous
remonstrances to the French ministry upon this unheard of outrage against
a nation with which they had been so long in alliance, that they thought
proper to set the prisoners at liberty, and publish another edict, by
which the meaning of the former was explained away.

NEW PARLIAMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN.

While these transactions occurred on the continent, the king of Great
Britain augmented his land-forces; and warm contests were maintained
through the whole united kingdom in electing representatives for the new
parliament. But in all these struggles the ministerial power predominated;
and the new members appeared with the old complexion. The two houses
assembled on the fourteenth day of January, and Mr. Onslow was re-elected
speaker. The leaders of both parties in all debates, were the self-same
persons who had conducted those of the former parliament; and the same
measure were pursued in the same manner. The king in his speech at the
opening of the session, gave them to understand, that he had concerted
with the states-general of the United Provinces such measures as were
thought most advisable for their common safety, and for restoring the
peace of Europe; that they had considered on one side the pressing
applications made by the Imperial court both in England and Holland, for
obtaining succours against the powers at war with the house of Austria;
and, on the other side, the repeated professions made by the allies of
their sincere disposition to put an end to the present troubles upon
honourable and solid terms; that he and the states-general had concurred
in a resolution to employ their joint and earnest instances to bring
matters to a speedy and happy accommodation; that their good offices were
at length accepted; and in a short time a plan would be offered to the
consideration of all parties engaged in the war, as a basis for a general
negotiation of peace. He told them he had used the power vested in him by
the last parliament with great moderation; and concluded a treaty with the
crown of Denmark of great importance in the present conjuncture. He
observed, that whilst many of the principal powers of Europe were actually
engaged in a war, Great Britain must be more or less affected with the
consequences; and as the best concerted measures are liable to
uncertainty, the nation ought to be prepared against all events. He
therefore expressed his hope, that his good subjects would not repine at
the necessary means of procuring the blessings of peace and universal
tranquillity, or of putting him in a condition to act that part which it
might be necessary and incumbent upon him to take. The address of thanks
produced a dispute as usual, which ended with an acquiescence in the
motion The house, in a grand committee on the supply, resolved, That
thirty thousand seamen should be employed for the service of the ensuing
year; and that the land-forces should be augmented to the number of
twenty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-four effective men. But these
resolutions were not taken without dispute and division. The minister’s
opponents not only reproduced all the reasons which had been formerly
advanced against a standing army, but they opposed this augmentation with
extraordinary ardour, as a huge stride towards the establishment of
arbitrary power. They refuted those fears of eternal broils on which the
ministry pretended to ground the necessity of such an augmentation; and
they exposed the weak conduct of the administration, in having contributed
to destroy the balance of power, by assisting Spain against the emperor in
Italy, so as to aggrandize the house of Bourbon.

DEBATE ON A SUBSIDY TO DENMARK.

Sir William Wyndham moved, that the estimate of the navy for the ensuing
year might be referred to a select committee. He expressed his surprise,
that notwithstanding the vast sums which had been yearly raised, and the
long continuance of the peace, the people had not been quite delivered of
any one tax incurred in the preceding war. He said, he could not
comprehend how it was possible to find pretences for exposing the nation
to such exorbitant charges; and he took notice of some unconsionable
articles in the accounts of the navy-debt that lay upon the table. He was
seconded by Mr. Sandys, and supported by sir J. Jekyll and Mr. Pulteney;
but after some debate, the motion was carried in the negative. When the
new treaty with Denmark fell under consideration in a grand committee, Mr.
H. Walpole moved, that the sum of fifty-six thousand two hundred and fifty
pounds, should be granted to his majesty as a subsidy to the Dane,
pursuant to the said treaty, for the service of the ensuing year. The
demand did not meet with immediate compliance. All the leaders in the
opposition exclaimed against the subsidy as unnecessary and unreasonable.
They observed, that as the English had no particular interest of their own
for inducing them to engage in the present war, but only the danger to
which the balance of power might be exposed by that event; and as all the
powers of Europe were as much, if not more, interested than the English in
the preservation of that balance, should it ever be really endangered,
they would certainly engage in its defence, without receiving any valuable
consideration from Great Britain; but should the English be always the
first to take the alarm upon any rupture, and offer bribes and pensions to
all the princes in Europe, the whole charge of preserving that balance
would fall upon Great Britain; every state would expect a gratification
from her, for doing that which it would otherwise be obliged to do for its
own preservation; even the Dutch might at last refuse to assist in
trimming this balance, unless Britain should submit to make the grand
pensionary of Holland a pensionary of England, and take a number of their
forces into English pay. The debate having had its free course, the
question was put, and the motion approved by the majority. The ministry
allowed a bill to be brought in for limiting the number of officers in the
house of commons; but at the second reading it was rejected upon a
division, after a learned debate, in which it appeared that the opposition
had gained a valuable auxiliary in the person of lord Pol-worth, son to
the earl of Marchmont, a nobleman of elegant parts, keen penetration, and
uncommon vivacity, who spoke with all the fluency and fervour of
elocution.

PETITION OF SOME SCOTTISH NOBLEMEN.

The minority in the house of lords were not less vigilant and resolute in
detecting and opposing every measure which they thought would redound to
the prejudice of their country. But the most remarkable object that
employed their attention during this session, was a very extraordinary
petition subscribed by the dukes of Hamilton, Queensberry, and Montrose,
the earls of Dundonald, Marchmont, and Stair, representing that undue
influence had been used for carrying on the election of the sixteen peers
of Scotland. The duke of Bedford, who delivered their petition to the
house, proposed a day for taking it into consideration; and to this they
agreed. It was afterwards moved, that the consideration of it should be
adjourned to a short day, before which the petitioners should be ordered
to declare whether they intended to controvert the last election of all
the sixteen peers, or the election of any, and which of them. This affair
was of such an unprecedented nature, that the house seemed to be divided
in opinion about the manner in which they ought to proceed. The partisans
of the ministry would have willingly stifled the inquiry in the beginning;
but the petitioners were so strenuously supported in their claim to some
notice, by the earls of Chesterfield, Abingdon, and Strafford, the lords
Bathurst and Carteret, that they could not dismiss it at once with any
regard to decorum. The order of the house, according to the motion
explained above, being communicated by the lord-chancellor to the
petitioners, they waited on him with a declaration, importing, that they
did not intend to controvert the election or return of the sixteen peers
for Scotland; but they thought it their duty to lay before their lordships
the evidence of such facts and undue methods as appeared to them to be
dangerous to the constitution; and might in future elections equally
affect the right of the present sixteen peers, as that of the other peers
of Scotland, if not prevented by a proper remedy. This declaration being
repeated to the house, the duke of Devonshire made a motion, that the
petitioners might be ordered to lay before the house in writing, instances
of those undue methods and illegal practices upon which they intended to
proceed, and the names of the persons they suspected to be guilty. He was
warmly opposed by the country party; and a long debate ensued, after which
the question was carried in favour of the motion, and the order signified
to the petitioners. Next day their answer was read to the house to this
effect: That as they had no intention to state themselves accusers, they
could not take upon them to name particular persons who might have been
concerned in those illegal practices; but who they were would undoubtedly
appear to their lordships upon their taking the proper examinations:
nevertheless, they did humbly acquaint their lordships, that the petition
was laid before them upon information that the list of the sixteen peers
for Scotland had been framed previous to the election, by persons in high
trust under the crown; that this list was shown to peers, as a list
approved by the crown; and was called the king’s list, from which there
was to be no variation, unless to make way for one or two particular
peers, on condition they should conform to measures; that peers were
solicited to vote for this list, without the liberty of making any
alteration; that endeavours were used to engage peers to vote for this
list by promise of pensions, and offices civil and military to themselves
and relations, as well as by offers of money: that sums were given for
this purpose; that pensions, offices, and releases of debts owing to the
crown, were actually granted to peers who concurred in voting for this
list, and to their relations; that on the day of election a battalion of
his majesty’s troops were drawn up in the Abbey-court of Edinburgh,
contrary to custom, and without any apparent cause but that of over-awing
the electors. This answer gave rise to another violent dispute; but the
majority voted it unsatisfactory, and the petition was rejected, though
the resolution was clogged with a vigorous protest.

1735

Notwithstanding this discouragement, the earl of Abingdon moved, that
although the petition was dismissed, an inquiry might be set on foot
touching an affair of such consequence to the liberties of the kingdom.
The earl of Hay declaring his belief that no such illegal methods had been
practised, the other produced a pamphlet, intituled, The Protests of a
great Number of Noble Lords, entered by them at the last Election of Peers
for Scotland. Exceptions being taken to a pamphlet, as an object unworthy
of their notice, lord Bathurst exhibited an authentic copy of those
protests, extracted from the journal of that election, signed by the two
principal clerks, and witnessed by two gentlemen then attending in the
lobby. These were accordingly read, and plainly demonstrated the truth of
the allegations contained in the petition. Nothing could be more
scandalous, arrogant, and shamefully flagrant, than the conduct and
deportment of those who acted the part of understrappers to the ministry
on this occasion. But all this demonstration, adorned and enforced by the
charms and energy of eloquence, was like preaching in a desert. A motion
was made for adjourning, and carried in the affirmative: a protest was
entered, and the whole affair consigned to oblivion. Divers other motions
were made successively by the lords in the opposition, and rejected by the
invincible power of a majority. The uninterrupted success of the ministry
did not, however, prevent them from renewing the struggle as often as an
opportunity offered. They disputed the continuation of the salt-tax, and
the bill for enabling the king to apply the sum of one million out of the
sinking fund for the service of the current year, though success did not
attend their endeavours. They supported with all their might a bill sent
up from the commons, explaining and amending an act of the Scottish
parliament, for preventing wrongous imprisonment, and against undue delays
in trials. This was all the natives of Scotland had in lieu of the habeas-corpus
act; though it did not screen them from oppression. Yet the earl of Hay
undertook to prove they were on a footing with their neighbours of England
in this respect; and the bill was thrown out on a division. The session
was closed on the fifteenth of May, when the king in his speech to both
houses declared that the plan of pacification, concerted between him and
the states-general, had not produced the desired effect. He thanked the
commons for the supplies they had granted with such cheerfulness and
despatch. He signified his intention to visit his German dominions; and
told them he should constitute the queen regent of the realm in his
absence. Immediately after the prorogation his majesty embarked for
Holland, in his way to Hanover.

MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE COURTS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

By this time the good understanding between the courts of Madrid and
Lisbon was destroyed by a remarkable incident. The Portuguese ambassador
at Madrid having allowed his servants to rescue a criminal from the
officers of justice, all the servants concerned in that rescue were
dragged from his house to prison, by the Spanish king’s order, with
circumstances of rigour and disgrace. His Portuguese majesty being
informed of this outrage, ordered reprisals to be made upon the servants
of the Spanish ambassador in Lisbon. The two ministers withdrew abruptly
to their respective courts. The two monarchs expressed their mutual
resentment. The king of Spain assembled a body of troops on the frontiers
of Portugal; and his Portuguese majesty had recourse to the assistance of
king George. Don Marcos Antonio d’Alzeveda was despatched to London with
the character of envoy-extraordinary; and succeeded in his commission
according to his wish. In a little time after the king’s departure from
England, sir John Norris sailed from Spithead with a powerful squadron, in
order to protect the Portuguese against the Spaniards; and on the ninth
day of June arrived at Lisbon, where he was welcomed as a deliverer. Mr.
Keene, the British envoy at the court of Spain, had communicated to his
catholic majesty the resolution of his master to send a powerful squadron
to Lisbon, with orders to guard that coast from insults, and secure the
Brazil fleet, in which the merchants of Great Britain were deeply
interested. Don Joseph Patinho, minister of his catholic majesty,
delivered a memorial to Mr. Keene, representing that such an expedition
would affect the commerce of Spain, by intimidating foreign merchants from
embarking their merchandise in the flota. But, in all probability, it
prevented a rupture between the two crowns, and disposed the king of Spain
to listen to terms of accommodation.

PRELIMINARIES SIGNED BY THE EMPEROR AND THE KING OF FRANCE.

The powers in alliance against the house of Austria having rejected the
plan of pacification concerted by the king of Great Britain and the
states-general, Mr. Wal-pole, ambassador at the Hague, presented a
memorial to their high mightinesses, desiring they would, without loss of
time, put themselves in a posture of defence by an augmentation of their
forces by sea and land; that they might take such vigorous steps in
concert with Great Britain, as the future conjuncture of affairs might
require. But before they would subject themselves to such expense, they
resolved to make further trial of their influence with the powers in
alliance against the emperor; and conferences were renewed with the
ministers of those allies. The affairs of Poland became more and more
unfavourable to the interest of Stanislaus; for though a great number of
the Polish nobility engaged in a confederacy to support his claim, and
made repeated efforts in his behalf, the palatine of Kiow submitted to
Augustus; and even his brother the primate, after having sustained a long
imprisonment, and many extraordinary hardships, was obliged to acknowledge
that prince his sovereign. In Italy, the arms of the allies still
continued to prosper. Don Carlos landed in Sicily, and reduced the whole
island almost without opposition; while the Imperialists were forced to
abandon all the territories they possessed in Italy, except the Mantuan.
The emperor being equally unable to cope with the French armies on the
Rhine, implored succours of the czarina, who sent thirty thousand men to
his assistance. This vigorous interposition, and the success of Augustus
in Poland, disposed the court of Versailles to a pacification. A secret
negotiation was begun between France and the house of Austria; and the
preliminaries were signed without the concurrence or knowledge of Spain,
Sardinia, and the maritime powers. In these articles it was stipulated
that France should restore all the conquests she had made in Germany; that
the reversion of the dukedom of Tuscany should be vested in the duke of
Lorraine; that Lorraine should be allotted to king Stanislaus, and after
his death be united to the crown of France; that the emperor should
possess the Milanese, the Mantuan, and Parma; that the king of Sardinia
should enjoy Vigevano and Novara; that Don Carlos should be acknowledged
king of Naples and Sicily, and retain the island of Elba, with all the
Spanish territories on the coast of Tuscany; and that France should
guarantee the pragmatic sanction.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

The king of Great Britain returned from Hanover to England in the month of
November; and on the fifteenth day of January opened the session of
parliament. On this occasion he congratulated them on the near prospect of
a general peace in Europe in consequence of the preliminary articles which
the emperor and the king of France had agreed; and of which he had
expressed his approbation, as they did not differ in any essential point
from the plan of pacification which he and the states-general had offered
to the belligerent powers. He told them that he had already ordered a
considerable reduction to be made in his forces both by sea and land; but
at the same time observed it would be necessary to continue some
extraordinary expense, until a more perfect reconciliation should be
established among the several powers of Europe. An address of thanks was
unanimously voted, presented, and graciously received. After the house had
received several petitions from different counties and gentlemen,
complaining of undue influence in elections for members of parliament, it
proceeded to consider of the supply, and sir Charles Wager moving that
fifteen thousand seaman should be employed for the service of the ensuing
year, the proposal was approved without opposition. But this was not the
case with a motion made by Mr. Pulteney, “That the ordinary estimates of
the navy should be referred to a select committee.” The ministry
discouraged all such prying measures: a debate was produced, the house
divided, and the motion was rejected. Such was the fate of a motion for
raising the supplies within the year, made by Mr. Sandys, and supported by
sir John Barnard, Mr. Willimot, and other patriots, who demonstrated that
this was a speedy and practicable expedient for discharging the national
debt, lowering the interest of money, reducing the price of labour, and
encouraging a spirit of commerce.

BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF QUAKERS IN THE ARTICLE OF TITHES.

The bill for limiting the number of officers in the house of commons was
again revived. The king was empowered to borrow six hundred thousand
pounds, chargeable on the sinking fund, for the service of the ensuing
year, though this power was not easily granted; and the house resolved to
lay a duty of twenty shillings per gallon on all spirituous liquors, after
it had appeared to the committee appointed for that purpose, that those
spirits were pernicious to the health and morals of the people. To this
resolution was added another, which amounted to a total prohibition,
namely, that fifty pounds should be yearly paid to his majesty for a
license to be annually taken out by every person who should vend, barter,
or utter any such spirituous liquors. Mr. Walter Plummer, in a well
concerted speech, moved for the repeal of some clauses in the Test act:
these he represented as a species of persecution, in which protestant
dissenters were confounded with the Roman catholics and enemies to the
establishment. He was sustained by lord Polworth and Mr. Heathcote; but
sir Robert Walpole was joined by Mr. Shippen against the motion, as
dangerous to the established church; and the question being put, it was
carried in the negative.

1736

When sir Joseph Jekyll presented to the house, according to order, a bill
founded on the resolutions they had taken against spirituous liquors, sir
Robert Walpole acquainted them, by his majesty’s command, that as the
alterations proposed to be made by that bill in the duties charged upon
all spirituous liquors might, in a great degree, affect some part of the
civil list revenues, his majesty, for the sake of remedying so great an
evil as was intended by that bill to be prevented, did consent to accept
any other revenue of equal value, to be settled and appropriated in lieu
of his interest in the said duties. The bill was read a second time, and
consigned to a committee of the whole house; but that for limiting the
number of officers in the house of commons was thrown out at the second
reading. Petitions against the bill touching the retail of spirituous
liquors, were presented by the traders to the British sugar colonies, by
the merchants of Bristol and Liverpool, representing the hardships to
which they would be exposed by a law which amounted to a prohibition of
rum and spirits distilled from molasses. In consequence of these
remonstrances, a mitigating clause was inserted, in favour of the
composition known by the name of punch, and distillers were permitted to
exercise any other employment. The sum of seventy thousand pounds was
voted for making good the deficiencies that might happen in the civil list
by this bill, which at length passed through the house, though not without
reiterated disputes and warm altercation. Violent opposition was likewise
made to a bill for the relief the people called quakers, who offered a
petition, representing, that though from motives of conscience they
refused the payment of tithes, church-rates, oblations, and ecclesiastical
dues, they were exposed to grievous sufferings by prosecution in the
exchequer, ecclesiastical, and other courts, to the imprisonment of their
persons, and the ruin of them and their families. A bill being prepared
for their relief, was read and printed; then petitions were preferred
against it by the clergy of Middlesex, and of many other parts of the
kingdom. Counsel was heard in behalf of those petitioners, and several
alterations proposed in the bill, which after long and repeated debates
surmounted all opposition, and was sent up to the lords.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MORTMAIN ACT.

In the month of February the king had sent two members of the
privy-council to the prince of Wales, with a message, proposing a marriage
between his royal highness and the princess of Saxe-gotha. The proposal
being agreeable to the prince, the marriage was celebrated on the
twenty-seventh day of April. Upon this occasion Mr. Pulteney moved for an
address of congratulation to his majesty, and was supported by Mr. George
Lyttleton and Mr. William Pitt, who seized this opportunity of pronouncing
elegant panegyrics on the prince of Wales and’ his amiable consort. These
two young members soon distinguished themselves in the house by their
eloquence and superior talents. The attention of the house was afterwards
converted to a bill for the preventing of smuggling; and another for
explaining the act for the more effectual preventing bribery and
corruption in the election of members to serve in parliament. Both made
their way through the lower house, and were sent up to the lords for their
concurrence. The number of land forces voted for the service of the
current year was reduced to seventeen thousand seven hundred and four
effective men. The supplies were raised by the malt-tax and land-tax at
two shillings in the pound, additional duties on mum, cider, and perry,
stamped vellum, parchment, and paper; and by an act empowering his majesty
to borrow six hundred thousand pounds of the sinking fund. In this session
the parliament repealed the old statutes of England and Scotland against
conjuration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil spirit’s. The commons
likewise prepared a bill to restrain the disposition of lands in mortmain,
whereby they became unalienable. Against this measure petitions were
presented by the two universities, the colleges of Eton, Winchester, and
Westminster, and divers hospitals that subsisted by charitable donations.
In favour of the universities and colleges a particular exempting clause
was inserted. Several other amendments were made in the bill, which passed
through both houses, and obtained the royal assent. Among the acts passed
in this session, was one for naturalizing her royal highness the princess
of Wales; and another for building a bridge across the Thames from New
Palace-yard, in the city of Westminster, to the opposite shore in the
county of Surrey. The points chiefly debated in the house of lords were
the address of thanks for his majesty’s speech, the mortmain bill, the
Quakers’ bill, which was thrown out, and that for the prevention of
smuggling, which did not pass without division and protest. On the
twentieth day of May the king closed the session with a speech, in which
he told both houses that a farther convention, touching the execution of
the preliminaries, had been made and communicated to him by the emperor
and most christian king, and that negotiations were carrying on by the
several powers engaged in the late war, in order to settle a general
pacification. He expressed great concern at seeing such seeds of
dissatisfaction sown among his people; he protested it was his desire, and
should be his care, to preserve the present constitution in church and
state, as by law established; he recommended harmony and mutual affection
among all protestants of the nation, as the great security of that happy
establishment; and signified his intention to visit his German dominions.
Accordingly, the parliament was no sooner prorogued than he set out for
Hanover, after having appointed the queen regent in his absence.

REMARKABLE RIOT AT EDINBURGH.

Such a degree of licentiousness prevailed over the whole nation, that the
kingdom was filled with tumult and riots, which might have been prevented
by proper regulations of the civil government in a due execution of the
laws. The most remarkable of these disturbances happened at Edinburgh, on
the seventh day of September. John Porteous, who commanded the guard paid
by that city, a man of brutal disposition and abandoned morals, had, at
the execution of a smuggler, been provoked by some insults from the
populace to order his men, without using the previous formalities of the
law, to fire with shot among the crowd; by which precipitate order several
innocent persons lost their lives. Porteous was tried for murder,
convicted, and received sentence of death; but the queen, as guardian of
the realm, thought proper to indulge him with a reprieve. The common
people of Edinburgh resented this lenity shown to a criminal, who was the
object of their detestation. They remembered that pardons had been granted
to divers military delinquents in that country, who had been condemned by
legal trial. They seemed to think those were encouragements to oppression;
they were fired by a national jealousy; they were stimulated by the
relations and friends of those who had been murdered; and they resolved to
wreak their vengeance on the author of that tragedy, by depriving him of
life on the very day which the judges had fixed for his execution. Thus
determined, they assembled in different bodies about ten o’clock at night.
They blocked up the gates of the city, to prevent the admission of the
troops that were quartered in the suburbs. They surprised and disarmed the
town guards; they broke open the prison doors; dragged Porteous from
thence to the place of execution; and, leaving him hanging by the neck on
a dyer’s pole, quietly dispersed to their several habitations. This
exploit was performed with such conduct and deliberation as seemed to be
the result of a plan formed by some persons of consequence; it, therefore,
became the object of a very severe inquiry.

RUPTURE BETWEEN THE CZARINA AND THE OTTOMAN PORTE.

During this summer a rupture happened between the Turks and the Russians,
which last reduced the city of Azoph on the Black Sea, and overrun the
greatest part of Crim Tartary. The czarina declared war against the
Ottoman Porte, because the Tartars of the Crimea had made incursions upon
her frontiers; and, when she complained of these disorders to the vizier,
she received no satisfaction; besides, a large body of Tartars had, by
order of that minister, marched through the Russian provinces in despite
of the empress, and committed terrible havoc in their route. The emperor
was obliged to engage as a party in this war, by a treaty offensive and
defensive, which he had many years before concluded with the czarina. Yet,
before he declared himself, he joined the maritime powers in offering his
mediation to the sultan, who was very well disposed to peace; but the
czarina insisted upon her retaining Azoph, which her forces had reduced;
and this preliminary article being rejected, as dishonourable to the
Ottoman empire, the court of Vienna began to make preparations for war. By
this time all the belligerent powers in Italy had agreed to the
preliminaries of peace concluded between the emperor and France. The duke
of Lorraine had espoused the emperor’s eldest daughter, the archduchess
Maria Theresa, and ceded Lorraine to France, even before he succeeded to
Tuscany. Don Carlos was crowned king of Sicily; Stanislaus abdicated the
crown of Poland; and Augustus was universally acknowledged sovereign of
that kingdom. The preliminaries were approved and accepted by the diet of
the empire; the king of Spain sent orders for his troops to evacuate
Tuscany; and the provinces in Italy yielded to the house of Austria.
Prince Eugene, who had managed the interest of the emperor on this
occasion, did not live to see the happy fruits of this negotiation. He
died at Vienna, in April, at the age of seventy-three, leaving behind him
the character of an invincible hero and consummate politician. He was not
long survived by count Staremberg, another Imperial general who ranked
next to the prince in military reputation. About the same time Great
Britain sustained a national loss in the death of lord chancellor Talbot,
who, by his worth, probity, and acquired accomplishments, had dignified
the great office to which he had been raised. He died universally
lamented, in the month of February, at the age of fifty-two, and was
succeeded on the bench by lord Hardwicke.

THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT OPENED

The king being indisposed, in consequence of having been fatigued by a
very tempestuous passage from Holland, the parliament was prorogued from
the twenty-first day of January to the first of February, and then the
session was opened by commission. The lord chancellor, as one of the peers
authorised by this commission, made a speech in his majesty’s name to both
houses. With respect to foreign affairs, he told them that the respective
acts of cession being exchanged, and orders given for the evacuation and
possession of the several countries and places by the powers concerned,
according to the allotment and disposition of the preliminary articles,
the great work of re-establishing the general tranquillity was far
advanced; that, however, common prudence called upon them to be very
attentive to the final conclusion of the new settlement. He said his
majesty could not without surprise and concern observe the many
contrivances and attempts carried on, in various shapes, and in different
parts of the nation, tumultuously to resist and obstruct the execution of
the laws, and to violate the peace of the kingdom. He observed, that the
consideration of the height to which those audacious practices might rise,
if not timely suppressed, afforded a melancholy prospect, and required
particular attention, lest they should affect private persons in the quiet
enjoyment of their property, as well as the general peace and good order
of the whole. After the commons had agreed to an address, and heard
counsel on some controverted elections, they proceeded to take the supply
into consideration. They voted ten thousand men for the sea-service. They
continued for the land-service the same number they had maintained in
times of tranquillity, amounting to seventeen thousand seven hundred and
four; but this measure was not adopted without opposition; the money was
raised by the land and malt-taxes, reinforced with one million granted out
of the sinking fund.

MOTION IN BOTH HOUSES FOR A SETTLEMENT ON THE PRINCE OF WALES.

The chief subject of contention that presented itself in the course of
this session, was a motion which Mr. Pulteney made for an address to his
majesty, that he would be pleased to settle one hundred thousand pounds a
year upon the prince of Wales. He represented that such provision was
conformable to the practice of ancient times; that what he proposed had
been enjoyed by his present majesty in the life-time of his father; and
that a settlement of this nature was reasonable and necessary to ascertain
the independency of the apparent heir to the crown. The motion was
vigorously opposed by sir Robert Walpole, as an encroachment on the
prerogative; as an officious intermeddling in the king’s family affairs;
and as an effort to set his majesty and the prince at variance. But a
misunderstanding, it seems, had already happened in the royal family. The
minister, in the midst of his harangue, told the house by his majesty’s
command, that on the preceding day the king had sent a message to the
prince by several noblemen of the first quality, importing, that his
majesty had given orders for settling a jointure upon the princess of
Wales, suitable to her high rank and dignity, which he would in a proper
time lay before parliament, in order to be rendered more certain and
effectual; that, although his royal highness had not thought fit, by any
application to his majesty, to desire that his allowance of fifty thousand
pounds might be rendered less precarious, the king, to prevent the bad
consequences which he apprehended might follow from the undutiful measures
which his majesty was informed the prince had been advised to pursue,
would grant to his royal highness, for his majesty’s life, the said fifty
thousand pounds per annum, to be issued out of the civil list revenues,
over and above the prince’s revenues arising from the duchy of Cornwall,
which his majesty thought a very competent allowance, considering his own
numerous issue, and the great expense which did and must necessarily
attend an honourable provision for the whole royal family; that the
prince, by a verbal answer, desired their lordships to lay him with all
humility at his majesty’s feet; to assure him that he did, and ever
should, retain the utmost duty for his royal person; that he was very
thankful for any instance of his majesty’s goodness to him or to the
princess, and particularly for his majesty’s gracious intention of
settling a jointure upon her royal highness; but that, as to the message,
the affair was now out of his hands, and therefore he could give no answer
to it; that his royal highness afterwards used many dutiful expressions
towards his majesty; adding, “Indeed, my lords, it is in other hands, and
I am sorry for it;” or words to that effect. Sir Robert Walpole then
endeavoured to demonstrate, that the annual sum of fifty thousand pounds
was as much as the king could afford to allow for the prince’s
maintenance; and he expatiated upon the bad consequences that might ensue,
if the son should be rendered altogether independent of the father.

These suggestions did not pass unanswered. Sir Robert Walpole had
asserted, that the parliament had no right to interfere in the creation or
maintenance of a prince of Wales; and that in the case of Richard II.,
who, upon the death of his father, the Black Prince, was created prince of
Wales, in consequence of an address or petition from parliament, that
measure was in all probability directed by the king himself. In answer to
this assertion, it was observed, that probably the king would not have
been so forward in creating his grandson prince of Wales, if he had not
been forced into this step by his parliament; for Edward in his old age
fell into a sort of love dotage, and gave himself entirely up to the
management of his mistress, Alice Pierce, and his second son, the duke of
Lancaster; a circumstance that raised a most reasonable jealousy in the
Black Prince, at that time on his death-bed, who could not but be anxious
about the safety and right of his only son, whom he found he was soon to
leave a child in the hands of a doating grandfather and an ambitious
aspiring uncle. The supporters of the motion observed, that the allowance
of fifty thousand pounds was not sufficient to defray the prince’s yearly
expense, without alloting one shilling for acts of charity and
munificence; and that the several deductions for land taxes and fees
reduced it to forty-three thousand pounds. They affirmed, that his whole
income, including the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall, did not exceed
fifty-two thousand pounds a-year, though, by his majesty’s own regulation,
the expense of the prince’s household amounted to sixty-three thousand.
They proved that the produce of the civil list exceeded nine hundred
thousand pounds, a sum above one hundred thousand pounds a-year more than
was enjoyed by his late majesty; and that, in the first year of the late
king, the whole expense of his household and civil government did not much
exceed four hundred and fifty thousand pounds a-year. They observed, that
the parliament added one hundred and forty thousand pounds annually for
acts of charity and bounty, together with the article of secret-service
money; and allowed one hundred thousand pounds for the maintenance of the
prince of Wales; that the article of secret-service money had prodigiously
increased in the late reign; by an account which happened to be laid
before the parliament, it appeared that vast sums of money had been given
for purposes which nobody understood, and to persons whom nobody knew. In
the beginning of the following session several members proposed that this
extraordinary account should be taken into consideration; but the inquiry
was warded off by the other party, who declared that the parliament could
not examine any account which had been presented to a former session. The
debate was fierce and long; and ended in a division, by which the motion
was rejected. A motion of the same nature was made by lord Carteret in the
house of peers, and gave rise to a very keen dispute, maintained by the
same arguments, and issuing in the same termination.

SCHEME FOR REDUCING THE INTEREST OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.

The next remarkable contest was occasioned by a motion of sir Robert
Walpole, who proposed the sum of one million should be granted to his
majesty, towards redeeming the like sum of the increased capital of the
South-Sea company, commonly called the South-Sea annuities. Several
members argued for the expediency of applying this sum to the payment of
the debt due to the Bank, as part of that incumbrance was saddled with an
interest of six per cent., whereas the interest paid for the other sums
that constituted the public debt did not exceed four per cent. Many
plausible arguments were offered on both sides of the question; and at
length the motion was carried in the affirmative. The house having
resolved itself into a committee to consider of the national debt, sir
John Barnard made a motion, for enabling his majesty to raise money either
by the sale of annuities, or by borrowing at an interest not exceeding
three per cent., to be applied towards redeeming the South-Sea annuities;
and that such of the said annuitants as should be inclined to subscribe
their respective annuities, should be preferred to all others. He said,
that even those public securities which bore an interest of three per
cent, only, were sold at a premium in ‘Change-alley: he was therefore
persuaded, that all those who were willing to give a premium for a three
per cent, security, would gladly lend their money to the government at the
same interest, should books of subscription be opened for that purpose,
with an assurance that no part of the principal should be paid off for
fourteen years. He expatiated on the national advantages that would accrue
from a reduction of interest. From easy and obvious calculations he
inferred, that in a very little time the interest upon all the South-Sea
annuities would be reduced from four to three per cent., without any
danger to public credit, or breach of public faith; that then the produce
of the sinking fund would amount to fourteen hundred thousand pounds per
annum, to be applied only towards redeeming the capital of the several
trading companies; he proved that this measure would bring every one of
them so much within the power of parliament, that they would be glad to
accept of three per cent, interest on any reasonable terms; in which case
the sinking-fund would rise to one million six hundred thousand pounds per
annum. Then the parliament might venture to annihilate one half of it, by
freeing the people from the taxes upon coals, candles, soap, leather, and
other such impositions as lay heavy upon the poor labourers and
manufacturers; the remaining part of the sinking-fund might be applied
towards the discharge of those annuities and public debts which bore an
interest of three per cent, only, and afterwards towards diminishing the
capitals of the several trading companies till the term of fourteen years
should be expired; then the sinking-fund would again amount to above a
million yearly, which would be sufficient for paying them off, and freeing
the nation entirely from all its incumbrances. This salutary scheme was
violently opposed by alderman Heathcote, and other partisans of the
ministry; yet all their objections were refuted; and, in order to defeat
the project, they were obliged to have recourse to artifice. Mr.
Winnington moved, that all the public creditors, as well as the South-Sea
annuitants, should be comprehended. Sir John Barnard demonstrated that it
might be easy for the government to borrow money at three per cent,
sufficient for paying off such of the proprietors of four-and-twenty
millions as were not willing to accept of that interest; but it would be
extremely difficult to borrow enough to satisfy the proprietors of
four-and-forty millions, who might choose to have their principal rather
than such an interest. Nevertheless, resolutions were founded on this and
other alterations of the original scheme; and a bill was immediately
prepared. It produced many other debates, and was at last postponed by
dint of ministerial influence. The same venerable patriot, who projected
this scheme, moved that, as soon as the interest of all the national
redeemable debt should be reduced to three per cent., the house would take
off some of the heavy taxes which oppressed the poor and the
manufacturers: but this motion was rejected by the majority.

1737

BILL AGAINST THE CITY OF EDINBURGH.

The last disputes of this session were excited by a bill sent down from
the lords for punishing the magistrates and city of Edinburgh, on account
of the murder of John Porteous. In the beginning of the session, lord
Carteret recapitulated the several tumults and riots which had lately
happened in different parts of the kingdom. He particularly insisted upon
the atrocious murder of captain Porteous, as a flagrant insult upon the
government, and a violation of the public peace, so much the more
dangerous, as it seemed to have been concerted and executed with
deliberation and decency. He suspected that some citizens of Edinburgh had
been concerned in the murder; not only from this circumstance, but
likewise because, notwithstanding the reward of two hundred pounds which
had been offered by proclamation for the discovery of any person who acted
in that tragedy, not one individual had as yet been detected. He seemed to
think that the magistrates had encouraged the riot, and that the city had
forfeited its charter; and he proposed a minute inquiry into the
particulars of the affair. He was seconded by the duke of Newcastle and
the earl of Hay; though the last nobleman differed in opinion with him in
respect to the charter of the city, which, he said, could not be justly
forfeited by the fault of the magistracy. The lords resolved, That the
magistrates and other persons from whom they might obtain the necessary
information concerning this riot, should be ordered to attend; and that an
address should be presented to his majesty, desiring that the different
accounts and papers relating to the murder of captain Porteous, might be
submitted to the perusal of the house. These documents being accordingly
examined, and all the witnesses arrived, including three Scottish judges,
a debate arose about the manner in which these last should be
interrogated, whether at the bar, at the table, or on the woolsacks. Some
Scottish lords asserted, that they had a right to be seated next to the
judges of England; but after a long debate this claim was rejected, and
the judges of Scotland appeared at the bar in their robes. A bill was
brought in to disable Alexander Wilson, esquire, lord-provost of
Edinburgh, from enjoying any office or place of magistracy in the city of
Edinburgh, or elsewhere in Great Britain; for imprisoning the said
Alexander Wilson; for abolishing the guard of that city; and for taking
away the gates of the Netherbow-port, so as to open a communication
between the city and the suburbs, in which the king’s troops are
quartered. The duke of Argyle, in arguing against this bill, said he could
not think of a proceeding more harsh or unprecedented than the present, as
he believed there was no instance of the whole weight of parliamentary
indignation, for such he called a proceeding by a bill ex post facto,
falling upon any single person, far less upon any community, for crimes
that were within the reach of the inferior courts of justice; for this
reason he observed, that if the lord-provost and citizens of Edinburgh
should suffer in the terms of the present bill, they would suffer by a
cruel, unjust, and fantastical proceeding; a proceeding of which the worst
use might be made, if ever the nation should have the misfortune to fall
under a partial self-interested administration. He told them he sat in the
parliament of Scotland when that part of the treaty of Union relating to
the privileges of the royal burghs, was settled on the same footing as
religion; that is, they were made unalterable by any subsequent parliament
of Great Britain. Notwithstanding the eloquence and warmth of his
remonstrance, the bill was sent down to the house of commons, where it
produced a violent contest. The commons set on foot a severe scrutiny into
the particular circumstances that preceded and attended the murder of
Porteous; from the examination of the witnesses, it appeared that no
freeman or citizen of Edinburgh was concerned in the riot, which was
chiefly composed of country people, excited by the relations of some
unhappy persons whom Porteous and his men had slain at the execution of
the smuggler; and these were assisted by ‘prentice-boys and the lowest
class of vagabonds that happened to be at Edinburgh; that the lord-provost
had taken all the precautions to prevent mischief that his reflection
suggested; that he even exposed his person to the rage of the multitude,
in his endeavour to disperse them; and that, if he had done amiss, he
erred from want of judgment rather than from want of inclination to
protect the unhappy Porteous. It likewise appeared that Mr. Lindsay,
member for the city of Edinburgh, had gone in person to general Moyle,
commander of the forces in North Britain, informed him of the riot,
implored his immediate assistance, and promised to conduct his troops into
the city; and that his suit was rejected, because he could not produce a
written order from the magistracy, which he neither could have obtained in
such confusion, nor ventured to carry about his person through the midst
of an enraged populace. The Scottish members exerted themselves with
uncommon vivacity in defence of their capital. They were joined by sir
John Barnard, lord Cornbury, Mr. Shippen, and Mr. Oglethorpe. Lord
Polworth declared, that if any gentleman would show where one argument in
the charge against the lord-provost and the city of Edinburgh had been
proved, he would that instant give his vote for the commitment of the
bill. He said, if gentlemen would lay their hands upon their hearts, and
ask themselves, whether they would have voted in this manner had the case
of Edinburgh been that of the cities of Bristol, York, or Norwich, he was
persuaded they would have required that every tittle of the charge against
them should have been fully and undeniably proved. Some amendments and
mitigations being inserted in the bill, it passed the house, was sent back
to the lords, who agreed to the alterations, and then received the royal
assent.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PLAY-HOUSE BILL.

The next effort of the minister was obliquely levelled at the liberty of
the press, which it was much for his interest to abridge. The errors of
his conduct, the mystery of that corruption which he had so successfully
reduced to a system, and all the blemishes of his administration, had been
exposed and ridiculed, not only in political periodical writings produced
by the most eminent hands, but likewise in a succession of theatrical
pieces, which met with uncommon success among the people. He either wanted
judgment to distinguish men of genius, or could find none that would
engage in his service; he therefore employed a set of wretched authors,
void of understanding and ingenuity. They undertook the defence of his
ministry, and answered the animadversions of his antagonists. The match
was so extremely unequal, that, instead of justifying his conduct, they
exposed it to additional ridicule and contempt; and he saw himself in
danger of being despised by the whole nation. He resolved to seize the
first opportunity to choke those canals through which the torrent of
censure had flowed upon his character. The manager of a play-house
communicated to him a manuscript farce, intituled, The Golden Rump, which
was fraught with treason and abuse upon the government, and had been
presented to the stage for exhibition. This performance was produced in
the house of commons. The minister descanted upon the insolence, the
malice, the immorality, and the seditious calumny which had been of late
propagated in theatrical pieces. A bill was brought in to limit the number
of playhouses; to subject all dramatic writings to the inspection of the
lord chamberlain; and to compel them to take out a license for every
production before it could appear on the stage. Notwithstanding a vigorous
opposition, this bill passed through both houses with extraordinary
despatch, and obtained the royal sanction. In this debate the earl of
Chesterfield distinguished himself by an excellent speech, that will ever
endear his character to all the friends of genius and literature, to all
those who are warmed with zeal for the liberties of their country. “Our
stage,” said he, “ought certainly to be kept in due bounds; but for this
purpose, our laws as they stand at present are sufficient. If our
stage-players at any time exceed those bounds, they ought to be
prosecuted; they may be punished. We have precedents, we have examples of
persons punished for things less criminal than some pieces which have been
lately represented; a new law must, therefore unnecessary; and in the
present case it cannot be unnecessary without being dangerous. Every
unnecessary restraint is a fetter upon the legs, is a shackle upon the
hands, of liberty. One of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the
greatest blessings a people can enjoy, is liberty. But every good in this
life has its allay of evil. Licentiousness is the allay of liberty. It is
an ebullition, an excrescence; it is a speck upon the eye of the political
body, which I can never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand;
lest I destroy the body, lest I injure the eye, upon which it is apt to
appear. If the stage becomes at any time licentious, if a play appears to
be a libel upon the government, or upon any particular man, the king’s
courts are open; the law is sufficient to punish the offender. If poets
and players are to be restrained, let them be restrained as other subjects
are, by the known laws of their country; if they offend, let them be tried
as every Englishman ought to be, by God and their country. Do not let us
subject them to the arbitrary will and pleasure of any one man. A power
lodged in the hands of a single man to judge and determine without
limitation, control, or appeal, is a sort of power unknown to our laws,
inconsistent with our constitution. It is a higher, a more absolute power
than we trust even to the king himself; and, therefore, I must think we
ought not to vest any such power in his majesty’s lord-chamberlain.” His
arguments had no effect, though the house admired his elocution; and the
play-house bill passed into a law. On the twenty-first day of June the
king made a short speech to both houses, and the lord chancellor prorogued
the parliament.

CHAPTER III.

The Russians take Oczakow….. Death of Gaston de Medeis,
Duke of Tuscany….. Death of Caroline, Queen Consort of
England….. Dispute in Parliament about the Standing
Army….. Spanish Depredations….. Motives of the Minister
for avoiding a War….. Address to the King on the Subject
of the Depredations….. Bill for Securing the Trade, of
his Majesty’s Subjects in America….. Debates in the House
of Lords….. Birth of Prince George….. Admiral Haddock
sails with a Squadron to the Mediterranean….. Progress of
the War against the Turks….. Dispute and Rupture between
Hanover and Denmark….. Sir Robert Walpole extols the
Convention in the House of Commons—-Motion for an Address,
that the Representations, Letters, &c, relating to the
Spanish Depredations, should be laid before the House…..
Petitions against the Convention….. Substance of that
Agreement….. Debate in the House of Commons on the
Convention….. Secession of the chief Members in the
Opposition….. Debate in the House of Lords upon an Address
to his Majesty touching the Convention….. Message from the
Throne touching a Subsidy to Denmark, and a Power to augment
the Forces of the Kingdom….. Parliament prorogued….. The
King of Spain publishes a Manifesto….. The Emperor and
Czarina conclude a Peace with the Turks….. Preparations
for War in England….. Apology in the House of Commons for
the seceding Members….. Pension Bill revived, and
lost….. Porto Bello taken by Admiral Vernon….. Hard
Frost….. Marriage of the Princess Mary to the Prince of
Hesse….. Strong Armament sent to the West Indies…..
Death of the Emperor and Czarina….. Proceedings in
Parliament….. Seamen’s Bill….. Discontents against the
Ministry….. Motion for removing Sir Robert Walpole from
his Majesty’s Councils and Presence for ever….. Debate on
the Mutiny Bill….. Proceedings in the House of Lords…..
Close of the last Session of this Parliament

THE RUSSIANS TAKE OCZAKOW.

A congress had been opened at Niemerow in Poland, to compromise the
differences between the czarina and the grand seignor; but this proving
ineffectual, the emperor declared war against the Turks, and demanded
assistance from the diet of the empire. He concerted the operations of the
campaign with the empress of Muscovy. It was agreed that the Imperialists,
under count Seckendorf, should attack Widdin in Servia; while the
Russians, commanded by count de Munich, should penetrate to the Ukraine,
and besiege Oczakow, on the Roristhenes. They accordingly advanced against
this place, which was garrisoned by twenty thousand men, and on the side
of the Roristhenes defended by eighteen galleys. The Muscovites carried on
their approaches with such impetuosity and perseverance, that the Turks
were terrified at their valour, and in a few days capitulated. Among those
who signalized themselves by uncommon marks of prowess in these attacks,
was general Keith, now field-marshal in the Prussian service, who was
dangerously wounded on this occasion. Meanwhile count Seckendorf, finding
it impossible to reduce Widdin without a squadron of ships on the Danube,
turned his arms against Nissa, which was surrendered to him on the
eight-and-twentieth day of July; but this was the farthest verge of his
good fortune. The Turks attacked the post which the Imperialists occupied
along the Danube. They took the fort of Padudil, burned the town of Has in
Wallachia, and plundered the neighbouring villages. The prince of
Saxe-Hilburghausen, who had invested Bagnalack in Bosnia, was defeated,
and obliged to repass the Saave. Count Seckendorf was recalled to Vienna;
and the command of the army devolved upon count Philippe. Count
Kevenhuller was obliged to retreat from Servia; and Nissa was retaken by
the Mussulmen. The conferences at Niemerow were broken off; and the
Turkish plenipotentiaries returned to Constantinople.

The kingdom of Poland now enjoyed the most perfect repose under the
dominion of Augustus. Ferdinand, the old duke of Courland, dying without
issue, the succession was disputed by the Teutonic order and the kingdom
of Poland, while the states of Courland claimed a right of election, and
sent deputies to Petersburgh, imploring the protection of the czarina. A
body of Russian troops immediately entered that country; and the states
elected the count de Biron, high chamberlain to the empress of Muscovy.
The elector of Cologn, as grand-master of the Teutonic order, protested
against this election; but the king of Poland agreed to it, on certain
conditions settled at Dantzic with the commissiaries of the new duke and
those of the czarina. In the month of July, John Gaston de Medicis, great
duke of Tuscany, died at Florence; and the prince de Craon took possession
of his territories in the name of the duke of Lorraine, to whom the
emperor had already granted the eventual investiture of that duchy.

DEATH OF CAROLINE, QUEEN CONSORT.

In England the attention of the public was attracted by an open breach in
the royal family. The princess of Wales had advanced to the very last
month of her pregnancy before the king and queen were informed of her
being with child. She was twice conveyed from Hampton-Court to the palace
of St. James’, when her labour-pains were supposed to be approaching; and
at length was delivered of a princess in about two hours after her
arrival. The king being apprised of this event, sent a message by the earl
of Essex to the prince, expressing his displeasure at the conduct of his
royal highness, as an indignity offered to himself and the queen. The
prince deprecated his majesty’s anger in several submissive letters, and
implored the queen’s mediation. The princess joined her entreaties to
those of his royal highness; but all their humility and supplication
proved ineffectual. The king, in another message sent by the duke of
Grafton, observed, that the prince had removed the princess twice in the
week immediately preceding the day of her delivery, from the place of his
majesty’s residence, in expectation of her labour; and both times, on his
return, industriously concealed from the knowledge of the king and queen
every circumstance relating to this important affair; that at last,
without giving any notice to their majesties, he had precipitately hurried
the princess from Hampton-Court in a condition not to be named; that the
whole tenor of his conduct, for a considerable time, had been so entirely
void of all real duty to the king, that his majesty had reason to be
highly offended with him. He gave him to understand, that until he should
withdraw his regard and confidence from those by whose instigation and
advice he was directed and encouraged in his unwarrantable behaviour to
his majesty and the queen, and return to his duty, he should not reside in
the palace; he therefore signified his pleasure that he should leave St.
James’, with all his family, when it could be done without prejudice or
inconvenience to the princess. In obedience to this order the prince
retired to Kew, and made other efforts to be readmitted into his majesty’s
favour, which, however, he could not retrieve. Whatever might have been
his design in concealing so long from the king and queen the pregnancy of
the princess, and afterwards hurrying her from place to place in such a
condition, to the manifest hazard of her life, his majesty had certainly
cause to be offended at this part of his conduct; though the punishment
seems to have been severe, if not rigorous; for he was not even admitted
into the presence of the queen his mother, to express his duty to her in
her last moments, to implore her forgiveness, and receive her last
blessing. She died of a mortification in her bowels, on the twentieth day
of November, in the fifty-fifth year of her age, regretted as a princess
of uncommon sagacity, and as a pattern of conjugal virtue.

DISPUTE IN PARLIAMENT.

The king opened the session of parliament on the twenty-fourth day of
January, with a short speech recommending the despatch of the public
business with prudence and unanimity. Each house presented a warm address
of condolence on the queen’s death, with which he seemed to be extremely
affected. Though the house of commons unanimously sympathised with the
king in his affliction, the minister still met with contradiction in some
of his favourite measures. One would imagine that all the arguments for
and against a standing army in time of peace had been already exhausted;
but, when it was moved that the same number of land forces which they had
voted in the preceding year should be continued in pay for the ensuing
year, the dispute was renewed with surprising vivacity, and produced some
reasons which had not been suggested before. The adherents of the minister
fairly owned, that if the army should be disbanded, or even considerably
reduced, they believed the tory interest would prevail; that the present
number of forces was absolutely necessary to maintain the peace of the
kingdom, which was filled with clamour and discontent, as well as to
support the whig interest; and that they would vote for keeping up four
times the number, should it be found expedient for that purpose. The
members in the opposition replied, that this declaration was a severe
satire on the ministry, whose conduct had given birth to such a spirit of
discontent. They said it was in effect a tacit acknowledgment, that what
they called the whig interest was no more than an inconsiderable party,
which had engrossed the administration by indirect methods; which acted
contrary to the sense of the nation; and depended for support upon a
military power, by which the people in general were overawed, and
consequently enslaved. They affirmed, that the discontent of which the
ministry complained, was in a great measure owing to that very standing
army, which perpetuated their taxes, and hung over their heads as the
instruments of arbitrary power and oppression. Lord Polworth explained the
nature of whig principles, and demonstrated that the party which
distinguished itself by this appellation, no longer retained the maxims by
which the whigs were originally characterised. Sir John Hinde Cotton, who
spoke with the courage and freedom of an old English baron, declared, he
never knew a member of that house who acted on true whig principles, vote
for a standing army in time of peace. “I have heard of whigs,” said he,
“who opposed all unlimited votes of credit; I have heard of whigs who
looked upon corruption as the greatest curse that could befall any nation;
I have heard of whigs who esteemed the liberty of the press to be the most
valuable privilege of a free people, and triennial parliaments as the
greatest bulwark of their liberties; and I have heard of a whig
administration which has resented injuries done to the trade of the
nation, and revenged insults offered to the British flag.” The ministry
triumphed as usual, and the same number of forces was continued.

SPANISH DEPREDATIONS.

Ever since the treaty of Seville, the Spaniards in America had almost
incessantly insulted and distressed the commerce of Great Britain. They
disputed the right of English traders to cut logwood in the bay of
Campeachy, and gather salt in the island of Tortugas; though that right
was acknowledged by implication in all the treaties which had been lately
concluded between the two nations. The captains of their armed vessels,
known by the name of guarda-costas, had made a practice of boarding and
plundering British ships, on pretence of searching for contraband
commodities, on which occasions they had behaved with the utmost
insolence, cruelty, and rapine. Some of their ships of war had actually
attacked a fleet of English merchant ships at the island of Tortugas, as
if they had been at open enmity with England. They had seized and detained
a great number of British vessels, imprisoned their crews, and confiscated
their cargoes, in violation of treaties, in defiance of common justice and
humanity. Repeated memorials were presented to the court of Spain, by the
British ambassador at Madrid. He was amused with evasive answers, vague
promises of inquiry, and cedulas of instructions sent to the Spanish
governors in America, to which they paid no sort of regard. Not but that
the Spaniards had reason to complain in their turn, of the illicit
commerce which the English traders from Jamaica and other islands, carried
on with their subjects on the continent of South America; though this
could not justify the depredations and cruelties which the commanders of
the guarda-costas had committed, without provocation or pretence.

MOTIVES FOR AVOIDING A WAR.

The merchants of England loudly complained of these outrages; the nation
was fired with resentment, and cried for vengeance; but the minister
appeared cold, phlegmatic, and timorous. He knew that a war would involve
him in such difficulties as must of necessity endanger his administration.
The treasure which he now employed for domestic purposes, must in that
case be expended in military armaments; the wheels of that machine on
which he had raised his influence would no longer move; the opposition
would of consequence gain ground, and the imposition of fresh taxes,
necessary for the maintenance of the war, would fill up the measure of
popular resentment against his person and ministry. Moved by these
considerations, he industriously endeavoured to avoid a rupture, and to
obtain some sort of satisfaction by dint of memorials and negotiations, in
which he betrayed his own fears to such a degree, as animated the
Spaniards to persist in their depredations, and encouraged the court of
Madrid to disregard the remonstrances of the British ambassador. But this
apprehension of war did not proceed from Spain only; the two branches of
the house of Bourbon were now united by politics, as well as by
consanguinity; and he did not doubt that in case of a rupture with Spain,
they would join their forces against Great Britain. Petitions were
delivered to the house by merchants from different parts of the kingdom,
explaining the repeated violences to which they had been exposed, and
imploring relief of the parliament. These were referred to a committee of
the whole house; and an order was made to admit the petitioners, if they
should think fit, to be heard by themselves or by counsel. Sir John
Barnard moved for an address to the king, that all the memorials and
papers relating to the Spanish depredations should be laid before the
house; and this, with some alteration proposed by sir Robert Walpole, was
actually presented. In compliance with the request, an enormous multitude
of letters and memorials was produced.

The house, in a grand committee, proceeded to hear counsel for the
merchants, and examine evidence; by which it appeared that amazing acts of
wanton cruelty and injustice had been perpetrated by Spaniards on the
subjects of Great Britain. Mr. Pulteney expatiated upon these
circumstances of barbarity. He demonstrated, from treaties, the right of
the British traders to the logwood of Campeachy, and to the salt of
Tortugas; he exposed the pusillanimity of the minister, and the futility
of his negotiations; he moved for such resolutions as would evince the
resentment of an injured nation, and the vigour of a British parliament.
These were warmly combated by sir Robert Walpole, who affirmed, that they
would cramp the ministers in their endeavours to compromise these
differences; that they would frustrate their negotiations, intrench upon
the king’s prerogative, and precipitate the nation into an unnecessary and
expensive war. Answers produced replies, and a general debate ensued. A
resolution was reported; but the question being put for recommitting it,
was carried in the negative. The house, however, agreed to an address,
beseeching his majesty to use his endeavours to obtain effectual relief
for his injured subjects, to convince the court of Spain that his majesty
could no longer suffer such constant and repeated insults and injuries to
be carried on, to the dishonour of his crown, and to the ruin of his
trading subjects; and assuring him, that in case his royal and friendly
instances with the catholic king should miscarry, the house would
effectually support his majesty in taking such measures as honour and
justice should make it necessary for him to pursue. To this address the
king made a favourable answer.

1738

BILL FOR SECURING THE TRADE IN AMERICA.

The next important subject on which both sides exercised their talents,
was a bill prepared and brought in by Mr. Pulteney, for the more effectual
securing the trade of his majesty’s subjects in America. This was no other
than the revival of part of two acts passed in the reign of queen Anne, by
which the property of all prizes taken from the enemy was vested in the
captors; while the sovereign was empowered to grant commissions or
charters to any persons or societies, for taking any ships, goods,
harbours, lands, or fortifications of the nation’s enemies in America, and
for holding and enjoying the same as their own property and estate for
ever. The ministry endeavoured to evade the discussion of this bill, by
amusing the house with other business, until an end should be put to the
session. A mean artifice was practised with this view; and some severe
altercation passed between sir Robert Walpole and Mr. Pulteney. At length
the bill was read, and gave rise to a very long and warm contest, in which
the greatest orators of both sides found opportunities to display their
eloquence and satire. Mr. Pulteney defended the bill with all the ardour
of paternal affection; but, notwithstanding his warmest endeavours, it was
rejected upon a division.

When the mutiny bill was sent up to the house of lords, a long debate
arose upon the number of troops voted for the ensuing year. Lord Carteret
explained the situation of affairs, in almost every nation of Europe, with
great conciseness and precision. He demonstrated the improbability of a
rupture between Great Britain and any power against which a land army
could be of any service. He examined the domestic circumstances of the
nation; and proved that whatever discontents there might be in the
kingdom, there was little or no disaffection, and no seeming design to
overturn or disturb the government. In answer to an argument, that such a
number of regular forces were necessary for preventing or quelling
tumults, and for enabling the civil magistrate to execute the laws of his
country, he expressed his hope that he should never see the nation reduced
to such unfortunate circumstances: he said, a law which the civil power
was unable to execute, must either be in itself oppressive, or such a one
as afforded a handle for oppression. In arguing for a reduction of the
forces, he took notice of the great increase of the national expense. He
observed, that before the revolution, the people of England did not raise
above two millions for the whole of the public charges; but now what was
called the current expense, for which the parliament annually provided,
exceeded that sum; besides the civil list, the interest due to the public
creditors, and the sinking fund, which, added together, composed a burden
of six millions yearly. The earl of Chesterfield, on the same subject,
affirmed, that slavery and arbitrary power were the certain consequences
of keeping up a standing army for any number of years. It is the machine
by which the chains of slavery are rivetted upon a free people. They may
be secretly prepared by corruption; but, unless a standing army protected
those that forged them, the people would break them asunder, and chop off
the polluted hands by which they were prepared. By degrees a free people
must be accustomed to be governed by an army; by degrees that army must be
made strong enough to hold them in subjection. England had for many years
been accustomed to a standing army, under the pretence of its being
necessary to assist the civil power; and by degrees the number and
strength of it have been increasing. At the accession of the late king it
did not exceed six thousand; it soon amounted to double that number, which
has been since augmented under various pretences. He therefore concluded,
that slavery, under the disguise of an army for protecting the liberties
of the people, was creeping in upon them by degrees; if no reduction
should be made, he declared he should expect in a few years to hear some
minister, or favourite of a minister, terrifying the house with imaginary
plots and invasions, and making the tour of Europe in search of possible
dangers, to show the necessity of keeping up a mercenary standing army,
three times as numerous as the present. In spite of those suggestions, the
standing army maintained its ground. The same noblemen, assisted by lord
Bathurst, distinguished themselves in a debate upon the Spanish
depredations, which comprehended the same arguments that were used in the
house of commons. They met with the same success in both. Resolutions
equivalent to those of the lower house were taken; an address was
presented; and his majesty assured them he would repeat, in the most
pressing manner, his instances at the court of Spain, in order to obtain
satisfaction and security for his subjects trading to America. This
assurance was renewed in his speech at the close of the session, on the
twentieth of May, when the parliament was prorogued.

BIRTH OF PRINCE GEORGE.

At this period the princess of Wales was delivered of a son, who was
baptised by the name of George, now king of Great Britain. His birth was
celebrated with uncommon rejoicings: addresses of congratulation were
presented to the king by the two universities, and by almost all the
cities and communities of the kingdom. But the prince of Wales still
laboured under the displeasure of his majesty, who had ordered the
lord-chamberlain to signify in the gazette, that no person who visited the
prince should be admitted to the court of St. James’. His royal highness
was divested of all the external marks of royalty, and lived like a
private gentleman, cultivating the virtues of a social life, and enjoying
the best fruits of conjugal felicity. In the latter end of this month,
rear-admiral Haddock set sail with a strong squadron for the
Mediterranean, which it was hoped would give weight to the negotiation of
the British minister at the court of Madrid. The act to discourage the
retail of spirituous liquors had incensed the populace to such a degree,
as occasioned numberless tumults in the cities of London and Westminster.
They were so addicted to the use of that pernicious compound, known by the
appellation of gin or geneva, that they ran all risks rather than forego
it entirely; and so little regard was paid to the law by which it was
prohibited, that in less than two years twelve thousand persons within the
bills of mortality were convicted of having sold it illegally. Nearly one
half of that number were cast in the penalty of one hundred pounds; and
three thousand persons paid ten pounds each, for an exemption from the
disgrace of being committed to the house of correction.

PROGRESS of the WAR AGAINST the TURKS.

The war maintained by the emperor and the czarina against the Ottoman
Porte, had not yet produced any decisive event. Count Seckendorf was
disgraced and confined on account of his ill success in the last campaign.
General Doxat was tried by a council of war at Belgrade, and condemned to
death, for having surrendered to the enemy the town of Nissa, in which he
commanded. The diet of the empire granted a subsidy of fifty Roman months
to the emperor, who began to make vigorous preparations for the ensuing
campaign; but, in the meantime, Ragotski, vaivode of Transylvania,
revolted against the house of Austria, and brought a considerable army
into the field, under the protection of the grand seignor. He was
immediately proclaimed a rebel, and a price set upon his head by the court
of Vienna. The Turks taking the field early, reduced the forts of Usitza
and Meadia, and undertook the siege of Orsova; which however they
abandoned at the approach of the Imperial army, commanded by the grand
duke of Tuscany, assisted by count Konigsegg. The Turks, being reinforced,
marched back and attacked the Imperialists, by whom they were repulsed
after an obstinate engagement. The Germans, notwithstanding this
advantage, repassed the Danube; and then the infidels made themselves
masters of Orsova, where they found a fine train of artillery, designed
for the siege of Widdin. By the conquest of this place, the Turks laid the
Danube open to their galleys and vessels; and the Germans retired under
the cannon of Belgrade. In the Ukraine, the Russians, under general count
Munich, obtained the advantage over the Turks in two engagements; and
general Lasci routed the Tartars of the Crimea; but they returned in
greater numbers, and harassed the Muscovites in such a manner, by
intercepting their provisions, and destroying the country, that they were
obliged to abandon the lines of Precops.

DISPUTE BETWEEN HANOVER AND DENMARK.

In the month of October, an affair of very small importance produced a
rupture between the king of Denmark and the elector of Hanover. A
detachment of Hanoverians took by assault the castle of Steinhurst,
belonging to the privy-counsellor Wederkop, and defended by thirty Danish
dragoons, who had received orders to repel force by force. Several men
were killed on both sides before the Hanoverians could enter the place,
when the garrison was disarmed, and conducted to the frontiers. This petty
dispute about a small territory, which did not yield the value of one
thousand pounds a-year, had well nigh involved Hanover in a war, which, in
all probability, Great Britain must have maintained; but this dispute was
compromised by a convention between the king of England and Denmark.

The session of parliament was opened on the first day of February, when
the king in his speech to both houses, gave them to understand that a
convention was concluded and ratified between him and the king of Spain,
who had obliged himself to make reparation to the British subjects for
their losses, by certain stipulated payments; the plenipotentiaries were
named and appointed for regulating, within a limited time, all those
grievances and abuses which had hitherto interrupted the commerce of Great
Britain in the American seas; and for settling all matters in dispute, in
such a manner as might for the future prevent and remove all new causes
and pretences of complaint. The motion for an address of approbation was
disputed as usual. Though the convention was not vet laid before the
house, the nature of it was well known to the leaders of the opposition. I
Sir William Wyndham observed, that if the ministry had made the
resolutions taken by the parliament in the last session the foundation of
their demands; if they had discovered a resolution to break off all
treating, rather than depart from the sense of parliament, either a
defensive treaty might have been obtained, or by this time the worst would
have been known; but, by what appeared from his majesty’s speech, the
convention was no other than a preliminary; and, in all probability, a
very bad preliminary. He supposed the minister had ventured to clothe some
of his creatures with full powers to give up the rights of the nation; for
they might do it if they durst. Sir Robert Walpole, in answer to these
suggestions, affirmed, that the ministry had on this occasion obtained
more than ever on like occasions was known to be obtained; that they had
reconciled the peace of their country with her true interest; that this
peace was attended with all the advantages that the most successful arms
could have procured; that future ages would consider this as the most
glorious period of our history, and do justice to the councils that
produced the happy event, which every gentleman divested of passion and
prejudice was ready to do; and which, he believed, the present age, when
rightly informed, would not refuse. In a word, he extolled his own
convention with the most extravagant encomiums.

The house resolved to address the king, that copies of all the memorials,
representations, letters, and papers, presented to his majesty, or his
secretary of state, relating to depredations, should be submitted to the
peru sal of the house; but some members in the opposition were not
contented with this resolution. Then Mr. Sandys, who may be termed the
“motion-maker,” moved for an address, desiring that the house might
inspect all letters written, and instructions given by the secretaries of
state, or commissioners of the admiralty, to any of the British governors
in America, or any commander-in-chief, or captains of his majesty’s ships
of war, or his majesty’s minister at the court of Spain, or any of his
majesty’s consuls in Europe, since the treaty of Seville, relating to
losses which the British subjects had sustained by means of depredations
committed by the subjects of Spain in Europe and America. This was an
unreasonable proposal, suggested by the spirit of animosity and faction.
Mr. H. Walpole justly observed, that a compliance with such an address
might lay open the most private transactions of the cabinet, and discover
secrets that ought, for the good of the kingdom, to be concealed. It would
discover to the court of Spain the ultimatum of the king’s demands
and concessions, and the nation would thereby be deprived of many
advantages which it might reap, were no such discovery made. He said, that
as soon as the differences betwixt the two courts should arrive at such a
crisis, and not before, the consuls were instructed to give notice to the
merchants that they might retire in time with their effects; but should
such instruction come to the knowledge of the Spaniards, it would be a
kind of watch-word to put them on their guard, and unavoidably occasion
the ruin of many thousands of British subjects. Certain it is, no
government could act either in external or domestic affairs with proper
influence, dignity, and despatch, if every letter and instruction relating
to an unfinished negotiation should be exposed to the view of such a
numerous assembly, composed of individuals actuated by motives in
themselves diametrically opposite. The motion being rejected by the
majority, the same gentleman moved again for an address, that his majesty
would give directions for laying before the house copies of such memorials
or representations as had been made, either to the king of Spain or to his
ministers, since the treaty of Seville, relating to the depredations
committed in Europe or America. A debate ensued; and, upon a division, the
question passed in the negative.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PETITIONS AGAINST THE CONVENTION.

The house, in a committee of supply, voted twelve thousand seamen for the
service of the ensuing year, and the standing army was continued without
reduction, though powerfully attacked by the whole strength of the
opposition. The commons likewise ordered an address to his majesty, for
the copies of several memorials since the treaty of Seville, touching the
rights of Great Britain, or any infraction of treaties which had not been
laid before them. These were accordingly submitted to the inspection of
the house. By this time the convention itself was not only presented to
the commons, but also published for the information of the people. Divers
merchants, planters, and others trading to America, the cities of London
and Bristol, the merchants of Liverpool, and owners of sundry ships which
had been seized by the Spaniards, offered petitions against the
convention, by which the subjects of Spain were so far from giving up
their groundless and unjustifiable practice of visiting and searching
British ships sailing to and from the British plantations, that they
appeared to have claimed the power of doing it as a right; for they
insisted that the differences which had arisen concerning it should be
referred to plenipotentiaries, to be discussed by them without even
agreeing to abstain from such visitation and search during the time that
the discussion of this affair might last. They therefore prayed that they
might have an opportunity of being heard, and allowed to represent the
great importance of the British trade to and from the plantations in
America; the clear and un disputable right which they had to enjoy it,
without being stopped, visited, or searched by the Spaniards, on any
pretence whatsoever; and the certain inevitable destruction of all the
riches and strength derived to Great Britain from that trade, if a search
of British ships sailing to and from their own plantations should be
tolerated upon any pretext, or under any restrictions, or even if the
freedom of this navigation should continue much longer in a state of
uncertainty. These petitions were referred to the committee appointed to
consider of the convention. Another remonstrance was likewise presented by
the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia, setting forth that
the king of Spain claimed that colony as part of his territories; and that
by the convention, the regulation of the limits of Carolina and Florida
was referred to the determination of plenipotentiaries; so that the colony
of Georgia, which undoubtedly belonged to the crown of Great Britain, was
left in dispute, while the settlers remained in the most precarious and
dangerous situation. It was moved that the merchants should be heard by
their counsel; but the proposal was strenuously opposed by the ministry,
and rejected upon a division.

This famous convention, concluded at the Pardo on the fourteenth day of
January, imported, that within six weeks to be reckoned from the day on
which the ratifications were exchanged, two ministers plenipotentiaries
should meet at Madrid, to confer, and finally regulate the respective
pretentions of the two crowns, with relation to the trade and navigation
in America and Europe, and to the limits of Florida and Carolina, as well
as concerning other points which remained likewise to be adjusted,
according to the former treaties subsisting between the two nations: that
the plenipotentiaries should finish their conferences within the space of
eight months: that in the meantime no progress should be made in the
fortifications of Florida and Carolina: that his catholic majesty should
pay to the king of Great Britain, the sum of ninety-five thousand pounds,
for a balance due to the crown and subjects of Great Britain, after
deduction made of the demands of the crown and subjects of Spain: that
this sum should be employed for the satisfaction, discharge, and payment
of the demands of the British subjects upon the crown of Spain: that this
reciprocal discharge, however, should not extend or relate to the accounts
and differences which subsisted and were to be settled between the crown
of Spain and the assiento company, nor to any particular or private
contracts that might subsist between either of the two crowns, or their
ministers, with the subjects of the other; or between the subjects of each
nation respectively: that his catholic majesty should cause the sum of
ninety-five thousand pounds to be paid at London within four mouths, to be
reckoned from the day on which the ratifications were exchanged. Such was
the substance of that convention, which alarmed and provoked the merchants
and traders of Great Britain, excited the indignation of all those who
retained any regard for the honour of their country, and raised a general
cry against the minister who stood at the helm of administration.

DEBATE ON THE CONTENTION.

The eyes of the whole kingdom were now turned upon the house of commons.
The two contending parties summoned their whole force for the approaching
dispute; on the day appointed for considering the convention, four hundred
members had taken their seats by eight in the morning. In a committee of
the whole house, certain West India merchants and planters were heard
against the convention; so that this and the following day were employed
in reading papers, and obtaining information. On the eighth clay of March,
Mr. H. Walpole having launched out in the praise of that agreement, moved
for an address of approbation to his majesty. He was seconded by Mr.
Campbell of Pembrokeshire; and the debate began with extraordinary ardour.
He who first distinguished himself in the lists was sir Thomas Sanderson,
at that time treasurer to the prince of Wales, afterwards earl of
Scarborough. All the officers and adherents of his royal highness had
joined the opposition; and he himself on this occasion sat in the gallery,
to hear the debate on such an important transaction. Sir Thomas Sanderson
observed, that the Spaniards by the convention, instead of giving us
reparation, had obliged us to give them a general release. They had not
allowed the word satisfaction to be so much as once mentioned in the
treaty. Even the Spanish pirate who had cut off the ear of captain
Jenkins, 260 [See note 2 L at the end of this Vol.]
and used the most insulting expression towards the person of the king—an
expression which no British subject could decently repeat—an
expression which no man that had a regard for his sovereign could ever
forgive—even this fellow lived to enjoy the fruits of his rapine,
and remained a living testimony of the cowardly tameness and mean
submission of Great Britain; of the triumphant haughtiness and stubborn
pride of Spain. Lord Gage, one of the most keen spirited and sarcastic
orators in the house, stated in this manner the account of the
satisfaction obtained from the court of Spain by the convention; the
losses sustained by the Spanish depredations amounted to three hundred and
forty thousand pounds; the commissary by a stroke of his pen reduced his
demand to two hundred thousand pounds; then forty-five thousand were
struck off for prompt payment; he next allotted sixty thousand pounds as
the remaining part of a debt pretended to be due to Spain, for the
destruction of her fleet by sir George Byng, though it appeared by the
instructions on the table, that Spain had been already amply satisfied on
that head; these deductions reduced the balance to ninety-five thousand
pounds; but the king of Spain insisted upon the South-Sea company’s paying
immediately the sum of sixty-eight thousand pounds, as a debt due to him
on one head of accounts, though in other articles his catholic majesty was
indebted to the company a million over and above the demand; the remainder
to be paid by Spain did not exceed seven-and-twenty thousand pounds, from
which she insisted upon deducting whatever she might have already given in
satisfaction for any of the British ships that had been taken; and on
being allowed the value of the St. Theresa, a Spanish ship which had been
seized in the port of Dublin. Mr. W. Pitt, with an energy of argument and
diction peculiar to himself, declaimed against the convention, as
insecure, unsatisfactory, and dishonourable to Great Britain. He said the
great national objection, the searching of British ships, was not
admitted, indeed, in the preamble; but stood there as the reproach of the
whole, as the strongest evidence of the fatal submission that followed; on
the part of Spain, an usurpation, an inhuman tyranny claimed and exercised
over the American seas: on the part of England, an undoubted right by
treaties, and from God and nature, declared and asserted in the
resolutions of parliament, were now referred to the discussion of
plenipotentiaries, upon one and the same equal footing. This undoubted
right was to be discussed and regulated; and if to regulate be to
prescribe rules, as in all construction it is, that right was, by the
express words of the convention, to be given up and sacrificed; for it
must cease to be any thing from the moment it is submitted to limitation.
Mr. Lyttelton, with equal force and fluency, answered the speech of Mr. H.
Walpole. “After he had used many arguments to persuade us to peace,” said
he, “to any peace, good or bad, by pointing out the dangers of a war,
dangers I by no means allow to be such as he represents them, he crowned
all those terrors with the name of the pretender. It would be the cause of
the pretender. The pretender would come. Is the honourable gentleman
sensible what this language imports? The people of England complain of the
greatest wrongs and indignities; they complain of the interruption, the
destruction of their trade; they think the peace has left them in a worse
condition than before; and in answer to all these complaints, what are
they told? Why, that their continuing to suffer all this, is the price
they must pay to keep the king and his family on the throne of these
realms. If this were true, it ought not to be owned; but it is far from
truth; the very reverse is true. Nothing can weaken the family; nothing
shake the establishment, but such measures as these, and such language as
this.” He affirmed, that if the ministers had proceeded conformably to the
intentions of parliament, they would either have acted with vigour, or
have obtained a real security in an express acknowledgment of our right
not to be searched as a preliminary, sine qua non, to our treating
at all. Instead of this, they had referred it to plenipotentiaries. “Would
you, sir,” said he, “submit to a reference, whether you may travel
unmolested from your house in town to your house in the country? Your
right is clear and undeniable, why would you have it discussed? but much
less would you refer it, if two of your judges belonged to a gang which
has often stopped and robbed you in your way thither before.” The
ministers, in vindication of the convention, asserted, that the
satisfaction granted by Spain was adequate to the injury received; that it
was only the preliminary of a treaty which would remove all causes of
complaint; that war was always expensive and detrimental to a trading
nation, as well as uncertain in its events; that France and Spain would
certainly join their forces in case of a rupture with Great Britain; that
there was not one power in Europe upon which the English could depend for
effectual assistance; and that war would favour the cause and designs of a
popish pretender. The house, upon a division, agreed to the address; but
when a motion was made for its being recommitted, the two parties renewed
the engagement with redoubled eagerness and impetuosity. Sir William
Wyndham and Mr. Pulteney poured all the thunder of their eloquence against
the insolence of Spain, and the concessions of the British ministry. Sir
Robert Walpole exerted all his fortitude and dexterity in defence of
himself and his measures, and the question being put, the resolutions for
the address were carried by a small majority.

SECESSION OF THE CHIEF MEMBERS IN THE OPPOSITION.

Then sir William Wyndham, standing up, made a pathetic remonstrance upon
this determination. “This address,” said he, “is intended to convince
mankind, that the treaty under our consideration is a reasonable and an
honourable treaty. But if a majority of twenty-eight in such a full house
should fail of that success; if the people should not implicitly resign
their reason to a vote of this house, what will be the consequence? Will
not the parliament lose its authority? Will it not be thought, that even
in the parliament we are governed by a faction? and what the consequence
of this may be, I leave to those gentlemen to consider, who are now to
give their vote for this address: for my own part, I will trouble you no
more, but, with these my last words, I sincerely pray to Almighty God, who
has so often wonderfully protected these kingdoms, that he will graciously
continue his protection over them, by preserving us from that impending
danger which threatens the nation from without, and likewise from that
impending danger which threatens our constitution from within.” The
minister was on this occasion deserted by his usual temper, and even
provoked into personal abuse. He declared, that the gentleman who was now
the mouth of his opponents, had been looked upon as the head of those
traitors, who, twenty-five years before, conspired the destruction of
their country and of the royal family, in order to set a popish pretender
upon the throne; that he was seized by the vigilance of the then
government, and pardoned by its clemency; but all the use he had
ungratefully made of that clemency, was to qualify himself according to
law, that he and his party might sometime or other have an opportunity to
overthrow all law. He branded them all as traitors, and expressed his
hope, that their behaviour would unite all the true friends of the present
happy establishment. To such a degree of mutual animosity were both sides
inflamed, that the most eminent members of the minority actually retired
from parliament; and were by the nation in general revered as martyrs to
the liberty of the people.

THE HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE UPON AN ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY.

The dispute occasioned by the convention in the house of lords, was
maintained with equal warmth, and perhaps with more abilities. After this
famous treaty had been considered, lord Carteret suggested, that possibly
one of the contracting powers had presented a protest or declaration,
importing that she acceded to such or such a measure, only upon condition
that the terms of that protest or declaration should be made good. He
said, that until his mind should be free from the most distant suspicion
that such a paper might exist in the present case, he could not form a
just opinion of the transaction himself, nor communicate to their
lordships any light which might be necessary for that purpose. The
adherents to the ministry endeavoured to evade his curiosity in this
particular, by general assertions; but he insisted on his suspicion with
such perseverance, that at length the ministry produced the copy of a
declaration made by the king of Spain before he ratified the convention,
signifying that his catholic majesty reserved to himself, in its full
force, the right of being able to suspend the assiento of negroes, in case
the company should not pay within a short time the sum of sixty-eight
thousand pounds sterling, owing to Spain on the duty of negroes, or on the
profit of the ship Caroline; that under the validity and force of this
protest, the signing of the said convention might be proceeded on, and in
no other manner. In the debate that ensued, lord Carteret displayed a
surprising extent of political knowledge, recommended by all the graces of
elocution, chaste, pure, dignified, and delicate. Lord Bathurst argued
against the articles of convention with his usual spirit, integrity, and
good sense, particularly animated by an honest indignation which the
wrongs of his country had inspired. The earl of Chesterfield attacked this
inglorious measure with all the weight of argument, and all the poignancy
of satire. The duke of Argyle, no longer a partisan of the ministry,
inveighed against it as infamous, treacherous, and destructive, with all
the fire, impetuosity, and enthusiasm of declamation. It was defended with
unequal arms by the duke of Newcastle, the earl of Cholmondeley, lord
Hervey, the lord chancellor, the bishop of Salisbury, and in particular by
the earl of Hay, a nobleman of extensive capacity and uncommon erudition;
remarkable for his knowledge of the civil law, and seemingly formed by
nature for a politician; cool, discerning, plausible, artful, and
enterprising, staunch to the minister, and invariably true to his own
interest. The dispute was learned, long, and obstinate; but ended as usual
in the discomfiture of those who had stigmatized the treaty. The house
agreed to an address, in which they thanked his majesty for his gracious
condescension in laying before them the convention. They acknowledged his
great prudence in bringing the demands of his subjects for their past
losses, which had been so long depending, to a final adjustment; in
procuring an express stipulation for a speedy payment; and in laying a
foundation for accomplishing the great and desirable ends of obtaining
future security, and preserving the peace between the two nations. They
declared their confidence in his royal wisdom, that in the treaty to be
concluded in pursuance of the convention, proper provisions would be made
for the redress of the grievances of which the nation had so justly
complained; they assured his majesty, that in case his just expectations
should not be answered, the house would heartily and zealously concur in
all such measures as should be necessary to vindicate his majesty’s
honour, and to preserve to his subjects the full enjoyment of all those
rights to which they were entitled by treaty and the law of nations. This
was a hard won victory. At the head of those who voted against the address
we find the prince of Wales. His example was followed by six dukes,
two-and-twenty earls, four viscounts, eighteen barons, four bishops, and
their party was reinforced by sixteen proxies. A spirited protest was
entered and subscribed by nine-and-thirty peers, comprehending all the
noblemen of the kingdom who were most eminent for their talents,
integrity, and virtue.

1739

A message having been delivered to the house from his majesty, importing,
that he had settled nine-and-thirty thousand pounds per annum on the
younger children of the royal family; and desiring their lordships would
bring in a bill to enable his majesty to make that provision good out of
the hereditary revenues of the crown, some lords in the opposition
observed that the next heir to the crown might look upon this settlement
as a mortgage of his revenue, which a parliament had no power to make;
that formerly no daughter of the royal family was ever provided for by
parliament, except the eldest, and that never was by way of annuity, but
an express provision of a determinate sum of money paid by way of dowry.
These objections were overruled; and the house complied with his majesty’s
request. Then the duke of Newcastle produced a subsidy-treaty, by which
his majesty obliged himself to pay to the king of Denmark seventy thousand
pounds per annum, on condition of the Dane’s furnishing to his Britannic
majesty a body of six thousand men, when demanded. At the same time his
grace delivered a message from the king, desiring the house would enable
him to fulfil this engagement; and also to raise what money and troops the
exigency of affairs, during the approaching recess, might require. Another
vehement dispute arose from this proposal. With respect to the treaty,
lord Carteret observed, that no use could be made of the Danish troops in
any expedition undertaken against Spain, because it was stipulated in the
treaty that they should not be used either in Italy, or on board of the
fleet, or be transported in whole or in part beyond sea, after they should
have marched out of the territories of Denmark, except for the defence of
the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland; nay, should France join against
the English, the Danes could not act against that power or Spain, except
as part of an army formed in Germany or Flanders. This body of Danes may
be said, therefore, to have been retained for the defence and protection
of Hanover; or, if the interest of Britain was at all consulted in the
treaty, it must have been in preventing the Danes from joining their
fleets to those of France or Spain. Then he argued against the second part
of the message with great vivacity. He said nothing could be more
dangerous to the constitution than a general and unlimited vote of credit.
Such a demand our ancestors would have heard with amazement, and rejected
with scorn. He affirmed that the practice was of modern date in England;
that it was never heard of before the revolution; and never became
frequent until the nation was blessed with the present wise
administration. He said, if ever a general vote of credit and confidence
should become a customary compliment from the parliament to the crown at
the end of every session, or as often as the minister might think fit to
desire it, parliaments would grow despicable in the eyes of the people;
then a proclamation might be easily substituted in its stead, and happy
would it be for the nation if that should be sufficient; for when a
parliament ceases to be a check upon ministers, it becomes a useless and
unnecessary burden on the people. The representatives must always be paid
some way or other; if their wages are not paid openly and surely by their
respective constituents, as they were formerly, a majority of them may in
future times be always ready to accept of wages from the administration,
and these must come out of the pockets of the people. The duke of Argyle
and the earl of Chesterfield enlarged upon the same topics. Nevertheless,
the house complied with the message; and presented an address, in which
they not only approved of the treaty with Denmark, but likewise assured
his majesty they would concur with his measures, and support him in
fulfilling his engagements, as well as in making such further augmentation
of his forces by sea and land, as he should think necessary for the
honour, interest, and safety of these kingdoms.

PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.

The same message being communicated to the commons, they voted seventy
thousand five hundred and eighty-three pounds for the subsidy to Denmark,
and five hundred thousand pounds for augmenting the forces on any
emergency. As Great Britain stood engaged by the convention to pay to the
crown of Spain the sum of sixty thousand pounds in consideration of the
ships taken and destroyed by sir George Byng, which sum was to be applied
to the relief of the British merchants who had suffered by the Spanish
depredations, the commons inserted in a bill a clause providing for this
sum to be paid by the parliament. When the bill was read in the house of
lords, a motion was made by lord Bathurst for an address, to know, whether
Spain had paid the money stipulated by the convention, as the time limited
for the payment of it was now expired. The duke of Newcastle, by his
majesty’s permission, acquainted the house that it was not paid, and that
Spain had as yet given no reason for the non-payment. Then a day was
appointed to consider the state of the nation, when lord Carteret moved
for a resolution, that the failure of Spain in this particular was a
breach of the convention, a high indignity to his majesty, and an
injustice to the nation; but, after a warm debate, this motion was
overruled by the majority. The minister, in order to atone in some measure
for the unpopular step he had taken in the convention, allowed a salutary
law to pass for the encouragement of the woollen manufacture, and two
bills in behalf of the sugar colonies; one permitting them, for a limited
time, to export their produce directly to foreign parts, under proper
restrictions; and the other making more effectual provisions for securing
the duties laid upon the importation of foreign sugars, rum, and molasses,
into Great Britain, and his majesty’s plantations in America. The supplies
being voted, the funds established, and the crown gratified in every
particular, the king closed the session with a speech on the fourteenth
day of June, when the chancellor in his majesty’s name prorogued the
parliament. 262 [See note 2 M, at the end of this Vol.]

THE KING OF SPAIN PUBLISHES A MANIFESTO.

Letters of marque and reprisal were granted against the Spaniards; a
promotion was made of general officers; the troops were augmented; a great
fleet was assembled at Spithead; a reinforcement sent out to admiral
Haddock; and an embargo laid on all merchant ships outward-bound.
Notwithstanding these preparations of war, Mr. Keen, the British minister
at Madrid, declared to the court of Spain, that his master, although he
had permitted his subjects to make reprisals, would not be understood to
have broken the peace; and that this permission would be recalled as soon
as his catholic majesty should be disposed to make the satisfaction which
had been so justly demanded. He was given to understand, that the king of
Spain looked upon those reprisals as acts of hostility; and that he hoped,
with the assistance of heaven and his allies, he should be able to support
a good cause against his adversaries. He published a manifesto in
justification of his own conduct, complaining that admiral Haddock had
received orders to cruise with his squadron between the capes St. Vincent
and St. Mary, in order to surprise the Assogue ships; that letters of
reprisal had been published at London in an indecent style, and even
carried into execution in different parts of the world. He excused his
non-payment of the ninety-five thousand pounds stipulated in the
convention, by affirming that the British court had first contravened the
articles of that treaty, by the orders sent to Haddock; by continuing to
fortify Georgia; by reinforcing the squadron at Jamaica; and by eluding
the payment of the sixty-eight thousand pounds due to Spain from the
South-Sea company, on the assiento for negroes. The French ambassador at
the Hague declared that the king his master was obliged by treaties to
assist his catholic majesty by sea and land, in case he should be
attacked; he dissuaded the states-general from espousing the quarrel of
Great Britain; and they assured him they would observe a strict
neutrality, though they could not avoid furnishing his Britannic majesty
with such succours as he could demand, by virtue of the treaties
subsisting between the two powers. The people of England were inspired
with uncommon alacrity at the near prospect of war, for which they had so
long clamoured; and the ministry seeing it unavoidable, began to be
earnest and effectual in their preparations.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE EMPEROR AND CZARINA CONCLUDE A PEACE WITH THE TURKS.

The events of war were still unfavourable to the emperor. He had bestowed
the command of his army upon velt-mareschal count Wallis, who assembled
his forces in the neighbourhood of Belgrade; and advanced towards Crotska,
where he was attacked by the Turks with such impetuosity and perseverance,
that he was obliged to give ground, after a long and obstinate engagement,
in which he lost above six thousand men. The earl of Crawford, who served
as a volunteer in the Imperial army, signalised his courage in an
extraordinary manner on this occasion, and received a dangerous wound of
which he never perfectly recovered. The Turks were afterwards worsted at
Jabouka; nevertheless, their grand army invested Belgrade on the side of
Servia, and carried on the operations of the siege with extraordinary
vigour. The emperor, dreading the loss of this place, seeing his finances
exhausted, and his army considerably diminished, consented to a
negotiation for peace, which was transacted under the mediation of the
French ambassador at the Ottoman Porte. The count de Neuperg, as Imperial
plenipotentiary, signed the preliminaries on the first day of September.
They were ratified by the emperor, though he pretended to be dissatisfied
with the articles; and declared that his minister had exceeded his powers.
By this treaty the house of Austria ceded to the grand seignor, Belgrade,
Sabatz, Servia, Austrian Wallachia, the isle and fortress of Orsova, with
the fort of St. Elizabeth; and the contracting powers agreed that the
Danube and the Saave should serve as boundaries to the two empires. The
emperor published a circular letter, addressed to his ministers at all the
courts of Europe, blaming count Wallis for the bad success of the last
campaign, and disowning the negotiations of count Neuperg; nay, these two
officers were actually disgraced, and confined in different castles. This,
however, was no other than a sacrifice to the resentment of the czarina,
who loudly complained that the emperor had concluded a separate peace,
contrary to his engagements with the Russian empire. Her general, count
Munich, had obtained a victory over the Turks at Choczim in Moldavia, and
made himself master of that place, in which he found two hundred pieces of
artillery; but the country was so ruined by the incursions of the Tartars,
that the Muscovites could not subsist in it during the winter. The czarina
finding herself abandoned by the emperor, and unable to cope with the
whole power of the Ottoman empire, took the first opportunity of putting
an end to the war upon honourable terms. After a short negotiation, the
conferences ended in a treaty, by which she was left in possession of
Azoph, on condition that its fortifications should be demolished; and the
ancient limits were re-established between the two empires.

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR IN ENGLAND.

A rupture between Great Britain and Spain was now become inevitable. The
English squadron in the Mediterranean had already made prize of two rich
Caracca ships. The king had issued orders for augmenting his land forces,
and raising a body of marines; and a great number of ships of war were put
in commission. Admiral Vernon had been sent to the West Indies, to assume
the command of the squadron in those seas, and to annoy the trade and
settlements of the Spaniards. This gentleman had rendered himself
considerable in the house of commons, by loudly condemning all the
measures of the ministry, and bluntly speaking his sentiments, whatever
they were, without respect of persons, and sometimes without any regard to
decorum. He was counted a good officer, and this boisterous manner seemed
to enhance his character. As he had once commanded a squadron in Jamaica,
he was perfectly well acquainted with those seas; and in a debate upon the
Spanish depredations, he chanced to affirm, that Porto Bello on the
Spanish main might be easily taken; nay, he even undertook to reduce it
with six ships only. This officer was echoed from the mouths of all the
members in the opposition. Vernon was extolled as a another Drake or
Raleigh; he became the idol of a party, and his praise resounded from all
corners of the kingdom. The minister, in order to appease the clamours of
the people on this subject, sent him as commander-in-chief to the West
Indies. He was pleased with an opportunity to remove such a troublesome
censor from the house of commons; and, perhaps, he was not without hope,
that Vernon would disgrace himself and his party, by failing in the
exploit he had undertaken. His catholic majesty having ordered all the
British ships in his harbours to be seized and detained, the king of
England would keep measures with him no longer, but denounced war against
him on the twenty-third day of October. Many English merchants began to
equip privateers, and arm their trading vessels to protect their own
commerce, as well as to distress that of the enemy. The session of
parliament was opened in November, when the king, in his speech to both
houses, declared, that he had augmented his forces by sea and land,
pursuant to the power vested in him by parliament for the security of his
dominions, the protection of trade, and the annoyance of the enemy; and he
expressed his apprehension, that the heats and animosities which had been
industriously fomented throughout the kingdom, encouraged Spain to act in
such a manner as rendered it necessary for him to have recourse to arms.
In answer to this speech, affectionate addresses were presented by both
houses, without any considerable opposition.

The seceding members had again resumed their seats in the house of
commons; and Mr. Pulteney thought proper to vindicate the extraordinary
step which they had taken. He said, they thought that step was necessary,
as affairs then stood, for clearing their characters to posterity from the
imputation of sitting in an assembly, where a determined majority gave a
sanction to measures evidently to the disgrace of his majesty and the
nation. He observed, that their conduct was so fully justified by the
declaration of war against Spain, that any further vindication would be
superfluous; for every assertion contained in it had been almost in the
same words insisted upon by those who opposed the convention: “every
sentence in it,” added he, “is an echo of what was said in our reasonings
against that treaty; every positive truth which the declaration lays down,
was denied with the utmost confidence by those who spoke for the
convention; and, since that time, there has not one event happened which
was not then foreseen and foretold.” He proposed, that in maintaining the
war, the Spanish settlements in the West Indies should be attacked; and
that the ministry should not have the power to give up the conquests that
might be made. He said he heartily wished, for his majesty’s honour and
service, that no mention had been made of heats and animosities, in the
king’s speech; and gave it as his opinion, that they should take no notice
of that clause in their address. He was answered by sir Robert Walpole,
who took occasion to say, he was in no great concern lest the service of
his majesty or the nation should suffer by the absence of those members
who had quitted the house; he affirmed, the nation was generally sensible,
that the many useful and popular acts which passed towards the end of the
last session, were greatly forwarded and facilitated by the secession of
those gentlemen; and, if they were returned only to oppose and perplex, he
should not be at all sorry to see them secede again.

PENSION-BILL REVIVED AND LOST.

Mr. Pulteney revived the bill which he had formerly prepared for the
encouragement of seamen. After a long dispute, and eager opposition by the
ministry, it passed both houses, and obtained the royal assent. Mr. Sandys
having observed, that there could be no immediate use for a great number
of forces in the kingdom; and explained how little service could be
expected from raw and undisciplined men; proposed an address to the king,
desiring that the body of marines should be composed of drafts from the
old regiments; that as few officers should be appointed as the nature of
the case would permit; and he expressed his hope, that the house would
recommend this method to his majesty, in tender compassion to his people,
already burdened with many heavy and grievous taxes. This scheme was
repugnant to the intention of the ministry, whose aim was to increase the
number of their dependents, and extend their parliamentary interest, by
granting a great number of commissions. The proposal was, therefore, after
a long debate, rejected by the majority. Motions wore made for an inquiry
into the conduct of those who concluded the convention; but they were
overruled. The pension-bill was revived, and so powerfully supported by
the eloquence of sir William Wyndham, Mr. Pulteney, and Mr. Lyttelton,
that it made its way through the commons to the upper house, where it was
again lost, upon a division, after a very long debate. As the seamen of
the kingdom expressed uncommon aversion to the service of the government,
and the fleet could not be manned without great difficulty, the ministry
prepared a bill, which was brought in by sir Charles Wager, for
registering all seamen, watermen, fishermen, and lightermen, throughout
his majesty’s dominions. Had this bill passed into a law, a British sailor
would have been reduced to the most abject degree of slavery; had he
removed from a certain district allotted for the place of his residence,
he would have been deemed a deserter, and punished accordingly; he must
have appeared when summoned, at all hazards, whatever might have been the
circumstances of his family, or the state of his private affairs; had he
been encumbered with debt, he must have either incurred the penalties of
this law, or lain at the mercy of his creditors; had he acquired by
industry, or received by inheritance, an ample fortune, he would have been
liable to be torn from his possessions, and subjected to hardships which
no man would endure but from the sense of fear or indigence. The bill was
so vigorously opposed by sir John Barnard and others, as a flagrant
encroachment upon the liberties of the people, that the house rejected it
on the second reading.

PORTO BELLO TAKEN by ADMIRAL VERNON.

The king having by message communicated to the house his intention of
disposing of the princess Mary in marriage to prince Frederick of Hesse;
and expressing his hope that the commons would enable him to give a
suitable portion to his daughter, they unanimously resolved to grant forty
thousand pounds for that purpose; and presented an address of thanks to
his majesty for having communicated to the house this intended marriage.
On the thirteenth day of March a ship arrived from the West Indies,
despatched by admiral Vernon, with an account of his having taken Porto
Bello, on the isthmus of Darien, with six ships only, and demolished all
the fortifications of the place. The Spaniards acted with such
pusillanimity on this occasion, that their forts were taken almost without
bloodshed. The two houses of parliament joined in an address of
congratulation upon the success of his majesty’s arms; and the nation in
general was wonderfully elated by an exploit which was magnified much
above its merit. The commons granted every thing the crown thought proper
to demand. They provided for eight-and-twenty thousand land-forces,
besides six thousand marines. They enabled his majesty to equip a very
powerful navy; they voted the subsidy to the king of Denmark; and they
empowered their sovereign to defray certain extraordinary expenses not
specified in the estimates. To answer these uncommon grants, they imposed
a land-tax of four shillings in the pound; and enabled his majesty to
deduct twelve hundred thousand pounds from the sinking fund; in a word,
the expense of the war, during the course of the ensuing year, amounted to
about four millions. The session was closed on the twenty-ninth day of
April, when the king thanked the commons for the supplies they had so
liberally granted, and recommended union and moderation to both houses.

1740

During the greatest part of this winter, the poor had been grievously
afflicted in consequence of a severe frost, which began at Christmas, and
continued till the latter end of February. The river Thames was covered
with such a crust of ice, that a multitude of people dwelt upon it in
tents, and a great number of booths were erected for the entertainment of
the populace. The navigation was entirely stopped; the watermen and
fishermen were disabled from earning a livelihood; the fruits of the earth
were destroyed by the cold, which was so extreme, that many persons were
chilled to death; and this calamity was the more deeply felt, as the poor
could not afford to supply themselves with coals and fuel, which were
advanced in proportion to the severity and continuance of the frost. The
lower class of labourers, who worked in the open air, were now deprived of
all means of subsistence; many kinds of manufacture were laid aside,
because it was found impracticable to carry them on. The price of all
sorts of provisions rose almost to a dearth; even water was sold in the
streets of London. In this season of distress, many wretched families must
have perished by cold and hunger, had not those of opulent fortunes been
inspired with a remarkable spirit of compassion and humanity. Nothing can
more redound to the honour of the English nation, than did those instances
of benevolence and well-conducted charity which were then exhibited. The
liberal hand was not only opened to the professed beggar, and the poor
that owned their distress, but uncommon pains were taken to find out and
relieve those more unhappy objects, who, from motives of false pride or
ingenuous shame, endeavoured to conceal their misery.

These were assisted almost in their own despite. The solitary habitations
of the widow, the fatherless, and the unfortunate, were visited by the
beneficent, who felt for the woes of their fellow-creatures; and to such
as refused to receive a portion of the public charity, the necessaries of
life were privately conveyed, in such a manner as could least shock the
delicacy of their dispositions.

MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCESS MARY TO THE PRINCE OF HESSE.

In the beginning of May, the king of Great Britain set out for Hanover,
after having appointed a regency, and concerted vigorous measures for
distressing the enemy. In a few days after his departure, the spousals of
the princess Mary were celebrated by proxy, the duke of Cumberland
representing the prince of Hesse, and in June the princess embarked for
the continent. About the same time, a sloop arrived in England with
despatches from admiral Vernon, who, since his adventure at Porto Bello,
had bombarded Carthagena, and taken the fort of San Lorenzo, on the river
of Chagre, in the neighbourhood of his former conquest. This month was
likewise marked by the death of his Prussian majesty, a prince by no means
remarkable for great or amiable qualities. He was succeeded on the throne
by Frederick his eldest son, the late king of that realm, who has so
eminently distinguished himself as a warrior and legislator. In August,
the king of Great Britain concluded a treaty with the landgrave of Hesse,
who engaged to furnish him with a body of six thousand men for four years,
in consideration of an annual subsidy of two hundred and fifty thousand
crowns.

STRONG ARMAMENT SENT TO THE WEST INDIES.

Meanwhile, preparations of war were vigorously carried on by the ministry
in England. They had wisely resolved to annoy the Spaniards in their
American possessions. Three ships of war, cruising in the bay of Biscay,
fell in with a large Spanish ship of the line, strongly manned, and took
her after a very obstinate engagement; but the Assogue ships arrived with
the treasure in Spain, notwithstanding the vigilance of the English
commanders, who were stationed in a certain latitude to intercept that
flota. One camp was formed on Hounslow-heath; and six thousand marines
lately levied were encamped on the Isle of Wight, in order to be embarked
for the West Indies. Intelligence being received that a strong squadron of
Spanish ships of war waited at Ferrol for orders to sail to their American
settlements, sir John Norris sailed with a powerful fleet from Spithead to
dispute their voyage; and the duke of Cumberland served in person as a
volunteer in this expedition; but, after divers fruitless efforts, he was,
by contrary winds, obliged to lie inactive for the greatest part of the
summer in Torbay; and, upon advice that the French and Spanish squadrons
had sailed to the West Indies in conjunction, the design against Ferrol
was wholly laid aside. In September, a small squadron of ships, commanded
by commodore Anson, set sail for the South-Sea, in order to act against
the enemy on the coast of Chili and Peru, and co-operate occasionally with
admiral Vernon across the isthmus of Darien. The scheme was well laid, but
ruined by unnecessary delays and unforeseen accidents. But the hopes of
the nation centered chiefly in a formidable armament designed for the
northern coast of now Spain, and his catholic majesty’s other settlements
on that side of the Atlantic. Commissions had been issued for raising a
regiment of four battalions in the English colonies of North America, that
they might be transported to Jamaica, and join the forces from England.
These, consisting of the marines and detachments from some old regiments,
were embarked in October at the Isle of Wight, under the command of lord
Cathcart, a nobleman of approved honour, and great experience in the art
of war; and they sailed under convoy of sir Chaloner Ogle, with a fleet of
seven-and-twenty ships of the line, besides frigates, fire-ships,
bomb-ketches, and tenders. They were likewise furnished with hospital
ships and store ships, laden with provisions, ammunition, all sorts of
warlike implements, and every kind of convenience. Never was an armament
more completely equipped, and never had the nation more reason to hope for
extraordinary success.

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR AND CZARINA.

On the twentieth day of October, Charles VI., emperor of Germany, the last
prince of the house of Austria, died at Vienna, and was succeeded in his
hereditary dominions by his eldest daughter’, the archduchess Maria
Theresa, married to the grand duke of Tuscany. Though this princess
succeeded as queen of Hungary, by virtue of the pragmatic sanction
guaranteed by all the powers in Europe, her succession produced such
contests as kindled a cruel war in the empire. The young king of Prussia
was no sooner informed of the emperor’s death, than he entered Silesia at
the head of twenty thousand men; seized certain fiefs to which his family
laid claim; and published a manifesto, declaring that he had no intention
to contravene the pragmatic sanction. The elector of Bavaria refused to
acknowledge the archduchess as queen of Hungary and Bohemia; alleging,
that he himself had pretensions to those countries, as the descendant of
the emperor Ferdinand I., who was head of the German branch of the house
of Austria. Charles VI. was survived but a few days by his ally, the
czarina Anne Iwanowna, who died in the forty-fifth year of her age, after
having bequeathed her crown to Iwan, or John, the infant son of her niece,
the princess Anne of Mecklenburgh, who had been married to Anthony Ulrick,
duke of Brunswick Lunenberg-Bevern. She appointed the duke of Courland
regent of the empire, and even guardian of the young czar, though his own
parents were alive; but this disposition was not long maintained.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.

The king of Great Britain having returned to England from his German
dominions, the session of parliament was opened in November. His majesty
assured them, on this occasion, that he was determined to prosecute the
war vigorously, even though France should espouse the cause of Spain, as
her late conduct seemed to favour this supposition. He took notice of the
emperor’s death, as an event which in all likelihood would open a new
scene of affairs in Europe; he therefore recommended to their
consideration the necessary supplies for putting the nation in such a
posture that it should have nothing to fear from any emergency. Finally,
he desired them to consider of some proper regulations for preventing the
exportation of corn, and for more effectual methods to man the fleet at
this conjuncture. The commons, after having voted an address of thanks,
brought in a bill for prohibiting the exportation of corn and provisions,
for a limited time, out of Great Britain, Ireland, and the American
plantations. This was a measure calculated to distress the enemy, who were
supposed to be in want of these necessaries. The French had contracted for
a very large quantity of beef and pork in Ireland, for the use of their
own and the Spanish navy; and an embargo had been laid upon the ships of
that kingdom. The bill met with a vigorous opposition; yet the house
unanimously resolved that his majesty should be addressed to lay an
immediate embargo upon all ships laden with corn, grain, starch, rice,
beef, pork, and other provisions, to be exported to foreign parts. They
likewise resolved that the thanks of the house should be given to
vice-admiral Vernon, for the services he had, done to his king and country
in the West Indies. One William Cooley was examined at the bar of the
house, and committed to prison, after having owned himself author of a
paper, intituled, “Considerations upon the Embargo on Provision of
Victual.” The performance contained many shrewd and severe animadversions
upon the government, for having taken a step which, without answering the
purpose of distressing the enemy, would prove a grievous discouragement to
trade, and ruin all the graziers of Ireland. Notwithstanding the arguments
used in this remonstrance, and several petitions that were presented
against the corn-hill, it passed by mere dint of ministerial influence.
The other party endeavoured, by various motions, to set on foot an inquiry
into the orders, letters, and instructions, which had been sent to admiral
Vernon and admiral Haddock; but all such investigations were carefully
avoided.

A very hot contest arose from a bill which the ministry brought in, under
the specious title of, A bill for the encouragement and increase of
seamen, and for the better and speedier manning his majesty’s fleet. This
was a revival of the oppressive scheme which had been rejected in the
former session; a scheme by which the justices of the peace were empowered
to issue warrants to constables and head-boroughs, to search by day or
night for such seafaring men as should conceal themselves within their
respective jurisdictions. These searchers were vested with authority to
force open doors in case of resistance; and encouraged to this violence by
a reward for every seaman they should discover; while the unhappy wretches
so discovered were dragged into the service, and their names entered in a
register to be kept at the navy or the admiralty-office. Such a plan of
tyranny did not pass uncensured. Every exceptionable clause produced a
warm debate, in which sir John Barnard, Mr. Pulteney, Mr. Sandys, lord
Gage, Mr. Pitt, and Mr. Lyttelton, signalized themselves nobly in
defending the liberties of their fellow-subjects. Mr. Pitt having
expressed a laudable indignation at such a large stride towards despotic
power, in justification of which nothing could be urged but the plea of
necessity, Mr. Horatio Walpole thought proper to attack him with some
personal sarcasms. He reflected upon his youth: and observed that the
discovery of truth was very little promoted by pompous diction and
theatrical emotion. These insinuations exposed him to a severe reply. Mr.
Pitt standing up again, said, “He would not undertake to determine whether
youth could be justly imputed to any man as a reproach; but he affirmed
that the wretch, who, after having seen the consequences of repeated
errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy
to stupidity, is surely the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and
deserves not that his grey head should secure him from insults; much more
is he to be abhorred, who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from
virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes
himself for money which he cannot enjoy; and spends the remains of his
life in the ruin of his country.”—Petitions were presented from the
city of London and county of Gloucester against the bill, as detrimental
to the trade and navigation of the kingdom, by discouraging rather than
encouraging sailors, and destructive to the liberties of the subject; but
they were both rejected as insults upon the house of commons. After very
long debates, maintained on both sides with extraordinary ardour and
emotion, the severe clauses were dropped, and the bill passed with
amendments.

DISCONTENTS AGAINST THE MINISTRY.

But the most remarkable incident of this session was an open and personal
attack upon the minister, who was become extremely unpopular all over the
kingdom. The people were now, more than ever, sensible of the grievous
taxes under which they groaned; and saw their burdens daily increasing. No
effectual attempts had as yet been made to annoy the enemy. Expensive
squadrons had been equipped; had made excursions, and returned without
striking a blow. The Spanish fleet had sailed first from Cadiz, and then
from Ferrol, without any interruption from admiral Haddock, who commanded
the British squadron in the Mediterranean, and who was supposed to be
restricted by the instructions he had received from the ministry, though
in fact his want of success was owing to accident. Admiral Vernon had
written from the West Indies to his private friends, that he was
neglected, and in danger of being sacrificed. Notwithstanding the numerous
navy which the nation maintained, the Spanish privateers made prize of the
British merchant ships with impunity. In violation of treaties, and in
contempt of that intimate connexion which had been so long cultivated
between the French and English ministry, the king of France had ordered
the harbour and fortifications of Dunkirk to be repaired; his fleet had
sailed to the West Indies in conjunction with that of Spain; and the
merchants of England began to tremble for Jamaica; finally, commerce was
in a manner suspended, by the practice of pressing sailors into the
service, and by the embargo which had been laid upon ships in all the
ports of Great Britain and Ireland. These causes of popular discontent,
added to other complaints which had been so long repeated against the
minister, exaggerated and inculcated by his enemies with unwearied
industry, at length rendered him so universally odious, that his name was
seldom or never mentioned with decency, except by his own dependents.

MOTION FOR REMOVING SIR R. WALPOLE FROM HIS MAJESTY’S COUNCILS.

The country party in parliament seized this opportunity of vengeance. Mr.
Sandys went up to sir Robert Walpole in the house, and told him, that on
Friday next he should bring a charge against him in public. The minister
seemed to be surprised at this unexpected intimation; but, after a short
pause, thanked him politely for this previous notice, and said he desired
no favour, but fair play.*

* Upon this occasion he misquoted Horace. “As I am not
conscious of any crime,” said he, “I do not doubt of being
able to make a proper defence, Nil conscire sibi nulli
pallescere culpæ.” He was corrected by Mr. Pulteney; but
insisted on his being in the right, and actually laid a
wager on the justness of the quotation.

Mr. Sandys, at the time which he had appointed for this accusation, stood
up, and in a studied speech entered into a long deduction of the
minister’s misconduct. He insisted upon the discontents of the nation, in
consequence of the measures which had been for many years pursued at home
and abroad. He professed his belief that there was not a gentleman in the
house who did not know that one single person in the administration was
the chief, if not the sole adviser and promoter of all those measures.
“This,” added he, “is known without doors, as well as within; therefore,
the discontents, the reproaches, and even the curses of the people, are
all directed against that single person. They complain of present
measures; they have suffered by past measures; they expect no redress;
they expect no alteration or amendment, whilst he has a share in directing
or advising our future administration. These, sir, are the sentiments of
the people in regard to that minister; these sentiments we are in honour
and duty bound to represent to his majesty; and the proper method for
doing this, as established by our constitution, is to address his majesty
to remove him from his councils.” He then proceeded to explain the
particulars of the minister’s misconduct in the whole series of his
negotiations abroad. He charged him with having endeavoured to support his
own interest, and to erect a kind of despotic government, by the practice
of corruption; with having betrayed the interest and honour of Great
Britain in the late convention; with having neglected to prosecute the war
against Spain; and he concluded with a motion for an address to the king,
that he would be pleased to remove sir Robert Walpole from his presence
and councils for ever. He was answered by Mr. Pelham, who undertook to
defend or excuse all the measures which the other had condemned; and
acquitted himself as a warm friend and unshaken adherent. Against this
champion sir John Barnard entered the lists, and was sustained by Mr.
Pulteney, who, with equal spirit and precision, pointed out and exposed
all the material errors and malpractices of the administration. Sir Robert
Walpole spoke with great temper and deliberation in behalf of himself.
With respect to the article of bribery and corruption, he said if any one
instance had been mentioned; if it had been shown that he ever offered a
reward to any member of either house, or ever threatened to deprive any
member of his office or employment, in order to influence his voting in
parliament, there might have been some ground for this charge; but when it
was so generally laid, he did not know what he could say to it, unless to
deny it as generally and as positively as it had been asserted.—Such
a declaration as this, in the hearing of so many persons, who not only
knew, but subsisted by his wages of corruption, was a strong proof of the
minister’s being dead to all sense of shame, and all regard to veracity.
The debate was protracted by the court members till three o’clock in the
morning, when about sixty of the opposite party having retired, the motion
was rejected by a considerable majority.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DEBATE ON THE MUTINY BILL.

A bill was brought in for prohibiting the practice of insuring ships
belonging to the enemies of the nation; but it was vigorously opposed by
sir John Barnard and Mr. Willimot, who demonstrated that this kind of
traffic was advantageous to the kingdom; and the scheme was dropped.
Another warm contest arose upon a clause of the mutiny bill, relating to
the quartering of soldiers upon innkeepers and publicans, who complained
of their being distressed in furnishing those guests with provisions and
necessaries at the rates prescribed by law or custom. There were not
wanting advocates to expatiate upon the nature of this grievance, which,
however, was not redressed. A new trade was at this time opened with
Persia, through the dominions of the czar, and vested with an exclusive
privilege in the Russian company, by an act of parliament. The commons
voted forty thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and about
thirty thousand men for the establishment of land-forces. They provided
for the subsidies granted to the king of Denmark and the landgrave of
Hesse-Cassel; and took every step which was suggested for the ease and the
convenience of the government.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

The parties in the house of lords were influenced by the same motives
which actuated the commons. The duke of Argyle, who had by this time
resigned all his places, declared open war against the ministry. In the
beginning of the session, the king’s speech was no sooner reported by the
chancellor, than this nobleman stood up and moved that a general address
of thanks should be presented to his majesty, instead of a recapitulation
of every paragraph of the king’s speech, re-echoed from the parliament to
the throne, with expressions of blind approbation, implying a general
concurrence with all the measures of the minister. He spoke on this
subject with an astonishing impetuosity of eloquence, that rolled like a
river which had overflowed its banks and deluged the whole adjacent
country. The motion was supported by lord Bathurst, lord Carteret, the
earl of Chesterfield, and lord Gower, who, though they displayed all the
talents of oratory, were outvoted by the opposite party, headed by the
duke of Newcastle, the earl of Cholmondeley, lord Hervey, and the
lord-chancellor. The motion was rejected, and the address composed in the
usual strain. The same motions for an inquiry into orders and instructions
which had miscarried in the lower house, were here repeated with the same
bad success; in the debates which ensued, the young earls of Halifax and
Sandwich acquired a considerable share of reputation, for the strength of
argument and elocution with which they contended against the adherents of
the ministry. When the house took into consideration the state of the
army, the duke of Argyle having harangued with equal skill and energy on
military affairs, proposed that the forces should be augmented by adding
new levies to the old companies, without increasing the number of
officers; as such an augmentation served only to debase the dignity of the
service, by raising the lowest of mankind to the rank of gentlemen; and to
extend the influence of the minister, by multiplying his dependents. He
therefore moved for a resolution, that the augmenting the army by raising
regiments, as it is the most unnecessary and most expensive method of
augmentation, was also the most dangerous to the liberties of the nation.
This proposal was likewise overruled, after a short though warm
contention. This was the fate of all the other motions made by the lords
in the opposition, though the victory of the courtiers was always clogged
with a nervous and spirited protest. Two days were expended in the debate
produced by lord Carteret’s motion for an address, beseeching his majesty
to remove sir Robert Walpole from his presence and councils for ever. The
speech that ushered in this memorable motion would not have disgraced a
Cicero. It contained a retrospect of all the public measures which had
been pursued since the revolution. It explained the nature of every
treaty, whether right or wrong, which had been concluded under the present
administration. It described the political connexions subsisting between
the different powers in Europe. It exposed the weakness, the misconduct,
and the iniquity of the minister, both in his foreign and domestic
transactions. It was embellished with all the ornaments of rhetoric, and
warmed with a noble spirit of patriotic indignation. The duke of Argyle,
lord Bathurst, and his other colleagues, seemed to be animated with
uncommon fervour, and even inspired by the subject.

1741

A man of imagination, in reading their speeches, will think himself
transported into the Roman senate, before the ruin of that republic.
Nevertheless, the minister still triumphed by dint of numbers; though his
victory was dearly purchased. Thirty peers entered a vigorous protest, and
Walpole’s character sustained such a rude shock from this opposition, that
his authority seemed to be drawing near a period. Immediately after this
contest was decided, the duke of Marlborough moved for a resolution, that
any attempt to inflict any kind of punishment on any person, without
allowing him an opportunity to make his defence, or without any proof of
any crime or misdemeanor committed by him, is contrary to natural justice,
the fundamental laws of the realm, and the ancient established usage of
parliament; and is a high infringement of the liberties of the subject. It
was seconded by the duke of Devonshire and lord Lovel; and opposed by lord
Gower, as an intended censure on the proceedings of the day. This
sentiment was so warmly espoused by lord Talbot, who had distinguished
himself in the former debate, that he seemed to be transported beyond the
bounds of moderation. He was interrupted by the earl of Cholmondeley, who
charged him with having violated the order and decorum which ought to be
preserved in such an assembly. His passion was inflamed by this rebuke; he
declared himself an independent lord; a character which he would not
forfeit for the smiles of a court, the profit of an employment, or the
reward of a pension; he said, when he was engaged on the side of truth, he
would trample on the insolence that should command him to suppress his
sentiments.—On a division, however, the motion was carried.

In the beginning of April, the king repairing to the house of peers,
passed some acts that were ready for the royal assent. Then, in his speech
to both houses, he gave them to understand, that the queen of Hungary had
made a requisition of the twelve thousand men stipulated by treaty; and
that he had ordered the subsidy troops of Denmark and Hesse-Cassel to be
in readiness to march to her assistance. He observed, that in this
complicated and uncertain state of affairs, many incidents might arise,
and render it necessary for him to incur extraordinary expenses for
maintaining the pragmatic sanction, at a time when he could not possibly
have recourse to the advice and assistance of his parliament. He therefore
demanded of the commons such a supply as might be requisite for these
ends; and promised to manage it with all possible frugality. The lower
house, in their address, approved of all his measures; declared they would
effectually support him against all insults and attacks that might be made
upon any of his territories, though not belonging to the crown of Great
Britain; and that they would enable him to contribute, in the most
effectual manner, to the support of the queen of Hungary. Sir Robert
Walpole moved, that an aid of two hundred thousand pounds should be
granted to that princess. Mr. Shippen protested against any interposition
in the affairs of Germany. He expressed his dislike of the promise which
had been made to defend his majesty’s foreign dominions; a promise, in his
opinion, inconsistent with that important and inviolable law, the act of
settlement; a promise which, could it have been foreknown, would perhaps
have for ever precluded from the succession that illustrious family to
which the nation owed such numberless blessings, such continued felicity.
The motion however passed, though not without further opposition; and the
house resolved, that three hundred thousand pounds should be granted to
his majesty, to enable him effectually to support the queen of Hungary.
Towards the expense of this year, a million was deducted from the sinking
fund; and the land-tax continued at four shillings in the pound. The
preparations for this war had already cost five millions. The session was
closed on the twenty-fifth day of April, when the king took his leave of
this parliament with warm expressions of tenderness and satisfaction.
Henry Bromley, Stephen Fox, and John Howe, three members of the lower
house who had signalized themselves in defence of the minister, were now
ennobled, and created barons of Montford, Ilchester, and Chedworth. A camp
was formed near Colchester; and the king having appointed a regency, set
out in May for his German dominions.*

* Sir William Wyndham died the preceding year, deeply
regretted as an orator, a patriot, and a man, the constant
assertor of British liberty, and one of the chief ornaments
of the English nation.—In the course of the same year,
general Oglethorpe, governor of Georgia, had, with some
succours obtained from the colony of Carolina, and a small
squadron of king’s ships, made an attempt upon Fort Angus-
tine, the capital of Spanish Florida; and actually reduced
some small forts in the neighbourhood of the place; but the
Carolinians withdrawing in disgust, dissensions prevailing
among the sea officers, the hurricane months approaching,
and the enemy having received a supply and reinforcement, he
abandoned the enterprise, and returned to Georgia.

CHAPTER IV.

The Army under lord Cathcart and Sir Chaloner Ogle proceeds
to the West Indies….. Nature of the Climate on the Spanish
Main….. Admiral Vernon sails to Carthagena….. Attack of
Tort Lasar….. Expedition to Cuba….. Rupture between the
Queen of Hungary and the king of Prussia….. Battle of
Molwitz….. The king of Great Britain concludes a Treaty of
Neutrality with Franco for the Electorate of Hanover….. A
Body of French Forces join the Elector of Bavaria….. He is
crowned kind of Bohemia at Prague….. Fidelity of the
Hungarians….. War between Russia and Sweden…..
Revolution in Russia….. The Spanish and French Squadrons
pass unmolested by the English Admiral in the
Mediterranean….. Inactivity of the naval Power of Great
Britain….. Obstinate Struggle in electing Members in the
new Parliament….. Remarkable Motion in the House of
Commons by Lord Noel Somerset….. The Country Party obtain
a Majority in the House of Commons….. Sir Robert Walpole
created Earl of Orford….. Change in the Ministry…..
Inquiry into the Administration of Sir Robert Walpole…..
Obstructed by the new ministry….. Reports of the Secret
Committee….. The elector of Bavaria chosen Emperor…..
The king of Prussia gains the battle at Czaslaw….. Treaty
at Breslau….. The French Troops retire under the Cannon of
Prague….. A fresh Body sent with the Mareschal de
Mallebois to bring them off….. Extraordinary retreat of M.
de Belleisle-The king of Great Britain forms an Army in
Flanders….. Progress of the War between Russia and
Sweden….. The King of Sardinia declares for the House of
Austria….. Motions of the Spaniards in Italy and
Savoy….. Conduct of Admiral Matthews in the
Mediterranean….. Operations in the West Indies….. The
Attention of the Ministry turned chiefly on the Affairs of
the Continent….. Extraordinary Motion in the House of
Lords by Earl Stanhope….. Warm and obstinate Debate on the
Repeal of the Gin-Act….. Bill for quieting
Corporations….. Convention between the Emperor and the
Queen of Hungary….. Difference between the King of Prussia
and the Elector of Hanover….. The King of Great Britain
obtains a victory over the French at Dettingen….. Treaty
of Worms….. Conclusion of the Campaign….. Affairs in the
North….. Battle of Campo Santo….. Transactions of the
British Fleet in the Mediterranean….. Unsuccessful
Attempts upon the Spanish Settlements in the West Indies

ARMY UNDER LORD CATHCART AND SIR CHALONER OGLE.

The British armament had by this time proceeded to action in the West
Indies. Sir Chaloner Ogle, who sailed from Spithead, had been overtaken by
a tempest in the Bay of Biscay, by which the fleet, consisting of about
one hundred and seventy sail, were scattered and dispersed. Nevertheless
he prosecuted his voyage, and anchored with a view to provide wood and
water, in the neutral island of Dominica, where the intended expedition
sustained a terrible shock in the death of the gallant lord Cathcart, who
was carried off by a dysentery. The loss of this nobleman was the more
severely felt, as the command of the land-forces devolved upon general
Wentworth, an officer without experience, authority, and resolution. As
the fleet sailed along the island of Hispaniola, in its way to Jamaica,
four large ships of war were discovered; and sir Chaloner detached an
equal number of his squadron to give them chase, while he himself
proceeded on his voyage. As those strange ships refused to bring to, lord
Augustus Fitz-roy, the commodore of the four British ships, saluted one of
them with a broadside, and a smart engagement ensued. After they had
fought during the best part of the night, the enemy hoisted their colours
in the morning, and appeared to be part of the French squadron, which had
sailed from Europe tinder the command of the marquis d’Antin, with orders
to assist the Spanish admiral De Torres, in attacking and distressing the
English ships and colonies. War was not yet declared between France and
England; therefore hostilities ceased; the English and French commanders
complimented each other; excused themselves mutually for the mistake which
had happened; and parted friends, with a considerable loss of men on both
sides.

NATURE OF THE CLIMATE ON THE SPANISH MAIN.

In the meantime sir Chaloner Ogle arrived at Jamaica, where he joined
vice-admiral Vernon, who now found himself at the head of the most
formidable fleet and army that ever visited those seas, with full power to
act at discretion. The conjoined squadrons consisted of nine-and-twenty
ships of the line, with almost an equal number of frigates, fire-ships,
and bomb-ketches, well manned, and plentifully supplied with all kinds of
provisions, stores, and necessaries. The number of seamen amounted to
fifteen thousand; that of the land-forces, including the American regiment
of four battalions, and a body of negroes enlisted at Jamaica, did not
fall short of twelve thousand. Had this armament been ready to act in the
proper season of the year, under the conduct of wise experienced officers,
united in councils, and steadily attached to the interest and honour of
their country, the Havannah, and the whole island of Cuba, might have been
easily reduced; the whole treasure of the Spanish West Indies would have
been intercepted; and Spain must have been humbled into the most abject
submission. But several unfavourable circumstances concurred to frustrate
the hopes of the public. The ministry had detained sir Chaloner Ogle at
Spithead without any visible cause, until the season for action was almost
exhausted; for, on the continent of new Spain, the periodical rains begin
about the end of April; and this change in the atmosphere is always
attended with epidemical distempers which render the climate extremely
unhealthy; besides, the rain is so excessive, that for the space of two
months no army can keep the field.

ADMIRAL VERNON SAILS TO CARTHAGENA.

Sir Chaloner Ogle arrived at Jamaica on the ninth day of January; and
admiral Vernon did not sail on his intended expedition till towards the
end of the month. Instead of directing his course towards the Havannah,
which lay to leeward, and might have been reached in less than three days,
he resolved to beat up against the wind to Hispaniola, in order to observe
the motion of the French squadron, commanded by the marquis d’Antin. The
fifteenth day of February had elapsed before he received certain
information that the French admiral had sailed for Europe, in great
distress for want of men and provisions, which he could not procure in the
West Indies. Admiral Vernon thus disappointed, called a council of war, in
which it was determined to proceed for Carthagena. The fleet being
supplied with wood and water at Hispaniola, set sail for the continent of
New Spain, and on the fourth of March, anchored in Playa Grande, to the
windward of Carthagena. Admiral de Torres had already sailed to the
Havannah; but Carthagena was strongly fortified, and the garrison
reinforced by the crews of a small squadron of large ships, commanded by
don Bias de Lesco, an officer of experience and reputation. Here the
English admiral lay inactive till the ninth, when the troops were landed
on the island of Tierra Bomba, near the mouth of the harbour, known by the
name of Boca-chica, or Little-mouth, which was surprisingly fortified with
castles, batteries, booms, chains, cables, and ships of war. The British
forces erected a battery on shore, with which they made a breach in the
principal fort, while the admiral sent in a number of ships to divide the
fire of the enemy, and co-operate with the endeavours of the army. Lord
Aubrey Beauclerc, a gallant officer who commanded one of these ships, was
slain on this occasion. The breach being deemed practicable, the forces
advanced to the attack; but the forts and batteries were abandoned; the
Spanish ships that lay athwart the harbour’s mouth were destroyed or
taken, the passage was opened, and the fleet entered without further
opposition. Then the forces were re-embarked with the artillery, and
landed within a mile of Carthagena, where they were opposed by about seven
hundred Spaniards, whom they obliged to retire. The admiral and general
had contracted a hearty contempt for each other, and took all
opportunities of expressing their mutual dislike; far from acting
vigorously in concert for the advantage of the community, they maintained
a mutual reserve, and separate cabals; and each proved more eager for the
disgrace of his rival, than zealous for the honour of the nation.

The general complained that the fleet lay idle while his troops were
harassed and diminished by hard duty and distemper. The admiral affirmed,
that his ships could not lie near enough to batter the town of Carthagena;
he upbraided the general with inactivity and want of resolution to attack
the fort of Saint Lazar which commanded the town, and might be taken by
scalade. Wentworth, stimulated by these reproaches, resolved to try the
experiment. His forces marched up to the attack; but the guides being
slain, they mistook their route, and advanced to the strongest part of the
fortification, where they were moreover exposed to the fire of the town.
Colonel Grant, who commanded the grenadiers, was mortally wounded; the
scaling-ladders were found too short; the officers were perplexed for want
of orders and directions; yet the soldiers sustained a severe fire for
several hours with surprising intrepidity, and at length retreated,
leaving about six hundred killed or wounded on the spot. Their number was
now so much reduced, that they could no longer maintain their footing on
shore; besides, the rainy season had begun with such violence, as rendered
it impossible for them to live in camp. They were, therefore, re-embarked;
and all hope of further success immediately vanished. The admiral,
however, in order to demonstrate the impracticability of taking the place
by sea, sent in the Gallicia, one of the Spanish ships which had been
taken at Boca-chica, to cannonade the town, with sixteen guns mounted on
one side, like a floating battery. This vessel, manned by detachments of
volunteers from different ships, and commanded by captain Hore, was warped
into the inner harbour, and moored before day, at a considerable distance
from the walls, in very shallow water. In this position she stood the fire
of several batteries for some hours, without doing or sustaining much
damage; then the admiral ordered the men to be brought off in boats, and
the cables to be cut; so that she drove with the sea-breeze upon a shoal,
where she was soon filled with water. This exploit was absurd, and the
inference which the admiral drew from it altogether fallacious. He said it
plainly proved that there was not depth of water in the inner harbour
sufficient to admit large ships near enough to batter the town with any
prospect of success. This indeed was the case in that part of the harbour
to which the Gallicia was conducted; but a little farther to the left he
might have stationed four or five of his largest ships abreast, within
pistol shot of the walls; and if this step had been taken when the
land-forces marched to the attack of Saint Lazar, in all probability the
town would have been surrendered.

EXPEDITION TO CUBA.

After the re-embarkation of the troops, the distempers peculiar to the
climate and season began to rage with redoubled fury; and great numbers of
those who escaped the vengeance of the enemy perished by a more painful
and inglorious fate. Nothing was heard but complaints and execrations; the
groans of the dying, and the service for the dead; nothing was seen but
objects of woe, and images of dejection. The conductors of this
unfortunate expedition agreed in nothing but the expediency of a speedy
retreat from this scene of misery and disgrace. The fortifications of the
harbour were demolished, and the fleet returned to Jamaica.—The
miscarriage of this expedition, which had cost the nation an immense sum
of money, was no sooner known in England, than the kingdom was filled with
murmurs and discontent, and the people were depressed in proportion to
that sanguine hope by which they had been elevated. Admiral Vernon,
instead of undertaking any enterprise which might have retrieved the
honour of the British arms, set sail from Jamaica with the forces in July,
and anchored at the south-east part of Cuba, in a bay, on which he
bestowed the appellation of Cumberland harbour. The troops were landed,
and encamped at the distance of twenty miles farther up the river, where
they remained totally inactive, and subsisted chiefly on salt and damaged
provisions, till the month of November, when, being considerably
diminished by sickness, they were put on board again, and re-conveyed to
Jamaica. He was afterwards reinforced from England by four ships of war,
and about three thousand soldiers; but he performed nothing worthy of the
reputation he had acquired; and the people began to perceive that they had
mistaken his character.

RUPTURE BETWEEN THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY AND THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

The affairs on the continent of Europe were now more than ever embroiled.
The king of Prussia had demanded of the court of Vienna part of Silesia,
by virtue of old treaties of co-fraternity, which were either obsolete or
annulled; and promised to assist the queen with all his forces in case she
should comply with his demand; but this being rejected with disdain, he
entered Silesia at the head of an army, and prosecuted his conquests with
great rapidity. In the meantime the queen of Hungary was crowned at
Presburgh, after having signed a capitulation, by which the liberties of
that kingdom were confirmed; and the grand duke her consort was, at her
request, associated with her for ten years in the government. At the same
time the states of Hungary refused to receive a memorial from the elector
of Bavaria.

During these transactions, his Prussian majesty made his public entrance
into Breslau, and confirmed all the privileges of the inhabitants. One of
his generals surprised the town and fortress of Jablunka, on the confines
of Hungary; prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, who commanded another army
which formed the blockade of Great Glogau, on the Oder, took the place by
scalade, made the generals Wallis and Reyski prisoners, with a thousand
men that were in garrison; here likewise the victor found the military
chest, fifty pieces of brass cannon, and a great quantity of ammunition.

The queen of Hungary had solicited the maritime powers for assistance, but
found them fearful and backward. Being obliged, therefore, to exert
herself with the more vigour, she ordered count Neuperg to assemble a body
of forces, and endeavour to stop the progress of the Prussians in Silesia.
The two armies encountered each other in the neighbourhood of Neiss, at a
village called Molwitz; and, after an obstinate dispute, the Austrians
were obliged to retire with the loss of four thousand men killed, wounded,
or taken. The advantage was dearly purchased by the king of Prussia. His
kinsman Frederick, margrave of Brandenburgh, and lieutenant-general
Schuylemberg, were killed in the engagement, together with a great number
of general officers, and about two thousand soldiers. After this action,
Brieg was surrendered to the Prussian, and he forced the important pass of
Fryewalde, which was defended by four thousand Austrian hussars. The
English and Dutch ministers, who accompanied him in his progress, spared
no pains to effect an accommodation; but the two sovereigns were too much
irritated against each other to acquiesce in any terms that could be
proposed. The queen of Hungary was incensed to find herself attacked, in
the day of her distress, by a prince to whom she had given no sort of
provocation; and his Prussian majesty charged the court of Vienna with a
design either to assassinate or carry him off by treachery; a design which
was disowned with expressions of indignation and disdain. Count Neuperg
being obliged to abandon Silesia, in order to oppose the Bavarian arms in
Bohemia, the king of Prussia sent thither a detachment to join the
elector, under the command of count Deslau, who, in his route, reduced
Glatz and Neiss, almost without opposition; then his master received the
homage of the Silesian states at Breslau, and returned to Berlin. In
December, the Prussian army was distributed in winter-quarters in Moravia,
after having taken Olmutz, the capital of that province; and in March his
Prussian majesty formed a camp of observation in the neighbourhood of
Magdeburgh.

A TREATY OF NEUTRALITY CONCLUDED WITH FRANCE FOR HANOVER.

The elector of Hanover was alarmed at the success of the king of Prussia,
in apprehension that he would become too formidable a neighbour. A scheme
was said to have been proposed to the court of Vienna, for attacking that
prince’s electoral dominions, and dividing the conquest; but it was never
put in execution. Nevertheless, the troops of Hanover were augmented; the
auxiliary Danes and Hessians in the pay of Great Britain were ordered to
be in readiness to march; and a good number of British forces encamped and
prepared for embarkation. The subsidy of three hundred thousand pounds,
granted by parliament, was remitted to the queen of Hungary; and every
thing seemed to presage the vigorous interposition of his Britannic
majesty. But in a little time after his arrival at Hanover, that spirit of
action seemed to flag, even while her Hungarian majesty tottered on the
verge of ruin. France resolved to seize this opportunity of crushing the
house of Austria. In order to intimidate the elector of Hanover,
mare-schal Mallebois was sent with a numerous army into Westphalia; and
this expedient proved effectual. A treaty of neutrality was concluded; and
the king of Great Britain engaged to vote for the elector of Bavaria at
the ensuing election of an emperor. The design of the French court was to
raise this prince to the Imperial dignity, and furnish him with such
succours as should enable him to deprive the queen of Hungary of her
hereditary dominions.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

A BODY OF FRENCH FORCES JOIN THE ELECTOR OF BAVARIA.

While the French minister at Vienna endeavoured to amuse the queen with
the strongest assurances of his master’s friendship, a body of
five-and-thirty thousand men began their march for Germany, in order to
join the elector of Bavaria; another French army was assembled upon the
Rhine; and the count de Belleisle being provided with large sums of money,
was sent to negotiate with different electors. Having thus secured a
majority of voices, he proceeded to Munich, where he presented the elector
of Bavaria with a commission, appointing him generalissimo of the French
troops marching to his assistance; and now the treaty of Nymphen-burgh was
concluded. The French king engaged to assist the elector with his whole
power, towards raising him to the Imperial throne: the elector promised,
that after his elevation he would never attempt to recover any of the
towns or provinces of the empire which France had conquered; that he
would, in his Imperial capacity, renounce the barrier-treaty; and agree
that France should irrevocably retain whatever places she should subdue in
the Austrian Netherlands. The next step of Belleisle was to negotiate
another treaty between France and Prussia, importing, that the elector of
Bavaria should possess Bohemia, Upper Austria, and the Tyrolese; that the
king of Poland should be gratified with Moravia and Upper Silesia; and
that his Prussian majesty should retain Lower Silesia, with the town of
Neiss and the county of Glatz. These precautions being taken, the count do
Belleisle repaired to Franck-fort, in quality of ambassador and
plenipotentiary from France, at the Imperial diet of election. It was in
this city that the French king published a declaration, signifying, that
as the king of Great Britain had assembled an army to influence the
approaching election of an emperor, his most christain majesty, as
guarantee of the treaty of Westphalia, had ordered some troops to advance
towards the Rhine, with a view to maintain the tranquillity of the
Germanie body, and secure the freedom of the Imperial election.

In July, the elector of Bavaria being joined by the French forces tinder
mareschal Broglio, surprised the Imperial city of Passau, upon the Danube;
and entering Upper Austria at the head of seventy thousand men, took
possession of Lintz, where he received the homage of the states of that
country. Understanding that the garrison of Vienna was very numerous, and
that count Palfi had assembled thirty thousand Hungarians in the
neighbourhood of this capital, he made no farther progress in Austria, but
marched into Bohemia, where he was reinforced by a considerable body of
Saxons, under the command of count Rutowski, natural son to the late king
of Poland. By this time his Polish majesty had acceded to the treaty of
Nymphenburgh, and declared war against the queen of Hungary, on the most
frivolous pretences. The elector of Bavaria advanced to Prague, which was
taken in the night by scalade; an achievement in which Maurice count of
Saxe, another natural son of the king of Poland, distinguished himself at
the head of the French forces. In December the elector of Bavaria made his
public entry into his capital, where he was proclaimed king of Bohemia,
and inaugurated with the usual solemnities; then he set out for
Franckfort, to be present at the diet of election.

At this period the queen of Hungary saw herself abandoned by all her
allies, and seemingly voted to destruction. She was not, however, forsaken
by her courage; nor destitute of good officers, and an able ministry. She
retired to Presburgh, and in a pathetic Latin speech to the states,
expressed her confidence in the loyalty and valour of her Hungarian
subjects. The nobility of that kingdom, touched with her presence and
distress, assured her unanimously that they would sacrifice their lives
and fortunes in her defence. The ban being raised, that brave people
crowded to her standard; and the diet expressed their sentiments against
her enemy by a public edict, excluding for ever the electoral house of
Bavaria from the succession to the crown of Hungary; yet, without the
subsidy she received from Great Britain, their courage and attachment
would have proved ineffectual. By this supply she was enabled to pay her
army, erect magazines, complete her warlike preparations, and put her
strong places in a posture of defence. In December, her generals Berenclau
and Mentzel, defeated count Thoring, who commanded eight thousand men, at
the pass of Scardingen, and opening their way to Bavaria, laid the whole
country under contribution; while count Khevenhuller retook the city of
Lintz, and drove the French troops out of Austria. The grand seignor
assured the queen of Hungary, that far from taking advantage of her
troubles, he should seize all opportunities to convince her of his
friendship; the pope permitted her to levy a tenth on the revenues of the
clergy within her dominions; and even to use all the church plate for the
support of the war.

WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

As the czarina expressed an inclination to assist this unfortunate
princess, the French court resolved to find her employment in another
quarter. They had already gained over to their interest count Gyllenburgh,
prime minister and president of the chancery in Sweden. A dispute
happening between him and Mr. Burnaby, the British resident at Stockholm,
some warm altercation passed: Mr. Burnaby was forbid the court, and
published a memorial in his own vindication; on the other hand, the king
of Sweden justified his conduct in a rescript sent to all the foreign
ministers. The king of Great Britain had proposed a subsidy-treaty to
Sweden, which, from the influence of French councils, was rejected. The
Swedes having assembled a numerous army in Finland, and equipped a large
squadron of ships, declared war against Eussia upon the most trifling
pretences; and the fleet putting to sea, commenced hostilities by blocking
up the Russian ports in Livonia. A body of eleven thousand Swedes,
commanded by general Wrangle, having advanced to Willmenstrand, were in
August attacked and defeated by general Lasci, at the head of thirty
thousand Russians. Count Lewenhaup, who commanded the main army of the
Swedes, resolved to take vengeance for this disgrace, after the Russian
troops had retired into winter quarters. In December he marched towards
Wybourg; but receiving letters from the prince of Hesse-Hombourg, and the
marquis de la Chetardie, the French ambassador at Petersburgh, informing
him of the surprising revolution which had just happened in Russia, and
proposing a suspension of hostilities, he retreated with his army in order
to wait for further instructions; and the two courts agreed to a cessation
of arms for three months.

REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA.

The Russians had been for some time discontented with their government.
The late czarina was influenced chiefly by German councils, and employed a
great number of foreigners in her service. These causes of discontent
produced factions and conspiracies; and when they were discovered, the
empress treated the authors of them with such severity as increased the
general disaffection. Besides, they were displeased at the manner in which
she had settled the succession. The prince of Brunswick Lunenberg Bovern,
father to the young czar, was not at all agreeable to the Russian
nobility; and his consort, the princess Anne of Mecklenburgh, having
assumed the reins of government during her son’s minority, seemed to
follow the maxims of her aunt the late czarina. The Russian grandees and
generals, therefore, turned their eyes upon the princess Elizabeth, who
was daughter of Peter the Great, and the darling of the empire. The French
ambassador gladly concurred in a project for deposing a princess who was
well affected to the house of Austria. General Lasci approved of the
design, which was chiefly conducted by the prince of Hesse-Hombourg, who,
in the reigns of the empress Catharine and Peter II., had been
generalissimo of the Russian army. The good will and concurrence of the
troops being secured, two regiments of guards took possession of all the
avenues of the imperial palace at Petersburgh. The princess Elizabeth,
putting herself at the head of one thousand men, on the fifth day of
December entered the winter palace, where the princess of Mecklenburgh and
the infant czar resided. She advanced into the chamber where the princess
and her consort lay, and desired them to rise and quit the palace, adding
that their persons were safe; and that they could not justly blame her for
asserting her right. At the same time, the counts Osterman, Golofhairkin,
Mingden, and Munich, were arrested; their papers and effects were seized,
and their persons conveyed to Schlisselbourgh, a fortress on the Neva.
Early in the morning the senate assembling, declared all that had passed
since the reign of Peter II. to be usurpation; and that the imperial
dignity belonged of right to the princess Elizabeth: she was immediately
proclaimed empress of all the Russias, and recognized by the army of
Finland. She forthwith published a general act of indemnity; she created
the prince of Hesse-Hombourg generalissimo of her armies; she restored the
Dolgorucky family to their honours and estates; she recalled and rewarded
all those who had been banished for favouring her pretensions; she
mitigated the exile of the duke of Courland, by indulging him with a
maintenance more suitable to his rank; she released general Wrangle, count
Wasaburgh, and the other Swedish officers who had been taken at the battle
of Willmenstrand; and the princess Anne of Mecklenburgh, with her consort
and children, were sent under a strong guard to Riga, the capital of
Livonia.

Amidst these tempests of war and revolution, the states-general wisely
determined to preserve their own tranquillity. It was doubtless their
interest to avoid the dangers and expense of a war, and to profit by that
stagnation of commerce which would necessarily happen among their
neighbours that were at open enmity with each other; besides, they were
over-awed by the declarations of the French monarch on one side; by the
power, activity, and pretensions of his Prussian majesty on the other; and
they dreaded the prospect of a stadtholder at the head of their army.
These at least were the sentiments of many Dutch patriots, reinforced by
others that acted under French influence. But the prince of Orange
numbered among his partisans and adherents many persons of dignity and
credit in the commonwealth; he was adored by the populace, who loudly
exclaimed against their governors, and clamoured for a war without
ceasing. This national spirit, joined to the remonstrances and
requisitions made by the courts of Vienna and London, obliged the states
to issue orders for an augmentation of their forces; but these were
executed so slowly, that neither France nor Prussia had much cause to take
umbrage at their preparations. In Italy, the king of Sardinia declared for
the house of Austria; the republic of Genoa was deeply engaged in the
French interest; the pope, the Venetians, and the dukedom of Tuscany were
neutral; the king of Naples resolved to support the claim of his family to
the Austrian dominions in Italy, and began to make preparations
accordingly. His mother, the queen of Spain, had formed a plan for
erecting these dominions into a monarchy for her second son Don Philip;
and a body of fifteen thousand men being embarked at Barcelona, were
transported to Orbitello, under the convoy of the united squadrons of
France and Spain. While admiral Haddock, with twelve ships of the line,
lay at anchor in the bay of Gibraltar, the Spanish fleet passed the
straits in the night, and was joined by the French squadron from Toulon.
The British admiral sailing from Gibraltar, fell in with them in a few
days, and found both squadrons drawn up in line of battle. As he bore down
upon the Spanish fleet, the French admiral sent a flag of truce, to inform
him that as the French and Spaniards were engaged in a joint expedition,
he should be obliged to act in concert with his master’s allies. This
interposition prevented an engagement. The combined fleets amounting to
double the number of the English squadron, admiral Haddock was obliged to
desist; and proceeded to Port-Mahon, leaving the enemy to prosecute their
voyage without molestation. The people of England were incensed at this
transaction, and did not scruple to affirm that the hands of the British
admiral were tied up by the neutrality of Hanover.*

* In the month of July, two ships of Haddock’s squadron
falling In with three French ships of war, captain Barnet,
the English commodore, supposing them to be Spanish register
ships, fired a shot in order to bring them to; and they
refusing to comply with this signal, a sharp engagement
ensued; after they had fought several hours, the French
commander ceased firing, and thought proper to come to an
explanation, when he and Barnet parted with mutual
apologies.

In the course of this year a dangerous conspiracy was discovered at New
York, in North America. One Hewson, a low publican, had engaged several
negroes in a design to destroy the town, and massacre the people. Fire was
set to several parts of the city; nine or ten negroes were apprehended,
convicted, and burned alive. Hewson, with his wife, and a servant maid
privy to the plot, were found guilty and hanged, though they died
protesting their innocence.

INACTIVITY OF THE NAVAL POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The court of Madrid seemed to have shaken off that indolence and phlegm
which had formerly disgraced the councils of Spain. They no sooner learned
the destination of commodore Anson, who had sailed from Spithead in the
course of the preceding year, than they sent Don Pizzaro with a more
powerful squadron upon the same voyage, to defeat his design. He
accordingly steered the same course, and actually fell in with one or two
ships of the British armament, near the straits of Magellan; but he could
not weather a long and furious tempest, through which Mr. Anson proceeded
into the South-Sea. One of the Spanish ships perished at sea; another was
wrecked on the coast of Brazil; and Pizzaro bore away for the Rio de la
Plata, where he arrived with the three remaining ships, in a shattered
condition, after having lost twelve hundred men by sickness and famine.
The Spaniards exerted the same vigilance and activity in Europe. Their
privateers were so industrious and successful, that in the beginning of
this year they had taken, since the commencement of the war, four hundred
and seven ships belonging to the subjects of Great Britain, valued at near
four millions of piastres. The traders had therefore too much cause to
complain, considering the formidable fleets which were maintained for the
protection of commerce. In the course of the summer, sir John Norris had
twice sailed towards the coast of Spain, at the head of a powerful
squadron, without taking any effectual step for annoying the enemy, as if
the sole intention of the ministry had been to expose the nation to the
ridicule and contempt of its enemies. The inactivity of the British arms
appears the more inexcusable, when we consider the great armaments which
had been prepared. The land forces of Great Britain, exclusive of the
Danish and Hessian auxiliaries, amounted to sixty thousand men; and the
fleet consisted of above one hundred ships of war, manned by fifty-four
thousand sailors.

The general discontent of the people had a manifest influence upon the
election of members for the new parliament, which produced one of the most
violent contests between the two parties which had happened since the
revolution. All the adherents of the prince of Wales concurred with the
country party, in opposition to the minister; and the duke of Argyle
exerted himself so successfully among the shires and boroughs of Scotland,
that the partisans of the ministry could not secure six members out of the
whole number returned from North Britain. They were, however, much more
fortunate in the election of the sixteen peers, who were chosen literally
according to the list transmitted from court. Instructions were delivered
by the constituents to a great number of members returned for cities and
counties, exhorting and requiring them to oppose a standing army in time
of peace; to vote for the mitigation of excise laws; for the repeal of
septennial parliaments; and for the limitation of placemen in the house of
commons. They likewise insisted upon their examining into the particulars
of the public expense, and endeavouring to redress the grievances of the
nation. Obstinate struggles were maintained in all parts of the united
kingdoms with uncommon ardour and perseverance; and such a national spirit
of opposition prevailed, that, notwithstanding the whole weight of
ministerial influence, the contrary interest seemed to preponderate in the
new parliament.

REMARKABLE MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS BY LORD SOMERSET.

The king returned to England in the month of October; and on the first day
of December the session was opened. Mr. Onslow being re-chosen speaker,
was approved of by his majesty, who spoke in the usual style to both
houses. He observed, that the former parliament had formed the strongest
resolutions in favour of the queen of Hungary, for the maintenance of the
pragmatic sanction; for the preservation of the balance of power, and the
peace and liberties of Europe; and that if the other powers which were
under the like engagements with him had answered the just expectations so
solemnly given, the support of the common cause would have been attended
with less difficulty. He said, he had endeavoured, by the most proper and
early applications, to induce other powers that were united with him by
the ties of common interest, to concert such measures as so important and
critical a conjuncture required; that where an accommodation seemed
necessary, he had laboured to reconcile princes whose union would have
been the most effectual means to prevent the mischiefs which had happened,
and the best security for the in terest and safety of the whole. He owned
his endeavours had not hitherto produced the desired effect; though he was
not without hope that a just sense of approaching danger would give a more
favourable turn to the councils of other nations. He represented the
necessity of putting the kingdom in such a posture of defence as would
enable him to improve all opportunities of maintaining the liberties of
Europe, and defeat any attempts that should be made against him and his
dominions; and he recommended unanimity, vigour, and despatch. The house
of commons having appointed their several committees, the speaker reported
the king’s speech; and Mr. Herbert moved for an address of thanks,
including an approbation of the means by which the war had been
prosecuted. The motion being seconded by Mr. Trevor, lord Noel Somerset
stood up and moved, that the house would in their address desire his
majesty not to engage these kingdoms in a war for the preservation of his
foreign dominions. He was supported by that incorruptible patriot Mr.
Shippen, who declared he was neither ashamed nor afraid to affirm that
thirty years had made no change in any of his political opinions. He said
he was grown old in the house of commons; that time had verified the
predictions he had formerly uttered; and that he had seen his conjectures
ripened into knowledge. “If my country,” added he, “has been so
unfortunate as once more to commit her interest to men who propose to
themselves no advantage from their trust but that of selling it, I may,
perhaps, fall once more under censure for declaring my opinion, and be
once more treated as a criminal for asserting what they who punish me
cannot deny; for maintaining that Hanoverian maxims are inconsistent with
the happiness of this nation; and for preserving the caution so strongly
inculcated by those patriots who framed the Act of Settlement, and
conferred upon the present royal family their title to the throne.” He
particularized the instances in which the ministry had acted in
diametrical opposition to that necessary constitution; and he insisted on
the necessity of taking some step to remove the apprehensions of the
people, who began to think themselves in danger of being sacrificed to the
security of foreign dominions. Mr. Gibbon, who spoke on the same side of
the question, expatiated upon the absurdity of returning thanks for the
prosecution of a war which had been egregiously mismanaged. “What!” said
he, “are our thanks to be solemnly returned for defeats, disgrace, and
losses, the ruin of our merchants, the imprisonment of our sailors, idle
shows of armaments, and useless expenses?” Sir Robert Walpole having made
a short speech in defence of the first motion for an address, was answered
by Mr. Pulteney, who seemed to be animated with a double proportion of
patriot indignation. He asserted, that from a review of that minister’s
conduct since the beginning of the dispute with Spain, it would appear
that he had been guilty not only of single errors, but of deliberate
treachery; that he had always co-operated with the enemies of his country,
and sacrificed to his private interest the happiness and honour of the
British nation. He then entered into a detail of that conduct against
which he had so often declaimed; and being transported by an overheated
imagination, accused him of personal attachment and affection to the
enemies of the kingdom. A charge that was doubtless the result of
exaggerated animosity, and served only to invalidate the other articles of
imputation that were much better founded. His objections were overruled;
and the address, as at first proposed, was presented to his majesty.

THE COUNTRY PARTY OBTAIN A MAJORITY IN THE COMMONS.

This small advantage, however, the minister did not consider as a proof of
his having ascertained an undoubted majority in the house of commons.
There was a great number of disputed elections; and the discussion of
these was the point on which the people had turned their eyes, as the
criterion of the minister’s power and credit. In the first which was heard
at the bar of the house, he carried his point by a majority of six only;
and this he looked upon as a defeat rather than a victory. His enemies
exulted in their strength; as they knew they should be joined, in matters
of importance, by several members who voted against them on this occasion.
The inconsiderable majority that appeared on the side of the
administration, plainly proved that the influence of the minister was
greatly diminished, and seemed to prognosticate his further decline. This
consideration induced some individuals to declare against him as a setting
sun, from whose beams they could expect no further warmth. His adherents
began to tremble; and he himself had occasion for all his art and
equanimity. The court interest was not sufficient to support the election
of their own members for Westminster. The high-bailiff had been guilty of
some illegal practices at the poll; and three justices of the peace had,
on pretence of preventing riots, sent for a military force to overawe the
election. A petition presented by the electors of Westminster was taken
into consideration by the house; and the election was declared void by a
majority of four voices. The high-bailiff was taken into custody; the
officer who ordered the soldiers to march, and the three justices who
signed the letter, in consequence of which he acted, were reprimanded on
their knees at the bar of the house.

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE CREATED EARL OF ORFORD.

The country party maintained the advantage they had gained in deciding
upon several other controverted elections; and sir Robert Walpole tottered
on the brink of ruin. He knew that the majority of a single vote would at
any time commit him prisoner to the Tower, should ever the motion be made;
and he saw that his safety could be effected by no other expedient but
that of dividing the opposition. Towards the accomplishment of this
purpose he employed all his credit and dexterity. His emissaries did not
fail to tamper with those members of the opposite party who were the most
likely to be converted by their arguments. A message was sent by the
bishop of Oxford to the prince of Wales, importing, That if his royal
highness would write a letter of condescension to the king, he and all his
counsellors should be taken into favour; that fifty thousand pounds should
be added to his revenue; four times that sum be disbursed immediately for
the payment of his debts; and suitable provision be made in due time for
all his followers. The prince declined this proposal. He declared that he
would accept no such conditions while sir Robert Walpole continued to
direct the public affairs; that he looked upon him as a bar between his
majesty and the affections of his people; as the author of the national
grievances both at home and abroad; and as the sole cause of that contempt
which Great Britain had incurred in all the courts of Europe. His royal
highness was now chief of this formidable party, revered by the whole
nation—a party which had gained the ascendancy in the house of
commons; which professed to act upon the principles of public virtue;
which demanded the fall of an odious minister, as a sacrifice due to an
injured people; and declared that no temptation could shake their virtue;
that no art could dissolve the cement by which they were united. Sir
Robert Walpole, though repulsed in his attempt upon the prince of Wales,
was more successful in his other endeavours. He resolved to try his
strength once more in the house of commons, in another disputed election;
and had the mortification to see the majority augmented to sixteen voices.
He declared he would never more sit in that house; and next day, which was
the third of February, the king adjourned both houses of parliament to the
eighteenth day of the same month. In this interim sir Robert Walpole was
created earl of Orford, and resigned all his employments.

CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.

At no time of his life did he acquit himself with such prudential policy
as he now displayed. He found means to separate the parts that composed
the opposition, and to transfer the popular odium from himself to those
who had professed themselves his keenest adversaries. The country-party
consisted of the tories, reinforced by discontented whigs, who had either
been disappointed in their own ambitious views, or felt for the distresses
of their country, occasioned by a weak and worthless administration. The
old patriots, and the whigs whom they had joined, acted upon very
different, and, indeed, upon opposite principles of government; and
there-fore they were united only by the ties of convenience. A coalition
was projected between the discontented whigs, and those of the same
denomination who acted in the ministry. Some were gratified with titles
and offices; and all were assured, that in the management of affairs a new
system would be adopted, according to the plan they themselves should
propose. The court required nothing of them, but that the earl of Orford
should escape with impunity. His place of chancellor of the exchequer was
bestowed upon Mr. Sandys, who was likewise appointed a lord of the
treasury; and the earl of Wilmington succeeded him as first commissioner
of that board. Lord Harrington, being dignified with the title of carl,
was declared president of the council; and in his room lord Carteret
became secretary of state. The duke of Argyle was made master-general of
the ordnance, colonel of his majesty’s royal regiment of horse guards,
field-marshal and commander-in-chief of all the forces in South-Britain;
but, finding himself disappointed in his expectations of the coalition,
he, in less than a month, renounced all these employments. The marquis of
Tweedale was appointed secretary of state for Scotland, a post which had
been long suppressed; Mr. Pulteney was sworn of the privy-council, and
afterwards created earl of Bath. The earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham was
preferred to the head of the admiralty, in the room of sir Charles Wager;
and, after the resignation of the duke of Argyle, the earl of Stair was
appointed field-marshal of all his majesty’s forces, as well as
ambassador-extraordinary to the states-general. On the seventeenth day of
February the prince of Wales, attended by a numerous retinue of his
adherents, waited on his majesty, who received him graciously, and ordered
his guards to be restored. Lord Carteret and Mr. Sandys were the first who
embraced the offers of the court, without the consent or privity of any
other leaders in the opposition, except that of Mr. Pulteney; but they
declared to their friends, they would still proceed upon patriot
principles; that they would concur in promoting an inquiry into past
measures; and in enacting necessary laws to secure the constitution from
the practices of corruption. These professions were believed, not only by
their old coadjutors in the house of commons, but also by the nation in
general. The reconciliation between the king and the prince of Wales,
together with the change in the ministry, were celebrated with public
rejoicings all over the kingdom; and immediately after the adjournment
nothing but concord appeared in the house of commons.

INQUIRY INTO THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

But this harmony was of short duration. It soon appeared, that those who
had declaimed the loudest for the liberties of their country, had been
actuated solely by the most sordid and even the most ridiculous motives of
self-interest. Jealousy and mutual distrust ensued between them and their
former confederates. The nation complained, that, instead of a total
change of men and measures, they saw the old ministry strengthened by this
coalition; and the same interest in parliament predominating with
redoubled influence. They branded the new converts as apostates and
betrayers of their country; and in the transports of their indignation,
they entirely overlooked the old object of their resentment. That a
nobleman of pliant principles, narrow fortune, and unbounded ambition,
should forsake his party for the blandishments of affluence, power, and
authority, will not appear strange to any person acquainted with the human
heart; but the sensible part of mankind will always reflect with amazement
upon the conduct of a man, who seeing himself idolized by his
fellow-citizens, as the first and firmest patriot in the kingdom, as one
of the most shining ornaments of his country, could give up all his
popularity, and incur the contempt or detestation of mankind, for the
wretched consideration of an empty title, without office, influence, or
the least substantial appendage. One cannot, without an emotion of grief,
contemplate such an instance of infatuation—one cannot but lament
that such glory should have been so weakly forfeited; that such talents
should have been lost to the cause of liberty and virtue. Doubtless he
flattered himself with the hope of one day directing the councils of his
sovereign; but this was never accomplished, and he remained a solitary
monument of blasted ambition. Before the change in the ministry, Mr.
Pulteney moved, that the several papers relating to the conduct of the
war, which had been laid before the house, should be referred to a select
committee, who should examine strictly into the particulars, and make a
report to the house of their remarks and objections. The motion introduced
a debate; but, upon a division, was rejected by a majority of three
voices. Petitions having been presented by the merchants of London,
Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, and almost all the trading towns in the
kingdom, complaining of the losses they had sustained by the bad conduct
of the war, the house resolved itself into a committee to deliberate on
these remonstrances. The articles of the London petition were explained by
Mr. Glover, an eminent merchant of that city. Six days were spent in
perusing papers and examining witnesses; then the same gentleman summed up
the evidence, and in a pathetic speech endeavoured to demonstrate, that
the commerce of Great Britain had been exposed to the insults and rapine
of the Spaniards, not by inattention or accident, but by one uniform and
continued design. This inquiry being resumed after the adjournment, copies
of instructions to admirals and captains of cruising ships were laid
before the house: the commons passed several resolutions, upon which a
bill was prepared for the better protecting and securing the trade and
navigation of the kingdom. It made its way through the lower house; but
was thrown out by the lords. The pension-bill was revived and sent up to
the peers, where it was again rejected, lord Carteret voting against that
very measure which he had so lately endeavoured to promote. On the ninth
day of March, lord Limerick made a motion for appointing a committee to
inquire into the conduct of affairs for the last twenty years; he was
seconded by sir John St. Aubyn, and supported by Mr. Velters Cornwall, Mr.
Phillips, Mr. W. Pitt, and lord Percival, the new member for Westminster,
who had already signalized himself by his eloquence and capacity. The
motion was opposed by sir Charles Wager, Mr. Pelham, and Mr. Henry Pox,
surveyor-general to his majesty’s works, and brother to lord Ilchester.
Though the opposition was faint and frivolous, the proposal was rejected
by a majority of two voices.

1742

Lord Limerick, not yet discouraged, made a motion on the twenty-third day
of March, for an inquiry into the conduct of Robert earl of Orford, for
the last ten years of his administration; and, after a sharp debate, it
was carried in the affirmative. The house resolved to choose a secret
committee by ballot; and in the meantime presented an address to the king,
assuring him of their fidelity, zeal, and affection.

Sir Robert Godschall having moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal
the act for septennial parliaments, he was seconded by sir John Barnard;
but warmly opposed by Mr. Pulteney and Mr. Sandys; and the question passed
in the negative. The committee of secrecy being chosen, began to examine
evidence, and Mr. Paxton, solicitor to the treasury, refusing to answer
such questions as were put to him, lord Limerick, chairman of the
committee, complained to the house of his obstinacy. He was first taken
into custody; and still persisting in his refusal, committed to Newgate.
Then his lordship moved, that leave should be given to bring in a bill for
indemnifying evidence against the earl of Orford; and it was actually
prepared by a decision of the majority. In the house of lords it was
vigorously opposed by lord Carteret, and as strenuously supported by the
duke of Argyle; but fell upon a division, by the weight of superior
numbers. Those members in the house of commons who heartily wished the
inquiry might be prosecuted, were extremely incensed at the fate of this
bill. A committee was appointed to search the journals of the lords for
precedents; their report being read, lord Strange, son to the earl of
Derby, moved for a resolution, “That the lords refusing to concur with the
commons of Great Britain, in an indemnification necessary to the effectual
carrying on the inquiry now depending in parliament, is an obstruction to
justice, and may prove fatal to the liberties of this nation.”—This
motion, which was seconded by lord Quarendon, son of the earl of
Lichfield, gave rise to a warm debate; and Mr. Sandys declaimed against
it, as a step that would bring on an immediate dissolution of the present
form of government. It is really amazing to see with what effrontery some
men can shift their maxims, and openly contradict the whole tenor of their
former conduct. Mr. Sandys did not pass uncensured: he sustained some
severe sarcasms on his apostacy from sir John Hinde Cotton, who refuted
all his objections; nevertheless, the motion passed in the negative.
Notwithstanding this great obstruction, purposely thrown in the way of the
inquiry, the secret committee discovered many flagrant instances of fraud
and corruption in which the earl of Orford had been concerned. It
appeared, that he had granted fraudulent contracts for paying the troops
in the West Indies; that he had employed iniquitous arts to influence
elections; that for secret service, during the last ten years, he had
touched one million four hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred pounds
of public money; that above fifty thousand pounds of this sum had been
paid to authors and printers of newspapers and political tracts, written
in defence of the ministry; that on the very day which preceded his
resignation, he had signed orders on the civil list revenues for above
thirty thousand pounds; but as the cash remaining in the exchequer did not
much exceed fourteen thousand pounds, he had raised the remaining part of
the thirty thousand, by pawning the orders to a banker. The committee
proceeded to make further progress in their scrutiny, and had almost
prepared a third report, when they were interrupted by the prorogation of
parliament.

The ministry finding it was necessary to take some step for conciliating
the affection of the people, gave way to a bill for excluding certain
officers from scats in the house of commons. They passed another for
encouraging the linen manufacture; a third for regulating the trade of the
plantations; and a fourth to prevent the marriage of lunatics. They voted
forty thousand seamen, and sixty-two thousand five hundred landmen, for
the service of the current year. They provided for the subsidies to
Denmark and Hesse-Cassel, and voted five hundred thousand pounds to the
queen of Hungary. The expense of the year amounted to near six millions,
raised by the land-tax at four shillings in the pound, by the malt-tax, by
one million from the sinking-fund, by annuities granted upon it for eight
hundred thousand pounds, and a loan of one million six hundred thousand
pounds from the bank. In the month of July, John lord Gower was appointed
keeper of his majesty’s privy-seal; Allen lord Bathurst was made captain
of the band of pensioners; and on the fifteenth day of the month, Mr.
Pulteney took his seat in the house of peers as earl of Bath. The king
closed the session in the usual way, after having given them to
understand, that a treaty of peace was concluded between the queen of
Hungary and the king of Prussia, under his mediation; and that the late
successes of the Austrian arms were in a great measure owing to the
generous assistance afforded by the British nation.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE ELECTOR OF BAVARIA CHOSEN EMPEROR.

By this time great changes had happened in the affairs of the continent.
The elector of Bavaria was chosen emperor of Germany at Franckfort on the
Maine, and crowned by the name of Charles VII. on the twelfth day of
February. Thither the imperial diet was removed from Batisbon; they
confirmed his election, and indulged him with a subsidy of fifty Roman
months, amounting to about two hundred thousand pounds sterling. In the
meantime the Austrian general, Khevenhuller, ravaged his electorate, and
made himself master of Munich the capital of Bavaria; he likewise laid
part of the palatinate under contribution, in resentment for that
elector’s having sent a body of his troops to reinforce the Imperial army.
In March, count Saxe, with a detachment of French and Bavarians, reduced
Egra; and the Austrians were obliged to evacuate Bavaria, though they
afterwards returned. Khevenhuller took post in the neighbourhood of
Passau, and detached general Beraclau to Dinglesing on the Iser, to
observe the motions of the enemy, who were now become extremely
formidable. In May, a detachment of French and Bavarians advanced to the
castle of Hilk-Ersberg on the Danube, with a view to take possession of a
bridge over the river; the Austrian garrison immediately marched out to
give them battle, and a severe action ensued, in which the Imperialists
were defeated.

THE KING OF PRUSSIA GAINS THE BATTLE AT CZASLAW.

In the beginning of the year the queen of Hungary had assembled two
considerable armies in Moravia and Bohemia. Prince Charles of Lorraine, at
the head of fifty thousand men, advanced against the Saxons and Prussians,
who thought proper to retire with precipitation from Moravia, which they
had invaded. Then the prince took the route to Bohemia; and marshal
Broglio, who commanded the French forces in that country, must have fallen
a sacrifice, had not the king of Prussia received a strong reinforcement,
and entered that kingdom before his allies could be attacked. The two
armies advanced towards each other; and on the seventeenth of May joined
battle at Czaslaw, where the Austrians at first gained a manifest
advantage, and penetrated as far as the Prussian baggage; then the
irregulars began to plunder so eagerly, that they neglected every other
consideration. The Prussian infantry took this opportunity to rally; the
battle was renewed, and after a very obstinate contest, the victory was
snatched out of the hands of the Austrians, who were obliged to retire
with the loss of five thousand men killed, and twelve hundred taken by the
enemy. The Prussians paid dear for the honour of remaining on the field of
battle; and from the circumstances of this action, the king is said to
have conceived a disgust to the war. When the Austrians made such progress
in the beginning of the engagement, he rode off with great expedition,
until he was recalled by a message from his general, the count de
Schwerin, assuring his majesty that there was no danger of a defeat.
Immediately after this battle, he discovered an inclination to accommodate
all differences with the queen of Hungary. The earl of Hyndford,
ambassador from the court of Great Britain, who accompanied him in this
campaign, and was vested with full powers by her Hungarian majesty, did
not fail to cultivate this favourable disposition; and on the first day of
June, a treaty of peace between the two powers was concluded at Breslau.
The queen ceded to his Prussian majesty the Upper and Lower Selesia, with
the county of Glatz in Bohemia; and he charged himself with the payment of
the sum lent by the merchants of London to the late emperor, on the
Silesian revenues. He likewise engaged to observe a strict neutrality
during the war, and to withdraw his forces from Bohemia in fifteen, days
after the ratification of the treaty, in which were comprehended the king
of Great Britain elector of Hanover, the czarina, the king of Denmark, the
states-general, the house of Wolfenbuttle, and the king of Poland elector
of Saxony, on certain conditions, which were accepted.

The king of Prussia recalled his troops; while mare-schal Broglio, who
commanded the French auxiliaries in that kingdom, and the count de
Belleisle, abandoned their magazines and baggage, and retired with
precipitation under the cannon of Prague. There they intrenched themselves
in an advantageous situation; and prince Charles being joined by the other
body of Austrians, under prince Lobkowitz, encamped in sight of them on
the hills of Girinsnitz. The grand duke of Tuscany arrived in the Austrian
army, of which he took the command; and the French generals offered to
surrender Prague, Egra, and all the other places they possessed in
Bohemia, provided they might be allowed to march off with their arms,
artillery, and baggage. The proposal was rejected, and Prague invested on
all sides about the end of July. Though the operations of the siege were
carried on in an awkward and slovenly manner, the place was so effectually
blocked up, that famine must have compelled the French to surrender at
discretion, had not very extraordinary efforts been made for their relief.
The emperor had made advances to the queen of Hungary. He promised that
the French forces should quit Bohemia, and evacuate the empire; and he
offered to renounce all pretensions to the kingdom of Bohemia, on
condition that the Austrians would restore Bavaria; but these conditions
were declined by the court of Vienna. The king of France was no sooner
apprized of the condition to which the generals Broglio and Belleisle were
reduced, than he sent orders to mareshal Maillebois, who commanded his
army on the Bhine, to march to their relief. His troops were immediately
put in motion; and when they reached Amberg in the Upper Palatinate, were
joined by the French and Imperialists from Bavaria. Prince Charles of
Lorraine having received intelligence of their junction and design, left
eighteen thousand men to maintain the blockade of Prague, under the
command of general Festititz, while he himself, with the rest of his army,
advanced to Hay-don on the frontiers of Bohemia. There he was joined by
count Khevenhuller, who from Bavaria had followed the enemy, now commanded
by count Seckendorf, and the count de Saxe. Seckendorf however was sent
back to Bavaria, while mareschal Maillebois entered Bohemia on the
twenty-fifth day of September. But he marched with such precaution, that
prince Charles could not bring him to an engagement. Meanwhile Festititz,
for want of sufficient force, was obliged to abandon the blockade of
Prague; and the French generals being now at liberty, took post at
Leutmaritz. Maillebois advanced as far as Kadan; but seeing the Austrians
possessed of all the passes of the mountains, he marched back to the
palatinate, and was miserably harassed in his retreat by prince Charles,
who had left a strong body with prince Lobkowitz to watch the motions of
Belleisle and Broglio.

EXTRAORDINARY RETREAT OF M. DE BELLEISLE.

These generals seeing themselves surrounded on all hands, returned to
Prague, from whence Broglio made his escape in the habit of a courier, and
was sent to command the army of Maillebois, who was by this time
disgraced. Prince Lobkowitz, who now directed the blockade of Prague, had
so effectually cut off all communication between that place and the
adjacent country, that in a little time the French troops were reduced to
great extremity, both from the severity of the season, and the want of
provisions. They were already reduced to the necessity of eating horse
flesh, and unclean animals; and they had no other prospect but that of
perishing by famine or war, when their commander formed the scheme of a
retreat, which was actually put in execution. Having taken some artful
precautions to deceive the enemy, he, in the middle of December, departed
from Prague at midnight, with about fourteen thousand men, thirty pieces
of artillery, and some of the principal citizens as hostages for the
safety of nine hundred soldiers whom he had left in garrison.
Notwithstanding the difficulties he must have encountered at that season
of the year, in a broken and unfrequented road, which he purposely chose,
he marched with such expedition, that he had gained the passes of the
mountains before he was overtaken by the horse and hussars of prince
Lobkowitz. The fatigue and hardships which the miserable soldiers
underwent are inexpressible. A great number perished in the snow, and many
hundreds, fainting with weariness, cold, and hunger, were left to the
mercy of the Austrian irregulars, consisting of the most barbarous people
on the face of the earth. The count de Belleisle, though tortured with the
hip-gout, behaved with surprising resolution and activity. He caused
himself to be carried on a litter to every place where he thought his
presence was necessary, and made such dispositions, that the pursuers
never could make an impression upon the body of his troops; but all his
artillery, baggage, and even his own equipage, fell into the hands of the
enemy. On the twenty-ninth day of December, he arrived at Egra, from
whence he proceeded to Alsace without further molestation; but when he
returned to Versailles, he met with a very cold reception, notwithstanding
the gallant exploit which he had performed. After his escape, prince
Lobkowitz returned to Prague, and the small garrison which Belleisle had
left in that place surrendered upon honourable terms; so that this capital
reverted to the house of Austria.

THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN FORMS AN ARMY IN FLANDERS.

The king of Great Britain resolved to make a powerful diversion in the
Netherlands, and in the month of April, ordered sixteen thousand effective
men to be embarked for that country; but as this step was taken without
any previous concert with the states-general, the earl of Stair, destined
to the command of the forces in Flanders, was in the meantime appointed
ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to their high mightinesses,
in order to persuade them to co-operate vigorously in the plan which his
Britannic majesty had formed; a plan by which Great Britain was engaged as
a principal in a foreign dispute, and entailed upon herself the whole
burden of an expensive war, big with ruin and disgrace. England, from
being the umpire, was now become a party in all continental quarrels; and,
instead of trimming the balance of Europe, lavished away her blood and
treasure in supporting the interest and allies of a puny electorate in the
north of Germany. The king of Prussia had been at variance with the
elector of Hanover. The duchy of Mecklenburgh was the avowed subject of
dispute; but his Prussian majesty is said to have had other more provoking
causes of complaint, which however he did not think proper to divulge. The
king of Great Britain found it convenient to accommodate these
differences. In the course of this summer the two powers concluded a
convention, in consequence of which the troops of Hanover evacuated
Mecklenburgh, and three regiments of Brandenburgh took possession of those
bailiwicks that were mortgaged to the king of Prussia. The elector of
Hanover being now secured from danger, sixteen thousand troops of that
country, together with the six thousand auxiliary Hessians, began their
march for the Netherlands; and about the middle of October arrived in the
neighbourhood of Brussels, where they encamped. The earl of Stair repaired
to Ghent, where the British forces were quartered: a body of Austrians was
assembled; and though the season was far advanced, he seemed determined
upon some expedition; but all of a sudden the troops were sent into
winter-quarters. The Austrians retired to Luxembourg; the English and
Hessians remained in Flanders; and the Hanoverians marched into the county
of Liege, without paying any regard to the bishop’s protestation.

PROGRESS OF THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The states-general had made a considerable augmentation of their forces by
sea and land; but, notwithstanding the repeated instances of the earl of
Stair, they resolved to adhere to their neutrality; they dreaded the
neighbourhood of the French; and they were far from being pleased to see
the English get footing in the Netherlands. The friends of the house of
Orange began to exert themselves; the states of Groningen and West
Friesland protested, in favour of the prince, against the promotion of
foreign generals which had lately been made; but his interest was
powerfully opposed by the provinces of Zealand and Holland, which had the
greatest weight in the republic. The revolution in Russia did not put an
end to the war with Sweden. These two powers had agreed to an armistice of
three months, during which the czarina augmented her forces in Finland.

She likewise ordered the counts Osterman and Munich, with their adherents,
to be tried; they were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold,
and sent in exile to Siberia. The Swedes, still encouraged by the
intrigues of France, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation,
unless Carelia, and the other conquests of the czar Peter, should be
restored. The French court had expected to bring over the new empress to
their measures; but they found her as well disposed as her predecessor to
assist the house of Austria. She remitted a considerable sum of money to
the queen of Hungary; and at the same time congratulated the elector of
Bavaria on his elevation to the Imperial throne. The ceremony of her
coronation was performed in May, with great solemnity, at Moscow; and in
November she declared her nephew, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, her
successor, by the title of grand prince of all the Russias. The cessation
of arms being expired, general Lasci reduced Fredericksheim, and obliged
the Swedish army, commanded by count Lewenhaupt, to retire before him,
from one place to another, until at length they were quite surrounded near
Helsingsors. In this emergency the Swedish general submitted to a
capitulation, by which his infantry were transported by sea to Sweden; his
cavalry marched by land to Abo; and his artillery and magazines remained
in the hands of the Russians. The king of Sweden being of an advanced age,
the diet assembled in order to settle the succession; and the duke of
Holstein-Gottorp, as grandson to the eldest sister of Charles XII., was
declared next heir to the crown. A courier was immediately despatched to
Moscow, to notify to the duke this determination of the diet; and this
message was followed by a deputation; but when they understood that he had
embraced the religion of the Greek church, and been acknowledged successor
to the throne of Russia, they annulled his election for Sweden, and
resolved that the succession should not be re-established until a peace
should be concluded with the czarina. Conferences were opened at Abo for
this purpose. In the meantime, the events of war had been so long
unfortunate for Sweden, that it was absolutely necessary to appease the
indignation of the people with some sacrifice. The generals Lewenhaupt and
Bodenbrock were tried by a court-martial for misconduct; being found
guilty and condemned to death, they applied to the diet, by which the
sentence was confirmed. The term of the subsidy-treaty between Great
Britain and Denmark expiring, his Danish majesty refused to renew it; nor
would he accede to the peace of Breslau. On the other hand, he became
subsidiary to France, with which also he concluded a new treaty of
commerce.

THE KING OF SARDINIA DECLARES FOR THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.

The court of Versailles were now heartily tired of maintaining the war in
Germany, and had actually made equitable proposals of peace to the queen
of Hungary, by whom they were rejected. Thus repulsed, they redoubled
their preparations; and endeavoured, by advantageous offers, to detach the
king of Sardinia from the interest of the house of Austria. This prince
had espoused a sister to the grand duke, who pressed him to declare for
her brother, and the queen of Hungary promised to gratify him with some
territories in the Milanese; besides, he thought the Spaniards had already
gained too much ground in Italy; but, at the same time, he was afraid of
being crushed between France and Spain, before he could be properly
supported. He therefore temporized, and protracted the negotiation, until
he was alarmed at the progress of the Spanish arms in Italy, and fixed in
his determination by the subsidies of Great Britain. The Spanish army
assembled at Rimini under the duke de Montemar; and being joined by the
Neapolitan forces, amounted to sixty thousand men, furnished with a large
train of artillery. About the beginning of May, they entered the
Bolognese; then the king of Sardinia declaring against them, joined the
Austrian army commanded by count Traun; marched into the duchy of Parma;
and understanding that the duke of Modena had engaged in a treaty with the
Spaniards, dispossessed that prince of his dominions. The duke de
Montemar, seeing his army diminished by sickness and desertion, retreated
to the kingdom of Naples, and was followed by the king of Sardinia as
far-as Rimini.

Here he received intelligence that Don Philip, third son of his catholic
majesty, had made an irruption into Savoy with another army of Spaniards,
and already taken possession of Chamberri, the capital. He forthwith began
his march for Piedmont. Don Philip abandoned Savoy at his approach, and
retreating into Dauphiné, took post under the cannon of fort Barreaux. The
king pursued him thither, and both armies remained in sight of each other
till the month of December, when the marquis de Minas, an active and
enterprising general, arrived from Madrid, and took upon him the command
of the forces under Don Philip. This general’s first exploit was against
the castle of Aspremont, in the neighbourhood of the Sardinian camp. He
attacked it so vigorously, that the garrison was obliged to capitulate in
four-and-forty hours. The loss of this important post compelled the king
to retire into Piedmont, and the Spaniards marched back into Savoy, where
they established their winter quarters. In the meantime the duke de
Montemar, who directed the other Spanish army, though the duke of Modena
was nominal generalissimo, resigned his command to count Gages, who
attempted to penetrate into Tuscany; but was prevented by the vigilance of
count Traun, the Austrian general. In December he quartered his troops in
the Bolognese and Romagna; while the Austrians and Piedmontese were
distributed in the Modenese and Parmesan. The pope was passive during the
whole campaign; the Venetians maintained their neutrality, and the king of
the two Sicilies was overawed by the British fleet in the Mediterranean.

The new ministry in England had sent out admiral Matthews to assume the
command of this squadron, which had been for some time conducted by
Lestock, an inferior officer, as Haddock had been obliged to resign his
commission on account of his ill state of health. Matthews was likewise
invested with the character of minister-plenipotentiary to the king of
Sardinia and the states of Italy. Immediately after he had taken
possession of his command, he ordered captain Norris to destroy five
Spanish galleys which had put into the bay of St. Tropez; and this service
was effectually performed. In May he detached commodore Rowley, with eight
sail, to cruise off the harbour of Toulon; and a great number of merchant
ships belonging to the enemy fell into his hands. In August he sent
commodore Martin with another squadron into the bay of Naples, to bombard
that city, unless his Sicilian majesty would immediately recall his
troops, which had joined the Spanish army, and promise to remain neutral
during the continuance of the war. Naples was immediately filled with
consternation; the king subscribed to these conditions; and the English
squadron rejoined the admiral on the road of Hieres, which he had chosen
for his winter station. Before this period he had landed some men at St.
Remo, in the territories of Genoa, and destroyed the magazines that were
erected for the use of the Spanish army. He had likewise ordered two of
his cruisers to attack a Spanish ship of the line which lay at anchor in
the port of Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica; but the Spanish captain set
his men on shore, and blew up his ship, rather than she should fall into
the hands of the English.

OPERATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES.

In the course of this year admiral Vernon and general Wentworth made
another effort in the West Indies. They had in January received a
reinforcement from England, and planned a new expedition, in concert with
the governor of Jamaica, who accompanied them in their voyage. Their
design was to disembark the troops at Porto-Bello, and march across the
isthmus of Darien to attack the rich town of Panama. They sailed from
Jamaica on the ninth day of March, and on the twenty-eighth arrived at
Porto-Bello. There they held a council of war, in which it was resolved,
that as the troops were sickly, the rainy season begun, and several
transports not yet arrived, the intended expedition was become
impracticable. In pursuance of this determination, the armament
immediately returned to Jamaica, exhibiting a ridiculous spectacle of
folly and irresolution.*

* In May, two English frigates, commanded by captain Smith
and captain Stuart, fell in with three Spanish ships of war,
near the island of St. Christopher’s. They forthwith
engaged, and the action continued till night, by the favour
of which the enemy retired to Porto Rico in a scattered
condition.—In the month of September, the Tilbury ship of
war, of sixty guns, was accidentally set on fire, and
destroyed, off the island of Hispaniola, on which occasion
one hundred and twenty-seven men perished; the rest were
saved by captain Hoare of the Defiance, who happened to be
on the same cruise.

In August, a ship of war was sent from thence, with about three hundred
soldiers, to the small island of Rattan in the bay of Honduras, of which
they took possession. In September, Vernon and Wentworth received orders
to return to England with such troops as remained alive; these did not
amount to a tenth part of the number which had been sent abroad in that
inglorious service. The inferior officers fell ignobly by sickness and
despair, without an opportunity of signalizing their courage, and the
commanders lived to feel the scorn and reproach of their country. In the
month of June the new colony of Georgia was invaded by an armament from
St. Augustine, commanded by Don Marinel de Monteano, governor of that
fortress. It consisted of six-and-thirty ships, from which four thousand
men were landed at St. Simon’s; and began their march for Frederica.
General Oglethorpe, with a handful of men, took such wise precautions for
opposing their progress, and harassed them in their march with such
activity and resolution, that after two of their detachments had been
defeated, they retired to their ships and totally abandoned the
enterprise.

In England the merchants still complained that their commerce was not
properly protected, and the people clamoured against the conduct of the
war. They said, their burdens were increased to maintain quarrels with
which they had no concern; to defray the enormous expense of inactive
fleets and pacific armies. Lord Carteret had by this time insinuated
himself into the confidence of his sovereign, and engrossed the whole
direction of public affairs. The war with Spain was now become a secondary
consideration, and neglected accordingly; while the chief attention of the
new minister was turned upon the affairs of the continent. The dispute
with Spain concerned Britain only. The interests of Hanover were connected
with the troubles of the empire. By pursuing this object he soothed the
wishes of his master, and opened a more ample field for his own ambition.
He had studied the policy of the continent with peculiar eagerness. This
was the favourite subject of his reflection, upon which he thought and
spoke with a degree of enthusiasm. The intolerable taxes, the poverty, the
ruined commerce of his country, the iniquity of standing armies, votes of
credit, and foreign connexions, upon which he had so often expatiated,
were now forgotten or overlooked. He saw nothing but glory, conquest, or
acquired dominion. He set the power of France at defiance; and as if Great
Britain had felt no distress, but teemed with treasure which she could not
otherwise employ, he poured forth her millions with a rash and desperate
hand, in purchasing beggarly allies, and maintaining mercenary armies. The
earl of Stair had arrived in England towards the end of August, and
conferred with his majesty. A privy-council was summoned; and in a few
days that nobleman returned to Holland. Lord Carteret was sent with a
commission to the Hague in September; and when he returned, the baggage of
the king and the duke of Cumberland, which had been shipped for Flanders,
was ordered to be brought on shore. The parliament met on the sixteenth
day of November, when his majesty told them, that he had augmented the
British forces in the low countries with sixteen thousand Hanoverians and
the Hessian auxiliaries, in order to form such a force, in conjunction
with the Austrian troops, as might be of service to the common cause at
all events. He extolled the magnanimity and fortitude of the queen of
Hungary, as well as the resolute conduct of the king of Sardinia, and that
prince’s strict adherence to his engagements, though attacked in his own
dominions. He mentioned the requisition made by Sweden, of his good
offices for procuring a peace between that nation and Eussia; the
defensive alliances which he had concluded with the czarina, and with the
king of Prussia; as events which could not have been expected, if Great
Britain had not manifested a seasonable spirit and vigour in defence and
assistance of her ancient allies, and in maintaining the liberties of
Europe. He said the honour and interest of his crown and kingdoms, the
success of the war with Spain, the re-establishment of the balance and
tranquillity of Europe, would greatly depend on the prudence and vigour of
their resolution. The marquis of Tweedale moved for an address of thanks,
which was opposed by the earl of Chesterfield, for the reasons so often
urged on the same occasion; but supported by lord Carteret on his
new-adopted maxims, with those specious arguments which he could at all
times produce, delivered with amazing serenity and assurance. The motion
was agreed to, and the address presented to his majesty. About this period
a treaty of mutual defence and guarantee between his majesty and the king
of Prussia, was signed at Westminster. In the house of commons Mr.
Lyttelton made a motion for reviving the place-bill; but it was opposed by
a great number of members who had formerly been strenuous advocates for
this measure, and rejected upon a division. This was also the fate of a
motion made to renew the inquiry into the conduct of Robert earl of
Orford. As many strong presumptions of guilt had appeared against him in
the reports of the secret committee, the nation had reason to expect that
this proposal would have been embraced by a great majority; but several
members, who in the preceding session had been loud in their demands of
justice, now shamefully contributed their talents and interest in stifling
the inquiry.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

EXTRAORDINARY MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

When the house of lords took into consideration the several estimates of
the expense occasioned by the forces in the pay of Great Britain, earl
Stanhope, at the close of an elegant speech, moved for an address, to
beseech and advise his majesty, that in compassion to his people, loaded
already with such numerous and heavy taxes, such large and growing debts,
and greater annual expenses than the nation at any time before had ever
sustained, he would exonerate his subjects of the charge and burden of
those mercenaries who were taken into the service last year, without the
advice or consent of parliament. The motion was supported by the earl of
Sandwich, who took occasion to speak with great contempt of Hanover; and,
in mentioning the royal family, seemed to forget that decorum which the
subject required. He had, indeed, reason to talk with asperity on the
contract by which the Hanoverians had been taken into the pay of Great
Britain. Levy-money was charged to the account, though they were engaged
for one year only, and though not a single regiment had been raised on
this occasion; they had been levied for the security of the electorate;
and would have been maintained if England had never engaged in the affairs
of the continent. The duke of Bedford enlarged upon the same subject. He
said it had been suspected, nor was the suspicion without foundation, that
the measures of the English ministry had long been regulated by the
interest of his majesty’s electoral territories; that these had been long
considered as a gulf into which the treasures of Great Britain had been
thrown; that the state of Hanover had been changed, without any visible
cause, since the accession of its princes to the throne of England;
affluence had begun to wanton in their towns, and gold to glitter in their
cottages, without the discovery of mines, or the increase of their
commerce; and new dominions had been purchased, of which the value was
never paid from the revenues of Hanover. The motion was hunted down by the
new ministry, the patriot lord Bathurst, and the earl of Bath, which last
nobleman declared, that he considered it as an act of cowardice and
meanness, to fall passively down the stream of popularity, to suffer his
reason and integrity to be overborne by the noise of vulgar clamours,
which had been raised against the measures of government by the low arts
of exaggeration, fallacious reasonings, and partial representations. This
is the very language which sir Robert Walpole had often used against Mr.
Pulteney and his confederates in the house of commons. The associates of
the new secretary pleaded the cause of Hanover, and insisted upon the
necessity of a land-war against France, with all the vehemence of
declamation. Their suggestions were answered; their conduct was severely
stigmatized by the earl of Chesterfield, who observed, that the assembling
an army in Flanders, without the concurrence of the states-general, or any
other power engaged by treaty, or bound by interest, to support the queen
of Hungary, was a rash and ridiculous measure; the taking sixteen thousand
Hanoverians into British pay, without consulting the parliament, seemed
highly derogatory to the rights and dignity of the great council of the
nation, and a very dangerous precedent to future times; that these troops
could not be employed against the emperor, whom they had already
recognised; that the arms and wealth of Britain alone were altogether
insufficient to raise the house of Austria to its former strength,
dominion, and influence; that the assembling an army in Flanders would
engage the nation as principals in an expensive and ruinous war, with a
power which it ought not to provoke, and could not pretend to withstand in
that manner; that while Great Britain exhausted herself almost to ruin, in
pursuance of schemes founded on engagements to the queen of Hungary, the
electorate of Hanover, though under the same engagements, and governed by
the same prince, did not appear to contribute any thing as an ally to her
assistance, but was paid by Great Britain for all the forces it had sent
into the field, at a very exorbitant price; that nothing could be more
absurd and iniquitous than to hire these mercenaries, while a numerous
army lay inactive at home, and the nation groaned under such intolerable
burdens. “It may be proper,” added he, “to repeat what may be forgotten in
the multitude of other objects, that this nation, after having exalted the
elector of Hanover from a state of obscurity to the crown, is condemned to
hire the troops of that electorate to fight their own cause; to hire them
at a rate which was never demanded before; and to pay levy-money for them,
though it is known to all Europe that they were not raised for this
occasion.” All the partisans of the old ministry joined in the opposition
to earl Stanhope’s motion, which was rejected by the majority. Then the
earl of Scarborough moved for an address, to approve of the measures which
had been taken on the continent; and this was likewise carried by dint of
numbers. It was not, however, a very eligible victory; what they gained in
parliament they lost with the people. The new ministers became more odious
than their predecessors; and people began to think that public virtue was
an empty name.

But the most severe opposition they underwent was in their endeavours to
support a bill which they had concerted, and which had passed through the
house of commons with great precipitation; it repealed certain duties on
spirituous liquors, and licenses for retailing these liquors; and imposed
others at an easier rate. When those severe duties, amounting almost to a
prohibition, were imposed, the populace of London were sunk into the most
brutal degeneracy, by drinking to excess the pernicious spirit called gin,
which was sold so cheap that the lowest class of the people could afford
to indulge themselves in one continued state of intoxication, to the
destruction of all morals, industry, and order. Such a shameful degree of
profligacy prevailed, that the retailers of this poisonous compound set up
painted boards in public, inviting people to be drunk at the small expense
of one penny; assuring them they might be dead drunk for two-pence, and
have straw for nothing. They accordingly provided cellars and places
strewed with straw, to which they conveyed those wretches who were
overwhelmed with intoxication. In these dismal caverns they lay until they
recovered some use of their faculties, and then they had recourse to the
same mischievous potion; thus consuming their health, and ruining their
families, in hideous receptacles of the most filthy vice, resounding with
riot, execration, and blasphemy. Such beastly practices too plainly
denoted a total want of all policy and civil regulations, and would have
reflected disgrace upon the most barbarous community. In order to restrain
this evil, which was become intolerable, the legislature enacted that law
which we have already mentioned. But the populace soon broke through all
restraint. Though no license was obtained, and no duty paid, the liquor
continued to be sold in all corners of the streets, informers were
intimidated by the threats of the people, and the justices of the peace,
either from indolence or corruption, neglected to put the law in
execution. The new ministers foresaw that a great revenue would accrue to
the crown from a repeal of this act; and this measure they thought they
might the more decently take, as the law had proved ineffectual; for it
appeared that the consumption of gin had considerably increased every year
since those heavy duties were imposed. They therefore pretended, that
should the price of the liquor be moderately raised, and licenses granted
at twenty shillings each to the retailers, the lowest class of people
would be debarred the use of it to excess; their morals would of
consequence be mended; and a considerable sum of money might be raised for
the support of the war, by mortgaging the revenue arising from the duty
and the licenses. Upon these maxims the new bill was founded, and passed
through the lower house without opposition; but among the peers it
produced the most obstinate dispute which had happened since the beginning
of this parliament. The first assault it sustained was from lord Hervey,
who had been divested of his post of privy-seal, which was bestowed on
lord Gower, and these two noblemen exchanged principles from that instant.
The first was hardened into a sturdy patriot, the other suppled into an
obsequious courtier. Lord Hervey, on this occasion, made a florid harangue
upon the pernicious effects of that destructive spirit they were about to
let loose upon their fellow-creatures. Several prelates expatiated on the
same topics; but the earl of Chesterfield attacked the bill with the
united powers of reason, wit, and ridicule. Lord Carteret, lord Bathurst,
and the earl of Bath, were numbered among its advocates; and shrewd
arguments were advanced on both sides of the question. After very long,
warm, and repeated debates, the bill passed without amendments, though the
whole bench of bishops voted against it; and we cannot help owning, that
it has not been attended with those dismal consequences which the lords in
the opposition foretold. When the question was put for committing this
bill, and the earl of Chesterfield saw the bishops join in his division,
“I am in doubt,” said he, “whether I have not got on the other side of the
question; for I have not had the honour to divide with so many lawn
sleeves for several years.”

BILL FOR QUIETING CORPORATIONS.

By the report of the secret committee, it appeared that the then minster
had commenced prosecutions against the mayors of boroughs who opposed his
influence in the election of members of parliament. These prosecutions
were founded on ambiguities in charters, or trivial informalities in the
choice of magistrates. An appeal on such a process was brought into the
house of lords; and this evil falling under consideration, a bill was
prepared for securing the independency of corporations; but as it tended
to diminish the influence of the ministry, they argued against it with
their usual eagerness and success; and it was rejected on a division. The
mutiny bill and several others passed through both houses. The commons
granted supplies to the amount of six millions, raised by the land-tax,
the malt-tax, duties on spirituous liquors and licenses, and a loan from
the sinking fund. In two years the national debt had suffered an increase
of two millions four hundred thousand pounds.

1743

On the twenty-first day of April the session was closed in the usual
manner. The king, in his speech to both houses, told them, that, at the
requisition of the queen of Hungary, he had ordered his army, in
conjunction with the Austrians, to pass the Rhine for her support and
assistance; that he continued one squadron of ships in the Mediterranean,
and another in the West Indies. He thanked the commons for the ample
supplies they had granted; and declared it was the fixed purpose of his
heart to promote the true interest and happiness of his kingdoms.
Immediately after the prorogation of parliament he embarked for Germany,
accompanied by the duke of Cumberland, lord Carteret, and other persons of
distinction.

CONVENTION BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY.

At this period the queen of Hungary seemed to triumph over all her
enemies. The French were driven out of Bohemia and part of the Upper
Palatinate; and their forces under mareschal Broglio were posted on the
Danube. Prince Charles of Lorraine, at the head of the Austrian army,
entered Bavaria; and in April obtained a victory over a body of Bavarians
at Braunau; at the same time, three bodies of Croatians penetrating
through the passes of the Tyrolese, ravaged the whole country to the very
gates of Munich. The emperor pressed the French general to hazard a
battle; but he refused to run the risk, though he had received a strong
reinforcement from France. His Imperial majesty thinking himself unsafe in
Munich, retired to Augsburgh; mareschal Seckendorf retreated with the
Bavarian troops to Ingoldstadt, where he was afterwards joined by
mareschal Broglio, whose troops had in this retreat been pursued and
terribly harassed by the Austrian cavalry and hussars. Prince Charles had
opened a free communication with Munich, which now for the third time fell
into the hands of the queen of Hungary. Her arms likewise reduced
Friedberg and Landsperg, while prince Charles continued to pursue the
French to Dona-wert, where they were joined by twelve thousand men from
the Bhine. Broglio still avoided an engagement, and retreated before the
enemy to Hailbron. The emperor being thus abandoned by his allies, and
stripped of all his dominions, repaired to Franckfort, where he lived in
indigence and obscurity. He now made advances towards an accommodation
with the queen of Hungary. His general, Seckendorf, had an interview with
count Khevenhuller at the convent of Lowerscon-field, where a convention
was signed. This treaty imported, that the emperor should remain neuter
during the continuance of the present war, and that his troops should be
quartered in Franconia; that the queen of Hungary should keep possession
of Bavaria till the peace; that Braunau and Scarding should be delivered
up to the Austrians; that the French garrison of Ingoldstadt should be
permitted to withdraw, and be replaced by Bavarians; but that the Austrian
generals should be put in possession of all the artillery, magazines, and
warlike stores belonging to the French, which should be found in the
place. The governors of Egra and Ingoldstadt refusing to acquiesce in the
capitulation, the Austrians had recourse to the operations of war; and
both places were reduced. In Ingoldstadt they found all the emperor’s
domestic treasure, jewels, plate, pictures, cabinets, and curiosities,
with the archives of the house of Bavaria, the most valuable effects
belonging to the nobility of that electorate, a prodigious train of
artillery, and a vast quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND THE ELECTOR OF HANOVER.

The French king, baffled in all the efforts he had hitherto made for the
support of the emperor, ordered his minister at Franckfort to deliver a
declaration to the diet, professing himself extremely well pleased to hear
they intended to interpose their mediation for terminating the war. He
said, he was no less satisfied with the treaty of neutrality which the
emperor had concluded with the queen of Hungary; an event of which he was
no sooner informed, than he had ordered his troops to return to the
frontiers of his dominions, that the Germanic body might be convinced of
his equity and moderation. To this declaration the queen of Hungary
answered in a rescript, that the design of France was to embarrass her
affairs, and deprive her of the assistance of her allies; that the elector
of Bavaria could not be considered as a neutral party in his own cause;
that the mediation of the empire could only produce a peace either with or
without the concurrence of France; that in the former case no solid peace
could be expected; in the latter, it was easy to foresee, that France
would pay no regard to a peace in which she should have no concern. She
affirmed, that the aim of the French king was solely to gain time to
repair his losses, that he might afterwards revive the troubles of the
empire. The elector of Mentz, who had favoured the emperor, was now dead,
and his successor inclined to the Austrian interest. He allowed this
rescript to be entered in the journal of the diet, together with the
protests which had been made when the vote of Bohemia was suppressed in
the late election. The emperor complained in a circular letter of this
transaction, as a stroke levelled at his imperial dignity; and it gave
rise to a warm dispute among the members of the Germanic body. Several
princes resented the haughty conduct, and began to be alarmed at the
success of the house of Austria; while others pitied the deplorable
situation of the emperor. The kings of Great Britain and Prussia, as
electors of Hanover and Brandenburgh, espoused opposite sides in this
contest. His Prussian majesty protested against the investiture of the
duchy of Saxe Lawenburgh, claimed by the king of Great Britain; he had an
interview with general Seckendorf at Anspach; and was said to have
privately visited the emperor at Franckfort.

THE ENGLISH OBTAIN A VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

The troops which the king of Great Britain had assembled in the
Netherlands, began their march for the Rhine in the latter end of
February, and in May they encamped near Hoech on the river Maine, under
the command of the earl of Stair. This nobleman sent major-general Bland
to Franckfort, with a compliment to the emperor, assuring him, in the name
of his Britannic majesty, that the respect owing to his dignity should not
be violated, nor the place of his residence disturbed. Notwithstanding
this assurance, the emperor retired to Munich, though he was afterwards
compelled to return, by the success of the Austrians in Bavaria. The
French king, in order to prevent the junction of the British forces with
prince Charles of Lorraine, ordered the mareschal de Noailles to assemble
sixty thousand men upon the Maine; while Coigny was sent into Alsace with
a numerous army to defend that province, and oppose prince Charles should
he attempt to pass the Rhine. The mareschal de Noailles, having secured
the towns of Spire, Worms, and Oppenheim, passed the Rhine in the
beginning of June, and posted himself on the east side of that river,
above Franckfort. The earl of Stair advanced towards him, and encamped at
Killen-bach, between the river Maine and the forest of d’Armstadt; from
this situation he made a motion to Aschaffenburgh, with a view to secure
the navigation of the Upper Maine; but he was anticipated by the enemy,
who lay on the other side of the river, and had taken possession of the
posts above so as to intercept all supplies. They were posted on the other
side of the river, opposite to the allies, whose camp they overlooked; and
they found means, by their parties and other precautions, to cut off the
communication by water between Franckfort and the confederates. The duke
of Cumberland had already come to make his first campaign, and his majesty
arrived in the camp on the ninth day of June. He found his army, amounting
to about forty thousand men, in danger of starving; he received
intelligence that a reinforcement of twelve thousand Hanoverians and
Hessians had reached Hanau; and he resolved to march thither, both with a
view to effect the junction, and to procure provisions for his forces.
With this view he decamped on the twenty-sixth day of June. He had no
sooner quitted Aschaffenburgh, than it was seized by the French general;
he had not marched above three leagues when he perceived the enemy, to the
number of thirty thousand, had passed the river farther down, at
Selingenstadt, and were drawn up in order of battle at the village of
Dettingen, to dispute his passage. Thus he found himself cooped up in a
very dangerous situation. The enemy had possessed themselves of
Aschaffenburgh behind, so as to prevent his retreat; his troops were
confined in a narrow plain, bounded by hills and woods on the right,
flanked on the left by the river Maine, on the opposite side of which the
French had erected batteries that annoyed the allies on their march; in
the front a considerable part of the French army was drawn up, with a
narrow pass before them, the village of Dettingen on their right, a wood
on their left, and a morass in the centre. Thus environed, the
confederates must either have fought at a very great disadvantage, or
surrendered themselves prisoners of war, had not the duke de Gramont, who
commanded the enemy, been instigated by the spirit of madness to forego
these advantages. He passed the defile, and advancing towards the allies,
a battle ensued. The French horse charged with great impetuosity, and some
regiments of British cavalry were put in disorder; but the infantry of the
allies behaved with such intrepidity and deliberation, tinder the eye of
their sovereign, as soon determined the fate of the day; the French were
obliged to give way, and repass the Maine with great precipitation, having
lost about five thousand men, killed, wounded, or taken. Had they been
properly pursued, before they recollected themselves from their first
confusion, in all probability they would have sustained a total overthrow.
The earl of Stair proposed that a body of cavalry should be detached on
this service; but his advice was overruled. The loss of the allies in this
action amounted to two thousand men. The generals Clayton and Monroy were
killed; the duke of Cumberland, who exhibited uncommon proofs of courage,
was shot through the calf of the leg; the earl of Albemarle, general
Huske, and several other officers of distinction, were wounded. The king
exposed his person to a severe fire of cannon as well as musquetry; he
rode between the first and second lines with his sword drawn, and
encouraged the troops to fight for the honour of England. Immediately
after the action he continued his inarch to Hanau, where he was joined by
the reinforcement. The earl of Stair sent a trumpet to mareschal de
Noailles, recommending to his protection the sick and wounded that were
left on the field of battle; and these the French general treated with
great care and tenderness. Such generosity softens the rigours of war, and
does honour to humanity.

TREATY OF WORMS.

The two armies continued on different sides of the river till the twelfth
day of July, when the French general receiving intelligence that prince
Charles of Lorraine had approached the Neckar, he suddenly retired, and
repassed the Rhine between Worms and Oppenheim. The king of Great Britain
was visited by prince Charles and count Khevenhuller at Hanau, where the
future operations of the campaign were regulated. On the twenty-seventh
day of August, the allied army passed the Rhine at Mentz, and the king
fixed his head-quarters in the episcopal palace of Worms. Here the forces
lay encamped till the latter end of September, when they advanced to
Spire, where they were joined by twenty thousand Dutch auxiliaries from
the Netherlands. Mareschal Noailles having retreated into Upper Alsace,
the allies took possession of Germersheim, and demolished the
intrenchments which the enemy had raised on the Queich; then they returned
to Mentz, and in October were distributed into winter-quarters, after an
inactive campaign that redounded very little to the honour of those by
whom the motions of the army were conducted. In September a treaty had
been concluded at Worms between his Britannic majesty, the king of
Sardinia, and the queen of Hungary. She engaged to maintain thirty
thousand men in Italy; the king of Sardinia obliged himself to employ
forty thousand infantry and five thousand horse, in consideration of his
commanding the combined army, and receiving an annual subsidy of two
hundred thousand pounds from Great Britain. As a further gratification,
the queen yielded to him the city of Placentia, with several districts in
the duchy of Pavia, and in the Nwarese; and all her right and pretensions
to Final, at present possessed by the re public of Genoa, which, they
hoped, would give it up, on being repaid the purchase money, amounting to
three hundred thousand pounds. This sum the king of England promised to
disburse; and moreover to maintain a strong squadron in the Mediterranean,
the commander of which should act in concert with his Sardinian majesty.
Finally, the contracting powers agreed, that Final should be constituted a
free port, like that of Leghorn. Nothing could be more unjust than this
treaty, by which the Genoese were negotiated out of their property. They
had purchased the marquisate of Final of the late emperor for a valuable
consideration, and the purchase had been guaranteed by Great Britain. It
could not, therefore, be expected that they would part with this
acquisition to a prince whose power they thought already too formidable;
especially on condition of its being made a free port, to the prejudice of
their own commerce. They presented remonstrances against this article, by
their ministers at the courts of London, Vienna, and Turin; and, as very
little regard was paid to their representations, they threw themselves
into the arms of France and Spain for protection.

After the battle of Dettingen, colonel Mentzel, at the head of a large
body of irregulars belonging to the queen of Hungary, made an irruption
into Lorraine, part of which they ravaged without mercy. In September
prince Charles, with the Austrian army, entered the Brisgaw, and attempted
to pass the Rhine; but mareschal Coigny had taken such precautions for
guarding it on the other side, that he was obliged to abandon his design,
and marching back into the Upper Palatinate, quartered his troops in that
country, and in Bavaria. By this time the earl of Stair had solicited and
obtained leave to resign his command. He had for some time thought himself
neglected; and was unwilling that his reputation should suffer on account
of measures in which he had no concern. In October the king of Great
Britain returned to Hanover, and the army separated. The troops in British
pay marched back to the Netherlands, and the rest took their route to
their respective countries. The states-general still wavered between their
own immediate interest and their desire to support the house of Austria.
At length, however, they supplied her with a subsidy, and ordered twenty
thousand men to march to her assistance, notwithstanding the intrigues of
the marquis de Fenelon, the French ambassador at the Hague, and the
declaration of the king of Prussia, who disapproved of this measure, and
refused them a passage through his territories to the Rhine.

AFFAIRS IN THE NORTH.

Sweden was filled with discontents, and divided into factions. The
generals Bodenbrock and Lewenhaupt were beheaded, having been sacrificed
as scape-goats for the ministry. Some unsuccessful efforts by sea and land
were made against the Russians. At last the peace of Abo was concluded;
and the duke of Holstein-Utin, uncle to the successor of the Russian
throne, was chosen as next heir to the crown of Sweden. A party had been
formed in favour of the prince of Denmark; and the order of the peasants
actually elected him as successor. The debates in the college of nobles
rose to a very dangerous degree of animosity, and were appeased by an
harangue in Swedish verse, which one of the senators pronounced. The
peasants yielded the point, and the succession was settled on the duke of
Holstein. Denmark, instigated by French councils, began to make
preparations of war against Sweden; but a body of Russian auxiliaries
arriving in that kingdom, under the command of general Keith, and the
czarina declaring she would assist the Swedes with her whole force, the
king of Denmark thought proper to disarm. It had been an old maxim of
French policy to embroil the courts of the North, that they might be too
much employed at home to intermeddle in the affairs of Germany, while
France was at war with the house of Austria. The good understanding
between the czarina and the queen of Hungary was at this period destroyed,
in consequence of a conspiracy which had been formed by some persons of
distinction at the court of Petersburgh, for removing the empress
Elizabeth, and recalling the princess Anne to the administration. This
design being discovered, the principal conspirators were corporally
punished, and sent in exile to Siberia. The marquis de Botta, the Austrian
minister who had resided at the court of the czarina, was suspected of
having been concerned in the plot; though the grounds of this suspicion
did not appear until after he was recalled, and sent as ambassador to the
court of Berlin. The empress demanded satisfaction of the queen of
Hungary, who appointed commissioners to inquire into his conduct, and he
was acquitted; but the czarina was not at all satisfied of his innocence.
In February a defensive treaty of alliance was concluded between the
princess and the king of Great Britain.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

BATTLE OF CAMPO-SANTO.

By this time France was deprived of her ablest minister, in the death of
the cardinal de Fleury, who had for many years managed the affairs of that
kingdom. He is said to have possessed a lively genius, and an insinuating
address; to have been regular in his deportment, and moderate in his
disposition; but at the same time he has been branded as deceitful,
dissembling, and vindictive. His scheme of politics was altogether
pacific; he endeavoured to accomplish his purposes by raising and
fomenting intrigues at foreign courts; he did not seem to pay much regard
to the military glory of France; and he too much neglected the naval power
of that kingdom. Since Broglio was driven out of Germany, the French court
affected uncommon moderation. They pretended that their troops had only
acted as auxiliaries while they remained in the empire; being, however,
apprehensive of an irruption into their own dominions, they declared that
those troops were no longer to be considered in that light, but as
subjects acting in the service of France. The campaign in Italy proved
unfavourable to the Spaniards. In the beginning of February count Gages,
who commanded the Spanish army in the Bolognese, amounting to
four-and-twenty thousand men, passed the Penaro, and advanced to
Cam-po-Santo, where he encountered the Imperial and Pied-montese forces,
commanded by the counts Traun and Aspremont. The strength of the two
armies was nearly equal. The action was obstinate and bloody, though
indecisive. The Spaniards lost about four thousand men, killed, wounded,
or taken. The damage sustained by the confederates was not quite so great.
Some cannon and colours were taken on both sides; and each claimed the
victory. Count Gages repassed the Penaro; retreated suddenly from Bologna;
and marched to Rimini in the ecclesiastical state, where he fortified his
camp in an advantageous situation, after having suffered severely by
desertion. Count Traun remained inactive in the Modenese till September,
when he resigned his command to prince Lobkowitz. This general entered the
Bolognese in October, and then advanced towards count Gages, who, with his
forces, now induced to seven thousand, retreated to Fano; but afterwards
took possession of Pesaro, and fortified all the passes of the river
Froglia. The season was far advanced before the Spanish troops, commanded
by don Philip in Savoy, entered upon action. In all probability, the
courts of Versailles and Madrid carried on some private negotiation with
the king of Sardinia. This expedient failing, don Philip decamped from
Chamberri in the latter end of August, and defiling through Dauphiné
towards Briancon, was joined by the prince of Conti, at the head of twenty
thousand French auxiliaries. Thus reinforced, he attacked the Piedmontese
lines at Chateau Dauphine; but was repulsed in several attempts, and
obliged to retreat with considerable loss. The French established their
winter quarters in Dauphiné and Provence; and the Spaniards maintained
their footing in Savoy.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BRITISH FLEET.

The British fleet, commanded by admiral Matthews, overawed all the states
that bordered on the Mediterranean. This officer, about the end of June,
tinder-standing that fourteen xebecks, laden with artillery and ammunition
for the Spanish army, had arrived at Genoa, sailed thither from the road
of Hieres, and demanded of the republic that they would either oblige
these vessels with the stores to quit their harbour, or sequester their
lading until a general peace should be established. After some dispute, it
was agreed that the cannon and stores should be deposited in the castle of
Bonifacio, situated on a rock at the south end of Corsica; and that the
xebecks should have leave to retire without molestation. The Corsicans had
some years before revolted, and shaken off the dominion of the Genoese,
under which their island had remained for many centuries. They found
themselves oppressed, and resolved to assert their freedom. They conferred
the sovereign authority on a German adventurer, who was solemnly
proclaimed by the name of king Theodore. He had supplied them with some
arms and ammunition, which he had brought from Tunis; and amused them with
promises of being assisted by foreign powers in retrieving their
independency; but as these promises were not performed, they treated him
so roughly, that he had thought proper to quit the island, and they
submitted again to their old masters. The troubles of Corsica were now
revived. Theodore revisited his kingdom, and was recognised by the
principal chiefs of the island. He published a manifesto; he granted a
general pardon to all his subjects who should return to their obedience;
he pretended to be countenanced and supported by the king of Great Britain
and the queen of Hungary. He was certainly thought a proper instrument to
perplex and harass the Genoese, and supplied at this juncture with a sum
of money to purchase arms for the Corsicans; but a change soon happened in
the British ministry, and then he was suffered to relapse into his
original obscurity. Admiral Matthews, though he did not undertake any
expedition of importance against the maritime towns of Spain, continued to
assert the British empire at sea through the whole extent of the
Mediterranean. The Spanish army under don Philip was no sooner in motion,
than the English admiral ordered some troops and cannon to be disembarked
for the security of Villa-Franca. Some stores having been landed at
Civita-Vecchia, for the use of the Spanish forces under count Gages,
Matthews interpreted this transaction into a violation of the neutrality
which the pope had professed, and sent thither a squadron to bombard the
place. The city of Eome was filled with consternation; and the pope had
recourse to the good offices of his Sardinian majesty, in consequence of
which the English squadron was ordered to withdraw. The captains of single
cruising ships, by their activity and vigilance, wholly interrupted the
commerce of Spain; cannonaded and burned some towns on the seaside, and
kept the whole coast in continual alarm. 283 [See note 2 N, at
the end of this Vol.]

FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS UPON THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS.

In the West Indies some unsuccessful efforts were made by an English
squadron, commanded by commodore Knowles. He attacked La Gueir on the
coast of Carraccas, in the month of February; but met with such a warm
reception, that he was obliged to desist, and make the best of his way for
the Dutch island Curacoa, where he repaired the damage he had sustained.
His ships being refitted, he made another attempt upon Porte Cavallo in
April, which like the former miscarried. Twelve hundred marines being
landed in the neighbourhood of the place, were seized with such a panic,
that it was found necessary to re-embark them without delay. Then the
commodore abandoned the enterprise and sailed back to his station at the
Leeward Islands, without having added much to his reputation, either as to
conduct or resolution. On the continent of America the operations of the
war were very inconsiderable. General Oglethorpe having received
intelligence that the Spaniards prepared for another invasion from St.
Augustine, assembled a body of Indians, as a reinforcement to part of his
own regiment, with the highlanders and rangers, and in the spring began
his march, in order to anticipate the enemy. He encamped for some time in
the neighbourhood of St. Augustine, by way of a defiance; but they did not
think proper to hazard an engagement; and as he was in no condition to
undertake a siege, he returned to Georgia. In October the princess Louisa,
youngest daughter of his Britannic majesty, was married by proxy, at
Hanover, to the prince-royal of Denmark, who met her at Altona, and
conducted her to Copenhagen.

CHAPTER V.

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.*

* Robert earl of Orford, late prime minister, died in March,
after having for a very short time enjoyed a pension of four
thousand pounds granted by the crown, in consideration of
his past services. Though he had for such a length of time
directed the application of the public treasure, his
circumstances were not affluent: he was liberal in his
disposition, and had such a number of rapacious dependents
to gratify, that little was left for his own private
occasions.

1745

The business of the British parliament being discussed, the session was
closed in the beginning of May; and, immediately after the prorogation,
the king set out for Hanover. The death of the emperor Charles VII. hich
happened in the month of January, had entirely changed the face of affairs
in the empire, and all the princes of Germany were in commotion. The
grand-duke of Tuscany, consort to her Hungarian majesty, was immediately
declared a candidate for the Imperial crown; while his pretensions were
warmly opposed by the French king and his allies. The court of Vienna,
taking advantage of the late emperor’s death, sent an army to invade
Bavaria in the month of March, under the conduct of general Bathiani, who
routed the French and Palatine troops at Psiffenhoven, took possession of
Rain, surrounded and disarmed six thousand Hessians in the neighbouhood of
Ingoldstadt, and drove the Bavarian forces out of the electorate. The
young elector was obliged to abandon his capital, and retire to Augsburgh,
where he found himself in danger of losing all his dominions. In this
emergency, he yielded to the earnest solicitations of the empress his
mother, enforced by the advice of his uncle the elector of Cologn, and of
his general count Secken-dorf, who exhorted him to be reconciled to the
court of Vienna. A negotiation was immediately begun at Fuessen; where, in
April, the treaty was concluded. The queen consented to recognise the
Imperial dignity, as having been vested in the person of his father; to
acknowledge his mother as empress dowager; to restore his dominions, with
all the fortresses, artillery, stores, and ammunition which she had taken:
on the other hand, he renounced all claim to the succession of her father,
and became guarantee of the pragmatic sanction; he acknowledged the
validity of the electoral vote of Bohemia in the person of the queen;
engaged to give his voice for the grand duke at the ensuing election of a
king of the Romans. Until that should be determined, both parties agreed
that Ingoldstadt should be garrisoned by neutral troops; and that Braumau
and Schardingen, with all the country lying between the Inn and the
Saltza, should remain in the queen’s possession, though without prejudice
to the civil government or the elector’s revenue. In the meantime he
dismissed the auxiliaries that were in his pay, and they were permitted to
retire without molestation.

The court of Vienna had now secured the votes of all the electors, except
those of Brandenburgh and the Palatinate. Nevertheless, France assembled a
powerful army in the neighbourhood of Franckfort, in order to influence
the election. But the Austrian army, commanded by the grand-duke in
person, marched thither from the Danube; and the prince of Conti was
obliged to repass the Rhine at Nordlingen. Then the grand-duke repaired to
Franckfort, where on the second day of September he was, by a majority of
voices, declared king of the Romans and emperor of Germany. Meanwhile the
king of Prussia had made great progress in the conquest of Silesia. The
campaign began in January, when the Hungarian insurgents were obliged to
retire into Moravia. In the following month the Prussian general Lehrwald
defeated a body of twelve thousand Austrians, commanded by general
Helsrich; the town of Eatisbon was taken by assault; and the king entered
Silesia, in May, at the head of seventy thousand men. Prince Charles of
Lorraine, being joined by the duke of Saxe-Wessenfels and twenty thousand
Saxons, penetrated into Silesia by the defiles of Landshut; and were
attacked by his Prussian majesty in the plains of Striegau, near
Friedberg. The battle was maintained from morning till noon, when the
Saxons giving way, prince Charles was obliged to retire with the loss of
twelve thousand men, and a great number of colours, standards, and
artillery. This victory, obtained on the fourth day of June, complete as
it was, did not prove decisive; for, though the victor transferred the
seat of the war into Bohemia, and maintained his army by raising
contributions in that country, the Austrians resolved to hazard another
engagement. Their aim was to surprise him in his camp at Sohr, which they
attacked on the thirtieth of September, at day-break; but they met with
such a warm reception, that notwithstanding their repeated efforts during
the space of four hours, they were repulsed with considerable damage, and
retreated to Jaromire, leaving five thousand killed upon the spot, besides
two thousand that were taken, with many standards, and twenty pieces of
cannon. The loss of this battle was in a great measure owing to the warice
of the irregulars, who having penetrated into the Prussian camp, began to
pillage with great eagerness, giving the king an opportunity to rally his
disordered troops, and restore the battle; nevertheless, they retired with
the plunder of his baggage, including his military chest, the officers of
his chancery, his own secretary, and all the papers of his cabinet.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

TREATY OF DRESDEN.—THE GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY ELECTED EMPEROR.

After this action, his Prussian majesty returned to Berlin and breathed
nothing but peace and moderation. In August he had signed a convention
with the king of Great Britain, who became guarantee of his possessions in
Silesia, as yielded by the treaty of Breslau; and he promised to vote for
the grand duke of Tuscany at the election of an emperor. This was intended
as the basis of a more general accommodation. But he now pretended to have
received undoubted intelligence that the king of Poland and the queen of
Hungary had agreed to invade Brandenburgh with three different armies; and
that, for this purpose, his Polish majesty had demanded of the czarina the
succours stipulated by treaty between the two crowns. Alarmed, or
seemingly alarmed, at this information, he solicited the maritime powers
to fulfil their engagements, and interpose their good offices with the
court of Petersburgh. Yet, far from waiting for the result of these
remonstrances, he made a sudden irruption into Lusatia, took possession of
Gorlitz, and obliged prince Charles of Lorraine to retire before him into
Bohemia. Then he entered Leipsic, and laid Saxony under contribution. The
king of Poland, unable to resist the torrent, quitted his capital and took
refuge in Prague. His troops, reinforced by a body of Austrians, were
defeated at Pirna on the fifteenth day of December; and his Prussian
majesty became master of Dresden without further opposition. The king of
Poland, thus deprived of his hereditary dominions, was fain to acquiesce
in such terms as the conqueror thought proper to impose; and the treaty of
Dresden was concluded under the mediation of his Britannic majesty. By
this convention the king of Prussia retained all the contributions he had
levied in Saxony; and was entitled to a million of German crowns, to be
paid by his Polish majesty at the next fair of Leipsic. He and the elector
palatine consented to acknowledge the grand duke as emperor of Germany;
and this last confirmed to his Prussian majesty certain privileges de
non evocando, which had been granted by the late emperor, with regard
to some territories possessed by the king of Prussia, though not belonging
to the electorate of Brandenburgh. Immediately after the ratification of
this treaty, the Prussian troops evacuated Saxony, and the peace of
Germany was restored.

THE ALLIES ARE DEFEATED.

Though the French king could not prevent the elevation of the grand duke
to the Imperial throne, he resolved to humble the house of Austria, by
making a conquest of the Netherlands. A prodigious army was there
assembled, under the auspices of mareschal count de Saxe; and his most
christian majesty, with the dauphin, arriving in the camp, they invested
the strong town of Tournay on the thirtieth day of April. The Dutch
garrison consisted of eight thousand men, commanded by the old baron
Dorth, who made a vigorous defence. The duke of Cumberland assumed the
chief command of the allied army, assembled at Soignes; he was assisted
with the advice of the count Konigsegg, an Austrian general, and the
prince of Waldeck, commander of the Dutch forces. Their army was greatly
inferior in number to that of the enemy; nevertheless, they resolved to
march to the relief of Tournay. They accordingly advanced to Leuse; and on
the twenty-eight day of April took post at Maulbre, in sight of the French
army, which was encamped on an eminence from the village of Antonie, to a
large wood beyond Vezon, having Fontenoy in their front. Next day was
employed by the allies in driving the enemy from some outposts, and
clearing the defiles through which they were obliged to advance to the
attack; while the French completed their batteries, and made the most
formidable preparations for their reception. On the thirtieth day of
April, the duke of Cumberland, having made the proper dispositions, began
his march to the enemy at two o’clock in the morning; a brisk cannonade
ensued; and about nine both armies were engaged. The British infantry
drove the French beyond their lines; but the left wing failing in the
attack on the village of Fontenoy, and the cavalry forbearing to advance
on the flanks, they measured back their ground with some disorder, from
the prodigious fire of the French batteries. They rallied, however, and
returning to the charge with redoubled ardour, repulsed the enemy to their
camp with great slaughter; but, being wholly unsupported by the other
wing, and exposed both in front and flank to a dreadful fire, which did
great execution, the duke was obliged to make the necessary dispositions
for a retreat about three o’clock in the afternoon, and this was effected
in tolerable order. The battle was fought with great obstinacy, and the
carnage on both sides was very considerable. The allies lost about twelve
thousand men, including a good number of officers; among these were
lieutenant-general Campbell, and major-general Ponsonby. The victory cost
the French almost an equal number of lives; and no honour was lost by the
vanquished. Had the allies given battle on the preceding day, before the
enemy had taken their measures and received all their reinforcements, they
might have succeeded in their endeavour to relieve Tournay. Although the
attack was generally judged rash and precipitate, the British and
Hanoverian troops fought with such intrepidity and perseverance, that if
they had been properly sustained by the Dutch forces, and their flanks
covered by the cavalry, the French in all likelihood would have been
obliged to abandon their enterprise. The duke of Cumberland left his sick
and wounded to the humanity of the victors; and retiring to Aeth, encamped
in an advantageous situation at Lessines. The garrison of Tournay, though
now deprived of all hope of succour, maintained the place to the
twenty-first day of June, when the governor obtained an honourable
capitulation. After the conquest of this frontier, which was dismantled,
the duke of Cumberland, apprehending the enemy had a design upon Ghent,
sent a detachment of four thousand men to reinforce the garrison of that
city; but they fell into an ambuscade at Pas-du-mêle, and were killed or
taken, except a few dragoons that escaped to Ostend; on that very night,
which was the twelfth of June, Ghent was surprised by a detachment of the
French army. Then they invested Ostend, which, though defended by an
English garrison, and open to the sea, was, after a short siege,
surrendered by capitulation on the fourteenth day of August Dendermonde,
Oudenarde, Newport, and Aeth, underwent the same fate; while the allied
army lay entranced beyond the canal of Antwerp. The French king having
subdued the greatest part of the Austrian Netherlands, returned to Paris,
which he entered in triumph.

THE KING OF SARDINIA IS ALMOST STRIPPED OF HIS DOMINIONS.

The campaign in Italy was unpropitious to the queen of Hungary and the
king of Sardinia. Count Gages passed the Appenines, and entered the state
of Lucca; from thence he proceeded by the eastern coast of Genoa to
Lestride-Levante. The junction of the two armies was thus accomplished,
and reinforced with ten thousand Genoese; meanwhile prince Lobkowitz
decamped from Modena and took post at Parma; but he was soon succeeded by
count Schuylemberg, and sent to command the Austrians in Bohemia. The
Spaniards entered the Milanese without further opposition. Count Gages,
with thirty thousand men, took possession of Serravalle; and advancing
towards Placentia, obliged the Austrians to retire under the cannon of
Tortona; but when don Philip, at the head of forty thousand troops, made
himself master of Acqui, the king of Sardinia and the Austrian general,
unable to stem the torrent, retreated behind the Tanaro. The strong
citadel of Tortona was taken by the Spaniards, who likewise reduced Parma
and Placentia; and forcing the passage of the Tanaro, compelled his
Sardinian majesty to take shelter on the other side of the Po. Then Pavia
was won by scalade; and the city of Milan submitted to the infant, though
the Austrian garrison still maintained the citadel; all Piedmont, on both
sides of the Po, as far as Turin, was reduced, and even that capital
threatened with a siege; so that by the month of October the territories
belonging to the house of Austria, in Italy, were wholly subdued; and the
king of Sardinia stripped of all his dominions; yet he continued firm and
true to his engagements, and deaf to all proposals of a separate
accommodation.

THE ENGLISH TAKE CAPE BRETON

The naval transactions of Great Britain were in the course of this year
remarkably spirited. In the Mediterranean, admiral Rowley had succeeded
Matthews in the command; Savona, Genoa, Final, St. Remo, with Bastia, the
capital of Corsica, were bombarded; several Spanish ships were taken; but
he could not prevent the safe arrival of their rich Havannah squadron at
Corunna. Commodore Barnet, in the East Indies, made prize of several
French ships richly laden; and commodore Townshend, in the latitude of
Martinico, took about thirty merchant ships belonging to the enemy, under
convoy of four ships of war, two of which were destroyed. The English
privateers likewise met with uncommon success. But the most important
achievement was the conquest of Louisbourg on the isle of Cape Breton, in
North America; a place of great consequence, which the French had
fortified at a prodigious expense. The scheme of reducing this fortress
was planned in Boston, recommended by their general assembly, and approved
by his majesty, who sent instructions to commodore Warren, stationed off
the Leeward Islands, to sail for the northern parts of America, and
co-operate with the forces of New England in this expedition. A body of
six thousand men was formed under the conduct of Mr. Pepperel, a trader of
Piscataquay, whose influence was extensive in that country; though he was
a man of little or no education, and utterly unacquainted with military
operations. In April Mr. Warren arrived at Canso with ten ships of war;
and the troops of New England being embarked m transports, sailed
immediately for the isle of Cape Breton, where they landed without
opposition. The enemy abandoned their grand battery, which was detached
from the town; and the immediate seizure of it contributed in a good
measure to the success of the enterprise. While the American troops,
reinforced by eight hundred marines, carried on their approaches by land,
the squadron blocked up the place by sea in such a manner that no succours
could be introduced. A French ship of the line, with some smaller vessels
destined for the relief of the garrison, were intercepted and taken by the
British cruisers; and, indeed, the reduction of Louisbourg was chiefly
owing to the vigilance and activity of Mr. Warren, one of the bravest and
best officers in the service of England. The operations of the siege were
wholly conducted by the engineers and officers who commanded the British
marines; and the Americans, being ignorant of war, were contented to act
under their directions. The town being considerably damaged by the bombs
and bullets of the besiegers, and the garrison despairing of relief, the
governor capitulated on the seventeenth day of June, when the city of
Louisbourg, and the isle of Cape Breton, were surrendered to his Britannic
majesty. The garrison and inhabitants engaged that they would not bear
arms for twelve months against Great Britain or her allies; and
being-embarked in fourteen cartel ships, were transported to Rochefort. In
a few days after the surrender of Louisbourg, two French East India ships,
and another from Peru, laden with treasure, sailed into the harbour on the
supposition that it still belonged to France, and were taken by the
English squadron.

The news of this conquest being transmitted to England, Mr. Pepperel was
preferred to the dignity of a baronet of Great Britain, and congratulatory
addresses were presented to the king on the success of his majesty’s arms.
The possession of Cape Breton was, doubtless, a valuable acquisition to
Great Britain. It not only distressed the French in their fishery and
navigation, but removed all fears of encroachment and rivalship from the
English fishers on the banks of Newfoundland. It freed New England from
the terrors of a dangerous neighbour; overawed the Indians of that
country; and secured the possession of Acadia to the crown of Great
Britain. The plan of this conquest was originally laid by Mr. Auchmuty,
judge-advocate of the court of admiralty in New England. He demonstrated,
that the reduction of Cape Breton would put the English in sole possession
of the fishery of North America, which would annually return to Groat
Britain two millions sterling, for the manufactures yearly shipped to the
plantations; employ many thousand families that were otherwise
unserviceable to the public; increase the shipping and mariners; extend
navigation; cut off all communication between France and Canada by the
river St. Lawrence; so that Quebec would fall of. course into the hands of
the English, who might expel the French entirely from America, open a
correspondence with the remote Indians, and render themselves masters of
the profitable fur-trade, which was now engrossed by the enemy. The
natives of New England acquired great glory from the success of this
enterprise. Britain, which had in some instances behaved like a
step-mother to her own colonies, was now convinced of their importance;
and treated those as brethren whom she had too long considered as aliens
and rivals. Circumstanced as the nation is, the legislature cannot too
tenderly cherish the interests of the British plantations in America. They
are inhabited by a brave, hardy, industrious people, animated with an
active spirit of commerce; inspired with a noble zeal for liberty and
independence. The trade of Great Britain, clogged with heavy taxes and
impositions, has for some time languished in many valuable branches. The
French have undersold our cloths, and spoiled our markets in the Levant.
Spain is no longer supplied as usual with the commodities of England; the
exports to Germany must be considerably diminished by the misunderstanding
between Great Britain and the house of Austria; consequently, her greatest
resource must be in her communication with her own colonies, which consume
her manufactures, and make immense returns in sugar, rum, tobacco, fish,
timber, naval stores, iron, furs, drugs, rice, and indigo. The southern
plantations likewise produce silk; and with due encouragement, might
furnish every thing that could be expected from the most fertile soil and
the happiest climate. The continent of North America, if properly
cultivated, will prove an inexhaustible fund of wealth and strength to
Great Britain; and perhaps it may become the last asylum of British
liberty. When the nation is enslaved by domestic despotism or foreign
dominion; when her substance is wasted, her spirit broke, and the laws and
constitution of England are no more; then those colonies, sent off by our
fathers, may receive and entertain their sons as hapless exiles and ruined
refugees.

PROJECT OF AN INSURRECTION IN GREAT BRITAIN.

While the continent of Europe and the isles of America were thus exposed
to the ravages of war, and subjected to such vicissitudes of fortune,
Great Britain underwent a dangerous convulsion in her own bowels. The son
of the chevalier de St. George, fired with ambition, and animated with the
hope of ascending the throne of his ancestors, resolved to make an effort
for that purpose, which, though it might not be crowned with success,
should at least astonish all Christendom. The Jacobites in England and
Scotland had promised, that if he would land in Britain at the head of a
regular army, they would supply him with provisions, carriages, and
horses, and a great number of them declared they would take up arms and
join his standard; but they disapproved of his coming over without forces,
as a dangerous enterprise, that would in all probability end in the ruin
of himself and all his adherents. This advice, including an exact detail
of his father’s interest, with the dispositions of his particular friends
in every town and county, was transmitted to London in January, in order
to be forwarded to prince Charles; but the person with whom it was
intrusted could find no safe method of conveyance; so that he sent it back
to Scotland, from whence it was despatched to France; but before it
reached Paris, Charles had left that kingdom. Had the paper come to his
hands in due time, perhaps he would not have embarked in the undertaking,
though he was stimulated to the attempt by many concurring motives.
Certain it is, he was cajoled by the sanguine misrepresentations of a few
adventurers, who hoped to profit by the expedition. They assured him that
the whole nation was disaffected to the reigning family; that the people
could no longer bear the immense load of taxes, which was daily
increasing; and that the most considerable persons of the kingdom would
gladly seize the first opportunity of crowding to his standard. On the
other hand, he knew the British government had taken some effectual steps
to alienate the friends of his house from the principles they had hitherto
professed. Some of them had accepted posts and pensions; others were
preferred in the army; and the parliament were so attached to the reigning
family, that he had nothing to hope from their deliberations. He expected
no material succour from the court of France; he foresaw that delay would
diminish the number of his adherents in Great Britain; and, therefore,
resolved to seize the present occasion, which in many respects was
propitious to his design. Without doubt, had he been properly supported,
he could not have found a more favourable opportunity of exciting an
intestine commotion in Great Britain; for Scotland was quite unfurnished
with troops; king George was in Germany; the duke of Cumberland, at the
head of the British army, was employed in Flanders, and great part of the
highlanders were keen for insurrection. Their natural principles were on
this occasion stimulated by the suggestions of revenge. At the beginning
of the war a regiment of those people had been formed, and transported
with the rest of the British troops to Flanders. Before they were
embarked, a number of them deserted with their arms, on pretence that they
had been decoyed into the service by promises and assurances that they
should never be sent abroad; and this was really the case. They were
overtaken by a body of horse, persuaded to submit, brought back to London
pinioned like malefactors, and tried for desertion. They were shot to
death in terrorem; and the rest were sent in exile to the
plantations. Those who suffered were persons of some consequence in their
own country; and their fate was deeply resented by the clans to which they
belonged. It was considered as a national outrage; and the highlanders,
who are naturally vindictive, waited impatiently for an opportunity of
vengeance.

THE ELDEST SON OF THE CHEVALIER DE ST. GEORGE LANDS IN SCOTLAND.

The young pretender being furnished with a sum of money, and a supply of
arms, on his private credit, with-out the knowledge of the French court,
wrote letters to his friends in Scotland, explaining his design and
situation, intimating the place where he intended to land, communicating a
private signal, and assuring them he should be with them by the middle of
June. These precautions being taken, he embarked on board of a small
frigate at Port St. Nazaire, accompanied by the marquis of Tullibardine,
sir Thomas Sheridan, sir John Macdonald, with a few other Irish and
Scottish adventurers; and setting sail on the fourteenth of July, was
joined off Belleisle by the Elizabeth, a French ship of war, mounted with
sixty-six guns, as his convoy. *

* The Elizabeth, a king’s ship, was procured as a convoy, by
the interest of Mr. Walsh, an Irish merchant at Nantes; and
on board of her fifty French young gentlemen embarked as
volunteers.

Their design was to sail round Ireland, and land in the western part of
Scotland; but falling in with the Lion, an English ship of the line, a
very obstinate and bloody action ensued. The Elizabeth was so disabled
that she could not prosecute the voyage, and with difficulty reached the
harbour of Brest; but the Lion was shattered to such a degree, that she
floated like a wreck upon the water. The disaster of the Elizabeth was a
great misfortune to the adventurer, as by her being disabled he lost a
great quantity of arms, and about one hundred able officers, who were
embarked on board of her for the benefit of his expedition. Had this ship
arrived in Scotland, she could easily have reduced Fort William, situated
in the midst of the clans attached to the Stuart family. Such a conquest,
by giving lustre to the prince’s arms, would have allured many to his
standard, who were indifferent in point of principle; and encouraged a
great number of highlanders to join him, who were restricted by the
apprehension, that their wives and families would be subject to insults
from the English garrison of this fortress. Prince Charles, in the
frigate, continued his course to the western isles of Scotland. After a
voyage of eighteen days he landed on a little island between Barra and
South-Inst, two of the Hebrides; then he re-embarked, and in a few days
arrived at Borodale in Amsacy, on the confines of Lochnannach, where he
was in a little time joined by a considerable number of hardy
mountaineers, under their respective chiefs and leaders. On the nineteenth
day of August, the marquis of Tullibardine erected the pretender’s
standard at Glensinnan. Some of those, however, on whom Charles
principally depended, now stood aloof, either fluctuating in their
principles, astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, or startled at
the remonstrances of their friends, who did not fail to represent, in
aggravated colours, all the danger of embarking in such a desperate
enterprise. Had the government acted with proper vigour when they received
intelligence of his arrival, the adventurer must have been crushed in
embryo, before any considerable number of his adherents could have been
brought together; but the lords of the regency seemed to slight the
information, and even to suspect the integrity of those by whom it was
conveyed. They were soon convinced of their mistake. Prince Charles having
assembled about twelve hundred men, encamped in the neighbourhood of Fort
William; and immediately hostilities were commenced. A handful of
Keppoch’s clan, commanded by major Donald Macdonald, even before they
joined the pretender, attacked two companies of new raised soldiers, who,
with their officer, were disarmed after an obstinate dispute; another
captain of the king’s forces, falling into their hands, was courteously
dismissed with one of the pretender’s manifestoes, and a passport for his
personal safety. The administration was now effectually alarmed. The lords
of the regency issued a proclamation offering a reward of thirty thousand
pounds to any person who should apprehend the prince-adventurer. The same
price was set upon the head of the elector of Hanover, in a proclamation
published by the pretender. A courier was despatched to Holland to hasten
the return of his majesty, who arrived in England about the latter end of
August. A requisition was made of the six thousand Dutch auxiliaries; and
several British regiments were recalled from the Netherlands. A loyal
address was presented to the king by the city of London; and the merchants
of this metropolis resolved to raise two regiments at their own expense.
Orders were issued to keep the trained bands in readiness; to array the
militia of Westminster; and instructions to the same effect were sent to
all the lords-lieutenants of the counties throughout the kingdom. The
principal noblemen of the nation made a tender of their services to their
sovereign; and some of them received commissions to levy regiments towards
the suppression of the rebellion. Bodies of volunteers were incorporated
in London and many other places; associations were formed, large
contributions raised in different towns, counties, and communities; and a
great number of eminent merchants in London agreed to support the public
credit, by receiving, as usual, bank-notes in payment for the purposes of
traffic. The protestant clergy of all denominations exerted themselves
with extraordinary ardour, in preaching against the religion of Rome and
the pretender; and the friends of the government were encouraged,
animated, and confirmed in their principles, by several spiritual
productions published for the occasion.

In a word, the bulk of the nation seemed unanimously bent upon opposing
the enterprise of the pretender, who, nevertheless, had already made
surprising progress. His arrival in Scotland was no sooner confirmed, than
sir John Cope, who commanded the troops in that kingdom, assembled what
force he could bring together, and advanced against the rebels.
Understanding, however, that they had taken possession of a strong pass,
he changed his route, and proceeded northwards as far as Inverness,
leaving the capital and the southern parts of North Britain wholly exposed
to the incursions of the enemy. The highlanders forthwith marched to
Perth, where the chevalier de St. George was proclaimed king of Great
Britain, and the public money seized for his use; the same steps were
taken at Dundee and other places. Prince Charles was joined by the
nobleman who assumed the title of the duke of Perth, the viscount
Strathallan, lord Nairn, lord George Murray, and many persons of
distinction, with their followers. The marquis of Tullibardine, who had
accompanied him from France, took possession of Athol, as heir of blood to
the titles and estates which his younger brother enjoyed in consequence of
his attainder; and met with some success in arming the tenants for the
support of that cause which he avowed. The rebel army being considerably
augmented, though very ill-provided with arms, crossed the Forth in the
neighbourhood of Stirling, and advanced towards Edinburgh, where they were
joined by lord Eleho, son of the earl of Wemyss, and other persons of some
distinction. On the sixteenth day of September Charles summoned the town
to surrender. The inhabitants were divided by faction, and distracted by
fear; the place was not in a posture of defence, and the magistrates would
not expose the people to the uncertain issue of an assault. Several
deputations were sent from the town to the pretender, in order to
negotiate terms of capitulation. In the meantime, one of the gates being
opened for the admission of a coach, Cameron of Lochiel, one of the most
powerful of the highland chiefs, rushed into the place with a party of his
men, and secured it without opposition. Next morning the whole rebel army
entered, and their prince took possession of the royal palace of
Holyrood-house in the suburbs. Then he caused his father to be proclaimed
at the market-cross; there also the manifesto was read, in which the
chevalier de St. George declared his son Charles regent of his dominions,
promised to dissolve the union, and redress the grievances of Scotland.
His being in possession of the capital encouraged his followers, and added
reputation to his arms; but the treasure belonging to the two banks of
that kingdom had been previously conveyed into the castle, a strong
fortress, with a good garrison, under the command of general Guest, an old
officer of experience and capacity.

During these transactions, sir John Cope marched back from Inverness to
Aberdeen, where he embarked with his troops, and on the seventeenth day of
September landed at Dunbar, about twenty miles to the eastward of
Edinburgh. Here he was joined by two regiments of dragoons which had
retired with precipitation from the capital at the approach of the
highland army. With this reinforcement, his troops amounted to near three
thousand men; and he began his march to Edinburgh, in order to give battle
to the enemy. On the twentieth day of the month, he encamped in the
neighbourhood of Prestonpans, having the village of Tranent in his front,
and the sea in his rear. Early next morning he was attacked by the young
pretender, at the head of about two thousand four hundred highlanders,
half-armed, who-charged them sword in hand with such impetuosity, that in
less than ten minutes after the battle began, the king’s troops were
broken and totally routed. The dragoons fled in the utmost confusion at
the first onset; the general officers having made some unsuccessful
efforts to rally them, thought proper to consult their own safety by an
expeditious retreat towards Coldstream on the Tweed. All the infantry were
either killed or taken; and the colours, artillery, tents, baggage, and
military chest, fell into the hands of the victor, who returned in triumph
to Edinburgh. Never was victory more complete, or obtained at a smaller
expense; for not above fifty of the rebels lost their lives in the
engagement. Five hundred of the king’s troops were killed on the field of
battle; and among these colonel Gardiner, a gallant officer, who disdained
to save his life at the expense of his honour. When abandoned by his own
regiment of dragoons, he alighted from his horse, joined the infantry, and
fought on foot, until he fell covered with wounds, in sight of his own
threshold. Prince Charles bore his good fortune with moderation; he
prohibited all rejoicings for the victory he had obtained; the wounded
soldiers were treated with humanity; and the officers were sent into Fife
and Angus, where they were left at liberty on their parole, which the
greater part of them shamefully broke in the sequel. From this victory the
pretender reaped manifold and important advantages. His followers were
armed, his party encouraged, and his enemies intimidated. He was supplied
with a train of field artillery, and a considerable sum of money, and saw
himself possessed of all Scotland, except the fortresses, the reduction of
which he could not pretend to undertake without proper implements and
engineers. After the battle he was joined by a small detachment from the
highlands; and some chiefs, who had hitherto been on the reserve, began to
exert their influence in his favour. But he was not yet in a condition to
take advantage of that consternation which his late success had diffused
through the kingdom of England.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

EFFORTS OF THE FRIENDS OF GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND.

Charles continued to reside in the palace of Holyrood-house; * and took
measures for cutting off the communication between the castle and the
city.

* While he resided at Edinburgh, some of the presbyterian
clergy continued to preach in the churches of that city, and
publicly prayed for king George, without suffering the least
punishment or molestation. One minister in particular, of
the name of Mac Vicar, being solicited by some highlanders
to pray for their prince, promised to comply with their
request, and performed his promise in words to this effect—
“And as for the young prince, who is come hither in quest of
an earthly crown, grant, O Lord, that he may speedily
receive a crown of glory.”

General Guest declared that he would demolish the city, unless the
blockade should be raised, so that provisions might be carried into the
castle. After having waited the return of an express which he had found
means to despatch to court, he began to put his threats in execution by
firing upon the town. Some houses were beaten down, and several persons
killed even at the market-cross. The citizens, alarmed at this disaster,
sent a deputation to the prince, entreating him to raise the blockade; and
he complyed with their request. He levied a regiment in Edinburgh and the
neighbourhood. He imposed taxes; seized the merchandize that was deposited
in the king’s warehouses at Leith and other places; and compelled the city
of Glasgow to accommodate him with a large sum, to be repaid when the
peace of the kingdom should be re-established. The number of his followers
daily increased, and he received considerable supplies of money,
artillery, and ammunition, by single ships that arrived from France, where
his interest seemed to rise in proportion to the success of his arms. The
greater and richer part of Scotland was averse to his family and
pretensions; but the people were unarmed and undisciplined, consequently
passive under his dominion. By this time, however, the prince-pretender
was joined by the earl of Kilmarnock, the lords Eleho, Balmerino, Ogilvie,
Pitsligo; and the eldest son of lord Lovat had begun to assemble his
father’s clan, in order to reinforce the victor, whose army lay encamped
at Duddingston, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. Kilmarnock and
Balmarinowere men of broken and desperate fortune; Elcho and Ogilvie were
sons to the earls of Wemyss and Airly; so that their influence was far
from being extensive. Pitsligo was a nobleman of very amiable character,
as well as of great personal interest; and great dependence was placed
upon the power and attachment of lord Lovat, who had entered into private
engagements with the chevalier de St. George, though he still wore the
mask of loyalty to the government, and disavowed the conduct of his son
when he declared for the pretender. This old nobleman is the same Simon
Fraser whom we have had occasion to mention as a partisan and emissary of
the court of St. Germain’s, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
three. He had renounced his connexions with that family; and, in the
rebellion immediately after the accession of king George I., approved
himself a warm friend to the protestant succession. Since that period he
had been induced, by disgust and ambition, to change his principles again,
and was in secret an enthusiast in jacobitism. He had greatly augmented
his estate, and obtained a considerable interest in the highlands, where,
however, he was rather dreaded than beloved. He was bold, enterprising,
vain, arbitrary, rapacious, cruel, and deceitful; but his character was
chiefly marked by a species of low cunning and dissimulation, which,
however, overshot his purpose, and contributed to his own ruin.*

*He solicited, and is said to have obtained of the chevalier
de St. George the patent of a duke, and a commission for
being lord-lieutenant of all the highlands.

While Charles resided at Edinburgh, the marquis de Guil-les arrived at
Montrose, as envoy from the French king, with several officers, some
cannon, and a considerable quantity of small arms for the use of that
adventurer.

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN IN ENGLAND.

While the young pretender endeavoured to improve the advantages he had
gamed, the ministry of Great Britain took every possible measure to retard
his progress. Several powerful chiefs in the highlands were attached to
the government, and exerted themselves in its defence. The duke of Argyle
began to arm his vassals; but not before he had obtained the sanction of
the legislature. Twelve hundred men were raised by the earl of Sutherland;
the lord Rae brought a considerable number to the field; the Grants and
Monroes appeared under their respective leaders for the service of his
majesty; sir Alexander Macdonald declared for king George, and the laird
of Macleod sent two thousand hardy islanders from Skye to strengthen the
same interest. These gentlemen, though supposed to be otherwise affected,
were governed and directed by the advice of Duncan Forbes, president of
the college of justice at Edinburgh, a man of extensive knowledge,
agreeable manners, and unblemished integrity. He procured commissions for
raising twenty independent companies, and some of these he bestowed upon
individuals who were either attached by principle, or engaged by promise,
to the pretender. He acted with indefatigable zeal for the interest of the
reigning family; and he greatly injured an opulent fortune in their
service. He confirmed several chiefs who began to waiver in their
principles; some he actually converted by the energy of his arguments, and
brought over to the assistance of the government, which they had
determined to oppose; others he persuaded to remain quiet, without taking
any share in the present troubles. Certain it is, this gentleman, by his
industry and address, prevented the insurrection of ten thousand
highlanders, who would otherwise have joined the pretender; and,
therefore, he may be said to have been one great cause of that
adventurer’s miscarriage. The earl of Loudon repaired to Inverness, where
he completed his regiment of highlanders; directed the conduct of the
clans who had taken arms in behalf of his majesty; and, by his vigilance,
overawed the disaffected chieftains of that country, who had not yet
openly engaged in the rebellion. Immediately after the defeat of Cope, six
thousand Dutch troops* arrived in England, and three battalions of guards,
with seven regiments of infantry, were recalled from Flanders, for the
defence of the kingdom.

* They were composed of the forces who had been in garrison
at Tournay and Dendermonde when those places were taken, and
engaged by capitulation, that they should not perform any
military function before the first day of January, in the
year 1747; so they could not have acted in England without
the infringement of a solemn treaty.

They forthwith began their march to the north, under the command of
general Wade, who received orders to assemble an army, which proceeded to
Newcastle. The parliament meeting on the sixteenth day of October, his
majesty gave them to understand, that an unnatural rebellion had broke out
in Scotland, towards the suppression of which he craved their advice and
assistance. He found both houses cordial in their addresses, and zealous
in their attachment to his person and government. The commons forthwith
suspended the habeas-corpus act; and several persons were
apprehended on suspicion of treasonable practices. Immediately after the
session was opened, the duke of Cumberland arrived from the Netherlands,
and was followed by another detachment of dragoons and infantry. The
train-bands of London were reviewed by his majesty; the county regiments
were completed; the volunteers, in different parts of the kingdom,
employed themselves industriously in the exercise of arms; and the whole
English nation seemed to rise up as one man against this formidable
invader. The government being apprehensive of a descent from France,
appointed admiral Vernon to command a squadron in the Downs, to observe
the motions of the enemy by sea, especially in the harbours of Dunkirk and
Boulogne; and his cruisers took several ships laden with soldiers,
officers, and ammunition, destined for the service of the pretender in
Scotland.

This enterprising youth, having collected about five thousand men,
resolved to make an irruption into England, which he accordingly entered
by the west border on the sixth day of November. Carlisle was invested,
and in less than three days surrendered; the keys were delivered to him at
Brampton, by the mayor and aldermen on their knees. Here he found a
considerable quantity of arms; his father was proclaimed king of Great
Britain, and himself regent, by the magistrates in their formalities.
General Wade being apprized of his progress, decamped from Newcastle, and
advanced across the country as far as Hexham, though the fields were
covered with snow, and the roads almost impassable. There he received
intelligence that Carlisle was reduced, and forthwith returned to his
former station, In the meantime, orders were issued for assembling another
army in Staffordshire, under the command of sir John Ligonier. Prince
Charles, notwithstanding this formidable opposition, determined to
proceed. He had received assurances from France, that a considerable body
of troops would be landed on the southern coast of Britain, to make a
diversion in his favour; and he never doubted but that he should be joined
by all the English malcontents, as soon as he could penetrate into the
heart of the kingdom. Leaving a small garrison in the castle of Carlisle,
he advanced to Penrith, marching on foot in the highland garb, at the head
of his forces; and continued his route through Lancaster and Preston to
Manchester, where on the twenty-ninth day of the month, he established his
head quarters. There he was joined by about two hundred Englishmen, who
were formed into a regiment under the command of colonel Townley. The
inhabitants seemed to receive him with marks of affection; and his arrival
was celebrated by illuminations and other public rejoicings. His supposed
intention was to prosecute his march by the way of Chester into Wales,
where he hoped to find a great number of adherents; but all the bridges
over the river Mersey being broken down, he chose the route to Stockport,
and forded the river at the head of his division, though the water rose to
his middle. He passed through Macclesfield and Congleton; and on the
fourth day of December entered the town of Derby, in which his army was
quartered and his father proclaimed with great formality. He had now
advanced within one hundred miles of the capital, which was filled with
terror and confusion. Wade lingered in Yorkshire; the duke of Cumberland
had assumed the command of the other army assembled in the neighbourhood
of Lichfield. He had marched from Stafford to Stone; so that the rebels,
in turning off from Ashbourne to Derby, had gained a march between him and
London. Had Charles proceeded in his career with that expedition which he
had hitherto used, he might have made himself master of the metropolis,
where he would have been certainly joined by a considerable number of his
well wishers, who waited impatiently for his approach; yet this exploit
could not have been achieved without hazarding an engagement, and running
the risk of being enclosed within three armies, each greatly superior to
his own in number and artillery. Orders were given for forming a camp on
Finchley-common, where the king resolved to take the field in person,
accompanied by the earl of Stair, field-marshal and commander-in-chief of
the forces in South-Britain. Some Romish priests were apprehended; the
militia of London and Middlesex were kept in readiness to march; double
watches were posted at the city-gates, and signals of alarm appointed. The
volunteers of the city were incorporated into a regiment; the
practitioners of the law, headed by the judges, weavers of Spitalfields,
and other communities, engaged in associations; and even the managers of
the theatres offered to raise a body of their dependents for the service
of the government. Notwithstanding these precautions and appearances of
unanimity, the trading part of the city, and those concerned in the money
corporations, were overwhelmed with fear and dejection. They reposed very
little confidence in the courage or discipline of their militia and
volunteers; they had received intelligence that the French were employed
in making preparations at Dunkirk and Calais for a descent upon England;
they dreaded an insurrection of the Roman-catholics, and other friends of
the house of Stuart; and they reflected that the highlanders, of whom by
this time they had conceived a most terrible idea, were within four days’
march of the capital. Alarmed by these considerations, they prognosticated
their own ruin in the approaching revolution; and their countenances
exhibited the plainest marks of horror and despair. On the other hand, the
Jacobites were elevated to an insolence of hope, which they were at no
pains to conceal; while many people, who had no private property to lose,
and thought no change would be for the worse, waited the issue of this
crisis with the most calm indifference.

THE REBELS RETREAT INTO SCOTLAND.

This state of suspense was of short duration. The young pretender found
himself miserably disappointed in his expectations. He had now advanced
into the middle of the kingdom, and except a few that joined him at
Manchester, not a soul appeared in his behalf; one would have imagined
that all the Jacobites of England had been annihilated. The Welch took no
step to excite an insurrection in his favour; the French made no attempt
towards an invasion; his court was divided into factions; the highland
chiefs began to murmur, and their clans to be unruly; he saw himself with
a handful of men hemmed in between two considerable armies, in the middle
of winter, and in a country disaffected to his cause. He knew he could not
proceed to the metropolis without hazarding a battle, and that a defeat
would be attended with the inevitable destruction of himself and all his
adherents; and he had received information that his friends and officers
had assembled a body of forces in the North, superior in number to those
by whom he was attended. He called a council at Derby; and proposed to
advance towards London: the proposal was supported by lord Nairn with
great vehemence; but, after violent disputes, the majority determined that
they should retreat to Scotland with all possible expedition. Accordingly,
they abandoned Derby on the sixth day of December, early in the morning,
and measured back the route by which they had advanced. On the ninth their
vanguard arrived at Manchester; on the twelfth they entered Preston, and
continued their march northwards. The duke of Cumberland, who was encamped
at Meriden, when first apprized of their retreat, detached the horse and
dragoons in pursuit of them; while general Wade began his march from
Ferry-bridge in Lancashire, with a view of intercepting them in their
route; but at Wakefield he understood that they had already reached Wigan;
he therefore repaired to his old post at Newcastle, after having detached
general Oglethorpe, with his horse and dragoons, to join those who had
been sent off from the duke’s army. They pursued with such alacrity, that
they overtook the rear of the rebels, with which they skirmished in
Lancashire. The militia of Cumberland and Westmoreland were raised and
armed by the duke’s order, to harass them in their march. The bridges were
broken down, the roads damaged, and the beacons lighted to alarm the
country. Nevertheless, they retreated regularly with their small train of
artillery. They were overtaken at the village of Clifton, in the
neighbourhood of Penrith, by two regiments of dragoons. These alighted,
and lined the hedges, in order to harass part of the enemy’s rear-guard,
commanded by lord John Murray; who, at the head of the Macphersons,
attacked the dragoons sword in hand, and repulsed them with some loss. On
the nineteenth day of the month, the highland army reached Carlisle, where
the majority of the English in the service of the pretender were left, at
their own desire. Charles, having reinforced the garrison of the place,
crossed the rivers Eden and Solway into Scotland, having thus accomplished
one of the most surprising retreats that ever was performed. But the most
remarkable circumstance of this expedition, was the moderation and
regularity with which those ferocious people conducted themselves in a
country abounding with plunder. No violence was offered; no outrage
committed; and they were effectually restrained from the exercise of
rapine. Notwithstanding the excessive cold, the hunger, and fatigue to
which they must have been exposed, they left behind no sick, and lost a
very few stragglers; but retired with deliberation, and carried off their
cannon in the face of their enemy. The duke of Cumberland invested
Carlisle with his whole army on the twenty-first day of December, and on
the thirtieth the garrison surrendered on a sort of capitulation made with
the duke of Richmond. The prisoners, amounting to about four hundred, were
imprisoned in different gaols in England, and the duke returned to London.

The pretender proceeded by the way of Dumfries to Glasgow, from which last
city he exacted severe contributions, on account of its attachment to the
government, for whose service it had raised a regiment of nine hundred men
under the command of the earl of Home. Having continued several days at
Glasgow, he advanced towards Stirling, and was joined by some forces which
had been assembled in his absence by lords Lewis Gordon and John Drummond,
brothers to the dukes of Gordon and Perth. This last nobleman had arrived
from France in November, with a small reinforcement of French and Irish,
and a commission as general of these auxiliaries, he fixed his head
quarters at Perth, where he was reinforced by the earl of Cromartie and
other clans, to the number of two thousand, and he was accommodated with a
small train of artillery. They had found means to surprise a sloop of war
at Montrose, with the guns of which they fortified that harbour. They had
received a considerable sum of money from Spain. They took possession of
Dundee, Dumblane, Downcastle, and laid Fife under contribution. The earl
of Loudon remained at Inverness, with about two thousand highlanders in
the service of his majesty. He convoyed provisions to Fort-Augustus and
Fort-William; he secured the person of lord Lovat, who still temporized,
and at length this cunning veteran accomplished his escape. The laird of
Macleod, and Mr. Monro of Culcairn, being detached from Inverness towards
Aberdeenshire, were surprised and routed by lord Lewis Gordon at Inverary;
and that interest seemed to preponderate in the north of Scotland. Prince
Charles being joined by lord John Drummond, invested the castle of
Stirling, in which general Blakeney commanded; but his people were so
little used to enterprises of this kind, that they made very little
progress in their operations.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE KING’S TROOPS UNDER HAWLEY ARE WORSTED AT FALKIEK.

By this time, a considerable body of forces was assembled at Edinburgh,
under the conduct of general Hawley, who determined to relieve
Stirling-castle, and advanced to Linlithgow on the thirteenth day of
January; next day his whole army rendezvoused at Falkirk, while the rebels
were cantoned about Bannockburn. On the seventeenth day of the month, they
began then-march in two columns to attack the king’s forces, and had
forded the water of Carron, within three miles of Hawley’s camp, before he
discovered their intention. Such was his obstinacy, self-conceit, or
contempt of the enemy, that he slighted the repeated intelligence he had
received of their motions and design, firmly believing they durst not
hazard an engagement. At length perceiving that they had occupied the
rising ground to the southward of Falkirk, he ordered his cavalry to
advance and drive them from the eminence; while his infantry formed, and
were drawn up in order of battle. The highlanders kept up their fire, and
took aim so well, that the assailants were broke by the first volley; they
retreated with precipitation, and fell in amongst the infantry, which were
likewise discomposed by the wind and rain beating with great violence in
their faces, wetting their powder, and disturbing their eyesight. Some of
the dragoons rallied, and advanced again to the charge, with part of the
infantry which had not been engaged; then the pretender marched up at the
head of his corps de reserve, consisting of the regiment of lord John
Drummond, and the Irish piquets. These reinforcing the Camerons and the
Stuarts in the front line, immediately obliged the dragoons to give way a
second time, and they again disordered the foot in their retreat. They set
fire to their camp, and abandoned Falkirk with their baggage and train,
which last had never reached the field of battle. The rebels followed
their first blow, and great part of the royal army, after one irregular
discharge, turned their backs and fled in the utmost consternation. In all
probability few or none of them would have escaped, had not general Huske,
and brigadier Cholmondeley, rallied part of some regiments, and made a
gallant stand, which favoured the retreat of the rest to Falkirk, from
whence they retired in confusion to Edinburgh, leaving the field of
battle, with part of their tents and artillery, to the rebels; but their
loss of men did not exceed three hundred, including sir Robert Monro,
colonel Whitney, and some other officers of distinction. It was at this
period, that the officers who had been taken at the battle of Prestonpans,
and conveyed to Angus and Fife, finding themselves unguarded, broke their
parole, and returned to Edinburgh, on pretence of their having been
forcibly released by the inhabitants of those parts.*

* Sir Peter Halket, captain Lucy Scott, lieutenants
Farquharson and Cumming, with a few other gentlemen, adhered
punctually to their parole, and their conduct was approved
by his majesty.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND COMMANDS THE ROYAL TROOPS.

General Hawley, who had boasted that, with two regiments of dragoons, he
would drive the rebel army from one end of the kingdom to the other,
incurred abundance of censure for the disposition he made, as well as for
his conduct before and after the action; but he found means to vindicate
himself to the satisfaction of his sovereign. Nevertheless, it was judged
necessary that the army in Scotland should be commanded by a general in
whom the soldiers might have some confidence; and the duke of Cumberland
was chosen for this purpose. Over and above his being beloved by the army,
it was suggested, that the appearance of a prince of the blood in Scotland
might have a favourable effect upon the minds of the people in that
kingdom; he therefore began to prepare for his northern expedition.
Meanwhile, the French minister at the Hague having represented to the
states-general, that the auxiliaries which they had sent into Great
Britain were part of the garrisons of Tournay and Dendermonde, and
restricted by the capitulation from bearing arms against France for a
certain term, the states thought proper to recall them, rather than come
to an open rupture with his most christian majesty. In the room of those
troops six thousand Hessians were transported from Flanders to Leith,
where they arrived in the beginning of February, under the command of
their prince, Frederick of Hesse, son-in-law to his Britannic majesty. By
this time the duke of Cumberland had put himself at the head of the troops
in Edinburgh, consisting of fourteen battalions of infantry, two regiments
of dragoons, and twelve hundred highlanders from Argyle-shire, under the
command of colonel Campbell.

1746

On the last day of January, his royal highness began his march to
Linlithgow; and the enemy, who had renewed the siege of Stirling-castle,
not only abandoned that enterprise, but crossed the river Forth with
precipitation. Their prince found great difficulty in maintaining his
forces, that part of the country being quite exhausted. He hoped to be
reinforced in the Highlands, and to receive supplies of all kinds from
France and Spain; he therefore retired by Badenoch towards Inverness,
which the earl of Loudon abandoned at his approach. The fort was
surrendered to him almost without opposition, and here he fixed his
head-quarters. His next exploit was the siege of Fort-Augustus, which he
in a little time reduced. The duke of Cumberland having secured the
important posts of Stirling and Perth with the Hessian battalions,
advanced with the army to Aberdeen, where he was joined by the duke of
Gordon, the earls of Aberdeen and Findlater, the laird of Grant, and other
persons of distinction.

THE REBELS UNDERTAKE THE SIEGE OF FORT-WILLIAM.

While he remained in this place, refreshing his troops, and preparing
magazines, a party of the rebels surprised a detachment of Kingston’s
horse, and about seventy Argyleshire highlanders, at Keith, who were
either killed or taken. Several advanced parties of that militia met with
the same fate in different places. Lord George Murray invested the castle
of Blair, which was defended by sir Andrew Agnew, until a body of Hessians
marched to its relief, and obliged the rebels to retire. The
prince-pretender ordered all his forces to assemble, in order to begin
their march for Aberdeen to attack the duke of Cumberland; but, in
consequence of a remonstrance from the clans, who declined leaving their
families at the mercy of the king’s garrison in Fort-William, he resolved
previously to reduce that fortress, the siege of which was undertaken by
brigadier Stapleton, an engineer in the French service; but the place was
so vigorously maintained by captain Scot, that in the beginning of April
they thought proper to relinquish the enterprise. The earl of Loudon had
retired into Sutherland, and taken post at Dornoch, where his quarters
were beat up by a strong detachment of the rebels, commanded by the duke
of Perth; a major and sixty men taken prisoners; and the earl was obliged
to take shelter in the Isle of Skye. These little checks were
counterbalanced by some advantages which his majesty’s arms obtained. The
sloop of war which the rebels had surprised at Montrose was retaken in
Sutherland, with a considerable sum of money, and a great quantity of arms
on board, which she had brought from France for the use of the pretender.
In the same county, the earl of Cromartie fell into an ambuscade, and was
taken by the militia of Sutherland, who likewise defeated a body of the
rebels at Goldspie. This action happened on the very day which has been
rendered famous by the victory obtained at Culloden.

CHAPTER VI.

The Rebels are totally defeated at Culloden….. The Duke
of Cumberland takes Possession of Inverness, and afterwards
encamps at Fort-Augustus….. The Prince Pretender escapes
to France….. Convulsion in the Ministry….. Liberality of
the Commons….. Trial of the Rebels….. Kilmarnock,
Balmerino, Lovat, and Mr. Ratcliff, are beheaded on Tower-
hill….. The States-general alarmed at the Progress of the
French in the Netherlands….. Count Saxa subdues all
Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault….. Reduces the strong
Fortress of Namur, and defeats the Allied Army at
Roucoux….. The French and Spaniards are compelled to
abandon Piedmont and the Milanese….. Don Philip is worsted
at Codogno, and afterwards at Porto Freddo….. The
Austrians take Possession of Genoa….. Count Brown
penetrates into Provence….. The Genoese expel the
Austrians from their City….. Madras in the East Indies
taken by the French….. Expedition to the Coast of
Bretagne, and Attempt upon Port L’Orient….. Naval
Transactions in the West-Indies….. Conferences at
Breda….. Vast Supplies granted by the Commons of
England….. Parliament dissolved….. The French and Allies
take the Field in Flanders….. Prince of Orange elected
Stadtholder, Captain-general, and Admiral of the United
Provinces….. The Confederates defeated at Laffeldt…..
Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom—The Austrians undertake the Siege
of Genoa, which however, they abandon….. The Chevalier de
Belleisle slain in the Attack of Exilles….. A French
Squadron defeated and taken by the Admirals Anson and
Warren….. Admiral Hawke obtains another Victory over the
French at Sea….. Other Naval Transactions….. Congress at
Aix-la-Chapelle….. Compliant Temper of the new
Parliament….. Preliminaries signed….. Preparations for
the Campaign in the Netherlands….. Siege of
Maestrieht….. Cessation of Arms….. Transactions in the
East and West Indies….. Conclusion of the Definitive
Treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle

THE REBELS ARE TOTALLY DEFEATED.

In the beginning of April, the duke of Cumberland began his march from
Aberdeen, and on the twelfth passed the deep and rapid river Spey, without
opposition from the rebels, though a detachment of them appeared on the
opposite side. Why they did not dispute the passage is not easy to be
conceived; But, indeed, from this instance of neglect, and their
subsequent conduct, we may conclude they were under a total infatuation.
His royal highness proceeded to Nairn, where he received intelligence that
the enemy had advanced from Inverness to Culloden, about the distance of
nine miles from the royal army, with intention to give him battle. The
design of Charles was to march in the night from Culloden, and surprise
the duke’s army at day-break; for this purpose the English camp had been
reconnoitred; and on the night of the fifteenth the highland army began to
march in two columns. Their design was to surround the enemy, and attack
them at once on all quarters; but the length of the columns embarrassed
the march, so that the army was obliged to make many halts: the men had
been under arms during the whole preceding night, were faint with hunger
and fatigue, and many of them overpowered with sleep. Some were unable to
proceed; others dropped off unperceived in the dark; and the march was
retarded in such a manner, that it would have been impossible to reach the
duke’s camp before sun-rise. The design being thus frustrated, the
prince-pretender was with great reluctance prevailed upon by his general
officers to measure back his way to Culloden; at which place he had no
sooner arrived, than great numbers of his followers dispersed in quest of
provisions; and many, overcome with weariness and sleep, threw themselves
down on the heath and along the park walls. Their repose, however, was
soon interrupted in a very disagreeable manner. Their prince receiving
intelligence that his enemies were in full march to attack him, resolved
to hazard an engagement, and ordered his troops to be formed for that
purpose. On the sixteenth day of April, the duke of Cumberland, having
made the proper dispositions, decamped from Nairn early in the morning,
and after a march of nine miles perceived the highlanders drawn up in
order of battle, to the number of four thou-sand men, in thirteen
divisions, supplied with some pieces of artillery. The royal army, which
was much more numerous, the duke immediately formed into three lines,
disposed in excellent order: and about one o’clock in the afternoon the
cannonading began. The artillery of the rebels was ill served, and did
very little execution; but that of the king’s troops made dreadful havock
among the enemy. Impatient of this fire, their front line advanced to the
attack, and about five hundred of the clans charged the duke’s left wing
with their usual impetuosity. One regiment was disordered by the weight of
this column; but two battalions advancing from the second line, sustained
the first, and soon put a stop to their career, by a severe fire, that
killed a great number. At the same time the dragoons under Hawley, and the
Argyleshire militia, pulled down a park wall that covered their flank, and
the cavalry falling in among the rebels sword in hand, completed their
confusion. The French picquets on their left, covered the retreat of the
highlanders by a close and regular fire; and then retired to Inverness,
where they surrendered themselves prison-ers of war. An entire body of the
rebels marched off the field in order, with their pipes playing, and the
pre-tender’s standard displayed; the rest were routed with great
slaughter; and their prince was with reluctance prevailed upon to retire.
In less than thirty minutes they were totally defeated, and the field
covered with the slain. The road, as far as Inverness, was strewed with
dead bodies; and a great number of people, who from motives of curiosity
had come to see the battle, were sacrificed to the undistinguished
vengeance of the victors. Twelve hundred rebels were slain or wounded on
the field, and in the pursuit. The earl of Kilmarnock was taken; and in a
few days lord Balmerino surrendered to a country gentleman, at whose house
he presented himself for this purpose. The glory of the victory was
sullied by the barbarity of the soldiers. They had been provoked by their
former disgraces to the most savage thirst of revenge. Not contented with
the blood which was so profusely shed in the heat of action, they
traversed the field after the battle, and massacred those miserable
wretches who lay maimed and expiring: nay, some officers acted a part in
this cruel scene of assassination, the triumph of low illiberal minds,
uninspired by sentiment, untinctured by humanity. The vanquished
adventurer rode off the field, accompanied by the duke of Perth, lord
Elcho, and a few horsemen; he crossed the water at Nairn, and retired to
the house of a gentleman in Strutharrick, where he conferred with old lord
Lovat; then he dismissed his followers, and wandered about a wretched and
solitary fugitive among the isles and mountains for the space of five
months, during which he underwent such a series of dangers, hardships, and
misery, as no other person ever outlived. Thus, in one short hour, all his
hope vanished, and the rebellion was entirely extinguished. One would
almost imagine, the conductors of this desperate enterprise had conspired
their own destruction, as they certainly neglected every step that might
have contributed to their safety or success. They might have opposed the
duke of Cumberland at the passage of the Spey; they might, by proper
conduct, have afterwards attacked his camp in the night, with a good
prospect of success. As they were greatly inferior to him in number, and
weakened with hunger and fatigue, they might have retired to the hills and
fastnesses, where they would have found plenty of live cattle for
provision, recruited their regiments, and been joined by a strong
reinforcement, which was actually in full march to their assistance. But
they were distracted by dissensions and jealousies; they obeyed the
dictates of despair, and wilfully devoted themselves to ruin and death.
When the news of the battle arrived in England, the nation was transported
with joy, and extolled the duke of Cumberland as a hero and deliverer,
Both houses of parliament congratulated his majesty on the auspicious
event. They decreed, in the most solemn manner, their public thanks to his
royal highness, which were transmitted to him by the speakers; and the
commons, by bill, added five-and-twenty thousand pounds per annum to his
former revenue.

ENLARGE

THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND TAKES POSSESSION OF INVERNESS.

Immediately after the decisive action at Culloden, the duke took
possession of Inverness, where six-and-thirty deserters, convicted by a
court-martial, were ordered to be executed: then he detached several
parties to ravage the country. One of these apprehended the lady
Mackintosh, who was sent prisoner to Inverness. They did not plunder her
house, but drove away her cattle, though her husband was actually in the
service of government. The castle of lord Lovat was destroyed. The French
prisoners were sent to Carlisle and Penrith: Kilmarnock, Balmerino,
Cromartie, and his son the lord Macleod, were conveyed by sea to London;
and those of an inferior rank were confined in different prisons. The
marquis of Tullibardine, together with a brother of the earl of Dunmore,
were seized and transported to the Tower of London, to which the earl of
Traquaire had been committed on suspicion: in a few months after the
battle of Culloden, Murray, the pretender’s secretary, was apprehended;
and the eldest son of lord Lovat, having surrendered himself, was
imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. In a word, all the gaols of Great
Britain, from the capital northwards, were filled with those unfortunate
captives; and great numbers of them were crowded together in the holds of
ships, where they perished in the most deplorable manner, for the want of
necessaries, air, and exercise. Some rebel chiefs escaped in two French
frigates, which had arrived on the coast of Lochaber about the end of
April, and engaged three vessels belonging to his Britannic majesty, which
they obliged to retire. Others embarked on board of a ship on the coast of
Buchan, and were conveyed to Norway; from thence they travelled to Sweden.
In the month of May, the duke of Cumberland advanced with the army into
the highlands as far as Fort-Augustus, where he encamped, and sent off
detachments on all hands to hunt down the fugitives, and lay waste the
country with fire and sword. The castles of Glengary and Lochiel were
plundered and burned; every house, hut, or habitation, met with the same
fate without distinction; all the cattle and provision were carried off;
the men were either shot upon the mountains like wild beasts, or put to
death in cold blood, without form of trial; the women, after having seen
their husbands and fathers murdered, were subjected to brutal violation,
and then turned out naked, with their children, to starve on the barren
heaths. One whole family was enclosed in a barn, and consumed to ashes.
Those ministers of vengeance were so alert in the execution of their
office, that in a few days there was neither house, cottage, man, nor
beast, to be seen in the compass of fifty miles: all was ruin, silence,
and desolation.

THE PRETENDER ESCAPES TO FRANCE.

The humane reader cannot reflect upon such a scene without grief and
horror; what then must have been the sensation of the fugitive prince,
when he beheld these spectacles of woe, the dismal fruit of his ambition?
He was now surrounded by armed troops, that chased him from hill to dale,
from rock to cavern, and from shore to shore. Sometimes he lurked in caves
and cottages, without attendants, or any other support but that which the
poorest peasant could supply. Sometimes he was rowed in fisher-boats from
isle to isle among the Hebrides, and often in sight of his pursuers. For
some days he appeared in woman’s attire, and even passed through the midst
of his enemies unknown. But understanding his disguise was discovered, he
assumed the habit of a travelling mountaineer, and wandered about among
the woods and heaths, with a matted beard, and squalid looks, exposed to
hunger, thirst, and weariness, and in continual danger of being
apprehended. He was obliged to trust his life to the fidelity of above
fifty individuals, and many of these were in the lowest paths of fortune.
They knew that a price of thirty thousand pounds was set upon his head;
and that, by betraying him, they should enjoy wealth and affluence: but
they detested the thought of obtaining riches on such infamous terms, and
ministered to his necessities with the utmost zeal and fidelity, even at
the hazard of their own destruction. In the course of these
peregrinations, he was more than once hemmed in by his pursuers in such a
manner as seemed to preclude all possibility of escaping; yet he was never
abandoned by his hope and recollection; he still found some expedient that
saved him from captivity and death; and through the whole course of his
distresses maintained the most amazing equanimity and good humour. At
length a privateer of Saint Malo, hired by the young Sheridan and some
other Irish adherents, arrived in Lochnannach; and on the twentieth day of
September, this unfortunate prince embarked in the habit which he wore for
disguise. His eye was hollow, his visage wan, and his constitution greatly
impaired by famine and fatigue. He was accompanied by Cameron of Lochiel
and his brother, with a few other exiles. They set sail for France, and
after having passed unseen, by means of a thick fog, through a British
squadron commanded by admiral Lestock, and been chased by two English
ships of war, arrived in safety at Roscau, near Morlaix, in Bretagne.
Perhaps he would have found it still more difficult to escape, had not the
vigilance and eagerness of the government been relaxed, in consequence of
a report that he had already fallen among some persons that were slain by
a volley from one of the duke’s detachments.

CONVULSION IN THE MINISTRY.

Having thus explained the rise, progress, and extinction of the rebellion,
it will be necessary to take a retrospective view of the proceedings in
parliament. The necessary steps being taken for quieting the intestine
commotions of the kingdom, the two houses began to convert their attention
to the affairs of the continent. On the fourteenth day of January, the
king repaired to the house of peers, and, in a speech from the throne,
gave his parliament to understand that the states-general had made
pressing instances for his assistance in the present conjuncture, when
they were in such danger of being oppressed by the power of France in the
Netherlands; that he had promised to co-operate with them towards opposing
the further progress of their enemies; and even concerted measures for
that purpose. He declared it was with regret that he asked any further
aids of his people; he exhorted them to watch over the public credit; and
expressed his entire dependence on their zeal and unanimity. He was
favoured with loyal addresses, couched in the warmest terms of duty and
affection; but the supplies were retarded by new convulsions in the
ministry. The earl of Granville had made an effort to retrieve his
influence in the cabinet, and his sovereign favoured his pretensions. The
two brothers, who knew his aspiring genius, and dreaded his superior
talents, refused to admit such a colleague into the administration; they
even resolved to strengthen their party, by introducing fresh auxiliaries
into the office of state. Some of these were personally disagreeable to
his majesty, who accordingly rejected the suit by which they were
recommended. The duke of Newcastle and his brother, with all their
adherents, immediately resigned their employments. The earl of Granville
was appointed secretary of state, and resumed the reins of administration;
but, finding himself unequal to the accumulated opposition that
preponderated against him; foreseeing that he should not be able to secure
the supplies in parliament; and dreading the consequence of that confusion
which his restoration had already produced, he, in three days, voluntarily
quitted the helm; and his majesty acquiesced in the measures proposed by
the opposite party. The seals were re-delivered to the duke of Newcastle
and the earl of Harrington; Mr. Pel-ham, and all the rest who had
resigned, were reinstated in their respective employments; and offices
were conferred on several individuals who had never before been in the
service of the government. William Pitt, esq., was appointed
vice-treasurer of Ireland, and soon promoted to the place of
paymaster-general of the forces; at the same time the king declared him a
privy-counsellor. This gentleman had been originally designed for the
army, in which he actually bore a commission; but fate reserved him a more
important station. In point of fortune he was barely qualified to be
elected member of parliament, when he obtained a seat in the house of
commons, where he soon outshone all his compatriots. He displayed a
surprising extent and precision of political knowledge, an irresistible
energy of argument, and such power of elocution as struck his hearers with
astonishment and admiration. It flashed like the lightning of heaven
against the ministers and sons of corruption, blasting where it smote, and
withering the nerves of opposition; but his more substantial praise was
founded upon his disinterested integrity his incorruptible heart, his
unconquerable spirit of independence, and his invariable attachment to the
interest and liberty of his country.

The quiet of the ministry being re-established, the house of commons
provided for forty thousand seamen, nearly the same number of land forces,
besides fifteen regiments raised by the nobility on account of the
rebellion, and about twelve thousand marines. They settled funds for the
maintenance of the Dutch and Hessian troops that were in England, as well
as for the subsidy to the landgrave. They granted three hundred thousand
pounds to the king of Sardinia; four hundred thousand pounds to the queen
of Hungary; three hundred and ten thousand pounds to defray the expense of
eighteen thousand Hanoverians; about three-and-thirty thousand pounds in
subsidies to the electors of Mentz and Cologn; and five hundred thousand
pounds in a vote of credit and confidence to his majesty. The whole charge
of the current year amounted to seven millions two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds, which was raised by the land and malt taxes, annuities on
the additional duties imposed on glass and spirituous liquors, a lottery,
a deduction from the sinking fund, and exchequer bills, chargeable on the
first aids that should be granted in the next session of parliament.

TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF THE REBELS.

The rebellion being quelled, the legislature resolved to make examples of
those who had been concerned in disturbing the peace of their country. In
June, an act of attainder was passed against the principal persons who had
embarked in that desperate undertaking; and courts were opened in
different parts of England for the trial of the prisoners. Seventeen
persons who had borne arms in the rebel army were executed at Kennington
Common, in the neighbourhood of London, and suffered with great constancy
under the dreadful tortures which their sentence prescribed; nine were put
to death in the same manner at Carlisle; six at Brampton, seven at
Penrith, eleven at York: of these a considerable number were gentlemen,
and had acted as officers; about fifty had been executed as deserters in
different parts of Scotland; eighty-one suffered the pains of the law as
traitors. A few obtained pardons, and a considerable number were
transported to the plantations. Bills of indictment for high treason were
found by the county of Surrey against the earls of Kilmarnock and
Cromartie, and lord Balmerino. These noblemen were tried by their peers in
Westminster-hall, the lord chancellor presiding as lord high-steward for
the occasion. The two earls confessed their crimes, and in pathetic
speeches recommended themselves to his majesty’s mercy. Lord Balmerino
pleaded not guilty; he denied his having been at Carlisle at the time
specified in the indictment, but this exception was over-ruled; then he
moved a point of law in arrest of judgment, and was allowed to be heard by
his counsel. They might have expatiated on the hardship of being tried by
an ex post facto law; and claimed the privilege of trial in the county
where the act of treason was said to have been committed. The same
hardship was imposed upon all the imprisoned rebels: they were dragged in
captivity to a strange country, far from their friends and connexions,
destitute of means to produce evidence in their favour, even if they had
been innocent of the charge. Balmerino waived this plea, and submitted to
the court, which pronounced sentence of death upon him and his two
associates. Cromartie’s life was spared; but the other two were beheaded,
in the month of August, on Tower-hill. Kilmarnock was a nobleman of fine
personal accomplishments; he had been educated in revolution principles,
and engaged in the rebellion partly from the desperate situation of his
fortune, and partly from resentment to the government, on his being
deprived of a pension which he had for some time enjoyed. He was convinced
of his having acted criminally, and died with marks of penitence and
contrition. Balmerino had been bred up to arms, and acted upon principle:
he was gallant, brave, rough, and resolute; he eyed the implements of
death with the most careless familiarity, and seemed to triumph in his
sufferings. In November, Mr. Ratcliffe, the titular earl of Derwentwater,
who had been taken in a ship bound for Scotland, was arraigned on a former
sentence passed against him in the year one thousand seven hundred and
sixteen: he refused to acknowledge the authority of the court, and pleaded
that he was a subject of France, honoured with a commission in the service
of his most christian majesty. The identity of his person being proved, a
rule was made for his execution; and on the eighth day of December he
suffered decapitation, with the most perfect composure and serenity. Lord
Lovat, now turned of four-score, was impeached by the commons, and tried
in Westminster-hall before the lord high-steward. John Murray, secretary
to the prince-pretender, and some of his own domestics, appearing against
him, he was convicted of high treason, and condemned. Notwithstanding his
age, infirmities, and the recollection of his conscience, which was
supposed to be not altogether void of offence, he died like an old Roman,
exclaiming, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” He surveyed the crowd
with attention, examined the axe, jested with the executioner, and laid
his head upon the block with the utmost indifference. From this last scene
of his life, one would have concluded that he had approved himself a
patriot from his youth, and never deviated from the paths of virtue.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE STATES-GENERAL ALARMED AT THE PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH.

The flame of war on the continent did not expire at the election of an
emperor, and the re-establishment of peace among the princes of the
empire. On the contrary, it raged with double violence in consequence of
these events; for the force that was before divided being now united in
one body, exerted itself with great vigour and rapidity. The
states-general were overwhelmed with consternation. Notwithstanding the
pains they had taken to avoid a war, and the condescension with which they
had soothed and supplicated the French monarch in repeated embassies and
memorials, they saw themselves striped of their barrier, and once mere in
danger of being overwhelmed by that ambitious nation. The city of Brussels
had been reduced during the winter; so that the enemy were in possession
of all the Austrian Netherlands, except a few fortresses. Great part of
the forces belonging to the republic were restricted from action by
capitulations, to which they had subscribed. The states were divided in
their councils between the two factions which had long subsisted. They
trembled at the prospect of seeing Zealand invaded in the spring. The
Orange party loudly called for an augmentation of their forces by sea and
land, that they might prosecute the war with vigour. The common people,
fond of novelty, dazzled by the splendour of greatness, and fully
persuaded that nothing but a chief was wanting to their security, demanded
the prince of Orange as a stadtholder; and even mingled menaces with their
demands. The opposite faction dreaded alike the power of a stadtholder,
the neighbourhood of a French army, and the seditious disposition of the
populace. An ambassador was sent to London with representations of the
imminent dangers which threatened the republic, and he was ordered to
solicit in the most pressing terms the assistance of his Britannic
majesty, that the allies might have a superiority in the Netherlands by
the beginning of the campaign. The king was very well disposed to comply
with their request; but the rebellion in his kingdom, and the dissensions
in his cabinet, had retailed the supplies and embarrassed him so much,
that he found it impossible to make those early preparations that were
necessary to check the career of the enemy.

COUNT SAXE SUBDUES ALL FLANDERS, BRABANT, AND HAINAULT.

The king of France, with his general the count de Saxe, took the field in
the latter end of April, at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand
men, and advanced towards the allies, who, to the number of four-and-forty
thousand, were intrenched behind the Demer under the conduct of the
Austrian general Bathiani, who retired before them, and took post in the
neighbourhood of Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant. Mareschal Saxe
immediately invested Antwerp, which in a few clays was surrendered. Then
he appeared before the strong town of Mons in Hainault, with an
irresistible train of artillery, and an immense quantity of bombs and
warlike implements. He carried on his approaches with such unabating
impetuosity, that, notwithstanding a very vigorous defence, the garrison
was obliged to capitulate on the twenty-seventh day of June, in about
eight-and-twenty days after the place had been invested. Sieges were not
now carried on by the tedious method of sapping. The French king found it
much more expeditious and effectual to bring into the field a prodigious
train of battering cannon, and enormous mortars, that kept up such a fire
as no garrison could sustain, and discharged such an incessant hail of
bombs and bullets, as in a very little time reduced to ruins the place
with all its fortifications. St. Guislain and Charleroy met with the fate
of Mons and Antwerp; so that by the middle of July the French king was
absolute master of Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault.

Prince Charles of Lorraine had by this time assumed the command of the
confederate army at Terheyde, which being reinforced by the Hessian troops
from Scotland, and a fresh body of Austrians under count Palfi, amounted
to eighty-seven thousand men, including the Dutch forces commanded by the
prince of Waldeck. The generals, supposing the next storm would fall upon
Namur, marched towards that place, and took post in an advantageous
situation on the eighteenth day of July, in sight of the French army,
which was encamped at Gemblours, Here they remained till the eighth day of
August, when a detachment of the enemy, commanded by count Lowendahl, took
possession of Huy, where he found a large magazine belonging to the
confederates; and their communication with Maestricht was cut off.
Mareschal Saxe, on the other side, took his measures so well, that they
were utterly deprived of all subsistence. Then prince Charles, retiring
across the Maese, abandoned Namur to the efforts of the enemy, by whom it
was immediately invested. The trenches were opened on the second day of
September; and the garrison, consisting of seven thousand Austrian-s,
defended themselves with equal skill and resolution; but the cannonading
and bombardment were so terrible, that in a few days the place was
converted into a heap of rubbish; and on the twenty-third day of the month
the French monarch took possession of this strong fortress, which had
formerly sustained such dreadful attacks. Meanwhile the allied army
encamped at Maestricht, were joined by sir John Ligonier with some British
and Bavarian battalions; and prince Charles resolved to give the enemy
battle. With this view he passed the Maese on the thirteenth day of
September, and advanced towards mareschal Saxe, whom he found so
advantageously posted at Tongres, that he thought proper to march back to
Maestricht. On the twenty-sixth day of September he crossed the Jaar in
his retreat; and his rear was attacked by the enemy, who were repulsed.
But count Saxe being reinforced by a body of troops under the count de
Clermont, determined to bring the confederates to an engagement. On the
thirteenth day of the month he passed the Jaar; while they took possession
of the villages of Liers, Warem, and Roucoux, drew up their forces in
order of battle, and made preparations for giving him a warm reception. On
the first day of October the enemy advanced in three columns; and a
terrible cannonading began about noon. At two o’clock prince Waldeck on
the left was charged with great fury; and, after an obstinate defence,
overpowered by numbers. The villages were attacked in columns, and as one
brigade was repulsed another succeeded; so that the allies were obliged to
abandon these posts, and retreat towards Maestricht, with the loss of five
thousand men and thirty pieces of artillery. The victory, however, cost
the French general a much greater number of lives; and was attended with
no solid advantage. Sir John ligonier, the earls of Crawford 301
[See note 2 O, at the end of this Vol.] and Rothes, brigadier
Douglas, and other officers of the British troops, distinguished
themselves by their gallantry and conduct on this occasion. This action
terminated the campaign. The allies passing the Maese, took up their
winter-quarters in the duchies of Limeburgh and Luxembourg; while the
French cantoned their troops in the places which they had newly conquered.

THE FRENCH AND SPANIARDS ABANDON PIEDMONT AND THE MILANESE.

The campaign in Italy was altogether unfavourable to the French and
Spaniards. The house of Austria being no longer pressed on the side of
Germany, was enabled to make the stronger efforts in this country; and the
British subsidy encouraged the king of Sardinia to act with redoubled
vivacity. Mareschal Maillebois occupied the greater part of Piedmont with
about thirty thousand men. Don Philip and the count de Gages were at the
head of a greater number in the neighbourhood of Milan; and the duke of
Modena, with eight thousand, secured his own dominions. The king of
Sardinia augmented his forces to six-and-thirty thousand; and the Austrian
army, under the prince of Lichtenstein, amounted to a much greater number;
so that the enemy were reduced to the necessity of acting on the
defensive, and retired towards the Mantuan. In February, baron Leutrum,
the Piedmontese general, invested and took the strong fortress of Aste. He
afterwards relieved the citadel of Alexandria, which the Spaniards had
blocked up in the winter, reduced Casal, recovered Valencia, and obliged
Maillebois to retire to the neighbourhood of Genoa. On the other side, Don
Philip and count Gages abandoned Milan, Pavia, and Parma, retreating
before the Austrians with the utmost precipitation to Placentia, where
they were joined on the third of June by the French forces under
Maillebois.

Before this junction was effected, the Spanish general Pignatelli had
passed the river Po in the night with a strong detachment, and beaten up
the quarters of seven thousand Austrians posted at Codogno. Don Philip,
finding himself at the head of two-and-fifty thousand men by his junction
with the French general, resolved to attack the Austrians in their camp at
San Lazaro, before they should be reinforced by his Sardinian majesty.
Accordingly, on the fourth day of June, in the evening, he marched with
equal silence and expedition, and entered the Austrian trenches about
eleven, when a desperate battle ensued. The Austrians were prepared for
the attack, which they sustained with great vigour till morning. Then they
quitted their intrench-ments, and charged the enemy in their turn with
such fury, that after an obstinate resistance the combined army was broke,
and retired with precipitation to Placentia, leaving on the field fifteen
thousand men killed, wounded, and taken, together with sixty colours and
ten pieces of artillery. In a few weeks the Austrians were joined by the
Piedmontese; the king of Sardinia assumed the chief command; and prince
Lichtenstein being indisposed, his place was supplied by the marquis de
Botta. Don Philip retired to the other side of the Po, and extended his
conquests in the open country of the Milanese. The king of Sardinia called
a council of war, in which it was determined that he should pass the river
with a strong body of troops, in order to straiten the enemy on one side;
while the marquis de Botta should march up the Tydone, to cut off their
communication with Placentia. They forthwith quitted all the posts they
had occupied between the Lambro and Adda, resolving to repass the Po and
retreat to Tortona. With, this view they threw bridges of boats over that
river, and began to pass on the ninth day of August in the evening. They
were attacked at Rotto Freddo by a detachment of Austrians, under general
Serbelloni, who maintained the engagement till ten in the morning, when
Botta arrived; the battle was renewed with redoubled rage, and lasted till
four in the afternoon, when the enemy retired in great disorder to
Tortona, with the loss of eight thousand men, a good number of colours and
standards, and eighteen pieces of cannon. This victory cost the Austrians
four thousand men killed upon the spot, including the gallant general
Bernclau. The victors immediately summoned Placentia to surrender; and the
garrison, consisting of nine thousand men, were made prisoners of war; Don
Philip continued his retreat, and of all his forces brought six-and-twenty
thousand only into the territories of Genoa.

THE AUSTRIANS TAKE POSSESSION OF GENOA. COUNT BROWN ENTERS PROVENCE.

The Piedmontese and Austrians rejoining in the neighbourhood of Pavia,
advanced to Tortona, of which they took possession without resistance,
while the enemy sheltered themselves under the cannon of Genoa. They did
not long continue in this situation; for on the twenty-second day of
August they were again in motion, and retired into Provence. The court of
Madrid imputing the bad success of this campaign to the misconduct of
count Gages, recalled that general, and sent the marquis de las Minas to
resume the command of the forces. In the meantime, the victorious
confederates appeared before Genoa on the fourth day of December; and the
senate of that city thinking it incapable of defence, submitted to a very
mortifying capitulation, by which the gates were delivered up to the
Austrians, together with all their arms, artillery, and ammunition; and
the city was subjected to the most cruel contributions. The marquis de
Botta being left at Genoa with sixteen thousand men, the king of Sardinia
resolved to pass the Var, and pursue the French and Spaniards into
Provence; but that monarch being seized with the small-pox, the conduct of
this expedition was entrusted to count Brown, an Austrian general of Irish
extract, who had given repeated proofs of uncommon valour and capacity. He
was on this occasion assisted by vice-admiral Medley, who commanded the
British squadron in the Mediterranean. The French forces had fortified the
passes of the Var, under the conduct of the mareschal de Belleisle, who
thought proper to abandon his posts at the approach of count Brown; and
this general, at the head of fifty thousand men, passed the river without
opposition, on the ninth day of November. While he advanced as far as
Draguignan, laying the open country under contribution, baron Both, with
four-and-twenty battalions, invested Antibes, which was at the same time
bombarded on the side of the sea by the British squadron. The trenches
were opened on the twentieth day of September; but Belleisle having
assembled a numerous army, superior to that of the confederates, and the
Genoese having expelled their Austrian guests, count Brown abandoned the
enterprise, and repassed the Var, not without some damage from the enemy.

THE GENOESE EXPEL THE AUSTRIANS.

The court of Vienna, which has always patronised oppression, exacted such
heavy contribution from the Genoese, and its directions were so rigorously
put in execution, that the people were reduced to despair; and resolved to
make a last effort for the recovery of their liberty and independence.
Accordingly, they took arms in secret, seized several important posts of
the city; surprised some battalions of the Austrians; surrounded others,
and cut them in pieces; and, in a word, drove them out with great
slaughter. The marquis de Botta acted with caution and spirit; but being
overpowered by numbers, and apprehensive of the peasants in the country,
who were in arms, he retreated to the pass of the Brochetta on the side of
Lombardy, where he secured himself in an advantageous situation, until he
could receive reinforcements. The loss he had sustained at Genoa did not
hinder him from reducing Savona, a sea-port town belonging to that
republic; and he afterwards made himself master of Gavi. The Genoese, on
the contrary, exerted themselves with wonderful industry in fortifying
their city, raising troops, and in taking other measures for a vigorous
defence, in case they should again be insulted.

MADRAS TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.

The naval transactions of this year reflected very little honour on the
British nation. Commodore Peyton, who commanded six ships of war in the
East Indies, shamefully declined a decisive engagement with a French
squadron of inferior force; and abandoned the important settlement of
Madras on the coast of Coromandel, which was taken without opposition in
the month of September by the French commodore, de la Bourdonnais. Fort
St. David, and the other British factories in India, would probably have
shared the same fate, had not the enemy’s naval force in that country been
shattered and partly destroyed by a terrible tempest. No event of
consequence happened in America, though it was a scene that seemed to
promise the greatest success to the arms of England. The reduction of Cape
Breton had encouraged the ministry to project the conquest of Quebec, the
capital of Canada, situated upon the river St. Lawrence. Commissions were
sent to the governors of the British colonies in North America, empowering
them to raise companies to join the armament from England; and eight
thousand troops were actually raised in consequence of these directions;
while a powerful squadron and transports, having six regiments on board,
were prepared at Portsmouth for this expedition. But their departure was
postponed by unaccountable delays, until the season was judged too far
advanced to risk the great ships on the boisterous coast of North America.
That the armament, however, might not be wholly useless to the nation, it
was employed in making a descent upon the coast of Bretagne, on the
supposition that Port L’Orient, the repository of all the stores and ships
belonging to the French East India company, might be surprised; or, that
this invasion would alarm the enemy, and, by making a diversion,
facilitate the operations of the Austrian general in Provence.

The naval force intended for this service consisted of sixteen great
ships, and eight frigates, besides bomb-ketches and store ships, commanded
by Richard Lestock, appointed admiral of the blue division. Six battalions
of land troops, with a detachment of matrosses and bombardiers, were
embarked in thirty transports, under the conduct of lieutenant-general
Sinclair; and the whole fleet set sail from Plymouth on the fourteenth day
of September. On the twentieth the troops were landed in Quimperlay-bay,
at the distance of ten miles from Port L’Orient. The militia, reinforced
by some detachments from different regiments, were assembled to the number
of two thousand, and seemed resolved to oppose the disembarkation; but
seeing the British troops determined to land at all events, they thought
proper to retire. Next day general Sinclair advanced into the country,
skirmishing with the enemy in his route; and arriving at the village of
Plemure, within half a league from Port L’Orient, summoned that place to
surrender. He was visited by a deputation from the town, which offered to
admit the British forces, on condition that they should be restrained from
pillaging the inhabitants, and touching the magazines; and that they
should pay a just price for their provisions. These terms being rejected,
the inhabitants prepared for a vigorous defence; and the English general
resolved to besiege the place in form, though he had neither time,
artillery, nor forces sufficient for such an enterprise. This strange
resolution was owing to the declaration of the engineers, who promised to
lay the place in ashes in the space of four-and-twenty hours. All his
cannon amounted to no more than a few field-pieces; and he was obliged to
wait for two iron guns, which the sailors dragged up from the shipping.
Had he given the assault on the first night after his arrival, when the
town was filled with terror and confusion, and destitute of regular
troops, in all probability it would have been easily taken by scalade; but
the reduction of it was rendered impracticable by his delay. The ramparts
were mounted with cannon from the ships in the harbour; new works were
raised with great industry; the garrison was reinforced by several bodies
of regular troops; and great numbers were assembling from all parts; so
that the British forces were in danger of being surrounded in an enemy’s
country. Notwithstanding these discouragements, they opened a small
battery against the town, which was set on fire in several places by their
bombs and red-hot bullets; they likewise repulsed part of the garrison
which had made a sally to destroy their works; but their cannon producing
no effect upon the fortifications, the fire from the town daily
increasing, the engineers owning they could not perform their promise, and
admiral Lestock declaring, in repeated messages, that he could no longer
expose the ships on an open coast at such a season of the year, general
Sinclair abandoned the siege. Having caused the two iron pieces of cannon
and the mortars to be spiked, he retreated in good order to the sea-side,
where his troops were re-embarked, having sustained very inconsiderable
damage since their first landing. He expected reinforcements from England,
and was resolved to wait a little longer for their arrival, in hopes of
being able to annoy the enemy more effectually. In the beginning of
October, the fleet sailed to Quiberon-bay, where they destroyed the
Ardent, a French ship of war of sixty-four guns; and a detachment of the
forces being landed, took possession of a fort in the peninsula; while the
little islands of Houat and Hey die were reduced by the sailors. In this
situation the admiral and general continued till the seventeenth day of
the month, when the forts being dismantled, and the troops re-embarked,
the fleet sailed from the French coast; the admiral returned to England,
and the transports with the soldiers proceeded to Ireland, where they
arrived in safety.

NAVAL TRANSACTIONS in the WEST INDIES.

This expedition, weak and frivolous as it may seem, was resented by the
French nation as one of the greatest insults they had ever sustained; and
demonstrated the possibility of hurting France in her tenderest parts, by
means of an armament of this nature, well timed, and vigorously conducted.
Indeed, nothing could be more absurd or precipitate than an attempt to
distress the enemy by landing a handful of troops, without draught-horses,
tents, or artillery, from a fleet of ships lying on an open beach, exposed
to the uncertainty of weather in the most tempestuous season of the year,
so as to render the retreat and re-embarkation altogether precarious. The
British squadrons in the West Indies performed no exploit of consequence
in the course of this year. The commerce was but indifferently protected.
Commodore Lee, stationed off Martinico, allowed a French fleet of
merchant-ships, and their convoy, to pass by his squadron unmolested; and
commodore Mitchel behaved scandalously in a rencontre with the French
squadron, under the conduct of monsieur de Conflans, who in his return to
Europe took the Severn, an English ship of fifty guns. The cruisers on all
sides, English, French, and Spaniards, were extremely alert; and though
the English lost the greater number of ships, this difference was more
than overbalanced by the superior value of the prizes taken from the
enemy. In the course of this year, two-and-twenty Spanish privateers, and
sixty-six merchant vessels, including ten register ships, fell into the
hands of the British cruisers; from the French they took seven ships of
war, ninety privateers, and about three hundred ships of commerce. The new
king of Spain* being supposed well-affected to the British nation, an
effort was made to detach him from the interests of France, by means of
the marquis de Tabernega, who had formerly been his favourite, and resided
many years as a refugee in England.

* In the month of July, Philip king of Spain dying, in the
sixty-third year of his age, was succeeded by his eldest son
Ferdinand, born of Maria-Louisa Gabriela, sister to the late
king of Sardinia. He espoused Donna Maria Magdalena, infanta
of Portugal, but had no issue. Philip was but two days
survived by his daughter, the dauphiness of France. The same
month was remarkable for the death of Christian VI., king
of Denmark, succeeded by his son Frederick V., who had
married the princess Louisa, youngest daughter of the king
of Great Britain.

This nobleman proceeded to Lisbon, where a negotiation was set on foot
with the court of Madrid. But his efforts miscarried; and the influence of
the queen-mother continued to predominate in the Spanish councils. The
states-general had for some years endeavoured to promote a pacification by
remonstrances, and even entreaties, at the court of Versailles; the French
king at length discovered an inclination to peace, and in September a
congress was opened at Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant, where the
plenipotentiaries of the emperor, Great Britain, France, and Holland, were
assembled; but the French were so insolent in their demands, that the
conferences were soon interrupted.

The parliament of Great Britain meeting in November, the king exhorted
them to concert with all possible expedition the proper measures for
pursuing the war with vigour, that the confederate army in the Netherlands
might be seasonably augmented; he likewise gave them to understand, that
the funds appropriated for the support of his civil government had for
some years past fallen short of the revenue intended and granted by
parliament; and said he relied on their known affection to find out some
method to make good this deficiency. As all those who had conducted the
opposition were now concerned in the administration, little or no
objection was made to any demand or proposal of the government and its
ministers. The commons having considered the estimates, voted forty
thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and about sixty
thousand land-forces, including eleven thousand five hundred marines. They
granted four hundred and thirty-three thousand pounds to the empress queen
of Hungary; three hundred thousand pounds to the king of Sardinia; four
hundred and ten thousand pounds for the maintenance of eighteen thousand
Hanoverian auxiliaries; one hundred and sixty one thousand six hundred and
seven pounds for six thousand Hessians; subsidies to the electors of
Cologn, Mentz, and Bavaria; and the sum of five hundred thousand pounds to
enable his majesty to prosecute the war with advantage. In a word, the
supplies amounted to nine millions four hundred and twenty-five thousand
two hundred and fifty-four pounds; a sum almost incredible, if we consider
how the kingdom had been already drained of its treasure. It was raised by
the usual taxes, reinforced with new impositions on windows, carriages,
and spirituous liquors; a lottery, and a loan from the sinking-fund. The
new taxes were mortgaged for four millions by transferable annuities, at
an interest of four, and a premium of ten per centum. By reflecting on
these enormous grants, one would imagine the ministry had been determined
to impoverish the nation; but from the eagerness and expedition with which
the people subscribed for the money, one would conclude that the riches of
the kingdom were inexhaustible. It may not be amiss to observe, that the
supplies of this year exceeded, by two millions and a half, the greatest
annual sum that was raised during the reign of queen Anne, though she
maintained as great a number of troops as was now in the pay of Great
Britain, and her armies and fleets acquired every year fresh harvests of
glory and advantage; whereas this war had proved an almost uninterrupted
series of events big with disaster and dishonour. During the last two
years, the naval expense of England had exceeded that of France about five
millions sterling; though her fleets had not obtained one signal advantage
over the enemy at sea, nor been able to protect her commerce from their
depredations. She was at once a prey to her declared adversaries and
professed friends. Before the end of summer, she numbered among her
mercenaries two empresses, five German princes, and a powerful monarch,
whom she hired to assist her in trimming the balance of Europe, in which
they themselves were immediately interested, and she had no more than a
secondary concern. Had these fruitless subsidies been saved; had the
national revenue been applied with economy to national purposes; had it
been employed in liquidating gradually the public incumbrances: in
augmenting the navy, improving manufactures, encouraging and securing the
colonies, and extending trade and navigation; corruption would have become
altogether unnecessary, and disaffection would have vanished: the people
would have been eased of their burdens, and ceased to complain; commerce
would have flourished, and produced such affluence as must have raised
Great Britain to the highest pinnacle of maritime power, above all
rivalship of competition. She would have been dreaded by her enemies;
revered by her neighbours; oppressed nations would have crept under her
wings for protection; contending potentates would have appealed to her
decision; and she would have shone the universal arbitress of Europe. How
different is her present situation! her debts are enormous, her taxes
intolerable, her people discontented, and the sinews of her government
relaxed. Without conduct, confidence, or concert, she engages in
blundering negotiations; she involves herself rashly in foreign quarrels,
and lavishes her substance with the most dangerous precipitation; she is
even deserted by her wonted vigour, steadiness, and intrepidity; she grows
vain, fantastical, and pusillanimous; her arms are despised by her
enemies; and her councils ridiculed through all Christendom.

PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED.

The king, in order to exhibit a specimen of his desire to diminish the
public expense, ordered the third and fourth troops of his life-guards to
be disbanded, and reduced three regiments of horse to the quality of
dragoons. The house of commons presented an address of thanks for this
instance of economy, by which the annual sum of seventy thousand pounds
was saved to the nation. Notwithstanding this seeming harmony between the
king and the great council of the nation, his majesty resolved, with the
advice of his council, to dissolve the present parliament, though the term
of seven years was not yet expired since its first meeting. The ministry
affected to insinuate, that the states-general were unwilling to concur
with his majesty in vigorous measures against France, during the existence
of a parliament which had undergone such a vicissitude of complexion. The
allies of Great Britain, far from being suspicious of this assembly, which
had supplied them so liberally, saw with concern that according to law it
would soon be dismissed; and they doubted whether another could be
procured equally agreeable to their purposes. In order to remove this
doubt, the ministry resolved to surprise the kingdom with a new election,
before the malcontents should be prepared to oppose the friends of the
government.

1747

Accordingly, when the business of the session was despatched, the king
having given the royal assent to the several acts they had prepared,
dismissed them in the month of June, with an affectionate speech that
breathed nothing but tenderness and gratitude. The parliament was
immediately dissolved by proclamation, and new writs were issued for
convoking another. Among the laws passed in this session, was an act
abolishing the heritable jurisdictions, and taking away the tenure of
wardholdings in Scotland, which were reckoned among the principal sources
of those rebellions that had been excited since the revolution. In the
highlands they certainly kept the common people in subjection to their
chiefs, whom they implicitly followed and obeyed in all their
undertakings. By this act these mountaineers were legally emancipated from
slavery; but as the tenants enjoyed no leases, and were at all times
liable to be ejected from their farms, they still depended on the pleasure
of their lords, notwithstanding this interposition of the legislature,
which granted a valuable consideration in money to every nobleman and
petty baron, who was thus deprived of one part of his inheritance. The
forfeited estates indeed were divided into small farms, and let by the
government on leases at an under value; so that those who had the good
fortune to obtain such leases tasted the sweets of independence; but the
highlanders in general were left in their original indigence and
incapacity, at the mercy of their superiors. Had manufactures and
fisheries been established in different parts of their country, they would
have seen and felt the happy consequences of industry, and in a little
time been effectually detached from all their slavish connexions.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE FRENCH AND ALLIES TAKE THE FIELD IN FLANDERS.

The operations of the campaign had been concerted in the winter at the
Hague, between the duke of Cumberland and the states-general of the United
Provinces, who were by this time generally convinced of France’s design to
encroach upon their territories. They therefore determined to take
effectual measures against that restless and ambitious neighbour. The
allied powers agreed to assemble a vast army in the Netherlands; and it
was resolved that the Austrians and Piedmonte so should once more
penetrate into Provence. The Dutch patriots, however, were not roused into
this exertion, until all their remonstrances had failed at the court of
Versailles; until they had been urged by repeated memorials of the English
ambassador, and stimulated by the immediate danger to which their country
was exposed; for France was by this time possessed of all the Austrian
Netherlands, and seemed bent upon penetrating into the territories of the
United Provinces. In February, the duke of Cumberland began to assemble
the allied forces; and in the latter end of March they took the field in
three separate bodies. His royal highness, with the English, Hanoverians,
and Hessians, fixed his head quarters at the village of Tilberg; the
prince of Waldeck was posted with the Dutch troops at Breda; and mareschal
Bathiani collected the Austrians and Bavarians in the neighbourhood of
Venlo. The whole army amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand men, who
lay inactive six weeks, exposed to the inclemency of the weather, and
almost destitute of forage and provisions. Count Saxe, by this time
created mareschal-general of France, continued his troops within their
cantonments at Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels, declaring, that when the
allied army should be weakened by sickness and mortality, he would
convince the duke of Cumberland that the first duty of a general is to
provide for the health and preservation of his troops. In April this
fortunate commander took the field, at the head of one hundred and forty
thousand men; and the count de Clermont commanded a separate body of
nineteen battalions and thirty squadrons. Count Lowendahl was detached on
the sixteenth of the month, with seven-and-twenty thousand men, to invade
Dutch Flanders; at the same time, the French minister at the Hague
presented a memorial to the states, intimating, that his master was
obliged to take this step by the necessity of war; but that his troops
should observe the strictest discipline, without interfering with the
religion, government, or commerce of the republic; he likewise declared,
that the countries and places of which he might be obliged to take
possession should be detained no otherwise than as a pledge, to be
restored as soon as the United Provinces should give convincing proofs
that they would no longer furnish the enemies of France with succours.

THE PRINCE OF ORANGE ELECTED STADTHOLDER.

While the states deliberated upon this declaration, count Lowendahl
entered Dutch Brabant, and invested the town and fortress of Sluys, the
garrison of which surrendered themselves prisoners of war on the
nineteenth day of April. This was likewise the fate of Sas-van-Ghent,
while the marquis de Contades, with another detachment, reduced the forts
Perle and Leifkenshoek, with the town of Philippine, even within hearing
of the confederate army. The fort of Sandberg was vigorously defended by
two English battalions; but they were overpowered, and obliged to retire
to Welsthoorden; and count Lowendahl undertook the siege of Hulst, which
was shamefully surrendered by La Roque the Dutch governor, though he knew
that a reinforcement of nine battalions was on the march to his relief.
Then the French general took possession of Axel and Terneuse, and began to
prepare flat-bottomed boats for a descent on the island of Zealand. The
Dutch people were now struck with consternation. They saw the enemy at
their doors, and owed their immediate preservation to the British squadron
stationed at the Swin, under the command of commodore Mitchel,* who, by
means of his sloops, tenders, and small craft, took such measures as
defeated the intention of Lowendahl. The common people in Zealand being
reduced to despair, began to clamour loudly against their governors, as if
they had not taken the proper measures for their security. The friends of
the prince of Orange did not neglect this opportunity of promoting his
interest. They encouraged their discontent, and exaggerated the danger;
they reminded them of the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-two,
when the French king was at the gates of Amsterdam, and the republic was
saved by the choice of a stadtholder; they exhorted them to turn their
eyes on the descendant of those heroes who had established the liberty and
independence of the United Provinces; they extolled his virtue and
ability; his generosity, his justice, his unshaken love to his country.
The people in several towns, inflamed by such representations to tumult
and sedition, compelled their magistrates to declare the prince of Orange
stadtholder. He himself, in a letter to the states of Zealand, offered his
services for the defence of the province. On the twenty-eighth day of
April he was nominated captain-general and admiral of Zealand. Their
example was followed by Rotterdam and the whole province of Holland; and
on the second day of May, the prince of Orange was, in the assembly of the
states-general, invested with the power and dignity of stadtholder,
captain-general, and admiral of the United Provinces. The vigorous
consequences of this resolution immediately appeared. All commerce and
contracts with the French were prohibited; the peasants were armed and
exercised; a resolution passed for making a considerable augmentation of
the army, a council of war was established for inquiring into the conduct
of the governors who had given up the frontier places; and orders were
issued to commence hostilities against the French, both by sea and land.

Meanwhile the duke of Cumberland took post with his whole army between the
two Nethes, to cover Bergen-op-Zoom and Maestricht; and Mareschal Saxe
called in his detachments with a view to hazard a general engagement. In
the latter end of May the French king arrived at Brussels, and his general
resolved to undertake the siege of Maestricht. For this purpose he
advanced towards Louvain; and the confederates perceiving his drift, began
their march to take post between the town and the enemy. On the twentieth
day of June they took possession of their ground, and were drawn up in
order of battle, with their right at Bilsen, and their left extending to
Wirle within a mile of Maestricht, having in the front of their left wing
the village of Laffeldt, in which they posted several battalions of
British infantry. The French had taken possession of the heights of
Herdeeren, immediately above the allies; and both armies cannonaded each
other till the evening. In the morning the enemy’s infantry marched down
the hill in a prodigious column, and attacked the village of Laffeldt,
which was well fortified, and defended with amazing obstinacy. The
assailants suffered terribly in their approach from the cannon of the
confederates, which was served with surprising dexterity and success; and
they met with such a warm reception from the British musquetry as they
could not withstand; but, when they were broken and dispersed, fresh
brigades succeeded with astonishing perseverance. The confederates were
driven out of the village; yet being sustained by three regiments, they
measured back their ground, and repulsed the enemy with great slaughter.
Nevertheless, count Saxe continued pouring in other battalions, and the
French regained and maintained their footing in the village, after it had
been three times lost and carried. The action was chiefly confined to this
post, where the field exhibited a horrible scene of carnage. At noon the
duke of Cumberland ordered the whole left wing to advance against the
enemy, whose infantry gave way; prince Waldeck led up the centre; marshal
Bathiani made a motion with the right wing towards Herdeeren, and victory
seemed ready to declare for the confederates, when the fortune of the day
took a sudden turn to their prejudice. Several squadrons of Dutch horse
posted in the centre gave way, and flying at full gallop, overthrew five
battalions of infantry that were advancing from the body of reserve. The
French cavalry charged them with great impetuosity, increasing the
confusion that was already produced, and penetrating through the lines of
the allied army, which was thus divided about the centre. The duke of
Cumberland, who exerted himself with equal courage and activity in
attempting to remedy this disorder, was in danger of being taken; and the
defeat would in all probability have been total, had not sir John Ligonier
taken the resolution of sacrificing himself and a part of the troops to
the safety of the army. At the head of three British regiments of
dragoons, and some squadrons of imperial horse, he charged the whole line
of the French cavalry with such intrepidity and success, that he overthrew
all that opposed him, and made such a diversion as enabled the duke of
Cumberland to effect an orderly retreat to Maestricht. He himself was
taken by a French carabinier, after his horse had been killed; but the
regiments he commanded retired with deliberation. The confederates
retreated to Maestricht, without having sustained much damage from the
pursuit, and even brought off all their artillery, except sixteen pieces
of cannon. Their loss did not exceed six thousand men killed and taken;
whereas the French general purchased the victory at a much greater
expense. The common cause of the confederate powers is said to have
suffered from the pride and ignorance of their generals. On the eve of the
battle, when the detachment of the count de Clermont appeared on the hill
of Herdeeren, marshal Bathiani asked permission of the commander-in-chief
to attack them before they should be reinforced, declaring he would answer
for the success of the enterprise. No regard was paid to this proposal;
but the superior asked in his turn, where the marshal would be in case he
should be wanted? He replied, “I shall always be found at the head of my
troops,” and retired in disgust. The subsequent disposition has likewise
been blamed, inasmuch as not above one half of the army could act, while
the enemy exerted their whole force.

SIEGE OF BERGEN-OP-ZOOM.

The confederates passed the Maese and encamped in the duchy of Limburgh,
so as to cover Maestricht; while the French king remained with his army in
the neighbourhood of Tongres. Mareschal Saxe, having amused the allies
with marches and counter-marches, at length detached count Lowendahl with
six-and-thirty thousand men to besiege Bergen-op-Zoom, the strongest
fortification of Dutch Brabant, the favourite work of the famous engineer
Coehorn, never conquered, and generally esteemed invincible. It was
secured with a garrison of three thousand men, and well provided with
artillery, ammunition, and magazines. The enemy appeared before it on the
twelfth day of July, and summoned the governor to surrender. The prince of
Saxe-Hildburghausen was sent to its relief, with twenty battalions and
fourteen squadrons of the troops that could be most conveniently
assembled; he entered the lines of Bergen-op-Zooin, where he remained in
expectation of a strong reinforcement from the confederate army; and the
old baron Cronstrom, whom the stadtholder had appointed governor of
Brabant, assumed the command of the garrison The besiegers carried on
their operations with great vivacity; and the troops in the town defended
it with equal vigour. The eyes of all Europe were turned upon this
important siege; count Lowendahl received divers reinforcements; and a
considerable body of troops was detached from the allied army, under the
command of baron Schwartzenberg, to co-operate with the prince of
Saxe-Hildburghausen. The French general lost a great number of men by the
close and continual fire of the besieged; while he, in his turn, opened
such a number of batteries, and plied them so warmly, that the defences
began to give way. From the sixteenth day of July to the fifteenth of
September, the siege produced an unintermitting scene of horror and
destruction: desperate sallies were made, and mines sprung with the most
dreadful effect; the works began to be shattered; the town was laid in
ashes; the trenches were filled with carnage; nothing was seen but fire
and smoke; nothing heard but one continued roar of bombs and cannon. But
still the damage fell chiefly on the besiegers, who were slain in heaps;
while the garrison suffered very little, and could be occasionally
relieved or reinforced from the lines. In a word, it was generally
believed that count Lowendahl would be baffled in his endeavours; and by
this belief the governor of Bergen-op-Zoom seems to have been lulled into
a blind security. At length, some inconsiderable breaches were made in one
ravelin and two bastions, and these the French general resolved to storm,
though Cronstrom believed they were impracticable; ind on that supposition
presumed that the enemy would not attempt an assault. For this very reason
count Lowendahl resolved to hazard the attack, before the preparations
should be made for his reception. He accordingly regulated his
dispositions, and at four o’clock in the morning, on the sixteenth day of
September, the signal was made for the assault. A prodigious quantity of
bombs being thrown into the ravelin, his troops threw themselves into the
fosse, mounted the breaches, forced open a sally-port, and entered the
place almost without resistance. In a word, they had time to extend
themselves along the curtains, and form in order of battle, before the
garrison could be assembled. Cronstrom was asleep, and the soldiers upon
duty had been surprised by the suddenness and impetuosity of the attack.
Though the French had taken possession of the ramparts, they did not gain
the town without opposition. Two battalions of the Scottish troops, in the
pay of the states-general, were assembled in the market-place, and
attacked them with such fury, that they were driven from street to street,
until fresh reinforcements arriving, compelled the Scots to retreat in
their turn; yet they disputed every inch of ground, and fought until two
thirds of them were killed upon the spot. Then they brought off the old
governor, abandoning the town to the enemy; the troops that were encamped
in the lines retreating with great precipitation, all the forts in the
neighbourhood immediately surrendered to the victors, who now became
masters of the whole navigation of the Schelde. The French king was no
sooner informed of Lowendahl’s success, than he promoted him to the rank
of mareschal of France; appointed count Saxe governor of the conquered
Netherlands; and returned in triumph to Versailles. In a little time after
this transaction, both armies were distributed into winter quarters, and
the duke of Cumberland embarked for England.

In Italy, the French arms did not triumph with equal success, though the
mareschal de Belleisle saw himself at the head of a powerful army in
Provence. In April he passed the Var without opposition, and took
possession of Nice. He met with little or no resistance in reducing
Montalban, Villafranca, and Ventimiglia; while general Brown, with
eight-and-twenty thousand Aus-trians, retired towards Final and Savona. In
the meantime, another large body under count Schuylemberg, Who had
succeeded the marquis de Botta, co-operated with fifteen thousand
Piedmontese in an attempt to recover the city of Genoa. The French king
had sent their supplies, succours, and engineers, with the duke de
Boufflers, as ambassador to the republic, who likewise acted as
commander-in-chief of the forces employed for its defence. The Austrian
general assembled his troops in the Milanese, having forced the passage of
the Bochetta on the thirteenth of January, he advanced into the
territories of Genoa, and the Eiviera was ravaged without mercy. On the
last day of March he appeared before the city at the head of forty
thousand men, and summoned the revolters to lay down their arms. The
answer he received was, that the republic had fifty-four thousand men in
arms, two hundred and sixty cannon, thirty-four mortars, with abundance of
ammunition and provision; that they would defend their liberty with their
last blood, and be buried in the ruins of their capital, rather than
submit to the clemency of the court of Vienna, except by an honourable
capitulation, guaranteed by the kings of Great Britain and Sardinia, the
republic of Venice and the United Provinces. In the beginning of May,
Genoa was invested on all sides; a furious sally was made by the duke de
Boufflers, who drove the besiegers from their posts; but the Austrians
rallying, he was repulsed in his turn, with the loss of seven hundred men.
General Schuylemberg carried on his operations with such skill, vigour,
and intrepidity, that he made himself master of the suburbs of Bisagno;
and in all probability would have reduced the city, had he not been
obliged to desist, in consequence of the repeated remonstrances made by
the king of Sardinia and count Brown, who represented the necessity of his
abandoning his enterprise, and drawing off his army to cover Piedmont and
Lombardy from the efforts of mareschal de Belleisle. Accordingly he raised
the siege on the tenth day of June, and returned into the Milanese in
order to join his Sardinian majesty; while the Genoese made an irruption
into the Parmesan and Placentia, where they committed terrible outrages,
in revenge for the mischiefs they had undergone.

THE CHEVALIER DE BELLEISLE SLAIN.

While the mareschal de Belleisle remained at Ventimiglia, his brother, at
the head of four-and-thirty thousand French and Spaniards, attempted to
penetrate into Piedmont: on the sixth day of July he arrived at the pass
of Exilles, a strong fortress on the frontiers of Dauphiné, situated on
the north side of the river Doria. The defence of this important post the
king of Sardinia had committed to the care of the count de Brigueras, who
formed an encampment behind the lines, with fourteen battalions of
Piedmontese and Austrians, while divers detachments were posted along all
the passes of the Alps. On the eighth day of the month the Piedmontese
intrenchments were attacked by the chevalier de Belleisle, with incredible
intrepidity; but the columns were repulsed with great loss in three
successive attacks. Impatient of this obstinate opposition, and determined
not to survive a miscarriage, this impetuous general seized a pair of
colours, and advancing at the head of his troops through a prodigious
fire, pitched them with his own hand on the enemy’s entrenchments. At that
instant he fell dead, having received two musquet-balls and the thrust of
a bayonet in his body. The assailants were so much dispirited by the death
of their commander, that they forthwith gave way, and retreated with
precipitation towards Sesteries, having lost near five thousand men in the
attack. The mareschal was no sooner informed of his brother’s misfortune,
than he retreated towards the Var to join the troops from Exilles, while
the king of Sardinia, having assembled an army of seventy thousand men,
threatened Dauphiné with an invasion; but the excessive rains prevented
the execution of his design. General Leutrum was detached with twenty
battalions, to drive the French from Ventimiglia; but Belleisle marching
back, that scheme was likewise frustrated; and thus ended the campaign.

A FRENCH SQUADRON TAKEN.

In this manner was the French king baffled in his projects upon Italy; nor
was he more fortunate in his naval operations. He had in the preceding
year equipped an expensive armament, under the command of the duke
d’Anville, for the recovery of Cape Breton; but it was rendered
ineffectual by storms, distempers, and the death of the commander. Not yet
discouraged by these disasters, he resolved to renew his efforts against
the British colonies in North America, and their settlements in the East
Indies. For these purposes two squadrons were prepared at Brest, one to be
commanded by the commodore de la Jonquiere; and the other destined for
India, by monsieur de St. George. The ministry of Great Britain, being
apprized of these measures, resolved to intercept both squadrons, which
were to set sail together. For this purpose vice-admiral Anson and
rear-admiral Warren took their departure from Plymouth with a formidable
fleet, and steered their course to Cape Finisterre on the coast of
Gallicia. On the third day of May, they fell in with the French squadrons,
commanded by la Jonquiere and St. George, consisting of six large ships of
war, as many frigates, and four armed vessels equipped by their East India
company, having under their convoy about thirty ships laden with
merchandise. Those prepared for war immediately shortened sail, and formed
a line of battle; while the rest, under the protection of the six
frigates, proceeded on their voyage with all the sail they could carry.
The British squadron was likewise drawn up in line of battle; but Mr.
Warren, perceiving that the enemy began to sheer off, now their convoy was
at a considerable distance, advised admiral Anson to haul in the signal
for the line, and hoist another for giving chase and engaging, otherwise
the French would, in all probability, escape by favour of the night. The
proposal was embraced; and in a little time the engagement began with
great fury, about four o’clock in the afternoon. The enemy sustained the
battle with equal conduct and valour, until they were overpowered by
numbers, and then they struck their colours. The admiral detached three
ships in pursuit of the convoy, nine sail of which were taken; but the
rest were saved by the intervening darkness. About seven hundred of the
French were killed and wounded in this action. The English lost about five
hundred; and among these captain Grenville, commander of the ship
Defiance. He was nephew to the lord viscount Cobham, a youth of the most
amiable character and promising genius, animated with the noblest
sentiments of honour and patriotism. Eager in the pursuit of glory, he
rushed into the midst of the battle, where both his legs were cut off by a
cannon-ball. He submitted to his fate with the most heroic resignation,
and died universally lamented and beloved. The success of the British arms
in this engagement was chiefly owing to the conduct, activity, and courage
of the rear-admiral. A considerable quantity of bullion was found in the
prizes, which was brought to Spithead in triumph; and the treasure being
landed, was conveyed in twenty waggons to the bank of London. Admiral
Anson was ennobled, and Mr. Warren honoured with the order of the Bath.

ADMIRAL HAWKE OBTAINS ANOTHER VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

About the middle of June, commodore Fox, with six ships of war, cruising
in the latitude of Cape Ortegal in Gallicia, took above forty French
ships, richly laden from St. Domingo, after they had been abandoned by
their convoy. But the French king sustained another more important loss at
sea, in the month of October. Rear-admiral Hawke sailed from Plymouth in
the beginning of August, with fourteen ships of the line, to intercept a
fleet of French merchant ships bound for the West Indies. He cruised for
some time on the coast of Bretagne; and at length the French fleet sailed
from the isle of Aix, under convoy of nine ships of the line, besides
frigates, commanded by monsieur de Letendeur. On the fourteenth day of
October, the two squadrons were in sight of each other, in the latitude of
Belleisle. The French commodore immediately ordered one of his great
ships, and the frigates, to proceed with the trading ships, while he
formed the line of battle, and waited the attack. At eleven in the
forenoon admiral Hawke displayed the signal to chase, and in half an hour
both fleets were engaged. The battle lasted till night, when all the
French squadron, except the Intrepide and Ton-ant, had struck to the
English flag. These two capital ships escaped in the dark, and returned to
Brest in a shattered condition. The French captains sustained the unequal
fight with uncommon bravery and resolution; and did not yield until their
ships were disabled. Their loss in men amounted to eight hundred: the
number of English killed in this engagement did not exceed two hundred,
including captain Saumarez, a gallant officer who had served under lord
Anson in his expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Indeed it must be owned, for
the honour of that nobleman, that all these officers formed under his
example, and raised by his influence, approved themselves in all respects
worthy of the commands to which they were preferred. Immediately after the
action, admiral Hawke despatched a sloop to commodore Legge, whose
squadron was stationed at the Leeward Islands, with intelligence of the
French fleet of merchant ships outward-bound, that he might take the
proper measures for intercepting them in their passage to Martinique and
the other French islands. In consequence of this advice he redoubled his
vigilance, and a good number of them fell into his hands. Admiral Hawke
conducted his prizes to Spithead; and in his letter to the board of
admiralty, declared that all his captains behaved like men of honour
during the engagement, except Mr. Fox, whose conduct he desired might be
subjected to an inquiry. That gentleman was accordingly tried by a
court-martial, and suspended from his command, for having followed the
advice of his officers contrary to his own better judgment; but he was
soon restored, and afterwards promoted to the rank of admiral; while Mr.
Matthews, whose courage never incurred suspicion, still laboured under
suspension for that which had been successfully practised in both these
late actions, namely, engaging the enemy without any regard to the line of
battle. In the Mediterranean, vice-admiral Medley blocked up the Spanish
squadron in Carthagena; assisted the Austrian general on the coast of
Villafranca; and intercepted some of the succours sent from France to the
assistance of the Genoese. At his death, which happened in the beginning
of August, the command of that squadron devolved upon rear-admiral Byng,
who proceeded on the same plan of operation. In the summer, two British
ships of war, having under their convoy a fleet of merchant ships bound to
North America, fell in with the Glorioso, a Spanish ship of eighty guns,
in the latitude of the Western Isles. She had sailed from the Havannah
with an immense treasure on board, and must have fallen a prize to the
English ships had each captain done his duty. Captain Erskine, in the
Warwick of sixty guns, attacked her with great intrepidity, and fought
until his ship was entirely disabled; but being unsustained by his
consort, he was obliged to haul off, and the Glorioso arrived in safety at
Ferrol; there the silver was landed, and she proceeded on her voyage to
Cadiz, which, however, she did not reach. She was encountered by the
Dartmouth, a British frigate of forty guns, commanded by captain Hamilton,
a gallant youth, who, notwithstanding the inequality of force, engaged her
without hesitation; but in the heat of the action, his ship being set on
fire by accident, was blown up, and-he perished with all his crew, except
a midshipman and ten or eleven sailors, who were taken up alive by a
privateer that happened to be in sight. Favourable as this accident may
seem to the Glorioso, she did not escape. An English ship of eighty guns,
under the command of captain Buckle, came up and obliged the Spaniards to
surrender, after a short but vigorous engagement. Commodore Griffin had
been sent, with a reinforcement of ships, to assume the command of the
squadron in the East Indies; and although his arrival secured Fort St.
David’s and the other British settlements in that country, from the
insults of monsieur da la Bourdonnais, his strength was not sufficient to
enable him to undertake any enterprise of importance against the enemy;
the ministry of England therefore resolved to equip a fresh armament,
that, when joined by the ships in India, should be in a condition to
besiege Pon-dicherry, the principal settlement belonging to the French on
the coast of Coromandel. For this service, a good number of independent
companies was raised, and set sail, in the sequel, with a strong squadron
under the conduct of rear-admiral Boscawen, an officer of unquestioned
valour and capacity. In the course of this year, the British cruisers were
so alert and successful, that they took six hundred and forty-four prizes
from the French and Spaniards, whereas the loss of Great Britain in the
same time did not exceed five hundred and fifty.

CONGRESS AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

All the belligerent powers were by this time heartily tired of a war which
had consumed an immensity of treasure, had been productive of so much
mischief, and in the events of which, all, in their turns, had found
themselves disappointed. Immediately after the battle of Laffeldt, the
king of France had, in a personal conversation with sir John Ligonier,
expressed his desire of a pacification; and afterwards his minister at the
Hague presented a declaration on the same subject to the deputies of the
states-general. The signal success of the British arms at sea confirmed
him in these sentiments, which were likewise reinforced by a variety of
other considerations. His finances were almost exhausted, and his supplies
from the Spanish West Indies rendered so precarious by the vigilance of
the British cruisers, that he could no longer depend upon their arrival.
The trading part of his subjects had sustained such losses, that his
kingdom was filled with bankruptcies; and the best part of his navy now
contributed to strengthen the fleets of his enemies. The election of a
stadtholder had united the whole power of the states-general against him,
in taking the most resolute measures for their own safety; his views in
Germany were entirely frustrated by the elevation of the grand duke to the
Imperial throne, and the re-establishment of peace between the houses of
Austria and Bran-denburgh; the success of his arms in Italy had not at all
answered his expectation; and Genoa was become an expensive ally. He had
the mortification to see the commerce of Britain flourish in the midst of
war, while his own people were utterly impoverished. The parliament of
England granted, and the nation paid such incredible sums as enabled their
sovereign not only to maintain invincible navies and formidable armies,
but likewise to give subsidies to all the powers of Europe. He knew that a
treaty of this kind was actually upon the anvil between his Britannic
majesty and the czarina, and he began to be apprehensive of seeing an army
of Russians in the Netherlands. His fears from this quarter were not
without foundation. In the month of November, the earl of Hyndford,
ambassador from the king of Great Britain at the court of Russia,
concluded a treaty of subsidy, by which the czarina engaged to hold in
readiness thirty thousand men, and forty galleys, to be employed in the
service of the confederates on the first requisition. The states-general
acceded to this agreement, and even consented to pay one-fourth of the
subsidy. His most christian majesty, moved by these considerations, made
further advances towards an accommodation both at the Plague and in
London; and the contending powers agreed to another congress, which was
actually opened in March at Aix-la-Chapelle, where the earl of Sandwich
and sir Thomas Robinson assisted as plenipotentiaries from the king of
Great Britain.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

COMPLIANT TEMPER OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

The elections for the new parliament in England had been conducted so as
fully to answer the purposes of the duke of Newcastle, and his brother Mr.
Pelham, who had for some time wholly engrossed the administration. Both
houses were assembled on the tenth day of November, when Mr. Onslow was
unanimously reelected speaker of the commons. The session was opened as
usual by a speech from the throne, congratulating them on the signal
successes of the British navy, and the happy alteration in the government
of the United Provinces. His majesty gave them to understand that a
congress would speedily be opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, to concert the means
for effecting a general pacification; and reminded them that nothing would
more conduce to the success of this negotiation than the vigour and
unanimity of their proceedings. He received such addresses as the
ministers were pleased to dictate. Opposition now languished at their
feet. The duke of Bedford was become a courtier, and in a little time
appointed secretary of state, in the room of the earl of Chesterfield, who
had lately executed that office, which he now resigned; and the earl of
Sandwich no longer harangued against the administration. This new house of
commons, in imitation of the liberality of their predecessors, readily
gratified all the requests of the government. They voted forty thousand
seamen, forty-nine thousand land forces, besides eleven thousand five
hundred marines; the subsidies for the queen of Hungary, the czarina, the
king of Sardinia, the electors of Mentz and Bavaria, the Hessians, and the
duke of Wolfenbuttle; the sum of two hundred and thirty-five thousand
seven hundred and forty-nine pounds, was granted to the provinces of New
England, to reimburse them for the expense of reducing Cape Breton; five
hundred thousand pounds were given to his majesty for the vigorous
prosecution of the war; and about one hundred and fifty-two thousand
pounds to the Scottish claimants, in lieu of their jurisdiction. The
supplies for the ensuing year fell very little short of nine millions, of
which the greater part was raised on a loan by subscription, chargeable on
a new subsidy of poundage exacted from all merchandise imported into Great
Britain. Immediately after the rebellion was suppressed, the legislature
had established some regulations in Scotland, which were thought necessary
to prevent such commotions for the future. The highlanders were disarmed,
and an act passed for abolishing their peculiarity of garb, which was
supposed to keep up party distinctions, to encourage their martial
disposition, and preserve the memory of the exploits achieved by their
ancestors. In this session a bill was brought in to enforce the execution
of that law, and passed with another act for the more effectual punishment
of high treason in the highlands of Scotland. The practice of insuring
French and Spanish ships at London being deemed the sole circumstances
that prevented a total stagnation of commerce in those countries, it was
prohibited by law under severe penalties; and this step of the British
parliament accelerated the conclusion of the treaty. Several other prudent
measures were taken in the course of this session, for the benefit of the
public; and among these we may reckon an act for encouraging the
manufacture of indigo in the British plantations of North America; an
article for which Great Britain used to pay two hundred thousand pounds
yearly to the subjects of France.

1748

The session was closed on the thirteenth day of May, when the king
declared to both houses that the preliminaries of a general peace were
actually signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, by the ministers of Great Britain,
France, and the United Provinces; and that the basis of this accommodation
was a general restitution of the conquests which had been made during the
war. Immediately after the prorogation of parliament his majesty set out
for his German dominions, after having appointed a regency to rule the
realm in his absence.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NETHERLANDS.

The articles might have been made much less unfavourable to Great Britain
and her allies, had the ministry made a proper use of the treaty with the
czarina; and if the confederates had acted with more vigour and expedition
in the beginning of the campaign. The Russian auxiliaries might have been
transported by sea to Lubeck before the end of the preceding summer’, in
their own galleys, which had been lying ready for use since the month of
July. Had this expedient been used, the Russian troops would have joined
the confederate army before the conclusion of the last campaign. But this
easy and expeditious method of conveyance was rejected for a march by
land, of incredible length and difficulty, which could not be begun before
the month of January, nor accomplished till Midsummer. The operations of
the campaign had been concerted at the Hague in January, by the respective
ministers of the allies, who resolved to bring an army of one hundred and
ninety thousand men into the Netherlands, in order to compel the French to
abandon the barrier which they had conquered, The towns of Holland became
the scenes of tumult and insurrection. The populace plundered the farmers
of the revenue, abolished the taxes, and insulted the magistrates; so that
the states-general, seeing their country on the brink of anarchy and
confusion, authorized the prince of Orange to make such alterations as he
should see convenient. They presented him with a diploma, by which he was
constituted hereditary stadtholder and captain-general of Dutch Brabant,
Flanders, and the upper quarter of Guelderland; and the East India company
appointed him director and governor-general of their commerce and
settlements in the Indies. Thus invested with authority unknown to his
ancestors, he exerted himself with equal industry and discretion in new
modelling, augmenting, and assembling the troops of the republic. The
confederates knew that the count de Saxe had a design upon Maestricht: the
Austrian general Bathiani made repeated remonstrances to the British
ministry, entreating them to take speedy measures for the preservation of
that fortress. He, in the month of January, proposed that the duke of
Cumberland should cross the sea, and confer with the prince of Orange on
this subject; he undertook, at the peril of his head, to cover Maastricht
with seventy thousand men, from all attacks of the enemy: but his
representations seemed to have made very little impression on those to
whom they were addressed. The duke of Cumberland did not depart from
England till towards the latter end of February; part of March was elapsed
before the transports sailed from the Nore with the additional troops and
artillery; and the last drafts from the foot-guards were not embarked till
the middle of August.

SIEGE OF MAESTRICHT. FORMS A CESSATION.

The different bodies of the confederate forces joined each other and
encamped in the neighbourhood of Euremond, to the number of one hundred
and ten thousand men; and the French army invested Maestricht, without
opposition, on the third day of April. The garrison consisted of Imperial
and Dutch troops, under the conduct of the governor, baron de Aylva, who
defended the place with extraordinary skill and resolution. He annoyed the
besiegers in repeated sallies; but they were determined to surmount all
opposition, and prosecuted their approaches with incredible ardour. They
assaulted the covered way, and there effected a lodgement, after an
obstinate dispute, in which they lost two thousand of their best troops;
but next day they were entirely dislodged by the gallantry of the
garrison. These hostilities were suddenly suspended, in consequence of the
preliminaries signed at Aix-la-Chapelle. The plenipotentiaries agreed,
that, for the glory of his christian majesty’s arms, the town of
Maestricht should be surrendered to his general, on condition that it
should be restored with all the magazines and artillery. He accordingly
took possession of it on the third day of May, when the garrison marched
out with all the honours of war; and a cessation of arms immediately
ensued. By this time the Russian auxiliaries, to the number of
thirty-seven thousand, commanded by prince Repnin, had arrived in Moravia,
where they were reviewed by their imperial majesties; then they proceeded
to the confines of Franconia, where they were ordered to halt, after they
had marched seven hundred miles since the beginning of the year. The
French king declared, that should they advance farther, he would demolish
the fortifications of Maestricht and Bergen-op-Zoom. This dispute was
referred to the plenipotentiaries, who, in the beginning of August,
concluded a convention, importing that the Russian troops should return to
their own country; and that the French king should disband an equal number
of his forces. The season being far advanced, the Russians were provided
with winter-quarters in Bohemia and Moravia, where they continued till the
spring, when they marched back to Livonia. In the meantime
seven-and-thirty thousand French troops were withdrawn from Flanders into
Picardy, and the two armies remained quiet till the conclusion of the
definitive treaty. The suspension of arms was proclaimed at London, and in
all the capitals of the contracting powers; orders were sent to the
respective admirals in different parts of the world, to refrain from
hostilities; and a communication of trade and intelligence was again
opened between the nations which had been at variance. No material
transaction distinguished the campaign in Italy. The French and Spanish
troops, who had joined the Genoese in the territories of the republic,
amounted to thirty thousand men, under the direction of the duke de
Richlieu, who was sent from France to assume that command on the death of
the duke de Boufflers; while mareschal de Belleisle, at the head of fifty
thousand men, covered the western Eiviera, which was threatened with an
invasion by forty thousand Austrians and Piedmontese, under general
Leutrum. At the same time general Brown, with a more numerous army,
prepared to re-enter the eastern Eiviera, and recommence the siege of
Genoa. But these intended operations were prevented by an armistice, which
took place as soon as the belligerent powers had acceded to the
preliminaries.

TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.

In the East Indies, rear-admiral Boscawen undertook the siege of
Pondicherry, which in the month of August he blocked up by sea with his
squadron, and invested by land with a small army of four thousand
Europeans, and about two thousand natives of that country. He prosecuted
the enterprise with great spirit, and took the fort of Area Coupan, at the
distance of three miles from the town; then he made his approaches to the
place, against which he opened batteries, while it was bombarded and
cannonaded by the shipping. But the fortifications were so strong, the
garrison so numerous, and the engineers of the enemy so expert in their
profession, that he made very little progress, and sustained considerable
damage. At length, his army being diminished by sickness, and the rainy
season approaching, he ordered the artillery and stores to be re-embarked;
and raising the siege on the sixth day of October, returned to fort St.
David, after having lost about a thousand men in this expedition. In the
sequel, several ships of his squadron, and above twelve hundred sailors,
perished in a hurricane. The naval force of Great Britain was more
successful in the West Indies. Bear-admiral Knowles, with a squadron of
eight ships, attacked fort Louis, on the South side of Hispaniola, which
after a warm action of three hours was surrendered on capitulation, and
dismantled. Then he made an abortive attempt upon St. Jago de Cuba, and
returned to Jamaica, extremely chagrined at his disappointment, which he
imputed to the misconduct of captain Dent, who was tried in England by a
court-martial, and honourably acquitted. On the first of October, the same
admiral, cruising in the neighbourhood of the Havannah with eight ships of
the line, encountered a Spanish squadron of nearly the same strength,
under the command of the admirals Beggio and Spinola. The engagement began
between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, and continued with
intervals till eight in the evening, when the enemy retired to the
Havannah, with the loss of two ships; one of which struck to the British
admiral, and the other was two days after set on fire by her own
commander, that she might not fall into the hands of the English. Mr.
Knowles taxed some of his captains with misbehaviour, and they
recriminated on his conduct. On their return to England, a court-martial
was the consequence of the mutual accusations. Those who adhered to the
commander, and the others whom he impeached, were inflamed against each
other with the most rancorous resentment. The admiral himself did not
escape uncensured; two of his captains were reprimanded; but captain
Holmes, who had displayed uncommon courage, was honourably acquitted.
Their animosities did not end with the court-martial. A bloodless
encounter happened between the admiral and captain Powlet; but captain
Innes and captain Clarke, meeting by appointment in Hyde-Park with
pistols, the former was mortally wounded, and died next morning; the
latter was tried, and condemned for murder, but indulged with his
majesty’s pardon. No naval transaction of any consequence happened in the
European seas during the course of this summer. In January, indeed, the
Magnanime, a French ship of the line, was taken in the channel by two
English cruisers, after an obstinate engagement; and the privateers took a
considerable number of merchant ships from the enemy.

CONCLUSION OF THE DEFINITIVE TREATY AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

The plenipotentiaries still continued at Aix-la-Cha-pelle, discussing all
the articles of the definitive treaty, which was at length concluded and
signed on the seventh of October. It was founded on former treaties, which
were now expressly confirmed, from that of Westphalia to the last
concluded at London and Vienna. The contracting parties agreed, that all
prisoners on each side should be mutually released, without ransom, and
all conquests restored; that the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and
Guastalla, should be ceded as a settlement to the infant don Philip, and
the heirs male of his body; but in case of his ascending the throne of
Spain, or of the two Sicilies, or his dying without male issue, that they
should revert to the house of Austria; that the king of Great Britain
should, immediately after the ratification of this treaty, send two
persons of rank and distinction, to reside in France, as hostages, until
restitution should be made of Cape Breton, and all the other conquests
which his Britannic majesty should have achieved in the East or West
Indies, before or after the preliminaries were signed; that the assiento
contract, with the article of the annual ship, should be confirmed for
four years, during which the enjoyment of that privilege was suspended
since the commencement of the present war; that Dunkirk should remain
fortified on the land side, and towards the sea continue on the footing of
former treaties. All the contracting powers became guarantees to the king
of Prussia for the duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz, as he at
present possessed them; and they likewise engaged to secure the
empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia in possession of her hereditary
dominions, according to the pragmatic sanction. The other articles
regulated the forms and times fixed for this mutual restitution, as well
as for the termination of hostilities in different parts of the world. But
the right of English subjects to navigate in the American seas, without
being subject to search, was not once mentioned, though this claim was the
original source of the differences between Great Britain and Spain; nor
were the limits of Acadia ascertained. This and all other disputes were
left to the discussion of commissaries. We have already observed, that
after the troubles of the empire began, the war was no longer maintained
on British principles. It became a continental contest, and was prosecuted
on the side of the allies without conduct, spirit, or unanimity. In the
Netherlands they were outnumbered, and outwitted by the enemy. They never
hazarded a battle without sustaining a defeat. Their vast armies, paid by
Great Britain, lay inactive, and beheld one fortress reduced after another
until the whole country was subdued; and as their generals fought, their
plenipotentiaries negotiated. At a time when their affairs began to wear
the most promising aspect, when the arrival of the Russian auxiliaries
would have secured an undoubted superiority in the field; when the British
fleets had trampled on the naval power of France and Spain, intercepted
their supplies of treasure, and cut off all their resources of commerce;
the British ministers seemed to treat, without the least regard to the
honour and advantage of their country. They left her most valuable and
necessary rights of trade unowned and undecided; they subscribed to the
insolent demand of sending the nobles of the realm to grace the court and
adorn the triumphs of her enemy; and they tamely gave up her conquests in
North America, of more consequence to her traffic than all the other
dominions for which the powers at war contended; they gave up the
important isle of Cape Breton, in exchange for a petty factory in the East
Indies, belonging to a private company, whose existence had been deemed
prejudicial to the commonwealth. What then were the fruits which Britain
reaped from this long and desperate war? A dreadful expense of blood and
treasure, 310 [See note 2 P, at the end of this Vol.]
disgrace upon disgrace, an additional load of grievous impositions, and
the national debt accumulated to the enormous sum of eighty millions
sterling.

CHAPTER VII.

Reflections on the Peace….. The Prince of Wales’
Adherents join the Opposition….. Character of the
Ministry….. Session opened….. Debate on the Address…..
Supplies granted….. Exorbitant Demand of the Empress-queen
opposed….. Violent Contest concerning the Seamen’s
Bill….. Objections to the Mutiny Bill….. Bill for
limiting the Term of a Soldier’s Service….. Measures taken
with respect to the African Trade….. Scheme for improving
the British Fishery….. Attempt to open the Commerce to
Hudson’s Bay….. Plan for manning the Navy….. Fruitless
Motions made by the Opposition….. Severities exercised
upon some Students at Oxford….. Duke of Newcastle chosen
Chancellor cf the University of Cambridge….. Tumults in
different Parts of the Kingdom….. Scheme for a Settlement
in Nova Scotia….. Town of Halifax founded….. French
Attempts to settle on the Island of Tobago….. Rejoicings
for the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle….. Pretender’s eldest Son
arrested at Paris….. Appearance of a Rupture between
Russia and Sweden….. Interposition of the King of
Prussia….. Measures taken by the French Ministry…..
Conduct of different European Powers….. Insolence of the
Barbary Corsairs….. Disturbances in England….. Session
opened—Subjects of Debate….. Scheme for reducing the
Interest of the National Debt….. Act passed for that
Purpose….. New Mutiny Bill….. Bill for encouraging the
Importation of Iron from America….. Erection of the
British Herring Fishery….. New African Company…..
Westminster Election….. Earthquakes in London…..
Pestilential Fever at the Session in the Old Bailey…..
Disputes between Russia and Sweden….. Plan for electing
the Arch-duke Joseph King of the Romans….. Opposition of
the King of Prussia….. Disputes with the French about the
Limits of Nova-Scotia….. Treaty with Spain….. Session
opened….. Debate on the Address….. Supplies granted…..
Death and Character of the Prince of Wales….. Settlement
of a Regency, in case of a Minor Sovereign—General
Naturalization Bill….. Censure passed upon a Paper
entitled Constitutional Queries….. Proceedings of the
Commons on the Westminster Election….. Mr. Murray sent
Prisoner to Newgate….. Session closed….. Style altered

1748

REFLECTIONS ON THE PEACE.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, however unstable or inglorious it might
appear to those few who understood the interests, and felt for the honour
of their country, was nevertheless not unwelcome to the nation in general.
The British ministry will always find it more difficult to satisfy the
people at the end of a successful campaign, than at the conclusion of an
unfortunate war. The English are impatient of miscarriage and
disappointment, and too apt to be intoxicated with victory. At this period
they were tired of the burdens, and sick of the disgraces, to which they
had been exposed in the coarse of seven tedious campaigns. They had
suffered considerable losses and interruption in the article of commerce,
which was the source of their national opulence and power; they knew it
would necessarily be clogged with additional duties for the maintenance of
a continental war, and the support of foreign subsidiaries; and they drew
very faint presages of future success either from the conduct of their
allies, or the capacity of their commanders. To a people influenced by
these considerations, the restoration of a free trade, the respite from
that anxiety and suspense which the prosecution of a war never fails to
engender, and the prospect of a speedy deliverance from discouraging
restraint and oppressive impositions, were advantages that sweetened the
bitter draught of a dishonourable treaty, and induced the majority of the
nation to acquiesce in the peace, not barely without murmuring, but even
with some degree of satisfaction and applause.

THE PRINCE OF WALES’ ADHERENTS JOIN THE OPPOSITION.

Immediately after the exchange of ratifications at Aix-la-Chapelle, the
armies were broken up; the allies in the Netherlands withdrew their
several proportions of troops; the French began to evacuate Flanders; and
the English forces were re-embarked for their own country. His Britannic
majesty returned from his German dominions in November, having landed near
Margate, in Kent, after a dangerous passage; and on the twenty-ninth of
the same month he opened the session of parliament. By this time the
misunderstanding between the two first personages of the royal family had
been increased by a fresh succession of matter. The prince of Wales had
held a court of Stannary, in quality of duke of Cornwall; and revived some
claims attached to that dignity, which, had they been admitted, would have
greatly augmented his influence among the Cornish boroughs. These efforts
roused the jealousy of the administration, which had always considered
them as an interest wholly dependent on the crown; and, therefore, the
pretensions of his royal highness were opposed by the whole weight of the
ministry. His adherents, resenting these hostilities as an injury to their
royal master, immediately joined the remnant of the former opposition in
parliament, and resolved to counteract all the ministerial measures that
should fall under their cognizance; at least, they determined to seize
every opportunity of thwarting the servants of the crown, in every scheme
or proposal that had not an evident tendency to the advantage of the
nation. This band of auxiliaries was headed by the earl of E——t,
Dr. Lee, and Mr. N——t. The first possessed a species of
eloquence rather plausible than powerful; he spoke with fluency and fire;
his spirit was bold and enterprising, his apprehension quick, and his
repartee severe. Dr. Lee was a man of extensive erudition and
irreproachable morals, particularly versed in the civil law, which he
professed, and perfectly well acquainted with the constitution of his
country. Mr. N——t was an orator of middling abilities, who
harangued upon all subjects indiscriminately, and supplied with confidence
what he wanted in capacity; he had been at some pains to study the
business of the house, as well as to understand the machine of government;
and was tolerably well heard, as he generally spoke with an appearance of
good humour, and hazarded every whimsical idea as it arose in his
imagination. But lord Bolingbroke is said to have been the chief spring
which, in secret, actuated the deliberations of the prince’s court. That
nobleman, seemingly sequestered from the tumults of a public life, resided
at Battersea, where he was visited like a sainted shrine by all the
distinguished votaries of wit, eloquence, and political ambition. There he
was cultivated and admired for the elegance of his manners, and the charms
of his conversation. The prince’s curiosity was first captivated by his
character, and his esteem was afterwards secured by the irresistible
address of that extraordinary personage, who continued in a regular
progression to insinuate himself still farther and farther into the good
graces of his royal patron.. How far the conduct of his royal highness was
influenced by the private advice of this nobleman we shall not pretend to
determine; but, certain it is, the friends of the ministry propagated a
report, that he was the dictator of those measures which the prince
adopted; and that, under the specious pretext of attachment to the
heir-apparent of the crown, he concealed his real aim, which was to
perpetuate the breach in the royal family. Whatever his sentiments and
motives might have been, this was no other than a revival of the old
ministerial clamour, that a man cannot be well affected to the king, if he
pretends to censure any measure of the administration.

CHARACTER OF THE MINISTRY.

The weight which the opposition derived from these new confederates in the
house of commons was still greatly overbalanced by the power, influence,
and ability that sustained every ministerial project. Mr. Pelham, who
chiefly managed the helm of affairs, was generally esteemed as a man of
honesty and candour, actuated by a sincere love for his country, though he
had been educated in erroneous principles of government, and in some
measure obliged to prosecute a fatal system which descended to him by
inheritance. At this time he numbered Mr. Pitt among his fellow-ministers,
and was moreover supported by many other individuals of distinguished
abilities; among whom the first place in point of genius was due to Mr.
M., who executed the office of solicitor-general. This gentleman, the son
of a noble family in North Britain, had raised himself to great eminence
at the bar, by a most keen intuitive spirit of apprehension, that seemed
to seize every object at first glance; an innate sagacity, that saved the
trouble of intense application; and an irresistible stream of eloquence,
that flowed pure and classical, strong and copious, reflecting, in the
most conspicuous point of view, the subjects over which it rolled, and
sweeping before it all the slime of formal hesitation, and all the
entangling weeds of chicanery. Yet the servants of the crown were not so
implicitly attached to the first minister as to acquiesce in all his
plans, and dedicate their time and talents to the support of every court
measure indiscriminately. This was one material point in which Mr. Pelham
deviated from the maxims of his predecessor, who admitted of no
contradiction from any of his adherents or fellow-servants, but insisted
on sacrificing their whole perception and faculties to his conduct and
disposal. That sordid deference to a minister no longer characterized the
subordinate instruments of the administration. It was not unusual to see
the great officers of the government divided in a parliamentary debate,
and to hear the secretary at war opposing with great vehemence a clause
suggested by the chancellor of the exchequer. After all, if we coolly
consider those arguments which have been bandied about, and retorted with
such eagerness and acrimony in the house of commons, and divest them of
those passionate tropes and declamatory metaphors which the spirit of
opposition alone had produced, we shall find very little left for the
subject of dispute, and sometimes be puzzled to discover any material
source of disagreement.

SESSION OPENED.

In the month of November his majesty opened the session of parliament with
a speech, acquainting them, that the definitive treaty of peace was at
length signed by all the parties concerned; that he had made the most
effectual provision for securing the rights and interests of his own
subjects; and procured for his allies the best conditions, which, in the
present situation of affairs, could be obtained. He said, he had found a
general good disposition in all parties to bring the negotiation to a
happy conclusion; and observed, that we might promise ourselves a long
enjoyment of the blessings of peace. Finally, after having remarked that
times of tranquillity were the proper seasons for lessening the national
debt, and strengthening the kingdom against future events, he recommended
to the commons the improvement of the public revenue, the maintenance of a
considerable naval force, the advancement of commerce, and the cultivation
of the arts of peace. This speech, as usual, was echoed back by an address
to the throne from both houses, containing general expressions of the
warmest loyalty and gratitude to his majesty, and implying the most
perfect satisfaction and acquiescence in the articles of the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle.

The members in the opposition, according to custom, cavilled at the nature
of this address. They observed, that the late pacification was the worst
and most inglorious of all the bad treaties to which the English nation
had ever subscribed; that it was equally disgraceful, indefinite, and
absurd; they said, the British navy had gained such an ascendancy over the
French at sea, that the sources of their wealth were already choked up;
that the siege of Maestricht would have employed then-arms in the Low
Countries till the arrival of the Russians; and that the accession of
these auxiliaries would have thrown the superiority into the scale of the
allies. They did not fail to take notice that the most important and
original object of the war was left wholly undecided; and demonstrated the
absurdity of their promising in the address to make good such engagements
as his majesty had entered into with his allies, before they knew what
those engagements were. In answer to these objections, the ministers
replied, that the peace was in itself rather better than could be
expected; and that the smallest delay might have proved fatal to the
liberties of Europe. They affirmed, that the Dutch were upon the point of
concluding a neutrality, in consequence of which their troops would have
been withdrawn from the allied army; and, in that case, even the addition
of the Russian auxiliaries would not have rendered it a match for the
enemy. They asserted, that if the Avar had been prolonged another year,
the national credit of Great Britain must have been entirely ruined, many
of the public funds having sunk below par in the preceding season, so that
the ministry had begun to despair of seeing the money paid in on the new
subscription. With respect to the restoration of Cape Breton, the limits
of Nova Scotia, and the right of navigating without search in the American
seas, which right had been left unestablished in the treaty, they
declared, that the first was an unnecessary expense, of no consequence to
Great Britain; and that the other two were points in dispute, to be
amicably settled in private conferences by commissaries duly authorized;
but by no means articles to be established by a general treaty.

What the opposition wanted in strength, it endeavoured to make up with
spirit and perseverance. Every ministerial motion and measure was
canvassed, sifted, and decried with uncommon art and vivacity; but all
this little availed against the single article of superior numbers; and
accordingly this was the source of certain triumph in all debates in which
the servants of the crown were united. The nation had reason to expect an
immediate mitigation in the article of annual expense, considering the
number of troops and ships of war which had been reduced at the
ratification of the treaty: but they were disagreeably undeceived in
finding themselves again loaded with very extraordinary impositions, for
the payment of a vast debt which government had contracted in the course
of the war, notwithstanding the incredible aids granted by parliament. The
committee of supply established four points of consideration, in their
deliberations concerning the sums necessary to be raised; namely, for
fulfilling the engagements which the parliament had entered into with his
majesty, and the services undertaken for the success of the war; for
discharging debts contracted by government; for making good deficiencies;
and for defraying the current expense of the year. It appeared, that the
nation owed four-and-forty thousand pounds to the elector of Bavaria;
above thirty thousand to the duke of Brunswick; the like sum to the
landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; and near nine thousand pounds to the elector of
Mentz. The queen of Hungary claimed an arrear of one hundred thousand
pounds. The city of Glasgow, in North Britain, presented a petition,
praying to be reimbursed the sum of ten thousand pounds, extorted from
that corporation by the son of the pretender during the rebellion. One
hundred and twelve thousand pounds were owing to the forces in North
America and the East Indies; besides near half a million due on
extraordinary expense incurred by the land-forces in America, Flanders,
and North Britain, by the office of ordnance, and other services of the
last year, to which the parliamentary provision did not extend. The
remaining debt of the ordnance amounted to above two hundred and thirty
thousand pounds; but the navy-bills could not be discharged for less than
four millions. An addition of two millions three hundred and seventy-four
thousand three hundred and thirty-three pounds, fifteen shillings and
two-pence, was also required for the current service of the year. In a
word, the whole annual supply exceeded eight millions sterling-a sum at
which the whole nation expressed equal astonishment and disgust. It was
charged upon the duties on malt, mum, cyder, and perry, the land-tax at
four shillings in the pound, annuities on the sinking-fund, an application
of one million from that deposit, and the loan of the like sum to be
charged on the first aids of next session. The number of seamen was
reduced to seventeen thousand, and that of the land-forces to eighteen
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, including guards and garrisons.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

EXORBITANT DEMAND OF THE EMPRESS-QUEEN OPPOSED.

Every article of expense, however, was warmly disputed by the
anti-courtiers, especially the demand of the queen of Hungary, which was
deemed unreasonable, exorbitant, and rapacious, considering the seas of
blood which we had shed, and the immensity of treasure we had exhausted
for her benefit; and surely the subjects of this nation had some reason to
complain of an indulgence of this nature, granted to a power which they
had literally snatched from the brink of ruin-a power whose quarrel they
had espoused with a degree of enthusiasm that did much more honour to
their gallantry than to their discretion-a power that kept aloof, with a
stateliness of pride peculiar to herself and family, and beheld her
British auxiliaries fighting her battles at their own expense; while she
squandered away, in the idle pageantry of barbarous magnificence, those
ample subsidies which they had advanced in order to maintain their armies,
and furnish out her proportion of the war. The leaders of the opposition
neglected no opportunity of embittering the triumphs of their adversaries;
they inveighed against the extravagance of granting sixteen thousand
pounds for the pay of general and staff officers, during a peace that
required no such establishment, especially at a juncture when the national
incumbrances rendered it absolutely necessary to practise every expedient
of economy. They even combated the request of the city of Glasgow, to be
indemnified for the extraordinary exaction it underwent from the rebels,
though it appeared from unquestionable evidence, that this extraordinary
contribution was exacted on account of that city’s peculiar attachment to
the reigning family; that it had always invariably adhered to revolution
principles; and, with an unequalled spirit of loyalty and zeal for the
protestant succession, distinguished itself both in the last and preceding
rebellion.

VIOLENT CONTEST CONCERNING THE SEAMEN’S BILL.

But the most violent contest arose on certain regulations which the
ministry wanted to establish in two bills, relating to the sea and land
service. The first, under the title of a bill for amending, explaining,
and reducing into one act of parliament the laws relating to the navy, was
calculated solely with a view of subjecting half-pay officers to martial
law—a design which not only furnished the opposition with a
plausible handle for accusing the ministers as intending to encroach upon
the constitution, in order to extend the influence of the crown; but also
alarmed the sea-officers to such a degree, that they assembled to a
considerable number, with a view to deliberate upon the proper means of
defending their privileges and liberties from invasion. The result of
their consultations was a petition to the house of commons, subscribed by
three admirals and forty-seven captains, not members of parliament,
representing that the bill in agitation contained several clauses tending
to the injury and dishonour of all naval officers, as well as to the
detriment of his majesty’s service; and that the laws already in force had
been always found effectual for securing the service of officers on
half-pay upon the most pressing occasions: they therefore hoped, that they
should not be subjected to new hardships and discouragements; and begged
to be heard by their counsel, before the committee of the whole house,
touching such parts of the bill as they apprehended would be injurious to
themselves and the other officers of his majesty’s navy. This petition was
presented to the house by sir John Norris, and the motion for its being
read was seconded by sir Peter Warren, whose character was universally
esteemed and beloved in the nation. This measure had like to have produced
very serious consequences. Many commanders and subalterns had repaired to
the admiralty, and threatened in plain terms to throw up their
commissions, in case the bill should pass into a law; and a general
ferment was begun among all the subordinate members of the navy. A motion
was made, that the petitioners, according to their request, should be
heard by their counsel; and this proposal was strongly urged by the first
orators of the anti-ministerial association; but the minister, confiding
in his own strength, reinforced by the abilities of Mr. Pitt, Mr.
Lyttelton, and Mr. Fox the secretary at war, strenuously opposed the
motion, which upon a division was thrown out by a great majority. The
several articles of the bill were afterwards separately debated with great
warmth; and though Mr. Pelham had, with the most disinterested air of
candour, repeatedly declared that he required no support even from his own
adherents, but that which might arise from reason unrestrained and full
conviction, he on this occasion reaped all the fruit from their zeal and
attachment, which could be expected from the most implicit complaisance.
Some plausible amendments of the most exceptionable clauses were offered,
particularly of that which imposed an oath upon the members of every
court-martial, that they should not, on any account, disclose the opinions
or transactions of any such tribunal. This was considered as a sanction,
under which any court-martial might commit the most flagrant acts of
injustice and oppression, which even parliament itself could not redress,
because it would be impossible to ascertain the truth, eternally sealed up
by this absurd obligation. The amendment proposed was, that the member of
a court-martial might reveal the transactions and opinions of it in all
cases wherein the courts of justice, as the law now stands, have a right
to interfere, if required thereto by either house of parliament; a very
reasonable mitigation, which however was rejected by the majority.
Nevertheless, the suspicion of an intended encroachment had raised such a
clamour without doors, and diffused the odium of this measure so
generally, that the minister thought proper to drop the projected article
of war, subjecting the reformed officers of the navy to the jurisdictions
of courts-martial; and the bill being also softened in other particulars,
during its passage through the upper house, at length received the royal
assent.

The flame which this act had kindled, was rather increased than abated on
the appearance of a new mutiny-bill, replete with divers innovations
tending to augment the influence of the crown, as well as the authority
and power of a military jurisdiction. All the articles of war established
since the reign of Charles II., were submitted to the inspection of the
commons; and in these appeared a gradual spirit of encroachment, almost
imperceptibly deviating from the civil institutes of the English
constitution, towards the establishment of a military dominion. By this
new bill a power was vested in any commander-in-chief, to revise and
correct any legal sentence of a court-martial, by which the members of
such a court, corresponding with the nature of a civil jury, were rendered
absolutely useless, and the commander in a great measure absolute; for he
had not only the power of summoning such officers as he might choose to
sit on any trial—a prerogative unknown to any civil court of
judicature—but he was also at liberty to review and altar the
sentence; so that a man was subject to two trials for the same offence,
and the commander-in-chief was judge both of the guilt and the punishment.
By the final clause of this bill, martial law was extended to all officers
on half-pay; and the same arguments which had been urged against this
article in the navy-bill, were now repeated and reinforced with redoubled
fervour. Many reasons were offered to prove that the half-pay was allotted
as a recompence for past service; and the opponents of the bill affirmed,
that such an article, by augmenting the dependents of the crown, might be
very dangerous to the constitution. On the other hand, the partisans of
the ministry asserted, that the half-pay was granted as a retaining fee;
and that originally all those who enjoyed this indulgence were deemed to
be in actual service, consequently subject to martial law. Mr. Pitt, who
at this time exercised the office of paymaster-general, with a rigour of
integrity unknown to the most disinterested of all his predecessors in
that department, espoused the clause in dispute as a necessary extension
of military discipline, which could never be attended with any bad
consequence to the liberty of the nation. The remarks which he made on
this occasion, implied an opinion that our liberties wholly existed in
dependence upon the direction of the sovereign, and the virtue of the
army. “To their virtue,” said he, “we trust even at this hour, small as
our army is; to that virtue we must have trusted, had this bill been
modelled as its warmest opposers could have wished; and without this
virtue, should the lords, the commons, and the people of England intrench
themselves behind parchment up to the teeth, the sword will find a passage
to the vitals of the constitution.” All the disputed articles of the bill
being sustained on the shoulders of a great majority, it was conveyed to
the upper house, where it excited another violent contest. Upon the
question whether officers on half-pay had not been subject to martial law,
the judges were consulted and divided in their sentiments. The earl of
Bath declared his opinion that martial law did not extend to reformed
officers; and opened all the sluices of his ancient eloquence. He admitted
a case which was urged, of seven officers on half-pay, who, being taken in
actual rebellion at Preston in the year 1715, had been executed on the
spot by martial law, in consequence of the king’s express order. He
candidly owned, that he himself was secretary at war at that period; that
he had approved of this order, and even transmitted it to general
Carpenter, who commanded at Preston; but now his opinion was entirely
changed. He observed, that when the forementioned rebellion first broke
out, the house presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty
would be pleased to employ all half-pay officers, and gratify them with
whole pay; and, indeed, all such officers were voted on whole pay by the
house of commons. They were afterwards apprised of this vote, by an
advertisement in the Gazette, and ordered to hold themselves in readiness
to repair to such places as should be appointed; and finally commanded to
repair by such a day to those places, on pain of being struck off the
half-pay list. These precautions would have been unnecessary, had they
been deemed subject to martial law, and the penalty for non-obedience
would not have been merely a privation of their pensions, but they would
have fallen under the punishment of death, as deserters from the service.
His lordship distinguished with great propriety and precision, between a
step which had been precipitately taken in a violent crisis, when the
public was heated with apprehension and resentment, and a solemn law
concerted at leisure, during the most profound tranquility.
Notwithstanding the spirited opposition of this nobleman, and some
attempts to insert additional clauses, the bill having undergone a few
inconsiderable amendments, passed by a very considerable majority.

BILL FOR LIMITING THE TERM OF A SOLDIER’S SERVICE.

Immediately after the mutiny-bill had passed the lower house, another
fruitless effort was made by the opposition. The danger of a standing
army, on whose virtue the constitution of Great Britain seemed to depend,
did not fail to alarm the minds of many who were zealously attached to the
liberties of their country, and gave birth to a scheme, which if executed;
would have enabled the legislature to establish a militia that must have
answered many national purposes, and acted as a constitutional bulwark
against the excesses and ambition of a military standing force, under the
immediate influence of government. The scheme which patriotism conceived,
was, in all probability, adopted by party. A bill was brought in, limiting
the time beyond which no soldier, or non-commissioned officer, should be
compelled to continue in the service. Had this limitation taken place,
such a rotation of soldiers would have ensued among the common people,
that in a few years every peasant, labourer, and inferior tradesman in the
kingdom, would have understood the exercise of arms; and perhaps the
people in general would have concluded that a standing army was altogether
unnecessary. A project of this nature could not, for obvious reasons, be
agreeable to the administration, and therefore the bill was rendered
abortive; for, after having been twice read, it was postponed from time to
time till the parliament was prorogued, and never appeared in the sequel.
Such were the chief subjects of debate between the ministry and the
opposition, composed, as we have already observed, of the prince’s
servants and the remains of the country party, this last being headed by
lord Strange, son of the earl of Derby, and sir Francis Dashwood; the
former, a nobleman of distinguished abilities, keen, penetrating, eloquent
and sagacious; the other frank, spirited, and sensible.

MEASURES TAKEN WITH RESPECT TO THE AFRICAN TRADE.

It must be owned, however, for the honour of the ministry, that if they
carried a few unpopular measures with a high hand, they seemed earnestly
desirous of making amends to the nation, by promoting divers regulations
for the benefit and improvement of commerce, which actually took place in
the ensuing session of parliament. One of the principal objects of this
nature which fell under their cognizance, was the trade to the coast of
Guinea; a very important branch of traffic, whether considered as a market
for British manufactures, or as the source that supplied the English
plantations with negroes. This was originally monopolized by a joint-stock
company, which had from time to time derived considerable sums from the
legislature, for enabling them the better to support certain forts or
castles on the coast of Africa, to facilitate the commerce and protect the
merchants. In the sequel, however, the exclusive privilege having been
judged prejudicial to the national trade, the coast was laid open to all
British subjects indiscriminately, on condition of their paying a certain
duty towards defraying the expense of the forts and factories. This
expedient did not answer the purposes for which it had been contrived. The
separate traders, instead of receiving any benefit from the protection of
the company, industriously avoided their castles, as the receptacles of
tyranny and oppression. The company, whether from misconduct or knavery of
their directors, contracted such a load of debts as their stock was unable
to discharge. They seemed to neglect the traffic, and allowed their
castles to decay. In a word, their credit being exhausted, and their
creditors growing clamorous, they presented a petition to the house of
commons, disclosing their distresses, and imploring such assistance as
should enable them not only to pay their debts, but also to maintain the
forts in a defensible condition. This petition, recommended to the house
in a message from his majesty, was corroborated by another in behalf of
the company’s creditors. Divers merchants of London, interested in the
trade of Africa and the British plantations in America, petitioned the
house, that as the African trade was of the utmost importance to the
nation, and could not be supported without forts and settlements, some
effectual means should be speedily taken for protecting and extending this
valuable branch of commerce. A fourth was offered by the merchants of
Liverpool, representing that the security and protection of the trade to
Africa must always principally depend upon his majesty’s ships of war
being properly stationed on that coast, and seasonably relieved, and that
such forts and settlements as might be judged necessary for marks of
sovereignty and possession, would prove a nuisance and a burden to the
trade, should they remain in the hands of any joint-stock company, whose
private interest always had been, and ever would be, found incompatible
with the interest of the separate and open trader. They therefore prayed,
that the said forts might either be taken into his majesty’s immediate
possession, and supported by the public, or committed to the merchants
trading on that coast, in such a manner as the house should judge
expedient, without vesting in them any other advantage or right to the
commerce, but what should be common to all his majesty’s subjects. This
remonstrance was succeeded by another to the same effect, from the master,
wardens, assistants, and commonalty of the society of merchant adventurers
within the city of Bristol. All these petitions were referred to a
committee appointed to deliberate on this subject; who agreed to certain
resolutions, implying, that the trade to Africa should be free and open;
that the British forts and settlements on that coast ought to be
maintained, and put under proper direction; and that in order to carry on
the African trade in the most beneficial manner to these kingdoms, all the
British subjects trading to Africa should be united in one open company,
without any joint-stock, or power to trade as a corporation. A bill was
immediately founded on these resolutions, which alarmed the company to
such a degree, that they had recourse to another petition, demonstrating
their right to the coast of Africa, and expressing their reliance on the
justice of the house that they should not be deprived of their property
without an adequate consideration. In a few days a second address was
offered by their creditors, complaining of the company’s mismanagement,
promising to surrender their right, as the wisdom of parliament should
prescribe; praying that their debts might be inquired into; and that the
equivalent to be granted for the company’s possessions might be secured
and applied, in the first place, for their benefit. The commons, in
consequence of this petition, ordered the company to produce a list of
their debts, together with a copy of their charter, and two remonstrances
which their creditors had presented to them before this application to
parliament. A committee of the whole house, having deliberated on these
papers and petitions, and heard the company by their counsel, resolved to
give them a reasonable compensation for their charter, lands, forts,
settlements, slaves, and effects, to be in the first place applied towards
the payment of their creditors. A bill being formed accordingly, passed
the commons, and was conveyed to the upper house, where a great many
objections were started; and for the present it was dropped, until a more
unexceptionable plan should be concerted. In the meantime their lordships
addressed his majesty, that the lords commissioners for trade and
plantations might be directed to prepare a scheme on this subject, to be
laid before both houses of parliament at the beginning of next session;
that instant orders should be given for preserving and securing the forts
and settlements on the coast of Guinea belonging to Great Britain; and
that proper persons should be appointed to examine into the condition of
those forts, as well as of the military stores, slaves, and vessels
belonging to the African company, so as to make a faithful report of these
particulars, with all possible expedition.

SCHEME FOR IMPROVING THE BRITISH FISHERY.

The ministry having professed an inclination, and indeed shown a
disposition, to promote and extend the commerce of the kingdom, the
commons resolved to take some steps for encouraging the white fishery
along the northern coast of the island, which is an inexhaustible source
of wealth to our industrious neighbours the Dutch, who employ annually a
great number of hands and vessels in this branch of commerce. The sensible
part of the British people, reflecting on this subject, plainly foresaw
that a fishery, under due regulations, undertaken with the protection and
encouragement of the legislature, would not only prove a fund of national
riches, and a nursery of seamen, but likewise in a great measure prevent
any future insurrections in the Highlands of Scotland, by diffusing a
spirit of industry among the natives of that country, who finding it in
their power to become independent on the fruits of their own labour, would
soon enfranchise themselves from that slavish attachment by which they had
been so long connected with their landlords and chieftains. Accordingly, a
committee was appointed to deliberate on the state of the British fishery;
and upon their report a bill was founded for encouraging the whale fishery
on the coast of Spitsbergen, by a bounty of forty shillings per ton for
every ship equipped for that undertaking. The bill having made its way
through both houses, and obtained the royal assent, the merchants in
different parts of the kingdom, particularly in North Britain, began to
build and fit out ships of great burden, and peculiar structure, for the
purpose of that fishery, which ever since hath been carried on with equal
vigour and success. Divers merchants and traders of London having
presented to the house of commons a petition, representing the benefits
that would accrue to the community from a herring and cod fishery,
established on proper principles, and carried on with skill and integrity,
this remonstrance was referred to a committee, upon whose resolutions a
bill was formed; but before this could be discussed in the house, the
parliament was prorogued, and of consequence this measure proved abortive.

ATTEMPT TO OPEN THE COMMERCE TO HUDSON’S BAY.

The next regulation proposed in favour of trade, was that of laying open
the commerce of Hudson’s-bay, in the most northern parts of America, where
a small monopoly maintained a few forts and settlements, and prosecuted a
very advantageous fur trade with the Indians of that continent. It was
suggested, that the company had long ago enriched themselves by their
exclusive privilege; that they employed no more than four annual ships;
that, contrary to an express injunction in their charter, they discouraged
all attempts to discover a north-west passage to the East Indies; that
they dealt cruelly and perfidiously with the poor Indians, who never
traded with them except when compelled by necessity, so that the best part
of the fur trade had devolved to the enemies of Great Britain; and that
their exclusive patent restricted to very narrow limits a branch of
commerce which might be cultivated to a prodigious extent; as well as to
the infinite advantage of Great Britain. Petitions, that the trade of
Hudson’s-bay might be laid open, were presented to the house by the
merchants of London, Great Yarmouth, and Wolverhampton; and a committee
was appointed to deliberate upon this subject. On the other hand, the
company exerted themselves in petitions and private applications for their
own preservation. The committee examined many papers and records; and the
report was taken into consideration by the whole house. Many evidences
were interrogated, and elaborate speeches made, on both sides of the
question. At length a majority seemed satisfied that the traffic on the
coast of Hudson’s-bay could not be preserved without forts and
settlements, which must be maintained either by an exclusive company, or
at the public expense; and, as this was not judged a proper juncture to
encumber the nation with any charge of that kind the design of dissolving
the company was laid aside till a more favourable opportunity.

PLAN FOR MAINTAINING THE NAVY.

The government had, during the war, found great difficulty in pressing men
for the service of the navy—a practice, which, however sanctioned by
necessity, is nevertheless a flagrant encroachment on the liberty of the
subject, and a violent outrage against the constitution of Great Britain.
The ministry, therefore, had employed some of their agents to form a
scheme for retaining in time of peace, by means of a certain allowance, a
number of seamen, who should be registered for the purpose, and be ready
to man a squadron upon any emergency. Such a plan, properly regulated,
would have been a great advantage to commerce, which is always distressed
by the practice of pressing seamen; and at the same time, a great security
to the kingdom in dangerous conjunctures, when it may be necessary to
equip an armament at a minute’s warning. The house of commons being moved
upon this subject, agreed to divers resolutions as a foundation for the
bill; but the members in the opposition affecting to represent this
measure in an odious light, as an imitation of the French method of
registering seamen without their own consent, Mr. Pelham dropped it, as an
unpopular project.

Information having been received that the French intended to settle the
neutral islands of St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago, in the
West Indies, the nation had taken the alarm in the beginning of the year;
and a motion was made in the house of commons to address his majesty, that
he would be graciously pleased to give directions for laying before the
house copies of the instructions given to the governors of Barbadoes for
the last ten years past, so far as they related to these neutral islands;
but whether the minister was conscious of a neglect in this particular, or
thought such inquiries trenched upon the prerogative, he opposed the
motion with all his might; and after some debate, the previous question
passed in the negative. This was also the fate of another motion made by
the earl of E——t for an address, entreating his majesty would
submit to the inspection of the house all the proposals of peace that had
been made by the French king since the year which preceded the last
rebellion, to that in which the definitive treaty was concluded at
Aix-la-Chapelle. This they proposed as a previous step to the parliament’s
forming any opinion concerning the utility or necessity of the peace which
had been established. Violent debates ensued, in which the opposition was
as much excelled in oratory as out-numbered in votes. Such were the
material transactions of this session, which in the month of June was
closed as usual with a speech from the throne; in which his majesty
signified his hope, that the parliament, at their next meeting, would be
able to perfect what they had now begun for advancing the trade and
navigation of the kingdom. He likewise expressed his satisfaction at
seeing public credit flourish at the end of an expensive war; and
recommended unanimity, as the surest bulwark of national security.

While the ministry on some occasions exhibited all the external signs of
moderation and good humour, they, on others, manifested a spirit of
jealousy and resentment which seems to have been childish and illiberal.
Two or three young riotous students at Oxford, trained up in prejudice,
and heated with intemperance, uttered some expressions over their cups,
implying their attachment to the family of the pretender. The report of
this indiscretion was industriously circulated by certain worthless
individuals, who, having no reliance on their own intrinsic merit, hoped
to distinguish themselves as the tools of party, and to obtain favour with
the ministry by acting as volunteers in the infamous practice of
information. Though neither the rank, age, nor connexions of the
delinquents were such as ought to have attracted the notice of the public,
the vice-chancellor, heads of houses, and proctors of the university,
knowing the invidious scrutiny to which their conduct was subjected,
thought proper to publish a declaration, signifying their abhorrence of
all seditious practices, their determined resolution to punish all
offenders to the utmost severity and rigour of the statutes; and
containing peremptory orders for the regulation of the university.
Notwithstanding these wise and salutary precautions, the three boys, who
in the heat of their intoxication had drunk the pretender’s health, were
taken into custody by a messenger of state; and two of them being tried in
the court of king’s bench, and found guilty, were sentenced to walk
through the courts of Westminster, with a specification of their crime
fixed to their foreheads; to pay a find of five nobles each; to be
imprisoned for two years, and find security for their good behaviour for
the term of seven years after their enlargement. Many people thought they
saw the proceedings of the star-chamber revived in the severity of this
punishment. The administration, not yet satisfied with the vengeance which
had been taken on these three striplings, seemed determined to stigmatize
the university to which they belonged. The cry of jacobitism was loudly
trumpeted against the whole community. The address of the university,
congratulating his majesty on the establishment of the peace, was rejected
with disdain, and an attempt was made to subject their statutes to the
inspection of the king’s council; but this rule, being argued in the court
of king’s-bench, was dismissed in consequence of the opinions given by the
judges. Finally, the same tribunal granted an information against Dr.
Purnel, the vice-chancellor, for his behaviour in the case of the rioters
above-mentioned; but this was countermanded in the sequel, his conduct
appearing unexceptionable upon a more cool and impartial inquiry.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

ELECTION OF A CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

In proportion as Oxford declined, her sister university rose in the favour
of the administration, which she at this period cultivated by an
extraordinary mark of compliance and attachment. The dignity of chancellor
of the university being vacated by the death of the duke of Somerset, the
nation in general seemed to think it would naturally devolve upon the
prince of Wales, as a compliment at all times due to that rank; but more
especially to the then heir-apparent, who had eminently distinguished
himself by the virtues of a patriot and a prince. He had even pleased
himself with the hope of receiving this mark of attachment from a seminary
for which he entertained a particular regard. But the ruling members,
seeing no immediate prospect of advantage in glorifying even a prince who
was at variance with the ministry, wisely turned their eyes upon the
illustrious character of the duke of Newcastle, whom they elected without
opposition, and installed with great magnificence; learning, poetry, and
eloquence, joining their efforts in celebrating the shining virtues and
extraordinary talents of their new patron.

Although opposition lay gasping at the feet of power in the house of
commons, the people of England did not yet implicitly approve all the
measures of the administration; and the dregs of faction, still agitated
by an internal ferment, threw up some ineffectual bubbles in different
parts of the kingdom. Some of those who made no secret of their
disaffection to the reigning family, determined to manifest their
resentment and contempt of certain noblemen, and others, who were said to
have abandoned their ancient principles, and to have sacrificed their
consciences to their interest. Many individuals, animated by the fumes of
inebriation, now loudly extolled that cause which they durst not avow when
it required their open approbation and assistance; and, though they
industriously avoided exposing their lives and fortunes to the chance of
war in promoting their favourite interest when there was a possibility of
success, they betrayed no apprehension in celebrating the memory of its
last effort, amidst the tumult of a riot and the clamours of intemperance.
In the neighbourhood of Lichfield, the sportsmen of the party appeared in
the Highland taste of variegated drapery; and their zeal descending to a
very extraordinary exhibition of practical ridicule, they hunted, with
hounds clothed in plaid, a fox dressed in a red uniform. Even the females
at their assembly, and the gentlemen at the races, affected to wear the
chequered stuff by which the prince-pretender and his followers had been
distinguished. Divers noblemen on the course were insulted as apostates;
and one personage, of high rank, is said to have undergone a very
disagreeable flagellation.

SCHEME FOR A NEW SETTLEMENT.

As the public generally suffers at the end of a war, by the sudden
dismission of a great number of soldiers and seamen, who having contracted
a habit of idleness, and finding themselves without employment and the
means of subsistence, engage in desperate courses and prey upon the
community, it was judged expedient to provide an opening through which
these unquiet spirits might exhale without damage to the commonwealth. The
most natural was that of encouraging them to become members of a new
colony in North America, which, by being properly regulated, supported,
and improved, might be the source of great advantages to its mother
country. Many disputes had arisen between the subjects of England and
France concerning the limits of Nova Scotia, which no treaty had as yet
properly ascertained. A fort had been raised, and a small garrison
maintained, by the king of Great Britain, at a part of this very country,
called Annapolis-Royal, to overawe the French neutrals settled in the
neighbourhood; but this did not answer the purpose for which it was
intended. Upon every rupture or dispute between the two crowns, these
planters, forgetting their neutrality, intrigued with the Indians,
communicated intelligence to their own countrymen settled at St. John’s
and Cape Breton, and did all the ill offices their hatred could suggest
against the colonies and subjects of Great Britain. A scheme was now
formed for making a new establishment on the same peninsula, which should
further confirm and extend the property and dominion of the crown of Great
Britain in that large tract of country, clear the uncultivated grounds,
constitute communities, diffuse the benefits of population and
agriculture, and improve the fishery of that coast, which might be
rendered a new source of wealth and commerce to Old England. The
particulars of the plan being duly considered, it was laid before his
majesty, who approved of the design, and referred the execution of it to
the board of trade and plantations, over which the earl of Halifax
presided. This nobleman, endued by nature with an excellent capacity,
which had been diligently and judiciously cultivated, animated with
liberal sentiments, and fired with an eager spirit of patriotism, adopted
the plan with the most generous ardour, and cherished the infant colony
with paternal affection. The commissioners for trade and plantations
immediately advertised, under the sanction of his majesty’s authority,
that proper encouragement would be given to such of the officers and
private men, lately dismissed from the land and sea service, as were
willing to settle, with or without families, in the province of Nova
Scotia; that the fee simple, or perpetual property, of fifty acres of land
should be granted to every private soldier or seaman, free from the
payment of any quit-rents or taxes, for the term of ten years; at the
expiration of which no person should pay more than one shilling per annum
for every fifty acres so granted; that, over and above these fifty, each
person should receive a grant of ten acres for every individual, including
women and children, of which his family should consist; that further
grants should be made to them as the number should increase, and in
proportion as they should manifest their abilities in agriculture; that
every officer, under the rank of ensign in the land service, or lieutenant
in the navy, should be gratified with fourscore acres on the same
conditions; that two hundred acres should be bestowed upon ensigns, three
hundred upon lieutenants, four hundred upon captains, and six hundred on
every officer above that degree, with proportionable considerations for
the number and increase of every family; that the lands should be
parcelled out as soon as possible after the arrival of the colonists, and
a civil government established; by virtue of which they should enjoy all
the liberties and privileges of British subjects, with proper security and
protection; that the settlers, with their families, should be conveyed to
Nova Scotia, and maintained for twelve months after their arrival, at the
expense of the government; which should also supply them with arms and
ammunition, as far as should be judged necessary for their defence, with
proper materials and utensils for clearing and cultivating their lands,
erecting habitations, exercising the fishery, and such other purposes as
should be judged necessary for their support.

TOWN OF HALIFAX FOUNDED.

The scheme was so feasible, and the encouragement so inviting, that in a
little time about four thousand adventurers, with their families, were
entered, according to the directions of the board of trade, who in the
beginning of May set sail from England, under the command of Colonel
Cornwallis, whom the king had appointed their governor, and towards the
latter end of June arrived at the place of their destination, which was
the harbour of Chebucton, on the sea-coast of the peninsula, about midway
between Cape Canceau and Cape Sable. It is one of the most secure and
commodious havens in the whole world, and well situated for the fishery;
yet the climate is cold, the soil barren, and the whole country covered
with woods of birch, fir, pine, and some oak, unfit for the purposes of
timber; but at the same time extremely difficult to remove and extirpate.
Governor Cornwallis no sooner arrived in this harbour than he was joined
by two regiments of infantry from Cape Breton, and a company of rangers
from Annapolis. Then he pitched upon a spot for the settlement, and
employed his people in clearing the ground for laying the foundations of a
town; but some inconveniences being discovered in this situation, he chose
another to the northward, hard by the harbour, on an easy ascent,
commanding a prospect of the whole peninsula, and well supplied with
rivulets of fresh and wholesome water. Here he began to build a town on a
regular plan, to which he gave the name of Halifax, in honour of the
nobleman who had the greatest share in founding the colony; and before the
approach of winter, above three hundred comfortable wooden houses were
built, the whole surrounded by a strong pallisade. This colony, however,
has by no means answered the sanguine expectations of the projectors; for
notwithstanding the ardour with which the interests of it were promoted by
its noble patron, and the repeated indulgence it has reaped from the
bounty of the legislature, the inhabitants have made little or no progress
in agriculture; the fishery is altogether neglected, and the settlement
entirely subsists on the sums expended by the individuals of the army and
navy, whose duty obliges them to reside in this part of North America.

FRENCH ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE THE ISLAND OF TOBAGO.

The establishment of such a powerful colony in Nova-Scotia, could not fail
giving umbrage to the French in that neighbourhood, who, though they did
not think proper to promulgate their jealousy and disgust, nevertheless
employed their emissaries clandestinely in stimulating and exciting the
Indians to harass the colonists with hostilities, in such a manner as
should effectually hinder them from extending their plantations, and
perhaps induce them to abandon the settlement. Nor was this the only part
of America in which the French court countenanced such perfidious
practices. More than ever convinced of the importance of a considerable
navy, and an extensive plantation trade, they not only exerted uncommon
industry in re-establishing their marine, which had suffered so severely
during the war; but they resolved, if possible, to extend their
plantations in the West Indies by settling the neutral islands, which we
have already mentioned. In the beginning of the year, the governor of
Barbadoes, having received intelligence that the French had begun to
settle the island of Tobago, sent captain Tyrrel thither in a frigate to
learn the particulars. That officer found above three hundred men already
landed, secured by two batteries and two ships of war, and in daily
expectation of a further reinforcement from the marquis de Caylus,
governor of Martinique; who had published an ordonnance, authorizing the
subjects of the French king to settle the island of Tobago, and promising
to defend them from the attempts of all their enemies. This assurance was
in answer to a proclamation issued by Mr. Grenville, governor of
Barbadoes, and stuck up in the different parts of the island, commanding
all the inhabitants to remove, in thirty days, on pain of undergoing
military execution. Captain Tyrrel, with a spirit that became a commander
in the British navy, gave the French officers to understand, that his most
christian majesty had no right to settle the island, which was declared
neutral by treaties; and that, if they would not desist, he should be
obliged to employ force in driving them from their new settlement. Night
coming on, and Mr. Tyrrel’s ship falling to leeward, the French captains
seized that opportunity of sailing to Martinique; and next day the English
commander returned to Barbadoes, having no power to commit hostilities.
These tidings, with a copy of the French governor’s ordonnance, were no
sooner transmitted to the ministry than they despatched a courier to the
English envoy at Paris, with directions to make representations to the
court of Versailles on this subject. The ministry of France, knowing they
were in no condition to support the consequences of an immediate rupture,
and understanding how much the merchants and people of Great Britain were
alarmed and incensed at their attempts to possess these islands, thought
proper to disown the proceedings of the marquis de Caylus, and to grant
the satisfaction that was demanded, by sending him orders to discontinue
the settlement, and evacuate the island of Tobago. At the same time,
however, that the court of Versailles made this sacrifice for the
satisfaction of England, the marquis de Puysieux, the French minister,
observed to the English resident, that France was undoubtedly in
possession of that island towards the middle of the last century. He ought
in candour to have added, that although Louis XIV. made a conquest of this
island from the Hollanders, during his war with that republic, it was
restored to them by the treaty of Nimeguen; and since that time France
could not have the least shadow of a claim to number it among her
settlements. It was before this answer could be obtained from the court of
Versailles that the motion, of which we have already taken notice, was
made in the house of commons, relating to the subject of the neutral
islands; a motion discouraged by the court, and defeated by the majority.

REJOICINGS FOR THE PEACE.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was celebrated by fireworks, illuminations,
and rejoicings, in which the English, French, and Dutch, seemed to display
a spirit of emulation in point of taste and magnificence; and, in all
probability, these three powers were sincerely pleased at the cessation of
the war. England enjoyed a respite from intolerable supplies, exorbitant
insurance, and interrupted commerce; Holland was delivered from the brink
of a French invasion; and France had obtained a breathing time for
re-establishing her naval power, for exerting that spirit of intrigue, by
dint of which she hath often embroiled her neighbours, and for executing
plans of insensible encroachment, which might prove more advantageous than
the progress of open hostilities. In the affair of Tobago, the French king
had manifested his inclination to avoid immediate disputes with England;
and had exhibited another proof of the same disposition in his behaviour
to the prince-pretender, who had excited such a dangerous rebellion in the
island of Great Britain.

Among those princes and powers who excepted against different articles of
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the chevalier de St. George, foreseeing
that none of the plenipotentiaries would receive his protest, employed his
agents to fix it up in the public places of Aix-la-Chapelle; a precaution
of very little service to his cause, which all the states of Christendom
seemed now to have abandoned. So little was the interest of his family
considered in this negotiation, that the contracting powers agreed,
without reserve, to a literal insertion of the fifth article of the
quadruple alliance; by which it was stipulated, that neither the pretender
nor any of his descendants should be allowed to reside within the
territories belonging to any of the subscribing parties. At the same time
the plenipotentiaries of France promised to those of Great Britain, that
prince Charles-Edward should be immediately obliged to quit the dominions
of his most christian majesty. Notice of this agreement was accordingly
given by the court of Versailles to the young adventurer; and as he had
declared he would never return to Italy, Mons. de Courteille, the French
envoy to the cantons of Switzerland, was directed by his sovereign to
demand an asylum for prince Edward in the city of Fribourg. The regency
having complied in this particular with the earnest request of his most
christian majesty, Mr. Bamaby, the British minister to the Helvetic body,
took the alarm, and presented the magistracy of Fribourg with a
remonstrance, couched in such terms as gave offence to that regency, and
drew upon him a severe answer. In vain had the French king exerted his
influence in procuring this retreat for the young pretender, who, being
pressed with repeated messages to withdraw, persisted in refusing to quit
the place, to which he had been so cordially invited by his cousin the
king of France; and where he said that monarch had solemnly promised, on
the word of a king, that he would never forsake him in his distress, nor
abandon the interests of his family. Louis was not a little perplexed at
this obstinacy of prince Edward, which was the more vexatious, as that
youth appeared to be the darling of the Parisians; who not only admired
him for his own accomplishments, and pitied him for his sufferings, but
also revered him, as a young hero lineally descended from their renowned
Henry the Fourth. At length, the two English noblemen arriving at Paris as
hostages for the performance of the treaty, and seeing him appear at all
the public places of diversion, complained of this circumstance as an
insult to their sovereign, and an infringement of the treaty so lately
concluded. The French king, after some hesitation between punctilio and
convenience, resolved to employ violence upon the person of this
troublesome stranger, since milder remonstrances had not been able to
influence his conduct; but this resolution was not taken till the return
of a courier whom he despatched to the chevalier de St. George; who, being
thus informed of his son’s deportment, wrote a letter to him, laying
strong injunctions upon him to yield to the necessity of the times, and
acquiesce with a good grace in the stipulations which his cousin of France
had found it necessary to subscribe for the interest of his realm. Edward,
far from complying with this advice and injunction, signified his
resolution to remain in Paris; and even declared that he would pistol any
man who should presume to lay violent hands on his person. In consequence
of this bold declaration, an extraordinary council was held at Versailles,
when it was determined to arrest him without further delay, and the whole
plan of this enterprise was finally adjusted. That same evening, the
prince entering the narrow lane that leads to the opera, the barrier was
immediately shut, and the sergeant of the guard called “to arms;” on which
monsieur de Vaudreuil, exempt of the French guards, advancing to Edward,
“Prince,” said he, “I arrest you in the king’s name, by virtue of this
order.” At that instant the youth was surrounded by four grenadiers, in
order to prevent any mischief he might have done with a case of
pocket-pistols which he always carried about him; and a guard was placed
at all the avenues and doors of the opera-house, lest any tumult should
have ensued among the populace. These precautions being taken, Vaudreuil,
with an escort, conducted the prisoner through the garden of the
palais-royal, to a house where the duke de Biron waited with a coach and
six to convey him to the castle of Vincennes, whether he was immediately
accompanied by a detachment from the regiment of French guards, under the
command of that nobleman. He had not remained above three days in his
confinement, when he gave the French ministry to understand that he would
conform himself to the king’s intentions; and was immediately enlarged,
upon giving his word and honour that he would, without delay, retire from
the dominions of France. Accordingly, he set out in four days from
Fountainbleau, attended by three officers, who conducted him as far as
Pont-Bauvosin on the frontiers, where they took their leave of him and
returned to Versailles. He proceeded for some time in the road to
Chamberri; but soon returned into the French dominions, and, passing
through Dauphiné, repaired to Avignon, where he was received with
extraordinary honours by the pope’s legate. In the meantime, his arrest
excited great murmurings at Paris; the inhabitants blaming, without
scruple, their king’s conduct in this instance, as a scandalous breach of
hospitality, as well as a mean proof of condescension to the king of
England; and many severe pasquinades, relating to this transaction, were
fixed up in the most public places of that metropolis.

APPEARANCE OF A RUPTURE BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

Although peace was now re-established among the principal powers of the
continent, yet another storm seemed ready to burst upon the northern parts
of Europe, in a fresh rupture between Russia and Sweden. Whether the
czarina had actually obtained information that the French faction
meditated some revolution of government at Stockholm, or she wanted a
pretence of annexing Finland to her empire; certain it is, she affected to
apprehend that the prince-successor of Sweden waited only for the decease
of the reigning king, who was very old and infirm, to change the form of
government, and resume that absolute authority which some of the monarchs,
his predecessors, had enjoyed. She seemed to think that a prince thus
vested with arbitrary power, and guided by the councils of France and
Prussia, with which Sweden had lately engaged in close alliance, might
become a very troublesome and dangerous neighbour to her in the Baltic;
she therefore recruited her armies, repaired her fortifications, filled
her magazines, ordered a strong body of troops to advance towards the
frontiers of Finland, and declared in plain terms to the court of
Stockholm, that if any step should be taken to alter the government, which
she had bound herself by treaty to maintain, her troops should enter the
territory of Sweden, and she would act up to the spirit of her
engagements. The Swedish ministry, alarmed at these peremptory
proceedings, had recourse to their allies; and in the meantime, made
repeated declarations to the court of Petersburgh, that there was no
design to make the least innovation in the nature of their established
government; but little or no regard being paid to these representations,
they began to put the kingdom in a posture of defence; and the old king
gave the czarina to understand, that if, notwithstanding the satisfaction
he had offered, her forces should pass the frontiers of Finland, he would
consider their march as an hostile invasion, and employ the means which
God had put in his power for the defence of his dominions.

INTERPOSITION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

This declaration, in all probability, did not produce such effect as the
interposition of his Prussian majesty, the most enterprising prince of his
time, at the head of one hundred and forty thousand of the best troops
that Germany ever trained. Perhaps he was not sorry that the empress of
Muscovy furnished him with a plausible pretence for maintaining such a
formidable army, after the peace of Europe had been ascertained by a
formal treaty, and all the surrounding states had diminished the number of
their forces. He now wrote a letter to his uncle the king of Great
Britain, complaining of the insults and menaces which had been offered by
the czarina to Sweden; declaring, that he was bound by a defensive
alliance, to which France had acceded, to defend the government at present
established in Sweden; and that he would not sit still, and tamely see
that kingdom attacked by any power whatsoever, without acting up to his
engagements; he therefore entreated his Britannic majesty to interpose his
good offices, in conjunction with France and him, to compromise the
disputes which threatened to embroil the northern parts of Europe. By this
time the Russian army had approached the frontiers of Finland: the Swedes
had assembled their troops, replenished their magazines, and repaired
their marine; and the king of Denmark, jealous of the czarina’s designs
with regard to the duchy of Sleswick, which was contested with him by the
prince-successor of Russia, kept his army and navy on the most respectable
footing. At this critical juncture the courts of London, Versailles, and
Berlin, co-operated so effectually by remonstrances and declarations at
Petersburgh and Stockholm, that the empress of Russia thought proper to
own herself satisfied, and all those clouds of trouble were immediately
dispersed. Yet, in all probability, her real aim was disappointed; and,
however she might dissemble her sentiments, she never heartily forgave the
king of Prussia for the share he had in this transaction. That monarch,
without relaxing in his attention to the support of a very formidable
military power, exerted very extraordinary endeavours in cultivating the
civil interests of his country. He reformed the laws of Brandenburgh, and
rescued the administration of justice from the frauds of chicanery. He
encouraged the arts of agriculture and manufacture; and even laid the
foundation of naval commerce, by establishing an East-India company in the
port of Embden.

Nor did the French ministry neglect any measure that might contribute to
repair the damage which the kingdom had sustained in the course of the
war. One half of the army was disbanded: the severe imposition of the
tenth penny was suspended by the king’s edict: a scheme of economy was
proposed with respect to the finances; and the utmost diligence used in
procuring materials, as well as workmen, for ship-building, that the navy
of France might speedily retrieve its former importance. In the midst of
these truly patriotic schemes, the court of Versailles betrayed a
littleness of genius, and spirit of tyranny, joined to fanaticism, in
quarreling with their parliament about superstitious forms of religion.
The sacraments had been denied to a certain person on his death-bed,
because he refused to subscribe to the bull Unigenitus. The nephew of the
defunct preferred a complaint to the parliament, whose province it was to
take cognizance of the affair; a deputation of that body attended the king
with the report of the resolutions; and his majesty commanded them to
suspend all proceedings relating to a matter of such consequence,
concerning which he would take an opportunity of signifying his royal
pleasure. This interposition was the source of disputes between the crown
and parliament, which had like to have filled the whole kingdom with
intestine troubles.

CONDUCT OF DIFFERENT EUROPEAN POWERS.

At Vienna, the empress-queen was not more solicitous in promoting the
trade and internal manufactures of her dominions, by sumptuary
regulations, necessary restrictions on foreign superfluities, by opening
her ports in the Adriatic, and giving proper encouragement to commerce,
than she was careful and provident in reforming the economy of her
finances, maintaining a respectable body of forces, and guarding, by
defensive alliances, against the enterprise of his Prussian majesty, on
whose military power she looked with jealousy and distrust. In Holland,
all the authority and influence of the stadtholder were scarcely
sufficient to allay the ferments excited among the people by the
provisional taxation, which had succeeded the abolition of the patchers,
and was indeed very grievous to the subject. As this was no more than a
temporary expedient, the prince of Orange proposed a more equitable plan,
which was approved by the states, and established with great difficulty.
In Italy the system of politics seemed to change its complexion. The king
of Sardinia effected a match between one of the infantas of Spain and the
prince of Piedmont; and whether irritated by the conduct of the Austrians
in the last war, or apprehensive of such a powerful neighbour in the
Milanese, he engaged with the kings of France and Spain in a defensive
alliance, comprehending the king of the Two Sicilies, the republic of
Genoa, and the dukes of Modena and Parma. His most catholic majesty,
sincerely disposed to cultivate the arts of peace, and encourage every
measure that could contribute to the advantage of his country, was no
sooner released from the embarrassments of war, than he began to execute
plans of internal economy; to reduce unnecessary pensions, discharge the
debts contracted in the war, replenish his arsenals, augment his navy,
promote manufactures, and encourage an active commerce by sea, the
benefits of which the kingdom of Spain had not known since the first
discovery and conquest of the West Indies.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

INSOLENCE OF THE BARBARY CORSAIRS.

The preparations for refitting and increasing the navy of Spain were
carried on with such extraordinary vigour, that other nations believed an
expedition was intended against the corsairs of Algiers, who had for some
time grievously infested the trade and coasts of the Mediterranean. The
existence of this and other predatory republics, which entirely subsist
upon piracy and rapine, petty states of barbarous ruffians, maintained as
it were in the midst of powerful nations, which they insult with impunity,
and of which they even exact an annual contribution, is a flagrant
reproach upon Christendom; a reproach the greater, as it is founded upon a
low, selfish, illiberal maxim of policy. All the powers that border on the
Mediterranean, except France and Tuscany, are at perpetual war with the
Moors of Barbary, and for that reason obliged to employ foreign ships for
the transportation of their merchandise. This employment naturally
devolves to those nations whose vessels are in no danger from the
depredations of the barbarians; namely, the subjects of the maritime
powers, who for this puny advantage, not only tolerate the piratical
states of Barbary, but even supply them with arms and ammunition, solicit
their passes, and purchase their forbearance with annual presents, which
are, in effect, equivalent to a tribute; whereas, by one vigorous exertion
of their power, they might destroy all their ships, lay their towns in
ashes, and totally extirpate those pernicious broods of desperate
banditti. Even all the condescension of those who disgrace themselves with
the title of allies to these miscreants, is not always sufficient to
restrain them from acts of cruelty and rapine. At this very period four
cruisers from Algiers made a capture of an English packet-boat, in her
voyage from Lisbon, and conveyed her to their city, where she was
plundered of money and effects to the amount of one hundred thousand
pounds, and afterwards dismissed. In consequence of this outrage,
commodore Keppel was sent with seven ships of war to demand satisfaction,
as well as to compromise certain differences which had arisen on account
of arrears claimed of the English by the dey of Algiers. The Mussulman
frankly owned, that the money having been divided among the captors, could
not possibly be refunded. The commodore returned to Gibraltar; and, in the
sequel, an Algerine ambassador arrived in London, with some presents of
wild beasts for his Britannic majesty. This transaction was succeeded by
another injurious affront offered by the governor or alcayde of Tetuan to
Mr. Latton, an English ambassador, sent thither to redeem the British
subjects who had been many years enslaved in the dominions of the king of
Morocco. A revolution having lately happened in this empire, Mully
Abdallah, the reigning ruffian, insisted upon the ambassador’s paying a
pretended balance for the ransom of the captives, as well as depositing a
considerable sum, which had already been paid to a deceased pacha;
alleging, that as he, the emperor, received no part of it, the payment was
illegal. Mr. Latton refusing to comply with this arbitrary demand, his
house was surrounded by a detachment of soldiers, who violently dragged
his secretary from his presence, and threw him into a dismal subterranean
dungeon, where he continued twenty days. The English slaves, to the number
of twenty-seven, were condemned to the same fate; the ambassador himself
was degraded from his character, deprived of his allowance, and
sequestered from all communication. All the letters directed to him were
intercepted, and interpreted to the alcayde; two negro porters were
intrusted with the keys of all his apartments, and a couple of soldiers
posted at his chamber-door; nay, this Moorish governor threatened to load
him with irons, and violently seized part of the presents designed by his
Britannic majesty for the emperor. At length, finding that neither Mr.
Latton nor the governor of Gibraltar, to whom he had written, would
deposit the money, without fresh instructions from the court of London,
the barbarian thought proper to relax in his severity: the prisoners were
enlarged, the restrictions removed from the person of the ambassador, and,
after all these indignities offered to the honour of the British nation,
the balance was paid, and the affair quietly adjusted.

DISTURBANCES IN ENGLAND.

Britain, in the meanwhile, was altogether barren of events which might
deserve a place in a general history. Commerce and manufacture flourished
again, to such a degree of increase as had never been known in the island;
but this advantage was attended with an irresistible tide of luxury and
excess, which flowed through all degrees of the people, breaking down all
the mounds of civil polity, and opening a way for license and immorality.
The highways were infested with rapine and assassination; the cities
teemed with the brutal votaries of lewdness, intemperance, and profligacy.
The whole land was overspread with a succession of tumult, riot, and
insurrection, excited in different parts of the kingdom by the erection of
new turnpikes, which the legislature judged necessary for the convenience
of inland carriage. In order to quell these disturbances, recourse was had
to the military power; several individuals were slain, and some were
executed as examples.

SESSION OPENED.

In the month of November the session of parliament was opened with a
speech from the throne, in which his majesty expressed a particular
pleasure in meeting them at a time when the perfect re-establishment of a
general peace had restored to his people the blessings of quiet and
tranquillity. He said, the good effects of these already appeared in the
flourishing condition of national commerce, and in the rise of public
credit, which were the foundations of strength and prosperity to these
kingdoms. He declared, that, during the summer, he had used every
opportunity of cementing and securing the peace; that it was his firm
resolution to do everything in his power for the preservation of it, and
religiously adhere to the engagements into which he had entered. Finally,
he took notice of the good disposition he had found in the other
contracting parties to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle to cherish the public
tranquillity of Europe; and he earnestly recommended to the two houses the
maintenance of a strong naval power, as the bulwark of national security.

When the motion was made for an address of thanks in the house of commons,
the first paragraph of his majesty’s speech furnished the opposition with
a handle to declaim against the late treaty. Sir John Hinde Cotton
observed, that the peace could not be properly styled complete, as nothing
had been stipulated with respect to the article of “No search;” alluding
to the interruption our commerce had sustained from the Spaniards in the
West Indies; a stipulation, without which both houses of parliament had
formerly voted that there should be no peace with that kingdom.

1749

In the present conjuncture of affairs, such an objection savoured rather
of party than of patriotism; and indeed sir John declared, that the
remarks he made upon the occasion were rather in discharge of the duty he
owed to his country, than in hope of seeing his sentiments espoused by the
majority. Some sharp altercation was used in the debate which arose on
this subject; and many severe invectives were levelled at those who
negotiated, as well as at those who approved and confirmed the treaty. But
Mr. Pelham, who sustained the whole weight of the debate on the side of
the administration, answered every objection with equal candour and
ability; and if he failed in proving that the terms of peace were as
favourable as could be expected, considering the unfortunate events of the
war, and the situation of the contending powers; he at least demonstrated,
that it would be the interest of the kingdom to acquiesce for the present
in the treaty which had been concluded, and endeavour to remedy its
imperfections by subsequent conventions, amicably opened among those
powers between whom any cause of dispute remained. With respect to the
vote of both houses, mentioned by sir John Hinde Cotton, he declared that
he had never approved of that step, when it was first taken; or if he had,
times and circumstances, which could not be foreseen, would have justified
his deviating from it in the re-establishment of peace. He reminded them
that a parliament of Great Britain had once voted “no peace while any part
of the West Indies should remain in possession of the Spanish king;” yet a
train of incidents, which they could not possibly foresee, afterwards
rendered it expedient to adopt a peace without insisting upon the
accomplishment of that condition. In a word, we must own, that, in the
majority of debates excited in the course of this session, the ministry
derived their triumphs from the force of reason, as well as from the
weight of influence. We shall always, however, except the efforts that
were made for reducing the number of land-forces to fifteen thousand, and
maintaining a greater number of seamen than the ministry proposed. On
these constitutional points the earl of Egmont, and the other chiefs of
the opposition, expatiated with all the energy of eloquence; which however
was frustrated by the power of superior numbers. Ten thousand seamen were
voted for the service of the ensuing year, notwithstanding his majesty’s
injunction to maintain a considerable navy; and the number of land-forces
was continued at eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven. The sums
granted for making good his majesty’s engagements with the electors of
Bavaria and Mentz, and the duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, amounted to
fifty-three thousand two hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling. The
services done by the colonies in North America, during the war, were
gratified with the sum of one hundred and twenty-two thousand two hundred
and forty-six pounds. The expense incurred by the new colony of
Nova-Scotia exceeded seventy-six thousand pounds. A small sum was voted
for the improvement of Georgia; and ten thousand pounds were granted
towards the support of the British forts and settlements on the coast of
Africa.. The sum total granted in this session arose to four millions one
hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and sixty-one pounds, nine
shillings and eleven pence halfpenny, to be raised by the land-tax, at
three shillings in the pound; the malt, and other duties, the surplus of
divers impositions remaining in the bank and exchequer; one million by
annuities at three per cent., charged on the sinking fund, until redeemed
by parliament; and nine hundred thousand pounds out of the excess or
overplus of monies denominated the sinking fund.

SCHEME FOR REDUCING THE INTEREST OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.

But the capital measure which distinguished this session of parliament was
the reduction of the interest on the public funds; a scheme which was
planned and executed by the minister, without any national disturbance or
disquiet, to the astonishment of all Europe; the different nations of
which could not comprehend how it would be possible for the government, at
the close of a long expensive war, which had so considerably drained the
country, and augmented the enormous burden of national debt, to find money
for paying off such of the public creditors as might choose to receive the
principal, rather than submit to a reduction of the interest. It was not
very much for the honour of the opposition, that some of its leading
members endeavoured to impede this great machine of civil economy, by
taking opportunities of affirming in parliament, in opposition to his
majesty’s speech, that the nation, far from being in a flourishing
condition, was almost entirely exhausted; that commerce drooped and
declined; that public credit stood tottering on the brink of ruin; and
that all the treaties lately concluded among the different powers of
Europe were, in effect, disadvantageous and prejudicial to the interests
of Great Britain. In answer to these assertions, Mr. Pelham undertook to
prove, from the register of exports and imports, that the commerce of the
kingdom was more extensive at this than at any former period; and that the
public credit was strong enough to admit of an experiment, which he would
not presume to hazard, except upon a moral certainty of its being firmly
rooted beyond the power of accident and faction to shake or overturn. He
declared, that his design of reducing the interest upon the funds was the
result of the love he bore his country, and an opinion that it was the
duty of the servants of the crown to ease the burdens of the people. He
said, he had conferred on this subject with persons of the most approved
knowledge, and undoubted experience; and chose to promulgate the method
proposed for alleviating the load of the national debt, that the public,
in knowing the particulars of the scheme, might have time to consider them
at leisure, and start such objections as should occur to their reflection,
before it might be too late to adopt amendments. He observed, that nothing
could more clearly demonstrate the vigour of public credit, and the
augmentation of national commerce, than the price of stock, which had
within three years risen to a very considerable increase; and the duties
on imports, which in nine months had added one million to the sinking
fund, notwithstanding a very extraordinary sum which had been paid as
bounties for exported corn. He expressed great tenderness and regard for
the interests of those who had advanced their money for the service of the
government; declaring, that his aim was to contrive a fair, honest, and
equitable method for lessening the national incumbrances, by lowering the
interest, conformable to parliamentary faith, and agreeable to the rules
of eternal justice. His plan was accordingly communicated, canvassed, and
ap proved in the house of commons, and an act passed for reducing the
interest of the funds which constitute the national debt. 321
[See note 2 Q, at the end of this Vol.] In pursuance of this act
for the reduction of the interest, the greater part of the creditors
complied with the terms proposed, and subscribed their respective
annuities before the end of February; but the three great companies at
first kept aloof, and refused to subscribe any part of their capital.

About the middle of March the commons ordered the proper officers to lay
before them an account of the sums which had been subscribed, and these
were taken into consideration by a committee of the whole house. It was
then that Mr. Pelham, as chancellor of the exchequer, observed, that
besides the debts due to the three great companies in their corporate
capacity, all the rest, carrying four per centum interest, had been
subscribed, except about eight or nine millions, the proprietors of which
had forfeited the favour designed them by parliament; but as many of these
had been misled by evil counsellors, who perhaps were more intent on
distressing the government, than solicitous to serve their friends; and as
many were foreigners, residing beyond sea, who had not time to take proper
advice, and give the necessary instruction; and as these could not
possibly be distinguished from such as refused to subscribe from mere
obstinacy or disaffection, it might be thought cruel to take the most
rigorous advantage of the forfeiture they had incurred. With respect to
the proprietors of the stock or capital belonging to the three great
companies, he asserted, that many of them would willingly have subscribed
their properties within the time limited, but were necessarily excluded by
the majority on the ballot; and as it was equally impossible to know those
who were against the question on the ballot, he thought that some
tenderness was due even to the proprietors of those three companies; his
opinion therefore was, that they and the uncomplying annuitants should be
indulged with further time to complete their subscription; but, in order
to preserve the authority of parliament, and the respect due to that
august assembly, they ought not to be gratified with such advantageous
terms as were allowed to the annuitants who at first cheerfully complied
with the proposals offered by the legislature. For these reasons he
proposed, that although the term of subscribing should be protracted till
the thirtieth day of May, the encouragement of three pounds ten shillings
per centum per annum should not be continued to the second subscribers
longer than till the fifth day of December, in the year one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-five. The proposal being approved, a bill was framed for
this purpose, as well as for redeeming such annuities as should not be
subscribed, which passed through both houses, and was enacted into a law,
after having received an additional clause, empowering the East India
company, in case they should subscribe all their stock bearing an interest
of four per centum, to borrow, with the consent of the treasury, any sums
not exceeding four millions two hundred thousand pounds, after the several
rates of interest before proposed to be paid by the public, and one
million more at three per centum per annum. They were also vested with a
power to raise money by bonds as formerly; yet so as the whole, including
the annuities, should not exceed what they were by former acts empowered
to borrow. The objections to the execution of this project, which by many
were deemed insurmountable, entirely vanished before the fortitude,
perseverance, and caution of the minister; who had secured, among the
monied men of the nation, the promise of such sums as would have been
sufficient to pay off the capital belonging to those creditors who might
refuse to accept the interest thus reduced. The second subscription had
the desired effect. The three great companies acquiesced, and their
example was followed by the other scrupulous annuitants; the national
burden was comfortably lightened, and the sinking fund considerably
increased, without producing the least perplexity or disturbance in the
commonwealth; a circumstance that could not fail to excite the admiration
and envy of all Christendom.

1750

NEW MUTINY BILL.

The mutiny bill for the ensuing year was mitigated with an essential
alteration, relating to the oath of secrecy imposed upon the members of
every court-martial, who were now released from this reserve if required
to give evidence, by due course of law, in any court of judicature; and
whereas, by the former mutiny bill, a general was empowered to order the
revival of any sentence by a court-martial as often as he pleased, and, on
that pretence, to keep in confinement a man who had been acquitted upon a
fair trial; it was now enacted, that no sentence pronounced by any
court-martial, and signed by the president, should be more than once
liable to revisal. Colonel George Townshend, son of lord viscount
Townshend, who had equally distinguished himself by his civil and military
accomplishments, proposed another clause, for preventing any
noncommissioned officer’s being broke or reduced into the ranks; or any
soldier’s being punished, but by the sentence of a court-martial. He gave
the house to understand, that certain persons attended at the door, who
from the station of non-commissioned officers had been broke, and reduced
into the ranks, without trial, or any cause assigned; and he expatiated
not only upon the iniquity of such proceedings, but also upon the danger
of leaving such arbitrary power in the hands of any individual officer. A
warm debate was the consequence of this motion, which, however, was
overruled by the majority.

BILL FOR ENCOURAGING the IMPORTATION OF IRON FROM AMERICA.

Among other regulations made in the course of this session for the
encouragement of the British manufactures, a large duty was laid upon
Irish sail-cloth, which being sold at an under price, was found to
interfere with the same species of commodity fabricated in the island of
Great Britain; and, for the farther benefit of this last, the bounty upon
the exportation of it, which had been deducted from a defective fund, was
now made payable out of the customs. This measure, however, was not of
such importance to the nation, as the act which they passed for
encouraging the importation of pig and bar iron from the British colonies
in North America. Every well-wisher to his country reflected with concern
on the nature of the British trade with Sweden, from which kingdom the
subjects of his Britannic majesty imported more iron and steel than all
the other countries in Europe. For this article they paid a very great
balance in ready money, which the Swedes again expended in purchasing from
the French, and other mercantile powers, those necessaries and
superfluities with which they might have been as cheaply furnished by
Great Britain. In the meantime, the English colonies in America were
restricted by severe duties from making advantage of their own produce, in
exchanging their iron for such commodities as they were under the
necessity of procuring from their mother country. Such restrictions was
not only a cruel grievance upon our own settlements, but also attended
with manifest prejudice to the interest of Great Britain, annually drained
of great sums in favour of an ungrateful nation, from which no part of
them returned; whereas the iron imported from America must of necessity
come in exchange for our own manufactures. The commons having appointed a
day for taking this affair into consideration, carefully examined into the
state of the British commerce carried on with Sweden, as well as into the
accounts of iron imported from the plantations of America; and a committee
of the whole house having resolved, that the duties on American pig and
bar iron should be removed, a bill 322 [See note 2 R, at
the end of this Vol.] was brought in for that purpose, containing a
clause, however, to prevent his majesty’s subjects from making steel, and
establishing mills for slitting and rolling iron within the British
colonies of America: this precaution being taken, that the colonists might
not interfere with the manufactures of their mother country.

ERECTION OF THE BRITISH HERRING FISHERY.

The next commercial improvement of which we shall take notice, was the
bill for the encouragement of the British white herring and cod fisheries.
This was likewise the result of mature deliberation, importing, that a
bounty of thirty shillings per ton should be granted, and paid out of the
customs, to all new vessels from twenty to fourscore tons burden, which
should be built for that purpose, and actually employed in the fishery;
that a society should be incorporated, under the name of the Free British
Fishery, by a charter, not exclusive, with power to raise a capital not
exceeding five hundred thousand pounds; and that three pounds ten
shillings per centum per annum, should be granted and paid out of the
customs to the proprietors for fourteen years, for so much of the capital
as should be actually employed in the said fisheries. Corresponding
chambers were proposed to be erected in remote parts of North Britain, for
taking in subscriptions, and prosecuting the trade, under the directions
of the company at London; and the nation in general seemed eager to
dispute this branch of commerce with the subjects of Holland, whom they
considered as ungrateful interlopers. In the house of peers, however, the
bill met with a formidable opposition from the earl of Winchelsea and lord
Sandys, who justly observed, that it was a crude indigested scheme, which
in the execution would never answer the expectations of the people; that
in contending with the Dutch, who are the patterns of unwearied industry
and the most rigid economy, nothing could be more absurd than a
joint-stock company, which is always clogged with extraordinary expense;
and the resolution of fitting out vessels at the port of London, where all
sorts of materials, labour, and seamen, are so much dearer than in any
other part of the united kingdom, exclusive of the great distance and
dangerous voyage between the metropolis and the sound of Brassa in
Shetland, the rendezvous at which all the herring-busses were to assemble
in the beginning of the fishing season. They likewise took notice of the
heavy duty on salt, used in curing the fish for sale, and the beef for
provisions to the mariners; a circumstance of itself sufficient to
discourage adventurers from embarking in a commerce which, at best, yields
but very slender profits to the trade in particular, how important soever
it might prove to the community in general. These objections were answered
by the duke of Argyle and the earl of Granville, who seemed to think that
this branch of trade could not be fairly set on foot, without such a
considerable sum of money as no single individual would care to advance;
that a joint-stock company would be able to prosecute the fishery at a
smaller expense than that which particular traders must necessarily incur;
that the present spirit of the nation, which was eagerly bent upon trying
the experiment, ought not to be balked by delay, lest it should evaporate;
and that though the plan was not unexceptionable, the defects of it might
in the sequel be remedied by the legislature. In a word, the bill was
adopted by the majority, with a small amendment in the title, which
produced some disquiets in the lower house; but this dispute was
compromised, and it was enacted into a law towards the close of the
session. Nothing could be more agreeable to the public than the sanction
of the legislature to this favourite plan, which was ardently promoted,
and patronised by men of the greatest eminence for wealth and popularity.
The company chose for their governor the prince of Wales, who received
this proof of their attachment and respect with particular marks of
satisfaction; the president and vice-president were both aldermen of
London; and the council was composed of thirty gentlemen, the majority of
whom were members of parliament. Great pains were taken, and some artifice
was used, to learn the Dutch method of curing the fish. People crowded
with their subscriptions; a number of hands were employed in building and
equipping the busses or vessels used in the fishery; and the most
favourable consequences were expected from the general vigour and alacrity
which animated these preparations. But the success did not gratify the
sanguine hopes of the projectors and adventurers. The objections made in
the house of lords soon appeared to have been well founded; these
co-operating with mismanagement in the directors, the spirit of the
company began to flag, the natural consequences of commercial
disappointment; and now the British fishery seems to languish under the
neglect of the legislature.

NEW AFRICAN COMPANY.

Touching the trade to the coast of Africa, petitions were renewed by the
company and its creditors, the merchants of Bristol, Liverpool, and
Lancaster; and a remonstrance was presented by the planters and merchants
interested in the British sugar settlements in America; but the commons
adhered to their former resolutions of laying open the trade, maintaining
the forts at the public expense, and regulating the commerce by a
committee of merchants, representing the chief trading towns in the
kingdom, to be superintended by the board of trade and plantations. The
bill was accordingly framed and presented, and having proceeded through
both houses without opposition, obtained the royal assent. Over and above
these wise, salutary, and patriotic measures for the improvement of
commerce, they encouraged the importation of raw silk by an act, reducing
the duties formerly payable on that which was the growth of China to the
same that is raised on the raw silk from Italy, and allowing the same
drawback upon the exportation of the one which had been usually granted on
the other. A second bill was brought in for the encouragement of the
growth and culture of silk in Carolina and Georgia, where it had been
lately produced with extraordinary success, by freeing from all duties
that which should be imported from his majesty’s dominions in America; and
a third was framed, permitting raw silk of the growth or produce of
Persia, purchased in Russia, to be imported into Great Britain, from any
port or place belonging to the empire of Russia. Divers efforts were made,
by different members in the opposition, to rectify certain abuses in the
army and administration; some bills were brought in, and several petitions
were left on the table; but all of them proved abortive, from the power
and influence of the minister, who seemed resolved that no benefit should
flow upon the nation through any channel but his own. Nevertheless, it
must be acknowledged, for the honour of his memory, that there is no
session on record so productive as this was of measures advantageous to
the community.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

WESTMINSTER ELECTION.

The people, however, were not entirely satisfied with the conduct of the
administration, if we may judge from the ferment and commotions raised
during the progress of an election for a citizen to represent the city of
Westminster in parliament. The seat which had been filled by lord
Trentham, eldest son of earl Gower, having become vacant, in consequence
of that nobleman’s accepting a place at the board of admiralty, he again
declared himself a candidate, and met with a violent opposition. Those who
styled themselves the independent electors of Westminster, being now
incensed to an uncommon degree of turbulence by the interposition of
ministerial influence, determined to use their utmost endeavours to baffle
the designs of the court, and at the same time take vengeance on the
family of earl Gower, who had entirely abandoned the opposition, of which
he was formerly one of the most respected leaders. With this view they
held consultations, agreed to resolutions, and set up a private gentleman,
named sir George Vandeput, as the competitor of lord Trentham, declaring
that they would support his pretensions at their own expense, being the
more encouraged to this enterprise by the countenance and assistance of
the prince of Wales and his adherents. They accordingly opened houses of
entertainment for their partisans, solicited votes, circulated
remonstrances, and propagated abuse; in a word, they canvassed, with
surprising spirit and perseverance, against the whole interest of St.
James’. Mobs were hired and processions made on both sides, and the city
of Westminster was filled with tumult and uproar. The mutual animosity of
the parties seemed every day to increase during the election, and a great
number of unqualified votes were presented on both sides; all the powers
of insinuation, obloquy, and ridicule, were employed to vilify and
depreciate both candidates. At length the poll being closed, a majority of
votes appeared in behalf of lord Trentham; but a scrutiny being demanded
by the other side, the returning officer complied with their request. The
speaker of the lower house had issued his warrant for a new writ of
election about the middle of November; and towards the end of February,
Mr. Fox, secretary at war, standing up and observing that no return had
yet been made, thought proper to move that the clerk of the crown, the
messenger-extraordinary attending the great seal, the under-sheriff of
Middlesex, and the high-bailiff of Westminster, should attend next morning
and give an account of their issuing, delivering, and executing the writ
of election. These being examined, and the high-bailiff declaring that he
would proceed with all possible despatch in the scrutiny which had been
demanded and was begun, Mr. Speaker explained to him some particulars of
his duty, in the discharge of which, he was given to understand, he might
depend upon the protection of the house, should he meet with any
obstruction which he could not otherwise surmount, By the violence and
caprice with which a great number of votes were contested on both sides,
the scrutiny was protracted a long time, and the return attended with some
extraordinary consequences, which shall be particularized among the
transactions of the next year. In the meantime, the present session of
parliament was closed on the twelfth day of April, with a speech from the
throne, commending the commons for having seized the very first
opportunity of reducing the interest of the national debt, without the
least infringement upon the faith of parliament; and congratulating them
on the flourishing state of the public credit, which could not fail to add
strength and reputation to the government, both at home and abroad.
Immediately after the rising of the parliament, his majesty appointed a
regency to govern the kingdom in his absence, and embarked for the
continent in order to visit his German dominions.

EARTHQUAKES IN LONDON.

The month of January and the beginning of February were distinguished, the
first day by a very remarkable Aurora Borealis appearing at night to the
north-east, of a deep and dusky red colour, like the reflection of some
great fire, for which it was by many people mistaken; and the
coruscations, unlike those that are generally observed, did not meet in
the zenith, but in a point some degrees to the southward. February was
ushered in by terrible peals of thunder, flashes of lightning, and such a
tempest of wind, hail, and rain, as overwhelmed with fear and
consternation the inhabitants of Bristol, where it chiefly raged. On the
eighth day of the same month, between twelve and one in the afternoon, the
people of London were still more dreadfully alarmed by the shock of an
earthquake, which shook all the houses with such violence, that the
furniture rocked on the floors, the pewter and porcelain rattled on the
shelves, the chamber-bells rang, and the whole of this commotion was
attended by a clap of noise resembling that produced by the fall of some
heavy piece of furniture. The shock extended through the cities of London
and Westminster, and was felt on both sides of the river Thames, from
Greenwich to the westward of London; but not perceptible at a considerable
distance. On the very same day of the next month, between five and six
o’clock in the morning, the inhabitants of the metropolis were again
affrighted by a second shock, more violent than the first, and abundantly
more alarming, as it waked the greater part of the people from their
repose. It was preceded by a succession of thick low flashes of lightning,
and a rumbling noise, like that of a heavy carriage rolling over a hollow
pavement. The shock itself consisted of repeated vibrations, which lasted
some seconds, and violently shook every house from top to bottom. Again
the chairs rocked, the shelves clattered, the small bells rang, and in
some places public clocks were heard to strike. Many persons, roused by
this terrible visitation, started naked from their beds, and ran to their
doors and windows in distraction; yet no life was lost, and no house
overthrown by this concussion, though it was so dreadful as to threaten an
immediate dissolution of the globe. The circumstance, however, did not
fail to make a deep impression upon ignorant, weak, and superstitious
minds, which were the more affected by the consideration that the two
shocks were periodical; that the second, which happened exactly one month
after the first, had been the more violent; and that the next, increasing
in proportion, might be attended with the most dismal consequences. This
general notion was confirmed, and indeed propagated, among all ranks of
people, by the admonitions of a fanatic soldier, who publicly preached up
repentance, and boldly prophesied that the next shock would happen on the
same day of April, and totally destroy the cities of London and
Westminster. Considering the infectious nature of fear and superstition,
and the emphatic manner in which the imagination had been prepared and
prepossessed, it was no wonder that the prediction of this illiterate
enthusiast should have contributed, in a great measure, to augment the
general terror. The churches were crowded with penitent sinners; the sons
of riot and profligacy were overawed into sobriety and decorum. The
streets no longer resounded with execrations, or the noise of brutal
licentiousness; and the iand of charity was liberally opened. Those whom
fortune had enabled to retire from the devoted city, fled to the country
with hurry and precipitation, insomuch that the highways were encumbered
with horses and carriages. Many who had in the beginning combated these
groundless fears with the weapons of reason and ridicule, began insensibly
to imbibe the contagion, and felt their hearts fail in proportion as the
hour of probation approached; even science and philosophy were not proof
against the unaccountable effects of this communication. In after ages it
will hardly be believed, that on the evening of the eighth day of April,
the open fields that skirt the metropolis were filled with an incredible
number of people assembled in chairs, in chaises, and coaches, as well as
on foot, who waited in the most fearful suspense until morning, and the
return of day disproved the truth of the dreaded prophecy. Then their
fears vanished; they returned to their respective habitations in a
transport of joy; and were soon reconciled to their abandoned vices, which
they seemed to resume with redoubled affection, and once more bade
defiance to the vengeance of heaven.

PESTILENTIAL FEVER AT THE SESSION IN THE OLD BAILEY.

By this time all the gaols in England were filled with the refuse of the
army and navy, which having been dismissed at the peace, and either averse
to labour or excluded from employment, had naturally preyed upon the
commonwealth. Great numbers of those wretches who, by proper regulations,
might have been rendered serviceable to the community, were executed as
examples; and the rest perished miserably, amidst the stench and horrors
of noisome dungeons. Even the prison of Newgate was rendered so infectious
by the uncommon crowds of confined felons stowed together in close
apartments, that the very air they breathed acquired a pestilential degree
of putrefaction. It was this putrefied air, which, adhering to the clothes
of the malefactors brought to trial at the bar of the Old Bailey, in May,
produced among the audience a pestilential fever, which infected and
proved fatal to the lord mayor of London, to one alderman, two of the
judges, divers lawyers who attended the session, the greatest part of the
jury, and a considerable number of the spectators. In order to prevent
such disasters for the future, the gaols were cleansed, and accommodated
with ventilators, which exhaust the foul and supply a circulation of fresh
air; and other humane precautions were taken for the benefit of the
prisoners.

DISPUTES BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The affairs of the continent underwent no remarkable alteration. An
ambassador-extraordinary being sent to Petersburgh from the court of
London, declared to the czarina’s minister, that, in case of a rupture
between Russia and Sweden, occasioned by the hostilities committed by the
former power, his Britannic majesty would consider Russia as the
aggressor, and the czarina could not expect that he would supply her with
the succours which he was engaged by treaty to furnish for her defence, in
case she should be attacked. A declaration of the same nature was made by
the ambassador of her Imperial majesty the queen of Hungary, while the
ministers of France and Prussia, who were in strict alliance with Sweden,
gave her to understand that they would punctually fulfil their engagements
with the court of Stockholm, should she actually invade the Swedish
territories of Finland. The spirit with which the king of Prussia exerted
himself on this occasion, gave infinite umbrage to the czarina, who,
indeed, expressed her resentment, by treating the minister of Brandenburgh
with contemptuous neglect, and even refused to favour him with an audience
till he should be vested with the character of ambassador. Thus were sewn
the seeds of misunderstanding between those two powers, which, in the
sequel, grew up to the most bitter animosity, and served to inflame those
dissensions which have desolated the fairest provinces of Germany. The
remonstrance of his Prussian majesty, with respect to the troubles of the
North, was couched in such terms as gave dissatisfaction to the court of
Petersburgh. The Russian minister retired from Berlin without the ceremony
of taking leave, and the Prussian ambassador Warendorf was recalled from
the court of the czarina.

PLAN FOR ELECTING THE ARCHDUKE JOSEPH KING OF THE ROMANS.

The attention of his Britannic majesty was not wholly engrossed by the
disputes between Russia and Sweden. He had another object in view, which
more nearly concerned the interests of his German dominions; and had set
on foot two negotiations of the utmost importance to the commerce and
advantage of Great Britain. His first and principal aim was, in
conjunction with the court of Vienna, to take such measures as would
secure the succession of the Imperial dignity to the archduke Joseph,
eldest son and heir to the reigning emperor. As the previous step to that
elevation, it was proposed to elect this young prince king of the Romans;
and for this purpose it was necessary to procure a majority not only of
the electors, but also in the diet of the empire, through which the
proposal must have passed. No stone was left unturned to reconcile this
expedient to the German princes. Subsidies were offered by the maritime
powers of England and the states-general to the electors of Mentz and
Cologn; and a treaty of the same nature was concluded with the elector of
Bavaria, who, in consideration of an annual subsidy, amounting to forty
thousand pounds sterling, two-thirds to be paid by Britain, and the rest
by the states-general, engaged to keep in readiness a body of six thousand
infantry, as auxiliaries to the maritime powers, though not to act against
the emperor or empire; and to join the interest of his Britannic majesty
in the diet, as well as in the electoral college. In order to render the
king of Poland, elector of Saxony, propitious to this design, he was
accommodated with the loan of a very considerable sum, upon the mortgage
of certain bailiwicks and lordships belonging to the Saxon dominions. Thus
a majority of the electors was secured, and such foundations were laid for
the success of this project, that it was generally believed it would be
accomplished in his Britannic majesty’s next visit to his German
dominions. Hopes, it was said, were given to the king of Sweden, that his
concurrence would be gratified by erecting the house of Hesse-Cassel, of
which he was head, into a tenth electorate. Arguments of an interesting
nature were used with the king of Prussia, and the elector-palatine, that
if possible, the diet might unanimously approve of this measure, so
necessary for establishing the peace of the empire, and preventing such
troubles as arose from a disputed succession at the death of Charles the
Sixth. These endeavours, however, did not succeed in their full extent.
The king of Prussia, as elector of Brandenburgh, opposed the election as
unnecessary and improper, on account of the health and vigour of the
reigning emperor, and the tender years of the archduke. This monarch had
set himself up as a balance to the power of the house of Austria, which
had long aspired to absolute dominion over its co-estates, and endeavoured
to establish an hereditary right of succession to the empire; he therefore
employed all his influence to frustrate the measure proposed, either
actuated by a spirit of pure patriotism, or inspired with designs which he
had not yet thought proper to declare. The opposition was joined by the
elector-palatine, and countenanced by the French king; who protested,
that, for the sake of peace, he would not oppose this election, though
contrary to the Golden Bull, provided it should be confirmed by the
unanimous consent of the electoral college; but should any one member
signify his dissent, and he or any state of the empire claim the
protection and assistance of his most christian majesty, he could not
dispense with granting both, in consequence of his being guarantee of the
treaty of Westphalia; an engagement by which he was obliged to succour
those princes and states of the empire who might have recourse to him, in
case of any grievance they suffered contrary to what was stipulated in
that constitution. This declaration co-operating with the known character
of his Prussian majesty, whose great army over-awed Hanover and Bohemia,
in all probability damped that vigour with which the courts of Vienna and
Herenhausen had hitherto prosecuted this important negotiation.

DISPUTES WITH THE FRENCH ABOUT THE LIMITS OF NOVA SCOTIA.

The second object that employed the attention of the British ministry, was
the establishment of the precise limits of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, where
the new colony had suffered great mischief and interruption from the
incursions of the Indians, excited to these outrages by the subjects and
emissaries of France. Commissaries had been appointed, by both crowns, to
meet at Paris and compromise these disputes: but the conferences were
rendered abortive by every art of cavilling, chicanery, and
procrastination, which the French commissioners opposed to the justice and
perspicuity of the English claims. They not only misinterpreted treaties,
though expressed with the utmost precision, and perplexed the conferences
with difficulties and matter foreign to the subject, but they carried the
finesse of perfidy so far as to produce false charts and maps of the
country, in which the rivers and boundaries were misplaced and
misrepresented. At this time also the insincerity of the French court
appeared in affected delays and artful objections, with respect to the
evacuation of the neutral islands in the West Indies; and the governors of
the British plantations, in different parts of North America, transmitted
intelligence that the French had begun to make encroachments on the back
of the English colonies.

TREATY WITH SPAIN.

Perhaps the precarious footing on which the peace stood between Great
Britain and France at this juncture, and the critical situation of affairs
in Germany, determined the ministry of England to compromise all
differences with Spain, upon such terms as at any other time they would
hardly have embraced. In order to discuss those points between the two
nations, which had not been settled by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,
conferences were also begun at Madrid, and carried on by Mr. Keene,
plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty, and don Joseph de Carvajal and
Lancastro, the Spanish king’s minister. At length a treaty was concluded
on these conditions—the king of Spain engaged to pay, in three
months, to the South-sea company of England, one hundred thousand pounds
sterling, as an indemnification for all claims upon his crown, by virtue
of the assiento. In other respects, the trade and navigation of the
English to the ports of Spain were regulated by former treaties. It was
stipulated, that they should pay no other duties than those that were
exacted of them in the reign of Charles II. of Spain; that they should be
treated on the footing of the most favoured nations; and continue to enjoy
the privilege of taking salt at the island of Tortuga. But there was no
article restricting the Spanish guarda costas from searching the British
vessels on the high seas; although, as we have already observed, this
insolent prerogative, assumed without right, and exercised without
humanity, was in effect the original and sole cause of the late rupture,
which had been attended with such enormous expense to the nation. It must
be owned, however, that his catholic majesty was at this period extremely
well disposed to live upon good terms with Great Britain. He was resolved
to indulge his people with the blessings of peace, to propagate a spirit
of industry throughout his dominions, and in particular to encourage
commerce, which he foresaw would prove a much more certain and
inexhaustible source of wealth, power, and influence, than all the
treasures he could drain from the mines of Mexico and Peru. His
resolutions on this interesting subject were chiefly directed by don
Ricardo Wall, who now acted as his minister at London; a gentleman of
Irish extract, who had distinguished himself in the field as well as in
the cabinet, and possessed the joint qualifications of a general and a
statesman. He had, by virtue of a passport, come over privately to England
before the peace, in order to pave the way for the treaty, by a secret
negotiation with the English ministers; but immediately after the peace
was proclaimed, he appeared in the character of ambassador. He was
possessed of the most insinuating address, shrewd, penetrating, and
inquisitive. While he resided in London, he spared no pains in learning
the nature of those manufactures, and that commerce, by which Great
Britain had been so remarkably aggrandized; and on his return to Spain,
where in a little time he was placed at the helm of affairs, he turned the
knowledge he had thus acquired to the advantage of his country. He not
only promoted the useful arts, within the kingdom of Spain, but
demonstrated the infinite advantage that would accrue from an active
trade, which the Spaniards had for many-ages neglected; and in a few years
their ships were seen to swarm in all the commercial ports of Europe. Of
other foreign events which distinguished this summer, the most remarkable
was the death of John, king of Portugal, who perfectly understood, and
steadily pursued, the true interests of his country, and in whom many
princely qualities were debased by a cruel spirit of bigotry and
superstition. He was succeeded by his eldest son Joseph, who, if he has
fallen short of his father in some respects, cannot be justly charged with
having inherited this paternal weakness.

SESSION OPENED.

The king of Great Britain having returned to England, opened the session
of parliament in January with a speech, importing, that he had concluded a
treaty with the king of Spain, and amicably adjusted such differences as
could not be so properly compromised in a general treaty; that the
commerce of this nation with that country was re-established upon the most
advantageous and sure foundations; and that there was the greatest reason
to hope the ancient friendship between Great Britain and Spain would, from
mutual inclination as well as interest, be now effectually restored. He
told them, that in conjunction with the empress-queen and the
states-general, he had concluded a treaty with the elector of Bavaria; and
was employed in taking such further measures as might best tend to
strengthen and secure the tranquillity of the empire, support its system,
and timely anticipate such events as had been found by experience to
endanger the common cause, involve Europe in the calamities of war, and
occasion the loss of much blood and treasure to these kingdoms. He
promised that both these treaties should be subjected to their perusal; he
gave them to understand that he had received from all the other
contracting powers in the definitive treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the most
full and clear declarations of their resolution to preserve the general
peace; and that he had taken care to consolidate the ties of union and
friendship between him and his allies, the better to secure their mutual
interests, maintain the peace already subsisting, and prevent the occasion
of any future rupture. Finally, he recommended unanimity, the improvement
of commerce, and the effectual suppression of such outrages and violences
as are inconsistent with good order and government, and endanger the lives
and properties of the subject, whose happiness and flourishing condition
he had entirely at heart.

When the motion was made for an address of thanks, couched in terms that
savoured of the most implicit complaisance, approbation, and acquiescence
in the measures which the crown had taken, the earl of Egmont, and some
other anti-courtiers, affirmed, that such an address would be equally
servile and absurd. They observed, that nothing could be more preposterous
than a blind approbation of measures which they did not know; that nothing
could be more ridiculous than their congratulations on the present happy
tranquillity, when almost every day’s newspapers informed them of some
British ships being seized by the Spaniards, or some new attack made by
the French on our infant colony of Nova Scotia. With respect to the
continent of Europe, they affirmed, that the tranquillity of Germany would
have been upon a much more solid foundation, had England never interposed
in the affairs of the empire: in that case the princes would of themselves
have supported the constitution of their own country; that the election of
an infant for the king of the Romans was much more likely to disturb than
establish the tranquillity of Europe; because it would help to overturn
the constitution of the empire, by rendering the imperial dignity
hereditary in one house, instead of being the result of a free election.
They took notice that the constitution had provided vicars to govern the
empire during the vacancy of the imperial throne; but had made no
provision of regents, protectors, or guardians, for a minor emperor,
because it was never supposed that a minor would be chosen. They inveighed
against the late treaty with Spain; in which, they said, the ministry, for
the paltry sum of one hundred thousand pounds, had given up the claims of
the South-Sea company, and other British merchants, who had suffered from
depredations to the amount of one million three hundred thousand pounds;
and bartered away the freedom of our trade and navigation, by leaving
untouched that prerogative which the Spaniards had assumed, of searching
the British ships in the open seas, and confiscating them should they find
on board the least particle of what they called contraband merchandise.
They produced an instance of an English ship, lately driven by stress of
weather into one of the ports of the Spanish West Indies, where she was
searched, seized and condemned, under this pretence. They recapitulated
the conduct of the French, who, in the midst of their declarations of
peace and moderation, were still employed in fortifying their settlements
on the neutral islands, as well as in harassing and encroaching upon our
plantations in North America. They exclaimed against the treaty of subsidy
with the elector of Bavaria, or any other prince in time of peace;
observing, that for some years the nation had paid such pensions to the
Danes and the Hessians; but, in the course of the late war, the former
abandoned our interests, and the latter actually took arms against Great
Britain. They affirmed that the subsidy was greater than the nation could
spare; for, unless the land-tax should be continued at four shillings in
the pound, they could not afford a shilling to any prince in Germany,
without encroaching upon the sinking fund. “At such a juncture,” said a
certain member, “will any gentleman presume to propose the continuation of
such an imposition on the land-holder, for the sake of bribing the princes
of Germany to do what?—to preserve the freedom and independency of
their native country. I say, princes of Germany, because this subsidy to
Bavaria will signify nothing unless we take half a score more of them into
our pay; and when we have thus indulged them for seven years of peace,
they may give us the slip, as others have done, whenever another war
should be declared.” Against these objections the motion was supported by
Mr. William Pitt, at this time an advocate for the ministry. He observed,
that the address was no more than the usual compliment to the throne,
which did not imply an obligation on the parliament to approve of measures
which they might find cause to censure upon further inquiry. He said, the
trivial disputes still subsisting between this nation and the Spaniards,
or French, would soon be terminated amicably, and could never affect the
general tranquillity of Europe, which was to be established upon a firm
alliance between his majesty and such a confederacy upon the continent, as
would be an over-match for the house of Bourbon. He expatiated upon his
majesty’s wisdom in taking off from the French interest such a powerful
prince as the elector of Bavaria, and concerting other salutary measures
for preserving the balance of power on the continent. He defended the
articles of the late treaty with Spain; observing, that what remained of
the assiento contract was a matter of very little consequence to the
South-Sea company; that the demands of this company, and other British
merchants, were all cancelled by the rupture with Spain, and more than
recompensed to the nation by a great balance of captures during the war,
as well as by the great traffic carried on with the Spanish settlements in
the West Indies, after it had been laid open by the demolition of their
fortresses. He asserted, that by this treaty the court of Spain had made
many important concessions; they had condescended to pay a great sum to
the South-Sea company; they had consented to the re-establishment of the
British trade in Spain, upon a very advantageous and solid footing, by
agreeing that the subjects of Great Britain should pay no other duties on
merchandize than those exacted of his catholic majesty’s own subjects, and
to abolish all innovations that had been introduced into the commerce. He
affirmed, that the article of No Search was a stipulation which it would
have been ridiculous to insist upon; and thought proper to obviate a
reproach which he foresaw the opposition would throw upon him, from the
circumstance of his having, upon a former occasion, heartily concurred in
a motion for an address, that no treaty of peace with Spain should be
admitted, unless such a stipulation should be first obtained as a
preliminary. He owned he had strenuously contended for such a motion,
because at that time, being very young and sanguine, he thought it right
and reasonable; but he was now ten years older, had considered matters
more coolly, and was convinced that the privilege of No Search, with
respect to British vessels sailing near the American shore, would never be
obtained, unless Spain should be brought so low as to acquiesce in any
terms we as victors might propose. He likewise signified his conviction,
that all addresses from the house of commons, during the course of a war,
for prescribing terms of peace, were in themselves ridiculous; and that
every such address was an encroachment on the king’s prerogative, which
had always been attended with unlucky consequences. How far these
arguments are satisfactory, conclusive, and consistent, we shall leave to
the reader’s determination. Certain it is, they were adopted by the
majority, and the address was presented without further opposition.

The two grand committees appointed to discuss the supplies for the ensuing
year, and the funds upon which they were to be raised, proceeded, as
usual, under the direction of the ministry; yet not without some vehement
opposition, in which certain servants of the crown expressed the most
hearty concurrence. When a motion was made for reducing the number of
seamen to eight thousand, Mr. W. Pitt, Mr. Lyttelton, and Mr. G.
Grenville, opposed it with all their might of argument and elocution; but
they were overruled. Annual debates were also revived, with the same
success, upon the number of troops constituting the standing army; but the
other resolutions of the grand committees met with little or no
opposition. The number of seamen for the ensuing year was limited to eight
thousand; and that of the standing forces continued at eighteen thousand
eight hundred and fifty-seven effective men, including one thousand eight
hundred and fifteen invalids. The commons granted a considerable sum of
money for paying off the principal of such redeemable stocks as had not
been subscribed, in pursuance of two acts passed in the last session for
reducing the interest of annuities. Thirty thousand pounds were given for
fulfilling the king’s engagement with the elector of Bavaria; large grants
were made for supplying deficiencies, and replacing sums borrowed from the
sinking fund. The expense incurred by the new colony of Nova Scotia, not
provided for by parliament, exceeded fifty-seven thousand pounds; and the
maintenance of it for the ensuing year was fixed at fifty-three thousand
nine hundred and twenty-seven pounds, fourteen shillings and fourpence. An
enormous charge! if we consider to how little purpose all this bounty was
bestowed. A fund was established under the sanction of parliament, for the
relief and maintenance of the widows of sea officers, by allowing, upon
the books of every ship of war in sea pay, the wages and victuals of one
man for every hundred of which the compliment shall consist, for such time
only as the number of men employed in the service of the royal navy shall
not exceed twenty thousand. This was an additional indulgence, over and
above the allowance of one man granted by a former act of parliament. On
the whole, the provisions of this year amounted to five millions one
hundred and twenty-five thousand and twenty-three pounds, eleven shillings
and sevenpence, to be raised by the usual duties; the sum of one million
twenty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-six pounds, four shillings
and sixpence, advanced by the bank of England to pay off their own
unsubscribed annuities, for which they accepted exchequer bills at three
per cent, interest; by the land-tax at three shillings in the pound; a
lottery and annuities, at the rate of three per cent, per annum, to be
charged on the sinking-fund redeemable by parliament. The annual measure
called the mutiny bill, was not passed without dispute and altercation;
some alterations were proposed, but not adopted; and the sentences of
court-martials still subjected to one revision.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.

In the midst of these deliberations, the kingdom was alarmed with an event
which overwhelmed the people with grief and consternation. His royal
highness the prince of Wales, in consequence of a cold caught in his
garden at Kew, was seized with a pleuritic disorder; and, after a short
illness, expired on the twentieth day of March, to the unspeakable
affliction of his royal consort, and the unfeigned sorrow of all who
wished well to their country. This excellent prince, who now died in the
forty-fifth year of his age, was possessed of every amiable quality which
could engage the affection of the people; a tender and obliging husband, a
fond parent, a kind master; liberal, generous, candid, and humane; a
munificent patron of the arts, an unwearied friend to merit; well disposed
to assert the rights of mankind in general, and warmly attached to the
interest of Great Britain. The nation could not but be afflicted at seeing
a prince of such expectations ravished from their hopes; and their grief
was the better founded, as the king had already attained to an advanced
age, and the heir-apparent, George, now prince of Wales, was a minor.

SETTLEMENT OF A REGENCY IN CASE OF A MINOR SOVEREIGN.

His majesty, foreseeing all the inconveniencies which might arise from a
minority, deliberated with his council on this subject, and resolved to
obtain a parliamentary sanction for the measures judged necessary to
secure the succession. With this view he sent a message to both houses on
the twenty-sixth day of April, importing, that nothing could conduce so
much to the preservation of the protestant succession in his royal family,
as proper provisions for the tuition of the person of his successor, and
for the regular administration of the government, in case the successor
should be of tender years; his majesty therefore earnestly recommended
this weighty affair to the deliberation of parliament; and proposed, that
when the imperial crown of these realms should descend to any of the late
prince’s sons, being under the age of eighteen years, his mother, the
princess dowager of Wales, should be guardian of his person, and regent of
these kingdoms, until he should attain the age of majority, with such
powers and limitations as should appear necessary and expedient for these
purposes. This message produced a very affectionate address, promising to
take the affair into their serious consideration; and in the beginning of
May the duke of Newcastle presented to the house of peers a bill to
provide for the administration of government, in case the crown should
descend to a minor. The bill was read a second time, and committed, when a
second message arrived from his majesty, recommending to their
consideration the settlement of such a council of regency as the bill
proposed, consisting of his royal highness the duke of Cumberland, who at
that time commanded the army, the archbishop of Canterbury, the lord
chancellor, the lord high treasurer, or first lord commissioner of the
treasury, the president of the council, the lord privy-seal, the lord
high-admiral of Great Britain, or first commissioner of the admiralty, the
two principal secretaries of state, and the lord chief justice of the
king’s-bench; all these great officers, except his royal highness the
duke, for the time being. This bill did not pass through the lower house
without violent debate and bitter sarcasms. The council of regency, though
espoused by all the ministry, including the paymaster-general, met with
fierce opposition, as an unnecessary and fatal restriction that would
impede the machine of government, and, as the council was constituted,
might be productive of the most pernicious consequence. Some of the
members ventured even to insinuate the danger of leaving at the head of a
large standing army, a prince of the blood vested with a share of the
regency, possessed of great personal influence, the darling of the
soldiery, brave, popular, and enterprising; supposed not devoid of
ambition, and not at all remarkable for any symptoms of extraordinary
affection towards the person of the heir-apparent. The history of England
was ransacked for invidious instances of royal uncles and regents who had
injured the sovereigns, and distressed the government, by their pride,
cruelty, and ambition. The characters of John Lackland, and John of Gaunt,
Humphrey and Richard dukes of Gloucester, were called in review,
canvassed, compared, and quoted, with some odious applications; but the
majority being convinced of the loyalty, virtue, integrity, and great
abilities of his royal highness, to whom the nation owed obligations of
the most important nature, passed the bill with a few amendments, in which
the lords acquiesced; and in a little time it received the royal sanction.

GENERAL NATURALIZATION BILL.

The death of the prince of Wales was fatal to a bill which had been
brought into the house of commons, for naturalizing all foreign
protestants who should settle within the dominions of Great Britain.
Political arithmeticians have generally taken it for granted, that to
every commercial nation an increase of people is an increase of opulence;
and this maxim is certainly true, on the supposition that every individual
is industrious, and that there is a sufficient field for employment; but
all these general maxims ought to be received under certain
qualifications. When all branches of manufacture are overstocked, an
addition of workmen will doubtless be an additional incumbrance on the
community. In the debates which this bill produced, the members of the
ministry were divided among themselves. The measure was enforced by the
chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. W. Pitt, and Mr. Lyttelton; and in
opposing it the earl of Egmont was joined by Mr. Fox, secretary at war.
Petitions and counter-petitions were presented by the merchants of London,
Bristol, and other trading towns of the kingdom. All merchants and traders
of foreign extraction exerted themselves vigorously in its behalf, and it
was without doubt countenanced by the administration; but the project was
odious to the people in general. The lord mayor, aldermen, and commons of
London, in common-council assembled, composed a remonstrance to the lower
house, setting forth the danger and inutility of a general naturalization
of foreign protestants. A petition of the merchants and principal
inhabitants of Bristol represented that such a law would be prejudicial to
the trade and commerce of this kingdom, by preventing many industrious
artificers from procuring a sufficient support for themselves and their
families, and of consequence increasing the rates of the poor; that the
introduction of such a number of foreigners, instead of being a support to
the present happy establishment, might endanger the very basis of our
constitution; that it would greatly tend to the diminution of our
manufactures, as many strangers would doubtless come and reside in England
for a time, in order to learn the methods and management of our
manufacturers and artificers; and, after having obtained this instruction,
return to their native countries, where they would establish and carry on
works of the same nature. The twentieth day of March being appointed for
the third reading of the bill, it was postponed in consequence of the
unfortunate death of the prince of Wales; and other petitions from
different cities of the kingdom being mustered against it in the sequel,
the ministry did not think proper to persist in any unpopular measure at
such a delicate conjuncture; so the bill was no more brought upon the
carpet. Divers other regulations, relating to civil policy as well as to
the commerce of Great Britain, were propounded in the house of commons;
but these proposals proved abortive, either because they appeared crude
and indigested in themselves, or the house could not obtain proper
information touching the allegations they contained.

CENSURE PASSED UPON A PAPER ENTITLED “CONSTITUTIONAL QUERIES.”

There were no other transactions in this session, except the concurrence
of both houses in stigmatizing a printed paper, entitled “Constitutional
Queries, earnestly recommended to the serious consideration of every true
Briton;” and the steps taken by the commons, in consequence of the
commotions occasioned by the Westminster election. The above-mentioned
paper, which had been conveyed by letter to the majority of both houses,
was communicated to the lords in the month of January by the duke of
Marlborough, who moved for resolutions against it as a seditious libel,
and that the concurrence of the commons might be desired. A conference
accordingly ensued, and both houses concurred in voting the paper a false,
malicious, scandalous, infamous, and seditious libel; containing the most
false, audacious, and abominable calumnies and indignities upon his
majesty; and the most presumptuous and wicked insinuations that our laws,
liberties, and properties, and the excellent constitution of this kingdom,
were in danger under his majesty’s legal, mild, and gracious government;
with intent to instil groundless suspicions and jealousies into the minds
of his majesty’s good subjects, and to alienate their affections from his
majesty and the royal family. It was therefore resolved by the lords
spiritual and temporal, and commons in parliament assembled, that, in
abhorrence and detestation of such abominable and seditious practices, the
paper should be burnt by the hands of the common hangman in the new
Palace-yard of Westminster; and this sentence was executed accordingly.
Then they presented an address to his majesty, desiring that the most
effectual means might be taken for discovering the author, printer, or
publisher, that he or they might be brought to condign punishment.
Directions were given for this purpose; but without effect. Those
concerned in writing, printing, and circulating the paper, had acted with
such caution that not one of them was ever discovered.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMONS ON THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION.

The proceedings of the commons with respect to the election of a burgess
for Westminster were attended with some extraordinary circumstances, which
we shall now record for the edification of those who pique themselves on
the privileges of a British subject. We have already observed, that a
majority appearing on the poll for lord Trentham, the adherents of the
other candidate, sir George Vandeput, demanded a scrutiny, which was
granted by the high bailiff of Westminster, the returning officer. During
this tedious investigation, which rolled chiefly on the qualifications of
voters, he acted with such address and seeming candour as gave entire
satisfaction to both parties, till at length he determined in favour of
lord Trentham, whom he returned as duly elected. Those who styled
themselves the independent electors did not acquiesce in this
determination without clamour, reproach, menaces, and riot. They taxed Mr.
Leigh, the high-bailiff, with partiality and injustice; they loudly
affirmed that ministerial influence had been used in the most scandalous
manner; and, finally, joined sir George Vandeput in a petition to the
lower house, complaining of an undue election and return of a member for
the city of Westminster. The commons, instead of inquiring into the merits
of these petitions, ordered them to lie upon the table; and, without any
complaint from any person whatever, a motion was made that Leigh, the
high-bailiff, should attend the house immediately, in order to make them
acquainted with what he had done in pursuance of the directions he had
formerly received from that house, touching the execution of the writ for
electing a new member to represent the city of Westminster. As this motion
had been preconcerted, Leigh was attending in the lobby, and immediately
called into the house to be examined on this subject. Having, in the
course of his examination, alleged that the election had been protracted
by affected delays, he was asked by whom, and by what means; but, before
he could answer, the earl of Egmont, interposing, objected to the question
as improper, and moved for the order of the day. A debate immediately
ensued, in which the impropriety of the question was demonstrated by Mr.
Henley, now lord-keeper, Dr. Lee, and some others, the most sensible and
moderate members of the house; but they were opposed with great violence
by lord viscount Corke, Henry Fox, esquire, sir William Young, colonel
Lyttelton, and the weight of the ministry; so that the motion for the
order of the day was carried in the negative, and the high-bailiff
required to answer the question. Thus interrogated, he declared that he
had been impeded in the scrutiny, and maltreated, by Mr. Crowle, who had
acted as counsel for sir George Vandeput, by the honourable Alexander
Murray, brother to lord Elibank, and one Gibson, an upholsterer, who had
been very active, zealous, and turbulent in his endeavours to promote the
interest of sir George Vandeput, or rather to thwart the pretensions of
the other candidate, who was supposed to be countenanced by the ministry.
These three persons, thus accused, were brought to the bar of the house,
notwithstanding the strenuous remonstrances of several members, who
opposed this method of proceeding, as a species of oppression equally
arbitrary and absurd. They observed, that, as no complaint had been
preferred, they had no right to take cognizance of the affair; that if any
undue influence had been used, it would naturally appear when the merits
of the election should fall under their inquiry; that a complaint having
been lodged already against the returning officer, it was their duty to
investigate his conduct, and punish him if he should be found delinquent;
but that nothing could be more flagrantly unjust, and apparently partial,
than their neglecting the petitions of the other candidate and electors,
and encouraging the high-bailiff, who stood charged with iniquity, to
recriminate upon his accusers, that they might be disabled from giving
evidence on the inquiry into the merits of the election. What difference
is it to the subject whether he is oppressed by an arbitrary prince, or by
the despotic insolence of a ministerial majority? Mr. Crowle alleged, in
his own vindication, that he had been employed as counsel by the electors
of Westminster, and attended the scrutiny in that character; that after
the high-bailiff had, in the course of the last session, received the
order of the house to expedite the election, he hurried on the scrutiny
with such precipitation as, he apprehended, was unjust and prejudicial to
his clients; that, in this apprehension, he (Mr. Crowle) insisted upon the
high-bailiff’s proceeding with more deliberation, and in so doing he
thought he did his duty to his employers. Some evidence being examined
against him, declared he had not only protracted the scrutiny, but also
spoken disrespectful words of the house of commons; he was therefore
reprimanded on his knees by the speaker, and discharged.

MR. MURRAY SENT PRISONER TO NEWGATE.

Mr. Murray being charged with having uttered some threatening and
affrontive expressions, the house adjourned the consideration of this
affair for some days, at the expiration of which Mr. Murray was to be
heard by his counsel; but, in the meantime, they ordered him to be taken
into custody by the sergeant-at-arms attending the house. This step
however was not taken without a warm opposition by some of the most sedate
and intelligent members of the house, who considered it as a cruel act of
oppression. They observed, that in cases of breach of privilege, no person
complained of was ever taken into custody until after he had been fully
heard in his defence; that this was literally prejudging the cause before
it had been examined; and the oppression was the greater, as the alleged
offence consisted entirely of words, of which no complaint or information
had been made for above eight months after the supposed offence had been
committed; and, even then, not till an accusation had been lodged against
the informant, upon the trial of which accusation the persons informed
against might very probably be the most material witnesses. They observed,
that in one of the highest offences which can be committed by words,
namely, that of denying the king’s right to the crown, or renouncing the
trinity, the information must be brought in three or four days after the
words are spoken; the words must be proved to have been spoken
maliciously, directly, and advisedly, and the prosecution must commence in
three months after the information. These suggestions made no more
impression than if they had been uttered in a desert. Those who were
secure in their number, asserted that the house of commons was not
restricted by the forms or proceedings at common law; and that it was
necessary to vindicate their own honour and dignity, by making examples of
those who seemed to hold them in contempt. Mr. Murray was committed to the
custody of the sergeant-at-arms, and found bail; and Gibson was sent
prisoner to Newgate, from whence he was in a few days released, upon
presenting an humble petition, professing his sorrow for having incurred
the displeasure of the house, to the bar of which he was brought, and
received a reprimand on his knees from the speaker. In the meantime,
divers witnesses being examined before the house, declared, That Mr.
Murray had been seen, about the time of the return of a member for
Westminster, heading and exciting a tumult to acts of violence against the
high-bailiff. The majority, therefore, after a long and warm debate,
agreed, that for his dangerous and seditious practices, in violation and
contempt of the privileges of the house, and of the freedom of elections,
he should be committed close prisoner to Newgate Then, in the close of
another violent debate, they resolved that he should be brought to the bar
of the house, to receive that sentence on his knees. He accordingly
appeared, and being directed by the speaker to kneel, refused to comply.
He knew that he could not be discharged from Newgate during the session,
without petitioning, acknowledging his offence, and making such
concessions as he thought would imply a consciousness of guilt; he
considered this whole transaction as an oppressive exertion of arbitrary
power, and, being apprized of the extent of their authority, determined to
bear the brunt of their indignation, rather than make submissions which he
deemed beneath the dignity of his character. When he refused to humble
himself, the whole house was in commotion; he was no sooner removed from
the bar than they resolved, that his having in a most insolent and
audacious manner refused to be on his knees at the bar of that house, in
consequence of their former resolution, was a high and most dangerous
contempt of the authority and privilege of the commons; it was therefore
ordered, that he should be committed close prisoner to Newgate, debarred
the use of pen, ink, and paper; and that no person should have access to
him without the leave of the house. Finally, a committee was appointed to
consider what methods might be proper to be taken by them, in relation to
this instance of contempt. Meanwhile, the petitioners against the return
made by the high-bailiff, perceiving the temper of the house, and the
complexion of the majority, withdrew their petition; and the order which
had passed for hearing the merits of the election was discharged. Mr.
Murray being taken dangerously ill in Newgate, application was made to the
commons, by some of his relations, that he might be removed to a more
convenient situation; and his physician being examined, gave it as his
opinion that he was infected with the gaol distemper. Upon this
representation, the house agreed that the speaker should issue a warrant
for removing him from Newgate to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, but
this favour he refused to accept, and expressed the warmest resentment
against those relations who had applied to the commons in his behalf. Thus
he remained sequestered even from his own brother and sister, under the
displeasure of the commons of England, who condescended so far as to make
resolutions touching the physician, apothecary, and nurse who attended
this prisoner. But the prorogation of parliament having put an end to
their authority for that session, Mr. Murray was discharged of course, and
conducted by the sheriffs from Newgate to his own house, in procession,
with flags and streamers exhibiting the emblems of liberty.

SESSION CLOSED. STYLE ALTERED.

In the month of June the session was closed with a speech from the throne,
in which his majesty thanked both houses for the zeal and affection they
had manifested towards him and his government; and congratulated the
commons in particular, upon their firmness and prudence in reducing the
interest of the national debt, a measure as agreeable to him as essential
to the strength and welfare of the kingdom. 330 [See note 2 S, at
the end of this Vol.]—The interior economy of Great Britain
produced, within the circle of this year, nothing else worthy of
historical regard, except a series of enormous crimes, arising from the
profligacy of individuals, which reflected disgrace upon the morals and
the polity of the nation. Rapine and robbery had domineered without
intermission ever since the return of peace, which was attended with a
reduction of the army and navy; but now crimes of a deeper die seemed to
lift up their heads, in contempt of law and humanity. 331
[See note 2 T, at the end of this Vol.] Every day almost produced
fresh instances of perjury, forgery, fraud, and circumvention; and the
kingdom exhibited a most amazing jumble of virtue and vice, honour and
infamy, compassion and obduracy, sentiment and brutality.

CHAPTER VIII.

Death of the Queen of Denmark and the Prince of Orange…..
Misunderstanding between the Czarina and King of
Prussia….. Measures for electing a King of the Romans…..
Death of the King of Sweden….. Session opened…..
Animosity of the Commons towards Mr. Murray….. Proceedings
upon a Pamphlet, entitled the Case of Mr. Murray…..
Supplies granted….. Civil Regulations….. Law relating to
the forfeited Estates in Scotland….. New Consolidation of
Funds….. Two Ports opened for the Importation of Irish
Wool….. The King sets out for Hanover….. Affairs of the
Continent….. Dispute between Hanover and Prussia,
Concerning East Friezeland….. Misunderstanding between the
Courts of London and Berlin….. Improvement of
Pomerania….. Treaty with the Elector Palatine….. Session
opened….. Supplies granted….. Game Act….. Act for
performing Quarantine….. and for preventing the Plundering
of shipwrecked Vessels….. Bill relating to the Bounty on
Corn exported….. Turkey Trade laid open…..
Naturalization of the Jews….. Marriage Act…..
Deliberations concerning the Sugar Colonies…… Fate of
the Register Bill….. Sir Hans Sloane’s Museum purchased by
Parliament….. Story of Elizabeth Canning….. Execution of
Dr. Cameron….. Tumults in different Parts of the
Kingdom….. Disturbances in France….. Proceedings in the
Diet relative to East Friezeland….. Treaty between the
Court of Vienna and the Duke of Marlborough—Conferences
with respect to Nova Scotia broke up….. Description of
Nova Scotia….. Disputes concerning its Limits

DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF DENMARK AND PRINCE OF ORANGE.

The royal family of England had sustained three severe shocks in the
compass of a few months. Besides the loss of the prince of Wales, which
the nation lamented as irreparable, his majesty was deeply afflicted by
the untimely death of his youngest daughter, the queen of Denmark, who
died at Copenhagen on the nineteenth day of December, in the prime of
youth. She was one of the most amiable princesses of the age in which she
lived, whether we consider the virtues of her heart, or the
accomplishments of her person; generous, mild, and tender hearted; beloved
even almost to adoration by her royal consort, to whom she had borne a
prince and two princesses; and universally admired and revered by the
subjects of his Danish majesty. Her death had been preceded about two
months by that of her brother-in-law, the prince of Orange, no less
regretted by the natives of the United Provinces for his candour,
integrity, and hereditary love to his country. Though he had not
distinguished himself by the lustre of a superior genius, he had been at
great pains to cultivate his understanding, and study the true interest of
that community of which he was a member. He had always approved himself a
good and zealous citizen, and, since his elevation to the stadtholdership,
taken many salutary steps for the advantage of his country. Among other
excellent schemes which he suggested, he left a noble plan with the
states-general for restoring their commerce to its former lustre, and
lived long enough to receive their warmest acknowledgments fox this last
proof of his prudence and patriotism. His son and daughter being both
infants, the administration of the government devolved upon the princess,
as governanté during her son’s minority; and as such she succeeded to all
the power which her husband had enjoyed.

MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE CZARINA AND KING OF PRUSSIA.

With respect to the affairs of the continent, the peace of the north
seemed still as precarious as ever; for though the difference between
Russia and Sweden had been compromised, the mutual disgust between the
czarina and the king of Prussia had gained such accession from reciprocal
insults, ill offices, and inflammatory declarations, that these two powers
seemed to be on the eve of a rupture, and each was employed in making
extraordinary preparations for war. The courts of Vienna and Great
Britain, foreseeing that such a rupture would embroil the empire, and
raise insurmountable obstructions to their favourite scheme of electing
the archduke Joseph king of the Romans, resolved to employ all their
influence in order to effect a reconciliation between the courts of
Petersburgh and Berlin. His Prussian majesty had signified to the king of
Great Britain and the states-general, the situation in which he stood with
the czarina, and solicited their interposition, that the difference might
be amicably accommodated. At the same time, he sent an envoy-extraordinary
to Versailles, to negotiate with the French king for a very considerable
body of auxiliaries, in case he should fee attacked. These circumstances
induced the maritime powers, and the court of Vienna, to use their utmost
endeavours for the prevention of a rupture; and accordingly they made
remonstrances on this subject by their ministers at Petersburgh, proposing
that the quarrel should be terminated without bloodshed, and all cause of
animosity be buried in oblivion.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MEASURES FOR ELECTING A KING OF THE ROMANS.

In the meantime they eagerly prosecuted the design of the election; and
the Imperial minister at Berlin not only communicated to his Prussian
majesty the sentiments of the king of England on this expedient, but even
solicited his vote for the archduke Joseph, when the election of a king of
the Romans should be proposed in the electoral college. To this proposal
he replied, that he was extremely well disposed to manifest his regard for
their imperial majesties, and to give the most genuine proofs of it, even
in the proposed election of a king of the Romans, considering the great
merit of the present candidate the archduke Joseph; but he left it to the
consideration of their imperial majesties, whether the election would not
be a little premature, if transacted at a time when his imperial majesty
was in the flower of his age; enjoying perfect health; and when all
Europe, particularly the empire, was hushed in the bosom of tranquillity,
so that no circumstance seemed to prognosticate the necessity of such an
election; or of putting in execution the motives mentioned in the
capitulation of the reigning emperor’s election; especially as the
examination of these motives belonged to the whole empire, and ought to
precede the election, by virtue of the eighth article of the treaty of
Westphalia. He observed, that in case of the emperor’s death, Germany
would find herself in a very disagreeable situation under the government
of a minor. For these reasons, he said, he could not help advising their
imperial majesties to wait until the archduke should be of age, when his
election might be carried on more conformably to the laws and
constitutions of the empire, and more suitable to the majesty of the whole
Germanic body. This reply he circulated among the electors, and in
particular transmitted it to the king of Great Britain, desiring they
would deliberate maturely on this subject, and confer together in a body,
as well as in private, that they might proceed according to the ancient
custom of the electoral college, and take such ‘measures as should be
judged expedient for the honour and advantage of the community. This
circular letter was answered both by the king of England and the elector
of Bavaria, who demonstrated, that it was the privilege of the electoral
college only, without any participation of the other princes of the
empire, to elect a king of the Romans during the life of the emperor, in
order to maintain the peace and preserve the liberties of Germany; and
that the neglect of this wise precaution hath produced bloody wars, and
many fatal consequences to the empire. They observed, that nothing could
more contribute to the establishment of the public tranquillity than this
measure, so ardently desired by the majority of the German princes; and
that, although the archduke Joseph wanted a few years of being of age, and
it might possibly happen that the reigning emperor should die during that
prince’s minority, yet it would be much less prejudicial to the empire to
have a minor chief, than to see the succession altogether unsettled. His
Prussian majesty received a declaration to the same purpose from the
elector of Mentz; and understanding that this prince, as archchancellor of
the empire, intended to convoke an electoral diet in order to propose the
election of a king of the Romans, he wrote an elaborate letter to his
electoral highness, explaining at more length his reasons for postponing
the election. He quoted that sentence of the treaty of Westphalia which
expressly declares, that the election of a king of the Romans shall be
discussed and ordained by the common consent of the states of the empire;
and, therefore, he could not conceive what right the electoral college had
to arrogate this privilege to themselves, excluding the other states of
the empire. He observed, that the imperial capitulations, which were the
only laws of the empire that treated of this subject, mentioned only three
cases in which it was lawful to proceed to such an election; namely, the
emperor’s leaving, and long absence from, Germany; his advanced age, or an
indisposition, rendering him incapable of managing the reins of
government; and any case of emergency in which the preservation of the
empire’s prosperity is interested. He affirmed that none of these motives
at present existed; that, in case the imperial crown should devolve to a
minor, many mischiefs and disorders must ensue, as the constitutions of
the empire have established no regulations nor regency in that event; that
an election of this nature, carried on under the power, influence, and
authority of the head of the empire, would strike at the fundamental
privileges of the princes and states; consequently, in time overturn the
constitution of the empire, which, from being an elective dignity,
conferred by the free and independent suffrages of the electoral college
and states of Germany, under certain capitulations, obliging the prince
thus chosen to govern according to law, would become an hereditary
succession, perpetuated in one family, which of course must be aggrandized
to the prejudice of its co-estates, and the ruin of the Germanic
liberties. In a word, all Germany in general, and Ratisbon in particular,
was filled with writings published on both sides: by the emperor and his
adherents, to demonstrate that the election of a king of the Romans,
during the life of the emperor, had often happened, and at this present
time was necessary, and would be advantageous to the empire; while the
king of Prussia and his friends laboured to prove that such an election,
at the present juncture, would be ill-timed, irregular, and of dangerous
consequence. Perhaps, if the truth was known, this enterprising prince had
projected some great scheme, with the execution of which this proposed
establishment would have interfered. Certain it is, he exerted himself
with that spirit and perseverance which were peculiar to his character, to
frustrate the intention of the courts of Vienna and London in this
particular, and was assisted with all the intrigue of the French ministry.
Their joint endeavours were so effectual, that the elector of Cologn
renounced his subsidiary treaty with the maritime powers, and once more
threw himself into the arms of France. The elector palatine being
solicited by the empress-queen and his Britannic majesty to co-operate
with their views, insisted, as a preliminary article, upon being
indemnified by the court of Vienna for the ravages committed in his
territories by the Austrian troops, during the course of the last war: the
king of Poland, elector of Saxony, made the same demand of the like
indemnification, which was granted by the mediation of king George; and
then he subscribed to a subsidiary treaty, obliging himself to furnish a
body of six thousand auxiliaries, in case they should be required by the
maritime powers; and to act as an elector, in concert with the house of
Austria, in every thing relating to the welfare of his country that should
square with the fundamental laws of the empire. The courts of London and
Vienna had this election so much at heart, that they sounded almost all
the powers of Europe, to know how they stood affected towards the measure
proposed. The king of Spain declined intermeddling in a domestic affair of
the empire. The French king returned an ambiguous answer; from whence it
was concluded that nothing but opposition could be expected from that
quarter. The Swedish monarch was rendered propitious to the project by
assurances that the house of Hesse-Cassel, of which he was the head,
should be elevated into an electorate. They even endeavoured to soften his
Prussian majesty, by consenting, at last, that the treaty of Dresden,
confirming to him the possession of Silesia, should be guaranteed by the
diet of the empire; a sanction which he now actually obtained, together
with the ratification of his imperial majesty. Notwithstanding this
indulgence, he still persisted in raising fresh objections to the
favourite project, on pretence of concerting measures for preventing the
inconveniencies that might result from a minority; for regulating the
capitulations to be agreed on with the king of the Romans; securing the
freedom of future elections, and preserving the prerogatives and
privileges of the Germanic body in all its members. In consequence of
these obstacles, joined to the apostacy of the elector of Cologn, the
obstinacy of the elector palatine, and the approaching diet of Hungary, at
which their imperial majesties were obliged personally to preside, the
measures for the election were suspended till next summer, when his
Britannic majesty was expected at Hanover to put the finishing stroke to
this great event in favour of the house of Austria.

DEATH OF THE KING OF SWEDEN.

Another disappointment, with respect to this election, the promoters of it
sustained in the death of his Swedish majesty, who expired in a good old
age, and was succeeded by Adolphus Frederick, duke of Holstein Eutin,
bishop of Lubeck, upon whom the succession had been settled for some
years, by the unanimous concurrence of the states of the kingdom. This
prince ascended the throne of Sweden without the least disturbance; and,
of his own accord, took an oath in full senate, that he would never
attempt to introduce a despotic authority; but maintain their liberties
with his blood, and govern his subjects in all respects according to the
laws and the form of government established in Sweden. This public act,
which was communicated to all the foreign ministers, and particularly to
the envoy from Petersburgh, met with such a favourable reception from the
czarina, that she expressed her satisfaction in a public declaration; and
the good understanding between the two courts was perfectly restored.

SESSION OPENED.

When the parliament of England was opened in the month of November, the
king, in his speech from the throne, gave them to understand, that for the
same purposes which suggested the treaty with the elector of Bavaria, he
had now, in conjunction with the states-general, concluded another with
the king of Poland, elector of Saxony. He told them that the unfortunate
death of the prince of Orange had made no alteration in the state of
affairs in Holland; and that he had received the strongest assurances from
the states, of their firm resolution to maintain the intimate union and
friendship happily subsisting between his majesty and those ancient and
natural allies of his crown. He exhorted both houses to consider seriously
of some effectual provisions to suppress those audacious crimes of robbery
and violence, grown so frequent about the capital, proceeding in a great
measure from that profligate spirit of irreligion, idleness, gaming, and
extravagance, which had of late extended itself in an uncommon degree, to
the dishonour of the nation, and the great offence and prejudice of the
sober and industrious part of the people. The paragraphs of this speech
were, as usual, echoed back to the throne in addresses replete with
expressions of loyalty, affection, and approbation. Opposition was by this
time almost extinguished; and the proceedings of both houses took place
with such unanimity as was hardly ever known before this period in a
British parliament. The commons, however, seem to have assembled with such
sentiments as did no great honour to their temper and magnanimity. In a
few days after the session opened, lord viscount C——e, a young
nobleman, whose character entitled him to very little regard or influence
among men of sense and probity, made a motion, that Mr. Murray, who had
been so severely executed in the last session for refusing to humble
himself on his knees before them, should be again committed close prisoner
to Newgate for the same offence. This proposal, which supposed a power
that the commons had never before exercised, was sharply disputed by the
earl of Egmont, and others, who had not resigned all sense of moderation;
but the majority adopted the measure with great eagerness, and the speaker
was ordered to issue his warrant accordingly. Then the house resolved,
that the said Alexander Murray should receive the sentence, for his now
being committed close prisoner to his majesty’s gaol of Newgate, at the
bar of the house, upon his knees; and the sergeant-at-arms was commanded
to take him into custody for this purpose. Their indignation, however, was
eluded by the caution of the delinquent, who, having foreseen the effects
of their resentment, had prudently retired to another country. They
determined, nevertheless, to proceed against him as a person of some
consequence in the commonwealth; for, being informed of his retreat, they
condescended so far as to present an address to his majesty, desiring that
his royal proclamation might be issued for apprehending the said Mr.
Murray, promising a reward to him who should have the good fortune to
apprehend this fugitive-a request with which his majesty most graciously
complied.

PROCEEDINGS UPON A PAMPHLET, ENTITLED “THE CASE OF MR. MURRAY.”

Nor was this the only address presented to the king: upon such an
important subject. A pamphlet, entitled “The Case of the Hon. Alexander
Murray, esquire, in an Appeal to the People of Great Britain,” was first
stigmatized in a complaint to the house, and was afterwards produced and
read at the table. The piece was written with great acrimony, and abounded
with severe animadversions, not only upon the conduct of the returning
officer, but also on the proceedings of the commons. The violent members
immediately took fire, and the flame extended itself to the majority. Nay,
the house unanimously resolved, that the pamphlet was an impudent,
malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel, falsely and most injuriously
reflecting upon, and aspersing the proceedings of the house, tending to
create misapprehensions in the minds of the people, to the great dishonour
of the said house, and in violation of the privileges thereof. They
furthermore presented an address to the king, desiring his majesty would
be graciously pleased to give directions to his attorney-general to
prosecute the authors or author, the printers or printer, and the
publishers or publisher of the said scandalous libel, that they might be
brought to condign punishment. Directions were accordingly given for this
purpose, and a prosecution commenced against the publisher, who had some
reason to be dismayed, considering the great weight of influence he was
doomed to encounter—influence arising from a prosecution of the
crown, instituted at the request, and founded on a vote, of the house of
commons. Nevertheless, when the cause was heard before the lord-chief
justice of England, a jury of free-born Englishmen, citizens of London,
asserted their privilege of judging the law as well as the fact, and
acquitted the defendant with a truly admirable spirit of independency.
They considered the pamphlet as an appeal against oppression; and,
convinced that the contents were true, they could not in conscience
adjudge it a false libel, even though it had been so declared by one of
the branches of the legislature.

1752

The commons, in regulating the supplies of the ensuing year, voted the
continuation of eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven men for
the land-service, though not without some opposition from certain
patriots, who, rather from a sense of duty than from any hope of
influencing the majority, affirmed that sixteen thousand men in time of
peace would answer all the ends proposed by a standing army. The number of
seamen was fixed at ten thousand; large sums were granted to make up
deficiencies, and fulfil the engagements of the crown with the electors of
Bavaria and Saxony, as well as for the maintenance of Nova Scotia and
Georgia, and the castles on the coast of Guinea; and one hundred and
twelve thousand one hundred and fifty-two pounds, three shillings and
threepence, were voted, as a full compensation to the old royal African
company for their exclusive charter and property, to be applied for the
relief of their creditors. *

* These expenses were defrayed by a continuation of the
duties on malt, &c; a land-tax at three shillings in the
pound; a duty on licences, to be yearly paid by pawnbrokers
and dealers in secondhand goods, within the bills of
mortality; the sum of one million four hundred thousand
pounds advanced by the bank, according to a proposal made
for that purpose; five hundred thousand pounds to be issued
from the sinking-fund; a duty laid on gum Senegal; and the
continuation of divers other occasional impositions. The
grants for the year amounted to something less than four
millions, and the provisions made for this expense exceeded
it in the sum of two hundred and seventy-one thousand and
twenty-four pounds, ten shillings and sixpence halfpenny.

The laws enacted for the encouragement of traffic, and the regulations of
civil polity, consisted in an act for licensing pawnbrokers, and for the
more effectual preventing the receiving of stolen goods; another for
preventing thefts and robberies, by which places of entertainment,
dancing, and music, in London, Westminster, and within twenty miles of the
capital, were suppressed and prohibited, unless the proprietors of them
could obtain licenses from the justices of the peace, empowered for that
purpose; a third for annexing the forfeited estates in Scotland
unalienably to the crown, after having made satisfaction to the lawful
creditors; establishing a method of leasing these estates, and applying
the rents and profits of them for the better civilizing and improving the
highlands, and preventing future disorders in that part of the united
kingdom. Nothing could be more salutary than the purposes of these
regulations. The suburbs of the metropolis abounded with an incredible
number of public houses, which continually resounded with the noise of
riot and intemperance; they were the haunts of idleness, fraud, and
rapine; and the seminaries of drunkenness, debauchery, extravagance, and
every vice incident to human nature; yet the suppression of these
receptacles of infamy was attended with an inconvenience, which, in some
cases, arose even to a degree of oppression. The justices being vested by
the legislature with the power of granting or refusing licenses, were
constituted, in effect, the arbiters on whose decision the fortunes and
livelihood of many individuals absolutely depended. Many of those who
exercised this species of magistracy within the bills of mortality, were,
to the reproach of government, men of profligate lives, needy, mean,
ignorant, and rapacious, and often acted from the most scandalous
principles of selfish avarice.

LAW RELATING TO THE FORFEITED ESTATES IN SCOTLAND.

The law relating to the highlands of Scotland was well calculated for
promoting, among the inhabitants of that country, such a spirit of
industry as might detach them from their dangerous connexions, and
gradually supersede that military genius which had been so productive of
danger and alarm to the southern part of Great Britain. The king, by this
act, was empowered to appoint commissioners for managing the forfeited
estates, who were enabled to grant leases of small farms, not above twenty
pounds a-year, to individuals, who should take an oath to government to
reside upon and cultivate the lands thus let. It was also provided, that
no lease should be granted for a longer term than twenty-one years; and
that the leases should not pay above three-fourths of the annual value.
Although these forfeited estates were generally encumbered with claims
beyond their real value, and the act directed that they should be disposed
of by public sale; yet, as they lay in the most disaffected parts of the
highlands, it was thought necessary that they should remain in the
possession of the crown, because, in case of their being publicly sold,
they might be purchased in trust for the families of the persons by whom
they were forfeited, and thus the spirit of disaffection would still
survive. A valuation, therefore, was made by the court of session in
Scotland, at the joint suit of the crown and the creditors; and the value
being ascertained, the just claimants were paid out of the next aids
granted by parliament. The bill met with considerable opposition in the
house of peers from the duke of Bedford and the earl of Bath, who probably
foresaw that the good effects of this scheme, so laudable in itself, would
be frustrated in the execution; and that the act, instead of answering the
purposes for which it was intended, would serve only as a job to gratify
the rapacious retainers to the government, and their emissaries in that
country. After a warm debate, however, it was adopted by a great majority,
and obtained the royal assent.

NEW CONSOLIDATION OF FUNDS.

A third law related to certain articles of the national debt, which was
now converted into several joint-stocks of annuities, transferable at the
bank of England, to be charged on the sinking fund. A great number of
different funds for annuities, established at different times and by
different acts, subsisted at this period, SO that it I was necessary to
keep many different accounts, which could not be regulated without
considerable trouble and expense, for the removal of which the bill was
calculated.

TWO PORTS OPENED FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH WOOL.

In consequence of petitions from the woollen manufacturers of Westmoreland
and Yorkshire, two bills were brought in, and passed through both houses,
by which the ports of Lancaster and Great Yarmouth were opened for the
importation of wool and woollen yarn from Ireland; but why this privilege
was not extended to all the frequented ports of the kingdom it is not easy
to conceive, without supposing a little national jealousy on one hand, and
a great deal of grievous restraint on the other. Over and above these new
laws, some unsuccessful endeavours were used in behalf of commerce and
police. A bill was offered for laying further restrictions on pawnbrokers
and brokers, that they might no longer suck the blood of the poor, and act
as the accessaries of theft and robbery, which was canvassed, debated, and
made its way through the lower house; but the lords rejected it as a crude
scheme, which they could not amend, because it was a money-bill, not
cognizable by their house, without engaging in a dispute with the commons.
Another bill was prepared, for giving power to change the punishment of
felony, in certain cases, to confinement and hard labour in dockyards or
garrisons. It was the opinion of many who wished well to their country,
and were properly qualified to prosecute such inquiries, that the practice
of consigning such a number of wretches to the hands of the executioner,
served only, by its frequency, to defeat the purpose of the law, in
robbing death of all its terror, and the public of many subjects, who
might, notwithstanding their delinquency, be in some measure rendered
useful to society. Such was the motive that influenced the promoters of
this bill; by which it was proposed, in imitation of that economy
practised in other countries, to confine felons convicted under certain
circumstances to hard labour upon the public works of the kingdom. The
scheme was adopted by the lower house, but rejected by the lords, who
seemed apprehensive of its bringing such discredit upon his majesty’s
dock-yards, as would discourage persons who valued their reputation from
engaging in such employment. Of still greater importance to the nation was
the next measure proposed, in a bill for making the militia of England
more useful, presented by Mr. Thornton, a gentleman of Yorkshire, who had
distinguished himself by his loyalty and patriotism. It was canvassed in a
committee of the whole house, and underwent divers amendments; but
miscarried, through the aversion of the ministry to any project tending to
remove or lessen the necessity of maintaining a standing army. A
considerable number of petitions for different regulations, in respect to
commerce and convenience of traffic, were presented, considered, and left
upon the table. A remonstrance from the prisoners confined in the gaol of
the king’s-bench, complaining of their miserable situation, arising from
want of room and other conveniences, being taken into consideration by a
committee, among other evidences, they examined that remarkable personage
who had signalized himself in different parts of Christendom, under the
name of Theodore, king of Corsica. Though formerly countenanced and even
treated as a sovereign prince by the British ministry, he was now reduced
to the forlorn condition of a confined debtor; and, to the reproach of
this kingdom, died in prison, surrounded with all the misery of indigence,
and overwhelmed with the infirmities of old age. But the most remarkable
circumstance of the parliamentary transactions that distinguished this
session, was a motion made in both houses for an address to the king,
beseeching his majesty, that in time of public tranquillity, he would be
graciously pleased to avoid entering into subsidiary treaties with foreign
princes, which are so burdensome to this nation. This extraordinary
proposal was made and strenuously urged by the duke of B——,
and a vehement debate ensued, in which the earls of G——, S——,
and H——, opposed it with an execution of superior abilities;
and the question being put, was carried in the negative without a
division. The same fate attended it in the house of commons, where it was
introduced by lord H——y, and supported by some distinguished
orators. The session ended in the latter end of March, when his majesty,
having given his assent to ninety-five public and private bills, harangued
both houses, and prorogued the parliament.*

* Among the proceedings of this session, it may not be
improper to mention a new act for the prevention of murders,
which had been shockingly frequent of late, importing, that
every criminal convicted of this horrid crime should be
executed in one day after his sentence, and his body
delivered to the surgeons for dissection—an expedient which
had been found productive of very salutary consequences.

THE KING SETS OUT FOR HANOVER.

Immediately after the prorogation, the king appointed a regency and set
out for Hanover, in order to complete the great scheme he had projected
for electing a king of the Romans. Great Britain, in the meantime,
produced no event of importance, or any transaction that deserves
historical mention, except the ratification of two treaties of peace and
commerce with the states of Tripoli and Tunis on the coast of Barbary,
concluded by the British consuls in those cities, under the influence and
auspices of an English squadron, commanded by commodore Keppel, son to the
earl of Albemarle. The tide of luxury still flowed with an impetuous
current, bearing down all the mounds of temperance and decorum; while
fraud and profligacy struck out new channels, through which they eluded
the restrictions of the law, and all the vigilance of civil policy. New
arts of deception were invented, in order to ensnare and ruin the unwary;
and some infamous practices in the way of commerce, were countenanced by
persons of rank and importance in the commonwealth. A certain member of
parliament was obliged to withdraw himself from his country, in
consequence of a discovery, by which it appeared that he had contrived and
executed schemes for destroying his own ships at sea, with a view to
defraud the insurers.

In the course of this year the affairs of the continent did not undergo
any material alteration. In France, the religious dispute concerning the
doctrine of Jansen-ius still subsisted between the clergy and the
parliament; and seemed to acquire additional fuel from the violence of the
archbishop of Paris, a haughty turbulent prelate, whose pride and bigotry
were sufficient to embroil one half of Christendom. The northern powers
enjoyed a perfect tranquillity; the states-general of the United Provinces
were engrossed by plans of national economy. Spain was intent upon
extending her commerce, bringing her manufactures to perfection, and
repressing the insolence of the Barbary corsairs. His Portuguese majesty
endeavoured, by certain peremptory precautions, to check the exportation
of gold coin from his dominions, and insisted upon inspecting the books of
the British merchants settled at Lisbon; but they refused to comply with
this demand, which was contrary to a treaty subsisting between the two
crowns; and he thought proper to acquiesce in their refusal. He was much
better employed in obtaining from the pope an abolition of the annual
procession called the Auto-da-fe, one of the most horrid triumphs
of spiritual tyranny. The peace of Italy was secured by a defensive treaty
concluded at Madrid between the emperor, his catholic majesty, the king of
the two Sicilies, and the duke of Parma; to which treaty the king of
Sardinia afterwards acceded.

DISPUTE BETWEEN HANOVER AND PRUSSIA.

With respect to the great scheme of electing the archduke Joseph king of
the Romans, fresh objections seemed to rise from different quarters. The
good understanding between the courts of Berlin and Hanover re-received an
additional shock, from a dispute concerning the property of East
Friezeland, which his Prussian majesty had secured, as heir to the last
possessor. His Britannic majesty, as elector of Hanover, having
pretensions to the same inheritance, his minister delivered a memorial to
the diet of the empire assembled at Ratisbon, demanding that the king of
Prussia, as elector of Brandenburgh, should be referred to the decision of
the Aulic council, in regard to his claim to the estates of East
Friezeland; but the king being already in possession, refused to submit
his right to the determination of that or any other tribunal; and when the
diet presumed to deliberate on this affair, his envoy entered a strong
protest against their proceedings. At the same time, he presented the
other ministers with a memorial, tending to refute the elector of
Hanover’s pretensions to the principality in question.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE COURTS OF LONDON AND BERLIN.

At this juncture his Prussian majesty made no scruple of expressing his
resentment against the court of London, which he seemed to consider as an
officious cabal, that had no right to intermeddle in the affairs of
Germany. His resident at London complained to the British ministry, that
divers ships, sailing under the Prussian flag, had been stopped at sea,
and even seized by English cruisers, and that his subjects had been ill
treated and oppressed; he therefore demanded reparation in a peremptory
tone; and in the meantime discontinued the payment of the Silesia loan,
which he had charged himself with by an article in the treaty of Breslau.
This was a sum of money amounting to two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds, which the emperor Charles VI., father of the reigning empress, had
borrowed of the subjects of Great Britain, on condition of paying an
interest of six per cent., and mortgaging the silver mines of Silesia for
the repayment of the principal. These devolved to the king of Prussia with
this incumbrance, and he continued to pay the interest punctually till
this juncture, when the payment was stopped; and he published a paper,
entitled, “An Exposition of the Motives which influenced his Conduct on
this occasion.” In his memorial to the ministry of Great Britain, he
alleged, that eighteen Prussian ships, and thirty-three neutral vessels,
in which the subjects of Prussia were concerned, had been unjustly seized
by English privateers; his account of damages amounted to a very
considerable sum; and he demanded, in the most dogmatic terms, that the
affair should be finally discussed in the term of three months from the
date of his remonstrance. The exposition and memorial were subjected to
the examination of the ablest civilians in England, who refuted every
article of the charge with equal precision and perspicuity. They proved,
that captures by sea fell properly under the cognizance of those powers
under whose jurisdiction the seizures were made; and therefore his
Prussian majesty could not, consistent with the law of nations, determine
these disputes in his own tribunals. They demonstrated, by undoubted
evidence, the falsity of ma-ny facts alleged in the memorial, as well as
the fairness of the proceedings by which some few of the Prussian vessels
had been condemned; and made it appear, that no insult or injury had been
offered to the subjects of Prussia. Finally, they observed, that the
Silesia loan was a private transaction of such a nature, that, even if a
war had happened between the emperor Charles VI. and his Britannic
majesty, this must have been held sacred and inviolable; that when the
empress-queen ceded Silesia to the king of Prussia, this monarch charged
himself with the repayment of the loan, which, being a private debt, and
transferable, was now diffused into different countries, and become the
property of many others besides the subjects of Great Britain. They wound
up their chain of reasoning by observing, that, according to agreement
with the emperor, the whole of this loan should have been repaid in the
year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five; whereas the complaints
specified in the Prussian memorial were founded on facts posterior to that
period. Whether his Prussian majesty was convinced by these reasons, and
desisted from principle, or thought proper to give up his claim upon other
political considerations; certain it is, he no longer insisted upon
satisfaction, but ordered the payment of the Silesia loan to be continued
without further interruption. A report, indeed, was circulated, that
advantage had been taken of the demur by a certain prince, who employed
his agents to buy up a great part of the loan at a considerable discount.

IMPROVEMENT OF POMERANIA.

How much soever the king of Prussia may be the subject of censure on this
occasion, it must be allowed that, with regard to his own subjects, he
acted as a wise legislator, and the father of his country. He peopled the
deserts of Pomerania, by encouraging, with royal bounties, a great number
of industrious emigrants to settle in that province; the face of which in
a very few years underwent the most agreeable alteration. Above sixty new
villages arose amidst a barren waste, and every part of the country
exhibited marks of successful cultivation. Those solitary and desolate
plains, where no human footsteps had for many ages been seen, were now
converted into fields of corn. The farms were regularly parcelled out; the
houses multiplied, and teemed with population; the happy peasants,
sheltered in a peculiar manner under their king’s protection, sowed their
grounds in peace, and reaped their harvests in security. The same care and
indulgence were extended to the unpeopled parts of other provinces within
the Prussian dominions, and extraordinary encouragement was granted to all
French protestants who should come and settle under the government of this
political sage.

TREATY WITH THE ELECTOR PALATINE.

The courts of Vienna and Hanover still employed their chief attention upon
the scheme of electing a king of the Romans; and the elector of Mentz,
influenced by the majority of the college, had convoked an electoral diet
for that purpose; but strong protests against this convocation were
entered by the electors of Cologn and Palatine, insomuch that it was
thought expedient to conciliate this last, by taking some steps in his
favour, with respect to the satisfaction he demanded from the
empress-queen and his Britannic majesty. His claim upon the court of
Vienna amounted to three millions of florins, by way of indemnification
for the losses he had sustained during the war. He demanded of the king of
England twenty thousand pounds sterling, for provisions and forage
furnished to the British troops while they acted on the Maine; and the
like sum for the like purposes from the states-general of the United
Provinces. The empress-queen could not help remonstrating against this
demand as exorbitant in itself, and the more unreasonable, as the elector
palatine, at the death of her father, had openly declared against the
pragmatic sanction, which he had guaranteed in the most solemn manner; she
therefore observed, that the damage he had sustained in consequence of
that declaration, ought to be considered as the common fate of war. These
reasons, though conclusive and irrefragable in the usual way of arguing,
made no impression upon the palatine, who perfectly well understood his
own importance, and was determined to seize this opportunity of turning it
to the best advantage. The court of Vienna, and the maritime powers,
finding him thus obstinately attached to his own interest, resolved to
bring him over to their views at any rate, and commenced a negotiation
with him, which produced a formal treaty. By this convention his demands
in money were fixed at twelve hundred thousand Dutch florins, to be paid
at three instalments: five hundred thousand by the empress-queen, and the
remaining seven hundred thousand by the king of Great Britain and the
states-general, according to the proportion established in former
treaties. The privilege of Non appellendo for the duchy of
Deux-ponts was confirmed to his electoral highness, together with some
other rights and pretensions, in consideration of his concurring with the
other electors in the choice of a king of the Romans, to be elected
according to the customs prescribed by the laws and constitutions of the
empire. He likewise engaged to join them in settling the articles of the
capitulation with the king of the Romans, emperor in futuro. Yet,
even after the concurrence of this prince was secured, the purposed
election proved abortive, from the strong objections that were started,
and the strenuous opposition which was made by his Prussian majesty, who
perhaps aspired in secret at the imperial dignity, which the empress-queen
took all this pains to perpetuate in her own family.

1753

SESSION OPENED.

The king of Great Britain returning from the continent, opened the session
of parliament on the eleventh day of January, with a speech, implying that
all his views and negotiations had been calculated and directed to
preserve and secure the duration of the general peace, so agreeable and
necessary to the welfare of all Europe; that he had the satisfaction to be
assured of a good disposition in all the powers that were his allies, to
adhere to the same salutary object. He exhorted them to continue their
attention to the reduction of the national debt, the augmentation of the
sinking fund, and the improvement of the public revenue. He recommended to
their serious consideration what further laws and regulations might be
necessary for suppressing those crimes and disorders, of which the public
had so justly complained; and concluded with an assurance, that his hearty
concurrence and endeavours should never be wanting in any measure that
might promote their welfare and prosperity. The addresses in answer to
this speech were couched in the usual form of implicit approbation; but
that of the commons did not pass without question. The earl of Egmont took
exceptions to one paragraph, in which they acknowledged his majesty’s
wisdom, as well as goodness, in pursuing such measures as must contribute
to maintain and render permanent the general tranquillity of Europe; and
declared their satisfaction at the assurances his majesty had received
from his allies, that they were all attached to the same salutary object.
His lordship expatiated on the absurdity of these compliments at such a
juncture, when the peace of Europe was so precarious, and the English
nation had so much cause of complaint and dissatisfaction. He was seconded
by some other individuals, who declaimed with great vivacity against
continental connexions; and endeavoured to expose the weakness and folly
of the whole system of foreign measures which our ministry had lately
pursued. It must be owned, indeed, that they might have chosen a better
opportunity to compliment their sovereign on the permanency of the peace
than at this juncture, when they must have seen themselves on the very
brink of a new rupture with the most formidable power in Europe. But the
truth is, these addresses to the throne had been long considered as
compliments of course, implying no more than a respectful attachment to
their sovereign; accordingly, both houses agreed to their respective
addresses without division. The two grand committees of supply and of ways
and means, being established, the business of the house was transacted
without much altercation; and the people had great reason to be satisfied
with their moderate proceedings. Ten thousand seamen, and the usual number
of land forces, were retained for the service of the ensuing year. They
provided for the maintenance of the new colony of Nova Scotia, the civil
establishment of Georgia, the support of the castles on the coast of
Guinea, and the erection of a new fort at Anarnabo, where the French had
attempted to make a settlement; and they enabled his majesty to fulfil his
engagements with the king of Poland and the elector of Bavaria.

The supplies, including grants for former deficiencies and services for
which no provision had been made in the course of the last year, did not
exceed two millions one hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hundred and
seven pounds, seventeen shillings and twopence halfpenny. In order to
defray which expense, they assigned the duty on malt, &c, the land-tax
at two shillings in the pound, the surplus of certain funds in the
exchequer, and the sum of four hundred and twenty thousand pounds out of
the sinking fund; so that the exceedings amounted to near three hundred
thousand pounds.*

* Several duties on salt, as well as on red and white
herrings delivered out for home consumption, were rendered
perpetual, though subject to be redeemed by parliament; and
it was provided that the debt contracted upon these duties
being discharged, all the after-produce of them should
become part of the sinking fund.

As for the national debt, it now stood at the enormous sum of seventy-four
millions three hundred and sixty-eight thousand four hundred and fifty-one
pounds, fifteen shillings and one penny; and the sinking fund produced one
million seven hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and
twenty-nine pounds, six shillings and tenpence one farthing.

GAME ACT.

One of the first measures brought upon the carpet in the course of this
session, was an act containing regulations for the better preservation of
the game, of which so great havoc had been made by poachers, and other
persons unqualified to enjoy that diversion, that the total extirpation of
it was apprehended.

ACT FOR PERFORMING QUARANTINE.

The next step taken by the commons was an affair of much greater
consequence to the community, being a bill for obliging ships the more
effectually to perform quarantine, in order to prevent the plague from
being imported from foreign countries into Great Britain. For this purpose
it was ordained, that if this dreadful visitation should appear in any
ship to the northward of cape Finisterre, the master or commander should
immediately proceed to the harbour of New Grimsby, in one of the islands
of Scilly, and there communicate the discovery to some officer of the
customs; who should, with the first opportunity, transmit this
intelligence to another custom-house officer in the nearest port of
England, to be by him forwarded to one of his majesty’s principal
secretaries of state. In the meantime the ship should remain at the said
island, and not an individual presume to go ashore until his majesty’s
pleasure should be known. It was also provided, that in case the master of
a ship thus infected should not be able to make the islands of Scilly, or
be forced up either channel by violent winds, he should not enter any
frequented harbour; but remain in some open road, until he could receive
orders from his majesty, or the privy council; that, during this interval,
he should avoid all intercourse with the shore, or any person or vessel
whatsoever, on pain of being deemed guilty of felony, and suffering death
without benefit of clergy.

ACT FOR PREVENTING THE PLUNDERING OF SHIPWRECKED VESSELS.

In order the more effectually to repress the barbarous practice of
plundering ships which have the misfortune to suffer shipwreck—a
practice which prevailed upon many different parts of the British coast—to
the disgrace of the nation, and the scandal of human nature; a bill was
prepared, containing clauses to enforce the laws against such savage
delinquents, who prowl along the shore like hungry wolves, in hope of
preying upon their fellow-creatures; and certain provisions for the relief
of the unhappy sufferers.*

* By the new law, the clerk of the peace in the county where
the crime shall be committed, is obliged, upon receiving
proper information, to prosecute the offenders at the
expense of the county. It was likewise proposed, that in
case no prosecution of this nature should be commenced
within a certain limited time after the information should
have been legally given, in that case the county might be
sued by the person who had sustained the damage, and obliged
to indemnify him for his loss; but this clause was rejected
by the majority; and the bill having made its way through
both houses, received the royal assent.

When the mutiny bill fell under deliberation, the earl of Egmont proposed
a new clause for empowering and requiring regimental courts-martial to
examine witnesses upon oath in all their trials. The proposal occasioned a
debate, in which the ministry were pretty equally divided; but the clause
was disapproved by the majority, and this annual bill was enacted into a
law without any alteration.

BILL RELATING TO THE BOUNTY OF CORN EXPORTED.

The next bill was framed in consequence of dirers petitions presented by
the exporters of corn, who complained that the bounties were not paid, and
prayed that the house would make proper provision for that purpose. A bill
was accordingly brought in, importing, that interest after the rate of
three per cent, should be allowed upon every debenture, for the bounty on
the exportation of com, payable by the receiver-general or cashier of the
customs, until the principal could be discharged out of such customs or
duties as are appropriated for the payment of this bounty. This premium on
the exportation of corn ought not to be granted, except when the lowness
of the market price in Great Britain proves that there is a superabundance
in the kingdom; otherwise the exporter will find his account in depriving
our own labourers of their bread, in order to supply our rivals at an
easier rate; for example, suppose wheat in England should sell for twenty
shillings a quarter, the merchant might export into France, and afford it
to the people of that kingdom for eighteen shillings, because the bounty
on exportation would, even at that rate, afford him a considerable
advantage.

TURKEY TRADE LAID OPEN.

A great number of merchants having presented petitions from different
parts of the kingdom, representing that the trade of Turkey was greatly
decreased, ascribing this diminution to the exclusive charter enjoyed by a
monopoly, and praying that the trade might be laid open to all his
majesty’s subjects, one of the members for Liverpool moved for leave to
bring in a bill for this purpose. Such a measure had been twice before
proposed without success; but now it was adopted without opposition. A
bill was immediately introduced; and, notwithstanding all the interest and
efforts of the Turkey company, who petitioned the house against it, and
were heard by their counsel, it passed through both houses, and received
the royal sanction. By this regulation any British subject may obtain the
freedom of the Turkey company, by paying or rendering a fine of twenty
pounds; and all the members are secured from the tyranny of oppressive
bye-laws, contrived by any monopolizing cabal.*

* Several other bills were passed; one for regulating the
number of public houses, and the more easy conviction of
persons selling ale and strong liquors without license—an
act which empowered the justices of peace to tyrannize over
their fellow-subjects: a second, enabling the magistrates of
Edinburgh to improve, enlarge, and adorn the avenues and
streets of that city, according to a concerted plan, to be
executed by voluntary subscription: a third, allowing the
exportation of wool and woollen yarn from Ireland into any
port in Great Britain: and a fourth, prescribing the breadth
of the wheels belonging to heavy carriages, that the high
roads of the kingdom might be the better preserved.

NATURALIZATION OF THE JEWS.

But this session was chiefly distinguished by an act for naturalizing
Jews, and a bill for the better preventing clandestine marriages. The
first of these, which passed without much opposition in the house of
lords, from whence it descended to the commons, was entitled, “An act to
permit persons professing the Jewish religion to be naturalized by
parliament, and for other purposes therein mentioned.” It was supported by
some petitions of merchants and manufacturers, who, upon examination,
appeared to be Jews, or their dependents; and countenanced by the
ministry, who thought they foresaw, in the consequences of such a
naturalization, a great accession to the monied interest, and a
considerable increase of their own influence among the individuals of that
community. They boldly affirmed, that such a law would greatly conduce to
the advantage of the nation; that it would encourage persons of wealth to
remove with their effects from foreign parts into Great Britain, increase
the commerce and the credit of the kingdom, and set a laudable example of
industry, temperance, and frugality. Such, however, were not the
sentiments of the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London
in common-council assembled, who, in a petition to parliament, expressed
their apprehension that the bill, if passed into a law, would tend greatly
to the dishonour of the christian religion, endanger the excellent
constitution, and be highly prejudicial to the interest and trade of the
kingdom in general, and of the city of London in particular. Another
petition to the same purpose was next day presented to the house,
subscribed by merchants and traders of the city of London; who, among
other allegations, observed, that the consequences of such a
naturalization would greatly affect their trade and commerce with foreign
nations, particularly with Spain and Portugal. Counsel was heard, evidence
examined, and the bill produced violent debates, in which there seemed to
be more passion than patriotism, more declamation than argument. The
adversaries of the bill affirmed, that such a naturalization would deluge
the kingdom with brokers, usurers, and beggars; that the rich Jews, under
the shadow of this indulgence, would purchase lands, and even advowsons;
so as not only to acquire an interest in the legislature, but also to
influence the constitution of the church of Christ, to which they were the
inveterate and professed enemies; that the lower class of that nation,
when thus admitted to the right of denizens, would interfere with the
industrious natives who earn their livelihood by their labour; and by dint
of the most parsimonious frugality, to which the English are strangers,
work at an under price; so as not only to share, but even in a manner to
exclude them from all employment; that such an adoption of vagrant Jews
into the community, from all parts of the world, would rob the real
subjects of their birthright, disgrace the character of the nation, expose
themselves to the most dishonourable participation and intrusion, endanger
the constitution both in church and state, and be an indelible reproach
upon the established religion of the country. Some of these orators seemed
transported even to a degree of enthusiasm. They prognosticated that the
Jews would multiply so much in number, engross such wealth, and acquire so
great power and influence in Great Britain, that their persons would be
revered, their customs imitated, and Judaism become the fashionable
religion of the English. Finally, they affirmed that such an act was
directly flying in the face of the prophecy, which declares, that the Jews
shall be a scattered people, without country or fixed habitation, until
they shall be converted from their infidelity, and gathered together in
the land of their forefathers. These arguments and apprehensions, which
were in reality frivolous and chimerical, being industriously circulated
among the vulgar, naturally prejudiced against the Jewish people, excited
such a ferment throughout the nation, as ought to have deterred the
ministry from the prosecution of such an unpopular measure; which,
however, they had courage enough to maintain against all opposition. The
bill passed the ordeal of both houses, and his majesty vouchsafed the
royal sanction to this law in favour of the Hebrew nation. The truth is,
it might have increased the wealth, and extended the commerce of Great
Britain, had it been agreeable to the people; and as the naturalized Jews
would still have been excluded from all civil and military offices, as
well as from other privileges enjoyed by their christian brethren, in all
probability they would have gradually forsaken their own unprofitable and
obstinate infidelity, opened their eyes to the shining truths of the
gospel, and joined their fellow-subjects in embracing the doctrines of
Christianity. But no ministry ought to risk an experiment, how plausible
soever it might be, if they found it, as this was, an object of the
people’s unconquerable aversion. What rendered this unpopular measure the
more impolitic, was the unseasonable juncture at which it was carried into
execution; that is, at the eve of a general election for a new parliament,
when a minister ought carefully to avoid every step which may give umbrage
to the body of the people. The earl of Egmont, who argued against the bill
with equal power and vivacity, in describing the effect it might have upon
that occasion, “I am amazed,” said he, “that this consideration makes no
impression.—When that day, which is not far off, shall arrive, I
shall not fear to set my foot upon any ground of election in the kingdom,
in opposition to any one man among you, or any new christian, who has
voted or appeared in favour of this naturalization.”

MARRIAGE ACT.

Another bill, transmitted from the upper house, met with a reception
equally unfavourable among the commons, though it was sustained on the
shoulders of the majority, and thus forced its way to the throne, where it
obtained the royal approbation. The practice of solemnizing clandestine
marriages, so prejudicial to the peace of families, and so often
productive of misery to the parties themselves thus united, was an evil
that prevailed to such a degree as claimed the attention of the
legislature. The sons and daughters of great and opulent families, before
they had acquired knowledge and experience, or attained to the years of
discretion, were every day seduced in their affections, and inveigled into
matches big with infamy and ruin; and these were greatly facilitated by
the opportunities that occurred of being united instantaneously by the
ceremony of marriage, in the first transport of passion, before the
destined victim had time to cool or deliberate on the subject. For this
pernicious purpose, there was a band of profligate miscreants, the refuse
of the clergy, dead to every sentiment of virtue, abandoned to all sense
of decency and decorum, for the most part prisoners for debt or
delinquency, and indeed the very outcasts of human society, who hovered
about the verge of the Fleet-prison to intercept customers, plying like
porters for employment, and performed the ceremony of marriage without
license or question, in cellars, garrets, or ale-houses, to the scandal of
religion, and the disgrace of that order which they professed. The ease
with which this ecclesiastical sanction was obtained, and the vicious
disposition of those wretches, open to the practices of fraud and
corruption, were productive of polygamy, indigence, conjugal infidelity,
prostitution, and every curse that could embitter the married state. A
remarkable case of this nature having fallen under the cognizance of the
peers, in an appeal from an inferior tribunal, that house ordered the
judges to prepare a new bill for preventing such abuses; and one was
accordingly framed, under the auspices of lord Hardwicke, at that time
lord high chancellor of England. In order to anticipate the bad effects of
clandestine marriages, this new statute enacted, that the banns should be
regularly published three successive Sundays, in the church of the parish
where the parties dwell; that no license should be granted to marry in any
place, where one of the parties has not dwelt at least a month, except a
special license by the archbishop; that if any marriage should be
solemnized in any other place than a church or a chapel without a special
license, or in a public chapel without having published the banns, or
obtained a license of some person properly qualified, the marriage should
he void, and the person who solemnized it transported for seven years;
that marriages by license, of parties under age, without consent of parent
or guardian, should be null and void, unless the party under age be a
widow, and the parent refusing consent a widow married again: that when
the consent of a mother or guardian is refused from caprice, or such
parent or guardian be non compos mentis, or beyond sea, the minor
should have recourse for relief to the court of chancery; that no suit
should be commenced to compel a celebration of marriage, upon pretence of
any contract; that all marriages should be solemnized before two
witnesses, and an entry be made in a book kept for that purpose, whether
it was by banns or license, whether either of the parties was under age,
or the marriage celebrated with the consent of parent or guardian, and
this entry to be signed by the minister, the parties, and the witnesses;
that a false license or certificate, or destroying register books, should
be deemed felony, either in principal or accessary, and punished with
death. The bill, when first considered in the lower house, gave rise to a
variety of debates; in which the members appeared to be divided rather
according to their real sentiments, than by the rules of any political
distinction; for some principal servants of the government freely differed
in opinion from the minister, who countenanced the bill; while on the
other hand, he was on this occasion supported by certain chiefs of the
opposition, and the disputes were maintained with extraordinary eagerness
and warmth. The principal objections imported, that such restrictions on
marriage would damp the spirit of love and propagation; promote mercenary
matches, to the ruin of domestic happiness, as well as to the prejudice of
posterity and population; impede the circulation of property, by
preserving the wealth of the kingdom among a kind of aristocracy of
opulent families, who would always intermarry within their own pale;
subject the poor to many inconveniencies and extraordinary expense, from
the nature of the forms to be observed; and throw an additional power into
the hands of the chancellor. They affirmed, that no human power had a
right to dissolve a vow solemnly made in the sight of heaven; and that, in
proportion as the bill prevented clandestine marriages, it would encourage
fornication and debauchery, insomuch as the parties restrained from
indulging their mutual passions in an honourable manner, would be tempted
to gratify them by stealth, at the hazard of their reputation. In a word,
they foresaw a great number of evils in the train of this bill, which have
not yet been realized. On the other side, its advocates endeavoured to
refute these arguments, and some of them spoke with great strength and
precision. The bill underwent a great number of alterations and
amendments; which were not effected without violent contest and
altercation. At length, however, it was floated through both houses on the
tide of a great majority, and steered into the safe harbour of royal
approbation. Certain it is, the abuse of clandestine marriage might have
been removed upon much easier terms than those imposed upon the subject by
this bill; which, after all, hath been found ineffectual, as it may be
easily eluded by a short voyage to the continent, or a moderate journey to
North Britain, where the indissoluble knot may be tied without scruple or
interruption.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DELIBERATIONS CONCERNING THE SUGAR COLONIES.

Over and above these new statutes, there were some other subjects which
occasionally employed the attention of the commons; such as the state of
the British sugar colonies, which was considered, in consequence of
petitions presented by the sugar refiners and grocers of London,
Westminster, and Bristol, complaining of the exorbitant price demanded and
given for sugars imported from Jamaica; desiring that the proprietors of
lands in Jamaica might be obliged to cultivate greater quantities of
ground for raising sugar-canes, or that they (the petitioners) might have
leave to import muscovado sugars from other countries, when the price of
those imported from Jamaica should exceed a certain rate. This
remonstrance was taken into consideration by a committee of the whole
house; and a great number of evidences and papers being examined, they
resolved, that the peopling of Jamaica with white inhabitants, and
cultivating the lands thereof, would be the most proper measure for
securing that island, and increasing the trade and navigation between it
and Great Britain, and other parts of his majesty’s dominions; that the
endeavours hitherto used by the legislature of Jamaica to increase the
number of white inhabitants, and enforce the cultivation of lands, in the
manner that might best conduce to the security and defence of that island,
had not been effectual for these purposes. The house ordered a bill to be
founded on these resolutions; but this was postponed until the ministry
should receive more full information touching the true state of that
island. The planters of Jamaica laboured under many grievances and
hardships, from divers heavy impositions and restrictions; and a detail of
these was transmitted in a representation to his majesty, which was
referred to the consideration of the commissioners of trade and
plantations. The cause of the planters was defended vigorously, and
managed in the house of commons by alderman Beckford, a gentleman of vast
possessions in the island of Jamaica, who perfectly well understood, and
strenuously supported, the interest of that his native country.

FATE OF THE REGISTER BILL.

Abortive also proved the attempt to establish a law for keeping an annual
register of marriages, births, deaths, the individuals who received alms,
and the total number of people in Great Britain. A bill for this purpose
was presented by Mr. Potter, a gentleman of pregnant parts and spirited
elocution; who, enumerating the advantages of such a law, observed, that
it would ascertain the number of the people, and the collective strength
of the nation; consequently, point out those places where there is a
defect or excess of population, and certainly determine whether a general
naturalization would be advantageous or prejudicial to the community; that
it would decide what number of men might, on any sudden emergency, be
levied for the defence of the kingdom; and whether the nation is gainer or
loser, by sending its natives to settle, and our troops to defend distant
colonies; that it would be the means of establishing a local
administration of civil government, or a police upon certain fixed
principles, the want of which hath been long a reproach to the nation, a
security to vice, and an encouragement to idleness; that in many cases
where all other evidence is wanting, it would enable suitors to recover
their right in courts of justice, facilitate an equal and equitable
assessment in raising the present taxes, and laying future impositions;
specify the lineal descents, relations, and alliances of families; lighten
the intolerable burdens incurred by the public, from innumerable and
absurd regulations relating to the poor; provide for them by a more equal
exertion of humanity, and effectually screen them from all risk of
perishing by hunger, cold, cruelty, and oppression. Whether such a law
would have answered the sanguine expectations of its patron, we shall not
pretend to determine; though, in our opinion, it must have been attended
with very salutary consequences, particularly in restraining the hand of
robbery and violence, in detecting fraud, bridling the ferocity of a
licentious people, and establishing a happy system of order and
subordination. At first the bill met with little opposition, except from
Mr. Thornton, member for the city of York, who inveighed against it with
great fervour, as a measure that savoured of French policy, to which the
English nation ever had the utmost aversion. He affirmed, that the method
in which it was proposed this register should be kept, would furnish the
enemies of Great Britain with continual opportunities of knowing the
strength or weakness of the nation; that it would empower an ill-designing
minister to execute any scheme subversive of public liberty, invest parish
and petty officers of the peace with exorbitant powers, and cost the
nation about fifty thousand pounds a-year to carry the scheme into
execution. These arguments, which, we apprehend, are extremely frivolous
and inconclusive, had great weight with a considerable number who joined
in the opposition, while the ministry stood neutral. Nevertheless, after
having undergone some amendments, it was conveyed to the lords, by whom it
was, at the second reading, thrown out as a scheme of very dangerous
tendency. The legislature of Great Britain have, on some occasions, been
more startled at the distant shadow of a bare possibility, than at the
real approach of the most dangerous innovation.

SIR HANS SLOANE’S MUSEUM PURCHASED BY PARLIAMENT.

From the usual deliberations on civil and commercial concerns, the
attention of the parliament, which had seldom or never turned upon
literary avocations, was called off by an extraordinary subject of this
nature. Sir Hans Sloane, the celebrated physician and naturalist, well
known through all the civilized countries of Europe for his ample
collection of rarities, culled from the animal, vegetable, and mineral
kingdoms, as well as of antiquities and curiosities of art, had directed,
in his last will, that this valuable museum, together with his numerous
library, should be offered to the parliament, for the use of the public,
in consideration of their paying a certain sum in compensation to his
heirs. His terms were embraced by the commons, who agreed to pay twenty
thousand pounds for the whole, supposed to be worth four times that sum;
and a bill was prepared for purchasing this museum, together with the
Harleian collection of manuscripts, so denominated from its founder,
Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, lord-high-treasurer of England, and now
offered to the public by his daughter, the duchess of Portland. It was
proposed, that these purchases should be joined to the famous Cottonian
library, and a suitable repository provided for them and the king’s
library, which had long lain neglected and exposed to the injuries of the
weather in the old dormitory at Westminster. Accordingly, trustees and
governors, consisting of the most eminent persons of the kingdom, were
appointed, and regulations established for the management of this noble
museum, which was deposited in Montagu-house, one of the most magnificent
edifices in England, where it is subjected, without reserve, to the view
of the public, under certain necessary restrictions, and exhibits a
glorious monument of national taste and liberality. *

* The library of sir Hans Sloane consisted of above fifty
thousand volumes, including about three hundred and fifty
books of drawings, and three thousand five hundred and
sixteen manuscripts, besides a multitude of prints. The
museum comprehended an infinite number of medals, coins,
urns, utensils, seals, cameos, intaglios, precious stones,
vessels of agate and jasper, crystals, spars, fossils,
metals, minerals, ore, earths, sands, salts, bitumens,
sulphurs, ambergrise, talcs, mirre, testacea, corals,
sponges, echini, echenites, asteri, trochi, crustatia,
stellae marine, fishes, birds, eggs and nests, vipers,
serpents, quadrupeds, insects, human calculi, anatomical
preparations, seeds, gums, roots, dried plants, pictures,
drawings, and mathematical instruments. All these articles,
with a short account of each, are specified in thirty-eight
volumes in folio, and eight in quarto.

In the beginning of June the session of parliament was closed by his
majesty, who mentioned nothing particular in his speech, but that the
state of foreign affairs had suffered no alteration since their meeting.

The genius of the English people is perhaps incompatible with a state of
perfect tranquillity; if it was not ruffled by foreign provocations, or
agitated by unpopular measures of domestic administration, it will undergo
temporary fermentations from the turbulent ingredients inherent in its own
constitution Tumults are excited, and faction kindled into rage and
inveteracy, by incidents of the most frivolous nature. At this juncture
the metropolis of England was divided and discomposed in a surprising
manner, by a dispute in itself of so little consequence to the community,
that it could not deserve a place in a general history, if it did not
serve to convey a characteristic idea of the English nation. In the
beginning of the year an obscure damsel, of low degree, whose name was
Elizabeth Canning, promulgated a report, which in a little time attracted
the attention of the public. She affirmed, that on the first day of the
new year, at night, she was seized under Bedlam-wall by two ruffians, who
having stripped her of her upper apparel, secured her mouth with a gag,
and threatened to murder her should she make the least noise; that they
conveyed her on foot about ten miles, to a place called Enfieldwash, and
brought her to the house of one Mrs. Wells, where she was pillaged of her
stays; and because she refused to turn prostitute, confined in a cold,
damp, separate, and unfurnished apartment; where she remained a whole
month, without any other sustenance than a few stale crusts of bread, and
about a gallon of water; till at length she forced her way through a
window, and ran home to her mother’s house almost naked, in the night of
the twenty-ninth of January. This story, improbable and unsupported,
operated so strongly on the passions of the people in the neighbourhood of
Aldermanbury, where Canning’s mother lived, and particularly among
fanatics of all denominations, that they raised voluntary contributions,
with surprising eagerness, in order to bring the supposed delinquents to
justice. Warrants were granted for apprehending Wells, who kept the house
at Enfieldwash, and her accomplices, the servant maid, whose name was
Virtue Hall, and one Squires, an old gipsey-woman, which last was charged
by Canning of having robbed her of her stays. Wells, though acquitted of
the felony, was punished as a bawd. Hall turned evidence for Canning, but
afterwards recanted. Squires, the gipsey, was convicted of the robbery,
though she produced undoubted evidence to prove that she was at Abbotsbury
in Dorsetshire that very night in which the felony was said to be
committed, and Canning and her friends fell into divers contradictions
during the course of the trial. By this time the prepossession of the
common people in her favour had risen to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that
the most palpable truths which appeared on the other side, had no other
effect than that of exasperating them to the most dangerous degree of rage
and revenge. Some of the witnesses for Squires, though persons of
unblemished character, were so intimidated, that they durst not enter the
court; and those who had resolution enough to give evidence in her behalf,
ran the risk of assassination from the vulgar that surrounded the place.
On this occasion, sir Crisp Gascoyne, lord-mayor of London, behaved with
that laudable courage and humanity which ought ever to distinguish the
chief magistrate of such a metropolis. Considering the improbability of
the charge, the heat, partiality, and blind enthusiasm with which it was
prosecuted, and being convinced of the old woman’s innocence by a great
number of affidavits, voluntarily sent up from the country by persons of
unquestionable credit, he, in conjunction with some other worthy citizens,
resolved to oppose the torrent of vulgar prejudice. Application was made
to the throne for mercy; the case was referred to the attorney and
solicitor-general, who, having examined the evidences on both sides, made
their report in favour of Squires to the king and council; and this poor
old creature was indulged with his majesty’s pardon. This affair was now
swelled up into such a faction as divided the greater part of the kingdom,
including the rich as well as the poor, the high as well as the humble.
Pamphlets and pasquinades were published on both sides of the dispute,
which became the general topic of conversation in all assemblies, and
people of all ranks espoused one or other party with as much warmth and
animosity as had ever inflamed the whigs and tories, even at the most
rancorous period of their opposition. Subscriptions were opened, and large
sums levied, on one side, to prosecute for perjury the persons on whose
evidence the pardon had been granted. On the other hand, those who had
interested themselves for the gipsey resolved to support her witnesses,
and, if possible, detect the imposture of Canning. Bills of perjury were
preferred on both sides. The evidences for Squires were tried and
acquitted; at first Canning absconded; but afterwards surrendered to take
her trial, and being, after a long hearing, found guilty, was transported
to the British colonies. The zeal of her friends, however, seemed to be
inflamed by her conviction; and those who carried on the prosecution
against her were insulted, even to the danger of their lives. They
supplied her with necessaries of all sorts, paid for her transportation in
a private ship, where she enjoyed all the comforts and conveniences that
could be afforded in that situation, and furnished her with such
recommendations as secured to her a very agreeable reception in New
England.

EXECUTION OF DR. CAMERON.

Next to this very remarkable transaction, the incident that principally
distinguished this year in England, was the execution of Doctor Archibald
Cameron, a native of North Britain, and brother to Cameron of Lochiel,
chief of that numerous and warlike tribe who had taken the field with the
prince-pretender. After the battle of Culloden, where he was dangerously
wounded, he found means to escape to the continent. His brother, the
doctor, had accompanied him in all his expeditions, though not in a
military capacity, and was included with him in the act of attainder
passed against those who had been concerned in the rebellion.
Notwithstanding the imminent danger attending such an attempt, the doctor
returned privately to Scotland, in order, as it was reported, to recover a
sum of money belonging to the pretender, which had been embezzled by his
adherents in that country. Whatever may have been his inducement to
revisit his native country under such a predicament, certain it is, he was
discovered, apprehended, and conducted to London, confined in the Tower,
examined by the privy-council, and produced in the court of king’s-bench,
where his identity being proved by several witnesses, he received sentence
of death, and was executed at Tyburn. The terror and resentment of the
people, occasioned by the rebellion, having by this time subsided, their
humane passions did not fail to operate in favour of this unfortunate
gentleman; their pity was mingled with esteem, arising from his personal
character, which was altogether unblemished, and his deportment on this
occasion, which they could not help admiring as the standard of manly
fortitude and decorum. The populace, though not very subject to tender
emotions, were moved to compassion and even to tears, by his behaviour at
the place of execution; and many sincere well-wishers to the present
establishment thought that the sacrifice of this victim, at such a
juncture, could not redound either to its honour or security.

TUMULTS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE KINGDOM.

The turbulent spirit, which is never totally extinguished in this island,
manifested itself in sundry tumults that broke out in different parts of
South Britain. The price of provisions, and bread in particular, being
raised to an exorbitant rate in consequence of an absurd exportation of
corn, for the sake of the bounty, a formidable body of colliers, and other
labouring people, raised an insurrection at Bristol, began to plunder the
corn vessels in the harbour, and commit such outrages in the city, that
the magistrates were obliged to have recourse to military power. A troop
of dragoons were sent to their assistance, and the insurgents were
quelled, though not without some bloodshed. Commotions of the same kind
were excited in Yorkshire, Manchester, and several other places in the
northern counties At Leeds, a detachment of the king’s troops were obliged
in their own defence to fire upon the rioters, eight or nine of whom were
killed on the spot; and, indeed, so little care had been taken to restrain
the licentious insolence of the vulgar by proper laws and regulations,
duly executed under the eye of civil magistracy, that a military power was
found absolutely necessary to maintain the peace of the kingdom.

DISTURBANCES IN FRANCE.

The tranquillity of the continent was not endangered by any new contest or
disturbance; yet the breach between the clergy and the parliament of Paris
was every day more and more widened, and the people were pretty equally
divided between superstition and a regard for civil liberty. The
parliament having caused divers ecclesiastics to be apprehended, for
having refused to administer the sacraments to persons in extremity, who
refused to subscribe to the bull Unigenitus, all of them declared they
acted according to the direction of the archbishop of Paris. Application
being made to this haughty prelate, he treated the deputies of the
parliament with the most supercilious contempt, and even seemed to brave
the power and authority of that body. They, on the other hand, proceeded
to take cognizance of the recusant clergy, until their sovereign ordered
them to desist. Then they presented remonstrances to his majesty,
reminding him of their privileges, and the duty of their station, which
obliged them to do justice on all their delinquents. In the meantime they
continued to perform their functions, and even commenced a prosecution
against the bishop of Orleans, whom they summoned to attend their
tribunal. Next day they received from Versailles a lettre de cachet,
accompanied by letters patent, commanding them to suspend all prosecutions
relating to the refusal of the sacraments; and ordering the letters patent
to be registered. Instead of obeying these commands, they presented new
remonstrances, for answers to which they were referred to the king’s
former declarations. In consequence of this intimation, they had spirit
enough to resolve, “That, whereas certain evil-minded persons had
prevented truth from reaching the throne, the chambers remained assembled,
and all other business should be suspended.” The affair was now become
very serious. His majesty, by fresh letters patent, renewed his orders,
and commanded them to proceed with their ordinary business, on pain of
incurring his displeasure. They forthwith came to another resolution,
importing, that they could not obey this injunction without a breach of
their duty and their oath. Next day lettres de cachet were issued,
banishing to different parts of the kingdom all the members, except those
of the great chamber, which the court did not find more tractable than
their brethren. They forthwith resolved to abide by the two resolutions
mentioned above; and, as an instance of their unshaken fortitude, ordered
an ecclesiastic to be taken into custody for refusing the sacraments. This
spirited measure involved them in the fate of the rest; for they were also
exiled from Paris, the citizens of which did not fail to extol their
conduct with the loudest encomiums, and at the same time to express their
resentment against the clergy, who could not stir abroad without being
exposed to violence or insult. The example of the parliament of Paris was
followed by that of Rouen, which had courage enough to issue orders for
apprehending the bishop of Evreux, because he had refused to appear when
summoned to their tribunal. Their decrees on this occasion being annulled
by the king’s council of state, they presented a bold remonstrance, which,
however, had no other effect than that of exasperating the ministry. A
grand deputation being ordered to attend the king, they were commanded to
desist from intermeddling in disputes relating to the refusal of the
sacraments, and to register this injunction. At their return they had
recourse to a new remonstrance; and one of their principal counsellors,
who had spoken freely in the debates on this subject, was arrested by a
party of dragoons, who carried him prisoner to the castle of Dourlens. In
a word, the body of the people declared for the parliament, in opposition
to ecclesiastical tyranny; and had they not been overawed by a formidable
standing army, would certainly have taken up arms in defence of their
liberties; while the monarch weakly suffered himself to be governed by
priestly delusions; and, secure in his military appointment, seemed to set
the rest of his subjects at defiance. Apprehensive, however, that these
disputes would put an entire stop to the administration of justice, he, by
letters patent, established a royal chamber for the prosecution of suits
civil and criminal, which was opened with a solemn mass performed in the
queen’s chapel at the Louvre, where all the members assisted. On this
occasion another difficulty occurred. The letters patent, constituting
this new court, ought to have been registered by the parliament which was
now no more. To remedy this defect, application was made to the inferior
court of the Chatelet, which refusing to register them, one of its members
was committed to the Bastile, and another absconded. Intimidated by this
exertion of despotic power, they allowed the king’s officers to enter the
letters in their register; but afterwards adopted more vigorous
resolutions. The lieutenant,-civil appearing in their court, all the
counsellors rose up and retired, leaving him alone, and on the table an arret,
importing, that whereas the confinement of one of their members, the
prosecution of another, who durst not appear, and the present calamities
of the nation, gave them just apprehensions for their own persons; they
had, after mature deliberation, thought proper to retire. Thus a dangerous
ferment was excited by the king’s espousing the cause of spiritual
insolence and oppression against the general voice of his people, and the
plainest dictates of reason and common sense.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE DIET RELATIVE TO EAST FRIEZELAND.

The property of East Friezeland continued still to be the source of
contention between the electors of Bran-denburgh and Hanover. The interest
of his Britannic majesty being powerfully supported by the house of
Austria, the minister of that power at the diet proposed that the affair
should be taken into immediate consideration. He was seconded by the
minister of Brunswick; but the envoy from Brandenburgh, having protested
in form against this procedure, withdrew from the assembly, and the
Brunswick minister made a counter-protestation, after which he also
retired. Then a motion being made, that this dispute should be referred to
the decision of the Aulic council at Vienna, it was carried in the
affirmative by a majority of fourteen voices. His Prussian majesty’s final
declaration with regard to this affair was afterwards presented to the
diet, and answered in the sequel by a memorial from his Britannic majesty
as elector of Hanover. Some other petty disputes likewise happened between
the regency of Hanover and the city of Munster; and the former claiming
some bailiwicks in the territories of Bremen, sequestered certain revenues
belonging to this city, in Stade and Ferden, till these claims should be
satisfied.

EXTRAORDINARY TREATY.

The court of Vienna having dropped for the present the scheme for electing
a king of the Romans, concluded a very extraordinary treaty with the duke
of Modena, stipulating that his serene highness should be appointed
perpetual governor of the duchy of Milan, with a salary of ninety thousand
florins, on condition that he should maintain a body of four thousand men,
to be at the disposal of the empress-queen; that her imperial majesty
should have a right to place garrisons in the citadels of Mirandola and
Reggio, as well as in the castle of Massa-Carrara: that the archduke Peter
Leopold, third son of their imperial majesties, should espouse the
daughter of the hereditary prince of Modena, by the heiress of
Massa-Carrara; and in case of her dying without heirs male, the estates of
that house and the duchy of Mirandola should devolve to the archduke; but
in case of her having male issue, that she should enjoy the principality
of Fermia, and other possessions in Hungary, claimed by the duke of
Modena, for her fortune; finally, that on the extinction of the male
branch of the house of Este, all the dominions of the duke of Modena
should devolve to the house of Austria.

CONFERENCES WITH RESPECT TO NOVA SCOTIA BROKE UP.

While the powers on the continent of Europe were thus employed in
strengthening their respective interests, and concerting measures for
preventing any interruption of the general tranquillity, matters were fast
ripening to a fresh rupture between the subjects of Great Britain and
France, in different parts of North America. We have already observed that
commissaries had been appointed, and conferences opened at Paris, to
determine the disputes between the two crowns, relating to the boundaries
of Nova Scotia; and we took notice in general of the little arts of
evasion practised by the French commissaries, to darken and perplex the
dispute, and elude the pretensions of his Britannic majesty. They
persisted in employing these arts of chicanery and cavil with such
perseverance, that the negotiation proved abortive, the conferences broke
up, and every thing seemed to portend approaching hostilities. But, before
we proceed to a detail of the incidents which were the immediate
forerunners of the war, we will endeavour to convey a just idea of the
dispute concerning Nova Scotia; which, we apprehend, is but imperfectly
understood, though of the utmost importance to the interest of Great
Britain.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DESCRIPTION OF NOVA SCOTIA.

Nova Scotia, called by the French Acadia, lies between the forty-fourth
and fiftieth degrees of north latitude, having New England and the
Atlantic ocean to the south and south-west, and the river and gulph of St.
Lawrence to the north and north-east. The winter, which continues near
seven months in this country, is intensely cold; and without the
intervention of any thing that can be called spring, it is immediately
succeeded by a summer, the heat of which is almost insupportable, but of
no long continuance. The soil in general is thin and barren, though some
parts of it are said to be equal to the best land in England. The whole
country is covered with a perpetual fog, even after the summer has
commenced. It was first possessed by the French, before they made any
establishment in Canada; who, by dint of industry and indefatigable
perseverance, in struggling with the many difficulties they necessarily
laboured under in the infancy of this settlement, subsisted tolerably
well, and increased considerably, with very little assistance from Europe;
whilst we, even now, should lose the immense expense we have already been
at to settle a colony there, and should see all our endeavours to that end
defeated, if the support of the royal hand was withdrawn but for a moment.
This country, by the possession of which an enemy would be enabled greatly
to annoy all our other colonies, and, if in the hands of the French, would
be of singular service both to their fishery and their sugar islands, has
frequently changed hands from the French to the English, and from the
English back again to the French, till our right to it was finally settled
by the twelfth article of the treaty of Utrecht, by which all the country
included within the ancient limits of what was called Nova Scotia or
Acadia, was ceded to the English. This article was confirmed by the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle, but, for want of ascertaining distinctly what were the
bounds intended to be fixed by the two nations with respect to this
province, disputes arose, and commissaries, as we have observed, were
appointed by both sides to adjust the litigation.

The commissaries of the king of Great Britain conformed themselves to the
rule laid down by the treaty itself, and assigned those as the ancient
limits of this country, which had always passed as such, from the very
earliest time of any certainty, down to the conclusion of the treaty;
which the two crowns had frequently declared to be such, and which the
French had often admitted and allowed. These limits are, the southern bank
of the river St. Lawrence to the north, and Pentagoet to the west: the
country situated between these boundaries is that which the French
received by the treaty of St. Germain’s, in the year one thousand six
hundred and thirty-two, under the general name of Acadia. Of this country,
thus limited, they continued in possession from that period to the year
one thousand six hundred and fifty-four, when a descent was made upon it,
under the command of colonel Sedgwick. That these were then the undisputed
limits of Acadia, his Britannic majesty’s commissaries plainly proved, by
a letter of Louis XIII. to the sieurs Charnisay and La Tour, regulating
their jurisdictions in Acadia; by the subsequent commissions of the French
king to the same persons, as governors of Acadia, in the sequel; and by
that which was afterwards granted to the sieur Denys, in the year one
thousand six hundred and fifty-four; all of which extend the bounds of
this country from the river St. Lawrence to Pentagoet and New England.
That these were the notions of the French with respect to the ancient
limits of this province, was further confirmed by the demands made by
their ambassador in the course of that same year, for the restitution of
the forts Pentagoet, St. John’s, and Port Eoyal, as forts situated in
Acadia. In the year one thousand six hundred and sixty-two, upon the
revival of the claim of France to the country of Acadia, which had been
left undecided by the treaty of Westminster, the French ambassador, then
at the court of London, assigned Pentagoet as the western, and the river
St. Lawrence as the northern, boundary of that country; and alleged the
restitution of Acadia in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-two,
and the possession taken by France in consequence thereof, as well as the
continuation of that possession, with the same limits, to the year one
thousand six hundred and fifty-four, as proofs of the equity and validity
of the claim he then made; in which claim and in the manner of supporting
it, he was particularly approved of by the court of France. The same court
afterwards thought it so clear, upon former determinations, and her own
former possessions, that the true ancient boundaries of Acadia were
Pentagoet to the west, and the river St. Lawrence to the north, that she
desired no specification of limits in the treaty of Breda, but was
contented with the restitution of Acadia, generally named; and, upon a
dispute which arose in the execution of this treaty, France re-asserted,
and Great Britain, after some discussion, agreed to the above-mentioned
limits of Acadia; and France obtained possession of that country, so
bounded, under the treaty of Breda. The sense of France upon this subject,
in the years one thousand six hundred and eighty-five, and one thousand
six hundred and eighty-seven, was also clearly manifested in the memorials
delivered at that time by the French ambassador at the court of London,
complaining of some encroachments made by the English upon the coast of
Acadia: he described the country as extending from isle Percée, which lies
at the entrance of the river St. Lawrence, to St. George’s island; and
again, in a subsequent complaint, made by Mons. Barillon and Mons.
Bonrepaus to the court of Great Britain, against the judge of Pemaquid,
for having seized the effects of a French merchant at Pentagoet, which,
said they, was situated in Acadia, as restored to France by the treaty of
Breda. To explain the sense of France, touching the bounds of Acadia in
the year one thousand seven hundred, the British commissaries produced a
proposal of the French ambassador, then residing in Great Britain, to
restrain the limits of that country to the river St-George. They also
instanced the surrender of Port Royal in the year one thousand seven
hundred and ten, in which Acadia is described with the same limits with
which France had received it in the years one thousand six hundred and
thirty-two, and one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven. And further to
ascertain the sense of both crowns, even at the treaty of Utrecht itself,
they produced the queen of Great Britain’s instructions to her
ambassadors, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eleven, in which
they were directed to insist, “That his most christain majesty should quit
all claim or title, by virtue of any former treaty, or otherwise, to the
country called Nova Scotia, and expressly to Port Royal, otherwise
Annapolis Royal.” To these they added a manifest demonstration, founded on
indisputable facts, proving that the recital of the several sorts of right
which France had ever pretended to this country, and the specification of
both terms, Acadia or Nova Scotia, were intended by Great Britain to
obviate all doubts which had ever been made concerning the limits of
Acadia, and to comprehend with more certainty all that country which
France had ever received as such; finally, to specify what France
considered as Acadia. During the treaty, they referred to the offers of
that crown in the year one thousand seven hundred and twelve, in which she
proposed to restrain the boundary of Acadia to the river St. George, as a
departure from its real boundary, in case Great Britain would restore to
her the possession of that country. From all these facts it plainly
appears that Great Britain demanded nothing but what the fair construction
of the words of the treaty of Utrecht necessarily implies; and that it is
impossible for any thing to have more evident marks of candour and
fairness in it, than the demand of the English on this occasion. From the
variety of evidence brought in support of this claim, it evidently results
that the English commissaries assigned no limits as the ancient limits of
Acadia, but those which France herself determined to be such in the year
one thousand six hundred and thirty-two; and which she possessed, in
consequence of that determination, till the year one thousand six hundred
and fifty-four; that in one thousand six hundred and sixty-two, France
claimed, and received in one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine, the
country which Great Britain now claims as Acadia, restored to France by
the treaty of Breda under that general denomination; that France never
considered Acadia as having any other limits than those which were
assigned to it from the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-two, to
the year one thousand seven hundred and ten; and that, by the treaty of
Utrecht, she engaged to transfer that very same country as Acadia, which
France has always asserted and possessed, and Great Britain now claims, as
such. Should the crown of France, therefore, be ever willing to decide
what are the ancient limits of Acadia, by her own declarations so
frequently made in like discussions upon the same point, by her
possessions of this country for almost a century, and by her description
of Acadia, during the negotiation of that very treaty upon which this
doubt is raised, she cannot but admit the claim of Great Britain to be
conformable to the treaty of Utrecht, and to the description of the
country transferred to Great Britain by the twelfth article of that
treaty. There is a consistency in the claim of the English, and a
completeness in the evidence brought in support of it, which is seldom
seen in discussions of this sort; for it rarely happens, in disputes of
such a nature between two crowns, that either of them can safely offer to
have its pretensions decided by the known and repeated declarations, or
the possessions of the other. To answer the force of this detail of
conclusive historical facts, and to give a new turn to the real question
in dispute, the French commissaries, in their memorial, laid it down as a
distinction made by the treaty of Utrecht, that the ancient limits of
Acadia, referred to by that treaty, are different from any with which that
country may have passed under the treaties of St. Germain’s and Breda; and
then endeavoured to show, upon the testimonies of maps and historians,
that Acadia and its limits were anciently confined to the south-eastern
part of the peninsula. In support of this system, the French commissaries
had recourse to ancient maps and historians, who, as they asserted, had
ever confined Acadia to the limits they assigned. They alleged, that those
commissions of the French government over Acadia, which the English cited
as evidence of the limits they claimed, were given as commissions over
Acadia and the country around it, and not over Acadia only; that the whole
of the country claimed by the English as Acadia, could not possibly be
supposed ever to be considered as such, because many parts of that
territory always did, and still do, preserve particular and distinct
names. They affirmed New France to be a province in itself; and argued
that many parts of what we claim as Acadia can never have been in Acadia,
because historians and the French commissions of government expressly
place them in New France. They asserted, that no evidence can be drawn of
the opinion of any crown, with respect to the limits of any country, from
its declaration during the negotiation of a treaty: and, in the ends
relying upon maps and historians for the ancient limits of Acadia, they
pretended that the express restitution of St. Germain’s, and the
possession taken by France in consequence of the treaty of Breda, after a
long discussion of the limits and the declaration of France during the
negotiation of the treaty of Utrecht, were foreign to the point in
question. In refutation of these maxims, the English commissaries proved,
from an examination of the maps and historians cited by the French in
support of their system, that if this question was to be decided upon the
authorities which they themselves allowed to belong, and to be applicable
to, this discussion, the limits which they assigned were utterly
inconsistent with the best maps of all countries, which are authorities in
point for almost every part of the claim of Great Britain. They showed
that the French historians, Champlain and Denys, and particularly this
last, with his commission in the year one thousand six hundred and
fifty-five, assigned the same northern and western limits to Acadia which
they did; and that Escarbot, another of their historians, as far as any
evidence can be drawn from his writings, agrees entirely with the former
two. They observed, that all these evidences fall in with and confirmed
the better authorities of treaties, and the several transactions between
the two crowns for near a century past; and that the French commissaries,
by deviating from treaties, and the late proceedings of the two crowns, to
ancient historians and maps, only made a transition from an authentic to
an insufficient sort of evidence, and led the English commissaries into an
inquiry which proved that both the proper and the improper, the regular
and the foreign evidence, upon which this matter had been rested, equally
confuted the limits alleged by the French commissaries as the ancient
limits of Acadia.

CHAPTER IX.

Ambitious Schemes of the French in North America….. Rise
and Conduct of the Ohio Company….. Letter from the
Governor of Virginia to the French Commander at Riviere-au-
Beuf….. Perfidious Practices of the French in Nova
Scotia….. Major Laurence defeats the French Neutrals…..
British Ambassador at Paris amused with general Promises…..
Session opened….. Supplies granted….. Repeal of the Act
for naturalizing Jews….. Motion for repealing a former Act
favourable to the Jews….. East India Mutiny Bill….. Case
of Le ——— Session closed….. Death of Mr. Pelham…..
Change in the Ministry….. New Parliament assembled and
prorogued….. Disputes in the Irish Parliament…..
Transactions in the East Indies….. Account of the English
Settlements on the Malabar and Coromandel Coast…..
Disputes about the Government of Arcot….. Mahommed Ali
Khan supported by the English….. Mr. Clive takes
Arcot….. and defeats the Enemy in the Plains of Arani, and
at Koveripauk….. He reduces three Forts, and takes M.
d’Anteuil….. Chunda Saib taken and put to Death, and his
Army routed…… Convention between the East India
Companies of England and France….. General View of the
British Colonies in North America….. New England and New
York….. New Jersey….. Pennsylvania….. Maryland…..
Virginia….. The two Carolinas….. Georgia….. The
French surprise Logs-Town, on the Ohio….. Conference with
the Indians at Albany….. Colonel Washington defeated and
taken by the French on the Ohio….. Divisions among the
British Colonies….. The hereditary Prince of Hesse-Cassel
professes the Roman Catholic Religion….. Parliament of
Paris recalled from Exile….. Affairs of Spain and
Portugal….. Session opened….. Supplies granted….. Bill
in behalf or Chelsea Pensioners….. Oxfordshire
Election….. Message from the King to the House of
Commons….. Court of Versailles amuses the English
Ministry….. Session closed

AMBITIOUS SCHEMES OF THE FRENCH.

While the British ministry depended upon the success of the conferences
between the commissaries of the two crowns at Paris, the French were
actually employed in executing their plans of encroachment upon the
British colonies of North America. Their scheme was to engross the whole
fur trade of that continent; and they had already made great progress in
extending a chain of forts, connecting their settlements on the river
Mississippi with their possessions in Canada, along the great lakes of
Erie and Ontario, which last issues into the river St. Lawrence. By these
means they hoped to exclude the English from all communication and traffic
with the Indian nations, even those that lay contiguous to the British
settlements, and confine them within a line of their drawing, beyond which
they should neither extend their trade nor plantations. Their commercial
spirit did not keep pace with the gigantic strides of their ambition; they
could not supply all those Indians with the necessaries they wanted, so
that many of the natives had recourse to the English settlements; and this
commerce produced a connexion, in consequence of which the British
adventurers ventured to travel with merchandise as far as the banks of the
river Ohio, that runs into the Mississippi, a great way on the other side
of the Apalachian mountains, beyond which none of our colonists had ever
attempted to penetrate. The tract of country lying along the Ohio is so
fertile, pleasant, and inviting, and the Indians, called Twightees, who
inhabit those delightful plains, were so well disposed towards a close
alliance with the English, that, as far back as the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixteen, Mr. Spotswood, governor of Virginia, proposed a
plan for erecting a company to settle such lands upon this river as should
be ceded to them by treaty with the natives; but the design was at that
time frustrated, partly by the indolence and timidity of the British
ministry, who were afraid of giving umbrage to the French, and partly by
the jealousies and divisions subsisting between the different colonies of
Great Britain. The very same circumstances encouraged the French to
proceed in their project of invasion. At length they penetrated from the
banks of the river St. Lawrence, across lake Champlain, and upon the
territory of New York, built with impunity, and indeed without opposition,
the fort of Crown Point, the most insolent and dangerous encroachment that
they had hitherto carried into execution.

RISE AND CONDUCT OF THE OHIO COMPANY.

Governor Spotswood’s scheme for an Ohio company was revived immediately
after the peace of Aix-la-Cha-pelle, when certain merchants of London, who
traded to Maryland and Virginia, petitioned the government on this
subject, and were indulged not only with a grant of a great tract of
ground to the southward of Pennsylvania, which they promised to settle,
but also with an exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians on the
banks of the river Ohio. This design no sooner transpired, than the French
governor of Canada took the alarm, and wrote letters to the governors of
New York and Pennsylvania giving them to understand, that as the English
inland traders had encroached on the French territories and privileges, by
trading with the Indians under the protection of his sovereign, he would
seize them wherever they could be found, if they did not immediately
desist from that illicit practice. No regard being paid to this
intimation, he next year caused three British traders to be arrested.
Their effects were confiscated, and they themselves conveyed to Quebec,
from whence they were sent prisoners to Rochelle in France, and there
detained in confinement. In this situation they presented a remonstrance
to the earl of Albemarle, at that time English ambassador in Paris, and he
claiming them as British subjects, they were set at liberty. Although, in
answer to his lordship’s memorial, the court of Versailles promised to
transmit orders to the French governors in America, to use all their
endeavours for preventing any disputes that might have a tendency to alter
the good correspondence established between the two nations; in all
probability the directions given were seemingly the very reverse of these
professions, for the French commanders, partisans, and agents in America,
took every step their busy genius could suggest, to strengthen their own
power, and weaken the influence of the English, by embroiling them with
the Indian nations. This task they found the more easy, as the natives had
taken offence against the English, when they understood that their lands
were given away without their knowledge, and that there was a design to
build forts in their country without their consent and concurrence.
Indeed, the person whom the new company employed to survey the banks of
the Ohio, concealed his design so carefully, and behaved in other respects
in such a dark mysterious manner, as could not fail to arouse the jealousy
of a people naturally inquisitive, and very much addicted to suspicion.
How the company proposed to settle this acquisition in despite of the
native possessors, it is not easy to conceive, and it is still more
unaccountable that they should have neglected the natives, whose consent
and assistance they might have procured at a very small expense. Instead
of acting such a fair, open, and honourable part, they sent a Mr. Gist to
make a clandestine survey of the country, as far as the falls of the river
Ohio; and, as we have observed above, his conduct alarmed both the French
and Indians. The erection of this company was equally disagreeable to the
separate traders of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who saw themselves on the
eve of being deprived of a valuable branch of traffic, by the exclusive
charter of a monopoly; and therefore they employed their emissaries to
foment the jealousy of the Indians. The French having in a manner
commenced hostilities against the English, and actually built forts on the
territories of the British allies at Niagara, and on the lake Erie, Mr.
Hamilton, governor of Pennsylvania, communicated this intelligence to the
assembly of the province, and represented the necessity of erecting
truck-houses, or places of strength and security, on the river Ohio, to
which the traders might retire in case of insult or molestation. The
proposal was approved, and money granted for the purpose; but the assembly
could not agree about the manner in which they should be erected; and in
the meantime the French fortified themselves at leisure, and continued to
harass the traders belonging to the British settlements. Repeated
complaints of these encroachments and depredations being represented to
Mr. Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, he, towards the latter end of this
very year, sent major Washington with a letter to the commanding officer
of a fort which the French had built on the Riviere-au-Beuf, which falls
into the Ohio, not far from the lake Erie. In this letter Mr. Dinwiddie
expressed his surprise that the French should build forts and make
settlements on the river Ohio, in the western part of the colony of
Virginia, belonging to the Crown of Great Britain. He complained of these
encroachments, as well as of the injuries done to the subjects of Great
Britain, in open violation of the law of nations, and of the treaties
actually subsisting between the two crowns. He desired to know by whose
authority and instructions his Britannic majesty’s territories had been
invaded; and required him to depart in peace, without further prosecuting
a plan which must interrupt the harmony and good understanding which his
majesty was desirous to continue and cultivate with the most christian
king. To this spirited intimation the officer replied, that it was not his
province to specify the evidence, and demonstrate the right of the king
his master to the lands situated on the river Ohio; but he would transmit
the letter to the marquis du Quesne, and act according to the answer he
should receive from that nobleman. In the meantime, he said he did not
think himself obliged to obey the summons of the English governor; that he
commanded the fort by virtue of an order from his general, to which he was
determined to conform with all the precision and resolution of a good
officer. Mr. Dinwiddie expected no other reply, and therefore had
projected a fort to be erected near the forks of the river. The province
undertook to defray the expense, and the stores for that purpose were
already provided; but by some fatal over sight, the concurrence of the
Indians was neither obtained nor solicited, and therefore they looked upon
this measure with an evil eye, as a manifest invasion of their property.

PERFIDY OF THE FRENCH.

While the French thus industriously extended their encroachments to the
southward, they were not idle in the gulf of St. Lawrence, but seized
every opportunity of distressing the English settlement of Nova Scotia. We
have already observed, that the town of Halifax was no sooner built, than
they spirited up the Indians of that neighbourhood to commit hostilities
against the inhabitants, some of whom they murdered, and others they
carried prisoners to Louisbourg, where they sold them for arms and
ammunition, the French pretending that they maintained this traffic from
motives of pure compassion, in order to prevent the massacre of the
English captives, whom, however, they did not set at liberty without
exacting an exorbitant ransom. As these skulking parties of Indians were
generally directed and headed by French commanders, repeated complaints
were made to the governor of Louisbourg, who still answered, that his
jurisdiction did not extend over the Indians, and that their French
conductors were chosen from the inhabitants of Annapolis, who thought
proper to remain in that country after it was ceded to the English, and
were in fact the subjects of Great Britain. Even while the conferences
were carried on for ascertaining the limits of Nova Scotia, the governor
of Canada detached M. la Come, with some regular troops, and a body of
militia, to fortify a post on the bay of Chignecto, on pretence that this
and a great part of the peninsula belonged to his government. The
possession of this post not only secured to the Indians of the continent a
free entrance into the peninsula, and a safe retreat in case of pursuit;
but also encouraged the French inhabitants of Annapolis to rise in open
rebellion against the English government.

MAJOR LAURENCE DEFEATS THE FRENCH NEUTRALS.

In the spring of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty, general
Cornwallis, governor of Halifax, detached major Laurence with a few men to
reduce them to obedience. At his approach they burned their town to ashes,
forsook their possessions, and threw themselves under the protection of M.
la Corne, who, thus reinforced, found himself at the head of fifteen
hundred men, well provided with arms and ammunition. Major Laurence being
unable to cope with him in the field, demanded an interview, at which he
desired to know for what cause the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia had
shaken off their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and violated
the neutrality which they had hitherto affected to profess. The French
officer, without pretending to account for their behaviour, gave him to
understand in general terms, that he had orders to defend his post, and
these orders he was determined to obey. The English major finding himself
too weak to attack their united force, and having no orders to commit
hostilities against any but the Indians and their open abettors, returned
to Halifax, without having been able to fulfil the purpose of his
expedition. Immediately after his retreat, the French neutrals (so they
were called) returned to their habitations which they had abandoned, and,
in conjunction with the Indians, renewed their depredations upon the
inhabitants of Halifax and its dependent settlements. The English
governor, justly incensed at these outrages, and seeing they would neither
submit to the English government themselves, nor allow others to enjoy it
with tranquillity, resolved to expel them effectually from the country
they so ill deserved to possess. Major Laurence was again detached with a
thousand men, transported by sea to Chignecto, where he found the French
and Indians intrenched in order to dispute his landing. Notwithstanding
this opposition, he made a descent with a few companies, received and
returned a smart fire, and rushing into their intrenchments, obliged them
to fly with the utmost precipitation, leaving a considerable number killed
and wounded on the spot. The fugitives saved themselves by crossing a
river, on the farther bank of which la Corne stood at the head of his
troops, drawn up in order to receive them as friends and dependents. He
had by this time erected a fort, which he denominated Beau Séjour; and now
the English built another on the opposite side of the river, which was
called after its founder St. Laurence. This being provided with a good
garrison, served as a check upon the French, and in some measure
restrained the incursions of these barbarians. Not that it effectually
answered this purpose; for the Indians and Neutrals still seized every
opportunity of attacking the English in the interior parts of the
peninsula. In the course of the succeeding year they surprised the little
town of Dartmouth, on the other side of Halifax-bay, where they killed and
scalped a great number of people, and carried off some prisoners. For
these expeditions the French always supplied them with boats, canoes,
arms, and ammunition; and indeed they were conducted with such care and
secrecy, that it was almost impossible to prevent their success. One sure
remedy against the sudden and stolen incursions of those savages might
have been found in the use of staunch hounds, which would have run upon
the foot, detected the skulking parties of the Indians, and frustrated all
their ambuscades; but this expedient, so easy and practicable, was never
tried, though frequently recommended in public to the attention of the
government, and the consideration of the colonists. The Indians continued
to plunder and massacre the British subjects with impunity, and were
countenanced by the French government in that country, who now
strengthened their lodgement on the neck of the peninsula with an
additional fort, distinguished by the name of Bayeverte; and built a third
at the mouth of St. John’s river, on the north side of the bay of Fundy.

BRITISH AMBASSADOR AT PARIS AMUSED WITH GENERAL PROMISES.

All these previous steps to a rupture with England were taken with great
deliberation, while the commissaries of both nations were disputing about
the limits of the very country which they thus arrogantly usurped; and
they proceeded to perfect their chain of forts to the southward, without
paying the least regard to the expostulations of the English governors, or
to a memorial presented at Versailles by the earl of Albemarle, the
British minister. He demanded that express orders should be sent to M. de
la Jonquire, the commander for the French in America, to desist from
violence against the British subjects in that country; that the fort of
Niagara should be immediately razed; that the subjects of Great Britain,
who had been made prisoners, should be set at liberty, and indemnified for
the losses they had sustained; and that the persons who had committed
these excesses should be punished in an exemplary manner. True it is, six
Englishmen, whom they had unjustly taken, were immediately dismissed; and
the ambassador amused with general promises of sending such instructions
to the French governor in America, as should anticipate any cause of
complaint for the future; but, far from having any intention to perform
these promises, the court of Versailles, without all doubt, exhorted la
Jonquire to proceed in bringing its ambitious schemes to perfection.

SESSION OPENED.

Every incident in America seemed to prognosticate war, when the session of
parliament was opened on the fifteenth day of November; yet his majesty,
on this occasion, told them that the events of the year had not made it
necessary for him to offer any thing in particular to their consideration
relating to foreign affairs. He even declared that the continuance of the
public tranquillity, and the general state of Europe, remained upon the
same footing as when they last parted; and assured them of his steadiness
in pursuing the most effectual measures to preserve to his people the
blessings of peace. He expressed uncommon concern that the horrid crimes
of robbery and murder were of late rather increased than diminished, and
earnestly recommended this important object to their serious attention.
Affectionate addresses were presented by both houses in answer to this
harangue; and, what was very remarkable, they were proposed and passed
without question or debate.

The commons continued the same number of seamen and land-forces for the
ensuing year, which had been granted in the last session, and made
suitable provision for all the exigences of the state. The whole supply
amounted to two millions seven hundred and ninety-seven thousand nine
hundred and sixteen pounds, ten shillings and twopence, to be raised by a
land-tax of two shillings in the pound, a malt-tax, a continuation of
certain duties on wine, vinegar, cider, and beer imported, a sum taken
from the sinking-fund, and the overplus of certain grants, funds, and
duties. The provisions made considerably exceeded the grants; but this
excess was chargeable with the interest of what should be borrowed upon
the credit in the land or malt-tax, there being a clause of credit in
both, as also with the deficiency (if any should happen) in the sums they
were computed to produce. The house agreed to all these resolutions almost
unanimously; indeed, no opposition was made to any of them, but that for
continuing the same number of land-forces, which was carried by a great
majority.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

REPEAL OF THE ACT FOR NATURALIZING JEWS.

The act for permitting Jews to be naturalized, which had, during the last
session, triumphed over such an obstinate opposition, was by this time
become the object of national horror and execration. Every part of the
kingdom resounded with the reproach of the ministry who had enforced such
an odious measure; and the two brothers, who engrossed the greater part of
the administration, trembled at the prospect of what this clamour might
produce at the general election, this being the last session of the
present parliament. So eager were the ministers to annul this unpopular
measure, that, immediately after the peers had agreed to the nature and
forms of an address to his majesty, the duke of Newcastle, with that
precipitation so peculiar to his character, poured forth an abrupt
harangue in that house, importing, that the disaffected had made a handle
of the act passed last session in favour of the Jews, to raise discontents
among many of his majesty’s good subjects; and as the act was in itself of
little importance, he was of opinion it ought to be repealed; for this
purpose he presented a bill ready framed, which was read and committed,
though not without some debate. The naturalization bill, now devoted as a
sacrifice to the resentment of the people, containing a clause disabling
all naturalized Jews from purchasing, inheriting, or receiving any
advowson or presentation, or right to any ecclesiastical benefice or
promotion, school, hospital, or donative; and by the first draft of the
bill, which his grace now presented, it was intended that this clause
should not be repealed. It was the opinion, however, of the majority, that
such a clause standing unrepealed might imply, that the Jews, by being
thus expressly excluded from the possession of any ecclesiastical right of
presentation, would be considered as having the power and privilege of
purchasing and inheriting any lay-property in the kingdom. On this
consideration an amendment was made in the bill, the clause in question
was left out, and the whole act of naturalization repealed without
exception.*

* The reverend bench of bishops had, with a laudable spirit
of christian meekness and philanthropy, generally approved
of the indulgence granted to their Hebrew brethren; and now
they acquiesced in the proposed repeal with the same passive
discretion, though one of the number contended for the
saving clause which the duke of Newcastle had recommended.

Though the lords, in general, concurred in the expediency of the repeal,
it was opposed by some few, as too great a sacrifice to the idle and
unfounded clamours of the multitude; and upon this side of the debate a
great power of elocution was displayed by earl Temple, who had lately
succeeded to this title on the death of his mother, a nobleman of
distinguished abilities, and the most amiable disposition, frank, liberal,
humane, and zealously attached to the interest and honour of his country.
In the lower house, the members of both parties seemed to vie with each
other in demonstrations of aversion to this unpopular act. On the very
first day of the session, immediately after the motion for an address to
his majesty, sir James Dash-wood, an eminent leader in the opposition,
gave the commons to understand, that he had a motion of very great
importance to make, which would require the attention of every member, as
soon as the motion for the address should be discussed; he therefore
desired they would not quit the house, until he should have an opportunity
to explain his proposal. Accordingly, they had no sooner agreed to the
motion for an address of thanks to his majesty, than he stood up again,
and having expatiated upon the just and general indignation which the act
of the preceding session, in favour of the Jews, had raised among the
people, he moved to order that the house should be called over on Tuesday
the fourth day of December, for taking that act into consideration; but
being given to understand, that it was not usual to appoint a call of the
house for any particular purpose, he agreed that the motion should be
general. It was seconded by lord Parker, his opposite in political
interests; the house agreed to it without opposition, and the call was
ordered accordingly. They were anticipated, however’, by the lords, who
framed and transmitted to them a bill on the same subject, to the purport
of which the commons made an objection; for every member, having the fear
of the general election before his eyes, carefully avoided every
expression which could give umbrage to his constituents; but violent
opposition was made to the preamble, which ran in the following strain:—“Whereas
an act of parliament was made and passed in the twenty-fifth year of his
majesty’s reign, intituled, An act to permit persons professing the Jewish
religion, to be naturalized by parliament, and for other purposes therein
mentioned; and whereas occasion has been taken, from the said act, to
raise discontents and disquiets in the minds of his majesty’s subjects, be
it enacted, &c.” This introduction was considered as an unjust
reflection upon the body of the people in general, and in particular upon
those who had opposed the bill in the course of the preceding session. Sir
Roger Newdigate therefore moved, that the expression should be varied to
this effect: “Whereas great discontents and disquietudes had from the said
act arisen.” The consequence of this motion was an obstinate debate, in
which it was supported by the earl of Egmont, and divers other able
orators; but Mr. Pel ham and Mr. Pitt were numbered among its opponents.
The question being put for the proposed alteration, it was of course
carried in the negative; the bill, after the third reading, passed nemine
contradicente, and in due time obtained the royal assent.

MOTION FOE REPEALING A FORMER ACT FAVOURABLE TO THE JEWS.

Even this concession of the ministry did not allay the resentment of the
people, and their apprehension of encroachment from the Jews. Another act
still subsisted, by virtue of which any person professing the Jewish
religion might become a free denizen of Great Britain, after having
resided seven years in any of his majesty’s colonies in America; and this
was now considered as a law, having the same dangerous tendency, of which
the other was now in a fair way of being convicted. It was moved,
therefore, in the lower house, that a part of this former act might be
read; then the same member made a motion for an address to his majesty,
desiring that the house might have the perusal of the lists transmitted
from the American colonies to the commissioners for trade and plantations,
containing the names of all such persons professing the Jewish religion,
as had entitled themselves to the benefit of the said act, since the year
one thousand seven hundred and forty. These lists were accordingly
presented, and left upon the table for the perusal of the members; but as
this act contained no limitation of time within which the benefit of it
should be claimed, and as this claim was attended with a good deal of
trouble and some expense, very few persons had availed themselves of it in
that period. Nevertheless, as a great number of Jews were already entitled
to claim this indulgence, and as it remained an open channel through which
Great Britain might be deluged with those people, all of whom the law
would hold as natural-born subjects, and their progeny as freed from all
tha restriction contained in the act with respect to naturalized
foreigners, lord Harley moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal so
much of the said act as related to persons professing the Jewish religion,
who should come to settle in any British colony after a certain time. The
motion was seconded by sir James Dashwood, and supported by the earl of
Egmont; but being found unequal to the interest and elocution of Mr.
Pelham and Mr. Pitt, was rejected by the majority.

1754

EAST-INDIA MUTINY BILL.

The next object that claimed the attention of the commons, was a bill for
improving the regulations already made to prevent the spreading of a
contagious distemper, which raged among the horned cattle in different
parts of the kingdom. The last bill of this session that had the good
fortune to succeed, was brought in for punishing mutiny and desertion of
officers and soldiers in the service of the East India company, and for
the punishment of offences committed in the East Indies and the island of
St. Helena. This being a measure of a very extraordinary nature, all the
members were ordered to attend the house on the day fixed for the second
reading; at the same time all charters, commissions, and authorities, by
which any power relative to a military jurisdiction, or the exercise of
martial law, had been granted or derived from the crown to the said
company, were submitted to the perusal of the members. The bill was by
many considered as a dangerous extension of military power, to the
prejudice of the civil rights enjoyed by British subjects, and as such
violently contested by the earl of Egmont, lord Strange, and Mr. Alderman
Beckford. Their objections were answered by the solicitor-general and Mr.
Yorke. The bill, after some warm debates, being espoused by the ministry,
was enacted into a law, and despatched to the East Indies by the first
opportunity.

Some other motions were made, and petitions presented on different
subjects, which, as they miscarried, it will be unnecessary to
particularize. It may not be amiss, however, to record an exemplary act of
justice done by the commons on a person belonging to a public office, whom
they detected in the practice of fraud and imposition. Notwithstanding the
particular care taken in the last session, to prevent the monopolizing of
tickets in the state lottery, all those precautions had been eluded in a
scandalous manner by certain individuals, intrusted with the charge of
delivering the tickets to the contributors, according to the intent of the
act, which expressly declared that not more than twenty should be sold to
any one person. Instead of conforming to these directions of the
legislature, they and their friends engrossed great numbers, sheltering
themselves under a false list of feigned names for the purpose; by which
means they not only defeated the equitable intention of the commons, but
in some measure injured the public credit; inasmuch as their avarice had
prompted them to subscribe for a greater number than they had cash to
purchase, so that there was a deficiency in the first payment, which might
have had a bad effect on the public affairs. These practices were so
flagrant and notorious as to attract the notice of the lower house, where
an inquiry was begun, and prosecuted with a spirit of real patriotism, in
opposition to a scandalous cabal, who endeavoured with equal eagerness and
perseverance to screen the delinquents. All their efforts however proved
abortive; and a committee, appointed to examine particulars, agreed to
several severe resolutions against one Le ——, who had amassed
a large fortune by this and other kinds of peculation. They voted him
guilty of a breach of trust, and a direct violation of the lottery act;
and an address was presented to his majesty, desiring he might be
prosecuted by the attorney-general for these offences. He was accordingly
sued in the court of king’s bench, and paid a fine of one thousand pounds,
for having committed frauds by which he had gained forty times that sum;
but he was treated with such gentleness as remarkably denoted the clemency
of that tribunal.

SESSION CLOSED.

The session ended in the beginning of April, when the king gave the
parliament to understand, that he should say nothing at present on foreign
affairs; but assured them of his fixed resolution to exert his whole power
in maintaining the general tranquillity, and adhering to such measures for
that purpose as he had hitherto pursued in conjunction with his allies.
He, in very affectionate terms, thanked both houses for the repeated
proofs they had given of their zealous attachment and loyalty to his
person and government. He enumerated the salutary measures they had taken
for lessening the national debt, and augmenting the public credit,
extending navigation and commerce, reforming the morals of the people, and
improving the regulations of civil economy. He concluded with declaring,
that he securely relied upon the loyalty and good affection of his people,
and had no other aim than their permanent happiness. In a little time
after the close of this session they were dissolved by proclamation, and
new writs issued by the lord-chancellor for convoking a new parliament.
The same ceremonies were practised with respect to the convocations of
Canterbury and York, though they no longer retained their former
importance; nor indeed were they suffered to sit and deliberate upon the
subjects which formerly fell under their cognizance and discussion.

DEATH OF MR. PELHAM. CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY.

In the beginning of March, the ministry of Great Britain had been left
without a head by the death of Mr. Pelham, which was not only sincerely
lamented by his sovereign, but also regretted by the nation in general, to
whose affection he had powerfully recommended himself by the candour and
humanity of his conduct and character, even while he pursued measures
which they did not entirely approve. The loss of such a minister was the
more deeply felt by the government at this juncture, being the eve of a
general election for a new parliament, when every administration is
supposed to exert itself with redoubled vigilance and circumspection. He
had already concerted the measures for securing a majority, and his plan
was faithfully executed by his friends and adherents, who still engrossed
the administration. His brother, the duke of Newcastle, was appointed
first lord commissioner of the treasury, and succeeded as secretary of
state by sir Thomas Robinson, who had long resided as ambassador at the
court of Vienna. The other department of this office was still retained by
the earl of Holdernesse, and the function of chancellor of the exchequer
was performed as usual by the lord chief-justice of the king’s bench,
until a proper person could be found to fill that important office; but in
the course of the summer it was bestowed upon Mr. Legge, who acquitted
himself with equal honour and capacity. Divers other alterations were made
of less importance to the public, sir George Lyttelton was appointed
cofferer, and the earl of Hillsborough comptroller of the household. Mr.
George Grenville, brother to earl Temple, became treasurer of the navy;
and Mr. Charles Townshend, of whom we shall have occasion to speak in the
sequel, took his place as a commissioner at the board of admiralty, in the
room of lord Barrington, made master of the wardrobe. Lord Hardwicke, the
chancellor, was promoted to the dignity of an earl. The place of lord
chief-justice of the king’s-bench becoming vacant by the death of sir
William Lee, was filled with sir Dudley Ryder, and he was succeeded by Mr.
Murray in the office of attorney-general.

NEW PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED AND PROROGUED.

The elections for the new parliament generally succeeded according to the
wish of the ministry; for opposition was now dwindled down to the lowest
state of imbecility. It had received a mortal wound by the death of the
late prince of Wales, whose adherents were too wise to pursue an ignis
fatuus, without any prospect of success or advantage. Some of them had
prudently sung their palinodia to the ministry, and been gratified with
profitable employments; while others, setting too great a price upon their
own importance, kept aloof till the market was over, and were left to pine
in secret over their disappointed ambition. The maxims of tory-ism had
been relinquished by many, as the barren principles of a losing game; the
body of the people were conciliated to the established government; and the
harmony that now, for the first time, subsisted among all the branches of
the royal family, had a wonderful effect in acquiring a degree of
popularity which they had never before enjoyed. The writs being returned,
the new parliament was opened on the last day of May by the duke of
Cumberland, and some other peers, who acted by virtue of a commission from
his majesty. The commons having chosen for their speaker the right hon.
Arthur Onslow, who had honourably filled that high office in four
preceding parliaments, he was presented and approved by the commissioners.
Then the lord high-chancellor harangued both houses, giving them to
understand, that his majesty had indulged them with this early opportunity
of coming together, in order to complete without loss of time certain
parliamentary proceedings, which he judged would be for the satisfaction
of his good subjects; but he did not think proper to lay before them any
points of general business, reserving every thing of that nature to the
usual time of their assembling in the winter. On the fifth day of June
this short session was closed, and the parliament prorogued by the
lords-commissioners.

DISPUTES IN THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

In the beginning of this year violent disputes arose between the
government and the house of commons in Ireland, on the almost forgotten
subjects of privilege and prerogative. The commons conceived they had an
undoubted right to apply the surplus of their revenue towards national
purposes, without the consent of their sovereign; and accordingly, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, prepared a bill with this
preamble, “Whereas, on the twenty-fifth day of March last, a considerable
balance remained in the hands of the vice-treasurer or receivers-general
of the kingdom, or their deputy or deputies, unapplied; and it will be for
your majesty’s service, and for the ease of your faithful subjects in this
kingdom, that so much thereof as can be conveniently spared should be
paid, agreeably to your majesty’s most gracious intentions, in discharge
of part of the national debt.” This appropriation gave great offence to
the advocates for prerogatives in England, who affirmed that the commons
had no right to apply any part of the unappropriated revenue, nor even to
take any such affair into consideration, without the previous consent of
the crown, expressed in the most explicit terms. It was in consequence of
this doctrine, that the duke of Dorset, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, told
them in the next session of parliament, held in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-one, he was commanded by the king to aquaint them,
that his majesty, ever attentive to the ease and happiness of his
subjects, would graciously consent and recommend it to them, that such a
part of the money then remaining in the treasury, as should be thought
consistent with the public service, be applied towards the further
reduction of the national debt. This declaration alarmed the commons,
zealous as they were for the preservation of their privileges; and in
their address of thanks, which, like that of the parliament of Great
Britain, used always to echo back the words of the speech, they made no
mention of his majesty’s consent; but only acknowledged his gracious
attention to their ease and happiness, in recommending to them the
application of the surplus. They accordingly resolved to apply one hundred
and twenty thousand pounds of that overplus towards the discharge of the
national debt; and, in the preamble of the bill, framed for this purpose,
made no mention of his majesty’s consent, though before they had
acknowledged his goodness in recommending this application. The ministry
in England were highly offended at this purposed omission, which they
construed into a wilful encroachment on the prerogative; and the bill was
sent back with an alteration in the preamble, signifying his majesty’s
consent as well as recommendation. The Irish house of commons being at
that time deeply engaged in a minute inquiry into the conduct of a
gentleman, a servant of the crown, and a member of their own house,
accused of having misapplied a large sum of money, with which he had been
intrusted for rebuilding or repairing the barracks, were now unwilling to
embroil themselves farther with the government, until this affair should
be discussed. They therefore passed the bill with the alteration, and
proceeded with their inquiry. The person was convicted of having
misapplied the public money, and ordered to make the barracks fit for the
reception and accommodation of the troops at his own expense. They did
not, however, neglect to assert what they thought their rights and
privileges, when the next opportunity occurred. The duke of Dor-get, when
he opened the session of this year, repeated the expression of his
majesty’s gracious consent, in mentioning the surplus of the public money.
They again omitted that word in their address; and resolved, in their bill
of application, not only to sink this odious term, but likewise to abate
in their complaisance to the crown, by leaving out that expression of
grateful acknowledgment, which had met with such a cold reception above.
By this time the contest had kindled up two violent factions, and diffused
a general spirit of resentment through the whole Irish nation. The
committee who prepared the bill, instead of inserting the usual
compliments in the preamble, mentioned nothing but a recital of facts, and
sent it over in a very plain dress, quite destitute of all embroidery. The
ministry, intent upon vindicating the prerogative from such an unmannerly
attack, filled up the omissions of the committee, and sent it back with
this alteration: “And your majesty, ever attentive to the ease and
happiness of your faithful subjects, has been graciously pleased to
signify that you would consent, and to recommend it to us, that so much of
the money remaining in your majesty’s treasury as should be necessary to
be applied to the discharge of the national debt, or such part thereof as
should be thought expedient by parliament.” This then being the crisis
which was to determine a constitutional point of such importance, namely,
whether the people in parliament assembled have a right to deliberate
upon, and vote the application of any part of the unappropriated revenue,
without the previous consent of the crown; those who were the most
zealously attached to the liberties of their country, resolved to exert
themselves in opposing what they conceived to be a violation of those
liberties; and the bill, with its alterations, was rejected by a majority
of five voices. The success of their endeavours was celebrated with the
most extravagant rejoicing, as a triumph of patriotism over the arts of
ministerial corruption; and, on the other hand, all the servants of the
crown, who had joined the popular cry on this occasion, were in a little
time dismissed from their employments. The rejection of the bill was a
great disappointment to the creditors of the public, and the circulation
of cash was almost stagnated. These calamities were imputed to arbitrary
designs in the government; and the people began to be inflamed with an
enthusiastic spirit of independency, which might have produced mischievous
effects, had not artful steps been taken to bring over the demagogues, and
thus divert the stream of popular clamour from the ministry to those very
individuals who had been the idols of popular veneration. The speaker of
the house of commons was promoted to the dignity of an earl; and some
other patriots were gratified with lucrative employments. His majesty’s
letter arrived for paying off seventy-five thousand five hundred pounds of
the national debt. The circulation was thus animated, and the resentment
of the populace subsiding, the kingdom retrieved its former tranquillity.

TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST INDIES.

The ambition and intrigues of the French court, by which the British
interest was invaded and disturbed on the continent of America, had also
extended itself to the East Indies, where they endeavoured to embroil the
English company with divers nabobs or princes, who governed different
parts of the peninsula intra Gangem. That the reader may have a clear and
distinct idea of these transactions, we shall exhibit a short sketch of
the English forts and settlements in that remote country. The first of
these we shall mention is Surat, 348 [See note 2U, at
the end of this Vol.] in the province so called, situated between the
twenty-first and twenty-second degrees of north latitude; from hence the
peninsula stretches into the Indian ocean as far as the latitude of eight
north, ending in a point at Cape Comorin, which is the southern extremity.
To the northward this peninsula joins to Indostan, and at its greatest
breadth extends seven hundred miles. Upon the west, east, and south, it is
washed by the sea. It comprehends the kingdoms of Malabar, Decan,
Golconda, and Bisnagar, with the principalities of Gingi, Tanjaour, and
Madura. The western side is distinguished by the name of the Malabar
coast: the eastern takes the denomination of Coromandel; and in different
parts of this long sweep, from Surat round Cape Comorin to the bottom of
the bay of Bengal, the English and other European powers have, with the
consent of the mogul, established forts and trading settlements. All these
kingdoms, properly speaking, belong to the mogul; but his power was so
weakened by the last invasion of Kouli Khan, that he has not been able to
assert his empire over this remote country; the tributary princes of
which, and even the nabobs, who were originally governors appointed under
their authority, have rendered themselves independent, and exert an
absolute dominion over their respective territories, without acknowledging
his superiority either by tribute or homage. These princes, when they
quarrel among themselves, naturally have recourse to the assistance of
such European powers as are settled in or near their dominions; and in the
same manner the East Indian companies of the European powers which happen
to be at war with each other, never fail to interest the nabobs in the
dispute.

ENLARGE

ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.

The next English settlement to Surat, on the coast of the peninsula, is
Bombay, in the kingdom of Decan, a small island, with a very convenient
harbour, above five-and-forty leagues to the south of Surat. The town is
very populous; but the soil is barren, and the climate unhealthy; and the
commerce was rendered very precarious by the neighbourhood of the famous
corsair Angria, until his port of Geria was taken, and his fortifications
demolished. The English company likewise carry on some traffic at Dabul,
about forty leagues further to the south, in the province of Cuncan. In
the same southerly progression, towards the point of the peninsula, we
arrive at Carwar, in the latitude of fifteen degrees, where there is a
small fort and factory belonging to the company, standing on the south
side of a bay, with a river capable of receiving ships of pretty large
burden. The climate here is remarkably salubrious; the country abounds
with provisions of all sorts, and the best pepper of India grows in this
neighbourhood. The next English settlement we find at Tilli-cherry, where
the company has erected a fort, to defend their commerce of pepper and
cardamomoms from the insults of the rajah, who governs this part of
Malabar. Hither the English trade was removed from Calicut, a large town
that stands fifteen leagues to the southward of Tillicherry, and was as
well frequented as any port on the coast of the Indian peninsula. The most
southerly settlement which the English possess on the Malabar coast, is
that of Anjengo, between the eighth and ninth degrees of latitude. It is
defended by a regular fort, situated on a broad river, which falls into
the sea, and would be very commodious for trade, were not the water on the
bar too shallow to admit ships of considerable burden. Then turning the
Cape, and passing through the strait of Chilao, formed by the island of
Ceylon, we arrive on the coast of Côromandel, which forms the eastern side
of the isthmus. Prosecuting our course in a northern direction, the first
English factory we reach is that of Fort St. David’s, formerly called
Tegapatan, situated in the latitude of eleven degrees forty minutes north,
within the kingdom of Gingi. It was, about six and-twenty years ago, sold
by a Mahratta prince to the East India company, and, next to Bombay, is
the most considerable settlement we have yet mentioned.*

* The trade consists of long cloths of different colours,
sallampores, morees, dimities, ginghams, and succations.

Its territory extends about eight miles along the coast, and half that
space up to the country, which is delightfully watered by a variety of
rivers; the soil is fertile, and the climate healthy. The fort is regular,
well provided with cannon, ammunition, and a numerous garrison, which is
the more necessary, on account of the neighbourhood of the French
settlement at Pon-dicherry. But the chief settlement belonging to the
company on this coast is that of Madras, or Fort St. George, standing
farther to the northward, between the thirteenth and fourteenth degrees of
latitude, and not a great way from the diamond mines of Golconda. It is
seated on a flat, barren, scorching sand, so near the sea, that in bad
weather the walls are endangered by the mighty surges rolled in from the
ocean. As the soil is barren, the climate is so intensely hot that it
would be altogether uninhabitable, were not the heat mitigated by the sea
breezes. On the land side it is defended by a salt water river, which,
while it contributes to the security of the place, robs the inhabitants of
one great comfort, by obstructing the springs of fresh water. The fort is
a regular square, the town surrounded with walls well mounted with
artillery, and the place, including the Black Town, is very populous.
Madras, with several villages in the neighbourhood, was purchased of the
king of Golconda, before the mogul became sovereign of this country. The
governor of this place is not only president of Fort St. George, but also
of all the other settlements on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, as
far as the island of Sumatra. He lives in great pomp, having inferior
judges, who pass sentence of death occasionally on malefactors of any
nation, except the subjects of Great Britain. All the company’s affairs
are directed by him and his council, who are invested with the power of
inflicting corporal punishment, short of life and member, upon such
Europeans as are in the service, and dispose of all places of trust and
profit. By virtue of an act passed in the course of this very session, the
military officers belonging to the company were permitted to hold
courts-martial, and punish their soldiers according to the degree of their
delinquency. In a word, Madras is of the utmost importance to the company
for its strength, wealth, and the great returns it makes in calicoes and
muslins. Towards the latter end of the last century, the English company
had a flourishing factory at Masulipatam, standing on the north side of
the river Nagundi, which separates the provinces of Golconda and Bisnagar,
in the latitude of sixteen degrees and thirty minutes; but now there is no
European settlement here, except a Dutch factory, maintained for carrying
on the chintz commerce. At Visgapatam, situated still farther to the
northward, the English possess a factory regularly fortified on the side
of the river, which, however, a dangerous bar has rendered unfit for
navigation. The adjacent country affords cotton cloths, and the best
stripped muslins of India. It is chiefly for the use of this settlement
that the company maintains a factory at Ganjam, the most eastern town in
the province or kingdom of Golconda, situated in a country abounding with
rice and sugar-canes. Still farther to the north coast, in the latitude of
twenty-two degrees, the company maintains a factory at Balasore, which was
formerly very considerable; but hath been of very little consequence since
the navigation of the river Huguely Avas improved. At this place every
European ship bound for Bengal and the Ganges takes in a pilot. The
climate is not counted very salubrious; but the adjacent country is
fruitful to admiration, and here are considerable manufacture of cotton
and silk. Without skilful pilots, the English would find it very difficult
to navigate the different channels through which the river Ganges
discharges itself into the sea at the bottom of the bay of Bengal. On the
southern branch is a town called Pepely, where there was formerly an
English factory, but this was removed to Huguely, one hundred and sixty
miles farther up the river; a place which, together with the company’s
settlement at Calcutta, were the emporiums of their commerce for the whole
kingdom of Bengal. Indeed Huguely is now abandoned by the English, and
their whole trade centers at Calcutta or Fort William, which is a regular
fortification, containing lodgings for the factors and writers,
store-houses for the company’s merchandise, and magazines for their
ammunition. As for the governor’s house, which likewise stands within the
fort, it is one of the most regular structures in all India. Besides these
settlements along the sea-coast of the peninsula, and on the banks of the
Ganges, the English East India company possess certain inland fac tories
and posts for the convenience and defence of their commerce, either
purchased of the nabobs and rajahs, or conquered in the course of the war.
As the operations we propose to record were confined to the coasts of
Malabar and Coromandel, or the interior countries which form the peninsula
intra Gangem, it will be unnecessary to describe the factory at Bencoolen,
on the island of Sumatra, or any settlement which the English possess in
other parts of the East Indies.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DISPUTE ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF ARCOT.

In order to understand the military transactions of the English company in
India, the reader will take notice, that immediately after the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle, mons. Dupleix, who commanded for the French in that
country, began by his intrigues to sow the seeds of dissension among the
nabobs, that he might be the better able to fish in troubled waters. Nizam
Almuluck, the mogul’s viceroy of Decan, having the right of nominating a
governor of the Carnatic, now more generally known by the name of the
nabob of Arcot, appointed Anaverdy Khan to that office, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-five. The viceroy dying, was succeeded in
his viceroyalty, or subaship, by his second son Nazirzing, whom the mogul
confirmed. He was opposed in his pretensions by his own cousin
Muzapherzing, who had recourse to the assistance of M. Dupleix, and
obtained from him a reinforcement of Europeans and artillery, in
consideration of many presents and promises, which he fulfilled in the
sequel. Thus reinforced, and joined by one Chunda Saib, an active Indian
chief, he took the field against his kinsman Nazirzing, who was supported
by a body of English troops under colonel Laurence. The French, dreading
an engagement, retired in the night; and Muzapherzing, seeing himself
abandoned by all his own troops, appealed to the clemency of his cousin,
who spared his life, but detained him as a state prisoner. In this
situation, he formed a conspiracy against his kinsman’s life, with
Nazirzing’s prime minister, and the nabobs of Cadupab and Condaneor, then
in his camp; and the conspirators were encouraged in their scheme by
Dupleix and Chunda Saib, who had retired to Pondicherry. Thus stimulated,
they murdered Nazirzing in his camp, and proclaimed Muzapherzing viceroy
of Decan. In the tents of the murdered viceroy they found an immense
treasure, of which a great share fell to M. Dupleix, whom Muzapherzing the
usurper at this time associated in the government. By virtue of this
association, the Frenchman assumed the state and formalities of an eastern
prince; and he and his colleague Muzapherzing appointed Chunda Saib nabob
of Arcot; Anaverdy Khan, the late nabob, had been, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, defeated and slain by Muzapherzing
and Chunda Saib, with the assistance of their French auxiliaries; and his
son Mahommed Ali Khan had put himself under the protection of the English
at Madras, and was confirmed by Nazirzing, as his father’s successor in
the nabobship, or government of Arcot. This government, therefore, was
disputed between Mahommed Ali Khan, appointed by the legal viceroy
Nazirzing, supported by the English company, and Chunda Saib, nominated by
the usurper Muzapherzing, and protected by Dupleix, who commanded at
Pondicherry. Muzapherzing did not long survive his usurpation. In the year
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, the same nabobs who had promoted
him to his kinsman’s place, thinking themselves ill rewarded for their
services, fell upon him suddenly, routed his troops, and put him to death:
and next day the chiefs of the army proclaimed Sallabatzing, brother to
Nazirzing, viceroy of Decan; on the other hand, the mogul appointed
Gauzedy Khan, who was the elder brother of Sallabatzing; and this prince
confirmed Mahommed Ali Khan in the government of Arcot; but the affairs of
the mogul’s court were then in such confusion, that he could not spare an
army to support the nomination he had made. Chunda Saib, nabob of Arcot,
having been deposed by the great mogul, who placed Anaverdy Khan in his
room, ha resolved to recover his government by force, and had recourse to
the French general at Pondicherry, who reinforced him with two thousand
sepoys, or soldiers of the country, sixty caffrees, and four hundred and
twenty French troops, on condition that, if he proved successful in his
enterprise, he should cede to the French the town of Velur, in the
neighbourhood of Pondicherry, with its dependencies, consisting of
forty-five villages. Thus reinforced, he defeated his rival Anaverdy Khan,
who lost his life in the engagement, reassumed the government of Arcot,
and punctually performed the conditions which had been stipulated by his
French allies.

MAHOMMED ALI KHAN SUPPORTED BY THE ENGLISH.

Mahommed Ali Khan, at the death of his father, had fled to
Tiruchirapalli,* and solicited the assistance of the English, who favoured
him with a reinforcement of money, men, and ammunition, under the conduct
of major Laurence, a brave and experienced officer.

* Tiruchirapalli, commonly called Triehinoply, situated near
tha river Cauveri, above two hundred miles to the southward
of Madras, is the capital of a small kingdom belonging to
the government of Arcot, and hounded on the east by the
kingdom of Tanjore.

By dint of this supply, he gained some advantages over the enemy, who were
obliged to retreat; but no decisive blow was given. Mahommed afterwards
repaired in person to fort St. David’s, to demand more powerful succours,
alleging that his fate was connected with the interest of the English
company, which in time would be obliged to abandon the whole coast, should
they allow the enemy to proceed in their conquests. In consequence of
these representations, he received another strong reinforcement, under the
command of captain Cope; but nothing of importance was attempted, and the
English auxiliaries retired. Then Mahommed was attacked by the enemy, who
obtained a complete victory over him. Finding it impossible to maintain
his footing by his own strength, he entered into a close alliance with the
English, and ceded to them some commercial points which had been long in
dispute. Then they detached captain Cope to put Tiruchirapalli in a
posture of defence; while captain de Gingins, a Swiss officer, marched at
the head of four hundred Europeans to the nabob’s assistance. The two
armies being pretty equal in strength, lay encamped in sight of each other
a whole month; during which nothing happened but a few skirmishes, which
generally terminated to the advantage of the English auxiliaries. In order
to make a diversion, and divide the French forces, the company resolved to
send a detachment into the province of Arcot; and this was one of the
first occasions upon which the extraordinary talents of Mr. Clive were
displayed. He had entered into the service of the East India company as a
writer, and Avas considered as a person very indifferently qualified for
succeeding in any civil station of life. He now offered his service in a
military capacity, and actually began his march to Arcot, at the head of
two hundred and ten Europeans, with five hundred sepoys.*

* The sepoys are the mercenaries of the country, who are
hired as soldiers occasionally by all parties.

MR. CLIVE TAKES ARCOT.

Such was the resolution, secrecy, and despatch, with which he conducted
this enterprise, that the enemy knew nothing of his motions until he was
in possession of the capital, which he took without opposition. The
inhabitants, expecting to be plundered, offered him a large sum to spare
their city; but they derived their security from the generosity and
discretion of the conqueror. He refused the proffered ransom, and issued a
proclamation, intimating, that those who were willing to remain in their
houses should be protected from insult and injury, and the rest have leave
to retire with all their effects, except provisions, for which he promised
to pay the full value. By this sage conduct he conciliated the affection
of the people so entirely, that even those who quitted the place supplied
him with exact intelligence of the enemy’s designs, when he was besieged
in the sequel. The town was in a little time invested by Rajah Saib, son
of Chunda Saib, at the head of a numerous army, and the operations of the
siege were conducted by European engineers. Though their approaches were
retarded by the repeated and resolute sallies of Mr. Clive, they at length
effected two breaches supposed to be practicable; and on the fourteenth
day of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, gave
a general assault. Mr. Clive, having received intimation of their design,
had made such preparations for their reception, that they were repulsed in
every quarter with great loss, and obliged to raise the siege with the
utmost precipitation.

This gallant Englishman, not contented with the reputation he had acquired
from his noble defence, was no sooner reinforced by a detachment under
captain Kirkpatrick from Trichinopoly, than he marched in pursuit of the
enemy, whom he overtook in the plains of Arani. There, on the third day of
December, he attacked them with irresistible impetuosity; and, after an
obstinate dispute, obtained a complete victory at a very small expense.
The forts of Timery, Caujeveram, and Arani, surrendered to the terror of
his name, rather than to the force of his arms; and he returned to Fort
St. David’s in triumph. He had enjoyed a very few weeks of repose, when he
was summoned to the field by fresh incursions of the enemy. In the
beginning of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, he marched
with a small detachment to Madras, where he was joined by a reinforcement
from Bengal, the whole number not exceeding three hundred Europeans, and
assembled a body of the natives, that he might have at least the
appearance of an army. With these he proceeded to Koveripauk, about
fifteen miles from Ar-cot, where he found the French and Indians,
consisting of fifteen hundred sepoys, seventeen hundred horse, a body of
natives, and one hundred and fifty Europeans, with eight pieces of cannon.
Though they were advantageously posted and intrenched, and the day was
already far advanced, Mr. Clive advanced against them with his usual
intrepidity; but the victory remained for some time in suspense. It was
now dark, and the battle doubtful, when Mr. Clive sent round a detachment
to fall in the rear of the French battery. This attack was executed with
great resolution, while the English in front entered the entrenchments
with their bayonets fixed; and, though very little tinctured with
discipline, displayed the spirit and activity of hardy veterans. This
double attack disconcerted the enemy in such a manner, that they soon
desisted from all opposition. A considerable carnage ensued; yet the
greater part of the enemy, both horse and foot, saved themselves by
flight, under cover of the darkness. The French, to a man, threw down
their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war; and all the
cannon and baggage fell into the hands of the victor.

MR. CLIVE REDUCES THREE FORTS, &c.

The province of Arcot being thus cleared of the enemy, Mr. Clive with his
forces returned to Fort St. David’s, where he found major Laurence just
arrived from England,* to take upon him the command of the troops in the
company’s service.

* Major Laurence had sailed for England in the year 1750.

On the eighteenth day of March, this officer, accompanied by Mr. Clive,
took the field, and was joined by captain de Gingins at Tiruchirapalli.
From hence he detached Mr. Clive with four hundred European soldiers, a
few Mahratta horse, and a body of sepoys, to cut off the enemy’s retreat
to Pondicherry. In the course of this expedition he dislodged a strong
body of the foe posted at Samiaveram, and obliged Chunda Saib to throw a
body of troops into a strong fortified temple, or pagoda, upon the river
Koleroon, which was immediately invested. The commanding officer, in
attempting to escape, was slain with some others, and the rest surrendered
at discretion. They were still in possession of another fortified temple,
which he also besieged in form, and reduced by capitulation. Having
subdued these forts, he marched directly to Volconda, whither he
understood the French commander d’Anteuil had retired. He found that
officer intrenched in a village, from whence he drove him with
precipitation, and made himself master of the French cannon. The enemy
attempted to save themselves in a neighbouring fort; but the gates being
shut against them by the governor, who was apprehensive that they would be
followed pell-mell by the English, Mr. Clive attacked them with great
fury, and made a considerable slaughter; but his humanity being shocked at
this carnage, he sent a flag of truce to the vanquished, with terms of
capitulation, which they readily embraced. These articles imported, that
D’Anteuil, and three other officers, should remain prisoners on parole for
one year; that the garrison should be exchanged, and the money and stores
be delivered to the nabob whom the English supported.

CHUNDA SAIB TAKEN AND PUT TO DEATH.

During these transactions, Chunda Saib lay encamped with an army of thirty
thousand men at Syrinham, an island in the neighbourhood of
Tiruchirapalli, which he longed eagerly to possess. Hither major Laurence
marched with his Indian allies,* and took his measures so well, that the
enemy’s provisions were entirely intercepted.

* His army consisted of twelve hundred Europeans and
Topasses in battalions, two thousand sepoys, with the forces
of the nabob, the kings of Tanjore, Muissack, and the
Mahrattas; amounting to fifteen hundred horse and ten
thousand infantry. Topasses are descendants from the
Portuguese. The Mahrattas are native Indians of a very
numerous and powerful nation, which hath more than once
given law to the mogul.

Chunda Saib, in attempting to fly, was taken prisoner by the nabob of
Tanjore, an ally of the English company, who ordered his head to be struck
off, in order to prevent the disputes which otherwise would have arisen
among the captors. *

* Chunda Saib demanded leave of the Tanjore general to pass
through his camp to Tanjore, and this request was granted;
but instead of being allowed to pass, he was detained
prisoner, and as the allies could not agree about the manner
in which he should be disposed of, some of the Tanjore
officers, of their own accord, ended the dispute by cutting
off his head.

The main body of the army being attacked by major Laurence, and totally
defeated, the island of Syrinham was surrendered, and about a thousand
European French soldiers, under the command of Mr. Law, nephew to the
famous Law who schemed the Mississippi company, fell into the hands of the
conquerors, including thirty officers, with forty pieces of cannon, and
ten mortars. M. Dupleix, though exceedingly mortified by this disaster,
resolved to maintain the cause which he had espoused. He proclaimed Rajah
Saib, the son of Chunda Saib, nabob of Arcot; and afterwards pretended
that he himself had received from the mogul sanids or commissions,
appointing him governor of all the Carnatic, from the river Kristnah to
the sea; but these sanids appeared in the sequel to be forged. In order to
complete the comedy, a supposed messenger from Delhi was received at
Pondicherry as ambassador from the mogul. Dupleix, mounted on an elephant,
preceded by music and dancing women, in the oriental manner, received in
public his commission from the hands of the pretended ambassador. He
affected the eastern state, kept his Durbar or court, where he appeared
sitting cross-legged on a sofa, and received presents as prince of the
country from his own council, as well as from the natives. In the
meantime, hostilities continued between the forces of the two companies,
as auxiliaries to the contending nabobs. The English, under major Kinnier,
made an unsuccessful attempt upon Gingee, a strong town situated to the
west of Pondicherry. Major Laurence defeated a strong body of French and
natives, commanded by Dupleix’s nephew, M. de Kerjean, in the
neighbourhood of Pondicherry, and took him prisoner, together with fifteen
officers; after this success, Mr. Clive reduced the forts of Cove-long and
Chengalput, the last very strong, situated about forty miles to the
southward of Madras. On the other hand, M. Dupleix intercepted at sea
captain Schaub, with his whole Swiss company, whom he detained prisoners
at Pondicherry, although the two nations were not at war with each other.
During these transactions, Sallabatzing, with a body of French under M. de
Bussy, advanced towards Aurengabad, which was the seat of government; but
he was opposed by a chief of the Mahrattas, at the head of a numerous
army. In the meantime, Gauzedy Khan, the elder brother of Sallabatzing,
whom the mogul had appointed viceroy of Decan, took possession of his
government at Aurengabad, where, in fourteen days after his arrival, he
was poisoned by his own sister. The mogul immediately appointed his son
Schah Abadin Khan to succeed his father; and this prince actually raised
an army to come and take possession; but the mogul’s affairs requiring his
presence at Delhi, he was obliged to postpone his design, so that
Sallabatzing was left without a competitor, and made a present to the
French of all the English settlements to the northward. Thus concluded the
year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two. Next campaign was chiefly
confined to the neighbourhood of Trichinopoly, where major Laurence made
several vigorous attacks upon the enemy’s army, and obtained many
advantages; which, however, did not prove decisive, because he was so much
out-numbered that he could never follow his blow.

CONVENTION BETWEEN THE EAST INDIA COMPANIES OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

In the course of this year, the mogul was deposed by his general Schah
Abadin Khan, the viceroy of Decan, who raised to the throne Allum Geer,
another prince of the blood. In the succeeding year, a negotiation was Bet
on foot by Mr. Saunders, governor of Madras, and M. Dupleix; and
conferences were opened at Sadrass, a Dutch settlement between Pondicherry
and Fort St. George; but this proved abortive; and many other gallant
efforts were made by major Laurence in the territory of Trichinopoly,
which still continued to be the scene of action. In the course of this
year admiral Watson arrived on the coast of Coromandel with a squadron of
ships of war, having on board a regiment commanded by colonel Aldercroon;
at the same time the ships from France brought over to Pondicherry the
sieur Godeheu, commissary-general and governor-general of all their
settlements, at whose arrival Dupleix departed for Europe. The new
governor immediately wrote a letter to Mr. Saunders, professing the most
pacific inclinations, and proposing a suspension of arms between the two
companies until their disputes could be amicably adjusted. This proposal
was very agreeable to the governor and council at Madras, and a cessation
of arms actually took place in the month of October, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-four. Deputies being sent to Pondicherry,
a provisional treaty and truce were concluded, on condition that neither
of the two companies should for the future interfere in any difference
that might arise between the princes of the country. The other articles
related to the places and settlements that should be retained or possessed
by the respective companies, until fresh orders relating to this agreement
should arrive from the courts of London and Versailles, transmitted by the
two East India companies of France and England. Until such orders should
arrive, it was stipulated that neither nation should be allowed to procure
any new grant or cession, or to build forts for the defence of new
establishments; and that they should not proceed to any cession,
retrocession, or evacuation of what they then possessed; but every thing
should remain on the footing of uti possidetis. How pacific soever
the sentiments of the French subjects might have been at this period in
the East Indies, certain it is, the designs of the French governors in
America were altogether hostile, and their conduct hastening towards a
rupture, which kindled up a bloody war in every division of the globe.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE BRITISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA.

As this war may be termed a native of America, and the principal scenes of
it were acted on that continent, we shall, for the information of the
reader, sketch out the situation of the then British colonies as they
bordered on each other, and extended along the sea coast, from the gulf of
St. Lawrence as far south as the country of Florida. We shall enumerate
the Indian nations that lie scattered about their confines, and delineate
the manner in which the French hemmed them in by a surprising line of
fortifications. Should we comprehend Hudson’s Bay, with the adjacent
countries, and the banks of Newfoundland, in this geographical detail, we
might affirm that Great Britain at that time possessed a territory along
the sea-coast, extending seventeen hundred miles in a direct line, from
the sixtieth to the thirty-first degree of northern latitude; but as these
two countries were not concerned in this dispute, we shall advance from
the northward to the southern side of the gulf of St. Lawrence; and
beginning with Acadia or Nova Scotia, describe our settlements as they lie
in a southerly direction, as far as the gulf of Florida. This great tract
of country, stretching fifteen degrees of latitude, is washed on the east
by the Atlantic Ocean; the southern boundary is Spanish Florida; but to
the westward the limits are uncertain, some affirming that the
jurisdiction of the colonies penetrates through the whole continent, as
far as the South Sea; while others, with more moderation, think they are
naturally bounded by the river Illinois that runs into the Mississippi,
and in a manner connects that river with the chain of lakes known by the
names of Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, the three first communicating
with each other, and the last discharging itself into the river St.
Lawrence, which, running by Montreal and Quebec, issues into the bay of
the same denomination, forming the northern boundary of Nova Scotia. The
French, who had no legal claim to any lands on the south side of this
river, nevertheless, with an insolence of ambition peculiar to themselves,
not only extended their forts from the source of the St. Lawrence, through
an immense tract of that country, as far as the Mississippi, which
disembogues itself into the gulf of Florida; but also, by a series of
unparalleled encroachments, endeavoured to contract the English colonies
within such narrow limits as would have cut off almost one half of their
possessions. As we have already given a geographical description of Nova
Scotia, and mentioned the particulars of the new settlement of Halifax, we
shall now only observe, that it is surrounded on three sides by the sea,
the gulf, and river of St. Lawrence; that its original boundary to the
west was the river Pentagoet; but it is now contracted within the river
St. Croix, because the crown of Great Britain did, in the year one
thousand six hundred and sixty-three, grant to the duke of York the
territory of Sagadahack, stretching from St. Croix to the river of this
name; which was in the sequel, by an express charter from the crown,
annexed to the province of Massachusett’s Bay, one of the four governments
of New England. This country, situated next to Nova Scotia, lies between
the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, extending near
three hundred miles in length, and about two hundred in breadth, if we
bound it by those tracts which the French possessed: no part of the
settlements of this country, however, stretches above sixty miles from the
sea. The summer is here intensely hot, and the winter proportionably
severe; nevertheless, the climate is healthy, and the sky generally
serene. The soil is not favourable to any of the European kinds of grain;
but produces great plenty of maize, which the people bake into bread, and
brew into beer, though their favourite drink is made of molasses hopped,
and impregnated with the tops of the spruce-fir, which is a native of this
country. The ground raises good flax and tolerable hemp. Here are great
herds of black cattle, some of them very large in size, a vast number of
excellent hogs, a breed of small horses, graceful, swift, and hardy; and
large flocks of sheep, whose wool, though not so fine as that of England,
is manufactured with great success.

New England is composed of the four provinces known by the names of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bounded
on the south by New York, extending northerly on both sides of the river
Hudson, about two hundred miles into the country possessed by the Indians
of the Five Nations, whom the French distinguish by the name of the
Irroquois; but in breadth this province does not exceed fifty miles,
though it comprehends Long Island, lying to the southward of Connecticut.
The capital, which derives from the province the name of New York, is
situated on an excellent harbour in the island of Manahatton, extending
fourteen miles in length, and five in breadth, at the mouth of the noble
river Hudson, which is navigable for above two hundred miles. At the
distance of one hundred and fifty miles from New York, stands the town of
Albany, upon the same river. In this place all the treaties and other
transactions were negotiated between the English and the Irroquois, a
confederacy of five Indian nations, who, by their union, courage, and
military skill, had reduced a great number of other Indian tribes, and
subdued a territory more extensive than the whole kingdom of France. They
were about fourscore years ago able to bring ten thousand warriors into
the field; but now their number is so greatly diminished by wars,
epidemical diseases, and the use of spirituous liquors, that they cannot
raise above fifteen hundred men, even though they have admitted into their
confederacy the nation of the Tuscaroras, whom the English drove from the
confines of Carolina. The Mohawk Indians inhabit the country advanced from
Albany. The northern extremities of New Hampshire and New York are divided
by the lakes Champlain and Sacrament, between which the French had raised
the fort of Crown Point.

Contiguous to New York, and lying along the coast, in a southerly
direction, is the small province of New Jersey, bounded on the west by the
river Delaware, which divides it from Pennsylvania, extending about one
hundred and fifty miles in length, but in breadth not more than one third
of that extent. The climate, soil, and produce of these two provinces, as
well as of Pennsylvania, are similar. They yield great quantities of
grain, sheep, horses, hogs, and horned cattle; all kinds of poultry and
game in great abundance; vegetables of every sort in perfection, and
excellent fruit, particularly peaches and melons. Their vast forests
abound with oak, ash, beech, chesnut, cedar, walnut-tree, cypress,
hickory, sassafras, and pine; but the timber is not counted so fit for
shipping as that of New England and Nova Scotia. These provinces produce
great quantities of flax and hemp. New York affords mines of iron, and
very rich copper ore is found in New Jersey.

Pennsylvania, lying to the southward of New York and New Jersey, is
bounded on the other side by Maryland, stretching two hundred and fifty
miles in length, two hundred in breadth, and having no communication with
the sea, except by the mouth of the river Delaware. This province was
originally settled by Quakers, under the auspices of the celebrated
William Penn, whose descendants are still proprietaries of the country.
Philadelphia, the capital, stands on a tongue of land at the confluence of
the two navigable rivers, the Delaware and Sculkel, disposed in the form
of a regular oblong, and designed by the original plan to extend from the
one to the other. The streets, which are broad, spacious, and uniform,
cross each other at right angles, leaving proper spaces for churches,
markets, and other public edifices. The houses are neatly built of brick,
the quays spacious and magnificent, the warehouses large and numerous, and
the docks commodious and well contrived for ship building. Pennsylvania is
understood to extend as far northerly as the banks of the lake Erie, where
the French erected a fort. They also raised another at some distance to
the southward of the Riviere-au-Beuf, and made other encroachments on this
colony.

Adjoining to part of Pennsylvania, on the sea-coast, lies the province of
Maryland, a tract of land situated along the bay of Chesapeak, in length
about one hundred and forty miles, and nearly of the same breadth, bounded
on the north by Pennsylvania, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and by
the river Potowmack on the south. This country was first planted with
Roman catholics by lord Baltimore, to whom Charles II. granted it by
patent. In the sequel, however, people of all religions were admitted into
this settlement, and indulged with liberty of conscience, and at present
the reigning religion is that of the English church. The climate is very
sultry in summer, and not very salubrious. The soil is fruitful, and
produces a great quantity of tobacca, which the people cultivate as their
staple commodity. The seat of government is established at Annapolis, a
small town beautifully situated on the river Patuxent.

Tracing the sea-coast still southerly, the next settlement is Virginia,
watered on the north by the river Potowmack, which is the boundary between
this and the colony last described, having the bay of Chesapeak to the
east, bounded on the south by Carolina, and extending westward without any
prescribed limits, though the plantations have reached no farther than the
great Allegany mountains; so that the province, as now possessed,
stretches in length above two hundred and forty miles, and in breadth not
above two hundred, lying between the fifty-fifth and fortieth degrees of
latitude. In sailing to Virginia, navigators steer through a strait formed
by two points, called the Capes, into the bay of Chesapeak, a large inlet
that runs three hundred miles into the country from south to north,
covered from the Atlantic Ocean by the eastern side of Maryland, and a
small portion of Virginia on the same peninsula. This noble bay is about
eighteen miles broad for a considerable space, and seven at its narrowest
part, yielding generally nine fathoms depth of water; on both sides it
receives many navigable rivers, those on the Virginia side being known by
the names of James River, York River, the Rappahannock, and Potowmack.
This country, especially towards the sea, lies very low and swampy, and
the soil is extremely fertile. The air and weather are variable, the heats
of summer excessive, the frosts of winter sudden, and intensely cold; so
that, upon the whole, the climate is neither very agreeable nor healthy,
the people being particularly subject to agues and pleuritic disorders.
The province abounds with vast forests of timber; the plains are covered
with a surprising luxuriancy of vegetables, flowers, and flowering shrubs,
diffusing the most delicious fragrance. The ground yields plenty of corn,
and every sort of fruit in great abundance and perfection. Horned cattle
and hogs have here multiplied to admiration, since they were first
imported from Europe. The animals, natives of this and the neighbouring
countries, are deer, panthers or tigers, bears, wolves, foxes, squirrels,
racoons, and creatures called opossums, with an infinite variety of
beautiful birds, and a diversity of serpents, among which the rattlesnake
is the most remarkable.

Virginia is bounded to the south by the two Carolinas, situated between
the forty-sixth and thirty-first degrees of latitude; the length amounting
to upwards of four hundred miles, and the breadth extending near three
hundred, as far as the Indian nations called the Catawbas, the Creeks, and
Cherokees. The country of Carolina is divided into two governments, of
which the most northern is the most inconsiderable. The climate in both is
the same, as well as the soil: the first is warm, though not unhealthy;
the last extremely fertile, yielding every thing in plenty which is
produced in Virginia, besides abundance of excellent oranges, and some
commodities which are not found to the northward. North Carolina, though
not so opulent, is more populous than the southern part. The colonists of
North Carolina carry on a considerable traffic in tar, pitch, turpentine,
staves, shingles, lumber, corn, peas, pork, and beef; tobacco, deer skins,
indigo, wheat, rice, bee’s-wax, tallow, bacon, and hog’s-lard, cotton, and
squared timber; live cattle, with the skins of beaver, racoon, fox, minx,
wild-cat, and otter. South Carolina is much better cultivated; the people
are more civilized, and the commerce more important. The capital of this
province, called Charles Town, is finely situated at the confluence of two
navigable rivers, having the advantage of a commodious harbour. Their
trade, exclusive of the articles we have already mentioned as common to
this government and that of North Carolina, consists of two chief staple
commodities, rice and indigo, which they cultivate with great success; and
they have likewise made some progress in the culture of silk.

The most southern of all our settlements on this coast is Georgia,
extending about sixty miles from north to South, along the sea-shore; but
widening in the inland parts to above one hundred and fifty, and
stretching almost three hundred from the sea to the Apalachian mountains.
This country differs very little from that of South Carolina, with which
it borders; yet the summer is here more hot, and the soil not so fertile.
Savannah, the capital, stands commodiously for trade, about ten miles from
the sea, on a river of the same name, navigable with large boats two
hundred miles farther up to the second town called Augusta, a place that
flourishes by the Indian trade of skins, which the inhabitants carry on
with their neighbours the Creeks, the Chickesaws, and the Cherokees, who
are the most numerous and powerful tribes in America. Georgia is bounded
on the south by the river Attamaha, at no great distance from the Spanish
fort of St. Augustine.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE FRENCH SURPRISE LOG’S TOWN.

Having thus exhibited a succinct view of the British colonies in North
America, for the information of the reader, we shall now resume the thread
of our history, and particularize the transactions by which the present
year was distinguished on this extensive continent. The government of
England having received nothing but evasive answers from the court of
France, touching the complaints that were made of the encroachments in
America, despatched orders to all the governors of that country to repel
force by force, and drive the French from their settlements on the river
Ohio. Accordingly, the provinces of Virginia and Pennsylvania took this
important affair into their consideration; but while they deliberated, the
French vigorously prosecuted their designs on the other side of the
mountains. They surprised Log’s Town, which the Virginians had built upon
the Ohio; made themselves masters of the Block-house and Truck-house,
where they found skins and other commodities to the amount of twenty
thousand pounds, and destroyed all the British traders, except two who
found means to escape. At the same time, M. de Contrecour, with a thousand
men and eighteen pieces of cannon, arrived in three hundred canoes from
Venango, a fort they had raised on the banks of the Ohio, and reduced by
surprise a British fort which the Virginians had built on the forks of the
Monangahela, that runs into the same river.

CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS.

These hostilities were followed by divers skirmishes between the people of
the two nations, which were fought with various success. At length the
governors of the English settlements received orders from England to form
a political confederacy for their mutual defence; and the governor of New
York was directed to confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations, with a
view to detach them from the French interest by dint of promises and
presents of value, sent over for that purpose. A congress was accordingly
appointed at Albany, to which place the governor of New York repaired,
accompanied by commissioners from all the other British settlements; but a
very small number of Indians arrived, and even these seemed to be
indifferent to the advances and exhortations that were made by the English
orator. The truth is, the French had artfully weaned them from their
attachment to the subjects of Great Britain. Nevertheless, they accepted
the presents, renewed their treaties with the king of England, and even
demanded his assistance in driving the French from the posts and
possessions they had usurped within the Indian territories. It was in
consequence of the measures here taken, that colonel Washington was
detached from Virginia with four hundred men, and occupied a post on the
banks of the river Ohio, where he threw up some works, and erected a kind
of occasional fort, in hopes of being able to defend himself in that
situation, until he should be joined by a reinforcement from New York,
which, how ever, did not arrive.

COLONEL WASHINGTON DEFEATED AND TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.

While he remained in this situation, de Viller, a French commander, at the
head of nine hundred men, being on his march to dislodge Washington,
detached one Jamonville, an inferior officer, with a small party, and a
formal summons to colonel Washington, requiring him to quit the fort,
which he pretended was built on ground belonging to the French, or their
allies. So little regard was paid to this intimation, that the English
fell upon this party, and, as the French affirm, without the least
provocation, either slew or took the whole detachment. De Viller, incensed
at these unprovoked hostilities, marched up to the attack, which
Washington for some time sustained under manifold disadvantages. At
length, however, he surrendered the fort upon capitulation, for the
performance of which he left two officers as hostages in the hands of the
French; and in his retreat was terribly harassed by the Indians, who
plundered his baggage, and massacred his people. This event was no sooner
known in England, than the British ambassador at Paris received directions
to complain of it to the French ministry, as an open violation of the
peace; but this representation had no effect.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE BRITISH COLONIES.

Both nations by this time foresaw that a rupture would be inevitable, and
each resolved to make suitable preparations. France continued to send
reinforcements of men, and supplies of ammunition to Quebec, for the
prosecution of her ambitious projects; and the ministry of Great Britain
transmitted salutary cautions to the governors of the provinces in North
America, exhorting them to join their endeavours for repelling the
incursions of the enemy. Such an union as seemed necessary for their
common preservation was not easily effected. The different colonies were
divided by different views and interests, both religious and political;
besides, every settlement was distracted into factions, formed by the
governor and the demagogues of the assembly; in other words, an opposition
like that in parliament, and a continual struggle between the liberties of
the people and the prerogative of the proprietor, whether sovereign or
subject. Mr. Dinwiddie, governor of Virginia, having demanded a certain
perquisite or fee for every patent he should pass for land, the assembly
voted his demand illegal, arbitrary, and oppressive. They declared that
every man who paid it should be deemed an enemy to his country, and sent
over an agent to London to solicit the suppression of this imposition. The
representatives of the people in Pennsylvania wasted the time in vain
deliberations and violent disputes with their proprietors, while the enemy
infested their frontiers. The colony of New York was filled with
discontent and animosity. Sir Danvers Osborn, who had been appointed
governor of this province, died immediately after his arrival at New York,
and the instructions he had received were exposed to public censure. The
preamble inveighed severely against the want of duty, allegiance, loyalty,
and unanimity, which had lately appeared so notorious in the assembly of
that province, who had violated the royal commission and instructions, by
assuming to themselves the power to dispose of public money in the laws
which they had occasionally passed. This gentleman was, therefore,
directed to insist upon the reformation of all those public abuses, and
upon the establishment of a certain supply for the service of the
government, as well as upon the settlement of a salary for himself.
Moreover, his majesty, in these instructions, signified his will and
pleasure, that all money raised for the supply and support of government,
or upon any emergency for immediate service, should be disposed of and
applied properly to the use for which it might be granted, by warrant from
the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the council of the
province, and no otherwise; that, nevertheless, the assembly should be
permitted, from time to time, to view and examine the accounts of money
disposed of, by virtue of laws which they had enacted; that if any member
of the council, or officer holding place of trust or profit within the
government, should, in any manner whatever, give his assent to, or in
anywise advise or concur with the assembly in passing any act or vote,
whereby the royal prerogative might be lessened or impaired, or any money
be raised or disposed of for the public service, contrary to, or
inconsistent with, the method prescribed by these instructions, the
governor should forthwith remove or suspend such counsellor or officer so
offending, and give an immediate account of his proceedings to the
commissioners of trade and plantations. These were peremptory injunctions,
which plainly proved that the ministry was determined to support the
prerogative with a high hand; but it must be owned, at the same time, that
abundance of provocation had been given by the insolent opposition of some
turbulent individuals, who had exerted all their influence in disturbing
and distressing the views and designs of the government. While the British
colonies in America were, by these divisions, in a great measure disabled
from making vigorous efforts against the common enemy, the administration
at home began to exert itself for their defence.. Officers were appointed
for two regiments, consisting of two battalions each, to be raised in
America, and commanded by sir William Pepperel and governor Shirley, who
had enjoyed the same command in the last war, and a body of troops was
destined for the same service.

HEREDITARY PRINCE OF HESSE-CASSEL PROFESSES THE CATHOLIC RELIGION.

The most remarkable incident that marked this year on the continent of
Europe, was the conversion of the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, who
had espoused the princess Mary of England. He now declared himself a
Roman-catholic, and was supposed to have been cajoled to this profession
by the promises of certain powers, who flattered his ambition, in order to
weaken the protestant interest in Germany. His father, though deeply
affected by his son’s apostacy, did not fail to take immediate measures
for preventing the evil consequences which might otherwise have flowed
from his defection. He forthwith, assembled the states of the
landgraviate, in order to take such measures as might appear necessary to
maintain the religion, laws, and constitution of the country; and the
prince was laid under certain restrictions, which he did not find it an
easy task to set aside. It was enacted, that when the regency should
devolve to him by succession, he should not have it in his power to alter
the established laws, or grant any church to persons of the Roman
communion, for the public exercise of their religion; and that he should
be excluded from all share in the education of his sons, the eldest of
whom should be put in possession of the country of Hanau upon his father’s
accession to the regency of the landgraviate. These resolutions were
guaranteed by the kings of Prussia and Denmark, by the maritime powers,
and the evangelic body of the empire.

PARLIAMENT OF PARIS RECALLED FROM EXILE.

The exile of the parliament of Paris, far from having intimidated the
other tribunals from performing what they apprehended to be their duty,
served only to inflame the discontents of the people, and to animate all
the courts of justice to a full exertion of their authority. The chatelot
continued to prosecute those priests, who refused the sacrament to persons
whose consciences would not allow them to subscribe to the bull
Unigenitus, even after three of their members were sent to the Bastile.
The same prosecutions were carried on, and bold remonstrances published
by, the parliaments of Aix and Rouen. In a word, the whole kingdom was
filled with such confusion as threatened a total suppression of justice,
in a general spirit of disaffection and universal anarchy. The prelates,
meanwhile, seemed to triumph in the combustion they had raised. They
entered into associations to support each other; they intrigued at court,
and harassed the king with insolent declarations, till he grew tired of
their proceedings, and opened his eyes to the fatal consequences of their
pride and obstinacy. He even took an opportunity of exhorting the
archbishop of Paris to act more suitably to the character of a clergyman.
He recalled the parliament from exile, and they returned in triumph,
amidst the acclamations of the people, who celebrated their arrival at
Paris with the most extravagant demonstrations of joy; and the archbishop,
notwithstanding the king’s express declaration to the contrary, still
persisting in countenancing the recusant priests, was banished to
Conflans-sous-Charenton.

AFFAIRS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.

In Spain, the interest of Great Britain was so warmly espoused, and so
powerfully supported by Mr. Wall, who had been resident in England, that
the French party, though countenanced by the queen-mother, and sustained
with all the influence of the marquis de la Ensenada, the prime minister,
was totally defeated. The king being convinced that it would be for the
interest of his subjects to live on good terms with England, and well
apprized of Ensenada’s intrigues, ordered that minister to be arrested and
confined, and bestowed upon Mr. Wall the best part of his employments.
Nevertheless, the Spaniards in the West Indies continued to oppress the
subjects of Great Britain, employed in cutting logwood in the bay of
Honduras; and representations on this head being made to the court of
Madrid, the dispute was amicably adjusted between Mr. Wall and sir
Benjamin Keene, the British ambassador. While the interest of Britain thus
triumphed in Spain, it seemed to lose ground at the court of Lisbon. His
Portuguese majesty had formed vast projects of an active commerce, and
even established an East India company; in the meantime he could not help
manifesting his chagrin at the great quantities of gold which were yearly
exported from his dominions, as the balance due from his subjects on
English commodities. In his endeavours to check this traffic, which he
deemed so detrimental to his subjects, he inflicted hardships on the
British merchants settled at Lisbon: some were imprisoned on frivolous
pretences; others deprived of their property, and obliged to quit the
kingdom. He insisted upon laying an imposition of two per cent, on all the
Portuguese gold that should be exported; but the profits of the trade
would not bear such an exaction. Meanwhile, there being a scarcity of corn
in Portugal, the kingdom was supplied from England; and the people having
nothing but gold to purchase this necessary supply, the king saw the
necessity of conniving at the exportation of his coin, and the trade
reverted into its former channel.

SESSION OPENED.

On the fourteenth day of November, the king of Great Britain opened the
session of parliament with an harangue, which intimated nothing of an
approaching rupture. He said, that the general state of affairs in Europe
had undergone very little alteration since their last meeting; that he had
lately received the strongest assurances from his good brother the king of
Spain, of friendship and confidence, which he would cultivate with harmony
and good faith. He declared his principal view should be to strengthen the
foundation, and secure the duration of a general peace; to improve the
present advantages of it for promoting the trade of his good subjects, and
protecting those possessions which constituted one great source of their
wealth and commerce. Finally, he exhorted them to complete their plan for
appropriating the forfeited estates in the highlands to the service of the
public. He probably avoided mentioning the encroachments of France, that
he might supply no handle for debates on the address, which was carried in
both houses almost without opposition. The government seemed determined to
humble the insolence of the French councils; and this disposition was so
agreeable to the people in general, that they grudged no expense, and
heartily concurred with the demands of the ministry.

The commons granted for the service of the ensuing year, four millions
seventy-three thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine pounds; one million
of that sum expressly given to enable his majesty to augment his forces by
land and sea. Thirty-two thousand pounds were allotted as a subsidy to the
king of Poland, and twenty thousand to the elector of Bavaria. These
gratifications met with little or no opposition in the committee of
supply; because it was taken for granted, that, in case of a rupture,
France would endeavour to avail herself of her superiority by land, by
invading his Britannic majesty’s German dominions; and therefore it might
be necessary to secure the assistance of such allies on the continent.
That they prognosticated aright, with respect to the designs of that
ambitious power, will soon appear in the course of this history; which
will also demonstrate how little dependence is to be placed upon the
professed attachment of subsidiary princes. The supplies were raised by
the standing branches of the revenue, the land-tax and malt-tax, and a
lottery for one million; one hundred thousand pounds of it to be deducted
for the service of the public, and the remaining nine hundred thousand to
be charged on the produce of the sinking-fund, at the rate of three per
cent, per annum, to commence from the fifth day of January, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six. The civil transactions of this
session were confined to a few objects. Divers new regulations were made
for encouraging and improving the whale and white herring fishery, as well
as for finishing and putting in a proper state of defence a new fort,
lately built at Anamabo on the coast of Africa.

BILL IN BEHALF OF CHELSEA PENSIONERS.

Mr. Pitt, the paymaster-general of the forces, brought in a bill, which
will ever remain a standing monument of his humanity. The poor disabled
veterans who enjoyed the pension of Chelsea hospital, were so iniquitously
oppressed by a set of miscreants, who supplied them with money per
advance, at the most exorbitant rates of usury, that many of them, with
their families, were in danger of starving; and the intention of
government in granting such a comfortable subsistence, was in a great
measure defeated. Mr. Pitt, perceiving that this evil originally flowed
from the delay of the first payment, which the pensioner could not touch
till the expiration of a whole year after he had been put upon the list,
removed this necessity of borrowing, by providing in the bill, that half a
year’s pension should be advanced half a year before it is due; and the
practice of usury was effectually prevented by a clause, enacting, that
all contracts should be void by which any pension might be mortgaged. This
humane regulation was unanimously approved, and having passed through both
houses with uncommon expedition, received the royal assent.

Notwithstanding the unanimity manifested by the commons, in every thing
relating to the measures for acting vigorously against the common enemy of
the nation, they were remarkably disturbed and divided by a contested
election of members for Oxfordshire. In the course of this dispute, the
strength and influence of what they called the old and new interest, or,
to speak more intelligibly, of the tories and whigs in that county, were
fully displayed. The candidates sustained on the shoulders of the old
interest, were lord viscount Wenman and sir James Dashwood: their
competitors, whom the new interest supported, and of consequence the
ministry countenanced, were lord Parker and sir Edward Turner. Never was
any contention of this kind maintained with more spirit and animosity, or
carried on at a greater expense. One would have imagined that each side
considered it as a dispute which must have determined whether the nation
should enjoy its ancient liberty, or tamely submit to the fetters of
corruption. Noblemen and gentlemen, clergymen and ladies, employed all
their talents and industry in canvassing for either side, throughout every
township and village in the county. Scandal emptied her whole quiver of
insinuation, calumny, and lampoon; corruption was not remiss in promises
and presents: houses of entertainment were opened; and nothing was for
some time to be seen but scenes of tumult, riot, and intoxication. The
revenue of many an independent prince on the continent, would not have
been sufficient to afford such sums of money as were expended in the
course of this dispute. At length they proceeded to election, and the
sheriff made a double return of all the four candidates, so that not one
of them could sit, and the county remained without a representative until
this ambiguous affair could be decided in the house of commons. About the
middle of November, petitions being presented by the four candidates, as
well as by the gentlemen, clergy, and other freeholders of the county,
complaining of an undue election, and double return, the matter of these
petitions was heard at the bar of the house on the third day of December.
The counsel for lord Wenman and sir James Dashwood alleged that they had
the majority of votes upon the poll, and this circumstance was admitted by
the counsel on the other side; then they proceeded to prove by evidence,
that, after closing the poll, the sheriff declared the majority of votes
to be in favour of these two candidates, and adjourned the court from the
twenty-third day of April to the eighth of May; so that the scrutiny
demanded and granted on the behalf of lord Parker and sir Edward Turner
could not be discussed before the last day of the month, when the writ was
returnable; that the scrutiny did not begin till the ninth day of May,
when the time was protracted by disputes about the manner in which it
should be carried on; that lord Parker and sir Edward Turner were allowed
to object, through the whole poll, to the votes on the other side, on
pretence that their competitors should be permitted to answer these
objections, and, in their turn, object through the whole poll to the
voters for lord Parker and sir Edward Turner, who should, in the last
place, have leave to answer: that lord Wenman and sir James Dashwood had
disapproved of this method, because they apprehended it might induce their
competitors to make such a number of frivolous objections, that they
should not have time to answer one half of them, much less to make
objections of their own before the writ should be returned: that they
foresaw such a number of frivolous objections were made, as engrossed the
attention of the court till the twenty-seventh day of May; so that they
could not begin to answer any of these objections till the twenty-eighth;
and on the thirtieth, the sheriff, having closed the scrutiny, made the
double return. The proof being exhibited, the counsel insisted, that as
they had established a majority on the poll, and demonstrated that this
majority neither was nor could be overthrown by such an unfinished
scrutiny, it was incumbent on the other side to proceed upon the merits of
the election, by endeavouring to overthrow that majority of which their
clients were in possession. A question in the house being carried to the
same purpose, lord Wenman and sir James Dashwood objected to five hundred
and thirty voters on the other side, whom they proposed to disqualify.
Their counsel examined several witnesses, to prove the partiality of the
sheriff in favour of lord Parker and sir Edward Turner, and to detect
these candidates in the practice of bribery; for which purpose they
produced a letter in their own handwriting.

1755

They afterwards proceeded to disqualify particular voters, and summed up
their evidence on the twenty-first day of January. Then the counsel for
the other side began to refute the charge of partiality and corruption;
and to answer the objections that had been made to particular voters. They
produced evidence to prove, that customary freeholds, or customary
holdings, had voted in elections in the counties at Glamorgan, Monmouth,
Gloucester, Wells, and Hereford; and that the customary tenants of the
manor of Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, had been reputed capable of voting,
and even voted at elections for that county. In a word, they continued to
examine evidences, argue and refute, prove and disprove, until the
twenty-third day of April, when, after some warm debates and divisions in
the house, lord Parker and sir Edward Turner were declared duly elected;
and the clerk of the crown was ordered to amend the return, by erasing the
names of lord Wenman and sir James Dashwood. Many, who presumed to think
for themselves, without recollecting the power and influence of the
administration, were astonished at the issue of this dispute, which,
however, might have easily been foreseen; inasmuch, as, during the course
of the proceedings, most if not all of the many questions debated in the
house, were determined by a great majority in favour of the new interest.
A great number of copyholders had been admitted to vote at this election,
and the sheriff incurred no censure for allowing them to take the oath
appointed by law to be taken by freeholders: nevertheless, the commons
carefully avoided determining the question, whether copyholders possessed
of the yearly value of forty shillings, clear of all deductions, have not
a right to vote for knights to represent the shire within which their
copyhold estates are situated? This point being left doubtful by the
legislature, puts it often in the power of the sheriff to return which of
the candidates he pleases to support; for if the majority of the voting
copyholders adheres to the interest of his favourite, he will admit their
votes both on the poll and the scrutiny; whereas, should they be otherwise
disposed, he will reject them as unqualified What effect this practice may
have upon the independency of parliament, every person must perceive who
reflects, that, in almost all the counties of England, the high sheriffs
are annually appointed by the minister for the time being.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MESSAGE FROM THE KING TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The attention of the legislature was chiefly turned upon the conduct of
France, which preserved no medium, but seemed intent upon striking some
important blow, that might serve as a declaration of war. At Brest, and
other ports in that kingdom, the French were employed in equipping a
powerful armament, and made no scruple to own it was intended for North
America. Towards the latter end of March, sir Thomas Eobinson, secretary
of state, brought a message from the king to the parliament, intimating,
that his majesty having at the beginning of the session declared his
principal object was to preserve the public tranquillity, and at the same
time to protect those possessions which constitute one great source of the
commerce and wealth of his kingdoms, he now found it necessary to acquaint
the house of commons, that the present situation of affairs made it
requisite to augment his forces by sea and land, and to take such other
measures as might best tend to preserve the general peace of Europe, and
secure the just rights and possessions of his crown in America, as well as
to repel any attempts whatsoever that might be made to support or
countenance any designs which should be formed against his majesty and his
kingdoms; and his majesty doubted not but his faithful commons, on whose
affection and zeal he entirely relied, would enable him to make such
augmentations, and to take such measures for supporting the honour of his
crown, and the true interest of his people, and for the security of his
dominions in the present critical conjuncture, as the exigency of affairs
might require; in doing which his majesty would have as much regard to the
ease of his good subjects as should be consistent with their safety and
welfare. In answer to this message, a very warm and affectionate address
was presented to his majesty; and it was on this occasion that the million
was granted for augmenting his forces by sea and land. 357
[See note 2 X at the end of this Vol.] The court of Versailles,
notwithstanding the assiduity and despatch which they were exerting in
equipping armaments, and embarking troops, for the support of their
ambitious schemes in America, still continued to amuse the British
ministry with general declarations, that no hostility was intended, nor
the least infringement of the treaty.

COURT OF VERSAILLES AMUSES THE ENGLISH MINISTRY.

The earl of Albemarle, the English ambassador at Paris, having lately died
in that city, these assurances were communicated to the court of London by
the marquis de Mirepoix, who resided in England with the same character
which he had supported since his first arrival, with equal honour and
politeness. On this occasion he himself was so far imposed upon by the
instructions he had received, that he believed the professions of his
court were sincere, and seriously endeavoured to prevent a rupture between
the two nations. At length, however, their preparations were so notorious
that he began to suspect the consequence; and the English ministry
produced such proofs of their insincerity and double dealing, that he
seemed to be struck with astonishment and chagrin. He repaired to France,
and upbraided the ministry of Versailles for having made him the tool of
their dissimulation. They referred him to the king, who ordered him to
return to London, with fresh assurances of his pacific intentions; but his
practice agreed so ill with his professions, that the ambassador had
scarce obtained an audience to communicate them, when undoubted
intelligence arrived, that a powerful armament was ready to sail from
Brest and Rochfort. The government of Great Britain, roused by this
information, immediately took the most expeditious methods for equipping a
squadron; and towards the latter end of April, admiral Boscawen sailed
with eleven ships of the line and one frigate, having on board a
considerable number of land forces, to attend the motions of the enemy;
but more certain and particular intelligence arriving soon after touching
the strength of the French fleet, which consisted of twenty-five ships of
the line, besides frigates and transports, with a great quantity of
warlike stores, and four thousand regular troops, commanded by the baron
Dieskau, admiral Holbourne was detached with six ships of the line, and
one frigate, to reinforce Mr. Boscawen; and a great number of capital
ships were put in commission. In the beginning of May the French fleet,
commanded by Mr. Macnamara, an officer of Irish extraction, sailed from
Brest, directing his course to North America; but, after having proceeded
beyond the chops of the English channel, he returned with nine of the
capital ships, while the rest of the armament continued their course,
under the direction of M. Bois de la Mothe.

SESSION CLOSED.

On the twenty-fifth day of April the king went to the house of lords,
where, after giving the royal assent to the bills then depending; for
granting a certain sum out of the sinking fund for the relief of insolvent
debtors, for the better regulation of marine forces on shore, for the
better raising of marines and seamen, and to several other public and
private bills; his majesty put an end to the session of parliament by a
speech, in which he acquainted the two houses, that the zeal they had
shown for supporting the honour, rights, and possessions of his crown, had
afforded him the greatest satisfaction; that his desire to preserve the
public tranquillity had been sincere and uniform; that he had religiously
adhered to the stipulations of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and made it
his care not to injure or offend any power whatsoever; but that he never
could entertain a thought of purchasing the name of peace at the expense
of suffering encroachments upon, or of yielding up, what justly belonged
to Great Britain, either by ancient possession or by solemn treaties; that
the vigour and firmness of his parliament, on this important occasion, had
enabled him to be prepared for such contingencies as might happen; that if
reasonable and honourable terms of accommodation could be agreed upon, he
would be satisfied, and, at all events, rely on the justice of his cause,
the effectual support of his people, and the protection of Divine
Providence. The parliament was then prorogued to the twenty-seventh of
May.

CHAPTER X.

Preparations for War….. Earl Paulet’s Motion against the
King’s going to Hanover….. Regency appointed during his
Majesty’s Absence….. Boscawen’s Expedition….. Alcide and
Lys taken….. French Ambassador recalled….. Their Trade
greatly distressed….. Affairs of the English in
America….. Col. Monckton takes Beau-Sejour….. General
Braddock’s unfortunate Expedition….. He falls into an
Ambuscade; is defeated, and killed….. Disagreement between
the Governor and Assembly of Pennsylvania….. Expedition
against Crown Point and Niagara resolved on….. Gen.
Johnson encamps at lake George….. where he is attacked by
the French, who are entirely defeated….. Bravery of
Captain M’Ginnes….. Gen. Johnson created a Baronet…..
Description of Fort Oswego and Lake Ontario….. Neglect of
the English in not fortifying it….. Expedition against
Niagara….. Gen. Shirley returns to Albany….. End of the
Campaign in America……Fruitless Intrigues of the French
in Spain and Germany….. Treaty of the King of Great
Britain with the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel….. News of the
Capture of the Alcide and Lys reaches England….. The King
returns from Hanover, and concludes a Treaty with
Russia….. Declaration of the French Ministry at the Court
of Vienna….. Spirited Declaration of the King of
Prussia….. The French make another unsuccessful Attempt
upon the Court of Spain….. The Imperial Court refuses
Auxiliaries to England….. The French take the Blandford
Man of War, but return it….. State of the English and
French Navies….. Session opened….. Remarkable Addresses
of the Lords and Commons….. His Majesty’s Answer…..
Alterations in the Ministry….. Mr. Fox made Secretary of
State….. Supplies voted….. Earthquake at Lisbon…..
Relief voted by Parliament to the Portuguese….. Troops,
&c, voted….. Mutiny Bill, Marine, and Mariners’ Acts
continued….. Act for raising a Regiment of Foot in North
America….. Maritime Laws of England extended to
America….. Quiet of Ireland restored….. Treaty concluded
with Prussia….. New Militia Bill passed by the
Commons, but rejected by the Lords….. Session closed

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

Whilst all Europe was in suspense about the fate of the English and French
squadrons, preparations for a vigorous sea war were going forward in
England with an unparalleled spirit and success. Still the French court
flattered itself that Great Britain, out of tenderness to his majesty’s
German dominions, would abstain from hostilities. Mirepoix continued to
have frequent conferences with the British ministry, who made no secret
that their admirals, particularly Boscawen, had orders to attack the
French ships wherever they should meet them; on the other hand, Mons. de
Mirepoix declared, that his master would consider the first gun fired at
sea in an hostile manner as a declaration of war. This menace, far from
intimidating the English, animated them to redouble their preparations for
war. The press for seamen was carried on with extraordinary vigour in all
parts of this kingdom, as well as in Ireland; and great premiums were
given not only by the government, but also, over and above his majesty’s
bounty, by almost all the considerable cities and towns in England, to
such as should enlist voluntarily for sailors or soldiers. Other branches
of the public service went on with equal alacrity; and such was the
eagerness of the people to lend their money to the government, that
instead of one million, which was to be raised by way of lottery, three
millions eight hundred and eighty thousand pounds were subscribed
immediately.

EARL PAULET’S MOTION.

The situation of affairs requiring his majesty to go to Germany this
summer, great apprehensions arose in the minds of many, lest the French
should either intercept him in his journey, or prevent his return. Earl
Paulet had made a motion in the house of lords, humbly to represent to his
majesty, “That it was an article in the original act of settlement by
which the succession of these kingdoms devolved to his electoral house,
that the king should not go to his foreign dominions without the consent
of parliament; and that this was a principal article in the compact
between the crown and the people; that though this article was repealed in
the late reign, yet, till of late, it had always been the custom for his
majesty to acquaint the parliament with his intended departure to his
German dominions, both in regard to the true sense and spirit of the act
that placed him on the throne, as well as for the paternal kindness of his
royal heart, and the condescension he had been so good to show to his
parliament on all occasions; but that his majesty’s declaration of his
design to visit his electoral estates had always come on the last day of a
session, when it was too late for the great constitutional council of the
crown to offer such advice as might otherwise have been expedient and
necessary; that his majesty’s leaving his kingdoms in a conjuncture so
pregnant with distress, so denunciative of danger, would not only give the
greatest advantage to such as might be disposed to stir up disaffection
and discontent, and to the constitutional and national enemies of England;
but would also fill his loyal subjects with the most affecting concern,
and most gloomy fears, as well for their own safety, as for that of their
sovereign, whose invaluable life, at all times of the utmost consequence
to his people, was then infinitely so, by reason of his great experience,
the affection of every one to his royal person, and the minority of the
heir apparent.” Such was the purport of this motion; but it was not
seconded by any of the other lords.

REGENCY APPOINTED.

The general uneasiness, on account of his majesty’s departure, was greatly
increased by an apprehension that there would, during his absence, be no
good agreement amongst the regency, which consisted of the following
persons: his royal highness William duke of Cumberland; Thomas lord
archbishop of Canterbury; Philip earl of Hardwicke, lord high chancellor;
John earl of Granville, president of the council; Charles duke of
Marlborough, lord privy-seal; John duke of Rutland, steward of the
household; Charles duke of Grafton, lord-chamberlain; Archibald duke of
Argyle; the duke of Newcastle, first commissioner to the treasury; the
duke of Dorset, master of the horse; the earl of Holdernesse, one of the
secretaries of state; the earl of Rochford, groom of the stole; the
marquis of Hartington, lord lieutenant of Ireland; lord Anson, first
commissioner of the admiralty; sir Thomas Eobinson, secretary of state;
and Henry Fox, esq., secretary at war. His majesty set out from St. James’
on the twenty-eighth of April early in the morning, and embarked at
Harwich in the afternoon, landed the next day at Helvoetsluys, and arrived
in Hanover on the second of May.

BOSCAWEN’S EXPEDITION.

Admiral Boscawen, with eleven ships of the line and a frigate, having
taken on board two regiments at Plymouth, sailed from thence on the
twenty-seventh of April for the banks of Newfoundland, and in a few days
after his arrival there, the French fleet from Brest came to the same
station, under the command of M. Bois de la Mothe. But the thick fogs
which prevail upon these coasts, especially at that time of the year, kept
the two armaments from seeing each other; and part of the French squadron
escaped up the river St. Lawrence, whilst another part of them went round,
and got into the same river through the straits of Belleisle, by a way
which was never known to be attempted before by ships of the line.
However, whilst the English fleet lay off Cape Race, which is the
southernmost point of Newfoundland, and was thought to be the most proper
situation for intercepting the enemy, two French ships, the Alcide, of
sixty-four guns and four hundred and eighty men, and the Lys, pierced for
fifty-four guns, but mounting only twenty-two, having eight companies of
land-forces on board, being separated from the rest of their fleet in the
fog, fell in with the Dunkirk, captain Howe, and the Defiance, captain
Andrews, two sixty gun ships of the English squadron; and after a smart
engagement, which lasted some hours, and in which captain (afterwards
lord) Howe behaved with the greatest skill and intrepidity, were both
taken, with several considerable officers and engineers, and about eight
thousand pounds in money. Though the capture of these ships, from which
the commencement of the war may in fact be dated, fell greatly short of
what was hoped for from this expedition; yet, when the news of it reached
England, it was of infinite service to the public credit of every kind,
and animated the whole nation, who now saw plainly that the government was
determined to keep no further measures with the French, but justly to
repel force by force, and put a stop to their sending more men and arms to
invade the property of the English in America, as they had hitherto done
with impunity. The French, who, for some time, did not even attempt to
make reprisals on our shipping, would gladly have chosen to avoid a war at
that time, and to have continued extending their encroachments on our
settlements, till they had executed their grand plan of securing a
communication from the Mississippi to Canada, by a line of forts, many of
which they had already erected.

FRENCH AMBASSADOR RECALLED.

Upon the arrival of the news of this action at Paris, the French
ambassador, M. de Mirepoix, was recalled from London, and M. de Bussy from
Hanover, where he had just arrived, to attend the king of England in a
public character. They complained loudly of Boscawen’s attacking the
ships, as a breach of national faith; but it was justly retorted on the
part of England, that their encroachments in America had rendered
reprisals both justifiable and necessary. The resolution of making them
was the effect of mature deliberation in the English council. The vast
increase of the French marine of late years, which in all probability
would soon be employed against Great Britain, occasioned an order for
making reprisals general in Europe as well as in America; and that all
French ships, whether outward or homeward bound, should be stopped, and
brought into British ports. To give the greater weight to these orders, it
was resolved to send out those admirals who had distinguished themselves
most towards the end of the last war. Accordingly, on the twenty-first of
July, sir Edward Hawke sailed on a cruise to the westward, with eighteen
ships of the line, a frigate, and a sloop; but, not meeting with the
French fleet, these ships returned to England about the latter end of
September and the beginning of October; on the fourteenth of which last
month another fleet, consisting of twenty-two ships of the line, two
frigates, and two sloops, sailed again on a cruise to the westward, under
admiral Byng, in hopes of intercepting the French squadron under Duguay,
and likewise that commanded by La Mothe, in case of its return from
America. But this fleet likewise returned to Spithead on the twenty-second
of November, without having been able to effect any thing, though it was
allowed by all that the admiral had acted judiciously in the choice of his
stations.

While these measures were pursued, for the general security of the British
coasts and trade in Europe, several new ships of war were begun, and
finished with the utmost expedition, in his majesty’s docks: twelve
frigates and sloops, contracted for in private yards, were completed by
the month of August; and twenty-four ships and twelve colliers were then
taken into the service of the government, to be fitted out as vessels of
war, to carry twenty guns and one hundred and twenty men each. In the
meantime the French trade was so annoyed by the English cruisers, that
before the end of this year three hundred of their merchant ships, many of
which, from St. Domingo and Martinique, were extremely rich, and eight
thousand of their sailors were brought into English ports. By these
captures the British ministry answered many purposes: they deprived the
French of a great body of seamen, and withheld from them a very large
property, the want of which greatly distressed their people, and ruined
many of their traders. Their outward-bound merchant ships were insured at
the rate of thirty per cent., whilst the English paid no more than the
common insurance. This intolerable burden was felt by all degrees of
people amongst them: their ministry was publicly reviled, even by their
parliaments; and the French name, from being the terror, began to be the
contempt of Europe. Their uneasiness was also not a little heightened by
new broils between their king and the parliament of Paris, occasioned by
the obstinacy of the clergy of that kingdom, who seemed determined to
support the church, in all events, against the secular tribunals, and as
much as possible to enforce the observance of the bull Unigenitus, which
had long been the occasion of so many disputes among them. However, the
parliament continuing firm, and the French king approving of its conduct,
the ecclesiastics thought proper to submit for the present, and in their
general assembly this year, granted him a free gift of sixteen millions of
livres, which he demanded of them—a greater sum than they had ever
given before, even in time of war.

AFFAIRS OF THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA.

In the beginning of this year the assembly of Massachusetts Bay in New
England, passed an act prohibiting all correspondence with the French at
Louisbourg; and early in the spring they raised a body of troops, which
was transported to Nova Scotia, to assist lieutenant-governor Laurence in
driving the French from the encroachments they had made upon that
province. Accordingly, towards the end of May, the governor sent a large
detachment of troops, under the command of lieutenant-colonel Monckton,
upon this service; and three frigates and a sloop were despatched up the
bay of Fundy, under the command of captain Rous, to give their assistance
by sea. The troops, upon their arrival at the river Massaguash, found the
passage stopped by a large number of regular forces, rebel neutrals, or
Acadians, and Indians, four hundred and fifty of whom occupied a
block-house, with cannon mounted on their side of the river; and the rest
were posted within a strong breast-work of timber, thrown up by way of
outwork to the block-house. The English provincials attacked this place
with such spirit, that the enemy were obliged to fly, and leave them in
possession of the breast-work; then the garrison in the block-house
deserted it, and left the passage of the river free. From thence colonel
Monckton advanced to the French fort of Beau-Sejour, which he invested, as
far at least as the small number of his troops would permit, on the
twelfth of June; and after four days bombardment, obliged it to surrender,
though the French had twenty-six pieces of cannon mounted, and plenty of
ammunition, and the English had not yet placed a single cannon upon their
batteries. The garrison was sent to Louisbourg, on condition of not
bearing arms in America for the space of six months; and the Acadians, who
had joined the French, were pardoned, in consideration of their having
been forced into that service. Colonel Monckton, after putting a garrison
into this place, and changing its name to that of Cumberland, the next day
attacked and reduced the other French fort upon the river Gaspereau, which
runs into Bay Verte; where he likewise found a large quantity of
provisions and stores of all kinds, that being the chief magazine for
supplying the French Indians and Acadians with arms, ammunition, and other
necessaries. He then disarmed these last, to the number of fifteen
thousand; and in the meantime, captain Rous with his ships sailed to the
mouth of the river St. John, to attack the new fort the French had erected
there; but they saved him that trouble, by abandoning it upon his
appearance, after having burst their cannon, blown up their magazine, and
destroyed, as far as they had time, all the works they had lately raised.
The English had but twenty men killed, and about the same number wounded,
in the whole of this expedition, the success of which secured the
tranquillity of Nova Scotia.

BRADDOCK’S UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION.

While the new Englanders were thus employed in reducing the French in Nova
Scotia, preparations were made in Virginia for attacking them upon the
Ohio. A fort was built, which was likewise called Fort Cumberland, and a
camp formed at Will’s-Creek. On the fourteenth of January of this year,
major-general Brad-dock, with colonel Dunbar’s and colonel Halket’s
regiments of foot, sailed from Cork, in Ireland, for Virginia, where they
all landed safe before the end of February. This general might
consequently have entered upon action early in the spring, had he not been
unfortunately delayed by the Virginian contractors for the army, who, when
he was ready to march, had neither provided a sufficient quantity of
provisions for his troops, nor a competent number of carriages for his
army. This accident was foreseen by almost every person who knew any thing
of our plantations upon the continent of America; for the people of
Virginia, who think of no produce but their tobacco, and do not raise corn
enough even for their own subsistence, being, by the nature of their
country, well provided with the conveniency of water conveyance, have but
few wheel carriages, or beasts of burden; whereas Pennsylvania, which
abounds in corn, and most other sorts of provisions, has but little
water-carriage, especially in its western settlements, where its
inhabitants have great numbers of carts, waggons, and horses. Mr. Braddock
should therefore certainly, in point of prudence, have landed in
Pennsylvania: the contract for supplying his troops should have been made
with some of the chief planters there, who could easily have performed
their engagements; and if his camp had been formed near Frank’s Town, or
somewhere upon the south-west borders of that province, he would have had
but eighty miles to march from thence to Fort Du Quesne, instead of an
hundred and thirty miles that he had to advance from Will’s-Creek, where
he did encamp, through roads neither better nor more practicable than the
other would have been. This error, in the very beginning of the
expedition, whether owing to an injudicious preference fondly given to the
Virginians in the lucrative job of supplying these troops, or to any other
cause, delayed the march of the army for some weeks, during which it was
in the utmost distress for necessaries of all kinds; and would probably
have defeated the expedition entirely for that summer, had not the
contractors found means to procure some assistance from the back
settlements of Pennsylvania. But even when these supplies did arrive, they
consisted of only fifteen waggons, and an hundred draft horses, instead of
an hundred and fifty waggons and three hundred horses, which the Virginian
contractors had engaged to furnish, and the provisions were so bad that
they could not be used. However, some gentlemen in Pennsylvania, being
applied to in this exigency, amply made up for these deficiencies, and the
troops were by this means supplied with every thing they wanted. Another,
and still more fatal error was committed in the choice of the commander
for this expedition. Major-general Braddock, who was appointed to it, was
undoubtedly a man of courage, and expert in all the punctilios of a
review, having been brought up in the English guards; but he was naturally
very haughty, positive, and difficult of access; qualities ill suited to
the temper of the people amongst whom he was to command. His extreme
severity in matters of discipline had rendered him unpopular among the
soldiers; and the strict military education in which he had been trained
from his youth, and which he prided himself on scrupulously following,
made him hold the American militia in great contempt, because they could
not go through their exercise with the same dexterity and regularity as a
regiment of guards in Hyde Park, little knowing, or indeed being able to
form any idea of the difference between the European manner of fighting,
and an American expedition through woods, deserts, and morasses. Before he
left England, he received, in the hand-writing of colonel Napier, a set of
instructions from the duke of Cumberland. By these, the attempt upon
Niagara was in a great measure referred to him, and the reduction of Crown
Point was to be left chiefly to the provincial forces. But above all, his
royal highness, both verbally and in this writing, frequently cautioned
him carefully to beware of an ambush or surprise. Instead of regarding
this salutary caution, his conceit of his own abilities made him disdain
to ask the opinion of any under his command; and the Indians, who would
have been his safest guards against this danger in particular, were so
disgusted by the haughtiness of his behaviour, that most of them forsook
his banners. Under these disadvantages he began his march from Fort
Cumberland on the tenth of June, at the head of about two thousand two
hundred men, for the meadows, where colonel Washington was defeated the
year before. Upon his arrival there, he was informed that the French at
Fort du Quesne, which had lately been built on the same river, near its
confluence with the Monangahela, expected a reinforcement of five hundred
regular troops: therefore, that he might march with a greater despatch, he
left colonel Dunbar with eight hundred men, to bring up the provisions,
stores, and heavy baggage, as fast as the nature of the service would
permit; and with the other twelve hundred, together with ten pieces of
cannon, and the necessary ammunition, and provisions, he marched on with
so much expedition, that he seldom took any time to reconnoitre the woods
or thickets he was to pass through; as if the nearer he approached the
enemy, the farther he was removed from danger.

On the eighth of July, he encamped within ten miles of Fort du Quesne.
Though colonel Dunbar was then near forty miles behind him, and his
officers, particularly sir Peter Halket, earnestly entreated him to
proceed with caution, and to employ the friendly Indians who were with
him, by way of advanced guard, in case of ambuscades; yet he resumed his
march the next day, without so much as endeavouring to obtain any
intelligence of the situation or disposition of the enemy, or even sending
out any scouts to visit the woods and thickets on both sides of him, as
well as in front. With this carelessness he was advancing, when, about
noon, he was saluted with a general fire upon his front, and all along his
left flank, from an enemy so artfully concealed behind the trees and
bushes, that not a man of them could be seen. The vanguard immediately
fell back upon the main body, and in an instant the panic and confusion
became general; so that most of the troops fled with great precipitation,
notwithstanding all that their officers, some of whom behaved very
gallantly, could do to stop their career. As to Braddock himself, instead
of scouring the thickets and bushes from whence the fire came, with grape
shot from the ten pieces of cannon he had with him, or ordering flanking
parties of his Indians to advance against the enemy, he obstinately
remained upon the spot where he was, and gave orders for the few brave
officers and men who staid with him, to form regularly, and advance.
Meanwhile his men fell thick about him, and almost all his officers were
singled out, one after another, and killed or wounded; for the Indians,
who always take aim when they fire, and aim chiefly at the officers,
distinguished them by their dress. At last, the general, whose obstinacy
seemed to increase with the danger, after having had some horses shot
under him, received a musket shot through the right arm and lungs, of
which he died in a few hours, having been carried off the field by the
bravery of lieutenant-colonel Gage, another of his officers. When he
dropped, the confusion of the few that remained turned it into a downright
and very disorderly flight across a river which they had just passed,
though no enemy appeared, or attempted to attack them. All the artillery,
ammunition, and baggage of the army were left to the enemy, and, among the
rest, the general’s cabinet, with all his letters and instructions, which
the French court afterwards made great use of in their printed memorials
or manifestoes. The loss of the English in this unhappy affair amounted to
seven hundred men. Their officers, in particular, suffered much more than
in the ordinary proportion of batteries in Europe. Sir Peter Halket fell
by the very first fire, at the head of his regiment; and the general’s
secretary, son to governor Shirley, was killed soon after. Neither the
number of men which the enemy had in this engagement, nor the loss which
they sustained, could be so much as guessed at; but the French afterwards
gave out, that their number did not, in the whole, exceed four hundred
men, mostly Indians; and that their loss was quite inconsiderable, as it
probably was, because they lay concealed in such a manner that the English
knew not whither to point their muskets. The panic of these last continued
so long, that they never stopped till they met the rear division; and even
then they infected those troops with their terrors; so that the army
retreated without stopping, till they reached Fort Cumberland, though the
enemy did not so much as attempt to pursue, nor ever appeared in sight,
either in the battle, or after the defeat. On the whole, this was perhaps
the most extraordinary victory that ever was obtained, and the farthest
flight that ever was made.

Had the shattered remains of this army continued at Fort Cumberland, and
fortified themselves there, as they might easily have done, during the
rest of the summer, they would have been such a check upon the French and
their scalping Indians, as would have prevented many of those ravages that
were committed in the ensuing winter upon the western borders of Virginia
and Pennsylvania; but, instead of taking that prudent step, their
commander left only the sick and wounded at that fort, under the
protection of two companies of the provincial militia, posted there by way
of garrison, and began his march on the second of August, with about
sixteen hundred men, for Philadelphia; where those troops could be of no
immediate service. From thence they were ordered away to Albany, in New
York, by general Shirley, on whom the chief command of the troops in
America had devolved by the death of major-general Braddock. Virginia,
Maryland, and Pennsylvania, were by these means left entirely to the care
of themselves, which they might have done effectually, had they been
united in their councils; but the usual disputes between their governors
and assemblies, defeated every salutary plan that was proposed.
Pennsylvania, the most powerful of the three, was rendered quite impotent,
either for its own defence or that of its neighbours, by these unhappy
contests; though, at last, the assembly of that province, sensible of the
danger to which they were exposed, and seeing the absolute necessity of
providing a standing military force, and of erecting some forts to defend
their western frontier, passed a bill for raising fifty thousand pounds.
But even this sum, small as it was, even to a degree of ridicule,
considering the richness of the province and the extent of its frontier,
could not be obtained; the governor positively refusing to give his assent
to the act of the assembly, because they had taxed the proprietaries
estates equally with those of the inhabitants, which, he said, he was
ordered by his instructions, not to consent to, nor indeed any new tax
upon the proprietaries: and the assembly, consisting chiefly of members
whose estates lay in the eastern or interior parts of the province, as
positively refusing to alter their bill. One would be apt to think, that,
in a case of such urgent necessity, the governor might have ventured to
give his assent to the bill under a protest, that it should not prejudice
the rights of the proprietaries upon any future occasion; but as he did
not, the bill was dropped, and the province left defenceless; by which
means it afterwards suffered severely, to the destruction of many of the
poor inhabitants upon the western frontier, and to the impressing the
Indians with a contemptible opinion of the English, and the highest esteem
of the French.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

EXPEDITION AGAINST CROWN POINT AND NIAGARA RESOLVED ON.

Our colonies to the north of Pennsylvania were more active, and more
successful in their preparations for war. New York, following the example
of New England, passed an act to prohibit the sending of provisions to any
French port or settlement on the continent of North America, or any of the
adjacent islands; and also for raising forty-five thousand pounds, on
estates real and personal, for the better defence of their colony, which
lay more exposed than any other to a French invasion from Crown Point.
However, this sum, great as it might seem to them, was far from being
sufficient; nor, indeed, could they have provided properly for their
security, without the assistance of our other colonies to the east of
them; but with their help, and the additional succour of the small body of
regular troops expected under Colonel Dunbar, they boldly resolved upon
offensive measures, which when practicable are always the safest; and two
expeditions, one against the French fort at Crown Point, and the other
against their fort at Niagara, between the lakes Ontario and Erie, were
set on foot at the same time. The former of these expeditions was
appointed to be executed under the command of general Johnson, a native of
Ireland, who had long resided upon the Mohawk river, in the western parts
of New York, where he had acquired a considerable estate, and was
universally beloved, not only by the inhabitants, but also by the
neighbouring Indians, whose language he had learnt, and whose affections
he had gained by his humanity towards them. The expedition against Niagara
was commanded by general Shirley himself.

The rendezvous of the troops for both these expeditions was appointed to
be at Albany, where most of them arrived before the end of June; but the
artillery, batteaux, provisions, and other necessaries for the attempt
upon Crown Point, could not be prepared till the eighth of August, when
general Johnson set out with them from Albany for the Carrying-place from
Hudson’s river to Lake George. There the troops had already arrived, under
the command of major-general Lyman, and consisted of between five and six
thousand men, besides Indians, raised by the governments of Boston,
Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and New York. Every thing was
then prepared as fast as possible for a march; and towards the end of the
month, general Johnson advanced about fourteen miles forward with his
troops, and encamped in a very strong situation, covered on each side by a
thick wooded swamp, by Lake George in his rear, and by a breast-work of
trees, cut down for that purpose, in his front. Here he resolved to wait
the arrival of his batteaux, and afterwards to proceed to Ticonderoga, at
the other end of the lake, from whence it was but about fifteen miles to
the fort at the south end of Lake Colaer, or Champlain, called Fort
Frederick by the French, and by us Crown Point. Whilst he was thus
encamped, some of his Indian scouts, of which he took care to send out
numbers along both sides, and to the farther end of Lake George, brought
him intelligence that a considerable number of the enemy were then on
their march from Ticonderoga, by the way of the south bay, towards the
fortified encampment, since called Fort Edward, which general Lyman had
built at the Carrying-place; and in which four or five hundred of the New
Hampshire and New York men had been left as a garrison. Upon this
information general Johnson sent two expresses, one after the other, to
colonel Blanchard their commander, with orders to call in all his
out-parties, and to keep his whole force within the intrenchments. About
twelve o’clock at night, those who had been sent upon the second express
returned with an account of their having seen the enemy within four miles
of the camp at the Carrying-place, which they scarcely doubted their
having by that time attacked. Important as the defence of this place was
for the safety of the whole army, and imminent as the danger seemed to be,
it does not appear that the general then called any council of war, or
resolved upon any thing for its relief; but early the next morning he
called a council, wherein it was unadvisedly resolved to detach a thousand
men, with a number of Indians, to intercept, or, as the general’s
expression was in his letter, to catch the enemy in their retreat, either
as victors, or as defeated in their design. This expedient was resolved
on, though no one knew the number of the enemy, nor could obtain any
information in that respect from the Indian scouts, because the Indians
have no words or signs for expressing any large number, which, when it
exceeds their reckoning, they signify by pointing to the stars in the
firmament, or to the hair of their head; and this they often do to denote
a number less than a thousand, as well as to signify ten thousand, or any
greater number.

Between eight and nine o’clock in the morning a thousand men, with two
hundred Indians, were detached under the command of colonel Williams; but
they had not been gone two hours when those in the camp began to hear a
close firing, at about three or four miles’ distance, as they judged; as
it approached nearer and nearer, they rightly supposed that the detachment
was overpowered, and retreating towards the camp; which was soon confirmed
by some fugitives, and presently after by whole companies, who fled back
in great confusion. In a very short time after, the enemy appeared
marching in regular order up to the centre of the camp, where the
consternation was so great, that, if they had attacked the breastwork
directly, they might probably have thrown all into confusion, and obtained
an easy victory; but fortunately for the English, they halted for some
time at about an hundred and fifty yards’ distance, and from thence began
their attack with platoon firing, too far off to do much hurt, especially
against troops who were defended by a strong breastwork. On the contrary,
this ineffectual fire served only to raise the spirits of these last, who,
having prepared their artillery during the time that the French halted,
began to play it so briskly upon the enemy, that the Canadians and Indians
in their service fled immediately into the woods on each side of the camp,
and there squatted under bushes, or skulked behind trees, from whence they
continued firing with very little execution, most of their shot being
intercepted by the brakes and thickets; for they never had the courage to
advance to the verge of the wood. Baron Dieskau, who commanded the French,
being thus left alone with his regular troops at the front of the camp,
finding he could not make a close attack upon the centre with his small
number of men, moved first to the left, and then to the right, at both
which places he endeavoured to force a passage, but was repulsed, being
unsupported by the irregulars. Instead of retreating, as he ought in
prudence to have done, he still continued his platoon and bush firing till
four o’clock in the afternoon, during which time his regular troops
suffered greatly by the fire from the camp, and were at last thrown into
confusion; which was no sooner perceived by general Johnson’s men, than
they, without waiting for orders, leaped over their breastwork, attacked
the enemy on all sides, and after killing and taking a considerable number
of them, entirely dispersed the rest. The French, whose numbers at the
beginning of this engagement amounted to about two thousand men, including
two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadians, and the rest Indians of
different nations, had between seven and eight hundred men killed, and
thirty taken prisoners; among the latter was baron Dieskau himself, whom
they found at a little distance from the field of battle, dangerously
wounded, and leaning on the stump of a tree for his support. The English
lost about two hundred men, and those chiefly of the detachment under
Colonel Williams; for they had very few either killed or wounded in the
attack upon their camp, and not any of distinction, except colonel
Tit-comb killed, and the general himself and major Nichols wounded. Among
the slain of the detachment, which would probably have been entirely cut
off had not lieutenant-colonel Cole been sent out from the camp with three
hundred men, with which he stopped the enemy’s pursuit, and covered the
retreat of his friends, were colonel Williams, major Ashly, six captains,
and several subalterns, besides private men; and the Indians reckoned that
they had lost forty men, besides the brave old Hendrick, the Mohawk
sachem, or chief captain.

BRAVERY OF CAPTAIN M’GINNES.

When baron Dieskau set out from Ticonderoga, his design was only to
surprise and cut off the intrenched camp, now called Fort Edward, at the
Carrying-place, where there were but four or five hundred men. If he had
executed this scheme, our army would have been thrown into great
difficulties; for it could neither have proceeded farther, nor have
subsisted where it was, and he might have found an opportunity to attack
it with great advantage in its retreat. But when he was within four or
five miles of that fort, his people were informed that there were several
cannon there, and none at the camp; upon which they all desired to be led
on to this last, which he the more readily consented to, as he himself had
been told by an English prisoner, who had left this camp but a few days
before, that it was quite defenceless, being without any lines, and
destitute of cannon; which, in effect, was true at that time; for the
cannon did not arrive, nor was the breast-work erected, till about two
days before the engagement. To this misinformation, therefore, must be
imputed this step, which would otherwise be inconsistent with the general
character and abilities of baron Dieskau. A less justifiable error seems
to have been committed by general Johnson, in not detaching a party to
pursue the enemy when they were defeated and fled. Perhaps he was
prevented from so doing by the ill fate of the detachment he had sent out
in the morning under colonel Williams. However that may be, his neglect in
this respect had like to have been fatal the next day to a detachment sent
from Fort Edward, consisting of an hundred and twenty men of the New
Hampshire regiment, under captain M’Ginnes, as a reinforcement to the army
at the camp. This party fell in with between three and four hundred men of
Dieskau’s troops, near the spot where colonel Williams had been defeated
the day before; but M’Ginnes, having timely notice by his scouts of the
approach of an enemy, made such a disposition, that he not only repulsed
the assailants, but defeated and entirely dispersed them, with the loss
only of two men killed, eleven wounded, and five missing. He himself
unfortunately died of the wounds he received in this engagement, a few
days after he arrived at the camp with his party. It was now judged too
late in the year to proceed to the attack of Crown Point, as it would have
been necessary, in that case, to build a strong fort in the place where
the camp then was, in order to secure a communication with Albany, from
whence only the troops could expect to be reinforced, or supplied with
fresh stores of ammunition or provisions. They therefore set out upon
their return soon after this engagement, having first erected a little
stockaded fort, at the hither end of Lake George, in which they left a
small garrison, as a future prey for the enemy; a misfortune which might
easily have been foreseen, because this whole army being country militia,
was to be disbanded, and return to their respective homes, as they
actually did soon after their retreat to Albany. This was all the glory,
this all the advantage, that the English nation acquired by such an
expensive expedition. But so little had the English been accustomed of
late to hear of victory, that they rejoiced at this advantage, as if it
had been an action of the greatest consequence. The general was highly
applauded for his conduct, and liberally rewarded; for he was created a
baronet by his majesty, and presented with five thousand pounds by the
parliament.

DESCRIPTION OF FORT OSWEGO, &c

The preparations for general Shirley’s expedition against Niagara, were
not only deficient, but shamefully slow; though it was well known that
even the possibility of his success must, in a great measure, depend upon
his setting out early in the year, as will appear to any person who
considers the situation of our fort at Oswego, this being the only way by
which he could proceed to Niagara. Oswego lies on the south-east side of
the lake Ontario, near three hundred miles almost due west from Albany in
New York. The way to it from thence, though long and tedious, is the more
convenient, as the far greatest part of it admits of water carriage, by
what the inhabitants called batteaux, which are a kind of light
flat-bottomed boats, widest in the middle, and pointed at each end, of
about fifteen hundred weight burden, and managed by two men called
batteau-men, with paddles and setting poles, the rivers being in many
places too narrow to admit of oars. From Albany to the village of
Schenactady, about sixteen miles, is a good waggon road. From thence to
the little falls in the Mohawk-river, being sixty-five miles, the passage
is by water-carriage up that river, and consequently against the stream,
which in many places is somewhat rapid, and in others so shallow, that,
when the river is low, the watermen are obliged to get out and draw their
batteaux over the rifts. At the little falls is a postage or land-carriage
for about a mile, over a ground so marshy that it will not bear any wheel
carriage; but a colony of Germans settled there, attend with sledges, on
which they draw the loaded batteaux to the next place of embarkation upon
the same river. From thence they proceed by water up that river for fifty
miles, to the Carrying-place, near the head of it, where there is another
postage, the length of which depends upon the dryness or wetness of the
season, but is generally above six or eight miles over in the summer
months. Here the batteaux are again carried upon sledges, till they come
to a narrow river, called Wood’s Creek, down which they are wafted on a
gentle stream for about forty miles into the lake Oneyada, which stretches
from east to west about thirty miles, and is passed with great ease and
safety in calm weather. At the western end of the lake is the river
Onondaga, which, after a course of between twenty and thirty miles, unites
with the river Cayuga, or Seneca, and their united streams run into the
lake Ontario, at the place where Oswego fort is situated. But this river
is so rapid as to be sometimes dangerous, besides its being full of rifts
and rocks; and about twelve miles on this side of Oswego there is a fall
of eleven feet perpendicular, where there is consequently a postage, which
however, does not exceed forty yards. From thence the passage is easy
quite to Oswego. The lake Ontario, on which this fort stands, is near two
hundred and eighty leagues in circumference; its figure is oval, and its
depth runs from twenty to twenty-five fathoms. On the north side of it are
several little gulfs. There is a communication between this lake and that
of the Hurons by the river Tanasuate, from whence it is a land-carriage of
six or eight leagues to the river Toronto, which falls into it. The French
have two forts of consequence on this lake; Frontenac, which commands the
river St. Lawrence, where the lake communicates with it; and Niagara,
which commands the communication between the lake Ontario and the lake
Erie. But of these forts, and this last lake, which is one of the finest
in the world, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.

Though we had long been in possession of fort Oswego, and though it lay
greatly exposed to the French, particularly to those of Canada, upon any
rupture between the two nations, we had never taken care to render it
tolerably defensible, or even to build a single vessel fit for navigating
the lake: nor was this strange neglect ever taken effectual notice of,
till the beginning of this year, when, at a meeting which general Braddock
had in April with the governors and chief gentlemen of several of our
colonies at Alexandria, in Virginia, it was resolved to strengthen both
the fort and garrison at Oswego, and to build some large vessels at that
place. Accordingly a number of shipwrights and workmen were sent thither
in May and June. At the same time captain Bradstreet marched thither with
two companies of an hundred men each, to reinforce the hundred that were
there before under captain King, to which number the garrison had been
increased since our contests with France began to grow serious. For a long
time before, not above twenty-five men were left to defend this post,
which from its great importance, and the situation of affairs at this
juncture, most certainly required a much stronger garrison than was put
into it even at this juncture; but economy was the chief thing consulted
in the beginning of this war, and to that in a great measure was owing its
long duration.

EXPEDITION AGAINST NIAGARA.

From the above description of the passage from Albany to Oswego, it is
plain how necessary it was that the troops intended for this expedition
should have set out early in the spring. But instead of that, the very
first of them, colonel Schuyler’s New Jersey regiment, did not begin their
march till after the beginning of July, and just as Shirley’s and
Pepperell’s regiments were preparing to follow, the melancholy account of
Braddock’s disaster arrived at Albany, where it so damped the spirits of
the people, and spread such a terror, that many of the troops deserted,
and most of the batteau-men dispersed and ran home, by which means even
all the necessary stores could not be carried along with the troops.
Notwithstanding this disappointment, Mr. Shirley set out from Albany
before the end of July, with as many of the troops and stores as he could
procure a conveyance for, hoping to be joined in his route by great
numbers of the Indians of the Six Nations, to whom he sent invitations to
that effect as he passed by their settlements; but they, instead of
complying with his desire, absolutely declared against all hostilities on
that side of the country; and insisted that Oswego, being a place of
traffic and peace, ought not to be disturbed either by the English or the
French, as if they could have persuaded both parties to agree to such a
local truce. Upon this refusal, Mr. Shirley proceeded forward, being
joined by a very few Indians, and arrived at Oswego on the seventeenth or
eighteenth of August; but the rest of the troops and artillery did not
arrive till the last day of that month; and even then, their store of
provisions was not sufficient to enable them to go against Niagara, though
some tolerably good vessels had by this time been built and got ready for
that purpose. The general now resolved to take but six hundred men with
him for the attack of Niagara, and to leave the rest of his army,
consisting of about fourteen hundred more, at Oswego, to defend that
place, in case the French should attack it in his absence, which there was
reason to apprehend they might, as they then had a considerable force at
fort Frontenac, from whence they could easily cross over the lake Ontario
to Oswego. However, he was still obliged to wait at Oswego for provisions,
of which at length a small supply arrived on the twenty-sixth of
September, barely sufficient to support his men during their intended
expedition, and to allow twelve days’ short subsistence for those he left
behind. But by this time the rainy boisterous season had begun, on which
account most of his Indians had already left him and were returned home;
and the few that remained with him declared that there was no crossing the
lake Ontario in batteaux at that season, or any time before the next
summer. In this perplexity he called a council of war, which, after
weighing all circumstances, unanimously resolved to defer the attempt upon
Niagara till the next year, and to employ the troops, whilst they remained
at Oswego, in building barracks, and erecting, or at least beginning to
erect, two new forts, one on the east side of the river Onondaga, four
hundred and fifty yards distant from the old fort, which it was to
command, as well as the entrance of the harbour, and to be called
Ontario-fort; and the other four hundred and fifty yards west of the old
fort, to be called Oswego new fort.

GENERAL SHIRLEY RETURNS TO ALBANY.

These things being agreed on, general Shirley, with the greatest part of
the troops under his command, set out on his return to Albany on the
twenty-fourth of October, leaving colonel Mercer, with a garrison of about
seven hundred men, at Oswego; though repeated advice had been received,
that the French had then at least a thousand men at their fort at
Frontenac, upon the same lake; and, what was still worse, the new forts
were not yet near completed; but left to be finished by the hard labour of
colonel Mercer and his little garrison, with the addition of this
melancholy circumstance, that, if besieged by the enemy in the winter, it
would not be possible for his friends to come to his assistance. Thus
ended this year’s unfortunate campaign, during which the French, with the
assistance of their Indian allies, continued their murders, scalping,
captivating, and laying waste the western frontiers of Virginia and
Pennsylvania, during the whole winter.

The ministers of the two warring powers were very busily employed this
year at most of the courts of Europe; but their transactions were kept
extremely secret. The French endeavoured to inspire the Spaniards with a
jealousy of the strength of the English by sea, especially in America; and
the Spanish court seemed inclined to accept of the office of mediator; but
Mr. Wall, who was perfectly well acquainted with the state of affairs
between England and France, seconded the representations of the British
ministry, which demonstrated, that, however willing Great Britain might be
to accept of the mediation of Spain, she could not agree to any suspension
of arms in America, which France insisted on as a preliminary condition,
without hazarding the whole of her interest there; and that the captures
which had been made by the English were the necessary consequences of the
encroachments and injustice of the French, particularly in that country.
Upon this remonstrance, all further talk of the mediation of Spain was
dropped, and the ministry of Versailles had recourse to the princes of
Germany; amongst whom the elector of Cologn was soon brought over to their
party, so as to consent to their forming magazines in his territories in
Westphalia. This was a plain indication of their design against Hanover,
which they soon after made his Britannic majesty, who was then at Hanover,
an offer of sparing, if he would agree to certain conditions of neutrality
for that electorate, which he rejected with disdain. Then the count
d’Aubeterre, envoy-extraordinary from France at the court of Vienna,
proposed a secret negotiation with the ministers of the empress-queen. The
secret articles of the treaty of Petersburgh, between the two empresses,
had stipulated a kind of partition of the Prussian territories, in case
that prince should infringe the treaty of Dresden; but his Britannic
majesty, though often invited, had always refused to agree to any such
stipulation; and the king of Poland, howsoever he might be inclined to
favour the scheme, did not dare to avow it formally, till matters should
be more ripe for carrying it into execution. The court of Vienna, whose
favourite measure this was, began to listen to d’Aubeterre’s insinuations,
and by degrees entered into negotiations with him, which, in the end, were
productive of that unnatural confederacy between the empress-queen and the
king of France, of which further notice will be taken in the occurrences
of the next year, when the treaty between them, into which they afterwards
found means secretly to bring the empress of Russia, was concluded at
Versailles.

TREATY WITH THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE-CASSEL.

The king of England taking it for granted that the French would invade
Hanover, in consequence of their rupture with Great Britain, which seemed
to be near at hand, began to take measures for the defence of that
electorate. To this end, during his stay at Hanover, he concluded, on the
eighteenth day of June, a treaty with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, by
which his serene highness engaged to hold in readiness, during four years,
for his majesty’s service, a body of eight thousand men, to be employed,
if required, upon the continent, or in Britain, or Ireland; but not on
board the fleet or beyond the seas; and also, if his Britannic majesty
should judge it necessary or advantageous for his service, to furnish and
join to this body of eight thousand men, within six months after they
should be demanded, four thousand more, of which seven hundred were to be
horse or dragoons, and each regiment of infantry to have two field pieces
of cannon. 364 [See note 2 Y, at the end of this Vol.]
Another treaty was begun with Russia about the same time; but this did not
take effect during his majesty’s residence at Hanover: that others were
not concluded was the more surprising, as our subsidy-treaty with Saxony
had then expired, and that with Bavaria was near expiring, and as the
securing of these two princes in our interest was at least as necessary
towards forming a sufficient confederacy upon the continent for the
defence of Hanover, as it was to secure the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. If
the reason of their not being engaged, and no other seems so probable,
was, that they refused to renew their treaties with England upon any
terms, all that can be said is, that they were guilty of flagrant
ingratitude, as they had both received a subsidy from this kingdom for
many years in time of peace, when they neither were nor could be of any
service to the interest of Great Britain.

NEWS OF THE CAPTURE OF THE ALCIDE AND LYS REACHES ENGLAND.

On the fifteenth of July, an express arrived from admiral Boscawen, with
an account of his having taken the two French ships of war, the Alcide and
the Lys. This was certainly contrary to the expectation of the court of
France; for had they apprehended any such attack, they would not have
ordered Mr. Macnamara to return to Brest with the chief part of their
squadron; nor was it perhaps less contrary to the expectation of some of
our own ministry; but as matters had been carried so far, it was then too
late to retreat; and, therefore, orders were soon after given to all our
ships of war to make reprisals upon the French, by taking their ships
wherever they should meet them. Sir Edward Hawke sailed from Portsmouth on
the twenty-first of July, with eighteen ships of war, to watch the return
of the French fleet from America; which, however, escaped him, and arrived
at Brest on the third day of September. Commodore Frankland sailed from
Spithead for the West Indies on the thirteenth of August, with four ships
of war, furnished with orders to commit hostilities, as well as to protect
our trade and sugar-islands from any insult that the French might offer;
and the duke de Mirepoix, their ambassador at the court of London, set out
for Paris on the twenty-second of July, without taking leave.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE KING RETURNS FROM HANOVER, AND CONCLUDES A TREATY WITH RUSSIA.

A war being thus in some measure begun, his majesty thought proper,
perhaps for that reason, to return to his British dominions sooner than
usual; for he left Hanover on the eighth of September, and arrived on the
fifteenth at Kensington, where the treaty of alliance between him and the
empress of Russia, which he had begun during his absence, was concluded on
the thirtieth of the same month. By this treaty her Russian majesty
engaged to hold in readiness in Livonia, upon the frontiers of Lithuania,
a body of troops consisting of forty thousand infantry, with the necessary
artillery, and fifteen thousand cavalry; and also on the coast of the same
province, forty or fifty galleys, with the necessary crews; to be ready to
act, upon the first order, in his majesty’s service, in case, said the
fifth article, which was the most remarkable, that the dominions of his
Britannic majesty in Germany should be invaded on account of the interests
or disputes which regard his kingdoms; her imperial majesty declaring that
she would look upon such an invasion as a case of the alliance of the year
one thousand seven hundred and forty-two; and that the said dominions
should be therein comprised in this respect; but neither these troops nor
galleys were to be put in motion, unless his Britannic majesty, or his
allies, should be somewhere attacked; in which case the Russian general
should march as soon as possible after requisition, to make a diversion
with thirty thousand infantry, and fifteen thousand cavalry; and should
embark on board the galleys the other ten thousand infantry to make a
descent according to the exigency of the affair. On the other side, his
Britannic majesty engaged to pay to her Russian majesty an annual subsidy
of an hundred thousand pounds sterling a year, each year to be paid in
advance, and to be reckoned from the day of the exchange of the
ratifications, to the day that these troops should upon requisition march
out of Russia; from which day the annual subsidy to her imperial majesty
was to be five hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be paid always four
months in advance, until the troops should return into the Russian
dominions, and for three months after their return. His Britannic majesty,
who was to be at liberty to send once every year into the said province of
Livonia a commissary, to see and examine the number and condition of the
said troops, further engaged, that, in case her Russian majesty should be
disturbed in this diversion, or attacked herself, he would famish
immediately the succour stipulated in the treaty of one thousand seven
hundred and forty-two, and that in case a war should break out, he should
send, into the Baltic a squadron of his ships, of a force suitable to the
circumstances. This was the chief substance of the treaty, which, by
agreement of both parties, was to subsist for four years from the exchange
of the ratifications; but in the seventh article these words were
unluckily inserted: “Considering also the proximity of the countries
wherein the diversion in question will probably be made, and the facility
her troops will probably have of subsisting immediately in an enemy’s
country, she takes upon herself alone, during such a diversion, the
subsistence and treatment of the said troops by sea and land.” And in the
eleventh article it was stipulated, that all the plunder the Russian army
should take from the enemy should belong to them. That his Britannic
majesty, who now knew enough of the court of Vienna to be sensible that he
could expect no assistance from thence, in case his German dominions were
invaded, should enter into this convention with the empress of Russia, in
order to strengthen his defence upon the continent, was extremely natural;
especially as he had lately lived in great friendship with her, and her
transactions with the court of France had been so secret, by passing
through only that of Vienna, that he had not yet been informed of them;
neither had the project of the treaty of Versailles then come to his
knowledge, or to that of the king of Prussia, nor had either of these
princes yet made any formal advances to the other.

DECLARATION OF THE FRENCH MINISTRY AT THE COURT OF VIENNA.

The first intimation that appeared publicly of the negotiations of France
with the empress of Germany, was when the French minister, count
d’Aubeterre, declared at Vienna, “That the warlike designs with which the
king his master was charged, were sufficiently confuted by his great
moderation, of which all Europe had manifold proofs; that his majesty was
persuaded this groundless charge had given as much indignation to their
imperial majesties as to himself; that he was firmly resolved to preserve
to Christendom that tranquillity which it enjoyed through his good faith,
in religiously observing the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; but that if his
Britannic majesty’s allies should take part in the war which was kindled
in America, by furnishing succours to the English, his majesty would be
authorized to consider and treat them as principals in it.” France
likewise made the same declaration to other courts.

SPIRITED DECLARATION OF PRUSSIA.

The words and stipulation in the above-recited clause, in the seventh
article of the treaty of Great Britain with Russia, were looked on as a
menace levelled at the king of Prussia, who, having some time found means
to procure a copy of this treaty, and seeing it in that light, boldly
declared, by his ministers at all the courts of Europe, that he would
oppose, with his utmost force, the entrance of any foreign troops into the
empire, under any pretence whatever. This declaration was particularly
displeasing to the French, who had already marched large bodies of troops
towards the frontiers of the empire, and erected several great magazines
in Westphalia, with the permission of the elector of Cologn, for which the
English minister at his court was, in August, ordered to withdraw from
thence without taking leave. However, as soon as this declaration of the
king of Prussia was notified to the court of Versailles, they sent an
ambassador-extraordinary, the duke de Nivernois, to Berlin, to try to
persuade his majesty to retract his declaration, and enter into a new
alliance with them. His Prussian majesty received this ambassador in such
a manner as seemed to denote a disposition to agree to every thing he had
to propose. This awakened in England a jealousy that his declaration alone
was not to be relied on, but that it was necessary to bring him under some
solemn engagement; especially as the French had by this time a numerous
army near the Lower Rhine, with magazines provided for their march all the
way to Hanover; and if the king of Prussia suffered them to pass through
his dominions, that electorate must be swallowed up before the Russian
auxiliaries could possibly be brought thither, or any army be formed for
protecting it.* For this reason a negotiation was set on foot by Great
Britain at Berlin, but as it was not concluded before the beginning of the
next year, we shall defer entering into the particulars of it till we come
to that period.

* Perhaps the elector of Hanover was more afraid of the
Prussian monarch than of the most christian king, knowing
with what ease and rapidity this enterprising neighbour
could, in a few days, subdue the whole electorate.

THE FRENCH MAKE ANOTHER UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT UPON THE COURT OF SPAIN.

Meanwhile the French made another attempt upon the court of Madrid, loudly
complaining of the taking their two men of war by Boscawen’s squadron,
before any declaration of war was made, representing it as a most
unjustifiable proceeding, which threatened a dissolution of all faith
amongst nations. This produced a strong memorial from sir Benjamin Keene,
our minister at that court, importing, “That it was well known that the
French fleet carried troops, ammunition, and every thing necessary for
defending the countries which the French had unjustly usurped in America,
and of which the English claimed the property; that the rules of
self-defence authorize every nation to render fruitless any attempt that
may tend to its prejudice; that this right had been made use of only in
taking the two French ships of war; and that the distinction of place
might be interpreted in favour of the English, seeing the two ships were
taken on the coasts of the countries where the contest arose.” In answer
to this observation, the French minister represented the vast number of
ships which had been taken in the European seas; for in fact the English
ports soon began to be filled with them, in consequence of the general
orders for making reprisals. But the court of Madrid was so far from being
persuaded by any thing he could say, that it gave his Britannic majesty
the strongest assurances of its friendship, and of its intention to take
no part in the differences between him and France, but such as should be
conciliatory, and tending to restore the public tranquillity.

THE IMPERIAL COURT REFUSES AUXILIARIES TO ENGLAND.

On the other hand, his Britannic majesty required, as king of Great
Britain, the auxiliaries stipulated to him by treaty from the
empress-queen. But these were refused, under pretence, that as the contest
between him and France related to America only, it was not a case of the
alliance; though at the same time the French made no scruple of owning,
that they intended to make a powerful descent on Great Britain early in
the spring. When, a little while after, France being employed in making
great preparation for a land war in Europe, the king of England required
her to defend her own possessions, the barrier in the Low Countries, with
the number of men stipulated by the treaty, which countries, acquired by
English blood and English treasure, had been given to her on that express
condition, she declared that she could not spare troops for that purpose,
on account of her dangerous enemy the king of Prussia; and afterwards,
when he was secured by his treaty with England, she urged that as a reason
for her alliance with France. It must be owned, however, for the sake of
historical truth, that this was no bad reason, considering the power, the
genius, and the character of that prince, who hovered over her dominions
with an army of one hundred and fifty thousand veterans. It must likewise
be owned, that she undertook to procure the French king’s consent to a
neutrality for Hanover, which would have effectually secured that
electorate from the invasion of every other power but Prussia itself; and
it is no strained conjecture to suppose, that the dread of this very power
was the true source of those connexions in Germany, which entailed such a
ruinous continental war upon Great Britain.

THE FRENCH TAKE THE BLANDFORD.

Though the English continued to make reprisals upon the French, not only
in the seas of America, but also in those of Europe, by taking every ship
they could meet with, and detaining them, their cargoes, and crews; yet
the French, whether from a consciousness of their want of power by sea, or
that they might have a more plausible plea to represent England as the
aggressor, were so far from returning these hostilities, that their fleet,
which escaped sir Edward Hawke, having, on the thirteenth of August, taken
the Blandford ship of war, with governor Lyttelton on board, going to
Carolina, they set the governor at liberty, as soon as the court was
informed of the ship’s being brought into Nantes, and shortly after
released both the ship and the crew. However, at the same time, their
preparations for a land war still went on with great diligence, and their
utmost arts and efforts were fruitlessly exerted to persuade the Spaniards
and Dutch to join with them against Great Britain.

STATE OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH NAVIES.

In England the preparations by sea became greater than ever, several new
ships of war were put in commission, and many others taken into the
service of the government; the exportation of gunpowder was forbid; the
bounties to seamen were continued, and the number of those that either
entered voluntarily, or were pressed, increased daily, as did also the
captures from the French, among which was the Espérance, of seventy guns,
taken as she was going from Rochefort to Brest to be manned. The
land-forces of Great Britain were likewise ordered to be augmented;
several new regiments were raised, and all half-pay officers, and the
out-pensioners belonging to Chelsea-hospital, were directed to send in
their names, ages, and time of service, in order that such of them as were
yet able to serve might be employed again if wanted. The English navy, so
early as in the month of September of this year, consisted of one ship of
an hundred and ten guns, five of an hundred guns each, thirteen of ninety,
eight of eighty, five of seventy-four, twenty-nine of seventy, four of
sixty-six, one of sixty-four, thirty-three of sixty, three of fifty-four,
twenty-eight of fifty, four of forty-four, thirty-five of forty, and
forty-two of twenty, four sloops of war of eighteen guns each, two of
sixteen, eleven of fourteen, thirteen of twelve, and one of ten, besides a
great number of bomb-ketches, fire-ships, and tenders; a force sufficient
to oppose the united maritime strength of all the powers in Europe; whilst
that of the French, even at the end of this year, and including the ships
then upon the stocks, amounted to no more than six ships of eighty guns,
twenty-one of seventy-four, one of seventy-two, four of seventy,
thirty-one of sixty-four, two of sixty, six of fifty, and thirty-two
frigates.

SESSION OPENED.

Such was the situation of the two kingdoms, when, on the thirteenth of
November, the parliament met, and his majesty opened the session with a
speech from the throne, in which he acquainted them—“That the most
proper measures had been taken to protect our possessions in America, and
to regain such parts thereof as had been encroached upon, or invaded; that
to preserve his people from the calamities of war, as well as to prevent a
general war from being lighted up in Europe, he had been always ready to
accept reasonable and honourable terms of accommodation, but that none
such had been proposed by France; that he had also confined his views and
operations to hinder France from making new encroachments, or supporting
those already made; to exert his people’s right to a satisfaction for
hostilities committed in time of profound peace, and to disappoint such
designs, as, from various appearances and preparations, there was reason
to think had been formed against his kingdoms and dominions; that the king
of Spain earnestly wished the preservation of the public tranquillity, and
had given assurances of his intention to continue in the same pacific
sentiments; that he himself had greatly increased his naval armaments, and
augmented his land-forces in such a manner as might be least burdensome;
and, finally, that he had concluded a treaty with the empress of Russia,
and another with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, which should be laid
before them.”

REMARKABLE ADDRESSES OF BOTH HOUSES.

In answer to this speech, both houses voted most loyal addresses, but not
without a warm opposition, in each, to some of the particular expressions;
for it having been proposed in the house of lords to insert in their
address the words following, viz.: “That they looked upon themselves as
obliged, by the strongest ties of duty, gratitude, and honour, to stand by
and support his majesty in all such wise and necessary measures and
engagements as his majesty might have taken in vindication of the rights
of his crown, or to defeat any attempts which might be made by France in
resentment for such measures, and to assist his majesty in disappointing
or repelling all such enterprises as might be formed, not only against his
kingdoms, but also against any other of his dominions (though not
belonging to the crown of Great Britain), in case they should be attacked
on account of the part which his majesty had taken for maintaining the
essential interests of his kingdoms;” the inserting of these words in
their address was opposed by earl Temple, and several other lords;
because, by the first part of them, they engaged to approve of the
treaties with Russia and Hesse-Cassel, neither of which they had ever
seen; nor could it be supposed that either of them could be of any
advantage to this nation; and by the second part of these words it seemed
to be resolved, to engage this nation in a continental connexion for the
defence of Hanover, which it was impossible for England to support, and
which would be so far from being of any advantage to it at sea, or in
America, that it might at last disable the nation from defending itself in
either of those parts of the world. But upon putting the question, the
inserting of these words was agreed to by a great majority, and
accordingly they stand as part of the address of the house upon that
occasion.

HIS MAJESTY’S ANSWER.

To this remarkable address his majesty returned the following as
remarkable answer: “My lords, I give you my hearty thanks for this dutiful
and affectionate address. I see, with the greatest satisfaction, the zeal
you express for my person and government, and for the true interest of
your country, which I am determined to adhere to. The assurances which you
give me for the defence of my territories abroad, are a strong proof of
your affection for me, and regard for my honour. Nothing shall divert me
from pursuing those measures which will effectually maintain the
possessions and rights of my kingdoms, and procure reasonable and
honourable terms of accommodation.”—The address of the house of
commons breathed the same spirit of zeal and gratitude, and was full of
the warmest assurances of a ready support of his majesty, and of his
foreign dominions, if attacked in resentment of his maintaining the rights
of his crown and kingdom; and his majesty’s answer to it was to the same
effect as that to the house of lords. The same, or nearly the same words,
relating to the treaties concluded by his majesty, and to the defence of
his foreign dominions, were proposed to be inserted in this address, which
was opposed by William Pitt, esq., then paymaster of his majesty’s forces;
the right hon. Henry Legge, esq., then chancellor and un-der-treasurer of
his majesty’s exchequer, and one of the commissioners of the treasury; and
by several other gentlemen in high posts under the government, as well as
by many others; but, upon putting the question, it was by a considerable
majority agreed to insert the words objected to; and very soon after, Mr.
Pitt, Mr. Legge, and most, if not all, of the gentlemen who had appeared
in the opposition, were dismissed from their employments. In the meantime,
a draft came over from Russia for part of the new subsidy stipulated to
that crown; but some of the ministry, who were then at the head of the
finances, refused to pay it, at least before the treaty should be approved
of by parliament.

ALTERATIONS IN THE MINISTRY.

Sir Thomas Robinson had not been long in possession of the office of
secretary of state, before it was generally perceived, that, though an
honest well meaning man, and a favourite with the king, his abilities were
not equal to the functions of that post. Much less were they so at this
juncture, when the nation was on the point of being engaged in a difficult
and expensive war, and plunged into foreign measures and connexions, which
would require the utmost skill of an able politician to render them
palatable to the people. Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, though they scarce ever
agreed in any other particular, had generally united in opposing his
measures, and their superior influence in the house of commons, and
universally acknowledged abilities, though of very different kinds, had
always prevailed; uncommon as it was, to see two persons who held
considerable places under the government, one of them being
paymaster-general, and the other secretary at war, oppose, upon almost
every occasion, a secretary of state who was supposed to know and speak
the sentiments of his master. Sir Thomas himself soon grew sensible of his
want of sufficient weight in the senate of the nation; and therefore, of
his own accord, on the tenth of November, wisely and dutifully resigned
the seals of his office to his majesty, who delivered them to Mr. Fox, and
appointed sir Thomas master of the wardrobe, with a pension to him during
his life, and after his death to his sons. Lord Barrington succeeded Mr.
Fox as secretary at war; and soon after sir George Lyttelton was made
chancellor of the exchequer, and a lord of the treasury, in the room of
Mr. Legge, who had declared himself against the new continental system.
However, notwithstanding these changes in the ministry, very warm debates
arose in both houses, when the treaties of Russia and Hesse-Cassel came to
be considered by them; some of the members were for referring them to a
committee; but this motion was over-ruled, in consideration of his
majesty’s having engaged in them to guard against a storm that seemed
ready to break upon his electoral dominions, merely on account of our
quarrel with the French. They were at length approved of by a majority of
three hundred and eighteen against one hundred and twenty-six, in the
house of commons; and by eighty-four against eleven, in the house of
lords.

The house of commons then proceeded to provide for the service of the
ensuing year, and for the deficiencies of the provisions for the former.
Fifty thousand seamen, including nine thousand one hundred and
thirty-eight marines, were voted, on the twenty-fourth of November, for
the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, together
with two millions six hundred thousand pounds for their maintenance; and
thirty-four thousand two hundred and sixty-three land soldiers, with nine
hundred and thirty thousand six hundred and three pounds, six shillings
and ninepence, for their support. An hundred thousand pounds were voted as
a subsidy to the empress of Russia; fifty-four thousand one hundred and
forty pounds, twelve shillings and sixpence, to the landgrave of
Hesse-Cassel; and ten thousand pounds to the elector of Bavaria.

EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON.

During these transactions, the public was overwhelmed with consternation
by the tidings of a dreadful earthquake, which, on the first November,
shook all Spain and Portugal, and many other places in Europe, and laid
the city of Lisbon in ruins. When the news of this great calamity first
reached England, it was feared the consequences of it might affect our
public credit, considering the vast interest which the English merchants
had in the Portuguese trade; but fortunately, it afterwards proved
inconsiderable, in comparison of what had been apprehended; the quarter in
which the English chiefly lived, and where they had their warehouses,
having suffered the least of any part of the city; and most of the English
merchants then residing there, together with their families, being at
their country houses, to avoid the insults to which they might have been
exposed from the Portuguese populace, during the celebration of their auto-da-fe,
which was kept that very day. The two first shocks of this dreadful
visitation continued near a quarter of an hour, after which the water of
the river Tagus rose perpendicularly above twenty feet, and subsided to
its natural bed in less than a minute. Great numbers of houses, of which
this city then contained about thirty-six thousand, extending in length
near six miles, in form of a crescent, on the ascent of a hill upon the
north shore of the mouth of the river Tagus, within nine miles from the
ocean, were thrown down by the repeated commotions of the earth, together
with several magnificent churches, monasteries, and public buildings. But
what entirely completed the ruin of this then most opulent capital of the
Portuguese dominions, was a devouring conflagration, partly fortuitous or
natural, but chiefly occasioned by a set of impious villains, who, unawed
by the tremendous scene at that very instant passing before their eyes,
with a wickedness scarcely to be credited, set fire even to the falling
edifices in different parts of the city, to increase the general
confusion, that they might have the better opportunity to rob and plunder
their already desolated fellow-citizens. Out of three hundred and fifty
thousand inhabitants, which Lisbon was then supposed to contain, about ten
thousand perished by this calamity; and the survivors, deprived of their
habitations, and destitute even of the necessaries of life, were forced to
seek for shelter in the open fields.

RELIEF VOTED TO THE PORTUGUESE.

As soon as his majesty received an account of this deplorable event, from
his ambassador at the court of Madrid, he sent a message to both houses of
parliament, on the twenty-eighth of November, acquainting them therewith,
and desiring their concurrence and assistance towards speedily relieving
the unhappy sufferers; and the parliament thereupon, to the honour of
British humanity, unanimously voted, on the eighth of December, a gift of
an hundred thousand pounds for the distressed people of Portugal. A
circumstance which enhances the merit of this action is, that though the
English themselves were, at that very time, in great want of grain, a
considerable part of the sum was sent in corn, flour, rice, and a large
quantity of beef from Ireland; supplies which came very seasonably for the
poor Portuguese, who were in actual want of the necessaries of life. Their
king was so affected by this instance of British generosity, that, to show
his gratitude for the timely relief, he ordered Mr. Castres, the British
resident at his court, to give the preference, in the distribution of
these supplies, to the British subjects who had suffered by the
earthquake; accordingly, about a thirtieth part of the provisions, and two
thousand pounds in money, were set apart for that purpose; and his
Portuguese majesty returned his thanks, in very warm terms, to the British
crown and nation.

The report of an intended invasion of these kingdoms by the French
increasing daily, on the twenty-second day of January lord Barrington, as
secretary at war, laid before the house an estimate for defraying the
charge of ten new regiments of foot, over and above the thirty-four
thousand two hundred and sixty-three land soldiers before ordered to be
raised; and a sum of ninety-one thousand nine hundred and nineteen pounds,
ten shillings, was voted for these additional forces; upon another
estimate presented a little after by the same lord, and founded upon the
same reasons, for raising, for the further defence of the kingdom, eleven
troops of light dragoons, forty-nine thousand six hundred and twenty-eight
pounds, eleven shillings and threepence, were voted for the ensuing year;
together with eighty-one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight pounds,
sixteen shillings, for a regiment of foot to be raised in North America;
two hundred and ninety-eight thousand five hundred and thirty-four pounds,
seventeen shillings and tenpence halfpenny, for the maintenance of our
forces already established in our American colonies; and seventy-nine
thousand nine hundred and fifteen pounds, six shillings, for six regiments
of foot from Ireland, to serve in North America and the East Indies.
Besides all these supplies, Mr. Fox, on the twenty-eighth of January,
presented to the house a message from the king, desiring them to take into
consideration the faithful services of the people of New England, and of
some other parts of North America; upon which one hundred and fifteen
thousand pounds more were voted, and five thousand pounds as a reward to
sir William Johnson in particular. In short, including several other sums,
as well as for defraying the expense of the army and navy, as for a
subsidy of twenty thousand pounds to the king of Prussia, and one hundred
and twenty-one thousand four hundred and forty-seven pounds, two shillings
and sixpence, for Hanoverian troops, of which two last articles further
notice will be taken hereafter, the whole of the supplies granted by
parliament in this session, amounted to seven millions two hundred and
twenty-nine thousand one hundred and seventeen pounds, four shillings and
sixpence three farthings. For raising this sum, besides the malt tax, and
the land tax of four shillings in the pound, the whole produce of the
sinking fund, from the fifth of January one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-six, till it should amount to one million five hundred and
fifty-five thousand nine hundred and fifty-five pounds, eleven shillings
and elevenpence halfpenny, was ordered to be applied thereunto; together
with a million to be raised by loans or exchequer bills, at three per
cent, interest; one million five hundred thousand pounds, to be raised by
the sale of redeemable annuities at three and a half per cent., and five
hundred thousand pounds to be raised by a lottery, at three per cent. All
which sums, with eighty-three thousand four hundred and twelve pounds, two
shillings, and five-pence halfpenny, then remaining in the exchequer,
amounted to seven millions four hundred and twenty-seven thousand two
hundred and sixty-one pounds, five shillings and sevenpence.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MUTINY BILL, MARINE, AND MARINERS’ ACTS CONTINUED.

The clause inserted in the mutiny bill last year, subjecting all officers
and soldiers raised in America, by authority of the respective governors
or governments there, to the same rules and articles of war, and the same
penalties and punishments, as the British forces were liable to; the act
passed at the same time for regulating the marine forces, while on shore,
and that for the more speedy and effectual manning of his majesty’s navy,
were not only confirmed now, but it was further enacted, with respect to
this last, as well as for the more speedy and effectual recruiting of his
majesty’s land-forces, that the commissioners appointed by the present act
should be empowered to raise and levy, within then-respective
jurisdictions, such able-bodied men as did not follow any lawful calling
or employment; or had not some other lawful and sufficient support; and
might order, wherever and whenever they pleased, a general search to be
made for such persons, in order to their being brought before them to be
examined; nay, that the parish or town officers might, without any such
order, search for and secure such persons, in order to convey them before
the said commissioners to be examined; that if any three commissioners
should find any person, so brought before them, to be within the above
description, and if the recruiting officer attending should judge him to
be a man fit for his majesty’s service, they should cause him to be
delivered to such officer, who might secure him in any place of safety
provided by the justices of peace for that purpose, or even in any public
prison; and that every such man was from that time to be deemed a listed
soldier, and not to be taken out of his majesty’s service by any process,
other than for some criminal matter. Nothing could more plainly show
either the zeal of the parliament for a vigorous prosecution of the war,
or their confidence in the justice and moderation of our ministry, than
their agreeing to this act, which was to continue in force till the end of
the next session; and which, in the hands of a wicked and enterprising
administration, might have been made such an use of, as would have been
inconsistent with that security which is provided by our happy
constitution for the liberty of the subject.

ACT FOR RAISING A REGIMENT OF FOOT IN NORTH AMERICA.

The next object of the immediate attention of parliament in this session,
was the raising of a new regiment of foot in North America; for which
purpose the sum of eighty-one thousand one hundred and seventy-eight
pounds, sixteen shillings, to which the estimate thereof amounted, was
voted. This regiment, which was to consist of four battalions of a
thousand men each, was intended to be raised chiefly out of the Germans
and Swiss, who, for many years past, had annually transported themselves
in great numbers to the British plantations in America, where waste lands
had been assigned them upon the frontiers of the provinces; but, very
injudiciously, no care had been taken to intermix them with the English
inhabitants of the place. To this circumstance it is owing, that they have
continued to correspond and converse only with one another; so that very
few of them, even of those who have been born there, have yet learned to
speak or understand the English tongue. However, as they were all zealous
protestants, and in general strong hardy men, and accustomed to the
climate, it was judged that a regiment of good and faithful soldiers might
be raised out of them, particularly proper to oppose the French; but to
this end it was necessary to appoint some officers, especially subalterns,
who understood military discipline, and could speak the German language;
and as a sufficient number of such could not be found among the English
officers, it was necessary to bring over and grant commissions to several
German and Swiss officers and engineers; but this step, by the act of
settlement, could not be taken without the authority of parliament; an act
was now passed for enabling his majesty to grant commissions to a certain
number of foreign protestants, who had served abroad as officers or
engineers, to act and rank as officers or engineers in America only. An
act was likewise passed in this session, strictly forbidding, under pain
of death, any of his majesty’s subjects to serve as officers under the
French king, or to enlist as soldiers in his service, without his
majesty’s previous license; and also for obliging such of his majesty’s
subjects as should, in time to come, accept of commissions in the Scotch
brigade in the Dutch service, to take the oaths of allegiance and
abjuration, on pain of forfeiting five hundred pounds.

MARITIME LAWS OF ENGLAND EXTENDED TO AMERICA.

As it had been resolved, in the beginning of the preceding summer, to
build vessels of force upon the lake Ontario, an act was now passed for
extending the maritime laws of England, relating to the government of his
majesty’s ships and forces by sea, to such officers, seamen, and others,
as should serve on board his majesty’s ships or vessels employed upon the
lakes, great waters, or rivers in North America; and also, but not without
opposition to this last, for the better recruiting of his majesty’s forces
upon the continent of America; to which end, by a new clause now added to
a former act, a recruiting officer was empowered to enlist and detain an
indented servant, even though his master should reclaim him, upon paying
to the master such a sum as two justices of peace within the precinct
should adjudge to be a reasonable equivalent for the original purchase
money, and the remaining time such servant might have to serve.

QUIET OF IRELAND RESTORED.

The intestine broils of Ireland were happily composed this year, by the
prudent management of the marquis of Hartington, lord lieutenant of that
kingdom. By his steady and disinterested conduct, his candour and
humanity, the Irish were not only brought to a much better temper, even
among themselves, than they were before their late outrageous riots and
dangerous dissensions happened; but also prevailed upon to acquiesce in
the measures of England, without this last being obliged to give up any
one point of her superiority. The leading men in the parliament of Ireland
were the first that conformed; and though the ferment continued very high
for some time after, among the middling and lower ranks of people, it was
at length entirely allayed by the wisdom of the lord lieutenant, and the
excellent law which he encouraged and passed for the benefit of that
nation.* The primate of Ireland, who had been very busy in fomenting many
of the late disturbances, was, by his majesty’s command, struck off the
list of privy-counsellors; and the greatest part of those patriots, whom
faction had turned out of their employments there, were reinstated with
honour.

* Among other objects of the attention of the legislature of
that country, ten thousand pounds were granted for making
the river Nore navigable from the city of Kilkenny to the
town of Innestalge; twenty thousand pounds towards carrying
on an inland navigation from the city of Dublin to the river
Shannon; four thousand pounds for making the river Newry
navigable; a thousand pounds a year for two years, for the
encouragement of English protestant schools; several sums,
to be distributed in premiums, for the encouragement of the
cambric, hempen, and flaxen manufactures; and three hundred
thousand pounds to his majesty, towards supporting the
several branches of the establishment, and for defraying the
expenses of the government for two years.

1756

TREATY CONCLUDED WITH PRUSSIA.

The parliament of England, which had adjourned on the twenty-third day of
December, met again: the house of commons on the thirteenth of January,
and the lords on the nineteenth. On the sixteenth of the same month, the
treaty between his Britannic majesty and the king of Prussia was signed,
importing, that, for the defence of their common country, Germany, and in
order to preserve her peace and tranquillity, which it was feared was in
danger of being disturbed, on account of the disputes in America, the two
kings, for that end only, entered into a convention of neutrality, by
which they reciprocally bound themselves not to suffer foreign troops of
any nation whatsoever to enter into Germany, or pass through it during the
troubles aforesaid, and the consequences that might result from them; but
to oppose the same with their utmost might, in order to secure Germany
from the calamities of war, maintain her fundamental laws and
constitutions, and preserve her peace uninterrupted. Thus, the late treaty
with Russia was virtually renounced. Their majesties, moreover, seized
this favourable opportunity to adjust the differences that had subsisted
between them, in relation to the remainder of the Silesia loan due to the
subjects of his Britannic majesty, and the indemnification claimed by the
subjects of his Prussian majesty for their losses by sea during the late
war; so that the attachment laid on the said debt was agreed to be taken
off, as soon as the ratification of this treaty should be exchanged.

NEW MILITIA-BILL.

On the twenty-first of January the house took into consideration the laws
then in being relating to the militia of this kingdom; and, finding them
insufficient, ordered a new bill to be prepared, and brought in, for the
better regulating of the militia forces in the several counties of
England. A bill was accordingly prepared to that effect, and presented to
the house on the twelfth of March, by the hon. Charles Townshend, esq.,
who, to his honour, was one of the chief promoters of it. After receiving
many amendments in the house of commons, it was on the tenth of May
passed, and sent to the lords; but several objections being made to it by
some of the peers, and it seemed to them that some further amendments were
still necessary, which they thought they could not in that session spare
time to consider so maturely as the importance of the subject required, a
negative of fifty-nine against twenty-three was put upon the motion for
passing the bill; though every one must have been sensible, not only of
the propriety, but even of the absolute necessity of such a law, which was
ardently desired by the whole nation.

SESSION CLOSED.

On the twenty-seventh of May, his majesty went to the house of peers, and,
after having given the royal assent to the bills then depending, thanked
his parliament, in a speech from the throne, for their vigorous and
effectual support. He acquainted them, that the injuries and hostilities
which had been for some time committed by the French against his dominions
and subjects, were then followed by the actual invasion of the island of
Minorca, though guaranteed to him by all the great powers in Europe, and
particularly by the French king; that he had, therefore, found himself
obliged, in vindication of the honour of his crown, and of the rights of
his people, to declare war in form against France; and that he relied on
the Divine Protection, and the vigorous assistance of his faithful
subjects, in so just a cause. The parliament was then adjourned to the
eighteenth of June; and from thence afterwards to the eighteenth of July,
and then it was prorogued.

CHAPTER XI.

Letter from M. Rouillé to the Secretary of State….. The
two Nations recriminate on each other….. The French
threaten Great Britain with an Invasion….. Requisition of
six thousand Dutch Troops according to Treaty….. Message
from the King to the Parliament….. A Body of Hessians and
Hanoverians transported into England….. French
Preparations at Toulon….. Admiral Byng sails for the
Mediterranean….. He arrives at Gibraltar….. engages M.
de la Galissonniere off Minorca….. and returns to
Gibraltar….. Ferment of the People at Home….. Admiral
Byng superseded and sent home Prisoner….. Account of the
Siege of St. Philip’s Fort in Minorca….. Precautions taken
by General Blakeney….. Siege commenced….. English
Squadron appears….. General Attack of the Works….. The
Garrison capitulates….. Sir Edward Hawke sails to
Minorca….. Rejoicings in France, and Clamours in
England….. Gallantry of Fortunatus Wright….. General
Blakeney created a Baron….. Measures taken for the Defence
of Great Britain….. Proclamation….. Earl of Loudon
appointed Commander-in-Chief in America….. His Britannic
Majesty’s Declaration of War….. Substance of the French
King’s Declaration….. Address of the City of London…..
Trial of General Fowke….. Affairs of America….. Colonel
Bradstreet defeats a Body of French on the River
Onondaga….. Earl of Loudon arrives at New York….. Oswego
reduced by the Enemy….. Further Proceedings in
America….. Naval Operations in that Country…..
Transactions in the East Indies….. Calcutta besieged by
the Viceroy of Bengal….. Deplorable Fate of those who
perished in the Dungeon there….. Additional Cruelties
exercised on Mr. Holwell….. Resolution against Angria…..
Port of Geriah taken by Admiral Watson and Mr. Clive…..
Their subsequent Proceedings in the River Ganges

LETTER FROM M. ROUILLE.

In the month of January, Mr. Fox, lately appointed secretary of state,
received a letter from M. Rouillé, minister and secretary of state for
foreign affairs to the king of France, expostulating, in the name of his
sovereign, upon the orders and instructions for committing hostilities,
which his Britannic majesty had given to general Braddock, and admiral
Boscawen, in diametrical opposition to the most solemn assurances so often
repeated by word of mouth, as well as in writing. He complained of the
insult which had been offered to his master’s flag in attacking and taking
two of his ships in the open sea, without any previous declaration of war;
as also by committing depredations on the commerce of his most christian
majesty’s subjects, in contempt of the law of nations, the faith of
treaties, and the usages established among civilised nations. He said, the
sentiments and character of his Britannic majesty gave the king his master
room to expect, that, at his return to London, he would disavow the
conduct of his admiralty; but seeing that, instead of punishing, he rather
encouraged those who had been guilty of such depredations, his most
christian majesty would be deemed deficient in what he owed to his own
glory, the dignity of his crown, and the defence of his people, if he
deferred any longer demanding a signal reparation for the outrage done to
the French flag, and the damage sustained by his subjects. He therefore
demanded immediate and full restitution of all the French ships, which,
contrary to law and decorum, had been taken by the English navy, together
with all the officers, soldiers, mariners, guns, stores, and merchandise.
He declared, that should this restitution be made, he should be willing to
engage in a negotiation for what further satisfaction he might claim, and
continue desirous to see the differences relating to America determined by
a solid and equitable accommodation; but if, contrary to all hopes, these
demands should be rejected, he would consider such a denial of justice as
the most authentic declaration of war, and as a formed design in the court
of London to disturb the peace of Europe. To this peremptory remonstrance
the British secretary was directed to answer, that though the king of
England would readily consent to an equitable and solid accommodation, he
would not comply with the demand of immediate and full restitution as a
preliminary condition; for his majesty had taken no steps but such as were
rendered just and indispensable by the hostilities which the French began
in time of profound peace, and a proper regard for his own honour, the
rights and possessions of his crown, and the security of his kingdoms.

Without all doubt the late transactions had afforded specious arguments
for both nations to impeach the conduct of each other. The French court,
conscious of their encroachments in Nova Scotia, affected to draw a shade
over these, as particulars belonging to a disputed territory, and to
divert the attention to the banks of the Ohio, where Jamonville and his
detachment had been attacked and massacred by the English, without the
least provocation. They likewise inveighed against the capture of their
ships, before any declaration of war, as flagrant acts of piracy; and some
neutral powers of Europe seemed to consider them in the same point of
view. It was certainly high time to check the insolence of the French by
force of arms, and surely this might have been as effectually and
expeditiously exerted under the usual sanction of a formal declaration;
the omission of which exposed the administration to the censure of our
neighbours, and fixed the imputation of fraud and free-booting on the
beginning of the war. The ministry was said to have delayed the ceremony
of denouncing war from political considerations, supposing that, should
the French be provoked into the first declaration of this kind, the powers
of Europe would consider his most christian majesty as the aggressor, and
Great Britain would reap all the fruits of the defensive alliances in
which she had engaged. But nothing could be more weak and frivolous than
such a conjecture. The aggressor is he who first violates the peace; and
every ally will interpret the aggression according to his own interest and
convenience. The administration maintained the appearance of candour in
the midst of their hostilities. The merchant ships, of which a great
number had been taken from the French, were not sold and divided among the
captors, according to the practice of war; but carefully sequestered, with
all their cargoes and effects, in order to be restored to the right
owners, in case the disputes between the two nations should not be
productive of an open rupture. In this particular, however, it was a pity
that a little common sense had not been blended with their honourable
intention. Great part of the cargoes consisted of fish, and other
perishable commodities, which were left to rot and putrefy, and afterwards
thrown overboard, to prevent contagion; so that the owners and captors
were equally disappointed, and the value of them lost to both nations.

THE FRENCH THREATEN GREAT BRITAIN WITH AN INVASION.

The court of Versailles, while they presented remonstrances which they
knew would prove ineffectual, and exclaimed against the conduct of Great
Britain with all the arts of calumny and exaggeration at every court in
Christendom, continued nevertheless to make such preparations as denoted a
design to prosecute the war with uncommon vigour. They began to repair and
fortify Dunkirk; orders were published that all British subjects should
quit the dominions of France; many English vessels were seized in the
different ports of that kingdom, and their crews sent to prison. At the
same time an edict was issued, inviting the French subjects to equip
privateers, offering a premium of forty livres for every gun, and as much
for every man they should take from the enemy; and promising that, in case
a peace should be speedily concluded, the king would purchase the
privateers at prime cost. They employed great numbers of artificers and
seamen in equipping a formidable squadron of ships at Brest; and
assembling a strong body of land-forces, as well as a considerable number
of transports, threatened the island of Great Britain with a dangerous
invasion.

REQUISITION OF SIX THOUSAND DUTCH TROOPS.

The English people were seized with consternation; the ministry were
alarmed and perplexed. Colonel Yorke, the British resident at the Hague,
was ordered by his majesty to make a requisition of the six thousand men
whom the states-general are obliged by treaty to furnish, when Great
Britain shall be threatened with an invasion; and in February he presented
a memorial for this purpose. Monsieur d’Affry, the French king’s minister
at the Hague, having received intimation of this demand, produced a
counter-memorial from his master, charging the English as the aggressors,
and giving the states-general plainly to understand, that, should they
grant the succours demanded by Great Britain, he would consider their
compliance as an act of hostility against himself. The Dutch, though
divided among themselves by faction, were unanimously averse to any
measure that might involve them in the approaching war. Their commerce was
in a great measure decayed, and their finances were too much exhausted to
admit of an immediate augmentation of their forces, which for many other
reasons they strove to avoid. They foresaw a great increase of trade in
their adhering to a punctual neutrality; they were afraid of the French by
land, and jealous of the English by sea; and perhaps enjoyed the prospect
of seeing these two proud and powerful nations humble and impoverish each
other. Certain it is, the states-general protracted their answer to Mr.
Yorke’s memorial by such affected delays, that the court of London
perceived their intention, and, in order to avoid the mortification of a
flat denial, the king ordered his resident to acquaint the princess
regent, that he would not insist upon his demand. The states, thus freed
from their perplexity, at length delivered an answer to Mr. Yorke, in
which they expatiated on the difficulties they were laid under, and
thanked his Britannic majesty for having freed them by his declaration
from that embarrassment into which they were thrown by his first demand
and the counter-memorial of the French minister. The real sentiments of
those people, however, more plainly appeared in the previous resolution
delivered to the states of Holland by the towns of Amsterdam, Dort,
Haerlem, Gouda, Rotterdam, and Enckhuysen, declaring flatly that England
was uncontrovertibly the aggressor in Europe, by seizing a considerable
number of French vessels; that the threatened invasion of Great Britain
did not affect the republic’s guarantee of the protestant succession,
inasmuch as it was only intended to obtain reparation for the injury
sustained by the subjects of his most christian majesty; finally, that the
succours demanded could be of no advantage to the king of England, as it
appeared by the declaration of his most christian majesty; that their
granting these succours would immediately lay them under the necessity of
demanding, in their turn, assistance from Great Britain. From this way of
arguing, the English may perceive what they have to expect in cases of
emergency from the friendship of their nearest allies, who must always be
furnished with the same excuse, whenever they find it convenient or
necessary to their own interest. Such a consideration, joined to other
concurring motives, ought to induce the British legislature to withdraw
its dependence from all foreign connexions, and provide such a
constitutional force within itself, as will be fully sufficient to baffle
all the efforts of an external enemy. The apprehensions and distraction of
the people at this juncture plainly evinced the expediency of such a
national force; but different parties were divided in their opinions about
the nature of such a provision. Some of the warmest friends of their
country proposed a well regulated militia, as an institution that would
effectually answer the purpose of defending a wide extended sea-coast from
invasion; while, on the other hand, this proposal was ridiculed and
refuted as impracticable or useless by all the retainers to the court, and
all the officers of the standing army. In the meantime, as the experiment
could not be immediately tried, and the present juncture demanded some
instant determination, recourse was had to a foreign remedy.

Towards the latter end of March, the king sent a written message to
parliament, intimating, that he had received repeated advices from
different persons and places, that a design had been formed by the French
court to invade Great Britain or Ireland; and the great preparations of
forces, ships, artillery, and warlike stores, then notoriously making in
the ports of France opposite to the British coasts, together with the
language of the French ministers in some foreign courts, left little room
to doubt the reality of such a design; that his majesty had augmented his
forces both by sea and land, and taken proper measures and precautions for
putting his kingdom in a posture of defence; that, in order further to
strengthen himself, he had made a requisition of a body of Hessian troops,
pursuant to the late treaty, to be forthwith brought over, and for that
purpose ordered transports to be prepared; that he doubted not of being
enabled and supported by his parliament in taking such measures as might
be conducive to an end so essential to the honour of his crown, the
preservation of the protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of
these kingdoms. This message was no sooner received, than both houses
voted, composed, and presented very warm and affectionate addresses, in
which his majesty was thanked for the requisition he had made of the
Hessian troops; a measure which at any other time would have been
stigmatized with all the satire and rhetoric of the opposition.

HESSIANS AND HANOVERIANS TRANSPORTED INTO ENGLAND.

Even this precaution was not thought sufficient to secure the island, and
quiet the terrors of the people. In a few days Mr. Fox, the new minister,
encouraged by the unanimity which had appeared so conspicuous in the
motions for the late addresses, ventured to move again in the house of
commons, that another address should be presented to the king, beseeching
his majesty, that for the more effectual defence of this island, and for
the better security of the religion and liberties of his subjects, against
the threatened attack by a foreign enemy, he would be graciously pleased
to order twelve battalions of his electoral troops, together with the
usual detachment of artillery, to be forthwith brought into this kingdom.
There was a considerable party in the house, to whom such a motion was
odious and detestable; but considering the critical situation of affairs,
they were afraid that a direct opposition might expose them to a more
odious suspicion; they therefore moved for the order of the day, and
insisted on the question’s being put upon that motion; but it was carried
in the negative by a considerable majority, which also agreed to the other
proposal. The resolution of the house was communicated to the lords, who
unanimously concurred; and their joint address being presented, his
majesty assured them he would immediately comply with their request.
Accordingly, such expedition was used, that in the course of the next
month both Hanoverians and Hessians arrived in England, and encamped in
different parts of the kingdom.—As the fears of an invasion subsided
in the minds of the people, their antipathy to these foreign auxiliaries
emerged. They were beheld with the eyes of jealousy, suspicion, and
disdain. They were treated with contempt, reserve, and rigour. The
ministry was execrated for having reduced the nation to such a low
circumstance of disgrace, as that they should owe their security to German
mercenaries. There were not wanting some incendiaries, who circulated
hints and insinuations, that the kingdom had been purposely left
unprovided; and that the natives of South Britain had been formerly
subdued and expelled by a body of Saxon auxiliaries, whom they had hired
for their preservation. In a word, the doubts and suspicions of a people
naturally blunt and jealous, were inflamed to such a degree of animosity,
that nothing would have restrained them from violent acts of outrage, but
the most orderly, modest, and inoffensive behaviour by which both the
Hanoverians and Hessians were distinguished.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

FRENCH PREPARATIONS AT TOULON.

Under the cloak of an invading armament, which engrossed the attention of
the British nation, the French were actually employed in preparations for
an expedition, which succeeded according to their wish. In the beginning
of the year, advice was received that a French squadron would soon be in a
condition to sail from Toulon; this was afterwards confirmed by repeated
intelligence, not only from foreign gazettes, but also from English
ministers and consuls residing in Spain and Italy. They affirmed that the
Toulon squadron consisted of twelve or fifteen ships of the line, with a
great number of transports; that they were supplied with provisions for
two months only, consequently could not be intended for America; and that
strong bodies of troops were on their march from different parts of the
French dominions to Dauphiné and Provence in order to be embarked.
Notwithstanding these particulars of information, which plainly pointed
out Minorca as the object of their expedition; notwithstanding the
extensive and important commerce carried on by the subjects of Great
Britain in the Mediterranean; no care was taken to send thither a squadron
of ships capable to protect the trade, and frustrate the designs of the
enemy. That great province was left to a few inconsiderable ships and
frigates, which could serve no other purpose than that of carrying
intelligence from port to port, and enriching their commanders by making
prize of merchant vessels. Nay, the ministry seemed to pay little or no
regard to the remonstrances of general Blakeney, deputy governor of
Minorca, who, in repeated advices, represented the weakness of the
garrison which he commanded in St. Philip’s castle, the chief fortress on
the island. Far from strengthening the garrison with a proper
reinforcement, they did not even send thither the officers belonging to
it, who were in England upon leave of absence, nor give directions for any
vessel to transport them, until the French armament was ready to make a
descent upon that island. 372 [See note 2 Z, at the end of this Vol]

ADMIRAL BYNG SAILS FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.

At length, the destination of the enemy’s fleet being universally known,
the ministry seemed to rouse from their lethargy, and, like persons
suddenly waking, acted with hurry and precipitation. Instead of detaching
a squadron that in all respects should be superior to the French fleet in
the Mediterranean, and bestowing the command of it upon an officer of
approved courage and activity, they allotted no more than ten ships of the
line for this service, vesting the command of them in admiral Byng, who
had never met with any occasion to signalize his courage, and whose
character was not very popular in the navy; but Mr. West, the second in
command, was a gentleman universally respected for his probity, ability,
and resolution. The ten ships destined for this expedition were but in
very indifferent order, poorly manned, and unprovided with either hospital
or fire-ship. They sailed from Spithead on the seventh day of April,
having on board, as part of their complement, a regiment of soldiers to be
landed at Gibraltar, with major-general Stuart, lord Effingham, and
colonel Cornwallis, whose regiments were in garrison at Minorca, about
forty inferior officers, and near one hundred recruits, as a reinforcement
to St. Philip’s fortress.

ADMIRAL BYNG ARRIVES AT GIBRALTAR.

After all the intelligence which had been received, one would imagine the
government of England was still ignorant of the enemy’s force and
destination; for the instructions delivered to admiral Byng, imported,
that on his arrival at Gibraltar, he should inquire whether any French
squadron had passed through the straits; and that, being certified in the
affirmative, as it was probably designed for North America, he should
immediately detach rear-admiral West to Louisbourg, on the island of cape
Breton, with such a number of ships, as, when joined with those at
Halifax, would constitute a force superior to the armament of the enemy.
On the second day of May, admiral Byng arrived at Gibraltar, where he
found captain Edgecumbe, with the Princess Louisa ship of war, and a
sloop, who informed him that the French armament, commanded by M. de la
Galissonniere, consisting of thirteen ships of the line, with a great
number of transports, having on board a body of fifteen thousand
land-forces, had sailed from Toulon on the tenth day of April, and made a
descent on the island of Minorca, from whence he, captain Edgecumbe, had
been obliged to retire on their approach. General Fowke, who commanded at
Gibraltar, had received two successive orders from the secretary at war,
with respect to his sparing a battalion of troops, to be transported by
Mr. Byng, as a reinforcement to Minorca; but as the two orders appeared
inconsistent or equivocal, a council of war was consulted, and a majority
were of opinion that no troops should be sent from thence to Minorca,
except a detachment to supply the deficiency in the little squadron of
captain Edgecumbe, who had left a good number of his seamen and mariners,
under the command of captain Scroop, to assist in the defence of fort St.
Philip’s. These articles of intelligence the admiral despatched by an
express to the lords of the admiralty, and in his letter made use of some
impolitic expressions, which, in all probability, it would have been well
for him had he omitted. He said, if he had been so happy as to have
arrived at Mahon before the French had landed, he flattered himself he
should have been able to prevent their getting a footing on that island.
He complained, that there were no magazines in Gibraltar for supplying the
squadron with necessaries; that the careening wharfs, pits, and
store-houses were entirely decayed, so that he should find the greatest
difficulty in cleaning the ships that were foul; and this was the case
with some of those he carried out from England, as well as with those
which had been for some time cruising in the Mediterranean. He signified
his opinion, that, even if it should be found practicable, it would be
very impolitic to throw any men into St. Philip’s castle, which could not
be saved without a land-force sufficient to raise the seige; therefore, a
small reinforcement would only add so many men to the number which must
fall into the hands of the enemy. He observed, that such engineers and
artillery-men in Gibraltar as had been at Minorca, were of opinion that it
would be impossible to throw any number of men into St. Philip’s, if the
French had erected batteries on the two shores near the entrance of the
harbour, so as to bar all passage up to the sally-port of the fortress;
and with this opinion he signified the concurrence of his own sentiments.
The first part of this letter was a downright impeachment of the ministry,
for having delayed the expedition, for having sent out ships unfit for
service, and for having neglected the magazines and wharfs at Gibraltar.
In the latter part he seemed to prepare them for the subsequent account of
his misconduct and miscarriage. It cannot be supposed that they underwent
this accusation without apprehension and resentment; and as they foresaw
the loss of Minorca, which would not fail to excite a national clamour,
perhaps they now began to take measures for gratifying their resentment,
and transferring the blame from themselves to the person who had presumed
to hint a disapprobation of their conduct: for this purpose they could not
have found a fairer opportunity than Mr. Byng’s subsequent behaviour
afforded.

HE ENGAGES M. DE LA GALISSONNIERE OFF MINORCA.

The admiral being strengthened by Mr. Edgecumbe, and reinforced by a
detachment from the garrison, set sail from Gibraltar on the eighth day of
May, and was joined off Majorca by his majesty’s ship the Phoenix, under
the command of captain Hervey, who confirmed the intelligence he had
already received, touching the strength and destination of the French
squadron. When he approached Minorca, he descried the British colours
still flying at the castle of St. Philip’s, and several bomb-batteries
playing upon it from different quarters where the French banners were
displayed. Thus informed, he detached three ships a-head, with captain
Hervey, to reconnoitre the harbour’s mouth, and land, if possible, a
letter for general Blakeney, giving him to understand the fleet was come
to his assistance. Before this attempt could be made, the French fleet
appearing to the south-cast, and the wind blowing strong off shore, he
recalled his ships, and formed the line of battle. About six o’clock in
the evening, the enemy, to the number of seventeen ships, thirteen of
which appeared to be very large, advanced in order; but about seven
tacked, with a view to gain the weather-gage. Mr. Byng, in order to
preserve that advantage, as well as to make sure of the land-wind in the
morning, followed their example, being then about five leagues from Cape
Mola. At daylight the enemy could not be descried; but two tartanes
appearing close to the rear of the English squadron, they were immediately
chased by signal. One escaped, and the other being taken, was found to
have on board two French captains, two lieutenants, and about one hundred
private soldiers, part of six hundred who had been sent out in tartanes
the preceding day, to reinforce the enemy’s squadron. This soon
re-appearing, the line of battle was formed on each side, and about two
o’clock admiral Byng threw out a signal to bear away two points from the
wind and engage. At this time his distance from the enemy was so great,
that rear-admiral West, perceiving it impossible to comply with both
orders, bore away with his division seven points from the wind, and
closing down upon the enemy, attacked them with such impetuosity, that the
ships which opposed him were in a little time driven out of the line. Had
he been properly sustained by the van, in all probability the British
fleet would have obtained a complete victory; but the other division did
not bear down, and the enemy’s centre keeping that station, rear-admiral
West could not pursue his advantage without running the risk of seeing his
communication with the rest of the line entirely cut off. In the beginning
of the action, the Intrepid, in Mr. Byng’s division, was so disabled in
her rigging that she could not be managed, and drove on the ship that was
next in position; a circumstance which obliged several others to throw all
aback in order to avoid confusion, and for some time retarded the action.
Certain it is, that Mr. Byng, though accommodated with a noble ship of
ninety guns, made little or no use of his artillery, but kept aloof,
either from an overstrained observance of discipline, or timidity. When
his captain exhorted him to bear down upon the enemy, he very coolly
replied, that he would avoid the error of admiral Matthews, who, in his
engagement with the French and Spanish squadrons off Toulon, during the
preceding war, had broke the line by his own precipitation, and exposed
himself singly to a fire which he could not sustain. Mr. Byng, on the
contrary, was determined against acting, except with the line entire; and,
on pretence of rectifying the disorder which had happened among some of
the ships, hesitated so long, and kept at such a wary distance, that he
never was properly engaged, though he received some few shots in his hull.
M. de la Galissionniere seemed equally averse to the continuance of the
battle; part of his squadron had been fairly obliged to quit the line; and
though he was rather superior to the English in number of men and weight
of metal, he did not choose to abide the consequence of a closer fight
with an enemy so expert in naval operations: he therefore took advantage
of Mr. Byng’s hesitation, and edged away with an easy sail to join his
van, which had been discomfited. The English admiral gave chase; but the
French ships being clean, he could not come up and close them again, so
they retired at their leisure. Then he put his squadron on the other tack,
in order to keep the wind of the enemy; and next morning they were
altogether out of sight.

While he lay-to with the rest of the fleet, at the distance of ten leagues
from Mahon, he detached cruisers to look for some missing ships, which
joined him accordingly, and made an inquiry into the condition of the
squadron. The number of killed amounted to forty-two, including captain
Andrews of the Defiance, and about one hundred and sixty-eight were
wounded. Three of the capital ships were so damaged in their masts, that
they could not keep the sea with any regard to their safety; a great
number of the seamen were ill, and there was no vessel which could be
converted into an hospital for the sick and wounded. In this situation he
called a council of war, at which the land-officers were present. He
represented to them that he was much inferior to the enemy in weight of
metal and number of men; that they had the advantage of sending their
wounded to Minorca, from whence at the same time they were refreshed and
reinforced occasionally; that in his opinion it was impracticable to
relieve St. Philip’s fort, and, therefore, they ought to make the best of
their way back to Gibraltar, which might require immediate protection.
They unanimously concurred with his sentiments, and thither he directed
his course accordingly. How he came to be so well acquainted with the
impracticability of relieving general Blakeney, it is not easy to
determine, as no experiment was made for that purpose. Indeed, the neglect
of such a trial seems to have been the least excusable part of his
conduct; for it afterwards appeared that the officers and soldiers
belonging to the garrison might have been landed at the sally-port,
without running any great risk; and a gentleman, then in the fort,
actually passed and repassed in a boat, unhurt by any of the enemy’s
batteries.

Mr. Byng’s letter to the admiralty, containing a detail of this action, is
said to have arrived some days before it was made public; and when it
appeared, was curtailed of divers expressions, and whole paragraphs, which
either tended to his own justification, or implied a censure on the
conduct of his superiors. Whatever use might have been made of this letter
while it remained a secret to the public, we shall not pretend to explain;
but sure it is, that, on the sixteenth day of June, sir Edward Hawke and
admiral Saunders sailed from Spit-head to Gibraltar, to supersede the
admirals Byng and West in their commands of the Mediterranean squadron;
and Mr. Byng’s letter was not published till the twenty-sixth day of the
same month, when it produced all the effect which that gentleman’s
bitterest enemies could have desired. The populace took fire like a train
of the most hasty combustibles, and broke out into such a clamour of rage
and indignation against the devoted admiral, as could not have been
exceeded if he had lost the whole navy of England, and left the coasts of
the kingdom naked to invasion. This animosity was carefully fomented and
maintained by artful emissaries, who mingled with all public assemblies,
from the drawing-room in St. James’ to the mob at Charing-cross. They
expatiated upon the insolence, the folly, the cowardice, and misconduct of
the unhappy admiral. They even presumed to make their sovereign in some
measure an instrument of their calumny, by suggesting, that his majesty
had prognosticated Byng’s misbehaviour from the contents of his first
letter, dated at Gibraltar. They ridiculed and refuted the reasons he had
given for returning to that fortress, after his scandalous re-encounter
with the French squadron; and, in order to exasperate them to the most
implacable resentment, they exaggerated the terrible consequences of
losing Minorca, which must now be subdued through his treachery or want of
resolution. In a word, he was devoted as the scape-goat of the ministry,
to whose supine negligence, ignorance, and misconduct, the loss of that
important fortress was undoubtedly owing. Byng’s miscarriage was thrown
out like a barrel to the whale, in order to engage the attention of the
people, that it might not be attracted by the real cause of the national
misfortune. In order to keep up the flame which had been kindled against
the admiral, recourse was had to the lowest artifices. Agents were
employed to vilify his person in all public places of vulgar resort, and
mobs were hired at different parts of the capital to hang and burn him in
effigy.

ADMIRAL BYNG SUPERSEDED AND SENT HOME PRISONER.

The two officers who succeeded to the command in the Mediterranean, were
accompanied by lord Tyrawley, whom his majesty had appointed to supersede
general Fowke in the government of Gibraltar, that gentleman having
incurred the displeasure of the ministry, for not having understood an
order which was unintelligible. By the same conveyance, a letter from the
secretary to the admiralty was transmitted to Mr. Byng, giving him notice
that he was recalled. To this intimation he replied in such a manner as
denoted a consciousness of having done his duty, and a laudable desire to
vindicate his own conduct. His answer contained a further account of the
engagement in which he was supposed to have misbehaved, intermixed with
some puerile calculations of the enemy’s superiority in weight of metal,
which served no other purpose than that of exposing his character still
more to ridicule and abuse; and he was again so impolitic as to hazard
certain expressions, which added fresh fuel to the resentment of his
enemies. Directions were immediately despatched to sir Edward Hawke, that
Byng should be sent home in arrest; and an order to the same purpose was
lodged at every port in the kingdom; precautions which, however
unnecessary to secure the person of a man who longed ardently to justify
his character by a public trial, were yet productive of considerable
effect in augmenting the popular odium. Admiral Byng immediately embarked
in the ship which had carried out his successor, and was accompanied by
Mr. West, general Fowke, and several other officers of that garrison, who
were also recalled, in consequence of having subscribed to the result of
the council of war, which we have mentioned above. When they arrived in
England, Mr. West met with such a gracious reception from his majesty as
was thought due to his extraordinary merit; but Mr. Byng was committed
close prisoner in an apartment of Greenwich hospital.

ACCOUNT OF THE SIEGE OF ST. PHILIP’S FORT IN MINORCA.

In the meantime, the siege of St. Philip’s fort in Minorca was prosecuted
with unremitting vigour. The armament of Toulon, consisting of the fleet
commanded by M. de la Galissonniere, and the troops under the duke de
Richelieu, arrived on the eighteenth day of April at the port of
Ciudadella, on that part of the island opposite to Mahon, or St. Philip’s,
and immediately began to disembark their forces. Two days before they
reached the island, general Blakeney had, by a packet boat, received
certain intelligence of their approach, and began to make preparations for
the defence of the castle. The fort which he commanded was very extensive,
surrounded with numerous redoubts, ravelins, and other outworks; and
provided with subterranean galleries, mines, and traverses, Cut out of the
solid rock with incredible labour. Upon the whole, this was one of the
best fortified places in Europe, well supplied with artillery, ammunition,
and provisions; and, without all doubt, might have sustained the most
desperate siege, had it been defended by a numerous garrison, conducted by
able engineers, under the eye and auspices of an active and skilful
commander. All these advantages, however, did not concur on this occasion.
The number of troops in Minorca did not exceed four regiments, whereas the
nature of the works required at least double the number; and even of
these, above forty officers were absent. The chief engineer was rendered
lame by the gout, and the general himself oppressed with the infirmities
of old age. The natives of the island might have been serviceable as
pioneers, or day-labourers, but from their hatred to the protestant
religion, they were generally averse to the English government, although
they had lived happily and grown wealthy under its influence.

PRECAUTIONS taken by GENERAL BLAKENEY.

The governor ordered his officers to beat up for volunteers in the
adjacent town of St. Philip’s; but few or none would enlist under his
banners, and it seems he would not venture to compel them into the
service. He recalled all his advanced parties; and, in particular, a
company posted at Fornelles, where a small redoubt had been raised, and
five companies at Ciudadella, a post fortified with two pieces of cannon,
which were now withdrawn as soon as the enemy began to disembark their
forces. At the same time major Cunningham was detached with a party to
break down the bridges, and break up the roads between that place and St.
Philip’s; but the task of destroying the roads could not be performed in
such a hurry, on account of the hard rock which runs along the surface of
the ground through this whole island; nor was there time to demolish the
town of St. Philip’s, which stood so near the fort, that the enemy could
not fail to take advantage of its neighbourhood. The streets served them
for trenches, which otherwise could not have been dug through the solid
rock. Here they made a lodgement close to the works; here they found
convenient barracks and quarters of refreshment, masks for their
batteries, and an effectual cover for their mortars and bombardiers. The
general has been blamed for leaving the town standing; but if we consider
his uncertainty concerning the destination of the French armament, the
odious nature of such a precaution, which could not fail to exasperate the
inhabitants, and the impossibility of executing such a scheme after the
first appearance of the enemy, he will be found excusable, if not
altogether blameless. Some houses and windmills were actually demolished,
so as to clear the esplanade and the approaches. All the wine in the
cellars of St. Philip’s town was destroyed, and the butts were carried
into the castle, where they might serve for gabions and traverses.
Five-and-twenty Minorquin bakers were hired, and a large number of cattle
brought into the fort, for the benefit of the garrison. The ports were
walled up, the posts assigned, the sentinels placed, and all the different
guards appointed. Commodore Edgecumbe, who then anchored in the harbour of
Mahon close under the walls of the castle, sailed away with his little
squadron, consisting of the Chesterfield, Princess Louisa, Portland, and
Dolphin, after having left all his marines, a detachment from Gibraltar,
the whole crew of the Porcupine sloop, and the greater part of the
Dolphin’s, as a reinforcement to the fort, under the immediate direction
and command of captain Scroop of the Dolphin, who, with great gallantry,
offered himself for this severe duty, and bravely signalized himself
during the whole siege. The French admiral might certainly have blocked up
this harbour in such a manner, as would have prevented the escape of these
ships, and divers other rich merchant vessels, which happened then to be
at Mahon; but in all probability, they purposely allowed them to abandon
the place, which, on any emergency or assault, their crews and officers
would have considerably reinforced. The enemy were perfectly acquainted
with the great extent of the works, and the weakness of the garrison, from
which circumstance they derived the most sanguine hopes that the place
might be suddenly taken, without the trouble of a regular siege. After Mr.
Edgecumbe had sailed from Gibraltar, and general Blakeney had ordered a
sloop to be sunk in the channel that leads to the harbour, the French
squadron made its appearance at this part of the island; but without
having attempted anything against the fort, fell to leeward of Cape Mola.
Next day they came in sight again, but soon bore away, and never
afterwards, during the whole course of the siege, approached so near as to
give the garrison the least disturbance.

On the twenty-second day of April, the governor sent a drummer to the
French general with a letter, desiring to know his reasons for invading
the island. To this an answer was returned by the duke de Richelieu,
declaring he was come with intention to reduce the island under the
dominion of his most christian majesty, by way of retaliation for the
conduct of his master, who had seized and detained the ships belonging to
the king of France and his subjects. If we may judge from the first
operations of this nobleman, he was but indifferently provided with
engineers; for instead of beginning his approaches on the side of St.
Philip’s town, close by the outworks, where he might have been screened
from the fire of the garrison, his batteries were erected at Cape Mola, on
the other side of the harbour, where they were more exposed, their fire
much less effectual, and indeed at too great a distance to be of any
service. The fire of St. Philip’s was so severe, and the cannon so well
served on this quarter, that in a little time the enemy thought proper to
change their plan of attack, and advance on the side of St. Philip’s town,
which ought to have been the first object of their consideration,
especially as they could find little or no earth to fill their gabions,
and open their trenches in the usual form. On the twelfth of May, about
nine at night, they opened two bomb-batteries, near the place where the
windmills had been destroyed; and from that period an incessant fire was
kept up on both sides, from mortars and cannon, the French continuing to
raise new batteries in every situation from whence they could annoy the
besieged.

On the seventeenth day of the month, the garrison were transported with
joy at sight of the British squadron, commanded by admiral Byng; and Mr.
Boyd, commissary of the stores, ventured to embark in a small boat, with
six oars, which passed from St. Stephen’s cove, a creek on the west side
of the fortification, through a shower of cannon and musketry from the
enemy’s post on the other side, and actually reached the open sea, his
design being to join the squadron; but this being at a great distance,
stretching away to the southward, and Mr. Boyd perceiving himself chased
by two of the enemy’s light vessels, he returned oy the same route to the
garrison, without having sustained the least damage; a circumstance which
plainly confutes the notion of Mr. Byng, that it was impracticable to open
a communication with the garrison of St. Philip’s. Next day the hopes of
the besieged, which had prognosticated a naval victory to the British
squadron, a speedy relief to themselves, and no less than captivity to the
assailants, were considerably damped by the appearance of the French
fleet, which quietly returned to their station off the harbour of Mahon.
That same evening they were told by a deserter, that the English fleet had
been worsted in an engagement by M. de la Galissonniere; and this
information was soon confirmed by a general discharge, or feu-de-joie,
through the whole French camp, to celebrate the victory they pretended to
have obtained. How little soever they had reason to boast of any advantage
in the action, the retreat of the English squadron was undoubtedly
equivalent to a victory; for had Mr. Byng acquired and maintained the
superiority at sea, the French forces which had been disembarked in
Minorca, would, in all probability, have been obliged to surrender
prisoners of war to his Britannic majesty. The case was now much altered
in their favour: their squadron cruised about the island without
molestation, and they daily received, by means of their transports,
reinforcements of men and ammunition, as well as constant supplies of
provisions.

The English garrison, however mortified at finding themselves thus
abandoned, resolved to acquit themselves with gallantry in the defence of
the place, not without some remaining hope that the English squadron would
be reinforced and return to their relief. In the meantime, they sustained
and retorted the enemy’s fire with undaunted resolution. They remounted
cannon, the carriages of which had been disabled; they removed them
occasionally to places from whence it was judged they could do the
greatest execution; they repaired breaches, restored merlins, and laboured
with surprising alacrity, even when they were surrounded by the numerous
batteries of the foe; when their embrasures and even the parapets were
demolished, and they stood exposed not only to the cannon and mortars, but
also to the musketry which fired upon them without ceasing, from the
windows of the houses in the town of St. Philip. By this time they were
invested with an army of twenty thousand men, and plied incessantly from
sixty-two battering cannon, twenty-one mortars, and four howitzers,
besides the small arms; nevertheless, the loss of men within the fortress
was very inconsiderable, the garrison being mostly secured in the
subterranean works which were impenetrable to shells or shot. By the
twenty-seventh day of June they had made a practicable breach in one of
the ravelins, and damaged the other outworks to such a degree, that they
determined this night to give a general assault. Accordingly, between the
hours of ten and eleven, they advanced to the attack from all quarters on
the land side. At the same time a strong detachment, in armed boats,
attempted to force the harbour, and penetrate into the creek called St.
Stephen’s Cove, to storm fort Charles, and second the attack upon fort
Marlborough, on the farther side of the creek, the most detached of all
the outworks. The enemy advanced with great intrepedity, and their
commander, the duke de Richelieu, is said to have led them up the works in
person. Such an assault could not but be attended with great slaughter;
they were mowed down as they approached, with grape shot and musketry; and
several mines were sprung with great effect, so that the glacis was almost
covered with the dying and the dead. Nevertheless, they persevered with
uncommon resolution; and though repulsed on every other side, at length
made a lodgement in the queen’s redoubt, which had been greatly damaged by
their cannon. Whether their success in this quarter was owing to the
weakness of the place, or to the timidity of the defender, certain it is,
the enemy were in possession before it was known to the officers of the
garrison; for lieutenant-colonel Jeffries the second in command, who had
acquitted himself since the beginning of the siege with equal courage,
skill, and activity, in his visitation of this post, was suddenly
surrounded and taken by a file of French grenadiers, at a time when he
never dreamed they had made a lodgement. Major Cunningham, who accompanied
him, met with a severer fate, though he escaped captivity; he was run
through the arm with a bayonet, and the piece being discharged at the same
time, shattered the bones of his hand in such a manner, that he was maimed
for life. In this shocking condition he retired behind a traverse, and was
carried home to his quarters. Thus the governor was deprived of his two
principal assistants, one being taken, and the other disabled.

The enemy having made themselves masters of Anstruther’s and the queen’s
redoubts, from which perhaps they might have been dislodged, had a
vigorous effort been made for that purpose before they had leisure to
secure themselves; the duke de Richelieu ordered a parley to be beat, in
order to obtain permission to bury the dead, and remove the wounded. This
request was granted with more humanity than discretion, inasmuch as the
enemy took this opportunity to throw a reinforcement of men privately into
the places where the lodgements had been made, and these penetrated into
the gallery of the mines, which communicated with all the other outworks.
During this short cessation, general Blakeney summoned a council of war to
deliberate upon the state of the fort and garrison; and the majority
declared for a capitulation. The works were in many places rained; the
body of the castle was shattered; many guns were dismounted, the
embrasures and parapets demolished, the palisadoes broken in pieces, the
garrison exhausted with hard duty and incessant watching, and the enemy in
possession of the subterranean communications. Besides, the governor had
received information from prisoners, that the duke de Richelieu was
alarmed by a report that the marshal duke de Belleisle would be sent to
supersede him in the command, and for that reason would hazard another
desperate assault, which it was the opinion of the majority the garrison
could not sustain. These considerations, added to the despair of being
relieved, induced him to demand a capitulation. But this measure was not
taken with the unanimous consent of the council. Some officers observed,
that the garrison was very little diminished, and still in good spirits;
that no breach was made in the body of the castle, nor a single cannon
erected to batter in breach; that the loss of an outwork was never deemed
a sufficient reason for surrendering such a fortress; that the
counterscarp was not yet taken, nor, on account of the rocky soil, could
be taken, except by assault, which would cost the enemy a greater number
than they had lost in their late attempt; that they could not attack the
ditch, or batter in breach, before the counterscarp should be taken, and
even then they must have recourse to galleries before they could pass the
fosse, which was furnished with mines and countermines; finally, they
suggested, that in all probability the British squadron would be
reinforced, and sail back to their relief; or if it should not return, it
was the duty of the governor to defend the place to extremity, without
having any regard to the consequences. These remarks being overruled, the
chamade was beat, a conference ensued, and very honourable conditions were
granted to the garrison, in consideration of the gallant defence they had
made. This it must be owned was vigorous while it lasted, as the French
general was said to have lost five thousand men in the siege; whereas the
loss of the garrison, which at first fell short of three thousand men, did
not exceed one hundred. The capitulation imported, that the garrison
should march out with all the honours of war, and be conveyed by sea to
Gibraltar. The French were put in possession of one gate, as well as fort
Charles and Marlborough redoubt; but the English troops remained in the
other works till the seventh day of July, when they embarked. In the
meantime reciprocal civilities passed between the commanders and officers
of both nations.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SIR E. HAWKE SAILS TO MINORCA.

The articles of capitulation were no sooner executed, than monsieur de la
Galissonniere sailed back to Toulon, with all the prizes which had lain at
anchor in the harbour of Matron, since the fort of St. Philip was first
invested. In all probability, the safety of himself and his whole squadron
was owing to this expeditious retreat; for in a few days after the
surrender of the fort, sir Edward Hawke’s fleet, augmented by five ships
of the line, which had been sent from England when the first tidings
arrived of Minorca’s being invaded, now made its appearance off the
island; but by this time Galissonniere was retired, and the English
admiral had the mortification to see the French colours flying upon St.
Philip’s castle. What, perhaps, chagrined this gallant officer still more,
he was not provided with frigates, sloops, and small craft, to cruise
round the island and intercept the supplies which were daily sent to the
enemy. Had he reached Minorca sooner, he might have discomfited the French
squadron; but he could not have raised the siege of St. Philip’s, because
the duke de Richelieu had received his reinforcements, and such a train of
artillery as no fortification could long withstand. Indeed, if the
garrison had been considerably reinforced, and the communication with it
opened by sea, the defence would have been protracted, and so many
vigorous sallies might have been made, that the assailants would have had
cause to repent of their enterprise.

When the news of this conquest was brought to Versailles, by the count of
Egmont, whom the duke de Richelieu had dispatched for that purpose, the
people of France were transported with the most extravagant joy. Nothing
was seen but triumphs and processions, nothing heard but anthems,
congratulations, and hyperbolical encomiums upon the conqueror of Minorca,
who was celebrated in a thousand poems and studied orations; while the
conduct of the English was vilified and ridiculed in ballads, farces, and
pasquinades. Nothing more argues the degeneracy of a warlike nation than
the pride of such mean triumph, for an advantage, which, in more vigorous
times, would scarce have been distinguished by the ceremony of a Te
Deum Laudamus. Nor is this childish exultation, that disgraces the
laurels of victory, confined to the kingdom of France. Truth obliges us to
own, that even the subjects of Great Britain are apt to be elevated by
success into an illiberal insolence of self-applause, and contemptuous
comparison. This must be condemned as a proof of unmanly arrogance, and
absurd self-conceit, by all those who coolly reflect that the events of
war generally, if not always, depend upon the genius or misconduct of one
individual. The loss of Minorca was severely felt in England, as a
national disgrace; but, instead of producing dejection and despondence, it
excited an universal clamour of rage and resentment, not only against Mr.
Byng, who had retreated from the French squadron; but also in reproach of
the administration, which was taxed with having neglected the security of
Minorca. Nay, some politicians were inflamed into a suspicion, that this
important place had been negatively betrayed into the hands of the enemy,
that in case the arms of Great Britain should prosper in other parts of
the world, the French king might have some sort of equivalent to restore
for the conquests which should be abandoned at the peace. This notion,
however, seems to have been conceived from prejudice and party, which now
began to appear with the most acrimonious aspect, not only throughout the
united kingdoms in general, but even in the sovereign’s councils.

GALLANTRY OF FORTUNATUS WRIGHT.

Sir Edward Hawke, being disappointed in his hope of encountering La
Galissonniere, and relieving the English garrison of St. Philip’s, at
least asserted the empire of Great Britain in the Mediterranean, by
annoying the commerce of the enemy, and blocking up the squadron in the
harbour of Toulon. Understanding that the Austrian government at Leghorn
had detained an English privateer, and imprisoned the captain, on pretence
that he had violated the neutrality of the port, he detached two ships of
war, to insist, in a peremptory manner, on the release of the ship,
effects, crew, and captain; and they thought proper to comply with this
demand, even without waiting for orders from the court of Vienna. The
person in whose behalf the admiral thus interposed, was one Fortunatus
Wright, a native of Liverpool; who, though a stranger to a sea life, had
in the last war equipped a privateer, and distinguished himself in such a
manner by his uncommon vigilance and valour, that, if he had been indulged
with a command suitable to his genius, he would have deserved as
honourable a place in the annals of the navy, as that which the French
have bostowed upon their boasted Guai Trouin, Du Bart, and Thurot. An
uncommon exertion of spirit was the occasion of his being detained at this
juncture. While he lay at anchor in the harbour of Leghorn, commander of
the St. George privateer of Liverpool, a small ship of twelve guns and
eighty men, a large French xebeque, mounted with sixteen cannon, and
nearly three times the number of his complement, chose her station in view
of the harbour, in order to interrupt the British commerce. The gallant
Wright could not endure this insult: notwithstanding the enemy’s
superiority in metal and number of men, he weighed anchor, hoisted his
sails, engaged him within sight of the shore, and after a very obstinate
dispute, in which the captain, lieutenant, and above threescore of the men
belonging to the xebeque were killed on the spot, he obliged them to sheer
off, and returned to the harbour in triumph. This brave corsair would, no
doubt, have signalized himself by many other exploits, had he not, in the
sequel, been overtaken in the midst of his career by a dreadful storm, in
which the ship foundering, he and all his crew perished.

GENERAL BLAKENEY CREATED A BARON.

Sir Edward Hawke, having scoured the Mediterranean, and insulted the
enemy’s ports, returned with the home-ward bound trade to Gibraltar; from
whence about the latter end of the year he set sail for England with part
of his squadron, leaving the rest in that bay for the protection of our
commerce, which, in those parts, soon began to suffer extremely from
French privateers that now swarmed in the Mediterranean. General Blakeney
had arrived, with the garrison of Minorca, at Portsmouth, in the month of
November, and been received with expressions of tumultuous joy: every
place through which he passed celebrated his return with bonfires,
illuminations, bell-ringing, and acclamations: every mouth was opened in
his praise, extolling him for the gallant defence he had made in the
castle of St. Philip. In a word, the people’s veneration for Blakeney
increased in proportion to their abhorrence of Byng: the first was lifted
into an idol of admiration, while the other sunk into an object of
reproach; and they were viewed at different ends of a false perspective,
through the medium of prejudice and passion; of a perspective artfully
contrived, and applied by certain ministers for the purposes of
self-interest and deceit. The sovereign is said to have been influenced by
the prepossession of the secret. Mr. Blakeney met with a gracious
reception from his majesty, who raised him to the rank of an Irish baron
in consideration of his faithful services, while some malcontents murmured
at this mark of favour, as an unreasonable sacrifice to popular
misapprehension.

MEASURES TAKEN FOR THE DEFENCE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

In the beginning of the year, the measures taken by the government in
England seem to have been chiefly dictated by the dread of an invasion,
from which the ministers did not think themselves secured by the
guard-ships and cruisers on different parts of the coast, or the standing
army of the kingdom, though reinforced by the two bodies of German
auxiliaries. A considerable number of new troops was levied; the success
of recruiting was not only promoted by the land-holders throughout the
kingdom, who thought their estates were at stake, and for that reason
encouraged their dependents to engage in the service; but also in a great
measure owing to a dearth of corn, which reduced the lower class of
labourers to such distress, that some insurrections were raised, and many
enlisted with a view to obtain a livelihood, which otherwise they could
not earn. New ships of war were built, and daily put in commission; but it
was found impracticable to man them, without having recourse to the odious
and illegal practice of impressing sailors, which must always be a
reproach to every free people. Notwithstanding large bounties, granted by
the government to volunteers, it was found necessary to lay an embargo
upon all shipping, and impress all the seamen that could be found, without
any regard to former protections; so that all the merchant ships were
stripped of their hands, and foreign commerce for some time wholly
suspended. Nay, the expedient of compelling men into the service was
carried to an unusual degree of oppression; for rewards were publicly
offered to those who should discover where any seamen lay concealed; so
that those unhappy people were in some respects treated like felons,
dragged from their families and connexions to confinement, mutilation, and
death, and totally cut off from the enjoyment of that liberty which,
perhaps at the expense of their lives, their own arms had helped to
preserve, in favour of their ungrateful country.*

* At this juncture, a number of public spirited merchants of
the city of London, and others, formed themselves into a
very laudable association, under the name of the Marine
Society, and contributed considerable sums of money for
equipping such orphans, friendless, and forlorn boys, as
were willing to engage in the service of the navy. In
consequence of this excellent plan, which was executed with
equal zeal and discretion, many thousands were rescued from
misery, and rendered useful members of that society, of
which they must have been the bane and reproach, without
this humane interposition.

About eighty ships of the line and three-score frigates were already
equipped, and considerable bodies of land-forces assembled, when, on the
third day of February, a proclamation was issued, requiring all officers,
civil and military, upon the first appearance of any hostile attempt to
land upon the coasts of the kingdom, immediately to cause all horses,
oxen, or cattle, which might be fit for draught or burden, and not
actually employed in the king’s service, or in the defence of the country,
and also (so far as might be practicable) all other cattle and provisions,
to be driven and removed twenty miles at least from the place where such
hostile attempt should be made, and to secure the same, so as that they
might not fall into the hands or power of those who should make such
attempt: regard being had, however, that the respective owners should
suffer as little damage as might be consistent with the public safety.

EARL OF LOUDON APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN AMERICA.

As the ministry were determined to make their chief efforts against the
enemy in North America, where the first hostilities had been committed,
and where the strongest impression could be made, a detachment of two
regiments was sent thither under the conduct of general Abercrombie,
appointed as successor to general Shirley, whom they recalled, as a person
nowise qualified to conduct military operations; nor, indeed, could any
success in war be expected from a man who had not been trained to arms,
nor ever acted but in a civil capacity. But the command in chief of all
the forces in America was conferred upon the earl of Loudon, a nobleman of
an amiable character, who had already distinguished himself in the service
of his country. Over and above this command, he was now appointed governor
of Virginia, and colonel of a royal American regiment, consisting of four
battalions, to be raised in that country, and disciplined by officers of
experience invited from foreign service. Mr. Abercrombie set sail for
America in March; but the earl of Loudon, who directed in chief the plan
of operations, and was vested with power and authority-little inferior to
those of a viceroy, did not embark till the latter end of May.

HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY’S DECLARATION OF WAR.

All these previous measures being taken, his majesty, in the course of the
same month, thought proper to publish a declaration of war 378
[See note 3 A, at the end of this Vol.] against the French king,
importing, that since the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the usurpations and
encroachments made upon the British territories, in America, had been
notorious; that his Britannic majesty had, in divers serious
representations to the court of Versailles, complained of these repeated
acts of violence, and demanded satisfaction; but notwithstanding the
repeated assurances given by the French king, that every thing should be
settled agreeably to the treaties subsisting between the two crowns, and
particularly that the evacuation of the four neutral islands in the West
Indies should be effected, the execution of these assurances, and of the
treaties on which they were founded, had been evaded under the most
frivolous pretences; that the unjustifiable practices of the French
governors, and officers acting under their authority, were still
continued, until they broke out in open acts of hostility, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-four; when, in time of profound peace,
without any declaration of war, without any previous notice given, or
application made, a body of French troops, commanded by an officer bearing
the French king’s commission, attacked in an hostile manner, and took
possession of an English fort on the river Ohio, in North America; that
great naval armaments were prepared in the ports of France, and a
considerable body of French troops embarked for that country; that
although the French ambassador was sent back to England with specious
professions of a desire to accommodate these differences, it appeared
their real design was only to amuse and gain time for the passage of these
supplies and reinforcements, which they hoped would secure the superiority
of the French forces in America, and enable them to carry their ambitious
and oppressive projects into execution; that inconsequence of the just and
necessary measures taken by the king of Great Britain for preventing the
success of such a dangerous design, the French ambassador was immediately
recalled from England, the fortifications of Dunkirk were enlarged, great
bodies of troops marched down to the sea-coasts of France, and the British
dominions threatened with an invasion; that though the king of England, in
order to frustrate these intentions, had given orders for seizing at sea
the ships of the French king and his subjects, yet he had hitherto
contented himself with detaining those ships which had been taken, and
preserving their cargoes entire, without proceeding to confiscation; but
it being at last evident from the hostile invasion of Minorca, that the
court of Versailles was determined to reject all proposals of
accommodation, and carry on the war with the utmost violence, his
Britannic majesty could no longer, consistently with the honour of his
crown, and the welfare of his subjects, remain within those bounds, which
from a desire of peace he had hitherto observed. A denunciation of war
followed in the usual form, and was concluded with an assurance, that all
the French subjects residing in Great Britain and Ireland, who should
demean themselves dutifully to the government, might depend upon its
protection, and be safe in their persons and effects.

SUBSTANCE OF THE FRENCH KING’S DECLARATION.

In the beginning of June the French king declared war in his turn against
his Britannic majesty, and his declaration was couched in terms of
uncommon asperity.

He artfully threw a shade over the beginning of hostilities in North
America, referring to a memorial which had been delivered to the several
courts of Europe, containing a summary of those facts which related to the
present war, and the negotiations by which it had been preceded. He
insisted on the attack made by the king of England, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, on the French possessions in North
America; and afterwards by the English navy on the navigation and commerce
of the French subjects, in contempt of the law of nations, and direct
violation of treaties. He complained that the French soldiers and sailors
underwent the harshest treatment in the British isles, exceeding those
bounds which are prescribed to the most rigorous rights of war, by the law
of nature, and common humanity. He affirmed, that while the English
ministry, under the appearance of sincerity, imposed upon the French
ambassador with false protestations, others diametrically opposite to
these deceitful assurances of a speedy accommodation were actually
carrying into execution in North America; that while the court of London
employed every caballing art, and squandered away the subsidies of
England, to instigate other powers against France, his most christain
majesty did not even ask of these powers the succours which guarantees and
defensive treaties authorised him to demand; but recommended to them such
measures only as tended to their own peace and security; that while the
English navy, by the most odious violences, and sometimes by the vilest
artifices, made captures of French vessels navigating in full security
under the safeguard of public faith, his most christian majesty released
an English frigate taken by a French squadron; and British vessels traded
to the ports of France without molestation. That the striking contrast
formed by these different methods of proceeding would convince all Europe,
that one court was guided by motives of jealousy, ambition, and avarice,
and that the conduct of the other was founded on principles of honour,
justice, and moderation; that the vague imputations contained in the king
of England’s declaration, had in reality no foundation; and the very
manner in which they were set forth would prove their futility and
falsehood; that the mention made of the works at Dunkirk, and the troop
assembled on the coasts of the ocean, implied the most gross attempt to
deceive mankind into a belief that these were the points which determined
the king of England to issue orders for seizing the French vessels;
whereas the works at Dunkirk were not begun till after two French ships of
war had been taken by an English squadron; and depredations had been
committed six months upon the subjects of France before the first
battalions began their march for the sea-side. In a word, the most
christian king, laying aside that politeness and decorum on which his
people value themselves above all the nations upon the face of the earth,
very roundly taxes his brother monarch’s administration with piracy,
perfidy, inhumanity, and deceit. A charge conveyed in such reproachful
terms, against one of the most respectable crowned heads in Europe, will
appear the more extraordinary and injurious, if we consider that the
accusers were well acquainted with the falsity of their own imputations,
and at the same time conscious of having practised those very arts which
they affected so much to decry. For after all, it must be allowed, that
nothing could be justly urged against the English government, with respect
to France, except the omission of a mere form, which other nations might
interpret into an irregularity, but could not construe into perfidious
dealing, as the French had previously violated the peace by their
insolence and encroachments.

ADDRESS OF THE CITY OF LONDON.

Whatever might have been the opinion of other nations, certain it is, the
subjects of Great Britain heartily approved of the hostilities committed
and intended against a people whom they have always considered as their
natural enemies, and the incendiaries of Europe. They cheerfully
contributed to the expense of armaments,* and seemed to approve of their
destination, in hopes of being able to wipe off the disgraces they had
sustained in the defeat of Braddock, and the loss of Minorca.

* Immediately after the declaration of war, the French ships
and cargoes which had been taken were tried, and condemned
as legal Prizes, exposed to public sale, and their produce
lodged in the bank: but in what manner this money, amounting
to a large sum, was distributed or employed, we have not
been able to discover.

The last event made a deep impression upon the minds of the community. An
address was presented to the king by the lord-mayor, aldermen, and
common-council of London, containing strong hints to the disadvantage of
the ministry. They expressed their apprehension, that the loss of the
important fortress of St. Philip and island of Minorca, possessions of the
utmost consequence to the commerce and naval strength of Great Britain,
without any attempt by timely and effectual succours to prevent or defeat
an attack, after such early notice of the enemy’s intentions, and when his
majesty’s navy was so evidently superior to theirs, would be an indelible
reproach on the honour of the British nation. They expatiated upon the
imminent danger to which the British possessions in America were exposed,
by the mismanagement and delays which had attended the defence of those
invaluable colonies, the object of the present war, the principal source
of the wealth and strength of these kingdoms. They lamented the want of a
constitutional and well-regulated militia, the most natural and certain
defence against all invaders whatsoever. They signified their hope, that
the authors of the late losses and disappointments would be detected, and
brought to condign punishment; that his majesty’s known intentions of
protecting and defending his subjects in their rights and possessions,
might be faithfully and vigorously carried into execution; and the large
supplies, so necessarily demanded, and so cheerfully granted, might be
religiously applied to the defence of these kingdoms, their colonies, and
their commerce, as well as to the annoyance of their inveterate and
perfidious enemies, the only sure means of obtaining a lasting and
honourable peace. In answer to this address, the king assured them that he
would not fail to do justice upon any persons who should have been wanting
in their duty to him and their country; to enforce obedience and
discipline in his fleets and armies; and to support the authority and
respect due to his government. Remonstrances of the same kind were
presented by different counties and corporations; and the populace
clamoured aloud for inquiry and justice.

TRIAL OF GENERAL FOWKE.

The first victim offered to the enraged multitude was the unfortunate
general Fowke, who had been deputy-governor of Gibraltar, and behaved with
remarkable conduct and integrity in the exercise of that important office,
till that period when he fell under the displeasure of the government. He
was now brought to trial before a board of general officers, and accused
of having disobeyed the orders he had received from the secretary at war
in three successive letters 379 [See note 3 B, at the end of this Vol.],
touching the relief of Minorca. Mr. Fowke alleged in his own defence, that
the orders were confused and contradictory, and implied a discretionary
power; that the whole number of his garrison did not exceed two thousand
six hundred men, after he had spared two hundred and seventy-five to the
ships commanded by Mr. Edgecumbe; that the ordinary duty of the garrison
requiring eight hundred men, the whole number was not sufficient for three
reliefs; that, if he had detached a battalion on board the fleet, he
should not have had above two reliefs, at a time when he believed the
place was in danger of being attacked, for good reasons, which he did not
think himself at liberty to mention; that his orders being doubtful, he
held a council of war, which was of opinion, that as undoubted
intelligence was received of the French army’s being landed at Minorca, to
the number of between thirteen and sixteen thousand men, and that a French
squadron of sixteen ships was stationed off the harbour, the sending a
detachment equal to a battalion from Gibraltar would be an ineffectual
supply for the relief of the place, and a weakening of the garrison from
which they must be sent. He observed, that supposing the orders to have
been positive, and seven hundred men detached to Minorca, the number
remaining at Gibraltar would not have exceeded one thousand five hundred
and fifty-six: a deduction of seven hundred more, according to the order
of May the twelfth, would have left a remainder of eight hundred and
fifty-six; that the men daily on duty in the garrison, including
artificers and labourers in the king’s works, amounted to eight hundred
and thirty-nine; so that if he had complied with the orders as they
arrived, he would not have had more than seventeen men over and above the
number necessary for the daily work of the garrison; thus the important
fortress of Gibraltar must, at this critical conjuncture, have been left
almost naked and defenceless to the attempts of the enemy; and had those
detachments been actually sent abroad, it afterwards appeared that they
could not have been landed on the island of Minorca. The order transmitted
to general Fowke to detain all empty vessels, for a further transportation
of troops, seems to have been superfluous; for it can hardly be supposed
he could have occasion for them, unless to embark the whole garrison, and
abandon the place. It seems likewise to have been unnecessary to exhort
the general to keep his garrison as alert as possible, during that
critical time; inasmuch as it would have been impossible for the men to
have enjoyed the least repose or intromission of duty, had the orders been
punctually and literally obeyed. What other assistance it might have been
in the governor’s power to give for the relief of Minorca, or in what
manner he could avoid fatiguing his garrison, while there was an
impossibility of relieving the guards, it is not easy to comprehend. Be
that as it may, when the trial was finished, and the question put to
acquit or suspend for one year, the court was equally divided; and in such
cases the casting vote being vested in the president, he threw it into the
scale against the prisoner, whom his majesty thought fit to dismiss from
his service.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

AFFAIRS OF AMERICA.

The expectation of the public was now eagerly turned towards America, the
chief, if not the sole scene of our military operations. On the
twenty-fifth day of June, Mr. Abercrombie arrived at Albany, the frontier
of New York, and assumed the command of the forces there assembled,
consisting of two regiments which had served under Braddock, two
battalions raised in America, two regiments now transported from. England,
four independent companies which had been many years maintained in New
York, the New Jersey regiment, four companies levied in North Carolina,
and a body of provincial forces raised by the government of New England.
Those to the southward, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,
had not yet determined on any regular plan of operation, and were moreover
hard pressed in defending their western frontier from the French and
Indians, who, in skulking parties, made sudden irruptions upon their
unguarded settlements, burning, plundering, and massacring with the most
savage inhumanity. As for South Carolina, the proportion of negro slaves
to the number of white inhabitants was so great in that colony, that the
government could not, with any regard to the safety of the province, spare
any reinforcement for the general enterprise. The plan of this undertaking
had been settled in the preceding year in a council of war, held at New
York. There it was resolved to attack the fort of Niagara, situated
between the lakes Ontario and Erie, in order to cut off the communication
between Canada and Louisiana, and prevent the French from supporting their
new fortresses on the Ohio; to reduce Ticonderago and Crown Point, so that
the frontier of New York might be delivered from the danger of an
invasion, and Great Britain become master of the lake Champlain, over
which the forces might be transported in any future attempt; to besiege
fort Du Quesne upon the Ohio; and to detach a body of troops by the river
Kennebec, to alarm the capital of Canada. This plan was too extensive for
the number of troops which had been prepared; the season was too far
advanced before the regiments arrived from England, the different colonies
were divided in their opinions, and Mr. Abercrombie postponed the
execution of any important scheme till the arrival of lord Loudon, who was
daily expected. The reasons that delayed the reinforcement, and detained
his lordship so long, we do not pretend to explain; though we may be
allowed to observe, that many fair opportunities have been lost, by the
neglect and procrastination of an English ministry. Certain it is, the
unaccountable delay of this armament rendered it useless for a whole year,
afforded time and leisure to the enemy to take their precautions against
any subsequent attack, and, in the meantime, to proceed unmolested in
distressing the British settlements. Even before this period, they had
attacked and reduced a small post in the country of the Five Nations,
occupied by twenty-five Englishmen, who were cruelly butchered to a man,
in the midst of those Indians whom Great Britain had long numbered among
her allies.

Soon after this expedition, having received intelligence that a
considerable convoy of provisions and stores, for the garrison of Oswego,
would in a little time set out from Schenectady, and be conveyed in
batteaux up the river Onondaga, they formed an ambuscade among the woods
and thickets on the north side of that river; but understanding the convoy
had passed before they reached the place, they resolved to wait the return
of the detachment. Their design, however, was frustrated by the vigilance
and valour of colonel Bradstreet, who expected such an attempt, and had
taken his measures accordingly. On the third day of July, while he stemmed
the stream of the river, with his batteaux formed into three divisions,
they were saluted with the Indian war-hoop, and a general discharge of
musketry from the north shore. Bradstreet immediately ordered his men to
land on the opposite bank, and with a few of the foremost took possession
of a small island, where he was forthwith attacked by a party of the
enemy, who had forded the river for that purpose; but these were soon
repulsed. Another body having passed a mile higher, he advanced to them at
the head of two hundred men, and fell upon them, sword in hand, with such
vigour, that many were killed on the spot, and the rest driven into the
water with such precipitation that a considerable number of them were
drowned. Having received information that a third body of them had passed
at a ford still higher, he marched thither without hesitation, and pursued
them to the other side, where they were entirely routed and dispersed. In
this action, which lasted near three hours, about seventy of the
batteau-men were killed or wounded, but the enemy lost double the number
killed, and above seventy taken prisoners. In all probability the whole
detachment of the French, amounting to seven hundred men, would have been
cut off had not a heavy rain interposed, and disabled colonel Bradstreet
from following his blow; for that same night he was joined by captain
Patten with his grenadiers, in his march from Oneida to Oswego, and next
morning reinforced with two hundred men, detached to his assistance from
the garrison of Oswego; but by this time the rivulets were so swelled by
the rain, that it was found impracticable to pursue the enemy through the
woods and thickets. Patten and his grenadiers accompanied the detachment
to Oswego, while Bradstreet pursued his voyage to Schenectady, from whence
he repaired to Albany, and communicated to general Abercrombie the
intelligence he had received from the prisoners, that a large body of the
enemy were encamped on the eastern side of the lake Ontario, provided with
artillery, and all other implements, to besiege the fort of Oswego.

EARL OF LOUDON ARRIVES AT NEW YORK.

In consequence of this information, major-general Webb was ordered to hold
himself in readiness to march with one regiment to the relief of that
garrison; but, before they could be provided with necessaries, the earl of
Loudon arrived at the head-quarters at Albany, on the twenty-ninth day of
July. The army at this time is said to have consisted of regular troops to
the number of two thousand six hundred, about seven thousand provincials,
supposed to be in readiness to march from fort William-Henry, under the
command of general Winslow, over and above a considerable number of
batteau-men at Albany and Schenectady. The garrison at Oswego amounted to
fourteen hundred soldiers, besides three hundred workmen and sailors,
either in the fort, or posted in small parties between the fort and place
called Burnet’s Field, to secure a safe passage through the country of the
Six Nations, upon whose friendship there was no longer any reliance. By
the best accounts received of the enemy’s forces, they had about three
thousand men at Crown Point and Ticonderago upon the lake Champlain; but
their chief strength was collected upon the banks of the lake Ontario,
where their purpose undoubtedly was to reduce the English fort at Oswego.
The immediate object, therefore, of lord Loudon’s attention was the relief
of this place; but his design was strenuously opposed by the province of
New York, and other northern governments, who were much more intent upon
the reduction of Crown Point, and the security of their own frontiers,
which they apprehended was connected with this conquest. They insisted
upon Winslow’s being joined by some regiments of regular troops before he
should march against this fortress; and stipulated that a body of reserve
should be detained at Albany, for the defence of that frontier, in case
Winslow should fail in his enterprise, and be defeated. At length they
agreed, that the regiment which Mr. Abercrombie had destined for that
purpose should be detached for the relief of Oswego; and on the twelfth
day of August major-general Webb began his march with it from Albany; but
on his arrival at the Carrying-place, between the Mohawk’s river and
Wood’s creek, he received the disagreeable news that Oswego was taken, and
the garrison made prisoners of war. Mr. Webb, apprehending himself in
danger of being attacked by the besieging army, began immediately to
render the creek impassable, even to canoes, by felling trees, and
throwing them into the stream; while the enemy, ignorant of his numbers,
and apprehensive of a like visitation from him, took the very same method
of preventing his approach; in consequence of this apprehension, he was
permitted to retire unmolested.

OSWEGO REDUCED BY THE ENEMY.

The loss of the two small forts called Ontario and Oswego, was a
considerable national misfortune. They were erected on the south side of
the great lake Ontario, standing on the opposite sides of the mouth of the
Onondago river, that discharges itself into the lake, and constituted a
post of great importance, where vessels had been built to cruise upon the
lake, which is a kind of inland sea, and interrupt the commerce as well as
the motions and designs of the enemy. The garrison, as we have already
observed, consisted of fourteen hundred men, chiefly militia and
new-raised recruits, under the command of lieutenant-colonel Mercer, an
officer of courage and experience; but the situation of the forts was very
ill chosen; the materials mostly timber or logs of wood; the defences
wretchedly contrived and unfinished; and, in a word, the place altogether
untenable against any regular approach. Such were the forts which the
enemy wisely resolved to reduce. Being under no apprehension for Crown
Point, they assembled a body of troops, consisting of thirteen hundred
regulars, seventeen hundred Canadians, and a considerable number of Indian
auxiliaries, under the command of the marquis de Montcalm, a vigilant and
enterprising officer, to whom the conduct of the siege was entrusted by
the marquis de Vaudreuil, governor and lieutenant-general of New France.
The first step taken by Montcalm was to block up Oswego by water with two
large armed vessels, and post a strong body of Canadians on the road
between Albany and the forts, to cut off all communication of succour and
intelligence. In the meantime he embarked his artillery and stores upon
the lake, and landed them in the bay of Nixouri, the place of general
rendezvous. At another creek, within half a league of Oswego, he erected a
battery for the protection of his vessels, and on the twelfth day of
August, at midnight, after his dispositions had been made, he opened the
trenches before fort Ontario. The garrison having fired away all their
shells and ammunition, spiked up the cannon, and deserting the fort,
retired next day across the river into Oswego, which was even more exposed
than the other, especially when the enemy had taken possession of Ontario,
from whence they immediately began to fire without intermission. Colonel
Mercer being on the thirteenth killed by a cannon ball, the fort destitute
of all cover, the officers divided in opinion, and the garrison in
confusion, they next day demanded a capitulation, and surrendered
prisoners of war, on condition that they should be exempted from plunder,
conducted to Montreal, and treated with humanity. These conditions,
however, the marquis did not punctually observe. The British officers and
soldiers were insulted by the savage Indians, who robbed them of their
clothes and baggage, massacred several men as they stood defenceless on
the parade, assassinated lieutenant de la Court as he lay wounded in his
tent, under the protection of a French officer, and barbarously scalped
all the sick people in the hospital: finally, Montcalm, in direct
violation of the articles, as well as in contempt of common humanity,
delivered up above twenty men of the garrison to the Indians, in lieu of
the same number they had lost during the siege; and in all probability
these miserable captives were put to death by those barbarians, with the
most excruciating tortures, according to the execrable custom of the
country. Those who countenance the perpetration of cruelties, at which
human nature shudders with horror, ought to be branded as infamous to all
posterity. Such, however, were the trophies that, in the course of the
American war, distinguished the operations of a people who pique
themselves upon politeness, and the virtues of humanity. The prisoners
taken at Oswego, after having been thus barbarously treated, were conveyed
in batteaux to Montreal, where they had no reason to complain of their
reception; and before the end of the year they were exchanged. The victors
immediately demolished the two forts (if they deserve that denomination,)
in which they found one hundred and twenty-one pieces of artillery,
fourteen mortars, with a great quantity of ammunition, warlike stores, and
provisions, besides two sloops, and two hundred batteaux, which likewise
fell into their hands. Such an important magazine, deposited in a place
altogether indefensible, and without the reach of immediate succour, was a
flagrant proof of egregious folly, temerity, and misconduct.

FURTHER PROCEEDINGS IN AMERICA.

The earl of Loudon finding the season too far advanced to admit of any
enterprise against the enemy, exerted all his endeavours in making
preparations for an early campaign in the spring, securing the frontiers
of the English colonies, in forming an uniform plan of action, and
promoting a spirit of harmony among the different governments, which had
been long divided by jarring interests, and other sources of dissension.
Meanwhile, the forts Edward and William-Henry were put in a proper posture
of defence, and secured with numerous garrisons; and the forces put into
winter quarters at Albany where comfortable barracks were built for that
purpose. Fort Granville, on the confines of Pennsylvania, an
inconsiderable block-house, was surprised by a party of French and
Indians, who made the garrison prisoners, consisting of two-and-twenty
soldiers, with a few women and children. These they loaded with flour and
provisions, and drove them into captivity; but the fort they reduced to
ashes. Many shocking murders were perpetrated upon defenceless people,
without distinction of age or sex, in different parts of the frontiers;
but these outrages were in some measure balanced by the advantages
resulting from a treaty of peace, which the governor of Pennsylvania
concluded with the Delaware Indians, a powerful tribe that dwell upon the
river Sasquehanna, forming, as it were, a line along the southern skirts
of the province. At the same time the governor of Virginia secured the
friendship and alliance of the Cherokees and Catawbas, two powerful
nations adjoining to that colony, who were able to bring three thousand
fighting men into the field. All these circumstances considered, Great
Britain had reason to expect that the ensuing campaign would be vigorously
prosecuted in America, especially as a fresh reinforcement of troops, with
a great supply of warlike stores, were sent to that country in fourteen
transports, under convoy of two ships of war, which sailed from Cork in
Ireland about the beginning of November.

NAVAL OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.

No action of great importance distinguished the naval transactions of this
year on the side of America. In the beginning of June, captain Spry, who
commanded a small squadron cruising off Louisbourg, in the island of Cape
Breton, took the Arc en Ciel, a French ship of fifty guns, having
on board near six hundred men, with a large quantity of stores and
provisions for the garrison. He likewise made prize of another French
ship, with seventy soldiers, two hundred barrels of powder, two large
brass mortars, and other stores of the like destination. On the
twenty-seventh day of July, commodore Holmes, being in the same latitude,
with two large ships and a couple of sloops, engaged two French ships of
the line and four frigates, and obliged them to sheer off after an
obstinate dispute. A great number of privateers were equipped in this
country, as well as in the West India islands belonging to the crown of
Great Britain; and as those seas swarmed with French vessels, their
cruises proved very advantageous to the adventurers.

TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST INDIES.

Scenes of higher import were this year acted by the British arms in the
East Indies. The cessation of hostilities between the English and French
companies on the peninsula of Indus, though it encouraged Mr. Clive to
visit his native country, was not of long duration; for in a few months
both sides recommenced their operations, no longer as auxiliaries to the
princes of the country, but as principals and rivals both in arms and
commerce. Major Laurence, who now enjoyed the chief command of the English
force, obtained divers advantages over the enemy; and prosecuted his
success with such vigour, as, in all probability, would in a little time
have terminated the war according to his own wish, when the progress of
his arms was interrupted and suspended by an unfortunate event at
Calcutta, the cause of which is not easily explained; for extraordinary
pains have been taken to throw a vail over some transactions from whence
this calamity was immediately or remotely derived.

CALCUTTA BESIEGED.

The old suba or viceroy of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa, dying in the month of
April, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, was succeeded
by his adopted son, Sur Raja al Dowlat, a young man of violent passions,
without principle, fortitude, or good faith, who began his administration
with acts of perfidy and violence. In all probability, his design against
the English settlements was suggested by his rapacious disposition, on a
belief that they abounded with treasure; as the pretences which he used
for commencing hostilities, were altogether inconsistent, false, and
frivolous. In the month of May, he caused the English factory at
Cassimbuzzar to be invested, and inviting Mr. Watts, the chief of the
factory, to a conference, under the sanction of a safe conduct, detained
him as prisoner; then, by means of fraud and force intermingled, made
himself master of the factory. This exploit being achieved, he made no
secret of his design to deprive the English of all their settlements. With
this view he marched to Calcutta at the head of a numerous army, and
invested the place, which was then in no posture of defence.

ENLARGE

FATE OF THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE DUNGEON AT CALCUTTA.

The governor, intimidated by the number and power of the enemy, abandoned
the fort, and with some principal persons residing in the settlement, took
refuge on board a ship in the river, carrying along with them their most
valuable effects, and the books of the company. Thus the defence of the
place devolved to Mr. Holwell, the second in command, who, with the
assistance of a few gallant officers, and a very feeble garrison,
maintained it with uncommon courage and resolution against several
attacks, until he was overpowered by numbers, and the enemy had forced
their way into the castle. Then he was obliged to submit; and the suba, or
viceroy, promised on the word of a soldier, that no injury should be done
to him or his garrison. Nevertheless, they were all driven, to the number
of one hundred and forty-six persons of both sexes, into a place called
the Black Hole Prison, a cube of about eighteen feet, walled up to the
eastward and southward, the only quarters from which they could expect the
least refreshing air, and open to the westward by two windows strongly
barred with iron, through which there was no perceptible circulation. The
humane reader will conceive with horror the miserable situation to which
they must have been reduced, when thus stewed up in a close sultry night
under such a climate as that of Bengal, especially when he reflects that
many of them were wounded, and all of them fatigued with hard duty.
Transported with rage to find themselves thus barbarously cooped up in a
place where they must be exposed to suffocation, those hapless victims
endeavoured to force open the door that they might rush upon the swords of
the barbarians by whom they were surrounded; but all their efforts were
ineffectual; the door was made to open inwards, and being once shut upon
them, the crowd pressed upon it so strongly as to render all their
endeavours abortive; then they were overwhelmed with distraction and
despair. Mr. Holwell, who had placed himself at one of the windows,
accosted a jemmautdaar, or Serjeant of the Indian guard, and having
endeavoured to excite his compassion, by drawing a pathetic picture of
their sufferings, promised to gratify him with a thousand rupees in the
morning, if he could find means to remove one half of them into a separate
apartment. The soldier, allured by the promise of such a reward, assured
him he would do his endeavour for their relief, and retired for that
purpose, but in a few minutes returned and told them that the suba, by
whose order alone such a step could be taken, was asleep, and no person
durst disturb his repose. By this time a profuse sweat had broke out on
every individual, and this was attended with an insatiable thirst, which
became the more intolerable as the body was drained of its moisture. In
vain those miserable objects stripped themselves of their clothes,
squatted down on their hams, and fanned the air with their hats, to
produce a refreshing undulation. Many were unable to rise again from this
posture, but falling down, were trod to death or suffocated. The dreadful
symptom of thirst was now accompanied with a difficulty of respiration,
and every individual gasped for breath. Their despair became outrageous:
again they attempted to force the door, and provoke the guard to fire upon
them by execration and abuse. The cry of “Water! water!” issued from every
mouth. Even the jemmautdaar was moved to compassion at their distress. He
ordered his soldiers to bring some skins of water, which served only to
enrage the appetite, and increase the general agitation. There was no
other way of conveying it through the windows but by hats, and this was
rendered ineffectual by the eagerness and transports of the wretched
prisoners, who at sight of it struggled and raved even into fits of
delirium. In consequence of these contests, very little reached those who
stood nearest the windows, while the rest, at the farther end of the
prison, were totally excluded from all relief, and continued calling upon
their friends for assistance, and conjuring them by all the tender ties of
pity and affection. To those who were indulged it proved pernicious, for
instead of allaying their thirst, it enraged their impatience for more.
The confusion became general and horrid; all was clamour and contest;
those who were at a distance endeavoured to force their passage to the
window, and the weak were pressed down to the ground never to rise again.
The inhuman ruffians without derived entertainment from their misery; they
supplied the prisoners with more water, and held up lights close to the
bars that they might enjoy the inhuman pleasure of seeing them fight for
the baneful indulgence. Mr. Holwell seeing all his particular friends
lying dead around him, and trampled upon by the living, finding himself
wedged up so close as to be deprived of all motion, begged, as the last
instance of their regard, that they would remove the pressure, and allow
him to retire from the window, that he might die in quiet. Even in those
dreadful circumstances, which might be supposed to have levelled all
distinction, the poor delirious wretches manifested a respect for his rank
and character: they forthwith gave way, and he forced his passage into the
centre of the place, which was not crowded so much, because by this time
about one-third of the number had perished, and lay on small compass on
the floor, while the rest still crowded to both windows. He retired to a
platform at the farther end of the room, and lying down upon some of his
dead friends, recommended his soul to heaven. Here his thirst grew
insupportable; his difficulty in breathing increased, and he was seized
with a strong palpitation. These violent symptoms, which he could not
bear, urged him to make another effort: he forced his way back to the
window, and cried aloud, “Water! for God’s sake!” He had been supposed
already dead by his wretched companions, but finding him still alive, they
exhibited another extraordinary proof of tenderness and regard to his
person: “Give him water,” they cried; nor would any of them attempt to
touch it until he had drank. He now breathed more freely, and the
palpitation ceased; but finding himself still more thirsty after drinking,
he abstained from water, and moistened his mouth from time to time by
sucking the perspiration from his shirt sleeves.*

* In his despair of obtaining water, this unhappy gentleman
had attempted to drink his own urine, but found it
intolerably bitter; whereas the moisture that flowed from
the pores of his body, was soft, pleasant, and refreshing.

The miserable prisoners, perceiving that water rather aggravated than
relieved their distress, grew clamorous for air, and repeated their
insults to the guard, loading the suba and his governor with the most
virulent reproach. From railing they had recourse to prayer, beseeching
heaven to put an end to their misery. They now began to drop on all hands;
but then a steam arose from the living and the dead, as pungent and
volatile as spirit of hartshorn; so that all who could not approach the
windows were suffocated. Mr. Holwell, being weary of life, retired once
more to the platform, and stretched himself by the Rev. Mr. Jer-vis
Bellamy, who, together with his son, a lieutenant, lay dead in each
other’s embrace. In this situation he was soon deprived of sense, and lay
to all appearance dead till day broke, when his body was discovered and
removed by his surviving friends to one of the windows, where the fresh
air revived him, and he was restored to his sight and senses. The suba, at
last, being informed that the greater part of the prisoners were
suffocated, inquired if the chief was alive; and being answered in the
affirmative, sent an order for their immediate release, when no more than
twenty-three survived of an hundred and forty-six who had entered alive.

ADDITIONAL CRUELTIES EXERCISED ON MR. HOLWELL.

Nor was the late deliverance, even of these few, owing to any sentiment of
compassion in the viceroy. He had received intimation that there was a
considerable treasure secreted in the fort, and that Mr. Holwell knew the
place where it was deposited. That gentleman, who, with his surviving
companions, had been seized with a putrid fever immediately upon their
release, was dragged in that condition before the inhuman suba, who
questioned him about the treasure, which existed nowhere but in his own
imagination; and would give no credit to his protestations, when he
solemnly declared he knew of no such deposit. Mr. Holwell and three of his
friends were loaded with fetters, and conveyed three miles to the Indian
camp, where they lay all night exposed to a severe rain; next morning they
were brought back to town still manacled, under the scorching beams of a
sun intensely hot, and must infallibly have expired, had not nature
expelled the fever in large painful boils, that covered almost the whole
body. In this piteous condition they were embarked in an open boat for
Muxadavad, the capital of Bengal, and underwent such cruel treatment and
misery in their passage, as would shock the humane reader should he peruse
the particulars. At Maxadavad they were led through the city in chains, as
a spectacle to the inhabitants, lodged in an open stable, and treated for
some days as the worst of criminals. At length the suba’s grandmother
interposed her mediation in their behalf, and as that prince was by this
time convinced that there was no treasure concealed at Calcutta, he
ordered them to be set at liberty. When some of his sycophants opposed
this indulgence, representing that Mr. Holwell had still enough left to
pay a considerable ransom, he replied, with some marks of compunction and
generosity, “If he has anything left, let him keep it: his sufferings have
been great: he shall have his liberty.” Mr. Holwell and his friends were
no sooner unfettered, than they took water from the Dutch Tank-sail or
mint, in the neighbourhood of that city, where they were received with
great tenderness and humanity. The reader, we hope, will excuse us for
having thus particularized a transaction so interesting and extraordinary
in all its circumstances. The suba having destroyed Calcutta and dispersed
the inhabitants, extorted large sums from the French and Dutch factories,
that he might display a spirit of impartiality against all the Europeans,
even in his oppression, returned to his city of Muxadavad in triumph. By
the reduction of Calcutta, the English East India company’s affairs were
so much embroiled in that part of the world, that perhaps nothing could
have retrieved them but the interposition of a national force, and the
good fortune of a Clive, whose enterprises were always crowned with
success.

As the English East India Company had, for a whole century, been at a
considerable expense in maintaining a marine force at Bombay, to protect
their ships from the piracies of the Angrias, who had rendered themselves
independent princes, and fortified Geriah in that neighbourhood; many
unsuccessful attempts had been made to destroy their naval power, and
reduce the fortress, under which they always took shelter. In the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, the fleet of Tullagree Angria, the
reigning prince, attacked three Dutch ships of force, which they either
took or destroyed. Elated with this success, he boasted that he should in
a little time sweep the seas of the Europeans, and began to build some
large ships, to reinforce his grabs and gallivats, which were the vessels
on which he had for merely depended. Next year his neighbours, the
Malirattas, having signified to the presidency of Bombay, that they were
disposed to join in the necessary service of humbling this common enemy,
so formidable to the whole Malabar coast, commodore James was detached
with some ships of force to attack Angria, in conjunction with those
allies. They accordingly joined him with seven grabs and sixty gallivats.
They proceeded to the harbour of Severndroog, where Angria’s fleet lay at
anchor; but they no sooner received intelligence of his approach, than
they slipped their cables and stood out to sea. He chased them with all
the canvass he could carry, but their vessels being lighter than his they
escaped; and he returned to Severndroog, which is a fortress situated on
an island within musket shot of the main land, strongly but irregularly
fortified, and mounted with fifty-four pieces of cannon. There were three
other small forts on the continent, the largest of which was called Goa.
On the second day of April the commodore began to batter and bombard the
island, fort, and fort Goa, at the same time. That of Severndroog was set
on fire; one of the magazines blew up; a general conflagration ensued; the
garrison was overwhelmed with fire and confusion; the English seamen
landed un der cover of the fire from the ships, and took the place by
storm, with very little loss. The other forts were immediately
surrendered, and all of these, by treaty, delivered to the Mahrattas. On
the eighth of April the commodore anchored off Bancote, now called fort
Victoria, one of the most northern parts of Angria’s dominions, which
surrendered without opposition, and still remains in the hands of the
English East India company, by the consent of the Mahrattas. The harbour
is good, and here is great trade for salt and other commodities sent
hither from Bombay.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

FORT GERIAH TAKEN BY ADMIRAL WATSON AND MR. CLIVE.

It was in November following that the squadron under admiral Watson
arrived at Bombay, where it was resolved to give Angria the finishing
stroke, still in conjunction with the Mahrattas. Meanwhile commodore James
was sent to reconnoitre Geriah, the capital of his dominions, and to sound
the depth of the harbour, a service which he successfully performed. The
admiral being joined by a division of ships, fitted out at the company’s
expense, having on board a body of troops commanded by colonel Clive,
sailed on the seventeenth day of January, and found in the neighbourhood
of Geriah the Mahratta fleet, consisting of four grabs, and forty smaller
vessels called gallivats, lying to the northward of the place, in a creek
called Rajipore; and a land-army of horse and foot, amounting to seven or
eight thousand men, the whole commanded by Rhamagee Punt, who had already
taken one small fort, and was actually treating about the surrender of
Geriah. Angria himself had quitted the place, but his wife and family
remained under the protection of his brother-in-law; who, being summoned
to surrender by a message from the admiral, replied, that he would defend
the place to the last extremity. In consequence of this refusal, the whole
English fleet, in two divisions, sailed on the twelfth day of February
into the harbour, and sustained a warm fire from the enemy’s batteries as
they passed, as well as from the grabs posted in the harbour for that
purpose; this, however, was soon silenced after the ships were brought to
their stations, so as to return the salutation. Between the hours of four
and five in the afternoon, a shell being thrown into one of Angria’s armed
vessels, set her on fire; and the flames communicating to the rest, they
were all destroyed: between six and seven the fort was set on fire by
another shell; and soon after the firing ceased on both sides. The
admiral, suspecting that the governor of the place would surrender it to
the Mahrattas, rather than to the English, disembarked all the troops
under Mr. Clive, that he might be at hand, in case of emergency, to take
possession. In the meantime, the fort was bombarded; the line of battle
ships were warped near enough to batter in breach, and then the admiral
sent an officer with a flag of truce to the governor, requiring him to
surrender. His proposal being again rejected, the English ships renewed
their fire next day with redoubled vigour. About one o’clock the magazine
of the fort blew up, and at four the garrison hung out a white flag for
capitulation. The parley that ensued proving ineffectual, the engagement
began again, and continued till fifteen minutes after five; when the white
flag was again displayed, and now the governor submitted to the conditions
which were imposed. Angria’s flag was immediately hauled down; and two
English captains taking possession of the fort with a detachment,
forthwith hoisted the British ensign. To these captains, whose names were
Buchanan and Forbes, the Mahrattas offered a bribe of fifty thousand
rupees, if they would allow them to pass their guards, that they might
take possession of the fort for themselves; but this offer was rejected
with disdain, and immediately disclosed to colonel Clive, who took
effectual measures to frustrate their design. In this place, which was
reduced with very inconsiderable loss, the conquerors found above two
hundred cannon, six brass mortars, a large quantity of ammunition, with
money and effects to the value of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds.
The fleet which was destroyed consisted of eight grabs, one ship finished,
two upon the stocks, and a good number of gallivats. Among the prisoners,
the admiral found Angria’s wife, children, and mother, toward whom he
demeaned himself with great humanity.*

* When the admiral entered their apartment, the whole
family, shedding floods of tears, fell with their faces to
the ground; from which being raised, the mother of Angria
told him, in a piteous tone, “the people had no king, she no
son, her daughter no husband, their children no father.” The
admiral replying, “they must look upon him as their father
and their friend,” the youngest boy, about six years of age,
seized him by the hand, and sobbing exclaimed, “Then you
shall be my father.” Mr. Watson was so affected with this
pathetic address, that the tears trickled down his cheeks,
while he assured them they might depend upon his protection
and friendship.

Three hundred European soldiers, and as-many sepoys, were left to guard
the fort; and four of the company’s armed vessels remained in the harbour
for the defence of the place, which was extremely well situated for
commerce.

The admiral and Mr. Clive sailed back to Madras in triumph, and there
another plan was formed for restoring the company’s affairs upon the
Ganges, recovering Calcutta, and taking vengeance on the cruel viceroy of
Bengal. In October they set sail again for the bottom of the bay; and
about the beginning of December arrived at Balasore, in the kingdom of
Bengal. Having crossed the Braces, they proceeded up the river Ganges as
far as Falta, where they found governor Drake, and the other persons who
had escaped on board of the ships when Calcutta was invested. Colonel
Clive was disembarked with his forces to attack the fort of Busbudgia by
land, while the admiral battered it by sea; but the place being ill
provided with cannon, did not hold out above an hour after the firing
began. This conquest being achieved at a very easy purchase, two of the
great ships anchored between Tanny fort and a battery on the other side of
the river, which were abandoned before one shot was discharged against
either; thus the passage was laid open to Calcutta, the reduction of which
we shall record among the transactions of the ensuing year.

CHAPTER XII.

Motives of the War in Germany….. Conspiracy in Sweden…..
Measures taken by the King of Prussia and Elector of
Hanover….. Endeavours of the Court of Vienna to frustrate
them….. His Prussian Majesty demands an Explanation from
the Empress-Queen….. Her Answer….. The Prussian Army
enters Saxony, and publishes a Manifesto….. Prince
Ferdinand takes Leipsic….. King of Prussia takes
Possession of Dresden, and blocks up the King of Poland at
Pirna….. Prussian Army penetrates into Bohemia, and fights
the Battle of Lowoschutz….. Saxon Army surrenders…..
King of Poland’s Memorial to the States-General…..
Imperial Decrees published against the King of Prussia…..
Declarations of different Powers….. His Prussian Majesty’s
Answer to the Saxon Memorial….. and Justification of his
Conduct….. Remarks on both those Pieces…… Disputes
between the Parliament of Paris and the Clergy….. Dearth
of Corn in England….. Hanoverian Auxiliaries sent
back….. Session opened….. Debates on the Address…..
Bill passed for prohibiting the Exportation of Corn…..
Message to the House concerning Admiral Byng….. Supplies
granted….. Reflections on the Continental War……
Message from the King to the Parliament….. Measures taken
to remove the Scarcity of Corn….. Militia Bill…..
Petitions for and against it….. Altered by the Lords…..
Bill for quartering the Foreign Troops, and for regulating
the Marines while on Shore….. Bill for the more speedy
recruiting the Land-Forces and Marines….. Act relating to
Pawnbrokers and Gaming-Houses….. Laws relating to the
Wages of Weavers, and to the Improvement of the British
Fishery….. Act for importing American Iron Duty free…..
Regulations with respect to the Importation of Silk…..
Smugglers encouraged to enter into his Majesty’s
Service….. Inquiry into the Scarcity of Corn…..
Investigation of the Loss of Minorca….. Examination of the
American Contract….. Inquiry into the Conduct of Admiral
Snowies, as Governor of Jamaica….. Resolutions concerning
Milford-Haven….. Session closed….. Trial of Admiral
Byng….. Recommended to Mercy….. Message from the King to
the Parliament respecting the Sentence….. Bill to release
the Members of the Court-Martial from their Oath of
Secrecy….. Execution of Admiral Byng….. Paper delivered
by him to the Marshal of the Admiralty….. Remarks on his
Fate

MOTIVES OF THE WAR IN GERMANY.

Having thus, to the best of our power, given a faithful and exact detail
of every material event in which Great Britain was concerned, either at
home, or in her settlements abroad, during the greatest part of the year
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, we shall now return to Europe,
and endeavour to explain the beginning of a bloody war in Germany, which
then seemed to have become the chief object of the British councils. On
the eve of a rupture between France and England, it was natural for his
Britannic majesty to provide for the safety of his electoral dominions,
the only quarter by which he was at all accessible to the efforts of the
enemy, who he foresaw would not fail to annoy him through that avenue. He,
at that time, stood upon indifferent terms with the king of Prussia, who
was considered as a partisan and ally of France; and he knew that the
house of Austria alone would not be sufficient to support him against two
such powerful antagonists. In this emergency, he had recourse to the
empress of Russia, who, in consequence of a large subsidy granted by
England, engaged to furnish a strong body of forces for the defence of
Hanover. His Prussian majesty, startled at the conditions of this treaty,
took an opportunity to declare that he would not suffer foreign forces of
any nation to enter the empire, either as principals or auxiliaries; a
declaration which probably flowed from a jealousy and aversion he had
conceived to the court of Petersburgh, as well as from a resolution he had
formed of striking some great stroke in Germany, without any risk of being
restricted or controlled. He knew he should give umbrage to the French
king, who had already made preparations for penetrating into Westphalia;
but he took it for granted he should be able to exchange his connexions
with France for the alliance with Great Britain, which would be much less
troublesome, and much more productive of advantage: indeed, such an
alliance was the necessary consequence of his declaration. Had his
Britannic majesty made a requisition of the Russian auxiliaries, he must
have exposed himself to the resentment of a warlike monarch, who hovered
on the skirts of his electorate at the head of one hundred and forty
thousand men, and could have subdued the whole country in one week; and if
he forbore to avail himself of the treaty with the czarina, he did not
know how soon the king of Prussia might be reconciled to his most
christian majesty’s design of invasion. As for the empress-queen, her
attention was engrossed by schemes for her interest or preservation; and
her hands so full, that she either could not, or would not, fulfil the
engagements she had contracted with her former and firmest allies. In
these circumstances the king of England sought and obtained the alliance
of Prussia, which, to the best of our comprehension, entailed upon Great
Britain the enormous burden of extravagant subsidies, together with the
intolerable expense of a continental war, without being productive of one
advantage, either positive or negative, to England or Hanover. On the
contrary, this connexion threw the empress-queen into the arms of France,
whose friendship she bought at the expense of the barrier in the
Netherlands, acquired with infinite labour, by the blood and treasure of
the maritime powers; it gave birth to a confederacy of despotic princes;
sufficient, if their joint force was fully exerted, to overthrow the
liberties of all the free states in Europe; and, after all, Hanover has
been overrun, and subdued by the enemy; and the king of Prussia put to the
ban of the empire. All these consequences are, we apprehend, fairly
deducible from the resolution which his Prussian majesty took, at this
juncture, to precipitate a war with the house of Austria. The apparent
motives that prompted him to this measure we shall presently explain. In
the meantime, the defensive treaty between the empress-queen and France
was no sooner ratified, than the czarina was invited to accede to the
alliance, and a private minister sent from Paris to Petersburgh, to
negotiate the conditions of this accession, which the empress of Russia
accordingly embraced: a circumstance so agreeable to the court of
Versailles, that the marquis de l’Hôpital was immediately appointed
ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of Russia.
Applications were likewise made to the courts of Madrid and Turin,
soliciting their concurrence; but their catholic and Sardinian majesties
wisely resolved to observe a neutrality. At the same time, intrigues were
begun by the French emissaries in the senate of Sweden, in order to kindle
up a war between that nation and Prussia; and their endeavours succeeded
in the sequel, even contrary to the inclination of their sovereign. At
present, a plot was discovered for altering the form of government, by
increasing the power of the crown; and several persons of rank being
convicted upon trial, were beheaded as principals in this conspiracy.
Although it did not appear that the king or queen were at all concerned in
the scheme, his Swedish majesty thought himself so hardly treated by the
diet, that he threatened to resign his royalty, and retire into his own
hereditary dominions. This design was extremely disagreeable to the people
in general, who espoused his cause in opposition to the diet, by whom they
conceived themselves more oppressed than they should have been under an
unlimited monarchy.

MEASURES TAKEN BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA AND ELECTOR OF HANOVER.

The king of Prussia, alarmed at these formidable alliances, ordered all
his forces to be completed, and held in readiness to march at the first
notice; and a report was industriously circulated, that by a secret
article in the late treaty between France and the house of Austria, these
two powers had obliged themselves to destroy the protestant religion, and
overturn the freedom of the empire, by a forced election of a king of the
Romans. The cry of religion was no impolitic measure; but it no longer
produced the same effect as in times past. Religion was made a pretence on
both sides; for the partisans of the empress-queen insinuated, on all
occasions, that the ruin of the catholic faith in Germany was the
principal object of the new alliance between the kings of Great Britain
and Prussia. It was in consequence of such suggestions, that his Britannic
majesty ordered his electoral minister at the diet, to deliver a memorial
to all the ministers at Ratisbon, expressing his surprise to find the
treaty he had concluded with the king of Prussia industriously represented
as a ground of apprehension and umbrage, especially for religion. He
observed, that as France had made open dispositions for invading the
electorate of Hanover, and disturbing the peace of the empire; that as he
had been denied, by the empress-queen, the succours stipulated in treaties
of alliance; and as he was refused assistance by certain states of the
empire, who even seemed disposed to favour such a diversion: he had, in
order to provide for the security of his own dominions, to establish peace
and tranquillity in the empire, and maintain its system and privileges,
without any prejudice to religion, concluded a defensive treaty with the
king of Prussia; that, by this instance of patriotic zeal for the welfare
of Germany, he had done an essential service to the empress-queen, and
performed the part which the head of the empire, in dignity and duty,
ought to have acted; that time would demonstrate how little it was the
interest of the empress-queen to engage in a strict alliance with a
foreign power, which, for upwards of two centuries, had ravaged the
principal provinces of the empire, maintained repeated wars against the
archducal house of Austria, and always endeavoured, as it suited her
views, to excite distrust and dissension among the princes and states that
compose the Germanic body.

The court of Vienna formed two considerable armies in Bohemia and Moravia;
yet pretended that they had nothing in view but self-preservation, and
solemnly disclaimed both the secret article, and the design which had been
laid to their charge. His most christain majesty declared, by his minister
at Berlin, that he had no other intention but to maintain the public
tranquillity of Europe; and, this being the sole end of all his measures,
he beheld with surprise the preparations and armaments of certain
potentates; that, whatever might be the view with which they were made, he
was dis posed to make use of the power which God had put into his hands,
not only to maintain the public peace of Europe against all who should
attempt to disturb it, but also to employ all his forces, agreeably to his
engagements, for the assistance of his ally, in case her dominions should
be attacked; finally, that he would act in the same manner in behalf of
all the other powers with whom he was in alliance. This intimation made
very little impression upon the king of Prussia, who had already formed
his plan, and was determined to execute his purpose. What his original
plan might have been, we shall not pretend to disclose; nor do we believe
he imparted it to any confidant or ally. It must be confessed, however,
that the intrigues of the court of Vienna furnished him with a specious
pretence for drawing the sword, and commencing hostilities. The
empress-queen had some reason to be jealous of such a formidable
neighbour. She remembered his irruption into Bohemia, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-four, at a time when she thought that
country, and all her other dominions, secure from his invasion by the
treaty of Breslau, which she had in no particular contravened. She
caballed against him in different courts of Europe; she concluded a treaty
with the czarina, which, though seemingly defensive, implied an intention
of making conquests upon this monarch; she endeavoured to engage the king
of Poland, elector of Saxony, as a contracting power in this confederacy;
and, if he had not been afraid of a sudden visit from his neighbour of
Prussia, it cannot be supposed but he would have been pleased to
contribute to the humiliation of a prince, who had once before, without
the least provocation, driven him from his dominions, taken possession of
his capital, routed his troops, and obliged him to pay a million of
crowns, to indemnify him for the expense of this expedition; but he
carefully avoided taking such a step as might expose him to another
invasion, and even refused to accede to the treaty of Petersburgh, though
it was expressly defensive; the casus fæderus being, his Prussian
majesty’s attacking either of the contracting parties. It appears,
however, that count de Bruhl, prime minister and favourite of the king of
Poland, had, in conjunction with some of the Austrian ministers, carried
on certain scandalous intrigues, in order to embroil the king of Prussia
with the empress of Russia, between whom a misunderstanding had long
subsisted.

THE KING OF PRUSSIA DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION.

His Prussian majesty, perceiving the military preparations of the court of
Vienna, and having obtained intelligence of their secret negotiations with
different powers of Europe, ordered M. de Klingraafe, his minister at the
imperial court, to demand whether all those preparations of war, on the
frontiers of Silesia, were designed against him, and what were the
intentions of her imperial majesty? To this demand the empress replied,
that in the present juncture she had found it necessary to make armaments,
as well for her own defence as for that of her allies; but that they did
not tend to the prejudice of any person or state whatever. The king, far
from being satisfied with this general answer, sent fresh orders to
Klingraafe, to represent, that after the king had dissembled, as long as
he thought consistent with his safety and honour, the bad designs imputed
to the empress would not suffer him longer to disguise his sentiments:
that he was acquainted with the offensive projects which the two courts
had formed at Petersburgh; that he knew they had engaged to attack him
suddenly with an army of two hundred thousand men; a design which would
have been executed in the spring of the year, had not the Russian forces
wanted recruits, their fleet mariners, and Livonia a sufficient quantity
of corn for their support; that he constituted the empress arbiter of
peace or war: if she desired the former, he required a clear and formal
declaration, or positive assurance, that she had no intention to attack
him either this year or the next; but he should look upon an ambiguous
answer as a declaration of war; and he called heaven to witness, that the
empress alone would be guilty of the innocent blood that should be spilt,
and all the dismal consequences that would attend the commission of
hostilities.

A declaration of this nature might have provoked a less haughty court than
that of Vienna, and, indeed, seems to have been calculated on purpose to
exasperate the pride of her imperial majesty, whose answer he soon
received to this effect: that his majesty the king of Prussia had already
been employed, for some time, in all kinds of the most considerable
preparations of war, and the most disquieting with regard to the public
tranquillity, when he thought fit to demand explanations of her majesty,
touching the military dispositions that were making in her dominions;
dispositions on which she had not resolved till after the preparations of
his Prussian majesty had been made; that though her majesty might have
declined explaining herself on those subjects, which required no
explanation, she had been pleased to declare, with her own mouth, to M. de
Klingraafe, that the critical state of public affairs rendered the
measures she was taking absolutely necessary for her own safety, and that
of her allies; but that, in other respects, they tended to the prejudice
of no person whatsoever; that her imperial majesty had undoubtedly a right
to form what judgment she pleased on the circumstances of the times; and
likewise that it belonged to none but herself to estimate her own danger;
that her declaration was so clear, she never imagined it could be thought
otherwise; that being accustomed to receive, as well as to practise, the
decorums which sovereigns owe to each other, she could not hear without
astonishment and sensibility the contents of the memorial now presented by
M. de Klingraafe; so extraordinary, both in the matter and expressions,
that she would find herself under a necessity of transgressing the bounds
of that moderation which she had prescribed to herself, were she to answer
the whole of its contents; nevertheless, she thought proper to declare,
that the information communicated to his Prussian majesty, of an offensive
alliance against him, subsisting between herself and the empress of
Russia, together with the circumstances and pretended stipulations of that
alliance, were absolutely false and forged, for no such treaty did exist,
or ever had existed. She concluded with observing, that this declaration
would enable all Europe to judge of what weight and quality those dreadful
events were which Klingraafe’s memorial announced; and to perceive that,
in any case, they could not be imputed to her imperial majesty. This
answer, though seemingly explicit, was not deemed sufficiently
categorical, or, at least, not suitable to the purposes of the king of
Prussia, who, by his resident at Vienna, once more declared, that if the
empress-queen would sign a positive assurance that she would not attack
his Prussian majesty, either this year or the next, he would directly
withdraw his troops, and let things be restored to their former footing.
This demand was evaded, on pretence that such an assurance could not be
more binding than the solemn treaty by which he was already secured; a
treaty which the empress-queen had no intention to violate. But, before an
answer could be delivered, the king had actually invaded Saxony, and
published his declaration against the court of Vienna. The court of Vienna
believing that the king of Prussia was bent upon employing his arms
somewhere; being piqued at the dictatorial manner in which his demands
were conveyed; unwilling to lay themselves under further restrictions;
apprehensive of giving umbrage to their allies, and confident of having
provided for their own security, resolved to run the risk of his
resentment, not without hopes of being indemnified in the course of the
war, for that part, of Silesia which the queen had been obliged to cede it
in the treaty of Breslau.

THE PRUSSIAN ARMY ENTERS SAXONY.

Both sides being thus prepared, and perhaps equally eager for action, the
king of Prussia would no longer suspend his operations, and the storm fell
first upon Saxony. He resolved to penetrate through that country into
Bohemia; and even to take possession of it as a frontier, as well as for
the convenience of ingress and egress to and from the Austrian dominions.
Besides, he had reason to believe the king of Poland, elector of Saxony,
was connected with the czarina and the empress-queen; therefore, he
thought it would be impolitic to leave that prince in any condition to
give him the least disturbance. His army entered the Saxon territory
towards the latter end of August, when he published a declaration,
importing, that the unjust conduct and dangerous views of the court of
Vienna against his majesty’s dominions, laid him under the necessity of
taking proper measures for protecting his territories and subjects; that
for this purpose he could not forbear taking the disagreeable resolution
to enter with his troops the hereditary dominions of his majesty the king
of Poland, elector of Saxony; but he protested before God and man, that on
account of his personal esteem, and friendship for that prince, he would
not have proceeded to this extremity, had he not been forced to it by the
laws of war, the fatality of the present conjuncture, and the necessity of
providing for the defence and security of his subjects. He reminded the
public of the tenderness with which he had treated the elector of Saxony,
during the campaign of the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four,
and of the bad consequences resulting to that monarch from his engagements
with the enemies of Prussia. He declared that the apprehensions of being
exposed again to such enterprises, had obliged him to take those
precautions which prudence dictated; but he protested in the most solemn
manner, that he had no hostile views against his Polish majesty, or his
dominions; that his troops did not enter Saxony as enemies, and he had
taken care that they should observe the best order, and the most exact
discipline; that he desired nothing more ardently than the happy minute
that should procure him the satisfaction of restoring to his Polish
majesty his hereditary dominions, which he had seized only as a sacred
depositum. By his minister at Dresden, he had demanded a free passage for
his forces through the Saxon dominions; and this the king of Poland was
ready to grant, with reasonable limitations, to be settled by commissaries
appointed for that purpose. But these were formalities which did not at
all suit with his Prussian majesty’s disposition or design. Even before
this requisition was made, a body of his troops, amounting to fifteen
thousand, under the command of prince Ferdinand, brother to the duke of
Brunswick, took possession of Leipsic on the twentieth day of September.
Here he published a declaration, signifying that it was his Prussian
majesty’s intention to consider and defend the inhabitants of that
electorate as if they were his own subjects; and that he had given precise
orders to his troops to observe the most exact discipline. As the first
mark of his affection, he ordered them to provide the army with all sorts
of provisions, according to a certain rate, on pain of military execution.
That same evening notice was given to the corporation of merchants, that
their deputies should pay all taxes and customs to the king of Prussia;
then he took possession of the custom-house, and excise office, and
ordered the magazines of corn and meal to be opened for the use of his
soldiers.

The king of Poland, apprehensive of such a visitation, had ordered all the
troops of his electorate to leave their quarters, and assemble in a strong
camp marked out for them, between Pirna and Konigstein, which was
intrenched, and provided with a numerous train of artillery. Thither the
king of Poland repaired with his two sons Xaverius and Charles; but the
queen and the rest of the royal family remained at Dresden. Of this
capital his Prussian majesty, with the bulk of his army, took possession
on the eighth day of September, when he was visited by lord Stormont, the
English ambassador at that court, accompanied by count Salmour, a Saxon
minister, who, in his master’s name, proposed a neutrality. The king of
Prussia professed himself extremely well pleased with the proposal; and,
as the most convincing proof of his neutrality, desired the king of Poland
would separate his army, by ordering his troops to return to their former
quarters. His Polish majesty did not like to be so tutored in his own
dominions; he depended for his own safety more upon the valour and
attachment of his troops thus assembled, than upon the friendship of a
prince who had invaded his dominions, and sequestered his revenue, without
provocation; and he trusted too much to the situation of his camp at
Pirna, which was deemed impregnable. In the meantime, the king of Prussia
fixed his headquarters at Seidlitz, about half a German league distant
from Pirna, and posted his army in such a manner, as to be able to
intercept all convoys of provisions designed for the Saxon camp; his
forces extended on the right towards the frontiers of Bohemia, and the
vanguard actually seized the passes that lead to the circles of Satzer and
Leutmeritz, in that kingdom; while prince Ferdinand of Brunswick marched
with a body of troops along the Elbe, and took post at this last place
without opposition. At the same time, the king covered his own dominions,
by assembling two considerable bodies in Upper and Lower Silesia, which
occupied the passes that communicated with the circles of Buntzlau and
Koningsgratz. Hostilities were commenced on the thirteenth day of
September, by a detachment of Prussian hussars, who attacked an Austrian
escort to a convoy of provisions, designed for the Saxon camp; and having
routed them, carried off a considerable number of loaded waggons. The
magazines at Dresden were filled with an immense quantity of provisions
and forage for the Prussian army, and the bakers were ordered to prepare a
vast quantity of bread, for which purpose thirty new ovens were erected.
When the king of Prussia first arrived at Dresden, he lodged at the house
of the countess Moczinska, and gave orders that the queen and royal family
of Poland should be treated with all due veneration and respect: 387
[See note 3 C, at the end of this Vol.] even while the Saxon camp
was blocked up on every side, he sometimes permitted a waggon, loaded with
fresh provisions and game, to pass unmolested, for the use of his Polish
majesty.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PRUSSIANS PENETRATE INTO BOHEMIA.

During these transactions, the greatest part of the Prussian army advanced
into Bohemia, under the command of veldt-maresehal Keith,* who reduced the
town and palace of Tetchen, took possession of all the passes, and
encamped near Aussig, a small town in Bohemia, at no great distance from
the imperial army, amounting to fifty thousand men, commanded by count
Brown, an officer of Irish extract, who had often distinguished himself in
the field by his courage, vigilance, and conduct.

* Brother to the earl mareschal of Scotland, a gentleman who
had signalized himself as a general in the Russian army, and
was accounted one of the best officers of his time; not more
admired for his warlike genius, than amiable in his
disposition.

His Prussian majesty having left a considerable body of troops for the
blockade of Pirna, assumed in person the command of mareschal Keith’s
corps, and advanced to give battle to the enemy. On the twenty-ninth day
of September he formed his troops in two columns, and in the evening
arrived with his van at Welmina, from whence he saw the Austrian army
posted with his right at Lowoschutz, and its left towards the Egra. Having
occupied with six battalions a hollow way, and some rising grounds which
commanded the town of Lowoschutz, he remained all night under arms at
Welmina; and on the first day of October, early in the morning, formed his
whole army in order of battle; the first line, consisting of the infantry,
occupying two hills, and a bottom betwixt them; the second line being
formed of some battalions, and the third composed of the whole cavalry.
The Austrian general had taken possession of Lowoschutz, with a great body
of infantry, and placed a battery of cannon in front of the town; he had
formed his cavalry chequerwise, in a line between Lowoschutz and the
village of Sanschitz; and posted about two thousand Croats and irregulars
in the vineyards and avenues on his right. The morning was darkened with a
thick fog, which vanished about seven: then the Prussian cavalry advanced
to attack the enemy’s horse; but received such a fire from the irregulars,
posted in vineyards and ditches, as well as from a numerous artillery,
that they were obliged to retire for protection to the rear of the
Prussian infantry and cannon. There, being formed, and led back to the
charge, they made an impression on the Austrian cavalry, and drove the
irregulars, and other bodies of infantry, from the ditches, defiles, and
vineyards which they possessed; but they suffered so severely in this
dangerous service, that the king ordered them to reascend the hill, and
take post again behind the infantry, from whence they no more advanced. In
the meantime, a furious cannonading was maintained on both sides with
considerable effect. At length the left of the Prussian infantry was
ordered to attack the town of Lowoschutz in flank; but met with a very
warm reception, and in all likelihood would have miscarried, had not
veldt-mareschal Keith headed them in person: when he drew his sword, and
told them he would lead them on, he was given to understand that all their
powder and shot were exhausted: he turned immediately to them with a
cheerful countenance, said he was very glad they had no more ammunition,
being well assured the enemy could not withstand them at push of bayonet;
so saying, he advanced at their head, and driving the Austrians from
Lowoschutz, set the suburbs on fire. The infantry had been already obliged
to quit the eminence on the right; and now their whole army retired to
Budin, on the other side of the Egra. Some prisoners, colours, and pieces
of cannon, were taken on both sides; and the loss of each might amount to
two thousand five hundred killed and wounded; so that, on the whole, it
was a drawn battle, though both generals claimed the victory. The detail
of the action, published at Berlin, declares, that the king of Prussia not
only gained the battle, but that same day established his head quarters at
Lowoschutz; whereas the Austrian gazette affirms, that the mareschal count
Brown obliged his Prussian majesty to retire, and remained all night on
the field of battle; but next day, finding his troops in want of water, he
repaired to the camp of Budin. If the battle was at all decisive, the
advantage certainly fell to the Austrians; for his Prussian majesty, who
in all probability had hoped to winter at Prague, was obliged by the
opposition he met with, to resign his plan, and retreat before winter into
the electorate of Saxony.

SAXON ARMY SURRENDERS.

The Prussian army having rejoined that body which had been left to block
up the Saxons at Pirna, his Polish majesty and his troops were reduced to
such extremity of want, that it became indispensably necessary either to
attempt an escape, or surrender to the king of Prussia. The former part of
the alternative was chosen, and the plan concerted with count Brown, the
Austrian general, who, in order to facilitate the execution, advanced
privately with a body of troops to Lichtendorf, near Schandeau; but the
junction could not be effected. On the fourteenth day of October the
Saxons threw a bridge of boats over the Elbe, near Konigstein, to which
castle they removed all their artillery; then striking their tents in the
night, passed the river undiscovered by the enemy. They continued to
retreat with all possible expedition; but the roads were so bad, they made
little progress. Next day, when part of them had advanced about half way
up a hill opposite to Konigstein, and the rest were entangled in a narrow
plain, where there was no room to act, they perceived that the Prussians
were in possession of all the passes, and found themselves surrounded on
every side, fainting with hunger and fatigue, and destitute of every
convenience. In this deplorable condition they remained, when the king of
Poland, from the fortress of Konigstein, sent a letter to his general, the
veldt-mareschal count Rutow-ski, vesting him with full and discretionary
power to surrender, or take such other measures as he should judge most
conducive to the preservation of the officers and soldiers. 388
[See note 3 D, at the end of this Vol.] By this time count Brown
had retired to Budin, so that there was no choice left. A capitulation was
demanded; but, in effect, the whole Saxon army was obliged to surrender at
discretion; and the soldiers were afterwards, by compulsion, incorporated
with the troops of Prussia. The king of Poland being thus deprived of his
electoral dominions, his troops, arms, artillery, and ammunition, thought
it high time to provide for his own safety, and retired with all
expedition to Poland. His Prussian majesty cantoned his forces in the
neighbourhood of Seidlitz, and along the Elbe towards Dresden. His other
army, which had entered Bohemia, under the command of the count de
Ichwerin, retired to the confines of the county of Glatz, where they were
distributed in quarters of cantonment; so that this short campaign was
finished by the beginning of November.

KING OF POLAND’S MEMORIAL TO THE STATES-GENERAL.

The king of Poland, in his distress, did not fail to implore the
assistance and mediation of neutral powers. His minister at the Hague
presented a memorial to the states-general, complaining that the invasion
of Saxony was one of those attacks against the law of nations, which from
the great respect due to this law, demanded the assistance of every power
interested in the preservation of its own liberty and independency. He
observed, that from the first glimpse of misunderstanding between the
courts of Vienna and Berlin, he had expressly enjoined his ministers at
all the courts of Europe to declare, that it was his firm resolution, in
the present conjuncture of affairs, to observe the strictest neutrality.
He represented that a free and neutral state had been, in the midst of
peace, invaded by an enemy, who disguised himself under the mask of
friendship, without alleging the least complaint, or any pretension
whatsoever; but founding himself solely on his own convenience, made
himself master, by armed force, of all the cities and towns of the
electorate, dismantling some and fortifying others; that he had disarmed
the burghers; carried off the magistrates as hostages for the payment of
unjust and enormous contributions of provisions and forage; seized the
coffers; confiscated the revenues of the electorate; broke open the
arsenals, and transported the arms and artillery to his own town of
Magdeburgh; abolished the privy-council, and, instead of the lawful
government, established a directory, which acknowledged no other law but
his own arbitrary will. He gave them to understand, that all these
proceedings were no other than preliminaries to the unheard of treatment
which was reserved for a queen, whose virtues ought to have commanded
respect, even from her enemies; that, from the hands of that august
princess, the archives of the state were forced away by menaces and
violences, notwithstanding the security which her majesty had promised
herself under the protection of all laws, human and divine; and
notwithstanding the repeated assurances given by the king of Prussia, that
not only her person, but the place of her residence, should be absolutely
safe, and that even the Prussian garrison should be under her direction.
He observed, that a prince who declared himself protector of the
protestant religion, had begun the war by crushing the very state to which
that religion owes its establishment, and the preservation of its most
invaluable rights; that he had broken through the most respectable laws
which constitute the union of the Germanic body, under colour of a defence
which the empire stood in no need of except against himself; that the king
of Prussia, while he insists on having entered Saxony as a friend, demands
his army, the administration of his dominions, and, in a word, the
sacrifice of his whole electorate; and that the Prussian directory, in the
declaration of motives, published under the nose of a prince to whom
friendship was pretended, thought it superfluous to allege even any
pretext, to colour the usurpation of his territories and revenues.—Though
this was certainly the case, in his Prussian majesty’s first exposition of
motives, the omission was afterwards supplied, in a subsequent memorial to
the states-general; in which he charged the king of Poland as an
accomplice in, if not an accessary to, the treaty of Petersburgh; and even
taxed him with having agreed to a partition of some Prussian territories,
when they should be conquered. This treaty of partition, however, appears
to have been made in time of actual war, before all cause of dispute was
removed by the peace of Dresden.

IMPERIAL DECREES PUBLISHED AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

While the Austrian and Prussian armies were in the field, their respective
ministers were not idle at Ratisbon, where three imperial decrees were
published against his Prussian majesty; the first, summoning that prince
to withdraw his troops from the electorate of Saxony; the second,
commanding all the vassals of the empire employed by the king of Prussia
to quit that service immediately; and the third, forbidding the members of
the empire to suffer any levies of soldiers, for the Prussian service, to
be raised within their respective jurisdictions. The French minister
declared to the diet, that the proceedings of his Prussian majesty having
disclosed to the world the project concerted between that prince and tie
king of England, to excite in the empire a religious war which might be
favourable to their particular views, his most christian majesty, in
consequence of his engagement with the empress-queen, and many other
princes of the empire, being resolved to succour them in the most
efficacious manner, would forthwith send such a number of troops to their
aid, as might be thought necessary to preserve the liberty of the Germanic
body. On the other hand, the Prussian minister assured the diet, that his
master would very soon produce the proofs that were come to his hands of
the plan concerted by the courts of Vienna and Dresden, for the subversion
of his electoral house, and for imposing upon him a yoke, which seemed to
threaten the whole empire.

DECLARATION OF DIFFERENT POWERS.

About the same time, the Russian resident at the Hague communicated to the
states-general a declaration from his mistress, importing, that her
imperial majesty having seen a memorial presented at the court of Vienna
by the king of Prussia’s envoy extraordinary, was thereby convinced that
his Prussian majesty’s intention was to attack the territories of the
empress-queen; in which case, she, the czarina, was inevitably obliged to
succour her ally with all her forces; for which end she had ordered all
her troops in Livonia to be forthwith assembled on the frontiers, and hold
themselves in readiness to march; that, moreover, the Russian admiralty
had been enjoined to provide immediately a sufficient number of galleys
for transporting a large body of troops to Lubeck. The ministers of the
empress-queen, both at the Hague and at London, delivered memorials to the
states-general and his Britannic majesty, demanding the succours which
these two powers were bound to afford the house of Austria by the treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle; but their high mightinesses kept warily aloof, by dint
of evasion, and the king of Great Britain was far otherwise engaged. The
invasion of Saxony had well nigh produced tragedies in the royal family of
France. The dauphiness, who was far advanced in her pregnancy, no sooner
learned the distressful circumstances of her parents, the king and queen
of Poland, than she was seized with violent fits, which occasioned a
miscarriage, and brought her life into the most imminent danger. The
Prussian minister was immediately ordered to quit Versailles; and
directions were despatched to the French minister at Berlin, to retire
from that court without taking leave. Finally, the emperor of Germany
concluded a new convention with the French king, regulating the succours
to be derived from that quarter; he claimed, in all the usual forms, the
assistance of the Germanic body, as guarantee of the pragmatic sanction
and treaty of Dresden; and Sweden was also addressed on the same subject.

HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY’S ANSWER TO THE SAXON MEMORIAL.

The king of Prussia did not passively bear all the imputations that were
fixed upon his conduct. His minister at the Hague presented a memorial, in
answer to that of the Saxon resident, in which he accused the court of
Dresden of having adopted every part of the scheme which his enemies had
formed for his destruction. He affirmed that the Saxon ministers had, in
all the courts of Europe, played off every engine of unwarrantable
politics, in order to pave the way for the execution of their project;
that they had endeavoured to give an odious turn to his most innocent
actions; that they had spared neither malicious insinuations, nor even the
most atrocious calumnies, to alienate all the world from his majesty, and
raise up enemies against him everywhere. He said, he had received
information that the court of Saxony intended to let his troops pass
freely, and afterwards wait for events of which they might avail
themselves, either by joining his enemies, or making a diversion in his
dominions; that in such a situation he could not avoid having recourse to
the only means which were left him for preventing his inevitable ruin, by
putting it out of the power of Saxony to increase the number of his
enemies. He asserted, that all the measures he had pursued in that
electorate were but the Accessary consequences of the first resolution he
was forced to take for his own preservation; that he had done nothing but
deprived the court of Saxony of the means of hurting him; and this had
been done with all possible moderation; that the country enjoyed all the
security and all the quiet which could be expected in the very midst of
peace, the Prussian troops observing the most exact discipline; that all
due respect was shown to the queen of Poland, who had been prevailed upon,
by the most suitable representations, to suffer some papers to be taken
from the paper office, of which his Prussian majesty already had copies;
and thought it necessary, to ascertain the dangerous design of the Saxon
ministry against him, to secure the originals; the existence and reality
of which might otherwise have been denied. He observed, that every man has
a right to prevent the mischief with which he is threatened, and to retort
it upon its author; and that neither the constitutions nor the laws of the
empire could obstruct the exertion of a right so superior to all others as
that of self-preservation and self-defence; especially when the depository
of these laws is so closely united to the enemy, as manifestly to abuse
his power in her favour.

But the most important step which his Prussian majesty took in his own
justification, was that of publishing another memorial, specifying the
conduct of the courts of Vienna and Saxony, and their dangerous designs
against his person and interest, together with the original documents
adduced as proofs of these sinister intentions. As a knowledge of these
pieces is requisite to form a distinct idea of the motives which produced
the dreadful war upon the continent, it will not be amiss to usher the
substance of them to the reader’s acquaintance. His Prussian majesty
affirms, that to arrive at the source of the vast plan upon which the
courts of Vienna and Saxony had been employed against him ever since the
peace of Dresden, we must trace it as far back as the war which preceded
this peace; that the fond hopes which the two allied courts had conceived
upon the success of the campaign in the year one thousand seven hundred
and forty-four, gave occasion to a treaty of eventual partition,
stipulating that the court of Vienna should possess the duchy of Silesia
and the county of Glatz; while the king of Poland, elector of Saxony,
should share the duchies of Magdeburgh and Croissen; the circles of
Zullichow and Swibus, together with the Prussian part of Lusatia; that
after the peace of Dresden, concluded in the year one thousand seven
hundred and forty-five, there was no further room for a treaty of this
nature; yet the court of Vienna proposed to that of Saxony a new alliance,
in which the treaty of eventual partition should be renewed; but this last
thought it necessary, in the first place, to give a greater consistency to
their plan, by grounding it upon an alliance between the empress-queen and
the czarina. Accordingly, these two powers did, in fact, conclude a
defensive alliance at Petersburgh in the course of the ensuing year; but
the body, or ostensible part of this treaty, was composed merely with a
view to conceal from the knowledge of the public six secret articles, the
fourth of which was levelled singly against Prussia, according to the
exact copy of it which appeared among the documents. In this article, the
empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia sets out with a protestation, that
she will religiously observe the treaty of Dresden; but explains her real
way of thinking upon the subject, a little lower, in the following terms:
“If the king of Prussia should be the first to depart from this peace, by
attacking either her majesty the empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia, or
her majesty the empress of Russia, or even the republic of Poland; in all
these cases, the rights of the empress-queen to Silesia and the county of
Glatz would again take place, and recover their full effect; the two
contracting parties should mutually assist each other with sixty thousand
men to achieve these conquests.” The king observes upon this article, that
every war which can arise between him and Russia, or the republic of
Poland, would be looked upon as a manifest infraction of the peace of
Dresden, and a revival of the rights of the house of Austria to Silesia;
though neither Russia nor the republic of Poland is at all concerned in
the treaty of Dresden; and though the latter, with which the king lived in
the most intimate friendship, was not even in alliance with the court of
Vienna; that, according to the principles of the law of nature, received
among all civilized nations, the most the court of Vienna could be
authorized to do in such cases, would be to send those succours to her
allies which are due to them by treaties, without her having the least
pretence on that account, to free herself from the particular engagements
subsisting between her and the king: he appealed, therefore, to the
judgment of the impartial world, whether in this secret article the
contracting powers had kept within the bounds of a defensive alliance; or
whether this article did not rather contain a plan of an offensive
alliance against the king of Prussia. He affirmed it was obvious, from
this article, that the court of Vienna had prepared three pretences for
the recovery of Silesia; and that she thought to attain her end, either by
provoking the king to commence hostilities against her, or to kindle a war
between his majesty and Russia, by her secret intrigues and machinations.
He alleged that the court of Saxony, being invited to accede to this
alliance, eagerly accepted the invitation; furnished its ministers at
Petersburgh with full powers for that purpose; and ordered them to declare
that their master was not only ready to accede to the treaty itself, but
also to the secret article against Prussia; and to join in the regulations
made by the two courts, provided effectual measures should be taken, as
well for the security of Saxony, as for its indemnification and
recompence, in proportion to the efforts and progress that might be made;
that the court of Dresden declared, if upon any fresh attack from the king
of Prussia, the empress-queen should, by their assistance, not only
reconquer Silesia and the county of Gratz, but also reduce him within
narrow bounds, the king of Poland, as elector of Saxony, would abide by
the partition formerly stipulated between him and the empress-queen. He
also declared that count Loss, the Saxon minister at Vienna, was charged
to open a private negotiation for Settling an eventual partition of the
conquest which might be made on Prussia, by laying down, as the basis of
it, the treaty of Leipsic, signed on the eighteenth day of May, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, as would appear by the
documents affixed. He owned it had been supposed, through the whole of
this negotiation, that the king of Prussia should be the aggressor against
the court of Vienna; but he insisted, that even in this case the king of
Poland could have no right to make conquests on his Prussian majesty. He
likewise acknowledged, that the court of Saxony had not yet acceded in
form to the treaty of Petersburgh; but he observed, its allies were given
to understand again and again, that it was ready to accede without
restriction, whenever this could be done without risk; and the advantages
to be gained should be secured in its favour. Circumstances proved by
divers authentic documents, particularly by a letter from count Fleming to
count de Bruhl, informing him that count Uhlefield had charged him to
represent afresh to his court, that they could not take too secure
measures against the ambitious views of the king of Prussia; that Saxony
in particular ought to be cautious, as being the most exposed; that it was
of the highest importance to strengthen their old engagements, upon the
footing proposed by the late count de Harrach, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and forty-five; a step which might be taken on occasion of
his Polish majesty’s accession to the treaty of Petersburgh. The answer of
count Bruhl to this despatch imported, that the king of Poland was not
averse to treat in the utmost secrecy with the court of Vienna about
succours, by private and confidential declarations relating to the fourth
secret article of the treaty of Petersburgh, on condition of reasonable
terms and advantages, which in this case ought to be granted to his
majesty. He quoted other despatches to prove the unwillingness of his
Polish majesty to declare himself until the king of Prussia should be
attacked, and his forces divided; and that this scruple was admitted by
the allies of Saxony. From these premises he deduced this inference, that
the court of Dresden, without having acceded in form to the treaty of
Petersburgh, was not less an accomplice in the dangerous designs which the
court of Vienna had grounded upon this treaty; and that having been
dispensed with from a formal concurrence, it had only waited for that
moment when it might, without running any great risk, conquer in effect,
and share the spoils of its neighbour. In expectation of this period, he
said, the Austrian and Saxon ministers laboured in concert and underhand
with the more ardour to bring the casus fæderus into existence; for
it being laid down as a principle in the treaty, that any war whatever
between him and Russia would authorise the empress-queen to take Silesia,
there was nothing more to be done but to kindle such a war; for which
purpose no method was found more proper than that of embroiling the king
with the empress of Russia; and to provoke that princess with all sorts of
false insinuations, impostures, and the most atrocious calumnies, in
laying to his majesty’s charge a variety of designs, sometimes against
Russia, and even the person of the czarina; sometimes views upon Poland,
and sometimes intrigues in Sweden. By these and other such contrivances,
he affirmed they had kindled the animosity of the empress to such a
degree, that in a council held in the month of October, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, she had resolved to attack the
king of Prussia, without any further discussion, whether he should fall
upon any of the allies of Russia, or one of them should begin with him; a
resolution which for that time was frustrated by their want of seamen and
magazines; but the preparations were continued under pretence of keeping
themselves in a condition to fulfil their engagements, contracted in the
last subsidiary convention with England; and when all were finished, the
storm would fall on the king of Prussia.

This is the substance of that famous memorial published by his Prussian
majesty, to which the justifying pieces or authentic documents were
annexed; and to which a circumstantial answer was exhibited by the
partisans of her imperial majesty. Specious reasons may, doubtless, be
adduced on either side of almost any dispute, by writers of ingenuity;
but, in examining this contest, it must be allowed that both sides adopted
illicit practices. The empress-queen and the elector of Saxony had
certainly a right to form defensive treaties for their own preservation;
and without all doubt, it was their interest and their duty to secure
themselves from the enterprises of such a formidable neighbour; but at the
same time, the contracting parties seem to have carried their views much
farther than defensive measures. Perhaps the court of Vienna considered
the cession of Silesia as a circumstance altogether compulsive, and
therefore not binding against the rights of natural equity. She did not at
all doubt that the king of Prussia would be tempted by his ambition and
great warlike power, to take some step which might be justly interpreted
into an infraction of the treaty of Dresden; and in that case she was
determined to avail herself of the confederacy she had formed, that she
might retrieve the countries she had lost by the unfortunate events of the
last war, as well as bridle the dangerous power and disposition of the
Prussian monarch; and in all probability the king of Poland, over and
above the same consideration, was desirous of some indemnification for the
last irruption into his electoral dominions, and the great sums he had
paid for the subsequent peace. Whether they were authorised by the law of
nature and nations to make reprisals by an actual partition of the
countries they might conquer, supposing him to be the aggressor, we shall
not pretend to determine; but it does not at all appear, that his Prussian
majesty’s danger was such as entitled him to take those violent steps
which he now attempted to justify. By this time the flame of war was
kindled up to a blaze that soon filled the empire with ruin and
desolation; and the king of Prussia had drawn upon himself the resentment
of the three greatest powers of Europe, who laid aside their former
animosities, and every consideration of that balance which it had cost
such blood and treasure to preserve, in order to conspire his destruction.
The king himself could not but foresee this confederacy, and know the
power it might exert; but probably he confided so much in the number, the
valour, and discipline of his troops; in the skill of his officers; in his
own conduct and activity; that he hoped to crush the house of Austria by
one rapid endeavour at the latter end of the season, or at least establish
himself in Bohemia, before her allies could move to her assistance. In
this hope, however, he was disappointed by the vigilance of the Austrian
councils. He found the empress-queen in a condition to make head against
him in every avenue to her dominions; and in a fair way of being assisted
by the circles of the empire. He saw himself threatened with the vengeance
of the Russian empress, and the sword of France gleaming over his head,
without any prospect of assistance but that which he might derive from his
alliance with Great Britain. Thus the king of England exchanged the
alliance of Russia, who was his subsidiary, and the friendship of the
empress queen, his old and natural ally, for a new connexion with his
Prussian majesty, who could neither act as an auxiliary to Great Britain,
nor as a protector to Hanover; and for this connexion, the advantage of
which was merely negative, such a price was paid by England as had never
been given by any other potentate of Europe, even for services of the
greatest importance.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DISPUTES BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENT OF PARIS AND THE CLERGY.

About the latter end of November, the Saxon minister at Ratisbon delivered
to the diet a new and ample memorial, explaining the lamentable state of
that electorate, and imploring afresh the assistance of the empire. The
king of Prussia had also addressed a letter to the diet, demanding succour
of the several states, agreeable to their guarantees of the treaties of
Westphalia and Dresden; but the minister of Mentz, as director of the
diet, having refused to lay it before that assembly, the minister of
Brandenburgh ordered it to be printed, and sent to his court for further
instructions. In the meantime his Prussian majesty thought proper to
intimate to the king and senate of Poland, that should the Russian troops
be permitted to march through that kingdom, they might expect to see their
country made a scene of war and desolation. In France, the prospect of a
general and sanguinary war did not at all allay the disturbance which
sprang from the dissension between the clergy and parliament, touching the
bull Unigenitus. The king being again brought over to the ecclesiastical
side of the dispute, received a brief from the pope, laying it down as a
fundamental article, that whosoever refuses to submit to the bull
Unigenitus, is in the way of damnation; and certain cases are specified,
in which the sacraments are to be denied. The parliament of Paris,
considering this brief or bull as a direct attack upon the rights of the
Gallican church, issued an arret or decree, suppressing the said
bull; reserving to themselves the right of providing against the
inconveniences with which it might be attended, as well as the privilege
to maintain in their full force the prerogatives of the crown, the power
and jurisdiction of the bishops, the liberties of the Gallican church, and
the customs of the realm. The king, dissatisfied with their interposition,
declared his design to hold a bed of justice in person at the palace.
Accordingly, on the twelfth day of November, the whole body of his guards,
amounting to ten thousand men, took post in the city of Paris; and next
day the king repaired with the usual ceremony to the palace, where the bed
of justice was held: among other regulations, an edict was issued for
suppressing the fourth and fifth chambers of inquests, the members of
which had remarkably distinguished themselves by their opposition to the
bull Unigenitus.

DEARTH OF CORN IN ENGLAND.

In England, the dearth of corn, arising in a great measure from the
iniquitous practice of engrossing, was so severely felt by the common
people, that insurrections were raised in Shropshire and Warwickshire by
the populace, in conjunction with the colliers, who seized by violence all
the provisions they could find; pillaging without distinction the millers,
farmers, grocers, and butchers, until they were dispersed by the gentlemen
of the country, at the head of their tenants and dependants. Disorders of
the same nature were excited by the colliers on the forest of Dean, and
those employed in the works in Cumberland. The corporations, noblemen, and
gentlemen, in different parts of the kingdom, exerted themselves for the
relief of the poor, who were greatly distressed; and a grand council being
assembled at St. James’ on the same subject, a proclamation was published,
for putting the laws in speedy and effectual execution against the
forestallers and engrossers of corn.

The fear of an invasion having now subsided, and Hanover being supposed in
greater danger than Great Britain, the auxiliaries of that electorate were
transported from England to their own country. At the latter end of the
season, when the weather became severe, the inn-keepers of England refused
to admit the Hessian soldiers into winter-quarters, as no provision had
been made for that purpose by act of parliament; so that they were obliged
to hut their camp, and remain in the open fields till January; but the
rigour of this uncomfortable situation was softened by the hand of
generous charity, which liberally supplied them with all manner of
refreshment, and other conveniences; a humane interposition, which rescued
the national character from the imputation of cruelty and ingratitude.

SESSION OPENED.

On the second day of December, his majesty opened the session of
parliament with a speech that seemed to be dictated by the genius of
England. He expressed his confidence, that, under the guidance of Divine
Providence, the union, fortitude, and affection of his people would enable
him to surmount all difficulties, and vindicate the dignity of his crown
against the ancient enemy of Great Britain. He declared, that the succour
and preservation of America constituted a main object of his attention and
solicitude; and observed, that the growing dangers to which the British
colonies might stand exposed, from late losses in that country, demanded
resolutions of vigour and despatch. He said, an adequate and firm defence
at home should maintain the chief place in his thoughts; and in this great
view he had nothing so much at heart as to remove all grounds of
dissatisfaction from his people; for this end, he recommended to the care
and diligence of the parliament the framing of a national militia, planned
and regulated with equal regard to the just rights of his crown and
people; an institution which might become one good resource in time of
general danger. He took notice that the unnatural union of councils
abroad, the calamities which, in consequence of this unhappy conjunction,
might, by irruptions of foreign armies into the empire, shake its
constitution, overturn its system, and threaten oppression to the
protestant interest on the continent, were events which must sensibly
affect the minds of the British nation, and had fixed the eyes of Europe
on this new and dangerous crisis. He gave them to understand that the body
of his electoral troops, which were brought hither at the desire of his
parliament, he had now directed to return to his dominions in Germany,
relying with pleasure on the spirit and zeal of his people, in defence of
his person and realm. He told the commons that he confided in their
wisdom, for preferring more vigorous efforts, though more expensive, to a
less effectual, and therefore less frugal plan of war; that he had placed
before them the dangers and necessities of the public; and it was their
duty to lay the burdens they should judge unavoidable in such a manner as
would least disturb and exhaust his people. He expressed his concern for
the sufferings of the poor, arising from the present dearth of corn, and
for the disturbances to which it had given rise; and exhorted his
parliament to consider of proper provisions for preventing the like
mischiefs hereafter. He concluded with remarking, that unprosperous events
of war in the Mediterranean, had drawn from his subjects signal proofs how
dearly they tendered the honour of his crown; therefore, they could not,
on his part, fail to meet with just returns of unwearied care, and
unceasing endeavours for the glory, prosperity, and happiness of his
people.

DEBATES ON THE ADDRESS.

The king having retired from the house of peers, the speech was read by
lord Sandys, appointed to act as speaker to that house; then earl Gower
moved for an address, which, however, was not carried without objection.
In one part of it his majesty was thanked for having caused a body of
electoral troops to come into England at the request of his parliament;
and this article was disagreeable to those who had disapproved of the
request in the last session. They said they wished to see the present
address unanimously agreed to by the lords; a satisfaction they could not
have, if such a paragraph should be inserted; for they still thought the
bringing over Hanoverian troops a preposterous measure; because it had not
only loaded the nation with an enormous expense, but also furnished the
court of France with a plausible pretence for invading the electorate,
which otherwise it would have no shadow of reason to attack; besides, the
expedient was held in reprobation by the subjects in general, and such a
paragraph might be considered as an insult on the people. Notwithstanding
these exceptions, which did not seem to be very important, the address,
including this paragraph, was approved by a great majority.

BILL PASSED FOr PROHIBITING THE EXPORTATION OF CORN.

In the address of the commons no such paragraph was inserted. As soon as
the speaker had recited his majesty’s speech, Mr. Charles Townshend
proposed the heads of an address, to which the house unanimously agreed;
and it was presented accordingly. This necessary form was no sooner
discussed, than the house, with a warmth of humanity and benevolence
suitable to such an assembly, resolved itself into a committee, to
deliberate on that part of his majesty’s speech which related to the
dearth of corn that so much distressed the poorer class of people. A bill
was immediately framed to prohibit, for a time limited, the exportation of
corn, malt, meal, flour, bread, biscuit, and starch; and a resolution
unanimously taken to address the sovereign, than an embargo might be
forthwith laid upon all ships laden or to be laden with these commodities,
to be exported from the ports of Great Britain and Ireland. At the same
time, vice-admiral Boscawen, from the board of admiralty, informed the
house, that the king and the board having been dissatisfied with the
conduct of admiral Byng, in a late action with the French fleet in the
Mediterranean, and for the appearance of his not having acted agreeably to
his instructions for the relief of Minorca, he was then in custody of the
marshal of the admiralty, in order to be tried by a court-martial; that
although this was no more than what was usual in like cases, yet as
admiral Byng was then a member of the house, and as his confinement might
detain him some time from his duty there, the board of admiralty thought
it a respect due to the house to inform them of the commitment and
detainer of the said admiral. This message being delivered, the journal of
the house in relation to rear-admiral Knowles 392 [See note 3 E, at
the end of this Vol] was read, and what Mr. Boscawen now communicated
was also inserted.

The committees of supply, and of ways and means, being appointed, took
into consideration the necessities of the state, and made very ample
provision for enabling his majesty to maintain the war with vigour.

1757

They granted fifty-five thousand men for the sea-service, including eleven
thousand four hundred and nineteen marines; and for the land-service,
forty-nine thousand seven hundred and forty-nine effective men,
comprehending four thousand and eight invalids. The supply was granted for
the maintenance of these forces, as well as for the troops of Hesse and
Hanover; for the ordnance; the levy of new regiments; for assisting his
majesty in forming and maintaining an army of observation, for the just
and necessary defence and preservation of his electoral dominions, and
those of his allies; and towards enabling him to fulfil his engagements
with the king of Prussia; for the security of the empire against the
irruption of foreign armies,* as well as for the support of the common
cause; for building and repairs of ships, hiring transports, payment of
half-pay officers, and the pensions of widows; for enabling his majesty to
discharge the like sum, raised in pursuance of an act passed in the last
session of parliament, and charged upon the first aids or supplies to be
granted in this session; for enabling the governors and guardians of the
hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young
children, to receive all such children, under a certain age, as should be
brought to the said hospital within the compass of one year;** for
maintaining and supporting the new settlement of Nova Scotia; for
repairing and finishing military roads; for making good his majesty’s
engagement with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; for the expense of
marching, recruiting, and remounting German troops in the pay of Great
Britain; for empowering his majesty to defray any extraordinary expenses
of the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the ensuing
year, and to take all such measures as might be necessary to disappoint or
defeat any enterprises or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of
affairs should require; for the payment of such persons, in such a manner
as his majesty should direct; for the use and relief of his subjects in
the several provinces of North and South Carolina and Virginia, in
recompence for such services as, with the approbation of his majesty’s
commander-in-chief in America, they respectively had performed, or should
perform, either by putting these provinces in a state of defence, or by
acting with vigour against the enemy; for enabling the East India company
to defray the expense of a military force in their settlements, to be
maintained in them, in lieu of a battalion of his majesty’s forces
withdrawn from those forts and factories; for the maintenance and support
of the forts on the coast of Africa; for widening the avenues, and
rendering more safe and commodious the streets and passages leading from
Charing Cross to the two houses of parliament, the court of justice, and
the new bridge at Westminster.***

* Nothing could more gloriously evince the generosity of a
British parliament, than this interposition for defending
the liberties of Germany, in conjunction with two electors
only, against the sense of the other seven, and in direct
opposition to the measures taken by the head of the empire,
who, in the sequel, stigmatized these two princes as rebels,
and treated one of them as an outlaw.

** This charity, established by voluntary contribution,
might, under proper restrictions, prove beneficial to the
commonwealth, by rescuing deserted children from misery and
death, and qualifying them for being serviceable members of
the community; but since the liberality of parliament hath
enabled the governors and corporation to receive all the
children that are presented, without question or limitation,
the yearly expense hath swelled into a national grievance,
and the humane purposes of the original institution are, in
a great measure, defeated. Instead of an asylum for poor
forlorn orphans and abandoned foundlings, it is become a
general receptacle for the offspring of the dissolute, who
care not to work for the maintenance of their families. The
hospital itself is a plain edifice, well contrived for
economy and convenience, standing on the north side of the
city, and a little detached from it, in an agreeable and
salubrious situation. The hall is adorned with some good
paintings, the chapel is elegant, and the regulations are
admirable.

*** The bridge at Westminster may be considered as a
national ornament. It was built at the public expense, from
the neighbourhood of Westminster Hall to the opposite side
of the river, and consists of thirteen arches, constructed
with equal elegance and simplicity.

Such were the articles under which we may specify the supplies of this
year, on the whole amounting to eight millions three hundred and fifty
thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds, nine shillings and three
pence. It must be acknowledged, for the honour of the administration, that
the house of commons could not have exhibited stronger marks of their
attachment to the crown and person of their sovereign, as well as of their
desire to see the force of the nation exerted with becoming spirit. The
sums granted by the committee of supply did not exceed eight millions
three hundred and fifty thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds,
nine shillings and three pence; the funds established amounted to eight
millions six hundred and eighty-nine thousand and fifty-one pounds,
nineteen shillings and seven-pence; so that there was an overplus of three
hundred and thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-six pounds, ten
shillings and four pence; an excess which was thought necessary, in case
the lottery, which was founded on a new plan, should not succeed.

REFLECTIONS ON THE CONTINENTAL WAR.

Some of these impositions were deemed grievous hardships by those upon
whom they immediately fell; and many friends of their country exclaimed
against the projected army of observation in Germany, as the commencement
of a ruinous continental war, which it was neither the interest of the
nation to undertake, nor in their power to maintain, without starving the
operations by sea, and in America, founded on British principles; without
contracting such an additional load of debts and taxes, as could not fail
to terminate in bankruptcy and distress. To those dependents of the
ministry, who observed that as Hanover was threatened by France for its
connexion with Great Britain, it ought, in common gratitude, to be
protected, they replied, that every state, in assisting any ally, ought to
have a regard to its own preservation: that, if the king of England
enjoyed by inheritance, or succession, a province in the heart of France,
it would be equally absurd and unjust, in case of a rupture with that
kingdom, to exhaust the treasures of Great Britain in the defence of such
a province; and yet the inhabitants of it would have the same right to
complain that they suffered for their connexion with England. They
observed, that other dominions, electorates, and principalities in
Germany, were secured by the constitutions of the empire, as well as by
fair and equal alliances with their co-estates; whereas Hanover stood
solitary, like a hunted deer avoided by the herd, and had no other shelter
but that of shrinking under the extended shield of Great Britain: that the
reluctance expressed by the German princes to undertake the defence of
these dominions, flowed from a firm persuasion, founded on experience,
that England would interpose as a principal, and not only draw her sword
against the enemies of the electorate, but concentrate her chief strength
in that object, and waste her treasures in purchasing their concurrence;
that exclusive of an ample revenue drained from the sweat of the people,
great part of which had been expended in continental efforts, the whole
national debt incurred, since the accession of the late king, had been
contracted in pursuance of measures totally foreign to the interest of
these kingdoms: that, since Hanover was the favourite object, England
would save money, and great quantities of British blood, by allowing
France to take possession of the electorate, paying its ransom at the
peace, and indemnifying the inhabitants for the damage they might sustain;
an expedient that would be productive of another good consequence, it
would rouse the German princes from their affected indifference, and
oblige them to exert themselves with vigour, in order to avoid the
detested neighbourhood of such an enterprising invader.

MESSAGES FROM THE KING TO THE PARLIAMENT.

The article of the supply relating to the army of observation, took rise
from a message signed by his majesty, and presented by Mr. Pitt, now
promoted to the office of principal secretary of state; a gentleman who
had, upon sundry occasions, combated the gigantic plan of continental
connexions with all the strength of reason, and all the powers of
eloquence. He now imparted to the house an intimation, importing, it was
always with reluctance that his majesty asked extraordinary supplies of
his people; but as the united councils, and formidable preparations of
France and her allies threatened Europe in general with the most alarming
consequence; and as these unjust and vindictive designs were particularly
and immediately bent against his majesty’s electoral dominions, and those
of his good ally the king of Prussia, his majesty confided in the
experienced zeal and affection of his faithful commons, that they would
cheerfully assist him in forming and maintaining an army of observation,
for the just and necessary defence and preservation of those territories,
and enable him to fulfil his engagements with his Prussian majesty, for
the security of the empire against the irruption of foreign armies, and
for the support of the common cause. Posterity will hardly believe, that
the emperor and all the princes of Germany were in a conspiracy against
their country, except the king of Prussia, the elector of Hanover, and the
landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; and they will, no doubt, be surprised, that
Great Britain, after all the treaties she had made, and the numberless
subsidies she had granted, should not have an ally left, except one
prince, so embarrassed in his own affairs, that he could grant lier no
succour, whatever assistance he might demand. The king’s message met with
as favourable a reception as he could have desired. It was read in the
house of commons, together with, a copy of the treaty between his majesty
and the king of Prussia, including the secret and separate article, and
the declaration signed on each side by the plenipotentiaries at
Westminster: the request was granted, and the convention approved. With
equal readiness did they gratify his majesty’s inclination, signified in
another message, delivered on the seventeenth day of May, by lord Bateman,
intimating, that in this critical juncture, emergencies might arise of the
utmost importance, and be attended with the most pernicious consequences,
if proper means should not be immediately applied to prevent or defeat
them; his majesty was, therefore, desirous that the house would enable him
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 enterprises or
designs of his enemies, as the exigency of affairs might require. The
committee of supply forthwith granted a very large sum for these purposes,
including the charge of German mercenaries. A like message being at the
same time communicated to the upper house, their lordships voted a very
loyal address upon the occasion; and when the article of supply, which it
produced among the commons, fell under their inspection, they unanimously
agreed to it, by way of a clause of appropriation.

MEASURES TAKEN TO REMOVE THE SCARCITY OF CORN.

We have already observed, that the first bill which the commons passed in
this session, was for the relief of the poor, by prohibiting the
exportation of corn; but this remedy not being judged adequate to the
evil, another bill was framed, removing, for a limited time, the duty then
payable upon foreign corn and flour imported; as also permitting, for a
certain time, all such foreign corn, grain, meal, bread, biscuit, and
flour, as had been or should be taken from the enemy, to be landed and
expended in the kingdom duty free. In order still more to reduce the high
price of corn, and to prevent any supply of provisions from being sent to
our enemies in America, a third bill was brought in, prohibiting, for a
time therein limited, the exportation of corn, grain, meal, malt, flour,
bread, biscuit, starch, beef, pork, bacon, or other victual, from any of
the British plantations, unless to Great Britain or Ireland, or from one
colony to another. To this act two clauses were added, for allowing those
necessaries, mentioned above, to be imported in foreign built ships, and
from any state in amity with his majesty, either into Great Britain or
Ireland; and for exporting from Southampton or Exeter to the Isle of Man,
for the use of the inhabitants, a quantity of wheat, barley, oats, meal,
or flour, not exceeding two thousand five hundred quarters. The commons
would have still improved their humanity, had they contrived and
established some effectual method to punish those unfeeling villains, who,
by engrossing and hoarding up great quantities of grain, had created this
artificial scarcity, and deprived their fellow-creatures of bread, with a
view to their own private advantage. Upon a subsequent report of the
committee, the house resolved, that, to prevent the high price of wheat
and bread, no spirits should be distilled from wheat for a limited time.
While the bill, formed on this resolution, was in embryo, a petition was
presented to the house by the brewers of London, Westminster, Southwark,
and parts adjacent, representing, that, when the resolution passed, the
price of malt, which was before too high, immediately rose to such a
degree, that the petitioners found themselves utterly incapable of
carrying on business at the price malt then bore, occasioned, as they
conceived, from an apprehension of the necessity the distillers would be
under to make use of the best pale malt, and substitute the best barley in
lieu of wheat: that, in such a case, the markets would not be able to
supply a sufficient quantity of barley for the demands of both
professions, besides other necesssary uses: they therefore prayed, that,
in regard to the public revenue, to which the trade of the petitioners so
largely contributed, proper measures might be taken for preventing the
public loss, and relieving their particular distress. The house would not
lend a deaf ear to a remonstrance in which the revenue was concerned. The
members appointed to prepare the bill, immediately received instructions
to make provision in it to restrain, for a limited time, the distilling of
barley, malt, and all grain whatsoever. The bill was framed accordingly,
but did not pass without strenuous opposition. To this prohibition it was
objected, that there are always large quantities of wheat and barley in
the kingdom so much damaged, as to be unfit for any use but the
distillery, consequently a restriction of this nature would ruin many
farmers, and others employed in the trade of malting. Particular
interests, however, must often be sacrificed to the welfare of the
community; and the present distress prevailed over the prospect of this
disadvantage. If they had allowed any sort of grain to be distilled, it
would have been impossible to prevent the distilling of every kind. The
prohibition was limited to two months; but at the expiration of that term,
the scarcity still continuing, it was protracted by a new bill to the
eleventh day of December, with a proviso, empowering his majesty to put an
end to it at any time after the eleventh day of May, if such a step should
be judged for the advantage of the kingdom.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MILITIA BILL.

The next bill that engaged the attention of the commons, was a measure of
the utmost national importance, though secretly disliked by many
individuals of the legislature, who, nevertheless, did not venture to avow
their disapprobation. The establishment of a militia was a very popular
and desirable object, but attended with numberless difficulties, and a
competition of interests which it was impossible to reconcile. It had
formerly been an inexhaustible source of contention between the crown and
the commons; but now both apparently concurred in rendering it serviceable
to the commonwealth, though some acquiesced in the scheme, who were not at
all hearty in its favour. On the fourth day of December, a motion was made
for the bill, by colonel George Townshend, eldest son of lord viscount
Townshend, a gentleman of courage, sense, and probity; endued with
penetration to discern, and honesty to pursue, the real interest of his
country, in defiance of power, in contempt of private advantages. Leave
being given to bring in a bill for the better ordering of the militia
forces in the several counties of England, the task of preparing it was
allotted to Mr. Townshend, and a considerable number of the most able
members in the house, comprehending his own brother, Mr. Charles
Townshend, whose genius shone with distinguished lustre: he was keen,
discerning, eloquent, and accurate; possessed a remarkable vivacity of
parts, with a surprising solidity of understanding; was a wit without
arrogance, a patriot without prejudice, and a courtier without dependance.

While the militia bill remained under consideration in the house, a
petition for a constitutional and well-regulated militia was presented by
the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of the king’s town and parish of
Maidstone, in Kent, in common-council assembled. At the same time
remonstrances were offered by the protestant dissenting ministers of the
three denominations in and about the cities of London and Westminster; by
the protestant dissenters of Shrewsbury; the dissenting ministers of
Devonshire; the protestant dissenters, being freeholders and burgesses of
the town and county of the town of Nottingham, joined with other
inhabitants of the church of England, expressing their apprehension, that,
in the bill then depending, it might be proposed to enact, that the said
militia should be exercised on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday, and
praying that no clause for such purpose might pass into a law. Though
nothing could be more ridiculously fanatic and impertinent than a
declaration of such a scruple against a practice so laudable and
necesssary, in a country where that day of the week is generally spent in
merry-making, riot, and debauchery, the house paid so much regard to the
squeamish consciences of those puritanical petitioners, that Monday was
pitched upon for the day of exercise to the militia, though on such
working days they might be much more profitably employed, both for
themselves and their country; and that no religious pretence should be
left for opposing the progress and execution of the bill, proper clauses
were inserted for the relief of the quakers. Another petition and
counter-petition were delivered by the magistrates, freeholders, and
burgesses of the town of Nottingham, in relation to their particular
franchises, which were accordingly considered in framing the bill.

After mature deliberation, and divers alterations, it passed the lower
house, and was sent to the lords for their concurrence: here it underwent
several amendments, one of which was the reduction of the number of
militia-men to one half of what the commons had proposed; namely, to
thirty-two thousand three hundred and forty men for the whole kingdom of
England and Wales. The amendments being canvassed in the lower house, met
with some opposition, and divers conferences with their lordships ensued;
at length, however, the two houses agreed to every article, and the bill
soon received the royal sanction. No provision, however, was made for
clothes, arms, accoutrements, and pay: had regulations been made for these
purposes, the act would have become a money-bill, in which the lords could
have made no amendment: in order, therefore, to prevent any difference
between the two houses, on a dispute of privileges not yet determined, and
that the house of peers might make what amendments they should think
expedient, the commons left the expense of the militia to be regulated in
a subsequent bill, during the following session, when they could, with
more certainty, compute what sum would be necessary for these purposes.
After all, the bill seemed to be crude, imperfect, and ineffectual, and
the promoters of it were well aware of its defects; but they were
apprehensive that it would have been dropped altogether, had they insisted
upon the scheme being executed in its full extent. They were eager to
seize this opportunity of trying an experiment, which might afterwards be
improved to a greater national advantage; and, therefore, they acquiesced
in many restrictions and alterations, which otherwise would not have been
adopted.

BILL FOR QUARTERING FOREIGN TROOPS, &c.

The next measure that fell under the consideration of the house, was
rendered necessary by the inhospitable perseverance of the publicans and
inn-holders, who conceived themselves not obliged by law to receive or
give quarters in their houses to any foreign troops, and accordingly
refused admittance to the Hessian auxiliaries, who began to be dreadfully
incommoded by the severity of the weather. This objection implying an
attack upon the prerogative, the government did not think fit, at this
juncture, to dispute any other way, than by procuring a new law in favour
of those foreigners. It was intituled, “A bill to make provision for
quartering the foreign troops now in this kingdom,” prepared by lord
Barrington, the chancellor of the exchequer, and the solicitor-general,
and immediately passed without opposition. This step being taken, another
bill was brought in, for the regulation of the marine forces while on
shore. This was almost a transcript of the mutiny act, with this material
difference: it empowered the admiralty to grant commissions for holding
general courts-martial, and to do every thing, and in the same manner, as
his majesty is empowered to do by the usual mutiny bill; consequently
every clause was adopted without question.

BILL FOR THE MORE SPEEDY RECRUITING THE LAND-FORCES AND MARINES, &c.

The same favourable reception was given to a bill for the more speedy and
effectual recruiting his majesty’s land-forces and marines; a law which
threw into the hands of many worthless magistrates an additional power of
oppressing their fellow-creatures: all justices of the peace,
commissioners of the land-tax, magistrates of corporations and boroughs,
were empowered to meet by direction of the secretary at war, communicated
in precepts issued by the high sheriffs, or their deputies, within their
respective divisions, and at their usual place of meeting, to qualify
themselves for the execution of the act: then they were required to
appoint the times and places for their succeeding meetings; to issue
precepts to the proper officers for these succeeding meetings; and to give
notice of the time and place of every meeting to such military officer,
as, by notice from the secretary at war, should be directed to attend that
service. The annual bill for preventing mutiny and desertion met with no
objections, and indeed contained nothing essentially different from that
which had passed in the last session. The next law enacted, was, for
further preventing embezzlement of goods and apparel, by those with whom
they are intrusted, and putting a stop to the practice of gaming in public
houses. By this bill a penalty was inflicted on pawnbrokers, in a summary
way, for receiving goods, knowing them not to be the property of the
pledger, and pawned without the authority of the owner. 395
[See note 3 F, at the end of this Vol.] With respect to gaming, the
act ordained that all publicans suffering journeymen, labourers, servants,
or apprentices, to game with cards, dice, shuffleboards, mississippi, or
billiard tables, skittles, nine-pins, &c. should forfeit forty
shillings for the first offence, and for every subsequent offence, ten
pounds shall be levied by distress.

Divers inconveniences having resulted from the interposition of justices,
who, in pursuance of an act of parliament passed in the present reign,
assumed the right of establishing rates for the payment of wages to
weavers, several petitions wore offered to the house of commons,
representing the evil consequences of such an establishment; and although
these arguments were answered and opposed in counter-petitions, the
commons, actuated by a laudable concern for the interest of the woolen
manufacture, after due deliberation, removed the grievance by a new bill,
repealing so much of the former act as empowered justices of peace to make
rates for the payment of wages. 396 [See note 3 G, at
the end of this Vol.] The commons were not more forward to provide
supplies for prosecuting the war with vigour, than ready to adopt new
regulations for the advantage of trade and manufactures. The society of
the free British fishery presented a petition, alleging, that they had
employed the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand three hundred and five
pounds, eight shillings and sixpence, together with the entire produce of
their fish, and all the monies arising from the several branches allowed
on the tonnage of their shipping, and on the exportation of their fish, in
carrying on the said fishery; and that, from their being obliged, in the
infancy of the undertaking, to incur a much larger expense than was at
that time foreseen, they now found themselves so far reduced in their
capital, as to be utterly incapable of further prosecuting the fisheries
with any hope of success, unless indulged with the further assistance of
parliament. They prayed, therefore, that, towards enabling them to carry
on the said fisheries, they might have liberty to make use of such nets as
they should find best adapted to the said fisheries; each buss,
nevertheless, carrying to sea the same quantity and depth of netting,
which, by the fishery acts, they were then bound to carry: that the bounty
of thirty shillings per ton, allowed by the said acts on the vessels
employed in the fishery, might be increased; and forasmuch as many of the
stock proprietors were unable to advance any further sum for prosecuting
this branch of commerce; and others unwilling in the present situation,
and under the present restraints, to risk any further sum in the
undertaking; that the stock of the society, by the said acts made
unalienable, except in case of death or bankruptcy, for a term of years,
might forthwith be made transferable; and that the petitioners might be at
liberty, between the intervals of the fishing seasons, to employ the
busses in such a manner as they should find for the advantage of the
society. While the committee was employed in deliberating on the
particulars of this remonstrance, another was delivered from the free
British fishery chamber of Whitehaven in Cumberland, representing, that as
the law then stood, they went to Shetland, and returned at a great expense
and loss of time; and while the war continued, durst not stay there to
fish, besides being obliged to run the most imminent risks, by going and
returning without convoy: that, ever since the institution of the present
fishery, experience had fully shown the fishery of Shetland not worth
following, as thereby the petitioners had lost two months of a much better
fishery in St. George’s channel, within one day’s sail of Whitehaven: they
took notice, that the free British fishery society had applied to the
house for further assistance and relief; and prayed that Campbelton, in
Argyleshire, might be appointed the place of rendezvous for the busses
belonging to Whitehaven, for the summer as well as the winter fishery,
that they might be enabled to fish with greater advantage. The committee
having considered the matter of both petitions, were of opinion that the
petitioners should be at liberty to use such nets as they should find best
adapted to the white herring fishery: that the bounty of thirty shillings
per ton should be augmented to fifty: that the petitioners should be
allowed, during the intervals of the fishing seasons, to employ their
vessels in any other lawful business, provided they should have been
employed in the herring fishery during the proper seasons: that they might
use such barrels for packing the fish as they then used, or might
hereafter find best adapted for that purpose: that they should have
liberty to make use of any waste or uncultivated land, one hundred yards
at the least above high water mark, for the purpose of drying their nets;
and that Campbelton would be the most proper and convenient place for the
rendezvous of the busses belonging to Whitehaven. This last resolution,
however, was not inserted in the bill which contained the other five, and
in a little time received the royal assent.

ACT FOR IMPORTING AMERICAN IRON DUTY FREE.

Such are the connexions, dependencies, and relations subsisting between
the mechanical arts, agriculture, and manufactures of Great Britain, that
it requires study, deliberation, and inquiry in the legislature to discern
and distinguish the whole scope and consequences of many projects offered
for the benefit of the commonwealth. The society of merchant adventurers
in the city of Bristol, alleged, in a petition to the house of commons,
that great quantities of bar-iron were imported into Great Britain from
Sweden, Russia, and other parts, chiefly purchased with ready money, some
of which iron was exported again to Africa and other places: and the rest
wrought up by the manufacturers. They affirmed that bar-iron, imported
from North America, would answer the same purposes; and the importation of
it tend not only to the great advantage of the kingdom, by increasing its
shipping and navigation, but also to the benefit of the British colonies:
that by an act passed in the twenty-third year of his present majesty’s
reign, the importation of bar-iron from America into the port of London,
duty free, was permitted; but being carried coastwise, or farther by land
than ten miles, had been prohibited; so that several very considerable
manufacturing towns were deprived of the use of American iron, and the
out-ports prevented from employing it in their export commerce: they
requested, therefore, that bar-iron might be imported from North America
into Great Britain, duty free, by all his majesty’s subjects. This request
being reinforced by many other petitions from different parts of the
kingdom, other classes of men, who thought their several interests would
be affected by such a measure, took the alarm; and, in divers
counter-petitions, specified many ill consequences which they alleged
would arise from its being enacted into a law. Pamphlets were published on
both sides of the question, and violent disputes were kindled upon this
subject, which was justly deemed a matter of national importance. The
opposers of the bill observed, that large quantities of iron were yearly
produced at home, and employed multitudes of poor people, there being no
less than one hundred and nine forges in England and Wales, besides those
erected in Scotland, the whole producing eighteen thousand tons of iron:
that as the mines in Great Britain are inexhaustible, the produce would of
late years have been considerably increased, had not the people been kept
under continual apprehension of seeing American iron admitted duty free: a
supposition which had prevented the traders from extending their works,
and discouraged many from engaging in this branch of traffic; they alleged
that the iron works, already carried on in England, occasioned a
consumption of one hundred and ninety-eight thousand cords of wood,
produced in coppices that grow upon barren lands, which could not
otherwise be turned to any good account: that as the coppices afford
shade, and preserve a moisture in the ground, the pasture is more valuable
with the wood, than it would be if the coppices were grubbed up;
consequently all the estates, where these now grow, would sink in their
yearly value; that these coppices, now cultivated and preserved for the
use of the iron works, are likewise absolutely necessary for the
manufacture of leather, as they furnish bark for the tanners, and that,
according to the management of these coppices, they produced a great
number of timber trees, so necessary for the purposes of building. They
asserted, that neither the American iron, nor any that had yet been found
in Great Britain, was so proper for converting into steel as that which
conies from Sweden, particularly that sort called ore ground; but as there
are mines in the northern parts of Britain, nearly in the same latitude
with those of Sweden, furnished with sufficient quantities of wood, and
rivers for mills and engines, it was hardly to be doubted but that people
would find metal of the same quality, and, in a few years, be able to
prevent the necessity of importing iron either from Sweden or Russia. They
inferred that American iron could never interfere with that which Great
Britain imported from Sweden, because it was not fit for edged-tools,
anchors, chain plates, and other particulars necessary in ship building;
nor diminish the importation of Russian iron, which was not only harder
than the American and British, but also could be afforded cheaper than
that brought from our own plantations, even though the duty of this last
should be removed. The importation of American iron, therefore, duty free,
could interfere with no other sort but that produced in Britain, with
which, by means of this advantage, it would clash so much, as to put a
stop in a little time to all the iron works now carried on in the kingdom,
and reduce to beggary a great number of families whom they support. To
these objections the favourers of the bill solicited replied, that when a
manufacture is much more valuable than the rough materials, and these
cannot be produced at home in sufficient quantities, and at such a price
as is consistent with the preservation of the manufacture, it is the
interest of the legislature, to admit a free importation of these
materials, even from foreign countries, although it should put an end to
the production of that material in this island: that as the neighbours of
Great Britain are now more attentive than ever to their commercial
interests, and endeavouring to manufacture their rough materials at home,
this nation must take every method for lowering the price of materials,
otherwise in a few years it will lose the manufacture; and, instead of
supplying other countries, be furnished by them with all the fine toys and
utensils made of steel and iron; that being in danger of losing not only
the manufacture but the produce of iron, unless it can be procured at a
cheaper rate than that for which it is sold at present, the only way of
attaining this end is by diminishing the duty payable upon the importation
of foreign iron, or by rendering it necessary for the undertakers of the
iron mines in Great Britain to sell their produce cheaper than it has been
for some years afforded; that the most effectual method for this purpose
is to raise up a rival, by permitting a free importation of all sorts of
iron from the American plantations; that American iron can never be sold
so cheap as that of Britain can be afforded; for, in the colonies, labour
of all kinds is much dearer than in England: if a man employs his own
slaves, he must reckon in his charge a great deal more than the common
interest of their purchase money, because, when one of them dies, or
escapes from his master, he losses both interest and principal; that the
common interest of money in the plantations is considerably higher than in
England, consequently no man in that country will employ his money in any
branch of trade by which he cannot gain considerably more per cent, than
is expected in Great Britain, where the interest is low, and profit
moderate; a circumstance which will always give a great advantage to the
British miner, who likewise enjoys an exemption from freight and
insurance, which lie heavy upon the American adventurer, especially in
time of war. With respect to the apprehension of the leather tanners, they
observed, that as the coppices generally grew on barren lands, not fit for
tillage, and improved the pasturage, no proprietor would be at the expense
of grubbing up the wood to spoil the pasture, as he could make no other
use of the land on which it was produced. This wood must be always worth
something, especially in counties where there is not plenty of coal, and
the timber trees would produce considerable advantage; therefore, if there
was not one iron mine in Great Britain, no coppice would be grubbed up,
unless it grew on a rich soil, which would produce corn instead of
cord-wood; consequently, the tanners have nothing to fear, especially as
planting hath become a prevailing taste among the landholders of the
island. The committee appointed to prepare the bill, seriously weighed and
canvassed these arguments, examined disputed facts, and inspected papers
and accounts relating to the produce, importation, and manufactory of
iron. At length Mr. John Pitt reported to the house their opinion,
implying that the liberty granted by an act passed in the twenty-third
year of his majesty’s reign, of importing bar-iron from the British
colonies in America into the port of London, should be extended to all the
other ports of Great Britain; and that so much of that act as related to
this clause should be repealed. The house having agreed to these
resolutions, and the bill being-brought in accordingly, another petition
was presented by several noblemen, gentlemen, freeholders, and other
proprietors, owners, and possessors of coppices and woodlands, in the West
Biding of Yorkshire, alleging, that a permission to import American
bar-iron, duty-free, would be attended with numberless ill consequences
both of a public and private nature; specifying certain hardships to which
they in particular would be exposed; and praying, that, if the bill should
pass, they might be relieved from the pressure of an act passed in the
reign of Henry VIII. obliging the owners of coppice woods to preserve
them, under severe penalties; and be permitted to fell and grub up their
coppice woods, in order to a more proper cultivation of the soil, without
being restrained by the fear of malicious and interested prosecutions. In
consequence of this remonstrance, a clause was added to the bill,
repealing so much of the act of Henry VIII. as prohibited the conversion
of coppice or under-woods into pasture or tillage; then it passed through
both houses, and received the royal sanction. As there was not time, after
this affair came upon the carpet, to obtain any new accounts from America,
and as it was thought necessary to know the quantities of iron made in
that country, the house presented an address to his majesty, desiring he
would be pleased to give directions that there should be laid before them,
in the next session of parliament, an account of the quantity of iron made
in the American colonies, from Christmas, in the year one thousand seven
hundred and forty-nine, to the fifth day of January, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, each year being distinguished.

REGULATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPORTATION OF SILK.

From this important object, the parliament converted its attention to a
regulation of a much more private nature. In consequence of a petition by
the lord-mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London, a bill was
brought in, and passed into a law without opposition, for the more
effectual preservation and improvement of the fry and spawn of fish in the
river Thames, and waters of Medway, and for the better regulating the
fishery in those rivers. The two next measures taken for the benefit of
the public were, first, a bill to render more effectual the several laws
then in being, for the amendment and preservation of the highways and
turnpike-roads of the kingdom; the other for the more effectually
preventing the spreading of the contagious distemper which, at that time,
raged among the horned cattle. A third arose from the distress of poor
silk manufacturers, who were destitute of employment, and deprived of all
means of subsisting, through the interruption of the Levant trade;
occasioned by the war, and the delay of the merchant ships from Italy. In
order to remedy this inconvenience, a bill was prepared, enacting, that
any person might import from any place, in any ship or vessel whatsoever,
till the first day of December, one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-seven, organzine thrown silk of the growth or production of Italy,
to be brought to the custom-house of London, wheresoever landed; but that
no Italian thrown silk, coarser than Bologna, nor any tram of the growth
of Italy, nor any other thrown silk of the growth or production of Turkey,
Persia, East Indies, or China, should be imported by this act, under the
penalty of the forfeiture thereof. Notwithstanding several petitions,
presented by the merchants, owners, and commanders of ships, and others
trading to Leghorn, and other ports of Italy, as well as by the importers
and manufacturers of raw silks, representing the evil consequences that
would probably attend the passing of such a bill, the parliament agreed to
this temporary deviation from the famous act of navigation, for a present
supply to the poor manufacturers.

The next civil regulation established in this session of parliament was in
itself judicious, and, had it been more earnestly suggested, might have
been more beneficial to the public. In order to discourage the practice of
smuggling, and prevent the desperadoes concerned therein from enlisting in
the service of the enemy, a law was passed, enacting, that every person
who had been, before the first of May in the present year, guilty of
illegally running, concealing, receiving, or carrying any wool, or
prohibited goods, or any foreign commodities liable to duties, the same
not having been paid or secured; or of aiding therein, or had been found
with fire-arms or weapons, in order to be aiding to such offenders; or had
been guilty of receiving such goods after seizure; or of any act
whatsoever, whereby persons might be deemed runners of foreign goods; or
of hindering, wounding, or beating any officer in the execution of his
duty, or assisting therein,—should be indemnified from all such
offences, concerning which no suit should then have been commenced, or
composition made, on condition that he should, before being apprehended or
prosecuted, and before the first day of December, enter himself with some
commissioned officer of his majesty’s fleet, to serve as a common sailor;
and should, for three years from such entry, unless sooner duly
discharged, actually serve and do duty in that station, and register his
name, &c, with the clerk of the peace of the county where he resided,
as the act prescribes. An attempt was made in favour of the seamen
employed in the navy, who had been very irregularly paid, and subject to
grievous hardships in consequence of this irregularity. Mr. Grenville,
brother to earl Temple, moved for leave to bring in a bill for the
encouragement of seamen employed in his majesty’s navy, and for
establishing a regular method for the punctual, speedy, and certain
payment of their wages, as well as for rescuing them from the arts and
frauds of imposition. The proposal was corroborated by divers petitions:
the bill was prepared, read, printed, and, after it had undergone some
amendment, passed into the house of lords, where it was encountered with
several objections, and dropped for this session of parliament.

INQUIRY INTO THE SCARCITY OF CORN.

The house of commons being desirous of preventing, for the future, such
distresses as the poor had lately undergone, appointed a committee to
consider of proper provisions to restrain the price of corn and bread
within due bounds for the future. For this purpose they were empowered to
send for persons, papers, and records; and it was resolved, that all who
attended the committee should have voices. Having inquired into the causes
of the late scarcity, they agreed to several resolutions, and a bill was
brought in to explain and amend the laws against regraters, forestalled,
and engrossers of corn. The committee also received instructions to
inquire into the abuses of millers, mealmen, and bakers, with regard to
bread, and to consider of proper methods to prevent them in the sequel;
but no further progress was made in this important affair, which was the
more interesting, as the lives of individuals, in a great measure,
depended upon a speedy reformation; for the millers and bakers were said
to have adulterated their flour with common whiting, lime, bone ashes,
alum, and other ingredients pernicious to the human constitution; a
consummation of villany for which no adequate punishment could be
inflicted. Among the measures proposed in parliament which did not
succeed, one of the most remarkable was a bill prepared by Mr. Rose
Fuller, Mr. Charles Townshend, and Mr. Banks, to explain, amend, and
render more effectual a law passed in the reign of king William the Third,
intituled,

“An act to punish governors of plantations, in this kingdom, for crimes
committed by them in the plantation.” This bill was proposed in
consequence of some complaints, specifying acts of cruelty, folly, and
oppression, by which some British governors had been lately distinguished;
but, before the bill could be brought in, the parliament was prorogued.

INVESTIGATION OF THE LOSS OF MINORCA.

But no step taken by the house of commons, in the course of this session,
was more interesting to the body of the people than the inquiry into the
loss of Minorca, which had excited such loud and universal clamour. By
addresses to the king, unanimously voted, the commons requested that his
majesty would give directions for laying before them copies of all the
letters and papers containing any intelligence received by the secretaries
of state, the commissioners of the admiralty, or any others of his
majesty’s ministers, in relation to the equipment of the French fleet at
Toulon, or the designs of the French on Minorca, or any other of his
majesty’s possessions in Europe, since the first day of January, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five, to the first day of
August, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six. They likewise desired to
peruse a list of the ships of war that were equipped and made ready for
sea, from the first of August, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-five, to the thirtieth day of April in the following year; with the
copies of all sailing orders sent to the commanders during that period; as
also the state and condition of his majesty’s ships in the several ports
of Great Britain at the time of admiral Byng’s departure, with the
squadron under his command, for the relief of fort St. Philip, during the
period of time above-mentioned, according to the monthly returns made by
the admiralty, with the number of seamen mustered and borne aboard the
respective ships. They demanded copies of all orders and instructions
given to that admiral, and of letters written to and received from him,
during his continuance in that command, either by the secretaries of
state, or lords of the admiralty, relating to the condition of his
squadron, and to the execution of his orders. In a word, they required the
inspection of all papers which could, in any manner, tend to explain the
loss of Minorca, and the miscarriage of Mr. Byng’s squadron. His majesty
complied with every article of their request: the papers were presented to
the house, ordered to lie upon the table for the perusal of the members,
and finally referred to the consideration of a committee of the whole
house. In the course of their deliberations they addressed his majesty for
more information, till at length the truth seemed to be smothered under
such an enormous burden of papers, as the efforts of a whole session could
not have properly removed. Indeed, many discerning persons without doors
began to despair of seeing the mystery unfolded, as soon as the inquiry
was undertaken by a committee of the whole house. They observed, that an
affair of such a dark, intricate, and suspicious nature, ought to have
been referred to a select and secret committee, chosen by ballot,
empowered to send for persons, papers, and records, and to examine
witnesses in the most solemn and deliberate manner; that the names of the
committee ought to have been published for the satisfaction of the people,
who could have judged, with some certainty, whether the inquiry would be
carried on with such impartiality as the national misfortune required.
They suspected that this reference to a committee of the whole house was a
mal-contrivance, to prevent a regular and minute investigation, to
introduce confusion and contest, to puzzle, perplex, and obumbrate; to
teaze, fatigue, and disgust the inquirers, that the examination might be
hurried over in a superficial and perfunctory manner; and the ministry,
from this anarchy and confusion of materials, half explored and
undigested, derive a general parliamentary approbation, to which they
might appeal from the accusations of the people. A select committee would
have probably examined some of the clerks of the respective offices, that
they might certainly know whether any letters or papers had been
suppressed, whether the extracts had been faithfully made, and whether
there might not be papers of intelligence, which, though proper to be
submitted to a select and secret committee, could not, consistently with
the honour of the nation, be communicated to a committee of the whole
house. Indeed, it does not appear that the ministers had any foreign
intelligence or correspondence that could be much depended upon in any
matter of national importance, and no evidence was examined on the
occasion; a circumstance the less to be regretted, as, in times past, evil
ministers have generally found means to render such inquiries ineffectual;
and the same arts would, at any rate, have operated with the same
efficacy, had a secret committee been employed at this juncture. Be that
as it may, several resolutions were reported from the committee, though
some of them were not carried by the majority without violent dispute and
severe altercation. The first and last of their resolutions require
particular notice. By the former, it appeared to the committee, that his
majesty, from the twenty-seventh day of August, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-five, to the twentieth day of April in the
succeeding year, received such repeated and concurrent intelligence, as
gave just reason to believe that the French king intended to invade his
dominions of Great Britain or Ireland. In the latter they declared their
opinion, that no greater number of ships of war could be sent into the
Mediterranean, than were actually sent thither under the command of
admiral Byng; nor any greater reinforcement than the regiment which was
sent, and the detachment, equal to a battalion, which was ordered to the
relief of fort St. Philip, consistently with the state of the navy, and
the various services essential to the safety of his majesty’s dominions,
and the interest of his subjects. It must have been something more
powerful than ordinary conviction that suggested these opinions. Whatever
reports might have been circulated by the French ministry, in order to
amuse, intimidate, and detach the attention of the English government from
America and the Mediterranean, where they really intended to exert
themselves, yet, the circumstances of the two nations being considered,
one would think there could have been no just grounds to fear an invasion
of Great Britain or Ireland, especially when other intelligence seemed to
point out much more probable scenes of action. But the last resolution is
still more incomprehensible to those who know not exactly the basis on
which it was raised. The number of ships of war in actual commission
amounted to two hundred and fifty, having on board fifty thousand seamen
and marines. Intelligence and repeated information of the French design
upon Minorca had been conveyed to the ministry of England, about six
months before it was put in execution. Is it credible, that in all this
time the nation could not equip or spare above eleven ships of the line
and six frigates, to save the important island of Minorca? Is it easy to
conceive, that from a standing army of fifty thousand men, one regiment of
troops could not have been detached to reinforce a garrison, well known to
be insufficient for the works it was destined to defend? To persons of
common intellects it appeared, that intelligence of the armament at Toulon
was conveyed to the admiralty as early as the month of September, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five, with express notice that
it would consist of twelve ships of the line: that the design against
Minorca was communicated as early as the twenty-seventh day of August, by
consul Banks, of Carthagena; confirmed by letters from consul Bertes, at
Genoa, dated on the seventeenth and twenty-sixth of January, and received
by Mr. Fox, secretary of state, on the fourth and eleventh of February, as
well as by many subsequent intimations; that, notwithstanding these
repeated advices, even after hostilities had commenced in Europe, when the
garrison of Minorca amounted to no more than four incomplete regiments,
and one company of artillery, forty-two officers being absent, and the
place otherwise unprovided for a siege, when the Mediterranean squadron,
commanded by Mr. Edgecumbe, consisted of two ships of the line, and five
frigates; neither stores, ammunition, or provisions, the absent officers
belonging to the garrison, recruits for the regiments, though ready
raised, miners, nor any additional troops, were sent to the island, nor
the squadron augmented, till admiral Byng sailed from Spithead on the
sixth day of April, with no more ships of the line than, by the most early
and authentic intelligence, the government were informed would sail from
Toulon, even when Mr. Byng should have been joined by commodore Edgecumbe;
a junction upon which no dependence ought to have been laid; that this
squadron contained no troops but such as belonged to the four regiments in
garrison, except one battalion to serve in the fleet as marines, unless we
include the order for another to be embarked at Gibraltar; which order was
neither obeyed nor understood: that, considering the danger to which
Minorca was exposed, and the forwardness of the enemy’s preparations at
Toulon, admiral Osborne, with thirteen ships of the line and one frigate,
who returned on the sixteenth of February, after having convoyed a fleet
of merchant ships, might have been detached to Minorca, without hazarding
the coast of Great Britain; for at that time, exclusive of this squadron,
there were eight ships of the line and thirty-two frigates ready manned,
and thirty-two ships of the line and five frigates almost equipped; that
admiral Hawke was sent with fourteen ships of the line and one frigate to
cruise in the bay of Biscay, after repeated intelligence had been received
that the French fleet had sailed for the West Indies, and the eleven ships
remaining at Brest and Rochefort were in want of hands and cannon, so that
they could never serve to cover any embarkation or descent, consequently
Mr. Hawke’s squadron might have been spared for the relief of Minorca;
that, instead of attending to this important object, the admiralty, on the
eighth day of March, sent two ships of the line and three frigates to
intercept a coasting convoy off Cape Barfleur: on the eleventh of the same
month they detached two ships of the line to the West Indies, and on the
nineteenth two more to North America, where they could be of little
immediate service; on the twenty-third, two of the line and three frigates
a convoy-hunting off Cherbourg; and on the first of April five ships of
the line, including three returned from this last service, to reinforce
sir Edward Hawke, already too strong for the French fleet bound to Canada;
that all these ships might have been added to Mr. Byng’s squadron, without
exposing Great Britain or Ireland to any hazard of invasion: that at
length Mr. Byng was detached with ten great ships only, and even denied a
frigate to repeat signals, for which he petitioned; although at that very
time there were in port, exclusive of his squadron, seventeen ships of the
line and thirteen frigates ready for sea, besides eleven of the line and
nineteen frigates almost equipped. From these and other circumstances,
particularized and urged with great vivacity, many individuals inferred,
that a greater number of ships might have been detached to the
Mediterranean than were actually sent with admiral Byng; that the not
sending an earlier and stronger force was one great cause of Minorca’s
being lost, and co-operated with the delay of the ministry in sending
thither reinforcements of troops, their neglect in suffering the officers
of the garrison to continue absent from their duty, and their omitting to
give orders for raising miners to serve in the fortress of Mahon.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

EXAMINATION of the AMERICAN CONTRACT.

The next inquiry in which the house of commons engaged, related to the
contracts for victualling the forces in America, which were supposed by
some patriots to be fraudulent and unconscionable. This suspicion arose
from an ambiguous expression, on which the contractor being interrogated
by the committee appointed to examine the particulars, he prudently
interpreted it in such a manner, as to screen himself from the resentment
of the legislature. The house, therefore, resolved that the contract
entered into on the twenty-sixth day of March, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-six, by the commissioners of the treasury, with
William Baker, Christopher Kilby, and Richard Baker, of London, merchants,
for furnishing provisions to the forces under the command of the earl of
Loudon, was prudent and necessary, and properly adapted to the securing a
constant and effectual supply for those forces in America.

INQUIRY INTO THE CONDUCT OF ADMIRAL KNOWLES, &c.

The preceding session an address had been presented to the king by the
house of commons, desiring his majesty would give orders for laying before
them several papers relating to disputes which had lately happened between
his excellency Charles Knowles, esq., and some of the principal
inhabitants of the island of Jamaica. This governor was accused of many
illegal, cruel, and arbitrary acts, during the course of his
administration; but these imputations he incurred by an exertion of power,
which was in itself laudable, and well intended for the commercial
interest of the island. This was his changing the seat of government, and
procuring an act of assembly for removing the several laws, records,
books, papers, and writings belonging to several offices in that island,
from Spanish Town to Kingston; and for obliging the several officers to
keep their offices, and hold a supreme court of judicature, at this last
place, to which he had moved the seat of government. Spanish Town,
otherwise called St. Jago de la Vega, the old capital, was an
inconsiderable inland place, of no security, trade, or importance; whereas
Kingston was the centre of commerce, situated on the side of a fine
harbour filled with ships, well secured from the insults of an enemy,
large, wealthy, and flourishing. Here the merchants dwell, and ship the
greatest part of the sugars that grow upon the island. They found it
extremely inconvenient and expensive to take out their clearances at
Spanish Town, which stands at a considerable distance; and the same
inconvenience and expense being felt by the rest of the inhabitants, who
had occasion to prosecute suits at law, or attend the assembly of the
island, they joined in representations to the governor, requesting, that,
in consideration of these inconveniences, added to that of the weakness of
Spanish Town and the importance of Kingston, the seat of government might
be removed. He complied with their request, and in so doing entailed upon
himself the hatred and resentment of certain powerful planters, who
possessed estates in and about the old town of St. Jago de la Vega, thus
deserted. This seems to have been the real source of the animosity and
clamour incurred by Mr. Knowles, against whom a petition, signed by
nineteen members of the assembly, had been sent to England, and presented
to his majesty.—In the two sessions preceding this year, the affair
had been brought into the house of commons, where this governor’s
character was painted in frightful colours, and divers papers relating to
the dispute were examined. Mr. Knowles having by this time returned to
England, the subject of his administration was revived, and referred to a
committee of the whole house. In the meantime, petitions were presented by
several merchants of London and Liverpool, concerned in the trade to
Jamaica, alleging, that the removal of the public courts, offices, and
records of the island of Jamaica to Kingston, and fixing the seat of
government there, had been productive of many important advantages, by
rendering the strength of the island more formidable, the property of the
traders and inhabitants more secure, and the prosecution of all commercial
business more expeditious and less expensive than formerly; therefore,
praying that the purposes of the act passed in Jamaica for that end might
be carried into effectual execution, in such manner as the house should
think proper. The committee, having examined a great number of papers,
agreed to some resolutions, importing, that a certain resolution of the
assembly of Jamaica, dated on the twenty-ninth day of October, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, implying a claim of right in
that assembly to raise and apply public money without the consent of the
governor and council, was illegal, repugnant to the terms of his majesty’s
commission to his governor of the said island, and derogatory of the
rights of the crown and people of Great Britain; that the six last
resolutions taken in the assembly of Jamaica, on the twenty-ninth day of
October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, proceeded
on a manifest misapprehension of the king’s instruction to his governor,
requiring him not to give his assent to any bill of an unusual or
extraordinary nature and importance, wherein his majesty’s prerogative, or
the property of his subjects, might be prejudiced, or the trade or
shipping of the kingdom any-ways affected, unless there should be a clause
inserted, suspending the execution of such bill until his majesty’s
pleasure should be known; that such instruction was just and necessary,
and no alteration of the constitution of the island, nor any way
derogatory to the rights of the subjects in Jamaica. From these
resolutions the reader may perceive the nature of the dispute which had
arisen between the people of Jamaica and their governor, vice-admiral
Knowles, whose conduct on this occasion seems to have been justified by
the legislature. The parliament, however, forebore to determine the
question, whether the removal of the courts of judicature from Spanish
Town to Kingston was a measure calculated for the interest of the island
in general.

RESOLUTIONS concerning MILFORD-HAVEN.

The last object which we shall mention, as having fallen under the
cognizance of the commons during this session of parliament, was the state
of Milford-haven on the coast of Wales, one of the most capacious, safe,
and commodious harbours in Great Britain. Here the country affords many
conveniences for building ships of war, and erecting forts, docks, quays,
and magazines. It might be fortified at a very small expense, so as to be
quite secure from any attempts of the enemy, and rendered by far the most
useful harbour in the kingdom for fleets, cruisers, trading ships, and
packet boats, bound to and from the westward; for from hence they may put
sea almost with any wind, and even at low water; they may weather Scilly
and Cape Clear when no vessel can stir from the British channel, or out of
the French ports of Brest and Rochefort, and as a post can travel from
hence in three days to London, it might become the centre of very useful
sea intelligence. A petition from several merchants in London was
presented, and recommended to the house in a message from the king,
specifying the advantages of this harbour, and the small expense at which
it might be fortified, and praying that the house would take this
important subject into consideration. Accordingly, a committee was
appointed for this purpose, with power to send for persons, papers, and
records and every circumstance relating to it was examined with accuracy
and deliberation. At length the report being made to the house by Mr.
Charles Townshend, they unanimously agreed to an address, representing to
his majesty, that many great losses had been sustained by the trade of the
kingdom, in time of war, from the want of a safe harbour on the western
coast of the island, for the reception and protection of merchants’ ships,
and sending out cruisers; that the harbour of Milford-haven, in the county
of Pembroke, is most advantageously situated, and if properly defended and
secured, in every respect adapted to the answering those important
purposes; they, therefore, humbly besought his majesty, that he would give
immediate directions for erecting batteries, with proper cover, on the
sides of the said harbour, in the most convenient places for guarding the
entrance called Hubber-stone-road, and also such other fortifications as
might be necessary to secure the interior parts of the harbour, and that,
until such batteries and fortifications could be completed, some temporary
defence might be provided for the immediate protection of the ships and
vessels lying in the said harbour; finally, they assured him the house
would make good to his majesty all such expenses as should be incurred for
these purposes. The address met with a gracious reception, and a promise
that such directions should be given. The harbour was actually surveyed,
the places were pitched upon for batteries, and the estimates prepared,
but no further progress hath since been made.

SESSION CLOSED.

We have now finished the detail of all the material transactions of this
session, except what relates to the fate of admiral Byng, which now claims
our attention. In the meantime, we may observe, that on the fourth day of
July the session was closed with his majesty’s harangue, the most
remarkable and pleasing paragraph of which turned upon his royal
assurance, that the succour and preservation of his dominions in America
had been his constant care, and, next to the security of his kingdoms,
should continue to be his great and principal object. He told them he had
taken such measures as, he trusted, by the blessing of God, might
effectually disappoint the designs of the enemy in those parts; that he
had no further view but to vindicate the just rights of his crown and
subjects from the most injurious encroachments; to preserve tranquillity,
as far as the circumstances of things might admit; to prevent the true
friends of Britain, and the liberties of Europe, from being oppressed and
endangered by any unprovoked and unnatural conjunction.

ENLARGE

TRIAL OF ADMIRAL BYNG.

Of all the transactions that distinguished this year, the most
extraordinary was the sentence executed on admiral Byng, the son of that
great officer who had acquired such honour by his naval exploits in the
preceding reign, and was ennobled for his services by the title of lord
viscount Torrington. His second son, John Byng, had from his earliest
youth been trained to his father’s profession; and was generally esteemed
one of the best officers in the navy, when he embarked in that expedition
to Minorca, which covered his character with disgrace, and even exposed
him to all the horrors of an ignominious death. On the twenty-eighth day
of December his trial began before a court-martial, held on board the ship
St. George, in the harbour of Portsmouth, to which place Mr. Byng had been
conveyed from Greenwich by a party of horse-guards, and insulted by the
populace in every town and village through which he passed. The court
having proceeded to examine the evidences for the crown and the prisoner,
from day to day, in the course of a long sitting, agreed unanimously to
thirty-seven resolutions, implying their opinion, that admiral Byng,
during the engagement between the British and French fleets, on the
twentieth day of May last, did not do his utmost endeavour to take, seize,
and destroy the ships of the French king, which it was his duty to have
engaged, and to assist such of his majesty’s ships as were engaged, which
it was his duty to have assisted; and that he did not exert his
utmost-power for the relief of St. Philip’s castle. They, therefore,
unanimously agreed that he fell under part of the twelfth article of an
act of parliament passed in the twenty-second year of the present reign,
for amending, explaining, and reducing into one act of parliament, the
laws relating to the government of his majesty’s ships, vessels, and
forces by sea; and as that article positively prescribed death, without
any alternative left to the discretion of the court under any variation of
circumstances, they unanimously adjudged the said admiral John Byng to be
shot to death, at such time, and on board of such ship, as the lords
commissioners of the admiralty should please to direct. But as it
appeared, by the evidence of the officers who were near the admiral’s
person, that no backwardness was perceivable in him during the action, nor
any mark of fear or confusion either in his countenance or behaviour; but
that he delivered his orders coolly and distinctly, without seeming
deficient in personal courage; and, from other circumstances, they
believed his misconduct did not arise either from cowardice or
disaffection, they unanimously and earnestly recommended him as a proper
object of mercy. The admiral himself behaved through the whole trial with
the most cheerful composure, seemingly the effect of conscious innocence,
upon which, perhaps, he too much relied. Even after he heard the evidence
examined against him, and finished his own defence, he laid his account in
being honourably acquitted; and ordered his coach to be ready for
conveying him directly from the tribunal to London. A gentleman, his
friend, by whom he was attended, having received intimation of the
sentence to be pronounced, thought it his duty to prepare him for the
occasion, that he might summon all his fortitude to his assistance, and
accordingly made him acquainted with the information he had received. The
admiral gave tokens of surprise and resentment, but betrayed no marks of
fear or disorder, either then or in the court when the sentence was
pronounced. On the contrary, while divers members of the court-martial
manifested grief, anxiety, and trepidation, shedding tears, and sighing
with extraordinary emotion, he heard his doom denounced without undergoing
the least alteration of feature, and made a low obeisance to the president
and the other members of the court, as he retired.

The officers who composed this tribunal were so sensible of the law’s
severity, that they unanimously subscribed a letter to the board of
admiralty containing this remarkable paragraph:—“We cannot help
laying the distresses of our minds before your lordships on this occasion,
in finding ourselves under necessity of condemning a man to death, from
the great severity of the twelfth article of war, part of which he falls
under, which admits of no mitigation if the crime should be committed by
an error in judgment; and, therefore, for our own consciences’ sake, as
well as in justice to the prisoner, we pray your lordships, in the most
earnest manner, to recommend him to his majesty’s clemency.” The lords of
the admiralty, instead of complying with the request of the court-martial,
transmitted their letter to the king, with copies of their proceedings,
and a letter from themselves to his majesty, specifying a doubt with
regard to the legality of the sentence, as the crime of negligence, for
which the admiral had been condemned, was not expressed in any part of the
proceedings. At the same time, copies of two petitions from George lord
viscount Torrington, in behalf of his kinsman admiral Byng, were submitted
to his majesty’s royal wisdom and determination. All the friends and
relations of the unhappy convict employed and exerted their influence and
interest for his pardon; and, as the circumstances had appeared so strong
in his favour, it was supposed that the sceptre of royal mercy would be
extended for his preservation; but infamous arts were used to whet the
savage appetite of the populace for blood. The cry of vengeance was loud
throughout the land: sullen clouds of suspicion and malevolence
interposing, were said to obstruct the genial beams of the best virtue
that adorns the throne; and the sovereign was given to understand, that
the execution of admiral Byng was a victim absolutely necessary to appease
the fury of the people. His majesty, in consequence of the representation
made by the lords of the admiralty, referred the sentence to the
consideration of the twelve judges, who were unanimously of opinion that
the sentence was legal. This report being transmitted from the
privy-council to the admiralty, their lordships issued a warrant for
executing the sentence of death on the twenty-eighth day of February. One
gentleman at the board, however, refused to subscribe the warrant,
assigning for his refusal the reasons which we have inserted by way of
note, for the satisfaction of the reader. 401 [See note 3 H, at
the end of this Vol.]

Though mercy was denied to the criminal, the crown seemed determined to do
nothing that should be thought inconsistent with law. A member of
parliament, who had sat upon the court-martial at Portsmouth, rose up in
his place, and made application to the house of commons in behalf of
himself and several other members of that tribunal, praying the aid of the
legislature to be released from the oath of secrecy imposed on
courts-martial, that they might disclose the grounds on which sentence of
death had passed on admiral Byng, and, perhaps, discover such
circumstances as might show the sentence to be improper. Although this
application produced no resolution in the house, the king, on the
twenty-sixth day of February, sent a message to the commons by Mr.
Secretary Pitt, importing, that, though he had determined to let the law
take its course with relation to admiral Byng, and resisted all
solicitations to the contrary, yet, as a member of the house had expressed
some scruples about the sentence, his majesty had thought fit to respite
the execution of it, that there might be an opportunity of knowing, by the
separate examination of the members of the court-martial, upon oath, what
grounds there were for such scruples, and that his majesty was resolved
still to let the sentence be carried into execution, unless it should
appear from the said examination, that admiral Byng was unjustly
condemned. The sentence might be strictly legal, and, at the same time
very severe, according to the maxim, summum jus, summa injuria. In
such cases, and perhaps in such cases only, the rigour of the law ought to
be softened by the lenient hand of the royal prerogative. That this was
the case of admiral Byng appears from the warm and eager intercession of
his jury, a species of intercession which hath generally, if not always,
prevailed at the foot of the throne, when any thing favourable for the
criminal had appeared in the course of the trial. How much more then might
it have been expected to succeed, when earnestly urged as a case of
conscience, in behalf of a man whom his judges had expressly acquitted of
cowardice and treachery, the only two imputations that rendered him
criminal in the eyes of the nation! Such an interposition of the crown in
parliamentary transactions was irregular, unnecessary, and at another
juncture might have been productive of violent heats and declamation. At
present, however, it passed without censure, as the effect of inattention,
rather than a design to encroach upon the privileges of the house.

BILL TO RELEASE THE MEMBERS OF THE COURT-MARTIAL, &c

The message being communicated, a bill was immediately brought in, to
release the members of the court-martial from the obligation of secrecy,
and passed through the lower house without opposition; but in the house of
lords it appeared to be destitute of a proper foundation. They sent a
message to the commons, desiring them to give leave that such of the
members of the court-martial as were members of that house might attend
their lordships, in order to be examined on the second reading of the
bill; accordingly they, and the rest of the court-martial, attended, and
answered all questions without hesitation. As they did not insist upon any
excuse, nor produce any satisfactory reason for showing that the man they
had condemned was a proper object of mercy, their lordships were of
opinion that there was no occasion for passing any such bill, which,
therefore, they almost unanimously rejected. It is not easy to conceive
what stronger reasons could be given for proving Mr. Byng an object of
mercy, than those mentioned in the letter sent to the board of admiralty
by the members of the court-martial, who were empowered to try the imputed
offence, consequently must have been deemed well qualified to judge of his
conduct.

EXECUTION OF ADMIRAL BYNG.

The unfortunate admiral being thus abandoned to the stroke of justice,
prepared himself for death with resignation and tranquillity. He
maintained a surprising cheerfulness to the last; nor did he, from his
condemnation to his execution, exhibit the least sign of impatience or
apprehension. During that interval he had remained on board of the
Monarque, a third-rate ship of war, anchored in the harbour of Portsmouth,
under a strong guard, in custody of the marshal of the admiralty. On the
fourteenth of March, the day fixed for his execution, the boats belonging
to the squadron at Spithead being manned and armed, containing their
captains and officers, with a detachment of marines, attended this
solemnity in the harbour, which was also crowded with an infinite number
of other boats and vessels filled with spectators. About noon, the admiral
having taken leave of a clergyman, and two friends who accompanied him,
walked out of the great cabin to the quarter-deck, where two files of
marines were ready to execute the sentence. He advanced with a firm
deliberate step, a composed and resolute countenance, and resolved to
suffer with his face uncovered, until his friends, representing that his
looks would possibly intimidate the soldiers, and prevent their taking aim
properly, he submitted to their request, threw his hat on the deck,
kneeled on a cushion, tied one white handkerchief over his eyes, and
dropped the other as a signal for his executioners, who fired a volley so
decisive, that five balls passed through his body, and he dropped down
dead in an instant. The time in which this tragedy was acted, from his
walking out of the cabin to his being deposited in the coffin, did not
exceed three minutes.

Thus fell, to the astonishment of all Europe, admiral John Byng; who,
whatever his errors and indiscretions might have been, seems to have been
rashly condemned, meanly given up, and cruelly sacrificed to vile
considerations. The sentiments of his own fate he avowed on the verge of
eternity, when there was no longer any cause of dissimulation, in the
following declaration, which, immediately before his death, he delivered
to the marshal of the admiralty: “A few moments will now deliver me from
the virulent persecution, and frustrate the further malice of my enemies:
nor need I envy them a life subject to the sensations my injuries, and the
injustice done me, must create. Persuaded I am, that justice will be done
to my reputation hereafter: the manner and cause of raising and keeping up
the popular clamour and prejudice against me, will be seen through. I
shall be considered (as I now perceive myself) a victim destined to divert
the indignation and resentment of an injured and deluded people from the
proper objects. My enemies themselves must now think me innocent. Happy
for me, at this my last moment, that I know my own innocence, and am
conscious that no part of my country’s misfortunes can be owing to me. I
heartily wish the shedding my blood may contribute to the happiness and
service of my country; but cannot resign my just claim to a faithful
discharge of my duty according to the best of my judgment, and the utmost
exertion of my ability for his majesty’s honour, and my country’s service.
I am sorry that my endeavours were not attended with more success, and
that the armament under my command proved too weak to succeed in an
expedition of such moment. Truth has prevailed over calumny and falsehood,
and justice has wiped off the ignominious stain of my supposed want of
personal courage, and the charge of disaffection. My heart acquits me of
these crimes; but who can be presumptuously sure of his own judgment? If
my crime is an error in judgment, or differing in opinion from my judges,
and if yet the error in judgment should be on their side, God forgive
them, as I do; and may the distress of their minds, and uneasiness of
their consciences, which in justice to me they have represented, be
relieved, and subside as my resentment has done. The supreme judge sees
all hearts and motives, and to him I must submit the justice of my cause.”

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

REMARKS ON ADMIRAL BYNG’S FATE.

Notwithstanding all that has been said in his favour, notwithstanding the
infamous arts that were practised to keep up the cry against him,
notwithstanding this solemn appeal to heaven in his last moments, and even
self-conviction of innocence, the character of admiral Byng, in point of
personal courage, will still, with many people, remain problematical. They
will still be of opinion, that if the spirit of a British admiral had been
properly exerted, the French fleet would have been defeated, and Minorca
relieved. A man’s opinion of danger varies at different times, in
consequence of an irregular tide of animal spirits, and he is actuated by
considerations which he dares not avow. After an officer, thus influenced,
has hesitated or kept aloof in the hour of trial, the mind, eager for its
own justification, assembles, with surprising industry, every favourable
circumstance of excuse, and broods over them with parental partiality,
until it becomes not only satisfied, but even enamoured of their beauty
and complexion, like a doating mother, blind to the deformity of her own
offspring. Whatever Mr. Byng’s internal feelings might have been, whatever
consequences might have attended his behaviour on that occasion; as the
tribunal before which he was tried acquitted him expressly of cowardice
and treachery, he was, without all doubt, a proper object for royal
clemency; and so impartial posterity will judge him, after all those
dishonourable motives of faction and of fear, by which his fate was
influenced, shall be lost in oblivion, or remembered with disdain. The
people of Great Britain, naturally fierce, impatient, and clamorous, have
been too much indulged, upon every petty miscarriage, with trials,
courts-martial, and dismissions, which tend only to render their military
commanders rash and precipitate, the populace more licentious and
intractable, and to disgrace the national character in the opinion of
mankind.

ENLARGE

CHAPTER XIII.

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

1757

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

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

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

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

COALITION OF PARTIES.

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

DESCENT ON THE COAST OF FRANCE MEDITATED.

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

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

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

ADMIRAL KNOWLES SENT TO TAKE AIX.

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

ATTACK AND SURRENDER OF AIX.

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

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

THE FLEET RETURNS TO SPITHEAD.

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

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

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

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SIR JOHN MORDAUNT TRIED BY A COURT-MARTIAL.

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

FLEETS SENT TO THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.

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

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

RIOTS OCCASIONED BY THE HIGH PRICE OF CORN.

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

OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.

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

LORD LOUDON’S CONDUCT IN AMERICA.

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

FORT WILLIAM-HENRY TAKEN by the FRENCH.

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

NAVAL TRANSACTIONS IN AMERICA.

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

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

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE EAST INDIES.

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

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

SEDUCTION OF CHANDERNAGORE.

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

COLONEL CLIVE DEFEATS THE SUBA AT PLAISSEY, &c.

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

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE KING OF FRANCE.

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

CHANGES IN THE FRENCH MINISTRY.

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

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

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

STATE OF THE CONFEDERACY.

At the close of the last campaign, the king of Prussia, having gained a
petty advantage over the Imperialists under the command of mareschal
Brown, and incorporated into his own troops a great part of the Saxon army
taken prisoners at Pima, as was observed before, retired into
winter-quarters, until the season should permit him to improve these
advantages. His majesty and mareschal Keith wintered in Saxony, having
their cantonments between Pirna and the frontier along the Elbe; and
mareschal Schwerin, returning into Silesia, took up his quarters in the
country of Glatz. In the meantime, the empress-queen, finding the force
which she had sent out against the king of Prussia, was not sufficient to
prevent his designs, made the necessary requisitions to her allies, for
the auxiliaries they had engaged to furnish. In consequence of these
requisitions, the czarina, true to her engagements, despatched above an
hundred thousand of her troops, who began their march in the month of
November, and proceeded to the borders of Lithuania, with design
particularly to invade Ducal Prussia, whilst a strong fleet was equipped
in the Baltic, to aid the operations of this numerous army. The Austrian
army, assembled in Bohemia, amounted to upwards of fourscore thousand men,
commanded by prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown. The Swedes
had not yet openly declared themselves; but it was well known, that though
their king was allied in blood and inclination to his Prussian majesty,
yet the jealousy which the senate of Sweden entertained of their
sovereign, and the hope of recovering their ancient possessions in
Pomerania, by means of the present troubles, together with their old
attachment to France, newly cemented by intrigues and subsidies, would
certainly induce them to join the general confederacy. The duke of
Mecklenburgh took the same party, and agreed to join the Swedish army,
when it should be assembled, with six thousand men. Besides all these
preparations against the king of Prussia, he was, in his quality of
elector of Brandenburgh, put under the ban of the empire by the Aulic
council; declared deprived of all his rights, privileges, and
prerogatives; his fiefs were escheated into the exchequer of the empire;
and all the circles accordingly ordered to furnish their respective
contingencies for putting this sentence in execution.

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

SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS.

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

NEUTRALITY OF THE EMPEROR, AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE DUTCH.

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

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

DECLARATION OF THE CZARINA AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

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

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

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

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

KING OF PRUSSIA ENTERS BOHEMIA.

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

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

PRAGUE INVESTED.

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

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

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

COUNT DAUN COMMANDS THE AUSTRIANS.

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

KING OF PRUSSIA DEFEATED AT KOLIN.

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

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

PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEFENCE OF HANOVER.

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

SKIRMISHES WITH THE FRENCH.

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

DUKE OF CUMBERLAND PASSES THE WESER.

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

BATTLE OF HASTENBECK.

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

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

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE FRENCH TAKE POSSESSION OF HANOVER AND HESSE-CASSEL.

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

THE FRENCH REDUCE VERDEN and BREMEN.

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

CHAPTER XIV.

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.

CHAPTER XV.

Expedition against Senegal….. Fort Louis and Senegal
taken….. Unsuccessful attempt upon Goree….. Expedition
to Cape Breton….. Louisbourg taken….. and St.
John’s….. Unsuccessful attempt upon Ticonderoga…..
Fort Frontenac taken and destroyed by the English…..
Brigadier Forbes takes Fort du Quesne….. Goree taken…..
Shipwreck of Captain Barton….. Gallant Exploit of Captain
Tyrrell….. Transactions in the East Indies….. Admiral
Pococke engages the French Fleet….. Fort St. David’s taken
by the French….. Second Engagement between Admiral Pococke
and M. d’Apehé….. Progress of M. Lally….. Transactions
on the Continent of Europe….. King of Prussia raises
Contributions in Saxony and the Dominions of the Duke of
Wirtemberg….. State of the Armies on the Continent…..
The French King changes the Administration of Hanover…..
Plan of a Treaty between the French King and the Landgrave
of Hesse-Cassel….. Treaty between the French King and the
Duke of Brunswick….. Decree of the Aulic Council against
the Elector of Hanover and others….. Bremen taken by the
Duke de Broglio, and retaken by Prince Ferdinand….. Duke
de Richelieu recalled….. Generous Conduct of the Duke de
Randan….. The French abandon Hanover….. Prince of
Brunswick reduces Hoya and Minden….. Prince Ferdinand
defeats the French at Creveldt, and takes Dusseldorp…..
Prince of Ysembourg defeated by the Duke de Broglio…..
General Imhoff defeats M. de Chevert….. General Oberg
defeated by the French at Landwernhagen….. Death of the
Duke of Marlborough….. Operations of the King of Prussia at
the beginning of the Campaign….. He enters Moravia, and
invests Olmutz….. He is obliged to raise the Siege, and
retires into Bohemia, where he takes Koningsgratz…..
Progress of the Russians….. King of Prussia defeats the
Russians at Zorndorf….. and is defeated by the Austrians at
Hoch-kirchin….. He retires to Silesia….. Suburbs of
Dresden burned by the Prussian Governor….. The King of
Prussia raises the Siege of Neiss, and relieves Dresden…..
Inhabitants of Saxony grievously oppressed….. Progress of
the Swedes in Pomerania….. Prince Charles of Saxony
elected Duke of Courland….. The King of England’s Memorial
to the Diet of the Empire….. Death of Pope Benedict…..
The King of Portugal assassinated….. Proceedings of the
French Ministry….. Conduct of the King of Denmark…..
Answers to the Charges brought by the Dutch against the
English Cruisers….. Conferences between the British
Ambassador and the States-general….. Further Proceedings

EXPEDITION AGAINST SENEGAL.

The whole strength of Great Britain, during this campaign, was not
exhausted in petty descents upon the coast of France. The continent of
America was the great theatre on which her chief vigour was displayed; nor
did she fail to exert herself in successful efforts against the French
settlements on the coast of Africa. The whole gum trade, from Cape Blanco
to the river Gambia, an extent of five hundred miles, had been engrossed
by the French, who built Fort Louis within the mouth of the Senegal,
extending their factories near three hundred leagues up that river, and on
the same coast had fortified the island of Goree, in which they maintained
a considerable garrison. The gum senega, of which a great quantity is used
by the manufacturers of England, being wholly in the hands of the enemy,
the English dealers were obliged to buy it at second-hand from the Dutch,
who purchased it of the French, and exacted an exorbitant price for that
commodity. This consideration forwarded the plan for annexing the country
to the possession of Great Britain. The project was first conceived by Mr.
Thomas Gumming, a sensible quaker, who, as a private merchant, had made a
voyage to Portenderrick, an adjoining part of the coast, and contracted a
personal acquaintance with Amir, the moorish king of Legibelli.*

* The name the natives give to that part of South Barbary,
known to merchants and navigators by that of the Gum Coast,
and called in maps, the Sandy Desert of Sara, and sometimes
Zaia.

He found this African prince extremely well disposed towards the subjects
of Great Britain, whom he publicly preferred to all other Europeans, and
so exasperated against the French, that he declared he should never be
easy till they were exterminated from the river Senegal. At that very time
he had commenced hostilities against them, and earnestly desired that the
king of England would send out an armament to reduce Fort Louis and Goree,
with some ships of force to protect the traders. In that case, he promised
to join his Britannic majesty’s forces, and grant an exclusive trade to
his subjects. Mr. Gumming not only perceived the advantages that would
result from such an exclusive privilege with regard to the gum, but
foresaw many other important consequences of an extensive trade in a
country, which, over and above the gum senega, contains many valuable
articles, such as gold dust, elephants’ teeth, hides, cotton, bees’ wax,
slaves, ostrich feathers, indigo, ambergris, and civet. Elevated with a
prospect of an acquisition so valuable to his country, this honest quaker
was equally minute and indefatigable in his inquiries touching the
commerce of the coast, as well as the strength and situation of the French
settlements on the river Senegal; and, at his return to England, actually
formed the plan of an expedition for the conquest of Fort Louis. This was
presented to the board of trade, by whom it was approved, after a severe
examination; but it required the patriotic zeal, and invincible
perseverance of Cumming, to surmount a variety of obstacles before it was
adopted by the ministry; and even then it was not executed in its full
extent. He was abridged of one large ship, and in lieu of six hundred
land-forces, to be drafted from different regiments, which he in vain
demanded, first from the duke of Cumberland, and afterwards from lord
Ligonier, the lords of the admiralty allotted two hundred marines only for
this service. After repeated solicitation, he, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-seven, obtained an order, that the two annual
ships bound to the coast of Guinea should be joined by a sloop and two
busses, and make an attempt upon the French settlement in the river
Senegal. These ships, however, were detained by contrary winds until the
season was too far advanced to admit a probability of success, and
therefore the design was postponed. In the beginning of the present year,
Mr. Cumming being reinforced with the interest of a considerable merchant
in the city, to whom he had communicated the plan, renewed his application
to the ministry, and they resolved to hazard the enterprise. A small
squadron was equipped for this expedition, under the command of captain
Marsh, having on board a body of marines, commanded by major Mason, with a
detachment of artillery, ten pieces of cannon, eight mortars, and a
considerable quantity of warlike stores and ammunition. Captain Walker was
appointed engineer; and Mr. Cumming was concerned as a principal director
and promoter of the expedition.*

* On this occasion Mr. Cumming may seem to have acted
directly-contrary to the tenets of his religious profession;
hut he ever declared to the ministry, that he was fully
persuaded his schemes might be accomplished without the
effusion of human blood; and that if he thought otherwise,
he would by no means have concerned himself about them. He
also desired, let the consequence be what it might, his
brethren should not be chargeable with what was his own
single act. If it was the first military scheme of any
quaker, let it be remembered it was also the first
successful expedition of this war, and one of the first that
ever was carried on according to the pacific system of the
quakers, without the loss of a drop of blood on either side.

This little armament sailed in the beginning of March; and in their
passage touched at the island of Teneriffe, where, while the ships
supplied themselves with wine and water, Mr. Cumming proceeded in the Swan
sloop to Portenderrick, being charged with a letter of credence to his old
friend the king of that country, who had favoured him in his last visit
with an exclusive trade on that coast, by a former charter, written in the
Arabic language. This prince was now up the country, engaged in a war with
his neighbours, called the Diable Moors;* and the queen-dowager, who
remained at Portenderrick, gave Mr. Cumming to understand, that she could
not at present spare any troops to join the English in their expedition
against Senegal; but she assured him, that, should the French be
exterminated, she and their subjects would go thither and settle.

* This is the name by which the subjects of Legibelli
distinguish those of Brackna, who inhabit the country
farther up the river Senegal, and are in constant alliance
with tha French.

In the meantime, one of the chiefs, called prince Amir, despatched a
messenger to the king, with advice of their arrival and design. He
declared that he would, with all possible diligence, assemble three
hundred warriors to join the English troops, and that, in his opinion, the
king would reinforce them with a detachment from his army. By this time,
captain Marsh, with the rest of the armament, had arrived at
Portenderrick, and fearing that the enemy might receive intimation of his
design, resolved to proceed on the expedition without waiting for the
promised auxiliaries. On the twenty-second clay of April he weighed
anchor, and next day, at four o’clock, discovered the French flag flying
upon Fort Louis, situated in the midst of a pretty considerable town,
which exhibited a very agreeable appearance. The commodore having made
prize of a Dutch ship, richly laden with gum, which lay at anchor without
the bar, came to anchor in Senegal-road at the mouth of the river; and
here he perceived several armed sloops which the enemy had detached to
defend the passage of the bar, which is extremely dangerous. All the boats
were employed in conveying the stores into the small craft, while three of
the sloops continued exchanging fire over a narrow tongue of land with the
vessels of the enemy, consisting of one brig and six armed sloops, mounted
with great guns and swivels. At length the channel being discovered, and
the wind, which generally blows down the river, chopping about, captain
Millar, of the London buss, seized that opportunity; and, passing the bar
with a flowing sheet, dropped anchor on the inside, where he lay till
night exposed to the whole fire of the enemy. Next day he was joined by
the other small vessels, and a regular engagement ensued. This was warmly
maintained on both sides, until the busses and one dogger running aground,
immediately bulged, and were filled with water. Then the troops they
contained took to their boats, and with some difficulty reached the shore;
when they formed in a body, and were soon joined by their companions from
the other vessels; so that now the whole amounted to three hundred and
ninety marines, besides the detachment of artillery. As they laid their
account with being attacked by the natives who lined the shore at some
distance, seemingly determined to oppose the descent, they forthwith threw
up an intrench-ment, and began to disembark the stores, great part of
which lay under water. While they were employed in raising this occasional
defence, the negroes came in great numbers and submitted; and on the
succeeding day they were reinforced by three hundred and fifty seamen, who
passed the bar in sloops, with their ensigns and colours flying.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

FORT LOUIS AND SENEGAL TAKEN.

They had made no further progress in their operations, when two French
deputies arrived at the intrench-ment, with proposals for a capitulation
from the governor of Fort Louis. After some hesitation, captain Marsh and
major Mason agreed, that all the white people belonging to the French
company at Senegal should be safely conducted to France in an English
vessel, without being deprived of their private effects, provided all the
merchandise and uncoined treasure should be delivered up to the victors;
and that all the forts, store-houses, vessels, arms, provisions, and every
article belonging to the company in that river, should be put into the
hands of the English immediately after the capitulation could be signed.
They promised that the free natives living at Fort Louis should remain in
quiet possession of their effects, and in the free exercise of their
religion; and that all negroes, mulattoes, and others, who could prove
themselves free, should have it in their option either to remain in the
place, or remove to any other part of the country.*

* The victors, however, committed a very great mistake in
allowing them to carry off their books and accounts, the
perusal of which would have been of infinite service to the
English merchants, by informing them of the commodities,
their value, the proper seasons, and methods of prosecuting
the trade.

The captains Campbell and Walker were immediately sent up the river with a
flag of truce, to see the articles signed and executed; but they were so
retarded by the rapidity of the stream, that they did not approach the
fort till three in the morning. As soon as the day broke they hoisted
their flag, and rowed up towards a battery on a point of the island, where
they lay upon their oars very near a full hour, beating the chamade; but
no notice was taken of their approach. This reserve appearing mysterious,
they retired down the river to their in-trenchment, where they understood
that the negroes on the island were in arms, and had blocked up the French
in Fort Louis, resolving to defend the place to the last extremity, unless
they should be included in the capitulation. This intelligence was
communicated in a second letter from the governor, who likewise informed
the English commander, that unless the French director-general should be
permitted to remain with the natives, as a surety for that article of the
capitulation in which they were concerned, they would allow themselves to
be cut in pieces rather than submit. This request being granted, the
English forces began their march to Fort Louis, accompanied by a number of
long boats, in which the artillery and stores had been embarked. The
French seeing them advance, immediately struck their flag; and major Mason
took possession of the castle, where he found ninety-two pieces of cannon,
with treasure and merchandise to a considerable value. The corporation and
burghers of the town of Senegal submitted, and swore allegiance to his
Britannic majesty: the neighbouring princes, attended by numerous
retinues, visited the commander, and concluded treaties with the English
nation; and the king of Portenderrick, or Legibelli, sent an ambassador
from his camp to major Mason, with presents, compliments of
congratulation, and assurances of friendship. The number of free
independent negroes and mulattoes, settled at Senegal, amounted to three
thousand; and many of these enjoyed slaves and possessions of their own.
The two French factories of Podore and Galam, the latter situated nine
hundred miles farther up the river, were included in the capitulation; so
that Great Britain, almost without striking a blow, found herself
possessed of a conquest, from which, with proper management, she may
derive inconceivable riches. This important acquisition was in a great
measure, if not entirely, owing to the sagacity, zeal, and indefatigable
efforts of Mr. Cumming, who not only formed the plan, and solicited the
armament, but also attended the execution of it in person, at the hazard
of his life, and to the interruption of his private concerns.

Fort Louis being secured with an English garrison, and some armed vessels
left to guard the passage of the bar, at the mouth of the river, the great
ships proceeded to make an attempt upon the island of Goree, which lies at
the distance of thirty leagues from Senegal. There the French company had
considerable magazines and warehouses, and lodged the negro slaves until
they could be shipped for the West Indies. If the additional force which
Mr. Cumming proposed for the conquest of this island had been added to the
armament, in all probability the island would have been reduced, and in
that case the nation would have saved the considerable expense of a
subsequent expedition against it, under the conduct of commodore Keppel.
At present, the ships by which Goree was attacked were found unequal to
the attempt, and the expedition miscarried accordingly, though the
miscarriage was attended with little or no damage to the assailants.

EXPEDITION TO CAPE-BRETON.

Scenes of still greater importance were acted in North America, where,
exclusive of the fleet and marines, the government had assembled about
fifty thousand men, including two-and-twenty thousand regular troops. The
earl of Loudoun having returned to England, the chief command in America
devolved on major-general Abercrombie; but as the objects of operation
were various, the forces were divided into three detached bodies, under as
many different commanders. About twelve thousand were destined to
undertake the siege of Louisbourg, on the island of Cape-Breton. The
general himself reserved near sixteen thousand for the reduction of
Crown-Point, a fort situated on lake Champlain; eight thousand under the
conduct of brigadier-general Forbes, were allotted for the conquest of
Fort du Quesne, which stood a great way to the southward, near the river
Ohio; and a considerable garrison was left at Annapolis, in Nova-Scotia.
The reduction of Louisbourg and the island of Cape-Breton being an object
of immediate consideration, was undertaken with all possible despatch.
Major-general Amherst being joined by admiral Boscawen with the fleet and
forces from England, the whole armament, consisting of one hundred and
fifty-seven sail, took their departure from the harbour of Halifax, in
Nova-Scotia, on the twenty-eighth of May; and on the second of June part
of the transports anchored in the bay of Gabarus, about seven miles to the
westward of Louisbourg. The garrison of this place, commanded by the
chevalier Dru-cour, consisted of two thousand five hundred regular troops,
three hundred militia, formed of the burghers, and towards the end of the
siege they were reinforced by three hundred and fifty Canadians, including
threescore Indians. The harbour was secured by six ships of the line, and
five frigates,* three of which the enemy sunk across the harbour’s mouth,
in order to render it inaccessible to the English shipping.

* The Prudent, of seventy-four guns; the Entreprenant, of
seventy-four guns; the Capricieux, Célèbre, and Bienfaisant,
of sixty-four guns each; the Apollo, of fifty guns; the
Cheyre, Riche, Fidelle, Diana, and Echo, frigates.

The fortifications were in bad repair, many parts of them crumbling down
the covered way, and several bastions exposed in such a manner as to be
enfiladed by the besiegers, and no part of the town secure from the
effects of cannonading and bombardment. The governor had taken all the
precautions in his power to prevent a landing, by establishing a chain of
posts, that extended two leagues and a half along the most inaccessible
part of the beach; intrench-ments were thrown up, and batteries erected;
but there were some intermediate places, which could not be properly
secured, and in one of these the English troops were disembarked. The
disposition being made for landing, a detachment, in several sloops under
convoy, passed by the mouth of the harbour towards Lorembec, in order to
draw the enemy’s attention that way, while the landing should really be
effected on the other side of the town. On the eighth day of June, the
troops being assembled in the boats before day-break, in three divisions,
several sloops and frigates, that were stationed along shore in the bay of
Gabarus, began to scour the beach with their shot; and after the fire had
continued about a quarter of an hour, the boats, containing the division
on the left, were rowed toward the shore, under the command of
brigadier-general Wolfe, an accomplished officer, who, in the sequel,
displayed very extraordinary proofs of military genius. At the same time
the two other divisions, on the right and in the centre, commanded by the
brigadiers Whitmore and Laurence, made a show of landing, in order to
divide and distract the enemy. Notwithstanding an impetuous surf, by which
many boats were overset, and a very severe fire of cannon and musketry
from the enemy’s batteries, which did considerable execution, brigadier
Wolfe pursued his point with admirable courage and deliberation. The
soldiers leaped into the water with the most eager alacrity, and, gaining
the shore, attacked the enemy in such a manner, that in a few minutes they
abandoned their works and artillery, and fled in the utmost confusion. The
other divisions landed also, but not without an obstinate opposition; and
the stores, with the artillery, being brought on shore, the town of
Louisbourg was formally invested. The difficulty of landing stores and
implements in boisterous weather, and the nature of the ground, which
being marshy, was unfit for the conveyance of heavy cannon, retarded the
operations of the siege. Mr. Amherst made his approaches with great
circumspection, securing his camp with redoubts and epaulements from any
attacks of Canadians, of which he imagined there was a considerable body
behind him on the island, as well as from the fire of the French shipping
in the harbour which would otherwise have annoyed him extremely in his
advances.

LOUISBOURG TAKEN.

The governor of Louisbourg having destroyed the grand battery, which was
detached from the body of the place, and recalled his out-posts, prepared
for making a vigorous defence. A very severe fire, well directed, was
maintained against the besiegers and their works, from the town, the
island battery, and the ships in the harbour; and divers sallies were
made, though without much effect. In the meantime brigadier Wolfe, with a
strong detachment, had marched round the north-east part of the harbour,
and taken possession of the Lighthouse-point, where he erected several
batteries against the ships and the island fortification, which last was
soon silenced. On the nineteenth day of June, the Echo, a French frigate,
was taken by the English cruisers, after having escaped from the harbour.
From the officers on board of this ship the admiral learned that the
Bizarre, another frigate, had sailed from thence on the day of the
disembarkation, and the Comète had successfully followed her example.
Besides the regular approaches to the town, conducted by the engineers
under the immediate command and inspection of general Amherst, divers
batteries were raised by the detached corps under brigadier Wolfe, who
exerted himself with amazing activity, and grievously incommoded the
enemy, both of the town and shipping. On the twenty-first day of July the
three great ships, the Entreprenant, Capricieux, and Célèbre, were set on
fire by a bomb-shell, and burned to ashes, so that none remained but the
Prudent and Bienfaisant, which the admiral undertook to destroy. For this
purpose, in the night between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth days of
the month, the boats of the squadron were in two divisions detached into
the harbour, under the command of two young captains, Laforey and Balfour.
They accordingly penetrated in the dark through a terrible fire of cannon
and musketry, and boarded the enemy sword in hand. The Prudent, being
aground, was set on fire and destroyed, but the Bienfaisant was towed out
of the harbour in triumph. In the prosecution of the siege, the admiral
and general co-operated with remarkable harmony; the former cheerfully
assisting the latter with cannon and other implements; with detachments of
marines to maintain posts on shore, with parties of seamen to act as
pioneers, and concur in working the guns and mortars. The fire of the town
was managed with equal skill and activity, and kept up with great
perseverance; until, at length, their shipping being all taken and
destroyed, the caserns ruined in two principal bastions,* forty out of
fifty-two pieces of cannon dismounted, broke, or rendered unserviceable,
and divers practicable breaches effected, the governor, in a letter to Mr.
Amherst, proposed a capitulation on the same articles that were granted to
the English at Port-Mahon.

* It may not be amiss to observe, that a cavalier, which
admiral Knowles had built at an enormous expense to the
nation, while Louisbourg remained in the hands of the
English in the last war, was, in the course of this siege,
entirely demolished by two or three shots from one of the
British batteries; so admirably had this piece of
fortification been contrived and executed, under the eye of
that profound engineer.

In answer to this proposal he was given to understand, that he and his
garrison must surrender themselves prisoners of war, otherwise he might
next morning expect a general assault by the shipping under admiral
Boscawen. The chevalier Dru-cour, piqued at the severity of these terms,
replied, that he would, rather than comply with them, stand an assault;
but the commissary-general, and intendant of the colony, presented a
petition from the traders and inhabitants of the place, in consequence of
which he submitted. On the twenty-seventh day of July, three companies of
grenadiers, commanded by major Farquhar, took possession of the western
gate; and brigadier Whitmore was detached into the town, to see the
garrison lay down their arms, and deliver up their colours on the
esplanade, and to post the necessary guards on the stores, magazines, and
ramparts. Thus, at the expense of about four hundred men killed and
wounded, the English obtained possession of the important island of
Cape-Breton, and the strong town of Louisbourg, in which the victors found
two hundred and twenty-one pieces of cannon, with eighteen mortars, and a
considerable quantity of stores and ammunition. The merchants and
inhabitants were sent to France in English bottoms; but the garrison,
together with the sea-officers, marines, and mariners, amounting in all to
five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven prisoners, were transported to
England. The loss of Louisbourg was the more severely felt by the French
king, as it had been attended by the destruction of so many considerable
ships and frigates. The particulars of this transaction were immediately
brought to England in a vessel despatched for that purpose, with captain
Amherst, brother to the commander, who was also intrusted with eleven pair
of colours taken at Louisbourg; these were, by his majesty’s order,
carried in pompous parade, escorted by detachments of horse and
foot-guards, with kettle-drums and trumpets, from the palace of Kensington
to St. Paul’s cathedral, where they were deposited as trophies, under a
discharge of cannon, and other noisy expressions of triumph and
exultation. Indeed, the public rejoicings for the conquest of Louisbourg
were diffused through every part of the British dominions, and addresses
of congratulation were presented to the king, by a great number of
flourishing towns and corporations.

After the reduction of Cape-Breton, some ships were detached, with a body
of troops under the command of lieutenant-colonel lord Rollo, to take
possession of the island of St. John, which also lies in the gulf of St.
Laurence, and by its fertility in corn and cattle, had, since the
beginning of the war, supplied Quebec with considerable quantities of
provisions. It was likewise the asylum to which the French neutrals of
Annapolis fled for shelter from the English government; and the retreat
from whence they and the Indians used to make their sudden irruptions into
Nova-Scotia, where they perpetrated the most inhuman barbarities on the
defenceless subjects of Great Britain. The number of inhabitants amounted
to four thousand one hundred, who submitted and brought in their arms;
then lord Rollo took possession of the governor’s quarters, where he found
several scalps of Englishmen, whom the savages had assassinated, in
consequence of the encouragement they received from their French patrons
and allies, who gratified them with a certain premium for every scalp they
produced. The island was stocked with above ten thousand head of black
cattle, and some of the farmers raised each twelve hundred bushels of corn
annually for the market of Quebec.

ATTEMPT UPON TICONDEROGA.

The joy and satisfaction arising from the conquest of Louisbourg and St.
John, was not a little checked by the disaster which befel the main body
of the British forces in America, under the immediate conduct of general
Abercrombie, who, as we have already observed, had proposed the reduction
of the French forts on the lakes George and Champlain, as the chief
objects of his enterprise, with a view to secure the frontier of the
British colonies, and open a passage for the future conquest of Canada. In
the beginning of July his forces, amounting to near seven thousand regular
troops, and ten thousand provincials, embarked on the lake George, in the
neighbourhood of lake Champlain, on board of nine hundred batteaux, and
one hundred and thirty-five whale-boats, with provisions, artillery, and
ammunition; several pieces of cannon being mounted on rafts to cover the
purposed landing, which was next day effected without opposition. The
general’s design was to invest: Ticonderoga, a fort situated on a tongue
of land, extending between lake George and a narrow gut that communicates
with lake Champlain. This fortification was on three sides surrounded with
water, and in front nature had secured it with a morass. The English
troops being disembarked, were immediately formed into three columns, and
began their march to the enemy’s advanced post, consisting of one
battalion, encamped behind a breast-work of logs, which they now abandoned
with precipitation, after having set them on fire, and burned their tents
and implements. The British forces continued their march in the same
order; but the route lying through a thick wood that did not admit of any
regular progression or passage, and the guides proving extremely ignorant,
the troops were bewildered, and the columns broken by falling in one upon
another. Lord Howe being advanced at the head of the right centre column,
encountered a French detachment who had likewise lost their way in the
retreat from the advanced post, and a warm skirmish ensuing, the enemy
were routed with considerable loss, a good number were killed, and one
hundred and forty-eight were taken prisoners, including five officers.
This petty advantage was dearly bought with the loss of lord Howe, who
fell in the beginning of the action, unspeakably regretted as a young
nobleman of the most promising talents, who had distinguished himself in a
peculiar manner by his courage, activity, and rigid observation of
military discipline, and had acquired the esteem and affection of the
soldiery by his generosity, sweetness of manners, and engaging address.
The general perceiving the troops were greatly fatigued and disordered,
from want of rest and refreshment, thought it advisable to march back to
the landing-place, which they reached about eight in the morning. Then he
detached lieutenant-colonel Bradstreet, with one regular regiment, six
companies of the Royal Americans, with the batteaux-men, and a body of
rangers, to take possession of a saw-mill in the neighbourhood of
Ticonderoga, which the enemy had abandoned. This post being secured, the
general advanced again towards Ticonderoga, where, he understood from the
prisoners, the enemy had assembled eight battalions, with a body of
Canadians and Indians, amounting in all to six thousand. These, they said,
being encamped before the fort, were employed in making a formidable
intrenchment, where they intended to wait for a reinforcement of three
thousand men, who had been detached under the command of M. de Levi, to
make a diversion on the side of the Mohawk river;* but, upon intelligence
of Mr. Abercrombie’s approach, were now recalled for the defence of
Ticonderoga.

* This officer intended to have made an irruption through
the pass of Oneida on the Mohawk river, but was recalled
before he could execute his design. General Abercrombie
afterwards sent thither brigadier Stanwix, with a
considerable body of provincials, and this important pass
was secured by a fort built at that juncture.

This information determined the English general to strike, if possible,
some decisive stroke before the junction could be effected. He therefore,
early next morning, sent his engineer across the river on the opposite
side of the fort, to reconnoitre the enemy’s intrenchments; and he
reported that the works being still unfinished, might be attempted with a
good prospect of success. A disposition was made accordingly for the
attack, and, after proper guards had been left at the saw-mill and the
landing-place, the whole army was put in motion. They advanced with great
alacrity towards the intrenchment, which, however, they found altogether
impracticable. The breastwork was raised eight feet high, and the ground
before it covered with an abbatis, of felled trees, with their boughs
pointing outwards, and projecting in such a manner as to render the
intrenchment almost inaccessible. Notwithstanding these discouraging
difficulties, the British troops marched up to the assault with an
undaunted resolution, and sustained a terrible fire without flinching.
They endeavoured to cut their way through these embarrassments with their
swords, and some of them even mounted the parapet; but the enemy were so
well covered, that they could deliberately direct their fire without the
least danger to themselves: the carnage was therefore considerable, and
the troops began to fall into confusion, after several repeated attacks,
which lasted above four hours, under the most disadvantageous
circumstances. The general, by this time, saw plainly that no hope of
success remained; and, in order to prevent a total defeat, took measures
for the retreat of the army, which retired unmolested to their former
camp, with the loss of about eighteen hundred men killed or wounded,
including a great number of officers. Every corps of regular troops
behaved, on this unfortunate occasion, with remarkable intrepidity; but
the greatest loss was sustained by lord John Murray’s Highland regiment,
of which above one half of the private men, and twenty-five officers, were
either slain upon the spot, or desperately wounded. Mr. Abercrombie,
unwilling to stay in the neighbourhood of the enemy with forces which had
received such a dispiriting check, retired to his batteaux, and
re-embarking the troops, returned to the camp at lake George, from whence
he had taken his departure. Censure, which always attends miscarriage, did
not spare the character of this commander; his attack was condemned as
rash, and his retreat as pusillanimous. In such a case allowances must be
made for the peevishness of disappointment, and the clamour of connexion.
How far Mr. Abercrombie acquitted himself in the duty of a general we
shall not pretend to determine; but if he could depend upon the courage
and discipline of his forces, he surely had nothing to fear, after the
action, from the attempts of the enemy, to whom he would have been
superior in number, even though they had been joined by the expected
reinforcement; he might therefore have remained on the spot, in order to
execute some other enterprise when he should be reinforced in his turn;
for general Amherst no sooner heard of his disaster, than he returned with
the troops from Cape-Breton to New England, after having left a strong
garrison in Louis-bourg. At the head of six regiments he began his march
to Albany about the middle of September, in order to join the forces on
the lake, that they might undertake some other service before the season
should be exhausted.

FORT FRONTENAC TAKEN AND DESTROYED BY THE ENGLISH.

In the meantime, general Abercrombie had detached lieutenant-colonel
Bradstreet, with a body of three thousand men, chiefly provincials, to
execute a plan which this officer had formed against Cadaraqui, or fort
Frontenac, situated on the north side of the river St. Laurence, just
where it takes its origin from the lake Ontario. To the side of this lake
he penetrated with his detachment, and embarking in some sloops and
batteaux, provided for the purpose, landed within a mile of fort
Frontenac, the garrison of which, consisting of one hun dred and ten men,
with a few Indians, immediately surrendered at discretion. Considering the
importance of this post, which in a great measure commanded the mouth of
the river St. Laurence, and served as a magazine to the more southern
castles, the French general was inexcusable for leaving it in such a
defenceless condition. The fortification itself was inconsiderable and
ill-contrived; nevertheless, it contained sixty pieces of cannon, sixteen
small mortars, with an immense quantity of merchandise and provisions,
deposited for the use of the French forces detached against brigadier
Forbes, their western garrisons, and Indian allies, as well as for the
subsistence of the corps commanded by M. de Levi, on his enterprise
against the Mohawk river. Mr. Bradstreet not only reduced the fort without
bloodshed, but also made himself master of all the enemy’s shipping on the
lake, amounting to nine armed vessels, some of which carried eighteen
guns. Two of these Mr. Bradstreet conveyed to Oswego, whither he returned
with his troops, after he had destroyed fort Frontenac, with all the
artillery, stores, provisions, and merchandise, which it contained. In
consequence of this exploit, the French troops to the southward were
exposed to the hazard of starving; but it is not easy to conceive the
general’s reason for giving orders to abandon and destroy a fort, which,
if properly strengthened and sustained, might have rendered the English
masters of the lake Ontario, and grievously harassed the enemy both in
their commerce and expeditions to the westward. Indeed, great part of the
Indian trade centered at Frontenac, to which place the Indians annually
repaired from all parts of America, some of them at the distance of a
thousand miles, and here exchanged their furs for European commodities. So
much did the French traders excel the English in the art of conciliating
the affection of those savage tribes, that great part of them, in their
yearly progress to this remote market, actually passed by the British
settlement of Albany, in New York, where they might have been supplied
with what articles they wanted, much cheaper than they could purchase them
at Frontenac or Montreal; nay, the French traders used to furnish
themselves with those very commodities from the merchants of New York, and
found this traffic much more profitable than that of procuring the same
articles from France, loaded with the expense of a tedious and dangerous
navigation, from the sea to the source of the river St. Laurence.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

BRIGADIER FORBES TAKES FORT DU QUESNE.

In all probability, the destruction of Frontenac facilitated the
expedition against Fort du Quesne, intrusted to the conduct of brigadier
Forbes, who, with his little army, began his march in the beginning of
July from Philadelphia for the river Ohio, a prodigious tract of country
very little known, destitute of military roads, incumbered with mountains,
morasses, and woods, that were almost impenetrable. It was not without
incredible exertion of industry, that he procured provisions and carriages
for this expedition, formed new roads, extended scouting parties, secured
camps, and surmounted many other difficulties in the course of his tedious
march, during which he was also harassed by small detachments of the
enemy’s Indians. Having penetrated with the main body as far as
Ray’s-Town, at the distance of ninety miles from Fort du Quesne, and
advanced colonel Bouquet with two thousand men, about fifty miles farther,
to a place called Lyal-Henning, this officer detached major Grant at the
head of eight hundred men, to reconnoitre the fort and its out-works. The
enemy perceiving him approach, sent a body of troops against him,
sufficient to surround his whole detachment; a very severe action began,
which the English maintained with their usual courage for three hours,
against cruel odds; but at length, being overpowered by numbers, they were
obliged to give way, and retired in disorder to Lyal-Henning, with the
loss of about three hundred men killed or taken, including major Grant,
who was carried prisoner to Fort du Quesne, and nineteen officers.
Notwithstanding this mortifying check, brigadier Forbes advanced with the
army, resolved to prosecute his operations with vigour; but the enemy,
dreading the prospect of a siege, dismantled and abandoned the fort, and
retired down the river Ohio, to their settlements on the Mississippi. They
quitted the fort on the twenty-fourth day of November, and next clay it
was possessed by the British forces. As for the Indians of this country,
they seemed heartily to renounce their connexions with France, and be
perfectly reconciled to the government of his Britannic majesty. Brigadier
Forbes having repaired the fort, changed its name from du Quesne to
Pittsburgh, secured it with a garrison of provincials, and concluded
treaties of friendship and alliance with the Indian tribes. Then he
marched back to Philadelphia, and in his retreat built a block-house, near
Lyal-Henning, for the defence of Pennsylvania; but he himself did not long
survive these transactions, his Constitution having been exhausted by the
incredible fatigues of the service.—Thus have we given a particular
detail of all the remarkable operations by which this campaign was
distinguished on the continent of America; the reader will be convinced,
that, notwithstanding the defeat of Ticonderoga, and the disaster of the
advanced party in the neighbourhood of Fort du Quesne, the arms of Great
Britain acquired many important advantages; and indeed paved the way for
the reduction of Quebec, and the conquest of all Canada. In the meantime,
the admirals Boscawen and Hardy, having left a considerable squadron at
Halifax in Nova-Scotia, returned with four ships of the line to England,
where they arrived in the beginning of November, after having given chase
to six large French ships, which they descried to the westward of Scilly,
but could not overtake or bring to an engagement.

The conquest of the French settlement in the river Senegal being deemed
imperfect and incomplete, whilst France still kept possession of the
island of Goree, the ministry of Great Britain resolved to crown the
campaign in Africa with the reduction of that fortress. For this purpose
commodore Keppel, brother to the earl of Albemarle, was vested with the
command of a squadron, consisting of four ships of the line, several
frigates, two bomb-ketches, and some transports, having on board seven
hundred men of the regular troops, commanded by colonel Worge, and
embarked in the harbour of Cork in Ireland, from whence this whole
armament took its departure on the eleventh day of November. After a
tempestuous passage, in which they touched at the isle of Teneriffe, they
arrived at Goree in the latter end of December, and the commodore made a
disposition for attacking this island, which was remarkably strong by
nature, but very indifferently fortified. Goree is a small barren island,
extending about three quarters of a mile in length, of a triangular form;
and on the south-west side rising into a rocky hill, on which the paltry
fort of St. Michael is situated. There is another still more
inconsiderable, called St. Francis, towards the other extremity of the
island; and several batteries were raised around its sweep, mounted with
about one hundred pieces of cannon, and four mortars. The French governor,
M. de St. Jean, had great plenty of ammunition, and his garrison amounted
to about three hundred men, exclusive of as many negro inhabitants. The
flat-bottomed boats, for disembarking the troops, being hoisted out, and
disposed alongside of the different transports, the commodore stationed
his ships on the west side of the island, and the engagement began with a
shell from one of the ketches. This was a signal for the great ships,
which poured in their broadsides without intermission, and the fire was
returned with equal vivacity from all the batteries of the island. In the
course of the action the cannonading from the ships became so severe and
terrible, that the French garrison deserted their quarters, in spite of
all the efforts of the governor, who acquitted himself like a man of
honour; but he was obliged to strike his colours, and surrender at
discretion, after a short but warm dispute, in which the loss of the
British commodore did not exceed one hundred men killed and wounded. The
success of the day was the more extraordinary, as the French garrison had
not lost a man, except one negro killed by the bursting of a bomb-shell,
and the number of their wounded was very inconsiderable. While the attack
lasted, the opposite shore of the continent was lined with a concourse of
negroes, assembled to view the combat, who expressed their sentiments and
surprise in loud clamour and tin-couth gesticulations, and seemed to be
impressed with awe and astonishment at the power and execution of the
British squadron. The French colours being struck, as a signal of
submission, the commodore sent a detachment of marines on shore, who
disarmed the garrison, and hoisted the British flag upon the castle of St.
Michael. In the meantime, the governor and the rest of the prisoners were
secured among the shipping. Thus the important island of Goree fell into
the hands of the English, together with two trading vessels that chanced
to be at anchor in the road; and stores, money, and merchandise, to the
value of twenty thousand pounds. Part of the troops being left in garrison
at Goree, under the command of major Newton, together with three sloops
for his service, the squadron, being watered and refreshed from the
continent, that part of which is governed by one of the Jalof kings, and
the prisoners, with their baggage, being dismissed in three cartel ships
to France, the commodore set sail for Senegal, and reinforced fort Louis
with the rest of the troops, under colonel Worge, who was at this juncture
favoured with a visit by the king of Legibelli; but very little pains were
taken to dismiss this potentate in good humour, or maintain the
disposition he professed to favour the commerce of Great Britain. True it
is, he was desirous of engaging the English in his quarrels with some
neighbouring nations; and such engagements were cautiously and politically
avoided, because it was the interest of Great Britain to be upon good
terms with every African prince who could promote and extend the commerce
of her subjects.

SHIPWRECK OF CAPTAIN BARTON.

Commodore Keppel having reduced Goree, and reinforced the garrison of
Senegal, returned to England, where all his ships arrived, after a very
tempestuous voyage, in which the squadron had been dispersed. This
expedition, however successful in the main, was attended with one
misfortune, the loss of the Lichfield ship of war, commanded by captain
Barton, which, together with one transport and a bomb-tender, was wrecked
on the coast of Barbary, about nine leagues to the northward of Saffy, in
the dominions of Morocco. One hundred and thirty men, including several
officers, perished on this occasion; but the captain and the rest of the
company, to the number of two hundred and twenty, made shift to reach the
shore, where they ran the risk of starving, and were cruelly used by the
natives, although a treaty of peace at that time subsisted between Great
Britain and Morocco; nay, they were even enslaved by the emperor, who
detained them in captivity until they were ransomed by the British
government: so little dependence can be placed on the faith of such
barbarian princes, with whom it is even a disgrace for any civilized
nation to be in alliance, whatever commercial advantages may arise from
the connexion.

GALLANT EXPLOIT OF CAPTAIN TYRREL.

The incidents of the war that happened in the West Indies, during these
occurrences, may be reduced to a small compass. Nothing extraordinary was
achieved in the neighbourhood of Jamaica, where admiral Coats commanded a
small squadron, from which he detached cruisers occasionally for the
protection of the British commerce; and at Antigua the trade was
effectually secured by the vigilance of captain Tyrrel, whose courage and
activity were equal to his conduct and circumspection. In the month of
March, this gentleman, with his own ship the Buckingham, and the
Cambridge, another of the line, demolished a fort on the island of
Martinique, and destroyed four privateers riding under its protection; but
his valour appeared much more conspicuous in a subsequent engagement,
which happened in the month of November. Being detached on a cruise in his
own ship, the Buckingham, by commodore Moore, who commanded at the Leeward
Islands, he fell in with the Weazle sloop, commanded by captain Boles,
between the islands of Montserrat and Gaudaloupe, and immediately
discovered a fleet of nineteen sail, under convoy of a French ship of war
carrying seventy-four cannon, and two large frigates. Captain Tyrrel
immediately gave chase with all the sail he could carry, and the Weazle
running close to the enemy, received a whole broadside from the large
ship, which, however, she sustained without much damage; nevertheless, Mr.
Tyrrel ordered her commander to keep aloof, as he could not be supposed
able to bear the shock of large metal, and he himself prepared for the
engagement. The enemy’s large ship, the Florissant, though of much greater
force than the Buckingham, instead of lying-to for his coming up, made a
running fight with her stern-chase, while the two frigates annoyed him in
his course, sometimes raking him fore and aft, and sometimes lying on his
quarter. At length he came alongside of the Florissant, within pistol
shot, and poured in a whole broadside, which did considerable execution.
The salutation was returned with equal vivacity, and a furious engagement
ensued. Captain Tyrrel was wounded in the face, and lost three fingers of
his right hand; so that, being entirely disabled, he was obliged to
delegate the command of the ship to his first lieutenant, Mr. Marshal, who
continued the battle with great gallantry until he lost his life; then the
charge devolved to the second lieutenant, who acquitted himself with equal
honour, and sustained a desperate fight against three ships of the enemy.
The officers and crew of the Buckingham exerted themselves with equal
vigour and deliberation, and captain Troy, who commanded a detachment of
marines on the poop, plied his small arms so effectually, as to drive the
French from their quarters. At length, confusion, terror, and uproar,
prevailing on board the Florissant, her firing ceased, and her colours
were hauled down about twilight; but her commander perceiving that the
Buckingham was too much damaged in her rigging to pursue in any hope of
success, ordered all his sails to be set, and fled in the dark with his
two consorts. Nothing but this circumstance could have prevented a British
ship of sixty-five guns, indifferently manned in respect to numbers, from
taking a French ship of the line, mounted with seventy-four pieces of
cannon, provided with seven hundred men, and assisted by two large
frigates, one of thirty-eight guns, and the other wanting two of this
number. The loss of the Buckingham, in this action, did not exceed twenty
men killed and wounded; whereas the number of the slain on board the
Florissant did not fall short of one hundred and eighty, and that of her
wounded is said to have exceeded three hundred. She was so disabled in her
hull, that she could hardly be kept afloat until she reached Martinique,
where she was repaired; and the largest frigate, together with the loss of
forty men, received such damage as to be for some time quite
unserviceable.

TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST INDIES.

In the East Indies the transactions of the war were chequered with a
variety of success; but, on the whole, the designs of the enemy were
entirely defeated. The French commander, M. de Bussy, had, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, quarrelled with Salabatzing, viceroy
of Decan, because this last would not put him in possession of the
fortress of Golconda. In the course of the next year, while the English
forces were employed in Bengal, M. de Bussy made himself master of the
British factories of Ingeram, Bandermalanka, and Vizagapatam, and the
reduction of this last left the enemy in possession of the whole coast of
Coro-mandel, from Ganjam to Massulapatam. While a body of the English
company’s forces, under captain Caillaud, endeavoured to reduce the
important fortress and town of Madura, the French, under M. d’Anteuil,
invested Trichinopoly. Caillaud no sooner received intelligence of the
danger to which this place was exposed, than he hastened to its relief,
and obliged the enemy to abandon the siege. Then he returned to Madura,
and, after an unsuccessful assault, made himself master of it by
capitulation. During these transactions, colonel Forde made an attempt
upon the fort of Nelloure, a strong place at the distance of twenty-four
miles from Madras, but miscarried; and this was also the fate of an
expedition against Wandewash, undertaken by colonel Aldercron. The first
was repulsed in storming the place, the other was anticipated by the
French army, which marched from Pondicherry to the relief of the garrison.
The French king had sent a considerable reinforcement to the East Indies,
under the command of general Lally, an officer of Irish extraction,
together with such a number of ships as rendered the squadron of M.
d’Apché superior to that of admiral Pococke, who had succeeded admiral
Watson, lately deceased, in the command of the English squadron stationed
on the coast of Coromandel, which, in the beginning of this year, was
reinforced from England with several ships, under the direction of
commodore Stevens. Immediately after this junction, which was effected in
the road of Madras on the twenty-fourth day of March, admiral Pococke, who
had already signalized himself by his courage, vigilance, and conduct,
sailed to windward, with a view to intercept the French squadron, of which
he had received intelligence. In two days he descried in the road of fort
St. David the enemy’s fleet, consisting of nine ships, which immediately
stood out to sea, and formed the line of battle a-head. The admiral took
the same precaution, and bearing down upon M. d’Apché, the engagement
began about three in the afternoon. The French commodore, having sustained
a warm action for about two hours, bore away with his whole fleet, and
being joined by two ships, formed a line of battle again to leeward.
Admiral Pococke’s own ship, and some others, being greatly damaged in
their masts and rigging, two of his captains having misbehaved in the
action, and night coming on, he did not think it advisable to pursue them
with all the sail he could carry; but, nevertheless, he followed them at a
proper distance, standing to the south-west, in order to maintain the
weather-gage, in case he should be able to renew the action in the
morning. In this expectation, however, he was disappointed; the enemy
showed no lights, nor made any signals that could be observed; and in the
morning not the least vestige of them appeared. Mr. Pococke, on the
supposition that they had weathered him in the night, endeavoured to work
up after them to windward; but finding he lost ground considerably, he
dropped anchor about three leagues to the northward of Madras, and
received intelligence from the chief of that settlement, that one of the
largest French ships, having been disabled in the engagement, was run
ashore to the southward of Alem-parve, where their whole squadron lay at
anchor. Such was the issue of the first action between the English and
French squadrons in the East Indies, which, over and above the loss of a
capital ship, is said to have cost the enemy about five hundred men,
whereas the British admiral did not lose one-fifth part of that number.
Being dissatisfied with the behaviour of three captains, he, on his return
to Madras, appointed a court-martial to inquire into their conduct; two
were dismissed from the service, and the third was sentenced to lose one
year’s rank as a post-captain.

In the meantime, Mr. Lally had disembarked his troops at Pondicherry, and,
taking the field, immediately invested the fort of St. David, while the
squadron blocked it up by sea, Two English ships being at anchor in the
road when the enemy arrived, their captains seeing no possibility of
escaping, ran them on shore, set them on fire, and retired with their men
into the fortress, which, however, was in a few days surrendered. A much
more resolute defence was expected from the courage and conduct of major
Polier, who commanded the garrison. When he arrived at Madras he was
subjected to a court of inquiry, which acquitted him of cowardice, but
were of opinion that the place might have held out much longer, and that
the terms on which it surrendered were shameful, as the enemy were not
even masters of the outward covered way, as they had made no breach, and
had a wet ditch to fill up and pass, before the town could have been
properly assaulted. Polier, in order to wipe off this disgrace, desired to
serve as a volunteer with colonel Draper, and was mortally wounded in a
sally at the siege of Madras. Admiral Pococke having, to the best of his
power, repaired his shattered ships, set sail again on the tenth of May,
in order to attempt the relief of fort St. David’s; but, notwithstanding
his utmost endeavours, he could not reach it in time to be of any service.
On the thirtieth day of the month, he came in sight of Pondicherry, from
whence the French squadron stood away early next morning, nor was it in
his power to come up with them, though he made all possible efforts for
that purpose. Then receiving intelligence that fort St. David’s was
surrendered to the enemy, he returned again to Madras, in order to refresh
his squadron. On the twenty-fifth day of July, he sailed a third time in
quest of M. d’Apché, and in two days perceived his squadron, consisting of
eight ships of the line and a frigate, at anchor in the road of
Pondicherry. They no sooner descried him advancing than they stood out to
sea as before, and he continued to chase, in hopes of bringing them to an
engagement; but all his endeavours proved fruitless till the third day of
August, when, having obtained the weather-gage, he bore down upon them in
order of battle. The engagement began with great impetuosity on both
sides; but in little more than ten minutes, M. d’Apché set his foresail,
and bore away, his whole squadron following his example, and maintaining a
running fight in a very irregular line. The British admiral then hoisted
the signal for a general chase, which the enemy perceiving, thought proper
to cut away their boats, and crowd with all the sail they could carry.
They escaped, by favour of the night, into the road of Pondicherry, and
Mr. Pococke anchored with his squadron off Cari-cal, a French settlement,
having thus obtained an undisputed victory, with the loss of thirty men
killed, and one hundred and sixteen wounded, including commodore Stevens
and captain Martin, though their wounds were not dangerous. The number of
killed and wounded on board the French squadron amounted, according to
report, to five hundred and forty; and their fleet was so much damaged,
that in the beginning of September their commodore sailed for the island
of Bourbon, in the same latitude with Madagascar, in order to refit; thus
leaving the command and sovereignty of the Indian seas to the English
admiral, whose fleet, from the beginning of this campaign, had been much
inferior to the French squadron in number of ships and men, as well as in
weight of metal.

Mr. Lally having reduced Cuddalore and fort St. David’s,* resolved to
extort a sum of money from the king of Tanjour, on pretence that, in the
last war, he had granted an obligation to the French governor for a
certain sum, which had never been paid.

* Cuddalore was in such a defenceless condition, that it
could make no resistance; and there being no place in fort
St. David’s bomb-proof, nor any provisions or fresh water,
the garrison surrendered in twelve days, on capitulation,
after having sustained a severe bombardment.

Lally accordingly marched with a body of three thousand men into the
dominions of Tanjour, and demanded seventy-two lacs of rupees. This
extravagant demand being rejected, he plundered Negare, a trading town on
the sea-coast, and afterwards invested the capital; but after he had
prosecuted the siege until a breach was made, his provisions and
ammunition beginning to fail, several vigorous sallies being made by the
forces of the king of Tanjour, and the place well defended by European
gunners, sent from the English garrison at Trichinopoly, he found himself
obliged to raise the siege, and retreat with precipitation, leaving his
cannon behind. He arrived at Carical about the middle of August, and from
thence retired to Pondicherry towards the end of September. He afterwards
cantoned his troops in the province of Arcot, entered the city without
opposition, and began to make preparations for the siege of Madras, which
shall be recorded among the incidents of the succeeding year. In the
meantime, the land-forces belonging to the East India company were so much
out-numbered by the reinforcements which arrived with Mr. Lally, that they
could not pretend to keep the field, out were obliged to remain on the
defensive, and provide as well as they could for the security of fort St.
George, and the other settlements in that part of India.

TRANSACTIONS on the CONTINENT of EUROPE.

Having particularized the events of the war which distinguished this year
in America, Africa, and Asia—those remote scenes in which the
interest of Great Britain was immediately and intimately concerned—it
now remains to record the incidents of the military operations in Germany,
supported by British subsidies, and enforced by British troops, to favour
the abominable designs of an ally, from whose solitary friendship the
British nation can never reap any solid benefit; and to defend a foreign
elector, in whose behalf she had already lavished an immensity of
treasure. Notwithstanding the bloodshed and lavages which had signalized
the former campaign, the mutual losses of the belligerent powers, the
incredible expense of money, the difficulty of recruiting armies thinned
by sword and distemper, the scarcity of forage and provisions, the
distresses of Saxony in particular, and the calamities of war, which
desolated the greatest part of the empire—no proposition of peace
was hinted by either of the parties concerned; but the powers at variance
seemed to be exasperated against each other with the most implacable
resentment. Jarring interests were harmonized, old prejudices rooted up,
inveterate jealousies assuaged, and even inconsistencies reconciled, in
connecting the confederacy which was now formed and established against
the king of Prussia; and, on the other hand, the king of Great Britain
seemed determined to employ the whole power and influence of his crown in
supporting this monarch. Yet the members of the grand confederacy were
differently actuated by disagreeing motives, which, in the sequel,
operated for the preservation of his Prussian majesty, by preventing the
full exertion of their united strength. The empress-queen, over and above
her desire of retrieving Silesia, which was her primary aim, gave way to
the suggestions of personal hatred and revenge, to the gratification of
which she may be said to have sacrificed, in some measure, the interests
of her family, as well as the repose of the empire, by admitting the
natural enemies of her house into the Austrian Netherlands, and inviting
them to invade the dominions of her co-states with a formidable army.
France, true to her old political maxims, wished to see the house of
Austria weakened by the divisions in the empire, which she accordingly
fomented: for this reason it could not be her interest to effect the ruin
of the house of Brandenburgh; and therefore she had, no doubt, set bounds
to the prosecution of her schemes in concert with the court of Vienna. But
her designs against Hanover amounted to absolute conquest. In pursuance of
these, she sent an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men across the
Rhine, instead of four and twenty thousand, which she had engaged to
furnish by the original treaty with the empress-queen of Hungary, who is
said to have shared in the spoils of the electorate. The czarina, by
co-operating with the houses of Bourbon and Austria, gratified her
personal disgust towards the Prussian monarch, augmented her finances by
considerable subsidies from both, and perhaps amused herself with the hope
of obtaining an establishment in the German empire; but whether she
waivered in her own sentiments, or her ministry fluctuated between the
promises of France and the presents of Great Britain, certain it is, her
forces had not acted with vigour in Pomerania; and her general Apraxin,
instead of prosecuting his advantage, had retreated immediately after the
Prussians miscarried in their attack. He was indeed disgraced, and tried
for having thus retired without orders; but in all probability, this trial
was no other than a farce, acted to amuse the other confederates while the
empress of Russia gained time to deliberate upon the offers that were
made, and determine with regard to the advantages or disadvantages that
might accrue to her from persevering in the engagements which she had
contracted. As for the Swedes, although they had been instigated to
hostilities against Prussia by the intrigues of France, and flattered with
hopes of retrieving Pomerania, they prosecuted the war in such a
dispirited and ineffectual manner, as plainly proved that either the
ancient valour of that people was extinct, or that the nation was not
heartily engaged in the quarrel.

When the Russian general Apraxin retreated from Pomerania, mareschal
Lehwald, who commanded the Prussians in that country, was left at liberty
to turn his arms against the Swedes, and accordingly drove them before him
almost without opposition. By the beginning of January they had evacuated
all Prussian Pomerania, and Lehwald invaded their dominions in his turn.
He, in a little time, made himself master of all Swedish Pomerania, except
Stralsund and the isle of Rugen, and possessed himself of several
magazines which the enemy had erected. The Austrian army, after their
defeat at Breslau, had retired into Bohemia, where they were cantoned, the
head-quarters being fixed at Koningsgratz. The king of Prussia having
cleared all his part of Silesia, except the town of Schweidnitz, which he
circumscribed with a blockade, sent detachments from his army cantoned in
the neighbourhood of Breslau, to penetrate into the Austrian or southern
part of Silesia, where they surprised Troppau and Jaggernsdorf, while he
himself remained at Breslau, entertaining his officers with concerts of
music. Not that he suffered these amusements to divert his attention from
subjects of greater importance. He laid Swedish Pomerania under
contribution, and made a fresh demand of five hundred thousand crowns from
the electorate of Saxony. Having received intimation that the duke of
Mecklenburgh was employed in providing magazines for the French army, he
detached a body of troops into that country, who not only secured the
magazines, but levied considerable contributions; and the duke retired to
Lubeck, attended by the French minister. The states of Saxony having
proved a little dilatory in obeying his Prussian majesty’s injunction,
received a second intimation, importing that they should levy and deliver,
within a certain time, eighteen thousand recruits for his army, pay into
the hands of his commissary one year’s revenue of the electorate in
advance; and Leipsic was taxed with an extraordinary subsidy of eight
hundred thousand crowns, on pain of military execution. The states were
immediately convoked at Leipsic in order to deliberate on these demands;
and the city being unable to pay such a considerable sum, the Prussian
troops began to put their monarch’s threats in execution. He justified
these proceedings, by declaring that the enemy had practised the same
violence and oppression on the territories of his allies; but how the
practice of his declared enemies, in the countries which they had invaded
and subdued in common course of war, should justify him in pillaging and
oppressing a people with whom neither he nor his allies were at war, it is
not easy to conceive. As little can we reconcile this conduct to the
character of a prince, assuming the title of protector of the protestant
religion, which is the established faith among those very Saxons who were
subjected to such grievous impositions; impositions the more grievous and
unmerited, as they had never taken any share in the present war, but
cautiously avoided every step that might be construed into provocation,
since the king of Prussia declared they might depend upon his protection.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

STATE of the ARMIES on the CONTINENT.

Before we proceed to enumerate the events of the campaign, it may be
necessary to inform the reader, that the forces brought into the field by
the empress-queen of Hungary, and the states of the empire, the czarina,
the kings of France and Sweden, fell very little short of three hundred
thousand men; and all these were destined to act against the king of
Prussia and the elector of Hanover. In opposition to this formidable
confederacy, his Prussian majesty was, by tha subsidy from England, the
spoils of Saxony, and the revenues of Brandenbourg, enabled to maintain an
army of one hundred and forty thousand men: while the elector of Hanover
assembled a body of sixty thousand men, composed of his own electoral
troops, with the auxiliary mercenaries of Hesse-Cassel, Buckebourg,
Saxe-Gotha, and Brunswick Wolfenbuttel, all of them maintained by the pay
of Great Britain. At this juncture, indeed, there was no other fund for
their subsistence, as the countries of Hanover and Hesse were possessed by
the enemy, and in the former the government was entirely changed.

THE FRENCH KING CHANGES THE ADMINISTRATION OF HANOVER.

In the month of December in the preceding year, a fanner of the revenues
from Paris arrived at Hanover, where he established his office, in order
to act by virtue of powers from one John Faidy, to whom the French king
granted the direction, receipt, and administration of all the duties and
revenues of the electorate. This director was, by a decree of the council
of state, empowered to receive the reveiraes, not only of Hanover, but
also of all other countries that should be subjected to his most christian
majesty in the course of the campaign; to remove the receivers who had
been employed in any part of the direction, receipt, and administration of
the duties and revenues of Hanover, and appoint others in their room. The
French king, by the same decree, ordained, that all persons who had been
intrusted under the preceding government, with titles, papers, accounts,
registers, or estimates, relating to the administration of the revenues,
should communicate them to John Faidy, or his attorneys; that the
magistrates of the towns, districts, and commonalties, as well as those
who directed the administration of particular states and provinces, should
deliver to the said John Faidy, or his attorneys, the produce of six years
of the duties and revenues belonging to the said towns, districts, and
provinces, reckoning from the first of January in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-one, together with an authentic account of the
sums they had paid during that term to the preceding sovereign, and of the
charges necessarily incurred. It appears from the nature of this decree,
which was dated on the eighteenth day of October, that immediately after
the conventions of Closter-Seven and Bremenworden,* the court of
Versailles had determined to change the government and system of the
electorate, contrary to an express article of the capitulation granted to
the city of Hanover, when it surrendered on the ninth day of August; and
that the crown of France intended to take advantage of the cessation of
arms, in seizing places and provinces which were not yet subdued; for, by
the decree above-mentioned, the administration of John Faidy extended to
the countries which might hereafter be conquered.

* Six days after the convention was signed at Closter-Seven,
another act of accommodation was concluded at Bremenworden,
between the generals Sporcken and Villemur, relating to the
release of prisoners, and some other points omitted in the
convention.

With what regard to justice, then, could the French government charge the
elector of Hanover with the infraction of articles? or what respect to
good faith and humanity did the duke de Richelieu observe, in the order
issued from Zell, towards the end of the year, importing, that as the
treaty made with the country of Hanover had been rendered void by the
violation of the articles signed at Closter-Seven, all the effects
belonging to the officers, or others, employed in the Hanoverian army,
should be confiscated for the use of his most christian majesty?

The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, being desirous of averting a like storm
from his dominions, not only promised to renounce all connexion with the
kings of Great Britain and Prussia, but even solicited the court of France
to receive him among the number of its dependents; for, on the eighteenth
day of October, the minister of the duke de Deuxponts, delivered at
Versailles, in the name of the landgrave, the plan of a treaty founded on
the following conditions: The landgrave, after having expressed an ardent
desire of attaching himself wholly to France, proposed these articles—That
he should enter into no engagement against the king and his allies; and
give no assistance, directly or indirectly, to the enemies of his majesty
and his allies: that he should never give his vote, in the general or
particular assemblies of the empire, against his majesty’s interest; but,
on the contrary, employ his interest, jointly with France, to quiet the
troubles of the empire: that, for this end, his troops, which had served
in the Hanoverian army, should engage in the service of France, on
condition that they should not act in the present war against his
Britannic majesty: that, immediately after the ratification of the treaty,
his most christian majesty should restore the dominions of the landgrave
in the same condition they were in when subdued by the French forces: that
these dominions should be exempted from all further contributions, either
in money, corn, forage, wood, or cattle, though already imposed on the
subjects of Hesse; and the French troops pay for all the provisions with
which they might be supplied; in which case the landgrave should exact no
toll for warlike stores, provisions, or other articles of that nature,
which might pass through his dominions: that the king of France should
guarantee all his estates, all the rights of the house of Hesse-Cassel,
particularly the act of assurance signed by his son, the hereditary
prince, with regard to religion; use his interest with the emperor and the
empress-queen, that, in consideration of the immense losses and damages
his most serene highness had suffered since the French invaded his
country, and of the great sums he should lose with England in arrears and
subsidies by this accommodation, he might be excused from furnishing his
contingent to the army of the empire, as well as from paying the Roman
months granted by the diet of the empire; and if, in resentment of this
convention, the states of his serene highness should be attacked, his most
christian majesty should afford the most speedy and effectual succours.—These
proposals will speak for themselves to the reader’s apprehension; and if
he is not blinded by the darkest mists of prejudice, exhibit a clear and
distinct idea of a genuine German ally. The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel had
been fed with the good things of England, even in time of peace, when his
friendship could not avail, nor his aversion prejudice, the interests of
Great Britain; but he was retained in that season of tranquillity as a
friend, on whose services the most implicit dependence might be placed in
any future storm or commotion. How far he merited this confidence and
favour might have been determined by reflecting on his conduct during the
former war: in the course of which his troops were hired to the king of
Great Britain and his enemies alternately, as the scale of convenience
happened to preponderate. Since the commencement of the present troubles,
he had acted as a mercenary to Great Britain, although he was a principal
in the dispute, and stood connected with her designs by solemn treaty, as
well as by all the ties of gratitude and honour; but now that the cause of
Hanover seemed to be on the decline, and his own dominions had suffered by
the fate of the war, he not only appeared willing to abandon his
benefactor and ally, but even sued to be enlisted in the service of his
adversary. This intended defection was, however, prevented by a sudden
turn of fortune, which he could not possibly foresee; and his troops
continued to act in conjunction with the Hanoverians.

TREATY BETWEEN THE FRENCH KING AND THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.

The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel was not singular in making such advances to
the French monarch. The duke of Brunswick, still more nearly connected
with the king of Great Britain, used such uncommon expedition in detaching
himself from the tottering fortune of Hanover, that in ten days after the
convention of Closter-Seven, he had concluded a treaty with the courts of
Vienna and Versailles; so that the negotiation must have been begun before
that convention took place. On the twentieth day of September, his
minister at Vienna, by virtue of full powers from the duke of Brunswick,
accepted and signed the conditions which the French king and his Austrian
ally thought proper to impose. These imported, that his most christian
majesty should keep possession of the cities of Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel
during the war, and make use of the artillery, arms, and military stores
deposited in their arsenals: that the duke’s forces, on their return from
the camp of the duke of Cumberland, should be disbanded and disarmed; and
take an oath that they should not, during the present war, serve against
the king or his allies: that the duke should be permitted to maintain a
battalion of foot, and two squadrons of horse, for the guard of his person
and castles; but the regulations made by mareschal Richelieu and the
intendant of his army, should subsist on their present footing: that the
duke should furnish his contingent in money and troops, agreeably to the
laws of the empire: that his forces should immediately join those which
the Germanic body had assembled; and that he should order his minister at
Ratisbon to vote conformably to the resolutions of the diet, approved and
confirmed by the emperor. In consideration of all these concessions, the
duke was restored to the favour of the French king, who graciously
promised that neither his revenues nor his treasure should be touched, nor
the administration of justice invaded; and that nothing further should be
demanded, but winter-quarters for the regiments which should pass that
season in the country of Brunswick. How scrupulously soever the duke might
have intended to observe the articles of this treaty, his intentions were
frustrated by the conduct of his brother prince Ferdinand, who, being
invested with the command of the Hanoverian army, and ordered to resume
the operations of war against the enemy, detained the troops of Brunswick,
as well as his nephew the hereditary prince, notwithstanding the treaty
which his brother had signed, and the injunctions which he had laid upon
his son to quit the army, and make a tour to Holland, The duke wrote an
expostulatory letter to prince Ferdinand, pathetically complaining that he
had seduced his troops, decoyed his son, and disgraced his family;
insisting upon the prince’s pursuing his journey, as well as upon the
return of the troops; and threatening, in case of non-compliance, to use
other means that should be more effectual. 461 [See note 3 O, at
the end of this Vol.] Notwithstanding this warm remonstrance, prince
Ferdinand adhered to his plan. He detained the troops and the hereditary
prince, who, being fond of the service, in a little time signalized
himself by very extraordinary acts of bravery and conduct; and means were
found to reconcile his father to measures that expressly contradicted his
engagements with the courts of Vienna and Versailles.

DECREE OF THE AULIC COUNCIL.

The defeat of the French army at Rosbach, and the retreat of the Russians
from Pomerania, had entirely changed the face of affairs in the empire.
The French king was soon obliged to abandon his conquests on that sida of
the Rhine, and his threats sounded no longer terrible in the ears of the
Hanoverian and Prussian allies. As little formidable were the
denunciations of the emperor, who had, by a decree of the Aulic council,
communicated to the diet certain mandates, issued in the month of August
in the preceding year, on pain of the ban of the empire, with avocatory
letters annexed against the king of Great Britain, elector of Hanover, and
the other princes acting in concert with the king of Prussia. The French
court likewise published a virulent memorial, after the convention of
Closter-Seven had been violated and set aside, drawing an invidious
parallel between the conduct of the French king and the proceedings of his
Britannic majesty; in which the latter is taxed with breach of faith, and
almost every meanness that could stain the character of a monarch. In
answer to the emperor’s decree and this virulent charge, baron Gimmengen,
the electoral minister of Brunswick-Lunenbourg, presented to the diet, in
November, a long memorial, recapitulating the important services his
sovereign had done the house of Austria, and the ungrateful returns he had
reaped, in the queen’s refusing to assist him, when his dominions were
threatened with an invasion. He enumerated many instances in which she had
assisted, encouraged, and even joined the enemies of the electorate, in
contempt of her former engagements, and directly contrary to the
constitution of the empire. He refuted every article of the charge which
the French court had brought against him in their virulent libel, retorted
the imputations of perfidy and ambition, and, with respect to France,
justified every particular of his own conduct.

BREMEN TAKEN AND RETAKEN.

While the French and Hanoverian armies remained in their winter-quarters,
the former at Zell, and the latter at Lemenbourg, divers petty enterprises
were executed by detachments with various success. The Hanoverian general
Juncheim, having taken post at Halberstadt and Quedlimbourg, from whence
he made excursions even to the gates of Brunswick, and kept the French
army in continual alarm, was visited by a large body of the enemy, who
compelled him to retire to Achersleben, committed great excesses in the
town of Halberstadt and its neighbourhood, and carried off hostages for
the payment of contributions. General Hardenberg, another Hanoverian
officer, having dislodged the French detachments that occupied Burgh,
Vogelsack, and Ritterhude, and cleared the whole territory of Bremen, in
the month of January the duke de Broglio assembled a considerable corps of
troops that were cantoned at Ottersburg, Rothenburg, and the adjacent
country, and advancing to Bremen, demanded admittance, threatening that,
in case of a refusal, he would have recourse to extremities, and punish
the inhabitants severely, should they make the least opposition. When
their deputies waited upon him, to desire a short time for deliberation,
he answered, “Not a moment—the duke de Richelieu’s orders are
peremptory, and admit of no delay.” He accordingly ordered the cannon to
advance; the wall was scaled, and the gates would have been forced open,
had not the magistrates, at the earnest importunity of the people,
resolved to comply with his demand. A second deputation was immediately
despatched to the duke de Broglio, signifying their compliance; and the
gates being opened, he marched into the city at midnight, after having
promised upon his honour that no attempt should be made to the prejudice
of its rights and prerogatives, and no outrage offered to the privileges
of the regency, to the liberty, religion, and commerce of the inhabitants.
This conquest, however, was of short duration. Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick being joined by a body of Prussian horse, under the command of
prince George of Holstein-Gottorp, the whole army was put in motion, and
advanced to the country of Bremen about the middle of February. The enemy
were dislodged from Rothenburg, Ottersburg, and Verden, and they abandoned
the city of Bremen at the approach of the Hanoverian general, who took
possession of it without opposition.

By this time the court of Versailles, being dissatisfied with the conduct
of the duke de Richelieu, had recalled that general from Germany, where
his place was supplied by the count de Clermont, to the general
satisfaction of the army, as well as the joy of the Hanoverian subjects,
among whom Richelieu had committed many flagrant and inhuman acts of
rapine and oppression. The new commander found his master’s forces reduced
to a deplorable condition, by the accidents of war, and distempers arising
from hard duty, severe weather, and the want of necessaries. As he could
not pretend, with such a wretched remnant, to oppose the designs of prince
Ferdinand in the field, or even maintain the footing which his predecessor
had gained, he found himself under the necessity of retiring with all
possible expedition towards the Rhine. As the allies advanced, his troops
retreated from their distant quarters with such precipitation, as to leave
behind all their sick, together with a great part of their baggage and
artillery, besides a great number of officers and soldiers, that fell into
the hands of those parties by whom they were pursued. The inhabitants of
Hanover, perceiving the French intended to abandon that city, were
overwhelmed with the fear of being subjected to every species of violence
and abuse; but their apprehensions were happily disappointed by the honour
and integrity of the duke de Randan, the French governor, who not only
took effectual measures for restraining the soldiers within the bounds of
the most rigid discipline and moderation, but likewise exhibited a noble
proof of generosity, almost without example. Instead of destroying his
magazine of provisions, according to the usual practice of war, he ordered
the whole to be either sold at a low price, or distributed among the poor
of the city, who had been long exposed to the horrors of famine: an act of
godlike humanity, which ought to dignify the character of that worthy
nobleman above all the titles that military fame can deserve, or arbitrary
monarchs bestow. The regency of Hanover were so deeply impressed with a
sense of his heroic behaviour on this occasion, that they gratefully
acknowledged it, in a letter of thanks to him and the count de Clermont;
and on the day of solemn thanksgiving to heaven for their being delivered
from their enemies, the clergy, in their sermons, did not fail to
celebrate and extol the charity and benevolence of the duke de Randan.
Such glorious testimonies, even from enemies, must have afforded the most
exquisite pleasure to a mind endued with sensibility; and this, no doubt,
may be termed one of the fairest triumphs of humanity.

THE FRENCH ABANDON HANOVER.

The two grand divisions of the French army, quartered at Zell and Hanover,
retired in good order to Hamelen, where they collected all their troops,
except those that were left in Hoya, and about four thousand men placed in
garrison at Minden, to retard the operations of the combined army. Towards
the latter end of February, prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, having received
intelligence that the count de Chabot was posted with a considerable body
of troops at Hoya, upon the Weser, detached the hereditary prince of
Brunswick, with four battalions, and some light troops and dragoons, to
dislodge them from that neighbourhood. This enterprise was executed with
the utmost intrepidity. The hereditary prince passed the Weser at Bremen
with part of his detachment, while the rest advanced on this side of the
river: and the enemy, being attacked in front and rear, were in a little
time forced, and thrown into confusion. The bridge being abandoned, and
near seven hundred men taken prisoners, the count de Chabot threw himself,
with two battalions, into the castle, where he resolved to support
himself, in hope of being relieved. The regiment of Bretagne, and some
detachments of dragoons, were actually on the march to his assistance. The
hereditary prince being made acquainted with this circumstance, being also
destitute of heavy artillery to besiege the place in form, and taking it
for granted he should not be able to maintain the post after it might be
taken, he listened to the terms of capitulation proposed by the French
general, whose garrison was suffered to march out with the honours of war;
but their cannon, stores, and ammunition were surrendered to the victor.
This was the first exploit of the hereditary prince, whose valour and
activity on many subsequent occasions shone with distinguished lustre. He
had no sooner reduced Hoya, than he marched to the attack of Minden, which
he invested on the fifth day of March, and on the fourteenth the garrison
surrendered at discretion. After the reduction of this city, the combined
army advanced towards Hamelen, where the French general had established
his head-quarters; but he abandoned them at the approach of the allies,
and leaving behind all his sick and wounded, with part of his magazines,
retired without halting to Paderborn, and from thence to the Rhine,
recalling in his march the troops that were in Embden, Cassel, and the
land-graviate of Hesse, all which places were now evacuated. They were
terribly harassed in their retreat by the Prussian hussars, and a body of
light horse, distinguished by the name of Hanoverian hunters, who took a
great number of prisoners, together with many baggage-waggons, and some
artillery. Such was the precipitation of the enemy’s retreat, that they
could not find time to destroy all their magazines of provision and
forage; and even forgot to call in the garrison of Vecht, a small fortress
in the neighbourhood of Diepholt, who were made prisoners of war, and here
was found a complete train of battering cannon and mortars. The count de
Clermont, having reached the banks of the Rhine, distributed his forces
into quarters of cantonment in Wesel and the adjoining country, while
prince Ferdinand cantoned the allied army in the bishopric of Munster;
here, however, he did not long remain inactive. In the latter end of May
he ordered a detachment to pass the Rhine at Duysbourg, under the command
of colonel Scheither, who executed his order without loss, defeated three
battalions of the enemy, and took five pieces of cannon. In the beginning
of June the whole army passed the Rhine on a bridge constructed for the
occasion, defeated a body of French cavalry, and obtained divers other
advantages in their march towards Wesel. Keiserwaert was surprised, the
greater part of the garrison either killed or taken; and prince Ferdinand
began to make preparations for the siege of Dusseldorp. In the meantime,
the count de Clermont, being unable to stop the rapidity of his progress,
was obliged to secure his troops with strong intrenchments, until he
should be properly reinforced.

PRINCE FERDINAND DEFEATS THE FRENCH, &c.

The court of Versailles, though equally mortified and confounded at the
turn of their affairs in Germany, did not sit tamely and behold this
reverse; but exerted their usual spirit and expedition in retrieving the
losses they had sustained. They assembled a body of troops at Hanau, under
the direction of the prince de Soubise, who, it was said, had received
orders to penetrate, by the way of Donawert, Ingoldstadt, and Arnberg,
into Bohemia. In the meantime, reinforcements daily arrived in the camp of
the count de Clermont; and, as repeated complaints had been made of the
want of discipline and subordination in that army, measures were taken for
reforming the troops by severity and example. The mareschal duke de
Belleisle, who now acted as secretary at war with uncommon ability, wrote
a letter, directed to all the colonels of infantry, threatening them, in
the king’s name, with the loss of their regiments, should they connive any
longer at the scandalous practice of buying commissions; an abuse which
had crept into the service under various pretexts, to the discouragement
of merit, the relaxation of discipline, and the total extinction of
laudable emulation. The prince of Clermont having quitted his strong camp
at Rhinefeldt, retired to Nuys, a little higher up the river, and detached
a considerable corps, under the command of the count de St. Germain, to
take post at Creveldt, situated in a plain between his army and the camp
of the allies, which fronted the town of Meurs. After several motions on
both sides, prince Ferdinand resolved to attack the enemy, and forthwith
made a disposition for this purpose. He assigned the command of the whole
left wing, consisting of eighteen battalions and twenty-eight squadrons,
to lieutenant-general Sporcken; the conduct of the right wing, composed of
sixteen battalions and fourteen squadrons, was intrusted to the hereditary
prince and major-general Wangenheim; the squadrons, with the addition of
two regiments of Prussian dragoons, were under the immediate direction of
the prince of Holstein, while the hereditary prince commanded the
infantry. The light troops, consisting of five squadrons of hussars, were
divided between the prince of Holstein and lieutenant-general Sporcken.
Major Luckner’s squadron, together with Scheither’s corps, were ordered to
observe the flank of the enemy’s right, and with this view were posted in
the village of Papendeick; and a battalion of the troops of Wolfenbuttel
were left in the town of Hulste, to cover the rear of the army. Prince
Ferdinand’s design was to attack the enemy on their left flank; but the
execution was rendered extremely difficult by the woods and ditches that
embarrassed the route, and the numerous ditches that intersected this part
of the country. On the twenty-third day of June, at four in the morning,
the army began to move; the right advancing in two columns as far as St.
Anthony, and the left marching up within half a league of Crevelt. The
prince having viewed the position of the enemy from the steeple of St.
Anthony, procured guides, and having received all the necessary hints of
information, proceeded to the right, in order to charge the enemy’s left
flank by the villages of Worst and Anrath; but, in order to divide their
attention, and keep them in suspense with respect to the nature of his
principal attack, he directed the generals Sporcken and Oberg to advance
against them by the way of Crevelt and St. Anthony, and, in particular, to
make the most of their artillery, that, being employed in three different
places at once, they might be prevented from sending any reinforcement to
the left, where the chief attack was intended. These precautions being
taken, prince Ferdinand, putting himself at the head of the grenadiers of
the right wing, continued his march in two columns to the village of
Anrath, where he fell in with an advanced party of the French, which,
after a few discharges of musketry, retired to their camp and gave the
alarm. In the meantime, both armies were drawn up in order of battle; the
troops of the allies in the plain between the villages of Anrath and
Willich, opposite to the French forces, whose left was covered with a
wood. The action began about one in the afternoon, with a severe
cannonading on the part of prince Ferdinand, which, though well supported,
proved ineffectual in drawing the enemy from their cover; he therefore
determined to dislodge them from the wood by dint of small arms. The
hereditary prince immediately advanced with the whole front, and a very
obstinate action ensued. Meanwhile, the cavalry on the right in vain
attempted to penetrate the wood on the other side, where the enemy had
raised two batteries, which were sustained by forty squadrons of horse.
After a terrible fire had been maintained on both sides till five in the
afternoon, the grenadiers forced the intrenchments in the wood, which were
lined by the French infantry. These giving way, abandoned the wood in the
utmost disorder; but the pursuit was checked by the conduct and resolution
of the enemy’s cavalry, which, notwithstanding a dreadful fire from the
artillery of the allies, maintained their ground, and covered the foot in
their retreat to Nuys. The success of the day was in a good measure owing
to the artillery on the left and in the centre, with which the generals
Sporcken and Oberg had done great execution, and employed the attention of
the enemy on that side, while prince Ferdinand prosecuted his attack on
the other quarter. It must be owned, however, that their right wing and
centre retired in great order to Nuys, though the left was defeated, with
the loss of some standards, colours, and pieces of cannon, and six
thousand men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners.*

* Among the French officers who lost their lives in this
engagement, was the count de Gisors, only son of the
mareschal duke de Belleisle, and last hope of that
illustrious family, a young nobleman of extraordinary
accomplishments, who finished a short life of honour in the
embrace of military glory, and fell gallantly fighting at
the head of his own regiment, to the inexpressible grief of
his aged father, and the universal regret of his country.

This victory, however, which cost the allies about fifteen hundred men,
was not at all decisive in its consequences; and, indeed, the plan seemed
only calculated to display the enterprising genius of the Hanoverian
general. True it is, the French army took refuge under the cannon of
Cologn, where they remained without hazarding any step for the relief of
Dusseldorp, which prince Ferdinand immediately invested, and in a few days
reduced, the garrison being allowed to march out with the honours of war,
on condition that they should not, for the space of one year, carry arms
against the allies.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PRINCE OF YSEMBOURG DEFEATED.

It was at this period that count de Clermont resigned his command, which
was conferred upon M. de Contades, and the French army was considerably
reinforced. He even threatened to attack prince Ferdinand in his turn, and
made some motions with that design, but was prevented by the little river
Erff, behind which the prince resolved to lie quiet, until he should be
joined by the body of the British troops under the command of the duke of
Marlborough, the first division of which had just landed at Embden. He
flattered himself that the prince of Ysembourg, at the head of the Hessian
troops, would find employment for the prince de Soubise, who had marched
from Hanau, with a design to penetrate into the landgraviate of
Hesse-Cassel: his vanguard had been already surprised and defeated by the
militia of the country; and the prince Ysembourg was at the head of a
considerable body of regular forces, assembled to oppose his further
progress. Prince Ferdinand therefore hoped that the operations of the
French general would be effectually impeded, until he himself, being
joined by the British troops, should be in a condition to pass the Maese,
transfer the seat of war into the enemy’s country, thus make a diversion
from the Rhine, and perhaps oblige the prince de Soubise to come to the
assistance of the principal French army commanded by M. de Contades. He
had formed a plan which would have answered these purposes effectually,
and, in execution of it, marched to Ruremond on the Maese, when his
measures were totally disconcerted by a variety of incidents which he
could not foresee. The prince of Ysembourg was, on the twenty-third day of
July, defeated at San-garshausen by the duke de Broglio, whom the prince
de Soubise had detached against him with a number of troops greatly
superior to that which the Hessian general commanded. The duke de Broglio,
who commanded the corps that formed the vanguard of Soubise’s army, having
learned at Cassel that the Hessian troops, under the prince of Ysembourg,
were retiring towards Munden, he advanced, on the twenty-third of July,
with a body of eight thousand men, to the village of Sangarshausen, where
he found them drawn up in order of battle, and forthwith made a
disposition for the attack. At first his cavalry were repulsed by the
Hessian horse, which charged the French infantry, and were broke in their
turn. The Hessians, though greatly inferior in number to the enemy, made a
very obstinate resistance, by favour of a rock in the Fulde that covered
their right, and a wood by which their left was secured. The dispute was
so obstinate, that the enemy’s left was obliged to give ground; but the
duke de Broglio, ordering a fresh corps to advance, changed the fortune of
the day. The Hessians, overpowered by numbers, gave way; part plunged into
the river, where many perished, and part threw themselves into the wood,
through which they escaped from the pursuit of the hussars, who took above
two hundred soldiers and fifty officers, including the count de Canitz,
who was second in command. They likewise found on the field of battle
seven pieces of cannon, and eight at Munden; but the carnage was pretty
considerable, and nearly equal on both sides. The number of the killed and
wounded, on the side of the French, exceeded two thousand; the loss of the
Hessians was not so great. The prince of Ysembourg, having collected the
remains of his little army, took post at Eimbeck, where he soon was
reinforced, and found himself at the head of twelve thousand men; but, in
consequence of this advantage, the enemy became masters of the Weser, and
opened to themselves a free passage into Westphalia.

GENERAL IMHOFF DEFEATS M. DE CHEVERT.

The progress of prince Ferdinand upon the Maese, had been retarded by a
long succession of heavy rains, which broke up the roads, and rendered the
country impassable; and now the certain information of this unlucky check
left him no alternative but a battle or a retreat across the Rhine: the
first was carefully avoided by the enemy; the latter resolution,
therefore, he found himself under a necessity to embrace. In his present
position he was hampered by the French army on one wing, on the other by
the fortress of Gueldres, the garrison of which had been lately
reinforced, as well as by divers other posts, capable of obstructing the
convoys and subsistence of the combined army; besides, he had reason to
apprehend, that the prince de Soubise would endeavour to intercept the
British troops in their march from Embden. Induced by these
considerations, he determined to repass the Rhine, after having offered
battle to the enemy, and made several motions for that purpose. Finding
them averse to an engagement, he made his dispositions for forcing the
strong pass of Waehtendonck, an island surrounded by Niers, of very
difficult approach, and situated exactly in his route to the Rhine. This
service was performed by the hereditary prince of Brunswick, who,
perceiving the enemy had drawn up the bridge, rushed into the river at the
head of his grenadiers, who drove them away with their bayonets, and
cleared the bridges for the passage of the army towards Rhinebergen. At
this place prince Ferdinand received intelligence that M. de Chevert,
reputed one of the best officers in the French service, had passed the
Lippe with fourteen battalions and several squadrons, to join the garrison
of Wesel, and fall upon lieutenant-general Imhoff, who commanded a
detached corps of the combined army at Meer, that he might be at hand to
guard the bridge which the prince had thrown over the Rhine at Rees. His
serene highness was extremely desirous of sending succours to general
Imhoff; but the troops were too much fatigued to begin another march
before morning; and the Rhine had overflowed its banks in such a manner as
to render the bridge at Rees impassable, so that M. Imhoff was left to the
resources of his own conduct and the bravery of his troops, consisting of
six battalions and four squadrons, already weakened by the absence of
different detachments. This general having received advice, on the fourth
of August, that the enemy intended to pass the Lippe the same evening with
a considerable train of artillery, in order to burn the bridge at Rees,
decamped with a view to cover this place, and join two battalions which;
had passed the Rhine in boats, under the command of general Zastrow, who
reinforced him accordingly; but the enemy not appearing, he concluded the
information was false, and resolved to resume his advantageous post at
Meer. Of this he had no sooner repossessed himself, than his advanced
guards were engaged with the enemy, who marched to the attack from Wesel,
under the command of lieutenant-general de Chevert, consisting of the
whole corps intended for the siege of Dusseldorp. Imhoffs front was
covered by coppices and ditches, there being a rising ground on his right,
from whence he could plainly discern the whole force that advanced against
him, together with the manner of their approach. Perceiving them engaged
in that difficult ground, he posted one regiment in a coppice, with orders
to fall upon the left flank of the enemy, which appeared quite uncovered;
and as soon as their fire began, advanced with the rest of his forces to
attack them in front. The bayonet was used on this occasion, and the
charge given with such impetuosity and resolution, that after a short
resistance, the enemy fell into confusion, and fled towards Wesel, leaving
on the spot eleven pieces of cannon, with a great number of waggons and
other carriages; besides the killed and wounded, who amounted to a pretty
considerable number, the victor took three hundred and fifty-four
prisoners, including eleven officers; whereas, on his part the victory was
purchased at a very small expense.

GENERAL OBERG DEFEATED by the FRENCH.

Immediately after this action, general Wangenheim passed the Rhine with
several squadrons and battalions, to reinforce general Imhoff, and enable
him to prosecute the advantage he had gained, while prince Ferdinand
marched with the rest of the army to Santen: from whence he proceeded to
Rhinebergen, where he intended to pass; but the river had overflowed to
such a degree, that here, as well as at Rees, the shore was inaccessible;
so that he found it necessary to march farther down the river, and lay a
bridge at Griethuyzen. The enemy had contrived four vessels for the
destruction of this bridge; but they were all taken before they could put
the design in execution, and the whole army passed on the tenth day of
August, without any loss or further interruption. At the same time the
prince withdrew his garrison from Dusseldorp, of which the French
immediately took possession. Immediately after his passage he received a
letter from the duke of Marlborough, acquainting him that the British
troops had arrived at Lingen, in their route to Coesfeldt: to which place
general Imhoff was sent to receive them, with a strong detachment.
Notwithstanding this junction, the two armies on the Rhine were so equally
matched, that no stroke of importance was struck on either side during the
remaining part of the campaign. M. de Contades, seeing no prospect of
obtaining the least advantage over prince Ferdinand, detached prince
Xaverius of Saxony with a strong reinforcement to the prince de Soubise,
who had taken possession of Gottengen, and seemed determined to attack the
prince of Ysembourg at Eimbeck. That this officer might be able to give
him a proper reception, prince Ferdinand detached general Oberg with ten
thousand men to Lipstadt, from whence, should occasion require, they might
continue their march, and join the Hessians. The whole body, when thus
reinforced, did not exceed twenty thousand men, of whom general Oberg now
assumed the command: whereas the troops of Soubise were increased to the
number of thirty thousand. The allies had taken post upon the river Fulde
at Sangarshausen, where they hoped the French would attack them; but the
design of Soubise was first to dislodge them from that advantageous
situation. With this view, he made a motion, as if he had intended to turn
the camp of the allies by the road of Munden. In order to prevent the
execution of this supposed design, general Oberg decamped on the tenth of
October, and, passing by the village of Landwernhagen, advanced towards
Lutten-berg, where, understanding the enemy were at his heels, he
forthwith formed his troops in order of battle, his right to the Fulde,
and his left extending to a thicket upon an eminence, where he planted
five field-pieces. The cavalry supported the wings in a third line, the
village of Luttenberg was in the rear, and four pieces of cannon were
mounted on a rising ground that flanked this village. The French having
likewise passed Landwernhagen, posted their left towards the Fulde, their
right extending far beyond the left of the allies, and their front being
strengthened with above thirty pieces of cannon. At four in the afternoon
the enemy began the battle with a severe cannonading, and at the same time
the first line of their infantry attacked major-general Zastrow, who was
posted on the left wing of the allies. This body of the French was
repulsed; but in the same moment, a considerable line of cavalry
advancing, charged the allies in front and flank. These were supported by
a fresh body of infantry with cannon, which, after a warm dispute, obliged
the confederates to give way; and general Oberg, in order to prevent a
total defeat, made a disposition for a retreat, which was performed in
tolerable order; not but that he suffered greatly, in passing through a
defile, from the fire of the enemy’s cannon, which was brought up and
managed under the direction of the duke de Broglio. Having marched through
Munden by midnight, the retiring army lay till morning under arms in the
little plain near Grupen, on the other side of the Weser; but at day-break
prosecuted their march, after having withdrawn the garrison from Munden,
until they arrived in the neighbourhood of Guntersheim, where they
encamped. In this engagement general Oberg lost about fifteen hundred men,
his artillery, baggage, and ammunition. He was obliged to abandon a
magazine of hay and straw at Munden, and leave part of his wounded men in
that place to the humanity of the victor. But, after all, the French
general reaped very little advantage from his victory.

DEATH OF THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.

By this time prince Ferdinand had retired into Westphalia, and fixed his
head-quarters at Munster, while M. de Contades encamped near Ham upon the
Lippe; so that, although he had obliged the French army to evacuate
Hanover and Hesse in the beginning of the year, when they were weakened by
death and distemper, and even driven them beyond the Rhine, where they
sustained a defeat; yet they were soon put in a condition to baffle all
his future endeavours, and penetrate again into Westphalia, where they
established their winter-quarters, extending themselves in such a manner
as to command the whole course of the Rhine on both sides, while the
allies were disposed in the landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel, and in the
bishoprics of Munster, Paderborn, and Hildesheim. The British troops had
joined them so late in the season that they had no opportunity to
signalize themselves in the field; yet the fatigues of the campaign, which
they had severely felt, proved fatal to their commander, the duke of
Marlborough, who died of a dysentery at Munster, universally lamented.

OPERATIONS OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

Having thus particularized the operations of the allied army since the
commencement of the campaign, we shall now endeavour to trace the steps of
the king of Prussia, from the period to which his army was assembled for
action. Having collected his force as soon as the season would permit, he
undertook the siege of Schweidnitz in form on the twenty-first day of
March; and carried on his operations with such vigour, that in thirteen
days the garrison surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after having
lost one half of their number in the defence of the place. While one part
of Lis troops were engaged in this service, he himself, at the head of
another, advanced to the eastern frontier of Bohemia, and sent a
detachment as far as Trautenaw, garrisoned by a body of Austrians, who,
after an obstinate resistance, abandoned the place, and retreated towards
their grand army. By this success he opened to himself a way into Bohemia,
by which he poured in detachments of light troops, to raise contributions
and harass the out-posts of the enemy. At the same time the baron de la
Mothe Fouquet marched with another body against the Austrian general
Jahnus, posted in the county of Glatz, whom he obliged to abandon all the
posts he occupied in that country, and pursued as far as Nashod, within
twenty miles of Koningsgratz, where the grand Austrian army was encamped,
under the command of mareschal Daun, who had lately arrived from Vienna.
Over and above these excursions, the king ordered a body of thirty
thousand men to be assembled, to act under the command of his brother
prince Henry,* an accomplished warrior, against the army of the empire,
which the prince de Deux-ponts, with great difficulty, made a shift to
form again near Bamberg, in Franconia.

* At this juncture the Prussian commandant of Dresden being
admitted into the Japan palace, to see the curious
porcelaine with which it is adorned, perceived a door built
up; and ordering the passage to be opened, entered a large
apartment, where he found three thousand tents, and other
field utensils. These had been concealed here when the
Prussians first took possession of the city; they were
immediately seized by the commandant, and distributed among
the troops of prince Henry’s army.

The king of Prussia, whose designs were perhaps even greater than he cared
to own, resolved to shift the theatre of the war, and penetrate into
Moravia, a fertile country, which had hitherto been kept sacred from
ravage and contribution. Having formed an army of fifty thousand choice
troops, near Neiss, in Silesia, he divided them into three columns; the
first commanded by mareschal Keith, the second by himself in person, and
the third conducted by prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau. In the latter end
of April they began their march towards Moravia; and general De la Ville,
who commanded a body of troops in that country, retired as they advanced,
after having thrown a strong reinforcement into Olmutz, which the king was
determined to besiege. Had he passed by this fortress, which was strongly
fortified and well provided for a vigorous defence, he might have advanced
to the gates of Vienna, and reduced the emperor to the necessity of suing
for peace on his own terms; but it seems he was unwilling to deviate so
far from the common maxims of war as to leave a fortified place in the
rear; and, therefore, he determined to make himself master of it before he
should proceed. For this purpose it was immediately invested: orders were
issued to hasten up the heavy artillery, and mareschal Keith was appointed
to superintend and direct the operations of the siege. Meanwhile the
Austrian commander, count Daun, being informed of his Prussian majesty’s
motions and designs, quitted his camp at Leutomyssel in Bohemia, and
entered Moravia by the way of Billa. Being still too weak to encounter the
Prussians in the field, he extended his troops in the neighbourhood of the
king’s army, between Gewitz and Littau, in a mountainous situation, where
he ran little or no risk of being attacked. Here he remained for some time
in quiet, with the fertile country of Bohemia in his rear, from whence he
drew plentiful supplies, and received daily reinforcements. His scheme was
to relieve the besieged occasionally, to harass the besiegers, and to
intercept their convoys from Silesia; and this scheme succeeded to his
wish. Olmutz is so extensive in its works, and so peculiarly situated on
the river Morava, that it could not be completely invested without
weakening the posts of the besieging army, by extending them to a
prodigious circuit; so that, in some parts, they were easily forced by
detachments in the night, who fell upon them suddenly, and seldom failed
to introduce into the place supplies of men, provisions, and ammunition.
The forage in the neighbourhood of the city having been previously
destroyed, the Prussian horse were obliged to make excursions at a great
distance, consequently exposed to fatigue, and liable to surprise; and, in
a word, the Prussians were not very expert in the art of town-taking.

Count Daun knew how to take advantage of these circumstances without
hazarding a battle, to which the king provoked him in vain. While the
garrison made repeated sallies to retard the operations of the besiegers,
the’ Austrian general harassed their foraging parties, fell upon different
quarters of their army in the night, and kept them in continual alarm.
Nevertheless, the king finished his first parallel; and proceeded with
such vigour as seemed to promise a speedy reduction of the place, when his
design was entirely frustrated by an untoward incident. Mareschal Daun,
having received intelligence that a large convoy had set out from Silesia
for the Prussian camp, resolved to seize this opportunity of compelling
the king to desist from his enterprise. He sent general Jahnus, with a
strong body of troops, towards Bahrn, and another detachment to
Stadtoliebe, with instructions to attack the convoy on different sides;
while he himself advanced towards the besiegers, as if he intended to give
them battle. The king of Prussia, far from being deceived by this feint,
began, from the motions of the Austrian general, to suspect his real
scheme, and immediately despatched general Ziethen, with a strong
reinforcement, to protect the convoy, which was escorted by eight
battalions, and about four thousand men, who had been sick, and were just
recovered. Before this officer joined them, the convoy had been attacked
on the twenty-eighth day of June; but the assailants were repulsed with
considerable loss. Mareschal Daun, however, took care that they should be
immediately reinforced; and next day the attack was renewed with much
greater effect. Four hundred waggons, guarded by four battalions, and
about one thousand troopers, had just passed the defiles of Domstadt, when
the Austrians charged them furiously on every side; the communication
between the head and the rest of the convoy was cut off; and general
Ziethen, after having exerted all his efforts for its preservation, being
obliged to abandon the waggons, retired to Troppau. Thus the whole convoy
fell into the hands of the enemy, who took above six hundred prisoners,
together with general Putkammer; and the king of Prussia was obliged to
relinquish his enterprise. This was a mortifying necessity to a prince of
his high spirit, at a time when he saw himself on the eve of reducing the
place, notwithstanding the gallant defence which had been made by general
Marshal the governor. Nothing now remained but to raise the siege, and
retire without loss in the face of a vigilant enemy, prepared to seize
every opportunity of advantage: a task which, how hard soever it may
appear, he performed with equal dexterity and success. Instead of retiring
into Silesia, he resolved to avert the war from his own dominions, and
take the route to Bohemia, the frontiers of which were left uncovered by
mareschal Daun’s last motion, when he advanced his quarters to Posnitz, in
order to succour Olmutz the more effectually. After the king had taken his
measures, he carefully concealed his design from the enemy, and,
notwithstanding the loss of his convoy, prosecuted the operations of the
siege with redoubled vigour till the first day of July, when he decamped
in the night, and began his march to Bohemia. He himself, with one
division, took the road to Konitz; and mareschal Keith having brought away
all the artillery, except four mortars and one disabled cannon, pursued
his march by the way of Littau to Muglitz and Tribau. Although his
Prussian majesty had gained an entire march upon the Austrians, their
light troops, commanded by the generals Buccow and Laudohn, did not fail
to attend and harass his army in their retreat; but their endeavours were
in a great measure frustrated by the conduct and circumspection of the
Prussian commanders. After the rear of the army had passed the defiles of
Krenau, general Lasci, who was posted at Gibau with a large body of
Austrian troops, occupied the village of Krenau with a detachment of
grenadiers, who were soon dislodged; and the Prussians pursued their march
by Zwittau to Leutomyssel, where they seized a magazine of meal and
forage. In the meantime general de Ratzow, who conducted the provisions
and artillery, found the hills of Hollitz possessed by the enemy, who
cannonaded him as he advanced; but mareschal Keith coming up, ordered them
to be attacked in the rear, and they fled into a wood with precipitation,
with the loss of six officers and three hundred men, who were taken
prisoners. While’ the mareschal was thus employed, the king proceeded from
Leutomyssel to Koningsgratz, where general Buccow, who had got the start
of him, was posted with seven thousand men behind the Elbe, and in the
intrenchments which they had thrown up all around the city. The Prussian
troops as they arrived passed over the little river Adler, and as the
enemy had broken down the bridges over the Elbe, the king ordered them to
be repaired with all expedition, being determined to attack the Austrian
intrenchments; but general Buccow did not wait for his approach: he
abandoned his intrenchments, and retired with his troops to Clumetz; so
that the king took possession of the most important post of Koningsgratz
without further opposition. An Austrian corps having taken post between
him and Hollitz, in order to obstruct the march of the artillery, he
advanced against them in person, and having driven them from the place,
all his cannon, military stores, provisions, with fifteen hundred sick and
wounded men, arrived in safety at Koningsgratz, where the whole army
encamped. His intention was to transfer the seat of war from Moravia to
Bohemia, where he should be able to maintain a more easy communication
with his own dominions; but a more powerful motive soon obliged him to
change his resolution.

PROGRESS OF THE RUSSIANS.

After the Russian troops under Apraxin had retreated from Pomerania in the
course of the preceding year, and the czarina seemed ready to change her
system, the courts of Vienna and Versailles had, by dint of subsidies,
promises, presents, and intrigues, attached her, in all appearance, more
firmly than ever to the confederacy, and even induced her to augment the
number of troops destined to act against the Prussian monarch. She not
only signed her accession in form to the quadruple alliance with the
empress-queen and the kings of France and Sweden; but, in order to
manifest her zeal to the common cause, she disgraced her chancellor, count
Bestuchef, who was supposed averse to the war: she divided her forces into
separate bodies, under the command of the generals Fermer and Browne, and
ordered them to put their troops in motion in the middle of winter. Fermer
accordingly began his march in the beginning of January, and on the
twenty-second his light troops took possession of Koningsberg, the capital
of Prussia, without opposition: for the king’s forces had quitted that
country in order to prosecute the war in the western parts of Pomerania.
They did not, however, maintain themselves in this part of the country;
but, after having ravaged some districts, returned to the main body, which
halted on the Vistula, to the no small disturbance of the city of Dantzic.
The resident of the czarina actually demanded that the magistrates should
receive a Russian garrison; a demand which they not only peremptorily
refused, but ordered all the citizens to arms, and took every other method
to provide for their defence. At length, after some negotiation with
general Fermer, the affair was compromised: he desisted from the demand,
and part of his troops passed the Vistula, seemingly to invade Pomerania,
in the eastern part of which count Dohna had assembled an army of
Prussians to oppose their progress. But after they had pillaged the open
country, they rejoined their main body; and general Fermer, turning to the
left, advanced to Silesia in order to co-operate with the other Russian
army commanded by Browne, who had taken his route through Poland, and
already passed the Posna. By the first of July both bodies had reached the
frontiers of Silesia, and some of their cossacks, penetrating into that
province, had committed dreadful ravages, and overwhelmed the inhabitants
with consternation. Count Bohna, with the Prussian army under his command,
had attended their motions, and even passed the Oder at Frankfort, as if
he had intended to give them battle; but he was too much inferior in
number to hazard such a step, which became an object of his sovereign’s
own personal attention. Mareschal Daun had followed the king into Bohemia,
and, on the twenty-second day of July, encamped on the hills of Libischau,
a situation almost inaccessible, where he resolved to remain and watch the
motions of the Prussian monarch, until some opportunity should offer of
acting to advantage. Nature seems to have expressly formed this commander
with talents to penetrate the designs, embarrass the genius, and check the
impetuosity, of the Prussian monarch. He was justly compared to Fabius
Maximus, distinguished by the epithet of Cunctator. He possessed all the
vigilance, caution, and sagacity of that celebrated Roman. Like him, he
hovered on the skirts of the enemy, harassing their parties, accustoming
the soldiers to strict discipline, hard service, and the face of a
formidable foe, and watching for opportunities, which he knew how to seize
with equal courage and celerity.

THE PRUSSIANS DEFEAT THE RUSSIANS.

The king of Prussia, being induced by a concurrence of motives to stop the
progress of the Russians in Silesia, made his dispositions for retreating
from Bohemia, and on the twenty-fifth day of July quitted the camp at
Koningsgratz. He was attended in his march by three thousand Austrian
light troops, who did not fail to incommode his rear; but, notwithstanding
these impediments, he passed the Mittau, proceeded on his route, and on
the ninth day of August arrived at Landshut. From thence he hastened with
a detachment towards Frankfort on the Oder, and joined the army commanded
by lieutenant-general Dohna at Gorgas. Then the whole army passed the Oder
by a bridge thrown over at Gatavise, and having rested one day, advanced
to Dert-mitzel, where he encamped. The Russians, under general Fermer,
were posted on the other side of the little river Mitzel, their right
extending to the village of Zicker, and their left to Quertchem. The king
being determined to hazard a battle, passed the Mitzel on the twenty-fifth
in the morning, and turning the flank of the enemy, drew up his army in
order of battle in the plain between the little river and the town of
Zorndorf. The Russians, by whom he was outnumbered, did not decline the
dispute; but as the ground did not permit them to extend themselves, they
appeared in four lines, forming a front on every side, defended by cannon
and a chevaux-de-frise, their right flank covered by the village of
Zwicker. After a warm cannonade, the Prussian infantry were ordered to
attack the village, and a body of grenadiers advanced to the assault; but
this brigade unexpectedly giving way, occasioned a considerable opening in
the line, and left the whole left flank of the infantry uncovered. Before
the enemy could take advantage of this incident, the interval was filled
up by the cavalry under the command of general Seydlitz; and the king,
with his usual presence of mind, substituted another choice body of troops
to carry on the attack. This began about noon, and continued for some
time, during which both sides fought with equal courage and perseverance:
at length general Seydlitz, having routed the Russian cavalry, fell upon
the flank of the infantry with great fury, which being also dreadfully
annoyed by the Prussian artillery, they abandoned the village, together
with their military chest, and great part of their baggage.
Notwithstanding this loss, which had greatly disordered their right wing,
they continued to stand their ground, and terrible havoc was made among
them, not only with the sword and bayonet, but also by the cannon, which
were loaded with grape shot, and, being excellently served, did great
execution. Towards evening the confusion among them increased to such a
degree, that in all probability they would have been entirely routed, had
they not been favoured by the approaching darkness, as well as by a
particular operation which was very gallantly performed. One of the
Russian generals perceiving the fortune of the day turned against him,
rallied a select body of troops, and made a vigorous impression on the
right wing of the Prussians. This effort diverted their attention so
strongly to that quarter, that the right of the Russians enjoyed a
respite, during which they retired in tolerable order, and occupied a new
post on the right, where the rest of their forces were the more easily
assembled. In this battle they are said to have lost above fifteen
thousand men, thirty-seven colours, five standards, twelve mortars, the
greater part of their baggage, and above one hundred pieces of cannon.
Among the prisoners that fell into the hands of the victor, were several
general officers, and a good number lost their lives on the field of
battle. The victory cost the king above two thousand men, including some
officers of distinction, particularly two aide-de-camps, who attended his
own person, which he exposed without scruple to all the perils of the day.
It would have redounded still more to his glory, had he put a stop to the
carnage; for, after all resistance was at an end, the wretched Russians
were hewn down without mercy. It must be owned, indeed, that the Prussian
soldiers were, in a peculiar manner, exasperated against this enemy,
because they had laid waste the country, burned the villages, ruined the
peasants, and committed many horrid acts of barbarity, which the practice
of war could not authorize. 467 [See note 3 P, at the end of this Vol.]
The Prussian army passed the night under arms, and next morning the
cannonade was renewed against the enemy, who, nevertheless, maintained
their position without flinching. On the twenty-seventh, they seemed
determined to hazard another action, and even attack the conquerors;
instead of advancing, however, they took the route of Lands-berg; but
afterwards turned off towards Vietzel, and posted themselves between the
rivers Warta and that village. Immediately after the battle, general
Fermer,* who had received a slight wound in the action, sent a trumpet
with a letter to lieutenant-general Dohna, desiring a suspension of arms
for two or three days to bury the dead, and take care of the wounded; and
presenting to his Prussian majesty the humble request of general Browne,
who was much weakened with the loss of blood, that he might have a
passport, by virtue of which he could be removed to a place where he
should find such accommodation as his situation required.

* General Fermer was of Scottish extract, and general Browne
actually a native of North Britain.

In answer to this message, count Dohna gave the Russian general to
understand, that as his Prussian majesty remained master of the field, he
would give the necessary orders for interring the dead, and taking care of
the wounded on both sides: he refused a suspension of arms, but granted
the request of general Browne; and concluded his letter by complaining of
the outrages which the Russian troops still continued to commit, in
pillaging and burning the king’s villages.

The king of Prussia had no sooner repulsed the enemy in one quarter, than
his presence was required in another. When he quitted Bohemia, mareschal
Daun, at the head of the Austrian army, and the prince de Deuxponts, who
commanded the forces of the empire, advanced to the Elbe, in order to
surround the king’s brother, prince Henry, who, without immediate succour,
would not have been able to preserve his footing in Saxony. The Prussian
monarch, therefore, determined to support him with all possible
expedition. In a few days after the battle he began his march from
Custrin, with a reinforcement of twenty-four battalions and great part of
his cavalry, and pursued his route with such unwearied diligence, that by
the fifth day of September lie reached Torgau, and on the eleventh joined
his brother. Mareschal Daun had posted himself at Stolpen, to the eastward
of the Elbe, in order to preserve an easy communication with the army of
the empire encamped in the neighbourhood of Koningstein, to favour the
operations of general Laudohn, who had advanced through the Lower Lusatia
to the frontiers of Brandenburgh; to make a diversion from the southern
parts of Silesia, where a body of Austrian troops acted under the command
of the generals Harsche and de Ville; and to interrupt the communication
between prince Henry and the capital of Saxony. On the fifth day of
September, the garrison in the strong fortress of Koningstein surrendered
themselves prisoners of war, after a very feeble resistance, to the prince
de Detixponts, who forthwith took possession of the strong camp at Pima.
When the king of Prussia therefore arrived at Dresden, he found the army
of the empire in this position, and mareschal Daun in a still stronger
situation at Stolpen, with bridges of communication thrown over the Elbe,
so that he could not attack them with any prospect of advantage. He had no
other resolution to take but that of endeavouring to cut them off from
supplies of provisions, and with this view he marched to Bautzen, which he
occupied. This motion obliged the Austrian general to quit his camp at
Stolpen, but he chose another of equal strength at Libau; yet he
afterwards advanced to Rittlitz, that he might be at hand to seize the
first favourable occasion of executing the resolution he had formed to
attack the Prussians. The king having detached general Ratzow on his left,
to take possession of Weissenberg, marched forwards with the body of his
army, and posted himself in the neighbourhood of Hochkirchen, after having
dislodged the Austrians from that village. Matters were now brought to
such a delicate crisis, that a battle seemed inevitable, and equally
desired by both parties, as an event that would determine whether the
Austrians should be obliged to retreat for winter-quarters into Bohemia,
or be enabled to maintain their ground in Saxony. In this situation
mareschal Daun resolved to act offensively; and formed a scheme for
attacking the right flank of the Prussians by surprise. This measure was
suggested to him by an oversight of the Prussians, who had neglected to
occupy the heights that commanded the village of Hochkirchen, which was
only guarded by a few free companies. He determined to take the advantage
of a very dark night, and to employ the flower of his whole army on this
important service, well knowing, that should they penetrate through the
flank of the enemy, the whole Prussian army would be disconcerted, and in
all probability entirely ruined. Having taken his measures with wonderful
secrecy and circumspection, the troops began to move in the night between
the thirteenth and fourteenth of October, favoured by a thick fog, which
greatly increased the darkness of the night. Their first care was to take
possession of the hill that commanded Hochkirchen, from whence they poured
down upon the village, of which they took possession, after having cut in
pieces the free companies posted there. The action began in this quarter
about four in the morning, and continued several hours with great fury,
for, notwithstanding the impetuous efforts of the Austrian troops, and the
confusion occasioned among the Prussians by the surprise, a vigorous stand
was made by some general officers, who, with admirable expedition and
presence of mind, assembled and arranged the troops as they could take to
their arms, and led them up to the attack without distinction of regiment,
place, or precedence. While the action was obstinately and desperately
maintained in this place, amidst all the horrors of darkness, carnage, and
confusion, the king being alarmed, exerted all his personal activity,
address, and recollection, in drawing regularity from disorder, arranging
the different corps, altering positions, reinforcing weak posts,
encouraging the soldiery, and opposing the efforts of the enemy; for
although they made their chief impression upon the right, by the village
of Hochkirchen, mareschal Daun, in order to divide the attention of the
king, made another attack upon the left, which was with difficulty
sustained, and effectually prevented him from sending reinforcements to
the right, where mareschal Keith, under the greatest disadvantages, bore
the brunt of the enemy’s chief endeavours. Thus the battle raged till nine
in the morning, when this gallant officer was shot through the heart.
Prince Francis of Brunswick had met with the same fate; prince Maurice of
Anhault was wounded and taken prisoner, and many others were either slain
or disabled. As the right wing had been surprised, the tents continued
standing, and greatly embarrassed them in their defence. The soldiers had
never been properly drawn up in order; the enemy still persevered in their
attack with successive reinforcements and redoubled resolution; and a
considerable slaughter was made by their artillery, which they had brought
up to the heights of Hochkirchen. All these circumstances concurring,
could not fail to increase the confusion and disaster of the Prussians; so
that about ten the king was obliged to retire to Dobreschutz, with the
loss of seven thousand men, of all his tents, and part of his baggage. Nor
had the Austrian general much cause to boast of his victory. His loss of
men was pretty nearly equal to that of the Prussian monarch; and, whatever
reputation he might have acquired in foiling that enterprising prince,
certainly his design did not take effect in its full extent, for the
Prussians were next day in a condition to hazared another engagement. The
king of Prussia had sustained no damage which he could not easily repair,
except the death of mareschal Keith, which was doubtless an irreparable
misfortune. 468 [See note 3 Q, at the end of this Vol.]

His Prussian majesty remained with his army ten days at Dobreschutz,
during which he endeavoured to bring the Austrians to a second engagement;
but count Daun declined the invitation, and kept his forces advantageously
posted on eminences planted with artillery. His aim having been frustrated
at Hochkirchen, where he fought with many advantages on his side, he would
not hazard another battle upon equal terms, with such an enterprising
enemy, rendered more vigilant by the check he had received, already
reinforced from the army of prince Henry, and eager for an opportunity to
retrieve the laurel which had been snatched from him by the wiles of
stratagem, rather than by the hand of valour. Count Daun, having nothing
more to hope from the active operations of his own army, contented himself
with amusing the Prussian monarch in Lusatia, while the Austrian generals,
Harsche and De Ville, should prosecute the reduction of Neiss and Cosel in
Silesia, which they now actually invested. As the Prussian monarch could
not spare detachments to oppose every different corps of his enemies that
acted against him in different parts of his dominions, he resolved to make
up in activity what he wanted in number, and, if possible, to raise the
siege of Neiss in person. With this view he decamped from Dobreschutz,
and, in sight of the enemy, marched to Goerlitz without the least
interruption. From thence he proceeded towards Silesia with his usual
expedition, notwithstanding all the endeavours and activity of general
Laudohn, who harassed the rear of the Prussians, and gained some petty
advantages over them.. Count Daun not only sent this detached corps to
retard them in their march; but at the same time, by another route,
detached a strong reinforcement to the army of the besiegers. In the
meantime, having received intelligence that the army of prince Henry in
Saxony was considerably weakened, he himself marched thither, in hopes of
expelling the prince from that country, and reducing the capital in the
king’s absence. Indeed, his designs were still more extensive, for he
proposed to reduce Dresden, Leipsic, and Torgau, at the same time; the
first with the main body under his own direction, the second by the army
of the empire under the prince de Deuxponts, and the third by a corps
under general Haddick, while the forces directed by Laudohn should exclude
the king from Lusatia. In execution of this plan he marched directly to
the Elbe, which he passed at Pima, and advanced to Dresden, which he hoped
would surrender without putting him to the trouble of a formal siege. The
army of prince Henry had already retired to the westward of this capital
before the prince de Deuxponts, who had found means to cut off his
communication with Leipsic, and even invested that city. During these
transactions general Haddick advanced against Torgau.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SUBURBS OF DRESDEN BURNT.

The field-mareschal count Daun appearing on the sixth day of November
within sight of Dresden, at the head of sixty thousand men, encamped next
day at Lockowitz, and on the eighth his advanced troops attacked the
Prussian hussars and independent battalions, which were posted at
Striessen and Gruenewiese. Count Schmettau, who commanded the garrison,
amounting to ten thousand men, apprehensive that, in the course of
skirmishing, the Austrian troops might enter the suburbs pell-mell, posted
colonel Itzenplitz, with seven hundred men, in the redoubts that
surrounded the suburbs, that in case of emergency they might support the
irregulars; at the same time, as the houses that constituted the suburbs
were generally so high as to overlook the ramparts and command the city,
he prepared combustibles, and gave notice to the magistrates that they
would be set on fire as soon as an Austrian should appear within the
place. This must have been a dreadful declaration to the inhabitants of
these suburbs, which compose one of the most elegant towns in Europe. In
these houses, which were generally lofty and magnificent, the fashionable
and wealthy class of people resided, and here a number of artists carried
on a variety of curious manufactures. In vain the magistrates implored the
mercy and forbearance of the Prussian governor, and represented, in the
most submissive strain, that as they were unconcerned in the war, they
hoped they should be exempted from the horrors of devastation. In vain the
royal family, who remained at Dresden, conjured him to spare that last
refuge of distressed royalty, and allow them at least a secure residence,
since they were deprived of every other comfort. He continued inflexible,
or rather determined to execute the orders of his master, which indeed he
could not disobey with any regard to his own safety. On the ninth day of
November, about noon, the Austrian vanguard attacked the advanced post of
the garrison, repelled the hussars, drove the independent battalions into
the suburbs, and forced three of the redoubts, while their cannon played
upon the town. The governor, expecting a vigorous attack next day,
recalled his troops within the city after they had set fire to the
suburbs. At three in the morning the signal was made for this terrible
conflagration, which in a little time reduced to ashes the beautiful
suburbs of Pirna, which had so lately flourished as the seat of gaity,
pleasure, and the ingenious arts. Every bosom warmed with benevolence must
be affected at the recital of such calamities. It excites not only our
compassion for the unhappy sufferers, but also our resentment against the
perpetrators of such enormity. Next day mareschal Daun sent an officer to
count Schmettau, with a message, expressing his surprise at the
destruction of the suburbs in a royal residence, an act of inhumanity
unheard of among christians. He desired to know if it was by the
governor’s order this measure was taken; and assured him, that he should
be responsible in his person for whatever outrages had been or might be
committed against a place in which a royal family resided. Schmettau gave
him to understand, that he had orders to defend the town to the last
extremity, and that the preservation of what remained depended entirely on
the conduct of his excellency; for, should he think proper to attack the
place, he (the governor) would defend himself from house to house, and
from street to street, and even make his last effort in the royal palace,
rather than abandon the city. He excused the destruction of the suburbs as
a necessary measure, authorized by the practice of war; but he would have
found it a difficult task to reconcile this step to the laws of eternal
justice, and far less to the dictates of common humanity. Indeed, if the
scene had happened in an enemy’s country, or if no other step could have
saved the lives and liberties of himself and his garrison, such a
desperate remedy might have stood excused by the law of nature and of
nations; but on this occasion he occupied a neutral city, over which he
could exercise no other power and authority but that which he derived from
illegal force and violence; nor was he at all reduced to the necessity of
sacrificing the place to his own safety, inasmuch as he might have retired
unmolested, by virtue of an honourable capitulation, which, however, he
did not demand. Whether the peremptory order of a superior will, in
foro conscientio, justify an officer who hath committed an illegal or
inhuman action, is a question that an English reader will scarce leave to
the determination of a German casuist with one hundred and fifty thousand
armed men in his retinue. Be this as it will, Mr. Ponickau, the Saxon
minister, immediately after this tragedy was acted, without waiting for
his master’s orders, presented a memorial to the diet of the empire,
complaining of it as an action reserved for the history of the war which
the king of Prussia had kindled in Germany, to be transmitted to future
ages. He affirmed that, in execution of Schmettau’s orders, the soldiers
had dispersed themselves in the streets of the Pirna and Witchen suburbs,
broke open the houses and shops, set fire to the combustibles, added fresh
fuel, and then shut the doors; that the violence of the flames was kept up
by red-hot balls fired into the houses, and along the streets; that the
wretched inhabitants, who forsook their burning houses, were slain by the
fire of the cannon and small arms; that those who endeavoured to save
their persons and effects were pushed down and destroyed by the bayonets
of the Prussian soldiers posted in the streets for that purpose: he
enumerated particular instances of inhuman barbarity, and declared that a
great number of people perished, either amidst the flames, or under the
ruins of the houses. The destruction of two hundred and fifty elegant
houses, and the total ruin of the inhabitants, were circumstances in
themselves so deplorable, as to need no aggravation; but the account of
the Saxon minister was shamefully exaggerated, and all the particular
instances of cruelty false in every circumstance. Baron Plotho, the
minister of Brandenburgh, did not fail to answer every article of the
Saxon memorial, and refute the particulars therein alleged, in a fair
detail, authenticated by certificates under the hands of the magistrates,
judges, and principal inhabitants of Dresden. The most extraordinary part
of this defence or vindication was the conclusion, in which the baron
solemnly assured the diet, that the king of Prussia, from his great love
to mankind, always felt the greatest emotion of soul, and the most
exquisite concern, at the effusion of blood, the devastation of cities and
countries, and the horrors of war, by which so many thousand
fellow-creatures were overwhelmed; and that if his sincere and honest
inclination to procure peace to Germany, his dear country, had met with
the least regard, the present war, attended with such bloodshed and
desolation, would have been prevented and avoided. He, therefore, declared
that those who excited the present troubles, who, instead of
extinguishing, threw oil upon the flames, must answer to God for the seas
of blood that had been and would be shed, for the devastation of so many
countries, and the entire ruin of so many innocent individuals. Such
declarations cost nothing to those hardened politicians, who, feeling no
internal check, are determined to sacrifice every consideration to the
motives of rapacity and ambition. It would be happy, however, for mankind,
were princes taught to believe that there is really an omnipotent and
all-judging power, that will exact a severe account of their conduct, and
punish them for their guilt, with out any respect to their persons; that
pillaging a whole people is more cruel than robbing a single person; and
that the massacre of thousands is, at least, as criminal as a private
murder.

THE PRUSSIANS RAISE THE SIEGE OF NEISS, AND RELIEVE DRESDEN.

While count Daun was employed in making a fruitless attempt upon the
capital of Saxony, the king of Prussia proceeded in his march to Neiss,
which was completely invested on the third day of October. The operations
of the siege were carried on with great vigour by the Austrian general De
Harsche, and the place was as vigorously defended by the Prussian
governor, Theskau, till the first day of November, when the Prussian
monarch approached, and obliged the besiegers to abandon their enterprise.
M. de Harsche having raised the siege, the king detached general Pouquet
with a body of troops across the river Neiss, and immediately the blockade
of Cosel was likewise abandoned. De Harsche retired to Bohemia, and De
Ville hovered about Jagernsdorf. The fortress of Neiss was no sooner
relieved, than the king of Prussia began his march on his return to
Saxony, where his immediate presence was required. At the same time, the
two bodies under the generals Dohna and Wedel penetrated by different
routes into that country. The former had been left at Custrin, to watch
the motions of the Russians, who had by this time retreated to the
Vistula, and even crossed that river at Thorn; and the other had, during
the campaign, observed the Swedes, who had now entirely evacuated the
Prussian territories, so that Wedel was at liberty to co-operate with the
king in Saxony. He accordingly marched to Torgau, the siege of which had
been undertaken by the Austrian general Haddick, who was repulsed by
Wedel, and even pursued to the neighbourhood of Eulenbourg. Wedel, being
afterwards joined by Dohna, drove him from thence with considerable loss,
and then raised the siege of Leipsic. Meanwhile, the king prosecuted his
march towards the capital of Saxony, driving before him the body of
Austrian troops under Laudohn, who retreated to Zittau. On the tenth day
of November count Daun retired from Dresden, and with the army of the
empire fell back towards Bohemia; and on the twentieth the king arrived in
that city, where he approved of the governor’s conduct. The Russian
general foreseeing that he should not be able to maintain his ground
during the winter in Poinerania, unless he could secure some sea-port on
the Baltic, by which he might be supplied with provisions, detached
general Palmbach, with fifteen thousand men, to besiege the town of
Colberg, an inconsiderable place, very meanly fortified. It was
accordingly invested on the third day of October; but the besiegers were
either so ill provided with proper implements, or so little acquainted
with operations of this nature, that the garrison, though feeble,
maintained the place against all their attacks for six-and-twenty days; at
the expiration of which they abandoned their enterprise, and cruelly
ravaged the open country in their retreat. Thus, by the activity and
valour of the Prussian monarch, his generals and officers, six sieges were
raised almost at the same period, namely, those of Colberg, Neiss, Cosel,
Torgau, Leipsic, and Dresden.

INHABITANTS OF SAXONY OPPRESSED.

The variety of fortune which the king of Prussia experienced in the course
of this campaign was very remarkable; but the spirit of his conduct, and
the rapidity of his motions, were altogether without example. In the
former campaign we were dazzled with the lustre of his victories; in this
we admire his fortitude and skill in stemming the different torrents of
adversity, and rising superior to his evil fortune. One can hardly without
astonishment recollect, that in the course of a few months he invaded
Moravia, invested Olmutz, and was obliged to relinquish that design, that
he marched through an enemy’s country, in the face of a great army, which,
though it harassed him in his retreat, could not, in a route of an hundred
miles, obtain any advantage over him; that in spite of his disaster at
Olmutz, and the difficulties of such a march, he penetrated into Bohemia,
drove the enemy from Koningsgratz, executed another dangerous and
fatiguing march to the Oder, defeated a great army of Russians, and
returned by the way of Saxony, from whence he drove the Austrian and
Imperial armies; that after his defeat at Hochkirchen, where he lost two
of his best generals, and was obliged to leave his tents standing, he
baffled the vigilance and superior number of the victorious army, rushed
like a whirlwind to the relief of Silesia, invaded by an Austrian army,
which he compelled to retire with precipitation from that province; that,
with the same rapidity of motion, he wheeled about to Saxony, and once
more rescued it from the hands of his adversaries; that in one campaign he
made twice the circuit of his dominions, relieved them all in their turns,
and kept all his possessions entire against the united efforts of numerous
armies, conducted by generals of consummate skill and undaunted
resolution. His character would have been still more complete, if his
moderation had been equal to his courage; but in this particular we cannot
applaud his conduct. Incensed by the persecuting spirit of his enemies, he
wrecked his vengeance on those who had done him no injury; and the
cruelties which the Russians had committed in his dominions were
retaliated upon the unfortunate inhabitants of Saxony. In the latter end
of September, the president of the Prussian military directory sent a
letter to the magistrates of Leipsic, requiring them, in the king’s name,
to pay a new contribution of six hundred thousand crowns, and to begin
immediately with the payment of one-third part, on pain of military
execution. In answer to this demand, the magistrates represented that the
city having been exhausted by the enormous contributions already raised,
was absolutely incapable of furnishing further supplies; that the trade
was stagnated and ruined, and the inhabitants so impoverished, that they
could no longer pay the ordinary taxes. This remonstrance made no
impression. At five in the morning the Prussian soldiers assembled, and
were posted in all the streets, squares, market-places, cemeteries,
towers, and steeples; then the gates being shut, in order to exclude the
populace of the suburbs from the city, the senators were brought into the
town-hall, and accosted by general Hauss, who told them, the king his
master would have money; and, if they refused to part with it, the city
should be plundered. To this peremptory address they replied to this
effect:—“We have no more money,—we have nothing left but life;
and we recommend ourselves to the king’s mercy.” In consequence of this
declaration, dispositions were made for giving up the city to be
plundered. Cannon were planted in all the streets, the inhabitants were
ordered to remain within doors, and every house resounded with dismal
cries and lamentations. The dreaded pillage, however, was converted into a
regular exaction. A party of soldiers, commanded by a subaltern, went from
house to house, signifying to every burgher, that he should produce all
his specie, on pain of immediate pillage and massacre; and every
inhabitant delivered up his all without further hesitation. About six in
the evening, the soldiers returned to their quarters; but the magistrates
were detained in confinement, and all the citizens were overwhelmed with
grief and consternation. Happy Britain, who knowest such grievances only
by report! When the king of Prussia first entered Saxony, at the beginning
of the war, he declared he had no design to make a conquest of that
electorate, but only to keep it as a depositum for the security of his own
dominions, until he could oblige his enemies to acquiesce in reasonable
terms of peace; but upon his last arrival at Dresden he adopted a new
resolution. In the beginning of December, the Prussian directory of war
issued a decree to the deputies of the states of the electorate, demanding
a certain quantity of flour and forage, according to the convention
formerly settled; at the same time signifying, that though the king of
Prussia had hitherto treated the electorate as a country taken under his
special protection, the face of affairs was now changed in such a manner,
that for the future he would consider it in no other light than that of a
conquered country. The Russians had seized in Prussia all the estates and
effects belonging to the king’s officers: a retaliation was now made upon
the effects of the Saxon officers, who served in the Russian army. Seals
were put on all the cabinets containing papers belonging to the
privy-counsellors of his Polish majesty, and they themselves ordered to
depart for Warsaw at a very short warning. Though the city had been
impoverished by former exactions, and very lately subjected to military
execution, the king of Prussia demanded fresh contributions, and even
extorted them by dint of severities that shock humanity. He surrounded the
exchange with soldiers, and confining the merchants to straw beds and
naked apartments, obliged them to draw bills for very large sums on their
foreign correspondents: a method of proceeding much more suitable to the
despotism of a Persian sophi towards a conquered people who professed a
different faith, than reconcileable to the character of a protestant
prince towards a peaceable nation of brethren, with whom he was connected
by the common ties of neighbourhood and religion. Even if they had acted
as declared enemies, and been subdued with arms in their hands, the
excesses of war on the side of the conqueror ought to have ceased with the
hostilities of the conquered, who, by submitting to his sway, would have
become his subjects, and in that capacity had a claim to his protection.
To retaliate upon the Saxons, who had espoused no quarrel, the barbarities
committed by the Russians, with whom he was actually at war; and to treat
as a conquered province a neutral country, which his enemies had entered
by violence, and been obliged to evacuate by force of arms, was a species
of conduct founded on pretences which overturn all right, and confound all
reason.

PROGRESS OF THE SWEDES IN POMERANIA.

Having recorded all the transactions of the campaign, except those in
which the Swedes were concerned, it now remains that we should
particularize the progress which was made in Pomerania by the troops of
that nation, under the command of count Hamilton. We have already
observed, that in the beginning of the year the Prussian general, Lehwald,
had compelled them to evacuate the whole province, except Stralsund, which
was likewise invested. This, in all probability, would have been besieged
in form, had not Lehwald resigned the command of the Prussians, on account
of his great age and infirmities; and his successor, count Dohna, been
obliged to withdraw his troops in order to oppose the Russian army on the
other side of Pomerania. The blockade of Stralsund being consequently
raised, and that part of the country being entirely evacuated by the
Prussians, the Swedish troops advanced again from the isle of Rugen, to
which, they had retired; but the supplies and reinforcements they expected
from Stockholm were delayed in such a manner, either from a deficiency in
the subsidies promised by France, or from the management of those who were
averse to the war, that great part of the season was elapsed before they
undertook any important enterprise. Indeed, while they lay encamped under
the cannon of Stralsund, waiting for these supplies, their operations were
retarded by the explosion of a whole ship-load of gunpowder intended for
their use; an event imputed to the practices of the Prussian party in
Sweden, which at this period seemed to gain ground, and even threatened a
change in the ministry. At length the reinforcement arrived about the
latter end of June, and their general seemed determined to act with
vigour. In the beginning of July, his army being put in motion, he sent a
detachment to dislodge the few Prussian troops that were left at Anclam,
Demmin, and other places, to guard that frontier; and they retreated
accordingly. Count Hamilton having nothing further to oppose him in the
field, in a very little time recovered all Swedish Pomerania, and even
made hot incursions into the Prussian territories. Meanwhile, a combined
fleet of thirty-three Russian and seven Swedish ships of war appeared in
the Baltic, and anchored between the isles of Dragoe and Amagh; but they
neither landed troops nor committed hostilities. The Swedish general
advanced as far as Fehrbellin, sent out parties that raised contributions
within five and twenty miles of Berlin, and threw the inhabitants of that
capital into the utmost consternation. The king of Prussia, alarmed at
their progress, despatched general Wedel from Dresden, with a body of
troops that were augmented on their march; so that, on the twentieth of
September, he found himself at Berlin with eleven thousand effective men,
at the head of whom he proceeded against count Hamilton, while the prince
of Bevern, with five thousand, advanced on the other side from Stetin. At
their approach, the Swedish commander retired, after having left a
garrison of fourteen hundred men at Fehrbellin in order to retard the
Prussians, and secure the retreat of his army. The place was immediately
attacked by general Wedel; and though the Swedes disputed the ground from
house to house with uncommon obstinacy, he at last drove them out of the
town, with the loss of one half of their number either killed or taken
prisoners. The body of the Swedish army, without hazarding any other
action, immediately evacuated the Prussian territories, and returned to
the neighbourhood of Stralsund, intending to take winter-quarters in the
isle of Rugen. Count Hamilton, either disgusted at the restrictions he had
been laid under, or finding himself unable to act in such a manner as
might redound to the advantage of his reputation, threw up his command,
retired from the army, and resigned all his other employments.

PRINCE CHARLES OF SAXONY ELECTED DUKE OF COURLAND.

The king of Prussia was not only favoured by a considerable party in
Sweden, but he had also raised a strong interest in Poland, among such
Palatines as had always opposed the measures of the reigning family. These
were now reinforced by many patriots, who dreaded the vicinity and
suspected the designs of the Russian army. The diet of the republic was
opened on the second day of November; and, after warm debates, M.
Malachowski was unanimously elected mareschal; but no sooner had the
chambers of nuncios begun their deliberations, than a number of voices
were raised against the encroachments of the Russian troops, who had taken
up their residence in Poland; and heavy complaints were made of the
damages sustained from their cruelty and rapine. Great pains were taken to
appease these clamours; and many were prevailed upon to refer these
grievances to the king in senate; but when this difficulty seemed almost
surmounted, Padhorski, the nuncio of Volhinia, stood up, and declared that
he would not permit any other point to be discussed in the diet while the
Russians maintained the least footing within the territories of the
republic. Vain were all the attempts of the courtiers to persuade and
mollify this inflexible patriot, he solemnly protested against their proceedings,
and hastily withdrew; so that the mareschal was obliged to dissolve the
assembly, and recourse was had to a senatus consilium, to concert
proper measures to be taken in the present conjuncture. The king of Poland
was on this occasion likewise disappointed in his views of providing for
his son, prince Charles, in the duchy of Courland. He had been recommended
by the court of Russia, and even approved by the states of that country;
but two difficulties occurred. The states declared, they could not proceed
to a new election during the life of their former duke, count Biron, who
was still alive, though a prisoner in Siberia, unless their duchy should
be declared vacant by the king and republic of Poland; and, according to
the laws of that country, no prince could be elected until he should have
declared himself of the Augsburgh confession. His Polish majesty, however,
being determined to surmount all obstacles to his son’s interest, ordered
count Malachowski, high chancellor of Poland, to deliver to prince Charles
a diploma, by which the king granted permission to the states of Courland
to elect that prince for their duke, and appointed the day for his
election and instalment; which accordingly took place in the month of
January, notwithstanding the clamour of many Polish grandees, who
persisted in affirming that the king had no power to grant such permission
without the consent of the diet. The vicissitudes of the campaign had
produced no revolutions in the several systems adopted by the different
powers in Europe. The czarina, who in the month of June had signified her
sentiments and designs against the king of Prussia, in a declaration
delivered to all the foreign ministers at Petersburgh, seemed now, more
than ever, determined to act vigorously in behalf of the empress-queen of
Hungary, and the unfortunate king of Poland, who still resided at Warsaw.
The court of Vienna distributed among the imperial ministers at the
several courts of the empire, copies of a rescript explaining the conduct
of her generals since the beginning of the campaign, and concluded with
expressions of self-approbation to this effect: “Though the issue of the
campaign be not as yet entirely satisfactory, and such as might be
desired, the imperial court enjoys, at least, the sincere satisfaction of
reflecting, that, according to the change of circumstances, it instantly
took the most vigorous resolutions; that it was never deficient in any
thing that might contribute to the good of the common cause, and is now
employed in making preparations, from which the most happy consequences
may be expected.”

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE KING OF ENGLAND’S MEMORIAL.

We have already hinted at a decree of the Aulic council of the empire,
published in the month of August, enjoining all directors of circles, all
imperial towns, and the noblesse of the empire, to transmit to Vienna an
exact list of all those who had disobeyed the avocatoria of the empire,
and adhered to the rebellion raised by the elector of Brandenburgh; that
their revenues might be sequestered, and themselves punished in their
honours, persons, and effects. As the elector of Hanover was plainly
pointed out, and, indeed, expressly mentioned in this decree, the king of
Great Britain, by the hands of baron Gemmegen, his electoral minister,
presented a memorial to the diet of the empire in the month of November,
enumerating the instances in which he exerted himself, and even exposed
his life, for the preservation and aggrandizement of the house of Austria.
In return for these important services, he observed, that the
empress-queen had refused him the assistance stipulated in treaties
against an invasion planned by France, whose hatred he had drawn upon
himself by his friendship to that princess; and his imperial majesty even
denied him the dictatorial letters which he solicited; that the court of
Vienna had signed a treaty with the crown of France, in which it was
stipulated that the French troops should pass the Weser, and invade the
electorate of Hanover, where they were joined by the troops of the
empress-queen, who ravaged his Britannic majesty’s dominions with greater
cruelty than even the French had practised; and the same duke of
Cumberland, who had been wounded at Dettingen in the defence of her
imperial majesty, was obliged to fight at Hastenbeck against the troops of
that very princess, in defence of his father’s dominions; that she sent
commissaries to Hanover, who shared with the crown of France the
contributions extorted from that electorate; rejected all proposals of
peace, and dismissed from her court the minister of Brunswick-Lunenbourg;
that his imperial majesty, who had sworn to protect the empire, and oppose
the entrance of foreign troops destined to oppress any of the states of
Germany, afterwards required the king of England to withdraw his troops
from the countries which they occupied, that the French army might again
have free passage into his German dominions; that the emperor had recalled
these troops, released them from their allegiance to their sovereign,
enjoined them to abandon their posts, their colours, and the service in
which they were embarked, on pain of being punished in body, honour, and
estate: and that the king of England himself was threatened with the ban
of the empire. He took notice, that, in quality of elector, he had been
accused of refusing to concur with the resolutions of the diet taken in
the preceding year; of entering into alliance with the king of Prussia;
joining his troops to the armies of that prince; employing auxiliaries
belonging to the states of the empire; sending English forces into
Germany, where they had taken possession of Embden; and exacting
contributions in different parts of Germany. In answer to these
imputations, he alleged that he could not, consistent with his own safety
or the dictates of common sense, concur with a majority in joining his
troops, which were immediately necessary for his own defence, to those
which, from the arbitrary views of the court of Vienna, were led against
his friend and ally the king of Prussia, by a prince who did not belong to
the generality of the empire, and on whom the command had been conferred
without a previous conclusion of the Germanic body; that, with respect to
his alliance with the king of Prussia, he had a right, when deserted by
his former allies, to seek assistance wheresoever it could be procured;
and surely no just ground of complaint could be offered against that which
his Prussian majesty lent, to deliver the electoral states of Brunswick,
as well as those of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Hesse, and Ruckebourg, from
the oppressions of their common enemy. Posterity, he said, would hardly
believe, that at a time when the troops of Austria, the Palatinate, and
Wirtemberg, were engaged to invade the countries of the empire, other
members of the Germanic body, who employed auxiliaries in their defence,
should be threatened with outlawry and sequestration. He owned, that, in
quality of king, he had sent over English troops to Germany, and taken
possession of Embden; steps for which he was accountable to no power upon
earth, although the constitutions of the empire permit the co-estates to
make use of foreign troops, not indeed for the purpose of invasion or
conquest in Germany, but for their defence and preservation. He also
acknowledged that he had resented the conduct, and chastised the
injustice, of those co-estates who had assisted his enemies, and helped to
ravage his dominions; inferring, that if the crown of France was free to
pillage the estates of the duke of Brunswick and the landgrave of
Hesse-Cassel, because they had supplied the king of England with
auxiliaries; if the empress-queen had a right to appropriate to herself
half of the contributions raised by the French king in these countries;
surely his Britannic majesty had an equal right to make those feel the
burden of the war who had favoured the unjust enterprises of his enemies.
He expressed his hope, that the diet, after having duly considered these
circumstances, would, by way of advice, propose to his imperial majesty
that he should annul his most inconsistent mandates, and not only take
effectual measures to protect the electorate and its allies, but also give
orders for commencing against the empress-queen, as archduchess of
Austria, the elector Palatine, and the duke of Wirtemberg, such
proceedings as she wanted to enforce against his Britannic majesty,
elector of Brunswick-Lunenbourg. For this purpose the minister now
requested their excellencies to ask immediately the necessary instructions
for their principals. The rest of this long memorial contained a
justification of his Britannic majesty’s conduct in deviating from the
capitulation of Closter-Seven; with a refutation of the arguments adduced,
and a retortion of the reproaches levelled against the king of England, in
the paper or manifesto composed and published under the direction of the
French ministry, and intituled, “A parallel of the conduct of the king of
France with that of the king of England, relative to the breach of the
capitulation of Closter-Seven by the Hanoverians.” But to this invective a
more circumstantial answer was published; in which, among other curious
particulars, the letter of expostulation, said to have been written by the
Prussian monarch to the king of Great Britain after the defeat of Kolin is
treated as an infamous piece of forgery, produced by some venal pen
employed to impose upon the public. The author also, in his endeavours to
demonstrate his Britannic majesty’s aversion to a continental war, very
justly observes, that “none but such as are unacquainted with the maritime
force of England, can believe, that, without a diversion on the continent,
to employ part of the enemy’s force, she is not in a condition to hope for
success, and maintain her superiority at sea. England, therefore, had no
interest to foment quarrels or wars in Europe; but, for the same reason,
there was room to fear that France would embrace a different system;
accordingly, she took no pains to conceal her views, and her envoys
declared publicly that a war upon the continent was inevitable, and that
the king’s dominions in Germany would be its principal object.” He
afterwards, in the course of his argumentation, adds, “That they must be
very ignorant indeed, who imagine that the forces of England are not able
to resist those of France, unless the latter be hindered from turning all
her efforts to the sea. In case of a war upon the continent, the two
powers must pay subsidies; only with this difference, that France can
employ her own land-forces, and aspire at conquests.” Such were the
professed sentiments of the British ministry, founded upon eternal truth
and demonstration, and openly avowed, when the business was to prove that
it was not the interest of Great Britain to maintain a war upon the
continent; but afterwards, when this continental war was eagerly espoused,
fostered, and cherished by the blood and treasure of the English nation,
then the partisans of that very ministry, which had thus declared that
England, without any diversion on the continent of Europe, was an
overmatch for France by sea, which maybe termed the British element; then
their partisans, their champions, declaimers, and dependents, were taught
to rise in rebellion against their former doctrine, and, in defiance of
common sense and reflection, affirm that a diversion in Germany was
absolutely necessary to the successful issue of England’s operations in
Asia, Africa, and America. Notwithstanding all the facts and arguments
assembled in this elaborate memorial, to expose the ingratitude of the
empress-queen, and demonstrate the oppressive measures adopted by the
imperial power, it remains to be proved, that the member of a community is
not obliged to yield obedience to the resolutions taken, and the decrees
published, by the majority of those who compose this community; especially
when reinforced with the authority of the supreme magistrate, and not
repugnant to the fundamental constitution on which that community was
established.

DEATH OF POPE BENEDICT.

If the empress-queen was not gratified to the extent of her wishes in the
fortune of the campaign, at least her self-importance was nattered in
another point, which could not fail of being interesting to a princess
famed for a glowing zeal and inviolable attachment to the religion of
Rome. In the month of August the pope conferred upon her the title of
apostolical queen of Hungary, conveyed by a brief, in which he extolled
her piety, and launched out into retrospective eulogiums of her
predecessors, the princes of Hungary, who had been always accustomed to
fight and overcome for the catholic faith under his holy banner. This
compliment, however, she did not derive from the regard of Prosper
Lambertini, who exercised the papal sway under the assumed name of
Benedict XIV. That pontiff, universally esteemed for his good sense,
moderation, and humanity, had breathed his last in the month of April, in
the eighty-fourth year of his age; and in July was succeeded in the papacy
by cardinal Charles Bezzonico, bishop of Padua, by birth a Venetian. He
was formerly auditor of the Rota; afterwards promoted to the purple by
pope Clement XII. at the nomination of the republic of Venice; was
distinguished by the title of St. Maria d’Ara Coeli, the principal convent
of the Cordeliers, and nominated protector of the Pandours, or Illyrians.
When he ascended the papal chair, he assumed the name of Clement XIII. in
gratitude to the last of that name, who was his benefactor. Though of a
disagreeable person, and even deformed in his body, he enjoyed good
health, and a vigorous constitution. As an ecclesiastic, his life was
exemplary; his morals were pure and unimpeached; in his character he is
said to have been learned, diligent, steady, devout; and, in every
respect, worthy to succeed such a predecessor as Benedict.

KING OF PORTUGAL ASSASSINATED.

The king of Spain wisely persisted in reaping the advantages of a
neutrality, notwithstanding the intrigues of the French partisans at the
court of Madrid, who endeavoured to alarm his jealousy by the conquests
which the English had projected in America. The king of Sardina
sagaciously kept aloof, resolving, in imitation of his predecessors, to
maintain his power on a respectable footing, and be ready to seize all
opportunities to extend and promote the interest of his crown, and the
advantage of his country. As for the king of Portugal, he had prudently
embraced the same system of forbearance; but in the latter end of the
season, his attention was engrossed by a domestic incident of a very
extraordinary nature. Whether he had, by particular instances of severity,
exasperated the minds of certain individuals, and exercised his dominion
in such acts of arbitrary power as excited a general spirit of
disaffection among his nobility; or, lastly, by the vigorous measures
pursued against the encroaching Jesuits in Paraguay, and their
correspondents in Portugal, had incurred the resentment of that society,
we shall not pretend to determine: perhaps all these motives concurred in
giving birth to a conspiracy against his life, which was actually executed
at this juncture with the most desperate resolution. On the third day of
September, the king, according to custom, going out in a carriage to take
the air, accompanied by one domestic, was, in the night, at a solitary
place near Belem, attacked by three men on horseback, armed with
musquetoons, one of whom fired his piece at the coachman without effect.
The man, however, terrified both on his own account and that of his
sovereign, drove the mules at full speed; a circumstance which, in some
measure, disconcerted the other two conspirators, who pursued him at full
gallop, and having no leisure to take aim, discharged their pieces at
random through the back of the carriage. The slugs with which they were
loaded happened to pass between the king’s right arm and his breast,
dilacerating the parts from the shoulder to the elbow, but without
damaging the bone, or penetrating into the cavity of the body. Finding
himself grievously wounded, and the blood flowing apace, he, with such
presence of mind as cannot be sufficiently admired, instead of proceeding
to the palace, which was at some distance, ordered the coachman to return
to Junqueria, where his principal surgeon resided, and there his wounds
were immediately dressed. By this resolution he not only prevented the
irreparable mischief that might have arisen from an excessive effusion of
blood; but, without all doubt, saved his life from the bands of other
assassins, posted on the road to accomplish the regicide, in case he
should escape alive from the first attack. This instance of the king’s
recollection was magnified into a miracle, on a supposition that it must
have been the effect of divine inspiration; and, indeed, among a people
addicted to superstition, might well pass for a favourable interposition
of Providence. The king being thus disabled in his right arm, issued a
decree, investing the queen with the absolute power of government. In the
meantime, no person had access to his presence but herself, the first
minister, the cardinal de Saldanha, the physicians, and surgeons. An
embargo was immediately laid on all the shipping in the port of Lisbon.
Rewards were publicly offered, together with the promise of pardon to the
accomplices, for detecting any of the assassins; and such other measures
used, that in a little time the whole conspiracy was discovered: a
conspiracy the more dangerous, as it appeared to have been formed by
persons of the first quality and influence. The duke de Weiro, of the
family of Mascarenhas; the marquis de Tavora, who had been viceroy of Goa,
and now actually enjoyed the commission of general of the horse; the count
de Attougui, the marquis de Alloria, together with their wives, children,
and whole families, were arrested immediately after the assassination, as
principals in the design; and many other accomplices, including some
Jesuits, were apprehended in the sequel. The further proceedings on this
mysterious affair, with the fate of the conspirators, will be
particularized among the transactions of the following year. At present it
will be sufficient to observe, that the king’s wounds were attended with
no bad consequences; nor did the imprisonment of those noblemen produce
any disturbance in the kingdom.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH MINISTRY.

The domestic occurrences of France were tissued with a continuation of the
disputes between the parliaments and clergy, touching the bull Unigenitus.
In vain the king had interposed his authority: first proposing an
accommodation; then commanding the parliament to forbear taking cognizance
of a religious contest, which did not fall under their jurisdiction; and,
thirdly, banishing their persons, and abrogating their power. He
afterwards found it necessary to the peace of his dominions to recall and
reinstate those venerable patriots; and being convinced of the intolerable
insolence and turbulent spirit of the archbishop of Paris, had exiled that
prelate in his turn. He was no sooner re-admitted to his function, than he
resumed his former conduct, touching the denial of the sacraments to those
who refused to acknowledge the bull Unigenitus: he even acted with
redoubled zeal; intrigued with the other prelates; caballed among the
inferior clergy; and not only revived, but augmented, the troubles
throughout the whole kingdom. Bishops, curates, and monks, presumed to
withhold spiritual consolation from persons in extremity, and were
punished by the civil power. Other parliaments of the kingdom followed the
example exhibited by that of Paris, in asserting their authority and
privileges. The king commanded them to desist, on pain of incurring his
indignation; they remonstrated, and persevered; while the archbishop
repeated his injunctions and censures, and continued to inflame the
dispute to such a dangerous degree, that he was given to understand he
should be again obliged to quit the capital, if he did not proceed with
more moderation. But the chief care of the French ministry was employed in
regulating the finances, and establishing funds of credit for raising
money to pay subsidies, and maintain the war in Europe and America. In the
course of this year they had not only considerably reinforced their armies
in Germany, but made surprising efforts to supply the colony of Canada
with troops, artillery, stores, and ammunition, for its defence against
the operations of the British forces, which greatly outnumbered the French
upon the continent. The court of Versailles practised every stratagem to
elude the vigilance of the English cruisers. The ships destined for
America they detached, both single and in convoys, sometimes from the
Mediterranean, sometimes from their harbours in the channel. They
assembled transports in one port, in order to withdraw the attention of
their enemies from another, where their convoys lay ready for sailing; and
in boisterous weather, when the English could no longer block up their
harbours, their store-ships came forth, and hazarded the voyage for the
relief of their American settlements. Those that had the good fortune to
arrive on the coast of that continent, were obliged to have recourse to
different expedients for escaping the British squadrons stationed at
Halifax, or cruising in the bay of St. Laurence. They either ventured to
navigate the river before it was clear of the ice, so early in the spring,
that the enemy had not yet quitted the harbour of Nova-Scotia; or they
waited on the coast of Newfoundland for such thick fogs as might screen
them from the notice of the English cruisers, in sailing up the gulf;
lastly, they penetrated through the straits of Belleisle, a dangerous
passage, which, however, led them directly into the river St. Laurence, at
a considerable distance above the station of the British squadron. Though
the French navy was by this time so reduced, that it could neither face
the English at sea nor furnish proper convoys for commerce, her ministry
nevertheless attempted to alarm the subjects of Great Britain with the
project of an invasion. Flat-bottomed boats were built, transports
collected, large ships of the line equipped, and troops ordered to
assemble on the coast for embarkation; but this was no more than a feint
to arouse the apprehension of the English, disconcert the administration,
prejudice the national credit, and deter the government from sending
forces to keep alive the war in Germany. A much more effectual method they
took to distress the trade of England, by laying up their useless ships of
war, and encouraging the equipment of stout privateers, which did
considerable damage to the commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, by
cruising in the seas of Europe and America. Some of them lay close in the
harbours of the channel, fronting the coast of England, and darted out
occasionally on the trading ships of this nation, as they received
intelligence from boats employed for that purpose. Some chose their
station in the North sea, where a great number of captures were made upon
the coast of Scotland; others cruised in the chops of the channel, and
even to the westward of Ireland; but the far greater number scoured the
seas in the neighbourhood of the Leeward Islands in the West Indies, where
they took a prodigious number of British ships, sailing to and from the
sugar colonies, and conveyed them to their own settlements in Martinique,
Guadeloupe, or St. Domingo.

CONDUCT OF THE KING OF DENMARK.

With respect to the war that raged in Germany, the king of Denmark wisely
pursued that course, which happily preserved him from being involved in
those troubles by which great part of Europe was agitated, and terminated
in that point of national advantage which a king ought ever to have in
view for the benefit of his people. By observing a scrupulous neutrality,
he enhanced his importance among his neighbours: he saw himself courted by
all the belligerent powers: he saved the blood and treasure of his
subjects: he received large subsidies, in consideration of his
forbearance; and enjoyed, unmolested, a much more considerable share of
commerce than he could expect to carry on, even in times of universal
tranquillity. He could not perceive that the protestant religion had
anything to apprehend from the confederacy which was formed against the
Prussian monarch; nor was he misled into all the expense, the perils, and
disquiets of a sanguinary war, by that ignis fatuus which hath
seduced and impoverished other opulent nations, under the specious title
of the balance of power in Germany. Howsoever he might be swayed by
private inclination, he did not think it was a point of consequence to his
kingdom, whether Pomeranians possessed by Sweden or Prussia; whether the
French army was driven back beyond the Rhine, or penetrated once more into
the electorate of Hanover: whether the empress-queen was stripped of her
remaining possessions in Silesia, or the king of Prussia circumscribed
within the original bounds of his dominion. He took it for granted that
France, for her own sake, would prevent the ruin of that enterprising
monarch; and that the house of Austria would not be so impolitic and blind
to its own interest, as to permit the empress of Russia to make and retain
conquests in the empire; but even if these powers should be weak enough to
sacrifice all the maxims of sound policy to caprice or resentment, he did
not think himself so deeply concerned in the event, as for the distant,
prospect of what might possibly happen, to plunge headlong into a war that
must be attended with certain and immediate disadvantages. True it is, he
had no hereditary electorate in Germany that was threatened with invasion;
nor, if he had, is it to be supposed that a prince of his sagacity and
patriotism would have impoverished his kingdom of Denmark, for the
precarious defence of a distant territory. It was reserved for another
nation to adopt the pernicious absurdity of wasting its blood and
treasure, exhausting its revenues, loading its own back with the most
grievous impositions, incurring an enormous debt, big with bankruptcy and
ruin; in a word, of expending above an hundred and fifty millions sterling
in fruitless efforts to defend a distant country, the entire property of
which was never valued at one twentieth part of that sum; a country with
which it had no natural connexion, but a common alliance arising from
accident. The king of Denmark, though himself a prince of the empire, and
possessed of dominions in Germany almost contiguous to the scenes of the
present war, did not yet think himself so nearly concerned in the issue,
as to declare himself either principal or auxiliary in the quarrel; yet he
took care to maintain his forces by sea and land upon a respectable
footing; and by this conduct, he not only provided for the security of his
own country, but overawed the belligerent powers, who considered him as a
prince capable of making either scale preponderate, just as he might
choose to trim the balance. Thus he preserved his wealth, commerce, and
consequence undiminished; and instead of being harassed as a party, was
honoured as an umpire.

The United Provinces, though as adverse as his Danish majesty to any
participation in the war, did not, however, so scrupulously observe the
neutrality they professed; at least, the traders of that republic, either
from an inordinate thirst of lucre, or a secret bias in favour of the
enemies of Great Britain, assisted the French commerce with all the
appearance of the most flagrant partiality. We have, in the beginning of
this year’s transactions, observed, that a great number of their ships
were taken by the English cruisers, and condemned as legal prizes for
having French property on board: that the Dutch merchants, exasperated by
their losses, exclaimed against the English as pirates and robbers,
petitioned the states for redress in very high terms, and even loudly
clamoured for a war against Great Britain. The charge of violence and
injustice, which they brought against the English for taking and
confiscating the ships that transported to Europe the produce of the
French islands in the West Indies, they founded on the tenth article of
the treaty of commerce between Great Britain and the states-general of the
United Provinces, concluded in the year one thousand six hundred and
sixty-eight, stipulating, “That whatever shall be found on board the ships
of the subjects of the United Provinces, though the lading, or part
thereof, may belong to the enemies of Great Britain, shall be free and
unmolested, except these be prohibited goods, which are to be served in
the manner described by the foregoing articles.” From this article the
Dutch merchants argued, that, if there be no prohibited goods on board,
the English had no right to stop or molest any of their ships, or make the
least inquiry to whom the merchandise belonged, whence it was brought, or
whither bound. This plea the English casuists would by no means admit, for
the following reasons,—a general and perpetual license to carry on
the whole trade of their enemy would be such a glaring absurdity, as no
convention could authorize: common sense has dictated, and Grotius
declared, that no man can be supposed to have consented to an absurdity;
therefore, the interpretation given by the Dutch to this article, could
not be supposed to be its true and genuine meaning; which, indeed, relates
to nothing more than the common course of trade, as it was usually carried
on in time of peace. But even should this interpretation be accepted, the
article, and the treaty itself, would be superseded and annulled by a
subsequent treaty, concluded between the two nations in the year one
thousand six hundred and seventy-five, and often confirmed since that
period, stipulating, in a secret article, that neither of the contracting
parties should give, nor consent, that any of their subjects and
inhabitants should give any aid, favour, or counsel, directly or
indirectly, by land or sea, or on the fresh waters; nor should furnish, or
permit the subjects or inhabitants of their respective territories to
furnish, any ships, soldiers, seamen, victuals, monies, instruments of
war, gunpowder, or any other necessaries for making war, to the enemies of
either party, of any rank or condition soever. Now, the Dutch have
infringed this article in many instances during the present war, both in
Europe and America; and, as they have so openly contravened one treaty,
the English are not obliged to observe another. They, moreover, forfeited
all right to the observance of the treaty in question, by refusing the
succours with which they were bound, in the most solemn manner, to furnish
the king of Great Britain, in case any of his territories in Europe should
be attacked: for nothing could be more weak and frivolous than the
allegation upon which this refusal was founded, namely, that the
hostilities in Europe were commenced by the English, when they seized and
confiscated the vessels of France; and they, being the aggressors, had no
right to insist upon the succours stipulated in a treaty which was purely
defensive. If this argument has any weight, the treaty itself can have no
signification. The French, as in the present case, will always commence
the war in America; and when their ships, containing reinforcements and
stores for the maintenance of that war, shall be taken on the European
seas, perhaps in consequence of their being exposed for that purpose, they
will exclaim that the English were the aggressors in Europe, consequently
deprived of all benefit accruing from the defensive treaty subsisting
between them and the states-general of the United Provinces. It being
impossible for the English to terminate the war, while their enemies
derive the sinews of it from their commerce carried on in neutral bottoms,
they are obliged to suppress such collusions, by that necessity which
Grotius himself hath allowed to be a sufficient excuse for deviating from
the letter of any treaty whatsoever. In time of peace no Dutch ships were
permitted to carry the produce of any French sugar island, or even to
trade in any of the French ports in America or the West Indies;
consequently, the treaty which they quote can never justify them in
carrying on a commerce, which, as it did not exist, and was not foreseen,
could not possibly be guarded against when that convention was ratified.
Grotius, whose authority is held in such veneration among the Dutch, has
determined that every nation has a right to seize and confiscate the goods
of any neutral power, which shall attempt to carry them into any place
which is blocked up by that nation, either by land or sea. The French
islands in the West Indies were so blocked up by the English cruisers,
that they could receive no relief from their own government, consequently
no neutral power could attempt to supply them without falling under this
predicament.*

* In the reign of king William, when the English and Dutch
were engaged in a war against France, the northern powers of
Sweden and Denmark attempted to carry on the French
commerce, under the shade of neutrality; but the Dutch and
English joined in seizing the vessels that were thus
employed. Complaints of these captures were made at London
and the Hague, and the complainants were given to understand
at both places, that they should not be allowed to carry on
any trade with France, but what was usual in time of peace.
In consequence of this declaration, Mr. Groning formed the
design of writing a treatise on the freedom of navigation,
and communicated the plan of his work to the celebrated
Puffendorff, who signified his sentiments in a letter, which
is preserved by the learned Barbeyrac in his notes upon
that author’s treatise on the Law of Nature and Nations.

It was for these reasons that the king of England declared, by the mouth
of Mr. Yorke, his minister plenipotentiary at the Hague, in a conference
held in the mouth of August with the deputies of the states-general, that
though he was ready to concur in every measure that should be proposed for
giving satisfaction to their high mightinesses, with whom he had always
studied to live in the most perfect union, he was nevertheless determined
not to suffer the trade of the French colonies in America to be carried on
by the subjects of other powers, under the specious pretext of neutrality:
nor to permit words to be interpreted as a license to drive a trade with
his enemies, which, though not particularly specified in the articles of
contraband, was nevertheless rendered such in all respects, and in every
sense, by the nature of the circumstances. It is not at all more
surprising that the Dutch merchants should complain, than that the English
government should persist in confiscating the ships that were found to
contain the merchandise of their enemies. The individual traders of every
mercantile nation will run considerable risks in extending their
particular commerce, even when they know it must be detrimental to the
general interest of their country. In the war maintained by the
confederates against Louis XIV. of France, the merchant ships of the Dutch
carried on an uninterrupted trade to the French ports; and,
notwithstanding the repeated solicitations of England, the states-general
could never be prevailed upon to prohibit this commerce, which undoubtedly
enabled France to protract the war. The truth is, they gave the British
ministry to understand, that unless they connived at this traffic, their
subjects could not possibly defray their proportion of the expense at
which the war was maintained. It is well known through all Europe, that
the subjects of the United Provinces reaped considerable advantage, not
only from this branch of illicit trade, but also by providing for both
armies in Flanders, and by the practice of stock-jobbing in England;
consequently, it was not the interest, either of the states-general, or
the English general, between whom there was a very good understanding, to
bring that war to a speedy conclusion: nor indeed ought we to fix the
imputation of partiality upon a whole nation, for the private conduct of
individuals, influenced by motives of self-interest, which co-operate with
the same energy in Holland, and among the subjects of Great Britain. In
the course of the former war, such a scandalous appetite for gain
prevailed in different parts of the British dominions, that the French
islands were actually supplied with provisions, slaves, and lumber, from
Ireland and the British colonies in North America; and Martinique, in
particular, must have surrendered to the commander of the English squadron
stationed in those seas, had it not been thus supported by English
subjects. Certain it is, the Dutch had some reason to complain that they
were decoyed into this species of traffic by the article of a treaty,
which, in their opinion, admitted of no limitation; and that the
government of Great Britain, without any previous warning, or explaining
its sentiments on this subject, swept the sea at once of all their vessels
employed in this commerce, and condemned them, without mitigation, to the
entire ruin of many thousand families. Considering the intimate connexion
of mutual interest subsisting between Great Britain and the states of the
United Provinces, they seem to have had some right to an intimation of
this nature, which, in all probability, would have induced them to resign
all prospect of advantage from the prosecution of such traffic.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

CONFERENCES AT THE HAGUE.

Besides the universal clamour excited in Holland, and the famous memorial
presented to the states-general, which we have already mentioned in
another place, a deputation of merchants waited four times successively on
the princess regent to explain their grievances, and demand her
concurrence in augmenting the navy for the preservation of their commerce.
She promised to interpose her best offices with the court of Great
Britain; and these co-operating with representations made by the
states-general, the English minister was empowered to open conferences at
the Hague, in order to bring all matters in dispute to an amicable
accommodation. These endeavours, however, proved ineffectual. The British
cruisers continued to take, and the British courts to condemn, all Dutch
vessels containing the produce of the French sugar islands. The merchants
of Holland and Zealand renewed their complaints with redoubled clamour,
and all the trading part of the nation, reinforced by the whole party that
opposed the house of Orange, cried aloud for an immediate augmentation of
the marine, and reprisals upon the pirates of England. The princess, in
order to avoid extremities, was obliged not only to employ all her
personal influence with the states-general, but also to play off one
faction against another, in the way of remonstrance and exclamation As far
back as the month of June, she presented a memorial to the states-general,
reminding them, that in the beginning of the war between France and
England, she had advised an augmentation should be made in their
land-forces, to strengthen the garrisons of the frontier towns, and cover
the territories of the republic from invasion. She gave them to
understand, that the provinces of Gueldres and Overyssel, intimidated by
the proximity of two formidable armies, had resolved to demand that the
augmentation of their land-forces should be taken into consideration by
the other provinces; and requested her to reinforce their solicitations
that this measure might immediately take place. This request, she said,
she the more readily granted, as she could not but be sensible of the
imminent danger that threatened the republic, especially since the
Hanoverian army had passed the Rhine; and as it behoved the state to put
itself in a condition to hinder either army from retiring into the
territories of the republic, if it should be defeated; for in that case
the conqueror, being authorized to pursue his enemy wherever he can find
him, would bring the war into the heart of their country. This
representation had no other effect than that of suspending the measure
which each party proposed. The princess, in her answer to the fourth
deputation of the merchants, declared that she beheld the present state of
their trade with the most anxious concern; that its want of protection was
not her fault, but that of the towns of Dort, Haerlem, Amsterdam, Torgau,
Rotterdam, and the Brille, to whose conduct it was owing, that the forces
of the state, by sea and land, were not now on a better footing. The
deputies were afterwards referred to her minister, M. de la Larrey, to
whom they represented, that the augmentation of the land-forces, and the
equipment of a fleet, were matters as distinct from each other as light
from darkness; that there was no pressing motive for an augmentation of
the army, whereas, innumerable reasons rendered the equipment of a fleet a
matter of the most urgent necessity. In a few days after this
representation was made, the princess, in an assembly of the
states-general, requested their high mightinesses, that, seeing their
earnest and repeated efforts to induce the provinces of Holland, Zealand,
Friesland, and West Friesland, to acquiesce in the proposed augmentation
of forces by sea and land, had not hitherto met with success, they would
now consider and deliberate upon some expedient for terminating this
affair, and the sooner the better, in order on one hand to satisfy the
strong and well-grounded instances made by the provinces of Gueldres,
Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen; and, on the other, to comply with the
ardent and just desires expressed by the commercial inhabitants of the
country. She told them, that the deputation which waited on her consisted
of forty merchants, a number that merited attention, no less than the
speech they pronounced, of which a great number of printed copies were
distributed through all parts of the country. Without making any
particular remarks on the harangue, she only observed, that the drift of
it did not tend to facilitate the negotiation begun with Great Britain,
nor to induce the nation to prefer a convention to a rupture with that
crown. From this circumstance she inferred, it was more than time to
finish the deliberations on the proposal for augmenting the forces both by
sea and land; a measure, without which, she was convinced in her
conscience, the state was, and would always remain, exposed to all sorts
of misfortune and danger both now and hereafter.

In consequence of this interposition, the states-general that same day
sent a letter to the states of Holland and West Friesland, communicating
the sentiments of the princess-regent, and insisting upon the necessity of
complying with her proposal of the double augmentation. They observed,
that an augmentation of the land-forces, for the defence of the frontiers,
was unavoidable, as well as an equipment by sea for the security of
commerce: that the states of the provinces of Gueldres, Utrecht,
Overyssel, and Groningen, joined with them in the same opinion; and
accordingly had insisted, by divers letters and propositions, on those two
points so essential to the public interest. They represented the danger of
delay, and the fatal effects of discord; they proposed, that by a
reciprocal indulgence one party should comply with the sentiments of the
other, in order to avoid a schism and dangerous division among the
confederates, the consequences of which would be very deplorable; while
the republic, in the meantime, would remain in a defenceless condition,
both by sea and land, and depend upon the arbitrary power of its
neighbours. They conjured them, therefore, as they valued the safety of
their country, and all that was dear to them; as they regarded the
protection of the good inhabitants, the concord and harmony which at all
times but especially at the present critical juncture, was of the last
necessity, that they would seriously reflect upon the exhortations of her
royal highness, as well as on the repeated instances of the majority of
the confederates, and take a wise and salutary resolution with regard to
the proposed augmentation of the land-forces, so that this addition,
together with an equipment at sea, might, the sooner the better, be
unanimously brought to a conclusion. It was undoubtedly the duty of all
who wished well to their country, to moderate the heat and precipitation
of those, who, provoked by their losses, and stimulated by resentment,
endeavoured at this period to involve their nation in a war with Great
Britain. Had matters been pushed to this extremity, in a few months the
republic would, in all probability, have been brought to the brink of
ruin. The Dutch were distracted by internal divisions; they were
altogether unprovided for hostilities by sea; the ocean was covered with
their trading vessels; and the naval armaments of Great Britain were so
numerous and powerful, as to render all resistance on that element equally
vain and pernicious. The English could not only have scoured the seas, and
made prize of their shipping, but were also in a condition to reduce or
demolish all their towns in Zealand, where they would hardly have met with
any opposition.

CHAPTER XVI.

Domestic Occurrences in Great Britain….. Trials of Dr.
Hensey and Shebbeare….. Institution of the Magdalen
Asylum….. Society for the encouragement of Arts…..
Session opened….. New Treaty with the King of Prussia…..
Supplies granted….. The King’s Message to the Commons…..
Bill relating to ihe Distillery, and the Exportation of
Corn….. Petition from the Justices of Norfolk—-Bill for
the Importation of salted Beef from Treland continued…..
Regulations with respect to Privateers….. New Militia
Laws….. Act for the Relief of Debtors revived….. Bills
for the Importation of Irish Beef and Tallow….. Act
relative to Milford-Haven….. Bill relative to the Duty on
Pensions….. Act relative to the Duty on Plate….. Cambric
Act….. Unsuccessful Bills….. Case of the Insolvent
Debtors….. Case of Cant. Walker….. Remarks on the
Bankrupt Laws….. Inquiry into the State of the Poor…..
Regulations of Weights and Measures….. Resolutions
concerning the Foundling Hospital….. Messages from the
King to the Parliament….. Session closed…..
Preparations for War….. Death of the Princess of Orange
and Princess Elizabeth Caroline….. Examples made of
Pirates….. Accounts of some remarkable Murders….. Murder
of Daniel Clarke….. Majority of the Prince of Wales…..
Resolutions concerning a new Bridge at Blackfriars….. Pire
in Cornhill….. Method contrived to find out the
Longitude….. Installation at Oxford….. Deplorable
Incident at Sea….. Captures made by separate Cruisers…..
Captain Hood takes the Bellona….. and Captain Barrington
the Count do St. Florentin….. Captain Falkner takes a
French East Indiaman….. Prize taken in the West
Indies….. Engagement between the Hercules and the
Florissant….. Havre-de-Grace bombarded by Admiral
Rodney….. Admiral Boscawen defeats M. de la Clue…..
Preparations made by the French for invading England…..
Account of Thurot….. French Fleet sails from Brest…..
Admiral Hawke defeats M. de Conflans….. Proceedings of the
Irish Parliament….. Loyalty of the Irish-Catholics…..
Dangerous Insurrection in Dublin….. Alarm of a Descent in
Scotland

While the operations of the war were prosecuted through the four quarters
of the globe, the island of Great Britain, which may be termed the centre
that gave motion to this vast machine, enjoyed all the tranquillity of the
most profound peace, and saw nothing of war but the preparations and
trophies, which served only to animate the nation to a desire of further
conquest; for the dejection occasioned by the misfortune at St. Cas soon
vanished before the prospect of victory and success. Considering the
agitation naturally produced among the common people, by the practice of
pressing men into the service of the navy, which, in the beginning of the
year, had been carried on with unusual violence, the levy of so many new
corps of soldiers, and the endeavours used in forming the national
militia, very few disturbances happened to interrupt the internal repose
of the nation. From private acts of malice, fraud, violence, and rapine,
no community whatsoever is exempted. In the month of April, the temporary
wooden bridge over the Thames, built for the conveniency of carriages and
passengers, while the workmen should be employed in widening and repairing
London bridge, was maliciously set on fire in the night, and continued
burning till noon next day, when the ruins of it fell into the river. The
destruction of this conveniency proved very detrimental to the commerce of
the city, notwithstanding the vigilancy and discretion of the magistrates,
in applying remedies for this misfortune. A promise of the king’s pardon
was offered in a public advertisement, by the secretary of state, and a
reward of two hundred pounds by the city of London, to any person who
should discover the perpetrator of such wicked outrage; but nevertheless
he escaped detection. No individual, nor any society of men, could have
the least interest in the execution of such a scheme, except the body of
London watermen; but as no discovery was made to the prejudice of any
person belonging to that society, the deed was imputed to the malice of
some secret enemy to the public. Even after a new temporary bridge was
erected, another attempt was made (in all probability by the same
incendiary) to reduce the whole to ashes, but happily miscarried, and a
guard was appointed to prevent any such atrocious efforts in the sequel.
Dangerous tumults were raised in and about Manchester, by a prodigious
number of manufacturers who had left off working, and entered into a
combination to raise, by force, the price of their labour. They had formed
a regular plan, and collected large sums for the maintenance of the poorer
sort, while they refused to work for their families. They insulted and
abused all those who would not join in this defection, dispersed
incendiary letters; and denounced terrible threats against all such as
should presume to oppose their proceedings. But these menaces had no
effect upon the magistrates and justices, who did their duty with such
discretion and courage, that the ringleaders being singled out and
punished by law, the rest were soon reduced to order.

TRIALS OF DRS. HENSEY AND SHEBBEARE

In the month of June, Florence Hensey, an obscure physician, and native of
Ireland, who had been apprehended for treasonable practices, was tried in
the court of king’s-bench, on an indictment for high treason. In the
course of the trial it appeared that he had been employed as a spy for the
French ministry; to which, in consideration of a paltry pension, he sent
intelligence of every material occurrence in Great Britain. The
correspondence was managed by his brother, a Jesuit, who acted as chaplain
and secretary to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague. The British resident
at that court having learned from the Spanish minister some secrets
relating to England, even before they were communicated to him from the
English ministry, was induced to set on foot an inquiry touching the
source of this information, and soon received an assurance, that the
secretary of the Spanish ambassador had a brother, a physician in London.
The suspicion naturally arising from this circumstance being imparted to
the ministry of England, Hensey was narrowly watched, and twenty-nine of
his letters were intercepted. From the contents of these he was convicted
of having given the French court the first notice of the expedition to
North America, the capture of the two ships, the Alcide and Lys, the
sailing and destination of every squadron and armament, and the
difficulties that occurred in raising money for the service of the public.
He had even informed them, that the secret expedition of the foregoing
year was intended against Eochefort, and advised a descent upon Great
Britain, at a certain time and place, as the most effectual method of
distressing the government, and affecting the public credit. After a long
trial he was found guilty of treason, and received the sentence of death
usually pronounced on such occasions; but whether he earned forgiveness by
some material discovery, or the minister found him so insensible and
insignificant that he was ashamed to take his life, he escaped execution,
and was pardoned, on condition of going into perpetual exile. The severity
of the government was much about the same period exercised on Dr.
Shebbeare, a public writer, who, in a series of printed letters to the
people of England, had animadverted on the conduct of the ministry in the
most acrimonious terms, stigmatized some great names with all the
virulence of censure, and even assaulted the throne itself with oblique
insinuation and ironical satire. The ministry, incensed at the boldness,
and still more enraged at the success of this author, whose writings were
bought with avidity by the public, determined to punish him severely for
his arrogance and abuse, and he was apprehended by a warrant from the
secretary’s office. His sixth letter to the people of England was pitched
upon as the foundation of a prosecution. After a short trial in the court
of king’s bench, he was found guilty of having written the sixth letter to
the people of England, adjudged a libellous pamphlet, sentenced to stand
in the pillory, to pay a small fine, to be imprisoned three years, and
give security for his future good behaviour; so that, in effect, this good
man suffered more for having given vent to the unguarded effusions of
mistaken zeal, couched in the language of passion and scurrility, than was
inflicted upon Hensey, a convicted traitor, who had acted as spy for
France, and betrayed his own country for hire.

INSTITUTION OF THE MAGDALEN AND OTHER ASYLUMS.

Amidst a variety of crimes and disorders, arising from impetuosity of
temper, unreined passions, luxury, extravagance, and an almost total want
of police and subordination, the virtues of benevolence are always
springing up to an extraordinary growth in the British soil; and here
charities are often established by the humanity of individuals, which in
any other country would be honoured as national institutions: witness the
great number of hospitals and infirmaries in London and Westminster,
erected and maintained by voluntary contributions, or raised by the
princely donations of private founders. In the course of this year the
public began to enjoy the benefit of several admirable institutions. Mr.
Henry Baine, a private gentleman of Middlesex, had, in his lifetime, built
and endowed an hospital for the maintenance of forty poor maidens. By his
will he bequeathed a certain sum of money to accumulate at interest, under
the management of trustees, until the yearly produce should amount to two
hundred and ten pounds, to be given in marriage portions to two of the
maidens educated in his hospital, at the age of twenty-two, who should be
the best recommended for piety and industry by the masters or mistresses
whom they had served. In the month of March, the sum destined for this
laudable purpose was completed: when the trustees, by public
advertisement, summoned the maidens educated in the hospital to appear on
a certain day, with proper certificates of their behaviour and
circumstances, that six of the most deserving might be selected to draw
lots for the prize of one hundred pounds, to be paid as her marriage
portion, provided she married a man of an unblemished character, a member
of the church of England, residing within certain specified parishes, and
approved by the trustees. Accordingly, on the first of May the candidates
appeared, and the prize being gained by one young woman, in presence of a
numerous assembly of all ranks, attracted by curiosity, the other five
maidens, with a sixth, added in lieu of her who had been successsful, were
marked for a second chance on the same day of the following year, when a
second prize of the same value would be presented: thus a new candidate
will be added every year, that every maiden who has been educated in this
hospital, and preserved her character without reproach, may have a chance
for the noble donation, which is also accompanied with the sum of five
pounds to defray the expense of the wedding entertainment. One scarce
knows whether most to admire the plan, or commend the humanity of this
excellent institution.—Of equal and perhaps superior merit was
another charitable establishment, which also took effect about this
period. A small number of humane individuals, chiefly citizens of London,
deeply affected with the situation of common prostitutes, who are
certainly the most forlorn of all human creatures, formed a generous
resolution in their favour, such as even the best men of the kingdom had
never before the courage to avow. They considered that many of these
unhappy creatures, so wretched in themselves, and so productive of
mischief to society, had been seduced to vice in their tender years by the
perfidious artifice of the other sex, or the violence of unruly passion,
before they had acquired experience to guard against the one, or foresight
to perceive the fatal consequences of the other; that the jewel,
reputation, being thus irretrievably lost, perhaps in one unguarded
moment, they were covered with shame and disgrace, abandoned by their
families, excluded from all pity, regard, and assistance; that, stung by
self-conviction, insulted with reproach, denied the privilege of penitence
and contrition, cut off from all hope, impelled by indigence, and maddened
by despair, they had plunged into a life of infamy, in which they were
exposed to deplorable vicissitudes of misery, and the most excruciating
pangs of reflection that any human being could sustain; that whatever
remorse they might feel, howsoever they might detest their own vice, or
long for an opportunity of amendment, they were entirely destitute of all
means of reformation. They were not only deprived of all possibility of
profiting by those precious moments of repentance, and becoming again
useful members of society; but, in order to earn a miserable subsistence,
were obliged to persevere in the paths of prostitution, and act as the
instruments of heaven’s vengeance in propagating distemper and profligacy,
in ruining the bodies and debauching the minds of their fellow-creatures.
Moved to sympathy and compassion by these considerations, this virtuous
band of associates determined to provide a comfortable asylum for female
penitents, to which they might fly for shelter from the receptacles of
vice, the miseries of life, and the scorn of mankind; where they might
indulge the salutary sentiments of remorse, make their peace with heaven,
accustom themselves to industry and temperance, and be profitably reunited
to society, from which they had been so unhappily dissevered. The plan of
this excellent institution being formed, was put in execution by means of
voluntary subscription, and the house opened in Goodman ‘s-fields, under
the name of the Magdalen-hospital, in the month of August, when fifty
petitions were presented by penitent prostitutes, soliciting admittance.
Another asylum was also opened by the hand of private charity, on the
Surrey-side of Westminster-bridge, for the reception and education of
female orphans, and children abandoned by their parents.

SOCIETY FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTS.

Nor was encouragement refused to those who distinguished themselves by
extraordinary talents in any branch of the liberal and useful arts and
sciences, though no Maecenas appeared among the ministers, and not the
least ray of patronage glimmered from the throne. The protection,
countenance, and gratification secured in other countries by the
institution of academies, and the liberalities of princes, the ingenious
in England derived from the generosity of a public, endued with taste and
sensibility, eager for improvement, and proud of patronising extraordinary
merit. Several years had already elapsed since a society of private
persons was instituted at London, for the encouragement of arts,
manufactures, and commerce. It consisted of a president, vice-president,
secretary, register, collector, and other officers, elected from a very
considerable number of members, who pay a certain yearly contribution for
the purposes of the institution. In the course of every year they held
eight general meetings in a large assembly-room, built and furnished at
the common expense; besides the ordinary meetings of the society, held
every week, from the second Wednesday in November to the last Wednesday in
May; and in the intermediate time, on the first and third Wednesday of
every month. At these ordinary meetings, provided the number then present
exceeded ten, the members had a right to proceed on business, and power to
appoint such committees as they should think necessary. The money
contributed by this association, after the necessary expense of the
society had been deducted, was expended in premiums for planting and
husbandry; for discoveries and improvements in chemistry, dying, and
mineralogy; for promoting the ingenious arts of drawing, engraving,
casting, painting, statuary, and sculpture; for the improvement of
manufactures and machines, in the various articles of hats, crapes,
druggets, mills, marbled-paper, ship-blocks, spinning-wheels, toys, yarn,
knitting, and weaving. They likewise allotted sums for the advantage of
the British colonies in America, and bestowed premiums on those settlers
who should excel in curing cochineal, planting logwood-trees, cultivating
olive-trees, producing myrtle-wax, making potash, preserving raisins,
curing saffiour, making silk and wines, importing sturgeon, preparing
isinglass, planting hemp and cinnamon, extracting opium and the gum of the
persimon-tree, collecting stones of the mango, which should be found to
vegetate in the West Indies; raising silk-grass, and laying out provincial
gardens. They moreover allowed a gold medal in honour of him who should
compose the best treatise on the arts of peace, containing an historical
account of the progressive improvements of agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce in the kingdom of England, with the effects of those improvements
on the morals and manners of the people, and pointing out the most proper
means for their future advancement. In a word, the society is so numerous,
the contributions so considerable, the plan so judiciously laid, and
executed with such discretion and spirit, as to promise much more
effectual and extensive advantage to the public than ever accrued from all
the boasted academies of Christendom. The artists of London had long
maintained a private academy for improvement in the art of drawing from
living figures; but in order to extend this advantage, which was not
attained without difficulty and expense, the duke of Richmond, a young
nobleman of the most amiable character, provided a large apartment at
Whitehall, for the use of those who studied the arts of painting,
sculpture, and engraving; and furnished it with a collection of original
plaster casts from the best antique statues and busts at Rome and
Florence. Here any learner had liberty to draw, or make models, under the
eye and instructions of two eminent artists and twice a year the
munificent founder bestowed premiums of silver medals on the four pupils
who excelled the rest in drawing from a certain figure, and making the
best model of it in basso-relievo. 479 [See note 3 R, at
the end of this Vol.]

On the twenty-third day of November both houses of parliament met at
Westminster, when his majesty being indisposed, the session was opened by
commission, and the lord-keeper harangued them to this effect. He told
them, his majesty had directed the lords of the commission to assure his
parliament that he always received the highest satisfaction in being able
to lay before them any event that might promote the honour and interests
of his kingdoms; that in consequence of their advice, and enabled by the
assistance which they unanimously gave, his majesty had exerted his
endeavours to carry on the war in the most vigorous manner, in order to
attain that desirable end, always to be wished, a safe and honourable
peace:* that it had pleased the Divine Providence to bless his measures
and arms with success in several parts, and to make the enemies of the
nation feel, that the strength of Great Britain is not to be provoked with
impunity: that the conquest of the strong fortress of Louisbourg, with the
islands of Cape-Breton and St. John; the demolition of Frontenac, of the
highest importance to his operations in America, and the reduction of
Senegal, could not fail to bring great distress on the French commerce and
colonies, and, in proportion, to procure great advantages to those of
Great Britain.

* In the month of August, the king, in quality of elector of
Hanover, having occasion for two hundred thousand pounds, a
loan by subscription for that sum was opened at the bank,
and filled immediately by seven or eight money-dealers of
London.

He observed, that France had also been made sensible, that whilst her
forces are sent forth to invade and ravage the dominions of her
neighbours, her own coasts are not inaccessible to his majesty’s fleets
and armies—a truth which she had experienced in the demolition of
the works at Cherbourg, erected at a great expense, with a particular view
to annoy England, as well as in the loss of a great number of ships and
vessels; but no treatment, however injurious to his majesty, could tempt
him to make retaliation on the innocent subjects of that crown. He told
them, that in Germany his majesty’s good brother the king of Prussia, and
prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, had found full employment for the enemies
of France and her confederates, from which the English operations, both by
sea and in America, had derived the most evident advantage: their
successes owing, under God, to their able conduct, and the bravery of his
majesty’s troops, and those of his allies, having been signal and
glorious. The king, moreover, commanded them to declare, that the common
cause of liberty and independency was still making noble and glorious
efforts against the unnatural union formed to oppress it: that the
commerce of his subjects, the source of national riches, had, by the
vigilant protection received from his majesty’s fleet, flourished in a
manner not to be paralleled during such troubles. In this state of things,
he said, the king in his wisdom thought it unnecessary to use many words
to persuade them to bear up against all difficulties, effectually to stand
by and defend his majesty, vigorously to support the king of Prussia and
the rest of his majesty’s allies, and to exert themselves to reduce their
enemies to equitable terms of accommodation. He observed to the house of
commons, that the uncommon extent of this war, in different parts,
occasioned it to be uncommonly expensive: that the king had ordered them
to declare to the commons, that he sincerely lamented, and deeply felt,
for the burdens of his people: that the several estimates were ordered to
be laid before them: and that he desired only such supplies as should be
requisite to push the war with advantage, and be adequate to the necessary
services. In the last place, he assured them the king took so much
satisfaction in that good harmony which subsisted among his faithful
subjects, that it was more proper for him now to thank them for it, than
to repeat his exhortation to it: that this union, necessary at all times,
was more especially so in such critical conjunctures; and his majesty
doubted not but the good effects the nation had found from it would be the
strongest motives to them to pursue it.—The reader will, no doubt,
be surprised to find this harangue abound with harshness of period and
inelegancy of expression; he will wonder that, in particularizing the
successes of the year in America, no mention is made of the reduction of
fort Du Quesne on the river Ohio; a place of great importance, both from
its strength and situation, the erection of which had been one great
motive to the war between the two nations; but he will be still more
surprised to hear it declared from the throne, that the operations, both
by sea and in America, had derived the most evident advantage from the war
in Germany. An assertion the more extraordinary, as the British ministry,
in their answer to the Parallel, which we have already mentioned, had
expressly affirmed, that “none but such as are unacquainted with the
maritime force of England can believe, that without a diversion on the
continent, to employ part of the enemy’s force, she is not in a condition
to hope for success and maintain her superiority at sea. That they must be
very ignorant indeed, who imagine that the forces of England are not able
to resist those of France unless the latter be hindered from turning all
her efforts to the sea.” It is very remarkable that the British ministry
should declare that the war in Germany was favourable to the English
operations by sea and in America, and almost in the same breath accuse the
French king of having fomented that war. Let us suppose that France had no
war to maintain in Europe; and ask in what manner she, in that case, would
have opposed the progress of the British arms by sea and in America? Her
navy was reduced to such a condition that it durst not quit her harbours;
her merchant ships were all taken, her mariners confined in England, and
the sea was covered with British cruisers: in these circumstances, what
expedients could she have contrived for sending supplies and
reinforcements to America, or for opposing the naval armaments of Great
Britain in any other part of the world?—None. Without ships and
mariners, her troops, ammunition, and stores were, in this respect, as
useless as money to a man shipwrecked on a desolate island. But granting
that the war in Germany had, in some measure, diverted the attention of
the French ministry from the prosecution of their operations in America,
(and this is granting more than ought to be allowed,) the question is not,
Whether the hostilities upon the continent of Europe prevented France from
sending a greater number of troops to Canada; but whether the war in
Germany was either necessary or expedient for distressing the French more
effectually in other parts of the world? Surely every intelligent man of
candour must answer in the negative. The expense incurred by England for
subsidies and armies in the empire exceeded three millions sterling
annually; and this enormous expense, without being able to protect
Hanover, only served to keep the war alive in different parts of Germany.
Had one half of this sum been employed in augmenting and extending the
naval armaments of Great Britain, and in reinforcing her troops in America
and the West Indies, France would have been, at this day, deprived of all
her sugar colonies, as well as of her settlements on the continent of
America; and being absolutely cut off from these sources of wealth, would
have found it impracticable either to gratify her subsidiaries, or to
maintain such formidable armies to annoy her neighbours. These are truths,
which will appear to the conviction of the public, when the illusive
spells of unsubstantial victory are dissolved, and time shall have
dispersed the thick mists of prejudice which now seem to darken and
perplex the understanding of the people.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

NEW TREATY WITH THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

The conduct of the administration was so agreeable to both houses of
parliament, that in their address to the throne they expressed their
unshaken zeal and loyalty to his majesty’s person, congratulated him on
the success of his arms, and promised to support his measures and allies
with steadiness and alacrity. *

* That the charge of disaffection to the king’s person,
which was so loudly trumpeted by former ministers and their
adherents against those who had honesty and courage to
oppose the measures of a weak and corrupt administration,
was entirely false and without foundation, appeared at this
juncture, when in the midst of a cruel, oppressive, and
continental war, maintained by the blood and treasure of
Great Britain, all opposition ceased in both houses of
parliament. The addresses of thanks to his majesty, which
are always dictated by the immediate servants of the crown,
were unanimously adopted in both houses, and not only
couched in terms of applause, but even inflated with
expressions of rapture and admiration. They declared
themselves sensible, that the operations of Great Britain,
both by sea and in America, had received the most evident
and important advantages from the maintenance of the war in
Germany, and seemed eager to espouse any measure that might
gratify the inclination of the sovereign.

It was probably in consequence of this assurance that a new treaty between
Great Britain and Prussia was concluded at London on the seventh day of
December, importing, That as the burdensome war in which the king of
Prussia is engaged, lays him under the necessity of making fresh efforts
to defend himself against the multitude of enemies who attack his
dominions, he is obliged to take new measures with the king of England,
for their reciprocal defence and safety; and his Britannic majesty hath at
the same time signified his earnest desire to strengthen the friendship
subsisting between the two courts; and, in consequence thereof, to
conclude a formal convention, for granting to his Prussian majesty speedy
and powerful assistance, their majesties have nominated and authorized
their ministers to concert and settle the following articles:—All
formal treaties between the two crowns, particularly that signed at
Westminster on the sixteenth day of January in the year 1756, and the
convention of the eleventh of April in the year 1758, are confirmed by the
present convention of the eleventh of April in the year 1758, in their
whole tenor, as if they were herein inserted word for word. The king of
Great Britain shall cause to be paid at London, to such person or persons
as shall be authorized by the king of Prussia for that end, the sum of
four millions of rix-dollars, making six hundred and seventy thousand
pounds sterling, at one payment, immediately on the exchange of the
ratification, if the king of Prussia should so require. His Prussian
majesty shall employ the said sum in supporting and augmenting his forces,
which shall act in such manner as shall be of the greatest service to the
common cause, and contribute most to the mutual defence and safety of
their said majesties. The king of Great Britain, both as king and elector,
and the king of Prussia, reciprocally bind themselves not to conclude with
the powers that have taken part in the present war, any treaty of peace,
truce, or other such like convention, but by common advice and consent,
each expressly including therein the other. The ratification of the
present convention shall be exchanged within six weeks, or sooner, if
possible. In effect, this treaty was no other than a renewal of the
subsidy from year to year, because it was not thought proper to stipulate
in the first subsidiary convention an annual supply of such importance
until the war should be terminated, lest the people of England should be
alarmed at the prospect of such successive burdens, and the complaisance
of the commons be in some future session exhausted. On the whole, this was
perhaps the most extraordinary treaty that ever was concluded; for it
contains no specification of articles, except the payment of the subsidy;
every other article was left to the interpretation of his Prussian
majesty.

1759

SUPPLIES GRANTED.

The parliament, having performed the ceremony of addresses to the throne,
immediately proceeded to the great work of the supply. The two committees
in the house of commons were immediately established, and continued by
adjournments to the month of May, by the twenty-third day of which all
their resolutions were taken. They voted sixty thousand men, including
fourteen thousand eight hundred and forty-five marines, for the service of
the ensuing year; and for the operations by land, a body of troops
amounting to fifty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-three effective
men, besides the auxiliaries of Hanover, Hesse, Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha, and
Buckebourg, to the number of fifty thousand, and five battalions on the
Irish establishment in actual service in America and Africa. For the
maintenance of the sixty thousand men employed in the sea-service, they
granted three millions one hundred and twenty thousand pounds; for the
land-forces, one million two hundred and fifty-six thousand one hundred
and thirty pounds, fifteen shillings and two-pence; for the charge of the
additional five battalions, forty thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine
pounds, thirteen shillings and nine-pence; for the pay of the general and
staff-officers, and hospitals of the land-forces, fifty-two thousand four
hundred and eighty-four pounds one shilling and eight-pence; for
maintaining the garrisons in the Plantations, Gibraltar, Nova-Scotia,
Newfoundland, Providence, Cape-Breton, and Senegal, the sum of seven
hundred and forty-two thousand five hundred and thirty-one pounds, five
shillings and seven-pence; for the charge of ordnance for land-service,
two hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine pounds,
eleven shillings and nine-pence; for extraordinary service performed by
the same office, and not provided for by parliament in the course of the
preceding year, three hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and
eighty-seven pounds, thirteen shillings and three-ponce; for the ordinary
of the navy, including half-pay to sea-officers, two hundred and
thirty-eight thousand four hundred and ninety-one pounds, nine shillings
and eight-pence; towards the support of Greenwich-hospital, and for the
out-pensioners of Chelsea-college, the sum of thirty-six thousand pounds.
They allotted for one year’s expense, incurred by the foreign troops in
the pay of Great Britain, one million two hundred thirty-eight thousand
one hundred and seventy-seven pounds, nineteen shillings and ten-pence,
over and above sixty thousand pounds for enabling his majesty to fulfil
his engagements with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, pursuant to the
separate article of a new treaty concluded between them in the month of
January of this current year, stipulating, that this sum should be paid to
his serene highness in order to facilitate the means by which he might
again fix his residence in his own dominions, and by his presence give
fresh courage to his faithful subjects. Eighty thousand pounds were
granted for enabling his majesty to discharge the like sum raised in
pursuance of an act passed in the preceding session, and charged upon the
first aids or supplies to be granted in this session of parliament. The
sum of two hundred thousand pounds was voted towards the building and
repairing ships of war for the ensuing year. Fifteen thousand pounds were
allowed for improving London bridge; and forty thousand on account, for
the Foundling-hospital. For the charge of transports to be employed in the
course of the year they assigned six hundred sixty seven thousand seven
hundred and twenty-one pounds nineteen shillings and seven-pence: for
maintaining the colonies of Nova-Scotia and Georgia they bestowed
twenty-five thousand two hundred and thirty-eight pounds thirteen
shillings and five-pence. To replace sums taken from the sinking fund,
thirty-three thousand two hundred and fifty-two pounds eighteen shillings
and ten-pence halfpenny; for maintaining the British forts and settlements
en the coast of Africa, ten thousand pounds, and for paying off the
mortgage on an estate devised for the endowment of a professorship in the
university of Cambridge, the sum of twelve hundred and eighty pounds. For
the expence of the militia they voted ninety thousand pounds: for
extraordinary expenses relating to the land-forces, incurred in the course
of last year, and unprovided for by parliament, the sum of four hundred
fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-five pounds ten shillings and
five-pence three farthings. For the purchase of certain lands and
hereditaments, in order to secure the king’s docks at Portsmouth, Chatham,
and Plymouth, they granted thirty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-six
pounds two shillings and ten-pence. They voted two hundred thousand pounds
for enabling his majesty to give proper compensation to the respective
provinces in North-America, for the expenses that had been incurred in
levying and maintaining troops for the service of the public. They granted
twenty thousand pounds to the East-India company, towards enabling them to
defray the expense of a military force in their settlements: and the same
sum was granted for carrying on the fortification to secure the harbour of
Milford. To make good several sums issued by his majesty, for indemnifying
the inn-holders and victuallers of Hampshire for the expenses they had
incurred in quartering the Hessian auxiliaries in England; for an addition
to the salaries of judges, and other less considerable purposes, they
allowed the sum of twenty-six thousand one hundred and seventy-eight
pounds sixteen shillings and six-pence. Finally, they voted one million,
upon account, for enabling the king to defray any extraordinary expense 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 enterprises or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of
affairs should require. The sum of all the grants voted by the committee
of supply, amounted to twelve millions seven hundred sixty-one thousand
three hundred and ten pounds nineteen shillings and five-pence.

KING’S MESSAGE TO THE COMMONS.

The commons were still employed in deliberations on ways and means on the
twenty-second day of May, when Mr. secretary Pitt communicated to them a
message from the king, couched in these terms: “His majesty, relying on
the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful commons, and
considering that, in this critical conjuncture, emergencies may arise,
which may be of the utmost importance, and be attended with the most
pernicious consequences, if proper means should not immediately be applied
to prevent or defeat them, is desirous that this house will enable him to
defray any extraordinary expenses of the war, incurred, or to be incurred,
for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, and
to take all such measures as may be necessary to disappoint or defeat any
enterprises or designs of his enemies, and as the exigencies of affairs
may require.” This message being read, a motion was made, and agreed to nem.
con. that it should be referred to the committee, who forthwith formed
upon it the resolution, whereby one million was granted, to be raised by
loans or exchequer bills, chargeable on the first aids that should be
given in the next session. This produced a bill enabling his majesty to
raise the sum of one million, for the uses and purposes therein mentioned,
comprehending a clause, allowing the Bank of England to advance on the
credit of the loan therein mentioned any sum not exceeding a million,
notwithstanding the act of the fifth and sixth year in the reign of
William and Mary, by which the bank was established.

BILLS RELATING TO THE DISTILLERY, &c.

The bills relating solely to the supply being discussed and expedited, the
house proceeded, as usual, to an act other laws for the advantage of the
community. Petitions having been presented by the cities of Bristol and
New-Sarum, alleging, that since the laws prohibiting the making of low
wines and spirits from grain, meal, and flour, had been in force, the
commonalty appeared more sober, healthy, and industrious: representing the
ill consequences which they apprehended would attend the repeal of these
laws, and therefore praying their continuance. A committee of the whole
house resolved that the prohibition to export corn should be continued to
the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred
and fifty nine; subject nevertheless to such provisions for shortening the
said term of its continuance as should therefore be made by an act of that
session, or by his majesty with the advice of his privy-council during the
recess of parliament; that the act for discontinuing the duties upon corn
and flour imported, or brought in as prize, was not proper to be further
continued; and that the prohibition to make low wines or spirits from any
sort of grain, meal, or flour, should be continued to the twenty-fourth
day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine.
Before the bill was formed on these resolutions, petitions arrived from
Liverpool and Bath, to the same purport as those of Bristol and Sarum:
while on the other hand, a remonstrance was presented by a great number of
the malt-distillers of the city and suburbs of London, alleging, that it
having been deemed expedient to prohibit the distilling of spirits from
any sort of grain, to the twenty-fourth day of December then instant, some
of the petitioners had entirely ceased to carry on the business of
distilling, while others, merely with a view to preserve their customers,
the compound distillers, and employ some of their servants, horses, and
utensils, had submitted to carry on the distillation of spirits from
molasses and sugars under great disadvantages, in full hope that the
restraint would cease at the expiration of the limited time, or at least
when the necessity which occasioned that restraint should be removed; that
it was with great concern they observed a bill would be brought in for
protracting the said prohibition, at a time when the price of all manner
of grain, and particularly of wheat and barley, was considerably reduced,
and, as they humbly conceived, at a reasonable medium. They expatiated on
the great loss they, as well as many traders and artificers dependent upon
them, must sustain in case the said bill should be passed into a law. They
prayed the house to take these circumstances into consideration, and
either permit them to carry on the distillation from wheat, malt, and
other grain, under such restrictions as should be judged necessary; or to
grant them such other relief, in respect of their several losses and
incumbrances, as to the house shall seem reasonable and expedient. This
petition, though strenuously urged by a powerful and clamorous body
without doors, did not meet great encouragement within. It was ordered to
lie upon the table, and an instruction was given to the committee,
empowering them to receive a clause or clauses to allow the transportation
of certain quantities of meal, flour, bread, and biscuit, to the islands
of Guernsey and Jersey, for the sole use of the inhabitants; and another
to prohibit the making of low wines and spirits from bran. Much more
attention was paid to a petition of several farmers in the county of
Norfolk, representing, that their farms consisted chiefly of arable land,
which produced much greater quantities of corn than could be consumed
within that county; that in the last harvest there was a great and
plentiful crop of all sorts of grain, the greatest part of which had by
unfavourable weather been rendered unfit for sale at London, or other
markets for home consumption; that large quantities of malt were then
lying at London, arising chiefly from the crops of barley growing in the
year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, the sale of which was
stagnated; that the petitioners being informed the house had ordered in a
bill to continue the prohibition of corn exported, they begged leave to
observe, that, should it pass into a law, it would be extremely
prejudicial to all, and ruin many farmers of that county, as they had
offered their corn for sale at divers ports and markets of the said
county: but the merchants refused to buy it at any price, alleging, its
being unfit for the London market, the great quantity of corn with which
that market was already overstocked, and their not being allowed either to
export it or make it into malt for exportation. They therefore prayed this
prohibition might be removed, or they the petitioners indulged with some
other kind of relief. Although this remonstrance was duly considered, the
bill passed with the amendments because of the proviso, by which his
majesty in council was empowered to shorten the date of the prohibition
with respect to the exportation of corn during the recess of parliament;
but the temporary restraint laid upon distillation was made absolute,
without any such condition, to the no small disappointment and
mortification of the distillers, who had spared no pains and expense by
private solicitation, and strenuous dispute in the public papers, to
recommend their cause to the favour of the community. They urged that
malt-spirits, when used in moderation, far from being prejudicial to the
health of individuals, were in many damp and marshy parts of the kingdom
absolutely necessary for preserving the field labourers from agues and
other distempers produced by the cold and moisture of the climate; that if
they were debarred the use of malt-spirits, they would have recourse to
French brandy, with which, as they generally reside near the sea-coast,
the smugglers would provide them almost as cheap as the malt-spirits could
be afforded: thus the increased consumption of French spirit would drain
the nation of ready money to a considerable amount, and prejudice the
king’s revenue in the same proportion. They observed, that many distillers
had already quitted that branch of trade and disposed of their materials;
that all of them would probably take the same resolutions should the bill
pass into a law, as no man could foresee when the prohibition would cease,
should it be continued at a time when all sorts of grain abounded in such
plenty, that the very waste of materials by disuse, over and above the
lying out of the money, would be of great prejudice to the proprietor:
thus the business of distilling, by which so many families were supported,
would be banished from the kingdom entirely; especially, as the expense of
establishing a large distillery was so great, that no man would choose to
employ his money for this purpose, judging from experience that some
future accidental scarcity of corn might induce the legislature to
interpose a ruinous delay in this branch of business. They affirmed, that
from the excessive use of malt-spirits no good argument could be drawn
against this branch of traffic, no more than against any other conveniency
of life; that the excessive use of common beer and ale was prejudicial to
the health and morals of the people, yet no person ever thought of putting
an end to the practice of brewing, in order to prevent the abuse of brewed
liquors. They urged that in all parts of Great Britain there are some
parcels of land that produce nothing to advantage but a coarse kind of
barley called big, which, though neither fit for brewing nor for baking,
may nevertheless be used in the distillery, and is accordingly purchased
by those concerned in this branch at such an encouraging price, as enables
many farmers to pay a higher rent to their landlords than they could
otherwise afford; that there are every year some parcels of all sorts of
grain so damaged by unseasonable weather, or other accidents, as to be
rendered altogether unfit for bread or brewery, and would prove a very
great misfortune to the farmer, if there was no distillery, for the use of
which he could sell his damaged commodity. They asserted, that
malt-spirits were absolutely necessary for prosecuting some branches of
foreign commerce, particularly the trade to the coast of Africa, for which
traffic no assortment could be made up without a large quantity of geneva,
of which the natives are so fond, that they will not traffic with any
merchant who has not a considerable quantity, not only for sale, but also
for presents to their chiefs and rulers; that the merchants of Great
Britain must either have this commodity of their own produce, or import it
at a great national expense from Holland; that the charge of this
importation, together with the duties payable upon it, some part of which
is not to be drawn back on exportation, will render it impossible for the
traders to sell it so cheap on the coast of Africa as it might be sold by
the Dutch, who are the great rivals of Great Britain in this branch of
commerce. To these arguments, all of which were plausible, and some of
them unanswerable, it was replied, that malt-spirits might be considered
as a fatal and bewitching poison which had actually debauched the minds,
and enervated the bodies, of the common people to a very deplorable
degree; that, without entering further into a comparison between the use
and abuse of the two liquors, beer and geneva, it would be sufficient to
observe, that the use of beer and ale had produced none of those dreadful
effects which were the consequences of drinking geneva; and since the
prohibition of the distilling of malt-spirits had taken place, the common
people were become apparently more sober, decent, healthy, and
industrious: a circumstance sufficient to induce the legislature not only
to intermit, but even totally to abolish the practice of distillation,
which has ever been productive of such intoxication, riot, disorder, and
distemper, among the lower class of the people, as might be deemed the
greatest evils incident to a well-regulated commonwealth. Their assertion
with respect to the coarse kind of barley, called big, was contradicted as
a deviation from truth, inasmuch as it was used in making malt, as well as
in making bread: and with respect to damaged corn, those who understood
the nature of grain affirmed, that it was spoiled to such a degree as to
be altogether unfit for either of these purposes, the distillers would not
purchase it at such a price as would indemnify the farmer for the charge
of threshing and carriage; for the distillers are very sensible, that
their great profit is derived from their distilling the malt made from the
best barley, so that the increase of the produce far exceeded in
proportion the advance of the price. It was not, however, an easy matter
to prove that the distillation of malt-spirits was not necessary to an
advantageous prosecution of the commerce on the coast of Guinea, as well
as among the Indians in some parts of North America. Certain it is, that,
in these branches of traffic, the want of geneva may be supplied by
spirits distilled from sugars and molasses. After all, it must be owned,
that the good and salutary effects of the prohibition were visible in
every part of the kingdom, and no evil consequence ensued, except a
diminution of the revenue in this article: a consideration which, at all
times, ought to be sacrificed to the health and morals of the people: nor
will this consideration be found of any great weight, when we reflect that
the less the malt-spirit is drunk, the greater quantity of beer and ale
will be consumed, and the produce of the duties and excise upon the
brewery be augmented accordingly.

In the meantime, all sorts of grain continuing to fall in price, and great
plenty appearing in every part of the kingdom, the justices of the peace,
and of the grand juries, assembled at the general quarter sessions of the
peace held for the county of Norfolk, composed and presented to the house
of commons, in the beginning of February, a petition, representing, that
the weather proving unfavourable in the harvest, great part of the barley
raised in that county was much damaged, and rendered unfit for any other
use than that of being made into malt for exportation; that unless it
should be speedily manufactured for that purpose, it would be entirely
spoiled, and perish in the hands of the growers; a loss that must be very
sensibly felt by the land owners: they, therefore, entreated that leave
might be given for the exportation of malt; and that they might be
favoured with such further relief, as to the house should seem just and
reasonable. In consequence of this petition, the house resolved itself
into a committee to deliberate upon the subject; and as it appeared, upon
examination, that the price of grain was reduced very low, and great
abundance diffused through the kingdom, they resolved, that the
continuance of that part of the act, prohibiting the exportation of grain,
ought to be abridged and shortened, and the exportation of these
commodities allowed under proper regulations, with respect to the time of
such exportation and the allowance of bounties thereupon. A bill being
founded on these resolutions, was discussed, and underwent several
amendments: at length it was sent with a new title to the lords, who
passed it without further alteration, and then it obtained the royal
sanction. While this affair was under the deliberation of the committee,
the commons unanimously issued an order for leave to bring in a bill to
continue, for a limited time, the act of last session, permitting the
importation of salted beef from Ireland into Great Britain, with an
instruction to receive a clause extending this permission to all sorts of
salted pork, or hog-meat, as the officers of the customhouse had refused
to admit hams from Ireland to an entry. The bill likewise received another
considerable alteration, importing, That, instead of the duty of ona
shilling and three-pence, charged by the former act on every hundred
weight of salted beef or pork imported from Ireland, which was found not
adequate to the duty payable for such a quantity of salt as is requisite
to be used in curing and salting thereof; and to prevent as well the
expense to the revenue, as the detriment and loss which would accrue to
the owner and importer from opening the casks in which the provision is
generally deposited, with the pickle or brine proper for preserving the
same, in order to ascertain the net weight of the provision liable to the
said duties: for these reasons it was enacted, That from and after the
twenty-fourth day of last December, and during the continuance of this
act, a duty of three shillings and four-pence should be paid upon
importation for every barrel or cask of salted beef or pork containing
thirty-two gallons; and one shilling and three-pence for every hundred
weight of salted beef called dried beef, dried neats-tongues, or dried
hog-meat, and so in proportion for any greater or lesser quantity.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

REGULATIONS with RESPECT to PRIVATEERS.

Repeated complaints having been made to the government by neutral nations,
especially the Dutch, that their ships had been plundered, and their crews
maltreated by some of the English privateers, the legislature resolved to
provide effectually against any such outrageous practices for the future:
and with this view the commons ordered a bill to be brought in for
amending and explaining an act of the twenty-ninth year of his late
majesty’s reign, intituled, “An act for the encouragement of seamen, and
more speedy and effectual manning of his majesty’s navy.” While the
committee was employed in perusing commissions and papers relating to
private ships of war, that they might be fully acquainted with the nature
of the subject, a considerable number of merchants and others, inhabiting
the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, presented a petition to the house,
alleging, that the inhabitants of those islands which lie in the British
channel within sight of the French coast, had now, as well as in former
wars, embarked their fortunes in equipping small privateers, which used to
run in close with the French shore, and being disguised like fishing
boats, had not only taken a considerable number of prizes, to the great
annoyance of the enemy, but also obtained material intelligence of their
designs on many important occasions; that these services could not be
performed by large vessels, which durst not approach so near the coast,
and indeed could not appear without giving the alarm, which was
communicated from place to place by appointed signals. Being informed that
a bill was depending, in order to prohibit privateers of small burden,
they declared that such a law, if extended to privateers equipped in those
islands, would ruin such as had invested their fortunes in small
privateers, and not only deprive the kingdom of the before-mentioned
advantages, but expose Great Britain to infinite prejudice from the small
armed vessels of France, which the enemy, in that case, could pour abroad
over the whole channel to the great annoyance of navigation and commerce.
They prayed, therefore, that such privateers as belonged to the islands of
Guernsey and Jersey might be wholly excepted from the penalties contained
in the bill, or that they, the petitioners, might be heard by their
counsel, and be indulged with such relief as the house should judge
expedient. This representation being referred to the consideration of the
committee, produced divers amendments to the hill, which at length
obtained the royal assent, and contained these regulations: That, after
the first day of January in the present year, no commission should be
granted to a privateer in Europe under the burden of one hundred tons, the
force of ten carriage guns, being three-pounders or above, with forty men
at the least, unless the lords of the admiralty, or persons authorized by
them, should think fit to grant the same to any ship of inferior force or
burden, the owners thereof giving such bail or security as should be
prescribed: that the lords of the admiralty might at any time revoke, by
an order in writing under their hands, any commission granted to a
privateer; this revocation being subject to an appeal to his majesty in
council, whose determination should be final: that, previous to the
granting any commission, the persons proposing to be bound, and give
security, should severally make oath of their being respectively worth
more money than the sum for which they were then to be bound, over and
above the payment of all their just debts: that persons applying for such
commissions should make application in writing, and therein set forth a
particular and exact description of the vessel, specifying the burden, and
the number and nature of the guns on board, to what place belonging, as
well as the name or names of the principal owner or owners, and the number
of men: these particulars to be inserted in the commission; and every
commander to produce such commission to the custom-house officer who
should examine the vessel, and, finding her answer the description, give a
certificate thereof gratis, to be deemed a necessary clearance, without
which the commander should not depart: that if, after the first day of
July, any captain of a privateer should agree for the ransom of any
neutral vessel, or the cargo, or any part thereof, after it should have
been taken as prize, and in pursuance of such agreement should actually
discharge such prize, he should be deemed guilty of piracy; but that with
respect to contraband merchandise, he might take it on board his own ship,
with the consent of the commander of the neutral vessel, and then set her
at liberty; and that no person should purloin or embezzle the said
merchandise before condemnation: that no judge, or other person belonging
to any court of admiralty, should be concerned in any privateer: that
owners of vessels, not being under fifty, or above one hundred tons, whose
commissions are declared void, should be indemnified for their loss by the
public: that a court of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, for the
trial of offences committed within the jurisdiction of the admiralty,
should be held twice a-year in the Old Bailey at London, or in such other
place within England as the board of admiralty should appoint: that the
judge of any court of admiralty, after an appeal interposed, as well as
before, should, at the request of the captor or claimant, issue an order
for appraising the capture, when the parties do not agree upon the value,
and an inventory to be taken; then exact security for the full value, and
cause the capture to be delivered to the person giving such security; but,
should objection be made to the taking such security, the judge should, at
the request of either party, order such merchandise to be entered, landed,
and sold at public auction, and the produce to be deposited at the bank,
or in some public securities: and in case of security being given, the
judge should grant a pass in favour of the capture. Finally, the force of
this act was limited to the duration of the then war with France only.
This regulation very clearly demonstrated, that whatever violences might
have been committed on the ships of neutral nations, they were by no means
countenanced by the legislature, or the body of the people.

NEW MILITIA LAWS.

Every circumstance relating to the reformation of the marine, must be an
important object to a nation whose wealth and power depend upon navigation
and commerce; but a consideration of equal weight was the establishment of
the militia, which, notwithstanding the repeated endeavours of the
parliament, was found still incomplete, and in want of further assistance
from the legislature. His majesty having, by the chancellor of the
exchequer, recommended to the house the making suitable provision for
defraying the charges of the militia during the current year, the accounts
of the expense already incurred by this establishment were referred to the
committee of supply, who, after having duly perused them, resolved, that
ninety thousand pounds should be granted on account, towards defraying the
charges of pay and clothing for the militia, from the last day of the last
year, to the twenty-fifth day of March in the year one thousand seven
hundred and sixty, and for repaying a sum advanced by the king for this
service. Leave was given to bring in one bill pursuant to this resolution,
and another to enforce the execution of the laws relating to the militia,
remove certain difficulties, and prevent the incenveniencies by which it
might be attended. So intent were the majority on both sides upon this
national measure, that they not only carried both bills to the throne,
where they received the royal assent, but they presented an address to the
king, desiring that his majesty would give directions to his lieutenants
of the several counties, ridings, and places in England, to use their
utmost diligence and attention for carrying into execution the several
acts of parliament relating to the militia. By this time all the
individuals that constituted the representatives of the people, except
such as actually served in the army, were become very well disposed
towards this institution. Those who really wished well to their country
had always exerted themselves in its favour; and it was now likewise
espoused by those who foresaw that the establishment of a national militia
would enable the administration to send the greater number of regular
troops to fight the battles of Germany. Yet how zealous soever the
legislature might be in promoting this institution, and notwithstanding
the success with which many patriots exerted their endeavours through
different parts of the kingdom, in raising and disciplining the militia,
it was found not only difficult, but almost impracticable, to execute the
intention of the parliament in some particular counties, where the
gentlemen were indolent and enervated, or in those places where they
looked upon their commander with contempt. Even Middlesex itself, where
the king resides, was one of the last counties in which the militia could
be arrayed. In allusion to this backwardness, the preamble or first clause
in one of the present acts imported, that certain counties, ridings, and
places in England had made some progress in establishing the militia,
without completing the same, and that, in certain other counties, little
progress had been made therein, his majesty’s lieutenants and the
deputy-lieutenants, and all others within such counties or districts, were
therefore strictly required speedily and diligently to put these acts in
execution. The truth is, some of these unwarlike commanders failed through
ignorance and inactivity; others gave, or offered commissions to such
people as threw a ridicule and contempt upon the whole establishment, and
consequently hindered many gentlemen of worth, spirit, and capacity, from
engaging in the service. The mutiny-bill, and that for the regulation of
the marine-forces while on shore, passed through the usual forms, as
annual measures, without any dispute or alteration. 485 [See note 3 S, at
the end of this Vol.]

ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF DEBTORS REVIVED.

A committee having been appointed to inquire what laws were expired, or
near expiring, and to report their opinion to the house touching the
revival or continuation of these laws, they agreed to several resolutions;
in consequence of which the following bills were brought in, and enacted
into laws; namely, an act for regulating the lastage and ballastage of the
river Thames; an act for continuing the law relating to the punishment of
persons going armed or disguised; an act for continuing several laws near
expiring; an act concerning the admeasurement of coals; an act for the
relief of debtors, with respect to the imprisonment of their persons. This
last was almost totally metamorphosed by alterations, amendments, and
additions, among which the most remarkable were these: that where more
creditors than one shall charge any prisoner in execution, and desired to
have him detained in prison, they shall only respectively pay him each
such weekly sum, not exceeding one shilling and sixpence per week, as the
court, at the time of his being remanded, shall direct; that if any
prisoner, described by the act, shall remain in prison three months after
being committed, any creditor may compel him to give into court, upon
oath, an account of his real and personal estate, to be disposed of for
the benefit of his creditors, they consenting to his being discharged. Why
the humanity of this law was confined to those prisoners only who are not
charged in execution with any debt exceeding one hundred pounds, cannot
easily be conceived. A man who, through unavoidable misfortunes, hath sunk
from affluence to misery and indigence, is generally a greater object of
compassion than he who never knew the delicacies of life, nor ever enjoyed
credit sufficient to contract debts to any considerable amount; yet the
latter is by this law entitled to his discharge, or at least to a
maintenance in prison; while the former is left to starve in gaol, or
undergo perpetual imprisonment amidst all the horrors of misery, if he
owes above one hundred pounds to a revengeful and unrelenting creditor.
Wherefore, in a country, the people of which justly pique themselves upon
charity and benevolence, an unhappy fellow-citizen, reduced to a state of
bankruptcy by unforeseen losses in trade, should be subjected to a
punishment, which of all others must be the most grievous to a freeborn
Briton, namely, the entire loss of liberty; a punishment which the most
flagrant crime can hardly deserve in a nation that disclaims the torture;
for, doubtless, perpetual imprisonment must be a torture infinitely more
severe than death, because protracted through a series of years spent in
misery and despair, without one glimmering ray of hope, without the most
distant prospect of deliverance? Wherefore the legislature should extend
its humanity to those only who are the least sensible of the benefit,
because the most able to struggle under misfortune? and wherefore many
valuable individuals should, for no guilt of their own, be not only ruined
to themselves, but lost to the community? are questions which we cannot
resolve to the satisfaction of the reader. Of all imprisoned debtors,
those who are confined for large sums may be deemed the most wretched and
forlorn, because they have generally fallen from a sphere of life where
they had little acquaintance with necessity, and were altogether ignorant
of the arts by which the severities of indigence are alleviated. On the
other hand, those of the lower class of mankind, whose debts are small in
proportion to the narrowness of their former credit, have not the same
delicate feelings of calamity: they are inured to hardship, and accustomed
to the labour of their hands, by which, even in a prison, they can earn a
subsistence: their reverse of fortune is not so great, nor the transition
so affecting: their sensations are not delicate; nor are they, like their
betters in misfortune, cut off from hope, which is the wretch’s last
comfort. It is the man of sentiment and sensibility, who, in this
situation, is overwhelmed with a complication of misery and ineffable
distress: the mortification of his pride, his ambition blasted, his family
undone, himself deprived of liberty, reduced from opulence to extreme
want, from the elegancies of life to the most squalid and frightful scenes
of poverty and affliction; divested of comfort, destitute of hope, and
doomed to linger out a wretched being in the midst of insult, violence,
riot, and uproar; these are reflections so replete with horror, as to
render him, in all respects, the most miserable object on the face of the
earth. He, alas! though possessed of talents that might have essentially
served and even adorned society, while thus restrained in prison, and
affected in mind, can exert no faculty, nor stoop to any condescension, by
which the horrors of his fate might be assuaged: he scorns to execute the
lowest offices of menial services, particularly in attending those who are
the objects of contempt or abhorrence; he is incapable of exercising any
mechanic art, which might afford a happy though a scanty independence:
shrunk within his dismal cell, surrounded by haggard poverty, and her
gaunt attendants, hollow-eyed famine, shivering cold, and wan disease, he
wildly casts his eyes around; he sees the tender partner of his heart
weeping in silent woe; he hears his helpless babes clamorous for
sustenance; he feels himself the importunate cravings of human nature,
which he cannot satisfy; and groans with all the complicated pangs of
internal anguish, horror, and despair. These are not the fictions of idle
fancy, but real pictures, drawn from nature, of which almost every prison
in England will afford but too many originals.

BILLS FOR THE IMPORTATION OF IRISH BEEF AND TALLOW.

Among other new measures, a successful attempt was made in favour of
Ireland, by a bill, permitting the free importation of cattle from that
kingdom for a limited time. This, however, was not carried through both
houses without considerable opposition, arising from the particular
interests of certain counties and districts in several parts of Great
Britain, from whence petitions against the bill were transmitted to the
commons. Divers artifices were also used within doors to saddle the bill
with such clauses as might overcharge the scheme, and render it odious or
alarming to the public; but the promoters of it being aware of the design,
conducted it in such a manner as to frustrate all their views, and convey
it safely to the throne, where it was enacted into a law. The like success
attended another effort in behalf of our fellow-subjects of Ireland. The
bill for the importation of Irish cattle was no sooner ordered to be
brought in, than the house proceeded to take into consideration the duties
then payable on the importation of tallow from the same kingdom; and
several witnesses being examined, the committee agreed to a resolution,
that these duties should cease and determine for a limited time. A bill
being formed accordingly, passed through both houses without opposition,
though in the preceding session a bill to the same purpose had miscarried
among the peers: a miscarriage probably owing to their being unacquainted
with the sentiments of his majesty, as some of the duties upon tallow
constituted part of one of the branches appropriated for the civil list
revenue. This objection, however, was obviated in the case of the present
bill, by the king’s message to the house of commons, signifying his
majesty’s consent, as far as his interest was concerned in the affair. By
this new act the free importation of Irish tallow was permitted for the
term of five years.

In the month of February the commons presented an address to his majesty,
requesting that he would give directions for laying before the house an
account of what had been done, since the beginning of last year, towards
securing the harbour of Milford, in pursuance of any directions from his
majesty. These accounts being perused, and the king having, by the
chancellor of the exchequer, exhorted them to make provision for
fortifying the said harbour, a bill was brought in to explain, amend, and
render more effectual, the act of the last session relating to this
subject; and, passing through both houses, received the royal assent
without opposition. By this act several engineers were added to the
commissioners formerly appointed; and it was ordained that fortifications
should be erected at Peter-church-point, Westlanyon-point, and
Neyland-point, as being the most proper and best situated places for
fortifying the interior parts of the harbour. It was also enacted, that
the commissioners should appoint proper secretaries, clerks, assistants,
and other officers, for carrying the two acts into execution, and that an
account of the application of the money should be laid before parliament,
within twenty days of the opening of every session. What next attracted
the attention of the house was an affair of the utmost importance to the
commerce of the kingdom, which equally affected the interest of the
nation, and the character of the natives. In the latter end of February
complaint was made to the house, that, since the commencement of the war,
an infamous traffic had been set on foot by some merchants of London, of
importing French cloths into several ports of the Levant, on account of
British subjects. Five persons were summoned to attend the house, and the
fact was fully proved, not only by their evidence, but also by some papers
submitted to the house by the Turkey company. A bill was immediately
contrived for putting a stop to this scandalous practice, reciting in the
preamble, that such traffic was not only a manifest discouragement and
prejudice to the woollen manufactures of Great Britain, but also a relief
to the enemy, in consequence of which they were enabled to maintain the
war against these kingdoms.

The next object that employed the attention of the commons, was to explain
and amend a law made in the last session for granting to his majesty
several rates and duties upon offices and pensions. The directions
specified in the former act for levying this imposition having been found
inconvenient in many respects, new regulations were now established,
importing, that those deductions should be paid into the hands of
receivers appointed by the king for that purpose; that all sums deducted
under this act should be accounted for to such receivers, and the accounts
audited and passed by them, and not by the auditors of the impress, or of
the exchequer: that all disputes relating to the collection of this duty
should be finally, and in a summary way, determined by the barons of the
exchequer in England and Scotland respectively: that the commissioners of
the land-tax should fix and ascertain the sum total or amount of the
perquisites of every office and employment within their respective
districts, distinct from the salary thereunto belonging, to be deducted
under the said act, independently of any former valuation or assessment of
the same to the land-tax; and should rate or assess all offices and
employments, the perquisites whereof should be found to exceed the sum of
one hundred pounds per annum, at one shilling for every twenty thence
arising; that the receivers should transmit to the commissioners in every
district where any office or employment is to be assessed, an account of
such officers and employments, that, upon being certified of the truth of
their amount, they might be rated and assessed accordingly; that in all
future assessments of the land-tax, the said offices and employments
should not be valued at higher rates than those at which they were
assessed towards the land-tax of the thirty-first year of the present
reign; that the word perquisite should be understood to mean such profits
of offices and employments as arise from fees established by custom or
authority, and payable either by the crown or the subjects, in
consideration of business done in the course of executing such offices and
employments; and that a commissioner possessed of any office or
employment, might not interfere in the execution of the said act, except
in what might relate to his own employment. By the four last clauses,
several salaries were exempted from the payment of this duty. The
objections made without doors to this new law, were the accession of
pecuniary influence to the crown by the creation of a new office and
officers, whereas this duty might have been easily collected and received
by the commissioners of the land-tax already appointed, and the
inconsistency that appeared between the fifth and seventh clause: in the
former of these the commissioners of the land-tax were vested with the
power of assessing the perquisites of every office within their respective
districts, independent of any former valuation or assessment of the same
to the land-tax; and by the latter, they are restricted from assessing any
office at a higher rate than that of the thirty-first year of the reign of
George II.

In the beginning of March, petitions were offered to the house by the
merchants of Birmingham in Warwickshire, and Sheffield in Yorkshire,
specifying that the toy trade of these and many other towns consisted
generally of articles in which gold and silver might be said to be
manufactured, though in a small proportion, inasmuch as the sale of them
depended upon slight ornaments of gold and silver: that by a clause passed
in the last session of parliament, obliging every person who should sell
goods or wares in which any gold or silver was manufactured to take out an
annual license of forty shillings, they the petitioners were laid under
great difficulties and disadvantages; that not only the first seller, but
every person through whose hands the goods or wares passed to the
consumer, was required to take out the said license: they therefore
requested that the house should take these hardships and inequalities into
consideration, and indulge them with reasonable relief. The committee, to
which this affair was referred, having resolved that this imposition was
found detrimental to the toy and cutlery trade of the kingdom, the house
agreed to the resolution, and a bill being prepared, under the title of
“An act to amend the act made in the last session, for repealing the duty
granted by an act of the sixth year of the reign of his late majesty, on
silver plate, and for granting a duty on licenses to be taken out by all
persons dealing in gold and silver plate,” was enacted into a law by the
royal sanction. By this new regulation, small quantities of gold and
silver plate were allowed to be sold without license. Instead of the duty
before payable upon licenses, another was granted, to be taken out by
certain dealers in gold and silver plate, pawnbrokers, and refiners. This
affair being discussed, the house took into consideration the claims of
the proprietors of lands purchased for the better securing of his
majesty’s docks, ships, and stores at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth;
and for better fortifying the town of Portsmouth, and citadel of Plymouth,
in pursuance of an act passed in the last session. We have already
specified the sum granted for this purpose, in consequence of a resolution
of the house, upon which a bill being founded, soon passed into a law
without opposition.*

* The next bill which was brought into the house related to
the summons issued by the commissioners of the excise, and
justices of the peace, for the appearance of persons
offending against, or for forfeitures incurred by, the laws
of excise. As some doubts had arisen with respect to the
method of summoning in such cases, this bill, which obtained
the royal assent in due course, enacted, that the summons
left at the houses, or usual place of residence, or with the
wife, child, or menial servants of the person so summoned,
should be held as legal notice, as well as the leaving such
notice at the house, workhouse, warehouse, shop, cellar,
vault, or usual place of residence, of such person, directed
to him by his right or assumed name; and all dealers in
coffee, tea, or chocolate, were subjected to the penalty of
twenty pounds, as often as they should neglect to attend the
commissioners of excise, when summoned in this manner.

In the month of April, a bill was brought in for the more effectual
preventing the fraudulent importation of cambrics; and while it was under
deliberation, several merchants and wholesale drapers of the city of
London presented a petition, representing the grievances to which they,
and many thousand of other traders, would be subjected, should the bill,
as it then stood, be passed into a law. According to their request, they
were heard by their counsel on the merits of this remonstrance, and some
amendments were made to the bill in their favour. At length it received
the royal assent, and became a law to the following effect: It enacted,
that no cambrics, French lawns, or linens of this kind usually entered
under the denomination of cambrics, should be imported after the first day
of next August, but in bales, cases, or boxes, covered with sackcloth or
canvas, containing each one hundred whole pieces, or two hundred half
pieces, on penalty of forfeiting the whole; that cambrics and French lawns
should be imported for exportation only, lodged in the king’s warehouses,
and delivered out under like security, and restrictions as prohibited East
India merchandise, and, on importation, pay only the half subsidy: that
all cambrics and French lawns in the custody of any persons should be
deposited, by the first of August, in the king’s warehouses, the bonds
thereupon be delivered up, and the drawback on exportation paid; yet the
goods should not be delivered out again but for exportation: that cambrics
and French lawns exposed to sale, or found in the possession of private
persons, after the said day, should be forfeited, and liable to be
searched for, and seized, in like manner as other prohibited and
uncustomed goods are; and the offender should forfeit two hundred pounds
over and above all other penalties and forfeitures inflicted by any former
act: that if any doubt should arise concerning the species or quality of
the goods, or the place where they were manufactured, the proof should lie
on the owner: finally, that the penalty of five pounds inflicted by a
former act, and payable to the informer, on any person that should wear
any cambric or French lawns, should still remain in force, and be
recoverable, on conviction, by oath of one witness, before one justice of
the peace.—The last successful bill which this session produced, was
that relating to the augmentation of the salaries of the judges in his
majesty’s superior courts of justice. A motion having been made for an
instruction to the committee of supply, to consider of the said
augmentation, the chancellor of the exchequer acquainted the house, that
this augmentation was recommended to them by his majesty. Nevertheless,
the motion was opposed, and a warm debate ensued. At length, however,
being carried in the affirmative, the committee agreed to certain
resolutions, on which a bill was founded. While it remained under
discussion, a motion was made for an instruction to the committee, that
they should have power to receive a clause or clauses for restraining the
judges, comprehended within the provisions of the bill, from receiving any
fee, gift, present, or entertainment, from any city, town, borough, or
corporation, or from any sheriff, gaoler, or other officer, upon their
several respective circuits, and from taking any gratuity from any officer
or officers of any of the courts of law. Another motion was made, for a
clause restraining such judges, barons, and justices, as were comprehended
within the provisions of the bill, from interfering, otherwise than by
giving their own votes, in any election of members to serve in parliament;
but both these proposals, being put to the vote, were carried in the
negative. These two motions being over-ruled by the majority, the bill
underwent some amendments; and having passed through both houses in the
ordinary course, was enacted into a law by the royal sanction. With
respect to the import of this act, it is no other than the establishment
of the several stamp-duties, applied to the augmentation, and the
appropriation of their produce in such a manner, that the crown cannot
alter the application of the sums thus granted in parliament. But on this
occasion, no attempt was made in favour of the independency of the judges,
which seems to have been invaded by a late interpretation of, or rather by
a deviation from, the act of settlement; in which it is expressly
ordained, that the commissions of the judge? should continue in force quamdiu
se bene gesserint; that their salaries should be fixed, and none of
them remove-able but by an address of both houses of parliament. It was
then, without all doubt, the intention of the legislature that every judge
should enjoy his office during life, unless convicted, by legal trial, of
some misbehaviour, or unless both houses of parliament should concur in
desiring his removal: but the doctrine now adopted imports, that no
commission can continue in force longer than the life of the king by whom
it was granted; that therefore the commissions of the judges must be
renewed by a new king at his accession, who should have it in his power to
employ either those whom he finds acting as judges at his accession, or
confer their offices on others, with no other restraint than that the
condition of new commissions, should be quamdiu se bene gesserint.
Thus the office of a judge is more precarious, and the influence of the
crown receives a considerable reinforcement.

Among the bills that miscarried in the course of the session, we may
number a second attempt to carry into execution the scheme which was
offered last year for the more effectual manning the navy, preventing
desertion, and relieving and encouraging the seamen of Great Britain. A
bill was accordingly brought in, couched in nearly the same terms which
had been rejected in the last session; and it was supported by a
considerable number of members, animated with a true spirit of patriotism:
but to the trading part of the nation it appeared one of those plausible
projects, which, though agreeable in speculation, can never be reduced
into practice, without a concomitancy of greater evils than those they
were intended to remove. While the bill remained under the consideration
of the house, petitions were presented against it by the merchants of
Bristol, Scarborough, Whitby, Ivingston-upon-Hull, and Lancaster,
representing, that by such a law, the trade of the kingdom, which is the
nursery and support of seamen at all times, and that spirit of equipping
private ships of war, which had been of distinguished service to the
nation, would be laid under such difficulties as might cause a great
stagnation in the former, and a total suppression of the latter; the bill,
therefore, would be highly prejudicial to the marine of the kingdom, and
altogether ineffectual for the purposes intended. A great number of books
and papers, relating to trading ships and vessels, as well as to seamen
and other persons protected or pressed into the navy, and to expenses
occasioned by pressing men into the navy, were examined in a committee of
the whole house, and the bill was improved with many amendments: nay,
after it was printed and engrossed, several clauses were added by way of
rider; yet still the experiment seemed dangerous. The motion for its being
past was violently opposed; warm debates ensued; they were adjourned, and
resumed; and the arguments against the bill appeared at length in such a
striking light, that, when the question was put, the majority declared for
the negative. The regulations which had been made in parliament during the
twenty-sixth, the twenty-eighth, and thirtieth years of the present reign,
for the preservation of the public roads, being attended with some
inconveniencies in certain parts of the kingdom, petitions were brought
from some counties in Wales, as well as from the freeholders of
Hertfordshire, the farmers of Middlesex, and others, enumerating the
difficulties attending the use of broad wheels, in one case, and the
limitation of horses used in drawing carriages with narrow wheels, in the
other. The matter of these remonstrances was considered in a committee of
the whole house, which resolved, that the weight to be carried by all
waggons and carts, travelling on the turnpike roads, should be limited. On
this resolution a bill was framed, for amending and reducing into one act
of parliament the three acts before mentioned for the preservation of the
public highways; but some objections being started, and a petition
interposed by the land-holders of Suffolk and Norfolk, alleging that the
bill, if passed into a law, would render it impossible to bring fresh
provisions from those counties to London, as the supply depended
absolutely upon the quickness of conveyance, the further consideration of
it was postponed to a longer day, and never resumed in the sequel: so that
the attempt miscarried.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

CASE OF THE INSOLVENT DEBTORS.

Of all the subjects, which, in the course of this session, fell under the
cognizance of parliament, there was none that more interested the
humanity, or challenged the redress, of the legislature, than did the case
of the poor insolvent debtors, who languished under all the miseries of
indigence and imprisonment. In the month of February a petition was
offered to the commons in behalf of bankrupts, who represented, that
having scrupulously conformed to the laws made concerning bankruptcy, by
surrendering their all upon oath, for the benefit of their creditors, they
had nevertheless been refused their certificates, without any probability
of relief; that by this cruel refusal, many bankrupts have been obliged to
abscond, while others were immured in prison, and these unhappy sufferers
groaned under the particular hardship of being excluded from the benefit
of laws occasionally made for the relief of insolvent debtors; that the
power vested in creditors of refusing certificates to their bankrupts,
was, as the petitioners conceived, founded upon a presumption that such
power would be tenderly exercised, and never but in notorious cases; but
the great increase in the number of bankrupts within two years past, and
in the small proportion of those who had been able to obtain their
certificates, seemed to demonstrate that the power had been used for cruel
and unjust purposes, contrary to the intention of the legislature: that as
the greater part of the petitioners, and their fellow-sufferers, must
inevitably and speedily perish, with their distressed families, unless
seasonably relieved by the interposition of parliament, they implored the
compassion of the house, from which they hoped immediate favour and
relief. This petition was accompanied with a printed case, explaining the
nature of the laws relating to bankrupts, and pointing out their defects
in point of policy as well as humanity; but little regard was seemingly
paid to either remonstrance. Other petitions, however, being presented by
insolvent debtors, imprisoned in different gaols within the kingdom, leave
was given to bring in a bill for their relief, and a committee appointed
to examine the laws relating to bankruptcy.

CASE OF CAPTAIN WALKER.

Among other petitionary remonstrances on this subject, the members were
separately presented with the printed case of captain George Walker, a
prisoner in the gaol of the king’s bench, who had been declared a
bankrupt, and complained, that he had been subjected to some flagrant acts
of injustice and oppression. The case contained such extraordinary
allegations, and the captain’s character was so remarkably fair and
interesting, that the committee, which were empowered to send for persons,
papers, and records, resolved to inquire into the particulars of his
misfortune. A motion was made and agreed to, that the marshal of the
prison should bring the captain before the committee; and the speaker’s
warrant was issued accordingly. The prisoner was produced, and examined at
several sittings, and some of the members expressed a laudable eagerness
to do him justice; but his antagonists were very powerful, and left no
stone unturned to frustrate the purpose of the inquiry, which was dropped
of course at the end of the session. Thus the unfortunate captain Walker,
who had, in the late war, remarkably distinguished himself at sea by his
courage and conduct, repeatedly signalizing himself against the enemies of
his country, was sent back without redress to the gloomy mansions of a
gaol, where he had already pined for several years, useless to himself,
and lost to the community, while he might have been profitably employed in
retrieving his own fortune, and exerting his talents for the general
advantage of the nation. While this affair was in agitation, the bill for
the relief of insolvent debtors was prepared, printed, and read a second
time; but, when the motion was made for its being committed, a debate
arose, and this was adjourned from time to time till the end of the
session. In the meantime, the committee continued to deliberate upon the
laws relating to bankruptcy; and in the beginning of June reported their
resolution to the house, that, in their opinion, some amendments might be
made to the laws concerning bankruptcy; to the advantage of creditors, and
relief of insolvents. Such was the notice vouchsafed to the cries of many
British subjects, deprived of liberty, and destitute of the common
necessaries of life.

REMARKS ON THE BANKRUPT-LAWS.

It would engage us in a long digressive discussion were we to inquire how
the spirit of the laws in England, so famed for lenity, has been
exasperated into such severity against insolvent debtors; and why, among a
people so distinguished for generosity and compassion, the gaols should be
more filled with prisoners than they are in any other part of Christendom.
Perhaps both these deviations from a general character are violent efforts
of a wary legislature made in behalf of trade, which cannot be too much
cherished in a nation that principally depends upon commerce. The question
is, whether this laudable aim may not be more effectually accomplished,
without subjecting individuals to oppression, arising from the cruelty and
revenge of one another. As the laws are modelled at present, it cannot be
denied that the debtor, in some cases, lies in a peculiar manner at the
mercy of his creditor. By the original and common law of England, no man
could be imprisoned for debt. The plaintiff in any civil action could have
no execution upon his judgment, against either the body or the lands of
the defendant: even with respect to his goods and chattels, which were
subject to execution, he was obliged to leave him such articles as were
necessary for agriculture. But, in process of time, this indulgence being
found prejudicial to commerce, a law was enacted, in the reign of Edward
I. allowing execution on the person of the debtor, provided his goods and
chattels were not sufficient to pay the debt which he had contracted. This
law was still attended with a very obvious inconvenience: the debtor, who
possessed an estate in lands, was tempted to secrete his moveable effects,
and live in concealment on the produce of his lands, while the sheriff
connived at his retirement. To remove this evil, a second statute was
enacted in the same reign, granting immediate execution against the body,
lands, and goods of the debtor; yet his effects could not be sold for the
benefit of his creditors till the expiration of three months, during which
he himself could dispose of them for ready money, in order to discharge
his incumbrances. If the creditor was not satisfied in this manner, he
continued in possession of the debtor’s lands, and detained the debtor
himself in prison, where he was obliged to supply him with bread and water
for his support, until the debt was discharged. Other severe regulations
were made in the sequel, particularly in the reign of Edward III. which
gave rise to the writ of capias ad satisfaciendum. This indeed
rendered the preceding laws, called statute-merchant, and statute-staple,
altogether unnecessary. Though the liberty of the subject, and the
security of the landholder, were thus in some measure sacrificed to the
advantage of commerce, an imprisoned debtor was not left entirely at the
mercy of an inexorable creditor. If he made all the satisfaction in his
power, and could show that his insolvency was owing to real misfortunes,
the court of chancery interposed on his petition, and actually ordered him
to be discharged from prison, when no good reason for detaining him could
be assigned. This interposition, which seems naturally to belong to a
court of equity, constituted with a view to mitigate the rigour of the
common law, ceased, in all probability after the restoration of Charles
the Second, and of consequence the prisons were filled with debtors. Then
the legislature charged themselves with the extension of a power, which
perhaps a chancellor no longer thought himself safe in exercising; and in
the year one thousand six hundred and seventy, passed the first act for
the relief of insolvent debtors, granting a release to all prisoners for
debt, without distinction or inquiry. By this general indulgence, which
has even in a great measure continued in all subsequent acts of the same
kind, the lenity of the parliament may be sometimes misapplied, inasmuch
as insolvency is often criminal, arising from profligacy and extravagance,
which deserve to be severely punished. Yet, even for this species of
insolvency, perpetual imprisonment, aggravated by the miseries of extreme
indigence, and the danger of perishing through famine, may be deemed a
punishment too severe. How cruel then must it be to leave the most
innocent bankrupt exposed to this punishment, from the revenge or sinister
design of a merciless creditor; a creditor, by whose fraud the prisoner
became a bankrupt, and by whoso craft he is detained in gaol, lest by his
discharge from prison, he should be enabled to seek that redress in
chancery to which he is entitled on a fair account! The severity of the
law was certainly intended against fraudulent bankrupts only; and the
statute of bankruptcy is, doubtless, favourable to insolvents, as it
discharges from all former debts those who obtained their certificates. As
British subjects, they are surely entitled to the same indulgence which is
granted to other insolvents. They were always included in every act passed
for the relief of insolvent debtors, till the sixth year of George I. when
they were first excepted from this benefit. By a law enacted in the reign
of queen Anne, relating to bankruptcy, any creditor was at liberty to
object to the confirmation of the bankrupt’s certificate; but the
chancellor had power to judge whether the objection was frivolous or
well-founded: yet, by a latter act, the chancellor is obliged to confirm
the certificate, if it is agreeable to four-fifths in number and value of
the creditors; whereas he cannot confirm it, should he be opposed, even
without any reason assigned, by one creditor to whom the greatest part of
the debt is owing. It might, therefore, deserve the consideration of
parliament, whether, in extending their clemency to the poor, it should
not be equally diffused to bankrupts and other insolvents; whether proper
distinction ought not to be made between the innocent bankrupt who fails
through misfortune in trade, and him who becomes insolvent from fraud or
profligacy: and finally, whether the inquiry and trial of all such cases
would not properly fall within the province of chancery, a tribunal
instituted for the mitigation of common law.

INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE POOR.

The house of commons seems to have been determined on another measure,
which, however, does not admit of explanation. An order was made in the
month of February, that leave should be given to bring in a bill to
explain, amend, and render effectual, so much of an act passed in the
thirteenth year of George II. against the excessive increase of
horse-races, and deceitful gaming, as related to that increase. The bill
was accordingly presented, read, printed, and ordered to be committed to a
committee of the whole house; but the order was delayed from time to time
till the end of the session. Some progress was likewise made in another
affair of greater consequence to the community. A committee was appointed
in the month of March, to take into consideration the state of the poor in
England, as well as the laws enacted for their maintenance. The clerks of
the peace belonging to all the counties, cities, and towns in England and
Wales, were ordered to transmit, for the perusal of the house, an account
of the annual expense of passing vagrants through their respective
divisions and districts for four years: and the committee began to
deliberate on this important subject. In the latter end of May the house
was made acquainted with their resolutions, importing, that the present
methods of relieving the poor in the respective parishes, where no
workhouses have been provided for their reception and employment, are, in
general, very burdensome to the inhabitants, and tend to render the poor
miserable to themselves, and useless to the community: that the present
method of giving money out of the parochial rates to persons capable of
labour, in order to prevent them from claiming an entire subsistence for
themselves and their families, is contrary to the spirit and intention of
the laws for the relief of the poor, is a dangerous power in the hands of
parochial officers, a misapplication of the public money, and a great
encouragement to idleness and intemperance; that the employment of the
poor, under proper direction and management, in such works and
manufactures as are suited to their respective capacities, would be of
great utility to the public: that settling the poor in Workhouses, to be
provided in the several counties and ridings in England and Wales, under
the direction and management of governors and trustees to be appointed for
that purpose, would be the most effectual method of relieving such poor
persons, as, by age, infirmities, or diseases, are rendered incapable of
supporting themselves by their labour: of employing the able and
industrious, reforming the idle and profligate, and of educating poor
children in religion and industry: and that the poor in such workhouses
would be better regulated and maintained, and managed with more advantage
to the public, by guardians, governors, or trustees, to be especially
appointed, or chosen for that purpose, and incorporated with such powers,
and under such restrictions, as the legislature should deem proper, than
by the annual parochial officers: that erecting workhouses upon the waste
lands, and appropriating a certain quantity of such lands to be
cultivated, in order to produce provisions for the poor in the said
houses, would not only be the means of instructing and employing many of
the said poor in agriculture, but lessen the expense of the public: that
controversies and law-suits concerning the settlements of poor persons,
occasioned a very great, and in general an useless expense to the public,
amounting to many thousand pounds per annum; and that often more money is
expended in ascertaining such settlements by each of the contending
parishes than would be sufficient to maintain the paupers: that should
workhouses be established for the general reception of the poor, in the
respective counties and ridings of England, the laws relating to the
settlements of the poor, and the passing of vagrants, might be repealed:
that while the present laws relating to the poor subsist, the compelling
parish-officers to grant certificates to the poor, would in all
probability prevent the hardships they now suffer, in being debarred
gaining their livelihood, where they can do it most usefully to themselves
and the public. From these sensible resolutions, the reader may conceive
some idea of the misconduct that attends the management of the poor in
England, as well as of the grievous burdens entailed upon the people by
the present laws which constitute this branch of the legislature. The
committee’s resolves being read at the table, an order was made that they
should be taken into consideration on a certain day, when the order was
again put off, and in the interim the parliament was prorogued. While the
committee deliberated upon this affair, leave was given to prepare a bill
for preventing tenants, under a certain yearly rent, from gaining
settlements in any particular parish, by being there rated in any land-tax
assessment, and paying for the landlord the money so charged. This order
was afterwards discharged; and another bill brought in to prevent any
person from gaining a settlement, by being rated by virtue of an act of
parliament for granting an aid to his majesty by a land-tax, and paying
the same. The bill was accordingly presented, read, committed, and passed
the lower house; but among the lords it miscarried. It can never be
expected that the poor will be managed with economy and integrity, while
the execution of the laws relating to their maintenance is left in the
hands of low tradesmen, who derive private advantage from supplying them
with necessaries, and often favour the imposition of one another with the
most scandalous collusion. This is an evil which will never be remedied,
until persons of independent fortune, and unblemished integrity, actuated
by a spirit of true patriotism, shall rescue their fellow-citizens from
the power of such interested miscreants, by taking the poor into their own
management and protection. Instead of multiplying laws with respect to the
settlement and management of the poor, which serve only to puzzle and
perplex the parish and peace officers, it would become the sagacity of the
legislature to take some effectual precautions to prevent the increase of
paupers and vagrants, which is become an intolerable nuisance to the
commonwealth. Towards this salutary end, surely nothing would more
contribute than a reformation of the police, that would abolish those
infamous places of entertainment, which swarm in every corner of the
metropolis, seducing people of all ranks to extravagance, profligacy, and
ruin; and would restrict within due bounds the number of public-houses,
which are augmented to an enormous degree, affording so many asylums for
riot and debauchery, and corrupting the morals of the common people to
such a pitch of licentious indecency, as must be a reproach to every
civilized nation. Let it not be affirmed, to the disgrace of Great
Britain, that such receptacles of vice and impurity subsist under the
connivance of the government, according to the narrow views and confined
speculation of those shallow politicians, who imagine that the revenue is
increased in proportion to the quantity of strong liquors consumed in such
infamous recesses of intemperance. Were this in reality the case, that
administration would deserve to be branded with eternal infamy, which
could sacrifice to such abase consideration the health, the lives, and the
morals of their fellow-creatures: but nothing can be more fallacious than
the supposition, that the revenue of any government can be increased by
the augmented intemperance of the people; for intemperance is the bane of
industry, as well as of population; and what the government gains in the
articles of the duty on malt, and the excise upon liquors, will always be
greatly overbalanced by the loss in other articles, arising from the
diminution of hands, and the neglect of labour.

REGULATION OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Exclusive of the bills that were actually prepared, though they did not
pass in the course of the session, the commons deliberated on other
important subjects, which, however, were not finally discussed. In the
beginning of the session, a committee being appointed to resume the
inquiry touching the regulation of weights and measures, a subject we have
mentioned in the history of the preceding session, the box which contained
a troy pound weight, locked up by order of the house, was again produced
by the clerk in whose custody it had been deposited. This affair being
carefully investigated, the committee agreed to fourteen resolutions. 490
[See note 3 T, at the end of this Vol.] In the meantime, it was
ordered that all the weights referred to in the report, should be
delivered to the clerk of the house, to be locked up and brought forth
occasionally.

THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

The house of commons, among other articles of domestic economy, bestowed
some attention on the hospital for foundlings, which was now, more than
ever, become a matter of national consideration. The accounts relating to
this charity having been demanded, and subjected to the inspection of the
members, were, together with the king’s recommendation, referred to the
committee of supply, where they produced the resolutions which we have
already specified among the other grants of the year. The house afterwards
resolved itself into a committee to deliberate on the state of the
hospital, and examine its accounts. On the third day of May, their
resolutions were reported to the following effect: that the appointing, by
the governors and guardians of the said hospital, places in the several
counties, ridings, or divisions in this kingdom, for the first reception
of exposed and deserted young children, would be attended with many evil
consequences; and that the conveying of children from the country to the
said hospital is attended with many evil consequences, and ought to be
prevented. A bill was ordered to be brought in, founded upon this last
resolution, but never presented; therefore the inquiry produced no effect.
Notwithstanding the institution of this charity, for the support of which
great sums are yearly levied on the public, it does not appear that the
bills of mortality, respecting new-born children, are decreased, nor the
shocking crime of infant-murder rendered less frequent than heretofore. It
may, therefore, not be improperly styled a heavy additional tax for the
propagation of bastardy, and the encouragement of idleness among the
common people; besides the tendency it has to extinguish the feelings of
the heart, and dissolve those family ties of blood by which the charities
are connected. In the month of March, leave was given to bring in a bill
for the more effectual preventing of the melting down and exporting the
gold and silver coin of the kingdom, and the persons were nominated to
prepare it; but the bill never appeared, and no further inquiry was made
about the matter. Perhaps it was supposed that such a measure might be
thought an encroachment on the prerogative of the crown, which hath always
exercised the power of fixing the standard, and regulating the currency of
the coin. Perhaps such a step was deferred on account of the war, during
which a great quantity of gold and silver was necessarily exported to the
continent, for the support of the allies and armies in the pay of Great
Britain. The legislature, however, would do well to consider this eternal
maxim in computation, that when a greater quantity of bullion is exported,
in waste, than can be replaced by commerce, the nation must be hastening
to a state of insolvency. Over and above these proceedings in this session
of parliament, it may not be unnecessary to mention several messages which
were sent by the king to the house of commons. That relating to the vote
of credit we have already specified in our account of the supply. On the
twenty-sixth day of April, the chancellor of the exchequer presented to
the house two messages signed by his majesty, one in favour of his
subjects in North America, and the other in behalf of the East India
company: the former recommending to their consideration the zeal and
vigour with which his faithful subjects in North America had exerted
themselves in defence of his just rights and possessions; desiring he
might be enabled to give them a proper compensation for the expenses
incurred by the respective provinces in levying, clothing, and paying the
troops raised in that country, according as the active vigour and
strenuous efforts of the several colonies should appear to merit: in the
latter, he desired the house would empower him to assist the East India
company in defraying the expense of a military force in the East Indies,
to be maintained by them, in lieu of a battalion of regular troops
withdrawn from thence, and returned to Ireland. Both these messages were
referred to the committee of supply, and produced the resolutions upon
each subject which we have already explained. The message relating to a
projected invasion by the enemies of Great Britain, we shall particularize
in its proper place, when we come to record the circumstances and
miscarriage of that design. In the meantime, it may not be improper to
observe, that the thanks of the house of commons were voted and given to
admiral Boscawen and major-general Amherst, for the services they had done
their king and country in North America; and the same compliment was paid
to admiral Osborne, for the success of his cruise in the Mediterranean.

The session was closed on the second day of June, with a speech to both
houses from the commissioners appointed by his majesty for that purpose.
In this harangue the parliament was given to understand, that the king
approved of their conduct, and returned them his thanks for their
condescension; that the hopes he had conceived of their surmounting the
difficulties which lay in the way, were founded on the wisdom, zeal, and
affection of so good a parliament, and that his expectations were fully
answered; that they had considered the war in all its parts, and
notwithstanding its long continuance, through the obstinacy of the enemy,
had made such provision for the many different operations as ought to
convince the adversaries of Great Britain, that it would be for their
interest, as well as for the ease and relief of all Europe, to embrace
equitable and honourable terms of accommodation. They were told that, by
their assistance, the combined army in Germany had been completed;
powerful squadrons, as well as numerous bodies of land-forces, were
employed in America, in order to maintain the British rights and
possessions, and annoy the enemy in the most sensible maimer in that
country: that, as France was making considerable preparations in her
different ports, he had taken care to put his fleet at home in the best
condition, both of strength and situation, to guard against and repel any
attempts that might be meditated against his kingdoms: that all his
measures had been directed to assert the honour of his crown; to preserve
the essential interests of his faithful subjects; to support the cause of
the protestant religion, and public liberty: he therefore trusted that the
uprightness of his intentions would draw down the blessing of heaven upon
his endeavours. He expressed his hope, that the precautions they had taken
to prevent and correct the excesses of the privateers would produce the
desired effect: a consideration which the king had much at heart; for,
though sensible of the utility of that service, when under proper
regulations, he was determined to do his utmost to prevent any injuries or
hardships which might be sustained by the subjects of neutral powers, as
far as might be practicable and consistent with his majesty’s just right
to hinder the trade of his enemies from being collusively and fraudulently
covered. He not only thanked the commons, but applauded the firmness and
vigour with which they had acted, as well as their prudence in judging,
that notwithstanding the present burdens, the making ample provision for
carrying on the war was the most probable means to bring it to an
honourable and happy conclusion. He assured them that no attention should
be wanting, on his part, for the faithful application of what had been
granted. They were informed he had nothing further to desire, but that
they would carry down the same good dispositions, and propagate them in
their several counties, which they had shown in their proceedings during
the session. These declarations being pronounced, the parliament was
prorogued.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR.

The people of England, provoked on one hand by the intrigues, the
hostilities and menaces of France, and animated on the other by the pride
and triumph of success, which never fails to reconcile them to
difficulties, howsoever great, and expense, however enormous, at this
period breathed nothing but war, and discoursed about nothing but new
plans of conquest. We have seen how liberally the parliament bestowed the
nation’s money; and the acquiescence of the subjects in general under the
additional burdens which had been imposed, appeared in the remarkable
eagerness with which they embarked in the subscription planned by the
legislature; in the vigorous assistance they contributed towards manning
the navy, recruiting the army, and levying additional forces; and the
warlike spirit which began to diffuse itself through all ranks of the
people, This was a spirit which the ministry carefully cherished and
cultivated, for the support of the war, which, it must be owned, was
prosecuted with an ardour and efficacy peculiar to the present
administration. True it is, the German war had been for some time adopted
as an object of importance by the British councils, and a resolution was
taken to maintain it without flinching: at the same time, it must be
allowed, that this consideration had not hitherto weakened the attention
of the ministry to the operations in America, where alone the war may be
said to have been carried on and prosecuted on British principles, so as
to distress the enemy in their most tender part, and at the same time,
acquire the most substantial advantages to the subjects of Britain. For
these two purposes, every preparation was made that sagacity could
suggest, or vigour execute. The navy was repaired and augmented; and, in
order to man the different squadrons, the expedient of pressing, that
disgrace to a British administration, was practised both by land and water
with extraordinary rigour and vivacity. A proclamation was issued,
offering a considerable bounty for every seaman and every landman that
should by a certain day enter voluntarily into the service. As an
additional encouragement to this class of people, the king promised his
pardon to all seamen who had deserted from their respective ships to which
they belonged, provided they should return to their duty by the third day
of July; but at the same time he declared, that those who should neglect
this opportunity, at a time when their country so much required their
service, would, upon being apprehended, incur the penalty of a
court-martial, and if convicted, be deemed unfit objects of the royal
mercy. All justices of the peace, mayors, and magistrates of corporations
throughout Great Britain, were commanded to make particular search for
straggling seamen fit for the service, and to send all that should be
found to the nearest sea-port, that they might be sent on board by the
sea-officer there commanding. Other methods, more gentle and effectual,
were taken to levy and recruit the land-forces. New regiments were raised,
on his majesty’s promise that every man should be entitled to his
discharge at the end of three years, and the premiums for enlisting were
increased. Over and above these indulgences, considerable bounties were
offered and given by cities, towns, corporations, and even by individuals,
so universally were the people possessed with a spirit of chivalry and
adventure. The example was set by the metropolis, where the common-council
resolved, that voluntary subscriptions should be received in the chamber
of London, to be appropriated as bounty-money to such persons as should
engage in his majesty’s service. The city subscribed a considerable sum
for that purpose; and a committee of aldermen and commoners was appointed
to attend at Guildhall, to receive and apply the subscriptions. Asa
further encouragement to volunteers, they moreover resolved, that every
person so entering should be entitled to the freedom of the city, at the
expiration of three years, or sooner if the war should be brought to a
conclusion. These resolutions being communicated to the king, he was
pleased to signify his approbation, and return his thanks to the city, in
a letter from the secretary of state to the lord-mayor. Large sums were
immediately subscribed by different companies, and some private persons;
and, in imitation of the capital, bounties were offered by many different
communities in every quarter of the United Kingdom. At the same time, such
care and diligence were used in disciplining the militia, that, before the
close of the year, the greater part of those truly constitutional
battalions rivalled the regular troops in the perfection of their
exercise, and seemed to be, in all respects, as fit for actual service.

DEATH OF THE PRINCESS OF ORANGE, &c.

Before we proceed to record the transactions of the campaign that
succeeded these preparations, we shall take notice of some domestic
events, which, though not very important in themselves, may nevertheless
claim a place in the History of England. In the beginning of the year, the
court of London was overwhelmed with affliction at the death of the
princess dowager of Orange and Nassau, governante of the United Provinces
in the minority of her son, the present stadtholder. She was the eldest
daughter of his Britannic majesty, possessed of many personal
accomplishments and exemplary virtues; pious, moderate, sensible, and
circumspect. She had exercised her authority with equal sagacity and
resolution, respected even by those who were no friends to the house of
Orange, and died with great fortitude and resignation.*

* Feeling her end approaching, she delivered a key to one of
her attendants, directing him to fetch two papers, which she
signed with her own hand. One was a contract of marriage
between her daughter and the prince of Nassau Weilburgh; the
other was a letter to the states-general, beseeching them to
consent to this marriage, and preserve inviolate the
regulations she had made touching the education and tutelage
of the young stadtholder. These two papers being signed and
sealed, she sent for her children, exhorted them to make
proper improvements on the education they had received, and
to live in harmony with each other. Then she implored Heaven
to shower its blessings on them both, and embraced them with
the most affecting marks of maternal tenderness. She
afterwards continued to converse calmly and deliberately
with her friends, and in a few hours expired.

In her will she appointed the king her father, and the princess dowager of
Orange her mother-in-law, honorary tutors, and prince Louis of Brunswick
acting tutor to her children. In the morning after her decease, the
states-general and the states of Holland were extraordinarily assembled,
and having received notice of this event, proceeded to confirm the
regulations which had been made for the minority of the stadtholder.
Prince Louis of Brunswick was invited to assist in the assembly of
Holland, where he took the oaths, as representing the captain-general of
the union. Then he communicated to the assembly the act by which the
princess had appointed him guardian of her children. He was afterwards
invited to the assembly of the states-general, who agreed to the
resolution of Holland, with respect to his guardianship; and in the
evening the different colleges of the government sent formal deputations
to the young stadtholder, and the princess Caroline, his sister, in whose
names and presence they were received, and answered by their guardian and
representative. A formal intimation of the death of the princess was
communicated to the king her father, in a pathetic letter, by the
states-general; who condoled with him on the irreparable loss which he as
well as they had sustained by this melancholy event, and assured him they
would employ all their care and attention in securing and defending the
rights and interest of the young stadtholder and the princess his sister,
whom they considered as the children of the republic. The royal family of
England suffered another disaster in the course of this year, by the
decease of the princess Elizabeth-Caroline, second daughter of his late
royal highness Frederick prince of Wales, a lady of the most amiable
character, who died at Kew in the month of September, before she had
attained the eighteenth year of her age.

EXAMPLES MADE OF PIRATES.

Certain privateers continuing their excesses at sea, and rifling neutral
ships without distinction or authority, the government resolved to
vindicate the honour of the nation, by making examples of those pirates,
who, as fast as they could be detected and secured, were brought to trial,
and upon conviction sacrificed to justice. While these steps were taken to
rescue the nation from the reproach of violence and rapacity, which her
neighbours had urged with such eagerness, equal spirit was exerted in
convincing neutral powers that they should not with impunity contravene
the law of nations, in favouring the enemies of Great Britain. A great
number of causes were tried relating to disputed captures, and many Dutch
vessels, with their cargoes, were condemned, after a fair hearing,
notwithstanding the loud clamours of that people, and the repeated
remonstrances of the states-general.

The reputation of the English was not so much affected by the
irregularities of her privateers, armed for rapine, as by the neglect of
internal police, and an ingredient of savage ferocity mingled in the
national character; an ingredient that appeared but too conspicuous in the
particulars of several shocking murders brought to light about this
period.—One Halsey, who commanded a merchant ship in the voyage from
Jamaica to England, having conceived some personal dislike to a poor
sailor, insulted him with such abuse, exposed him to such hardships, and
punished him with such wantonness of barbarity, that the poor wretch
leaped overboard in despair. His inhuman tyrant envying him that death,
which would have rescued a miserable object from his brutality, plunged
into the sea after him, and brought him on board, declaring, he should not
escape so while there were any torments left to inflict. Accordingly, he
exercised his tyranny upon him with redoubled rigour, until the poor
creature expired, in consequence of the inhuman treatment he had
sustained. This savage ruffian was likewise indicted for the murder of
another mariner, but being convicted on the first trial, the second was
found unnecessary, and the criminal suffered death according to the law,
which is perhaps too mild to malefactors convicted of such aggravated
cruelty.—Another barbarous murder was perpetrated in the country,
near Birmingham, upon a sheriff’s officer, by the sons of one Darby, whose
effects the bailiff had seized, on a distress for rent. The two young
assassins, encouraged by the father, attacked the unhappy wretch with
clubs, and mangled him in a terrible manner, so that he hardly retained
any signs of life. Not contented with this cruel execution, they stripped
him naked, and dragging him out of the house, scourged him with a
waggoner’s whip, until the flesh was cut from the bones. In this miserable
condition he was found weltering in his blood, and conveyed to a
neighbouring house, where he immediately expired. The three barbarians
were apprehended, after having made a desperate resistance. They were
tried, convicted, and executed; the sons were hung in chains, and the body
of the father dissected.—The widow of a timber-merchant in
Rotherhithe being cruelly murdered in her own house, Mary Edmonson, a
young woman, her niece, ran out into the street with her arms cut across,
and gave the alarm, declaring her aunt had been assassinated by four men,
who forced their way into the house, and that she (the niece) had received
those wounds in attempting to defend her relation. According to the
circumstances that appeared, this unnatural wretch had cut the throat of
her aunt and benefactress with a case-knife, then dragged the body from
the wash-house to the parlour; that she had stolen a watch and some silver
spoons, and concealed them, together with the knife and her own apron,
which was soaked with the blood of her parent. After having acted this
horrid tragedy, the bare recital of which the humane reader will not
peruse without horror, she put on another apron, and wounded her own
flesh, the better to conceal her guilt. Notwithstanding these precautions
she was suspected, and committed to prison. Being brought to trial, she
was convicted and condemned upon circumstantial evidence, and finally
executed on Kennington-common, though she denied the fact to the last
moment of her life. At the place of execution she behaved with great
composure, and, after having spent some minutes in devotion, protested she
was innocent of the crime laid to her charge. What seemed to corroborate
this protestation, was the condition and character of the young woman, who
had been educated in a sphere above the vulgar, and maintained a
reputation without reproach in the country, where she was actually
betrothed to a clergyman. On the other hand, the circumstances that
appeared against her almost amounted to a certainty; though nothing weaker
than proof positive ought to determine a jury in capital cases to give a
verdict against the person accused. After all, this is one of those
problematic events which elude the force of all evidence, and serve to
confound the pride of Iranian reason.—A miscreant, whose name was
Haines, having espoused the daughter of a farmer in the neighbourhood of
Gloucester, who possessed a small estate, which he intended to divide
among seven children, was so abandoned as to form the design of poisoning
the whole family, that by virtue of his wife he might enjoy the whole
inheritance. For the execution of this infernal scheme, he employed his
own father to purchase a quantity of arsenic; part of which he
administered to three of the children, who were immediately seized with
the dreadful symptoms produced by this mineral, and the eldest expired. He
afterwards mixed it with three apple-cakes, which he bought for the
purpose, and presented to the three other children, who underwent the same
violence of operation which had proved fatal to the eldest brother. The
instantaneous effects of the poison created a suspicion of Haines, who,
being examined, the whole scene of villany stood disclosed. Nevertheless,
the villain found means to escape.—The uncommon spirit of
assassination which raged at this period, seemed to communicate itself
even to foreigners who breathed English air. Five French prisoners
confined on board the king’s ship the Royal Oak, were convicted of having
murdered one Jean de Manaux, their countryman and fellow-prisoner, in
revenge for his having discovered that they had forged passes to
facilitate their escape. Exasperated at this detection, they seized this
unfortunate informer in the place of their confinement, gagged his mouth,
stripped him naked, tied him with a strong cord to a ring-bolt, and
scourged his body with the most brutal perseverance. By dint of
struggling, the poor wretch disengaged himself from the cord with which he
had been tied: then they finished the tragedy, by leaping and stamping on
his breast, till the chest was broke, and he expired. They afterwards
severed the body into small pieces, and these they conveyed at different
times into the sea, through the funnel of a convenience to which they had
access: but one of the other prisoners gave information of the murder; in
consequence of which they were secured, brought to trial, condemned, and
punished with death.—Nor were the instances of cruel assassination
which prevailed at this juncture confined to Great Britain. At the latter
end of the foregoing year, an atrocious massacre was perpetrated by two
Genoese mariners upon the master and crew of an English vessel, among whom
they were enrolled. These monsters of cruelty were in different watches, a
circumstance that favoured the execution of the horrid plan they had
concerted. When one of them retired to rest with his fellows of the watch,
consisting of the mate and two seamen, he waited till they were fast
asleep, and then butchered them all with a knife. Having so far succeeded
without discovery, he returned to the deck, and communicated the exploit
to his associate: then they suddenly attacked the master of the vessel,
and cleft his head with a hatchet, which they likewise used in murdering
the man that stood at the helm; a third was likewise despatched, and no
Englishman remained alive but the master’s son, a boy, who lamented his
father’s death with incessant tears and cries for three days, at the
expiration of which he was likewise sacrificed, because the assassins were
disturbed by his clamour. This barbarous scene was acted within sixty
leagues of the rock of Lisbon; but the vessel was taken within the capes
Ortugal and Finisterre, by the captain of the French privateer called La
Favourite, who seeing the deck stained with blood, and finding all the
papers of the ship destroyed, began to suspect that the master and crew
had been murdered. He accordingly taxed them with the murder, and they
confessed the particulars. The privateer touched at Vigo, where the
captain imparted this detail to the English consul; but the prize, with
the two villains on board, was sent to Bayonne in France, where they were
brought to condign punishment.

MURDER OF DANIEL CLARKE.

We shall close this register of blood with the account of a murder
remarkable in all its circumstances, for which a person, called Eugene
Aram, suffered at York, in the course of this year. This man, who
exercised the profession of a schoolmaster at Knaresborough, had, as far
back as the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, been concerned
with one Houseman, in robbing and murdering Daniel Clarke, whom they had
previously persuaded to borrow a considerable quantity of valuable effects
from different persons in the neighbourhood, on false pretences, that he
might retire with the booty. He had accordingly filled a sack with these
particulars, and began his retreat with his two perfidious associates, who
suddenly fell upon him, deprived him of life, and, having buried the body
in a cave, took possession of the plunder. Though Clarke disappeared at
once in such a mysterious manner, no suspicion fell on the assassins; and
Aram, who was the chief contriver and agent in the murder, moved his
habitation to another part of the country. In the summer of the present
year, Houseman being employed, among other labourers, in repairing the
public highway, they, in digging for gravel by the road side, discovered
the skeleton of a human creature, which the majority supposed to be the
bones of Daniel Clarke. This opinion was no sooner broached, than
Houseman, as it were by some supernatural impulse which he could not
resist, declared that it was not the skeleton of Clarke, inasmuch as his
body had been interred at a place called St. Robert’s Cave, where they
would find it, with the head turned to a certain corner. He was
immediately apprehended, examined, admitted as evidence for the crown, and
discovered the particulars of the murder. The skeleton of Clarke being
found exactly in the place and manner he had described, Eugene Aram, who
now acted as usher to a grammar-school in the county of Norfolk, was
secured, and brought to trial at the York assizes. There, his own wife
corroborating the testimony of Houseman, he was found guilty, and received
sentence of death; notwithstanding a very artful and learned defence, in
which he proved, from argument and example, the danger of convicting a man
upon circumstantial evidence. Finding all his remonstrances ineffectual,
he recommended himself in pathetic terms to the king’s mercy; and if ever
murder was entitled to indulgence, perhaps it might have been extended not
improperly to this man, whose genius, in itself prodigious, might have
exerted itself in works of general utility. He had, in spite of all the
disadvantages attending low birth and straitened circumstances, by the
dint of his own capacity and inclination, made considerable progress in
mathematics and philosophy, acquired all the languages ancient and modern,
and executed part of a Celtic dictionary, which, had he lived to finish
it, might have thrown some essential light upon the origin and obscurities
of the European history. Convinced, at last, that he had nothing to hope
from the clemency of the government, he wrote a short poem in defence of
suicide; and, on the day fixed for his execution, opened the veins of his
left arm with a razor, which he had concealed for that purpose. Though he
was much weakened by the effusion of blood, before this attempt was
discovered, yet, as the instrument had missed the artery, he did not
expire until he was carried to the gibbet, and underwent the sentence of
the law. His body was conveyed to Knaresborough-forest, and hung in
chains, near the place where the murder was perpetrated.—These are
some of the most remarkable that appeared amongst many other instances of
homicide: a crime that prevails to a degree alike deplorable and
surprising, even in a nation renowned for compassion and placability. But
this will generally be the case among people whose passions, naturally
impetuous, are ill restrained by laws, and the regulations of civil
society; which the licentious do not fear, and the wicked hope to evade.

MAJORITY OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.

The prince of Wales having, in the beginning of June, entered the
two-and-twentieth year of his age, the anniversary of his birth was
celebrated with great rejoicings at court, and the king received
compliments of congratulation on the majority of a prince, who seemed born
to fulfil the hopes, and complete the happiness, of Great Britain. The
city of London presented an address to the king on this occasion, replete
with expressions of loyalty and affection, assuring his majesty, that no
hostile threats could intimidate a people animated by the love of liberty,
who, confiding in the Divine Providence, and in his majesty’s experienced
wisdom and vigorous councils, were resolved to exert their utmost efforts
towards enabling their sovereign to repel the insults and defeat the
attempts made by the ancient enemies of his crown and kingdom.
Congratulations of the same kind were offered by other cities, towns,
corporations, and communities, who vied with each other in professions of
attachment; and, indeed, there was not the least trace of disaffection
perceivable at this juncture in any part of the island.

A NEW BRIDGE AT BLACKFRIARS.

So little were the citizens of London distressed by the expense, or
incommoded by the operations of the war, that they found leisure to plan,
and funds to execute, magnificent works of art, for the ornament of the
metropolis, and the convenience of commerce. They had obtained an act of
parliament, empowering them to build a new bridge over the Thames, from
Blackfriars to the opposite shore, about midway between those of London
and Westminster. Commissioners were appointed to put this act in
execution; and, at a court of common-council, it was resolved that a sum
not exceeding one hundred and forty-four thousand pounds should be
forthwith raised, within the space of eight years, by instalments, not
exceeding thirty thousand pounds in one year, to be paid into the chamber
of London; that the persons advancing the money should have an interest at
the rate of four pounds per cent, per annum, to be paid half-yearly by the
chamberlain, yet redeemable at the expiration of the first ten years; and
that the chamberlain should affix the city’s seal to such instruments as
the committee might think fit to give for securing the payment of the said
annuities. Such were the first effectual steps taken towards the execution
of a laudable measure, which met with the most obstinate opposition in the
sequel, from the narrow views of particular people, as well as from the
prejudice of party.

FIRE IN CORNHILL.

The spirit that now animated the citizens of London was such as small
difficulties did not retard, and even considerable losses could not
discourage. In the month of November the city was exposed to a dangerous
conflagration, kindled in the night by accident in the neighbourhood of
the Royal Exchange, which burned with great fury, and, notwithstanding the
assistance of the firemen and engines, employed under the personal
direction of the magistracy, consumed a great number of houses, and
damaged many more. That whole quarter of the town was filled with
consternation: some individuals were beggared; one or two perished in the
flames, and some were buried in the ruins of the houses that sunk under
the disaster.

METHOD CONTRIVED TO FIND OUT THE LONGITUDE.

The ferment of mind so peculiar to the natives of Great Britain, excited
by a strange mixture of genius and caprice, passion and philosophy, study
and conjecture, produced at this period some flowers of improvement, in
different arts and sciences, that seemed to promise fruit of public
utility. Several persons invented methods for discovering the longitude at
sea, that great desideratum in navigation, for the ascertainment of
which so many nations have offered a public recompense, and in the
investigation of which so many mathematical heads have been disordered.
Some of those who now appeared candidates for the prize deserved
encouragement for the ingenuity of their several systems; but he who
seemed to enjoy’ the pre-eminence in the opinion and favour of the public
was Mr. Irwin, a native of Ireland, who contrived a chair so artfully
poised, that a person sitting in it on board a ship, even in a rough sea,
can, through a telescope, observe the immersion and emersion of Jupiter’s
satellites, without being interrupted or incommoded by the motion of the
vessel. This gentleman was favoured with the assistance and protection of
commodore lord Howe, in whose presence the experiment was tried in several
ships at sea with such success, that he granted a certificate, signifying
his approbation; and in consequence of this, Mr. Irwin is said to have
obtained a considerable reward from the board of admiralty.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

INSTALLATION AT OXFORD.

The people of England, happy in their situation, felt none of the storms
of war and desolation which ravaged the neighbouring countries; but,
enriched by a surprising augmentation of commerce, enjoyed all the
security of peace, and all the pleasures of taste and affluence. The
university of Oxford having conferred the office of their chancellor,
vacant by the death of the earl of Arran, upon another nobleman of equal
honour and integrity, namely, the earl of Westmoreland, he made a public
entrance into that celebrated seat of learning with great magnificence,
and was installed amidst the Encaenia, which were celebrated with such
classical elegance of pomp, as might have rivalled the chief Roman
festival of the Augustan age. The chancellor elect was attended by a
splendid train of the nobility and persons of distinction. The city of
Oxford was filled with a vast concourse of strangers. The processions were
contrived with taste, and conducted with decorum. The installation was
performed with the most striking solemnity. The congratulatory verses and
public speeches breathed the spirit of old Rome; and the ceremony was
closed by Dr. King, that venerable sage of St. Mary Hall, who pronounced
an oration in praise of the new chancellor with all the flow of Tully,
animated by the fire of Demosthenes.

We shall conclude the remarkable incidents of this year:*

* In the spring of the year the liberal arts sustained a
lamentable loss in the death of George Frederick Handel, the
most celebrated master in music which this age had produced.
He was by birth a German; but had studied in Italy, and
afterwards settled in England, where he met with the most
favourable reception, and resided above half a century,
universally admired for his stupendous genius in the sublime
parts of musical composition.

One would be apt to imagine, that there was something in the
constitution of the air at this period, which was
particularly unfavourable to old age; inasmuch as, in the
compass of a few months, the following persons, remarkable
for their longevity, died in the kingdom of Scotland.
William Barnes, who had been above seventy years a servant
in the family of Brodie, died there, at the age of one
hundred and nine. Catherine Mackenzie died in Ross-shire, at
the age of one hundred and eighteen. Janet Blair, deceased
at Monemusk, in the shire of Aberdeen, turned of one
hundred and twelve. Alexander Stephens, in Banffshire, at
the age of one hundred and eight. Janet Harper, of
Bainsholes, at the age of one hundred and seven. Daniel
Cameron, in Rannaeh, married when he was turned of one
hundred, and survived his marriage thirty years.

These are detached from the prosecution of the war, with the detail of an
event equally surprising and deplorable:—A sloop called the Dolphin,
bound from the Canaries to New York, met with such unfavourable weather,
that she was detained one hundred and sixty-five days in the passage, and
the provision of the ship was altogether expended before the first fifty
days were elapsed. The wretched crew had devoured their dog, cat, and all
their shoes on board: at length, being reduced to the utmost extremity,
they agreed to cast lots for their lives, that the body of him upon whom
the lot should fall might serve for some time to support the survivors.
The wretched victim was one Antoni Ga-latia, a Spanish gentleman and
passenger. Him they shot with a musket; and having cut off his head, threw
it overboard; but the entrails and the rest of the carcase they greedily
devoured. This horrid banquet having, as it were, fleshed the famished
crew, they began to talk of another sacrifice, from which, however, they
were diverted by the influence and remonstrances of their captain, who
prevailed upon them to be satisfied with a miserable allowance to each per
diem, cut from a pair of leather breeches found in the cabin. Upon this
calamitous pittance, reinforced with the grass which grew plentifully upon
the deck, these poor objects made shift to subsist for twenty days, at the
expiration of which they were relieved, and taken on board by one captain
Bradshaw, who chanced to fall in with them at sea. By this time the whole
crew, consisting of seven men, were so squalid and emaciated, as to
exhibit an appearance at once piteous and terrible; and so reduced in
point of strength, that it was found necessary to use ropes and tackle for
hoisting them from one ship to the other. The circumstance of the lot
falling upon the Spaniard, who was the only foreigner on board, encourages
a suspicion that foul play was offered to this unfortunate stranger; but
the most remarkable part of this whole incident is, that the master and
crew could not contrive some sort of tackle to catch fish, with which the
sea every where abounds, and which, no doubt, might be caught with the
help of a little ingenuity. If implements of this kind were provided in
every ship, they would probably prevent all those tragical events at sea
that are occasioned by famine.

CAPTURES MADE BY CRUISERS.

Previous to the more capital operations in war, we shall particularize the
most remarkable captures that were made upon the enemy by single ships of
war, during the course of this summer and autumn. In the month of
February, a French privateer belonging to Granville, called the Marquis de
Marigny, having on board near two hundred men, and mounted with twenty
cannon, was taken by captain Parker, commander of his majesty’s ship the
Montague; who likewise made prize of a smaller armed vessel, from Dunkirk,
of eight cannon and sixty men. About the same period, captain Graves, of
the Unicorn, brought in the Moras privateer, of St. Maloes, carrying two
hundred men, and two-and-twenty cannon. Two large merchant-ships, laden on
the French king’s account for Martinique, with provisions, clothing, and
arms, for the troops on that island, were taken by captain Lendrick,
commander of the Brilliant; and an English transport from St. John’s,
having four hundred French prisoners on board, perished near the Western
islands. Within the circle of the same month, a large French ship from St.
Domingo, richly laden, fell in with the Favourite ship of war, and was
carried into Gibraltar.

In the month of February, captain Hood, of his majesty’s frigate the
Vestal, belonging to a small squadron commanded by admiral Holmes, who had
sailed for the West Indies in January, being advanced a considerable way
ahead of the fleet, descried and gave chase to a sail, which proved to be
a French frigate called the Bellona, of two hundred and twenty men, and
two-and-thirty great guns, commanded by the count de Beauhonoire. Captain
Hood, having made a signal to the admiral, continued the chase until he
advanced within half musket-shot of the enemy, and then poured in a
broadside, which was immediately retorted. The engagement thus begun was
maintained with great vigour on both sides for the space of four hours; at
the expiration of which the Bellona struck, after having lost all her
masts and rigging, together with about forty men killed in the action. Nor
was the victor in a much better condition. Thirty men were killed and
wounded on board the Vestal. Immediately after the enemy submitted, all
her rigging being destroyed by the shot, the topmasts fell overboard; and
she was otherwise so much damaged, that she could not proceed on her
voyage. Captain Hood, therefore, returned with his prize to Spithead; and
afterwards met with a gracious reception from his majesty, on account of
the valour and conduct he had displayed on this occasion. The Bellona had
sailed in January from the island of Martinique, along with the
Florissant, and another French frigate, from which she had been separated
in the passage. Immediately after this exploit, captain Elliot, of the
AEolus frigate, accompanied by the Isis, made prize of a French ship, the
Mignonne, of twenty guns, and one hundred and forty men, one of four
frigates employed as convoy to a large fleet of merchant-ships, near the
island of Rhé.

In the month of March, the English frigates the Southampton and Melampe,
commanded by the captains Gilchrist and Hotham, being at sea to the
northward on a cruise, fell in with the Danaë, a French ship of forty
cannon, and three hundred and thirty men, which was engaged by captain
Hotham in a ship of half the force, who maintained the battle a
considerable time with admirable gallantry, before his consort could come
to his assistance. As they fought in the dark, captain Gilchrist was
obliged to lie by for some time, because he could not distinguish the one
from the other; but no sooner did the day appear, than he bore down upon
the Danaë with his usual impetuosity, and soon compelled her to surrender:
she did not strike, however, until thirty or forty of her men were slain;
and the gallant captain Gilchrist received a grape-shot in his shoulder,
which, though it did not deprive him of life, yet rendered him incapable
of future service: a misfortune the more to be lamented, as it happened to
a brave officer in the vigour of his age, and in the midst of a sanguinary
war, which might have afforded him many other opportunities of signalizing
his courage for the honour and advantage of his country. Another
remarkable exploit was achieved about the same juncture by captain
Barrington, commander of the ship Achilles, mounted with sixty cannon;
who, to the westward of Cape Finisterre, encountered a French ship of
equal force, called the Count de Saint Florintin, bound from Cape
François, on the island of Hispaniola, to Rochefort, under the command of
the sieur de Montay, who was obliged to strike, after a close and
obstinate engagement, in which he himself was mortally wounded, a great
number of his men slain, and his ship so damaged, that she was with
difficulty brought into Falmouth. Captain Barrington obtained the victory
at the expense of about five-and-twenty men killed and wounded, and all
his rigging, which the enemy’s shot rendered useless. Two small privateers
from Dunkirk were also taken: one called the Marquis de Bareil, by the
Brilliant, which carried her into Kin-sale in Ireland; the other called
the Carrilloneur, which struck to the Grace cutter, assisted by the boats
of the ship Rochester, commanded by captain Duff, who sent her into the
Downs.

About the latter end of March, captain Samuel Falkner, in the ship
Windsor, of sixty guns, cruising to the westward, discovered four large
ships to leeward, which, when he approached them, formed the line of
battle ahead, in order to give him a warm reception. He accordingly closed
with the sternmost ship, which sustained his fire about an hour: then the
other three bearing away with all the sail they could carry, she struck
her colours, and was conducted to Lisbon. She proved to be the Duc de
Chartres, pierced for sixty cannon, though at that time carrying no more
than four-and-twenty, with a complement of three hundred men, about thirty
of whom were killed in the action. She belonged, with the other three that
escaped, to the French East India company, was laden with gunpowder and
naval stores, and bound for Pondicherry. Two privateers, called Le
Chasseur and Le Conquérant, the one from Dunkirk, and the other from
Cherbourg, were taken and carried into Plymouth by captain Hughes, of his
majesty’s frigate the Tamer. A third, called the Despatch, from Morlaix,
was brought into Penzance by the Diligence sloop, under the command of
captain Eastwood. A fourth, called the Basque, from Bayonne, furnished
with two-and-twenty guns, and above two hundred men, fell into the hands
of captain Parker of the Brilliant, who conveyed her into Plymouth.
Captain Antrobus of the Surprise, took the Vieux, a privateer of
Bourdeaux; and a fifth, from Dunkirk, struck to captain Knight of the
Liverpool, off Yarmouth. In the month of May, a French frigate called the
Arethusa, mounted with two-and-thirty cannon, manned with a large
complement of hands under the command of the marquis de Vaudreuil,
submitted to two British frigates, the Venus and the Thames, commanded by
the captains Harrison and Colby, after a warm engagement, in which sixty
men were killed and wounded on the side of the enemy. In the beginning of
June, an armed ship belonging to Dunkirk was brought into the Downs by
captain Angel, of the Stag; and a privateer of force, called the Countess
de la Serre, was subdued and taken, after an obstinate action, by captain
Moore, of his majesty’s ship the Adventure.

PRIZES TAKEN IN THE WEST INDIES.

Several armed ships of the enemy, and rich prizes, were taken in the West
Indies, particularly two French frigates, and two Dutch ships with French
commodities, all richly laden, by some of the ships of the squadron which
vice-admiral Coats commanded on the Jamaica station. A fifth, called the
Velour, from St. Domingo, with a valuable cargo on board, being fortified
with twenty cannon, and above one hundred men, fell in with the Favourite
sloop of war, under the command of captain Edwards, who, after’ art
obstinate dispute, carried her in triumph to Gibraltar. At St.
Christopher’s, in the West Indies, captain Collingwood, commander of the
king’s ship the Crescent, attacked two French frigates, the Améthyste and
Berkeley; the former of which escaped, after a warm engagement, in which
the Crescent’s rigging was so much damaged that she could not pursue; but
the other was taken, and conveyed into the harbour of Basseterre.
Notwithstanding the vigilance and courage of the English cruisers in those
seas, the French privateers swarmed to such a degree, that in the course
of this year they took above two hundred sail of British ships, valued at
six hundred thousand pounds sterling. This their success is the more
remarkable, as by this time the island of Guadaloupe was in possession of
the English, and commodore Moore commanded a numerous squadron in those
very latitudes.

ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE HERCULES AND THE FLORISSANT.

In the beginning of October, the Hercules ship of war, mounted with
seventy-four guns, under the command of captain Porter, cruising in the
chops of the channel, descried to windward a large ship, which proved to
be the Florissant, of the same force with the Hercules. Her commander,
perceiving the English ship giving chase, did not seem to decline the
action, but bore down upon her in a slanting direction, and the engagement
began with great fury. In a little time, the Hercules having lost her
top-mast, and all her rigging being shot away, the enemy took advantage of
this disaster, made the best of his way, and was pursued till eight
o’clock next morning, when he escaped behind the isle of Oleron. Captain
Porter was wounded in the head with a grape-shot, and lost the use of one
leg in the engagement.

HAVRE-DE-GRACE BOMBARDED.

Having taken notice of all the remarkable captures and exploits that were
made and achieved by single ships since the commencement of the present
year, we shall now proceed to describe the actions that were performed in
this period by the different squadrons that constituted the naval power of
Great Britain. Intelligence having been received that the enemy meditated
an invasion upon some of the British territories, and that a number of
flat-bottomed boats were prepared at Havre-de-Grace, for the purpose of
disembarking troops, rear-admiral Rodney was, in the beginning of July,
detached with a small squadron of ships and bombs to annoy and overawe
that part of the coast of France. He accordingly anchored in the road of
Havre, and made a disposition to execute the instructions he had received.
The bomb vessels, being placed in the narrow channel of the river leading
to Ronfleur, began to throw their shells, and continued the bombardment
for two-and-fifty hours, without intermission, during which a numerous
body of French troops were employed in throwing up intrenchments, erecting
new batteries, and firing both with shot and shells upon the assailants.
The town was set on fire in several places, and burned with great fury;
some of the boats were overturned, and a few of them reduced to ashes,
while the inhabitants forsook the place in the utmost consternation:
nevertheless, the damage done to the enemy was too inconsiderable to make
amends for the expense of the armament, and the loss of nineteen hundred
shells and eleven hundred carcasses, which were expended in this
expedition. Bombardments of this kind are at best but expensive and
unprofitable operations, and may be deemed a barbarous method of
prosecuting war, inasmuch as the damage falls upon the wretched
inhabitants, who have given no cause of offence, and who are generally
spared by a humane enemy, unless they have committed some particular act
of provocation.

BOSCAWEN DEFEATS M. DE LA CLUE.

The honour of the British flag was much more effectually asserted by the
gallant admiral Boscawen, who, as we have already observed, was intrusted
with the conduct of a squadron in the Mediterranean. It must be owned,
however, that his first attempt savoured of temerity. Having in vain
displayed the British flag in sight of Toulon, by way of defiance to the
French fleet that lay there at anchor, he ordered three ships of the line,
commanded by the captains Smith, Harland, and Barker, to advance and burn
two ships that lay close to the mouth of the harbour. They accordingly
approached with great intrepidity, and met with a very warm reception from
divers batteries, which they had not before perceived. Two small forts
they attempted to destroy, and cannonaded for some time with great fury;
but being overmatched by superior force, and the wind subsiding into a
calm, they sustained considerable damage, and were towed off with great
difficulty in a very shattered condition. The admiral seeing three of his
best ships so roughly handled in this enterprise, returned to Gibraltar in
order to refit; and M. de la Clue, the French commander of the squadron at
Toulon, seized this opportunity of sailing, in hopes of passing the
Straits’ mouth unobserved, his fleet consisting of twelve large ships and
three frigates. Admiral Boscawen, who commanded fourteen sail of the line
with two frigates, and as many fire-ships, having refitted his squadron,
detached one frigate to cruise off Malaga, and another to hover between
Estepona and Ceuta-point, with a view to keep a good look-out, and give
timely notice in case the enemy should approach. On the seventeenth day of
August, at eight in the evening, the Gibraltar frigate made a signal that
fourteen sail appeared on the Barbary shore, to the eastward of Ceuta;
upon which the English admiral immediately heaved up his anchors and went
to sea. At day-light he descried seven large ships lying-to; but when the
English squadron forbore to answer their signal, they discovered their
mistake, set all their sails, and made the best of their way. This was the
greater part of the French squadron, commanded by M. de la Clue, from whom
five of his large ships and three frigates had separated in the night.
Even now, perhaps, he might have escaped, had he not been obliged to wait
for the Souveraine, which was a heavy sailer. At noon the wind, which had
blown a heavy gale, died away, and although admiral Boscawen had made
signal to chase, and engage in a line of battle ahead, it was not till
half an hour after two that some of his headmost ships could close with
the rear of the enemy, which, though greatly out-numbered, fought with
uncommon bravery. The English admiral, without waiting to return the fire
of the sternmost, which he received as he passed, used all his endeavours
to come up with the Ocean, which M. de la Clue commanded in person; and
about four o’clock in the afternoon, running athwart her hawse, poured
into her a furious broadside: thus the engagement began with equal vigour
on both sides. This dispute, however, was of short duration. In about half
an hour admiral Boscawen’s mizen-mast and topsail-yards were shot away,
and the enemy hoisted all the sail they could carry. Mr. Boscawen having
shifted his flag from the Namur to the Newark, joined some other ships in
attacking the Centaur, of seventy-four guns, which, being thus
overpowered, was obliged to surrender. The British admiral pursued them
all night, during which the Souveraine and the Guerrier altered their
course, and deserted their commander. At day-break, M. de la Clue, whose
left leg had been broke in the engagement, perceiving the English squadron
crowding all their sails to come up with him, and finding himself on the
coast of Portugal, determined to burn his ships rather than they should
fall into the hands of the victors. The Ocean was run ashore two leagues
from Lagos, near the fort of Almadana, the commander of which fired three
shots at the English; another captain of the French squadron followed the
example of his commander, and both endeavoured to disembark their men; but
the sea being rough, this proved a very tedious and difficult attempt. The
captains of the Téméraire and Modeste, instead of destroying their ships,
anchored as near as they could to the forts Xavier and Lagres, in hopes of
enjoying their protection; but in this hope they were disappointed. M. de
la Clue had been landed, and the command of the Ocean was left to the
count de Carne, who, having received one broadside from the America,
struck his colours, and the English took possession of this noble prize,
the best ship in the French navy, mounted with eighty cannon. Captain
Bentley of the Warspite, who had remarkably signalized himself by his
courage during the action of the preceding day, attacked the Téméraire, of
seventy-four guns, and brought her off with little damage. Vice-admiral
Broderick, the second in command, advancing with his division, burned the
Redoubtable, of seventy-four guns, which was bulged, and abandoned by her
men and officers; but they made prize of the Modeste, carrying sixty-four
guns, which had not been much injured in the engagement. This victory was
obtained by the English admiral at a very small expense of men; the whole
number of the killed and wounded not exceeding two hundred and fifty on
board of the British squadron, though the carnage among the enemy must
have been much more considerable, as M. de la Clue, in his letter to the
French ambassador at Lisbon, owned, that on board of his own ship, the
Ocean, one hundred men were killed on the spot, and seventy dangerously
wounded. But the most severe circumstance of this disaster was the loss of
four capital ships, two of which were destroyed, and the other two brought
in triumph to England, to be numbered among the best bottoms of the
British navy. What augmented the good fortune of the victors was, that not
one officer lost his Life in the engagement. Captain Bentley, whom the
admiral despatched to England with the tidings of his success, met with a
gracious reception from the king, who knighted him for his gallantry.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

PREPARATIONS MADE BY THE FRENCH FOR INVADING ENGLAND.

As we propose to throw together all the naval transactions of the year,
especially those that happened in the European seas, that they may be
comprehended, as it were, in one view, we must now, without regarding the
order of time, postpone many previous events of importance, and record the
last action by sea, that in the course of this year distinguished the flag
of Great Britain. The court of Versailles, in order to embarrass the
British ministry, and divert their attention from all external
expeditions, had in the winter projected a plan for invading some part of
the British dominions; and in the beginning of the year had actually begun
to make preparations on different parts of their coast for carrying this
design into execution. Even as far back as the latter end of May, messages
from the king to both houses of parliament were delivered by the earl of
Holdernesse and Mr. Pitt, the two secretaries of state, signifying that
his majesty had received advices of preparations making by the French
court, with a design to invade Great Britain: that though persuaded, by
the universal zeal and affection of his people, any such attempt must,
under the blessing of God, end in the destruction of those who engaged in
it; yet he apprehended he should not act consistent with that paternal
care and concern which he had always shown for the safety and preservation
of his subjects, if he omitted any means in his power which might be
necessary for their defence: he, therefore, acquainted the parliament with
his having received repeated intelligence of the enemy’s preparations, to
the end that his majesty might, if he should think proper, in pursuance of
the late act of parliament, cause the militia, or such parts thereof as
should be necessary, to be drawn out and embodied, in order to march as
occasion should require. These messages were no sooner read, than each
house separately resolved to present an address, thanking his majesty for
having communicated this intelligence; assuring him, that they would, with
their lives and fortunes, support him against all attempts whatever; that,
warmed with affection and zeal for his person and government, and animated
by indignation at the daring designs of an enemy whose fleet had hitherto
shunned the terror of the British navy, they would cheerfully exert their
utmost efforts to repel all insults, and effectually enable their
sovereign not only to disappoint the attempts of France, but, by the
blessing of God, turn them to their own confusion. The commons at the same
time resolved upon another address, desiring his majesty would give
directions to his lieutenants of the several counties, ridings, and places
within South Britain, to use their utmost diligence and attention in
executing the several acts of parliament made for the better ordering the
militia.

ACCOUNT OF THUROT.

These and other precautionary steps were accordingly taken; but the
administration wisely placed their chief dependence upon the strength of
the navy, part of which was so divided and stationed as to block up all
the harbours of France in which the enemy were known to prepare any naval
armament of consequence. We have seen in what manner rear-admiral Rodney
visited the town and harbour of Havre-de-Grace, and scoured that part of
the coast in successive cruises: we have also recorded the expedition and
victory of admiral Boscawen over the squadron of La Clue, which was
equipped at Toulon, with a design to assist in the projected invasion. Not
withstanding this disaster, the French ministry persisted in their design;
towards the execution of which they had prepared another considerable
fleet, in the harbours of Rochefort, Brest, and Port-Louis, to be
commanded by M. de Conflans, and reinforced by a considerable body of
troops, which were actually assembled under the duc d’Aiguillon, at
Vannes, in Lower Bretagne. Flat-bottomed boats and transports to be used
in this expedition, were prepared in different ports on the coast of
France: and a small squadron was equipped at Dunkirk, under the command of
an enterprising adventurer called Thurot, who had, in the course of the
preceding year, signalized his courage and conduct in a large privateer
called the Belleisle, which had scoured the North Seas, taken a number of
ships, and at one time maintained an obstinate battle against two English
frigates, which were obliged to desist, after having received considerable
damage. This man’s name became a terror to the merchants of Great Britain;
for his valour was not more remarkable in battle than his conduct in
eluding the pursuit of the British cruisers, who were successively
detached in quest of him, through every part of the German Ocean and North
Sea, as far as the islands of Orkney. It must be likewise owned, for the
honour of human nature, that this bold mariner, though destitute of the
advantages of birth and education, was remarkably distinguished by his
generosity and compassion to those who had the misfortune to fall into his
power; and that his deportment in every respect entitled him to a much
more honourable rank in the service of his country. The court of
Versailles was not insensible to his merit. He obtained a commission from
the French king, and was vested with the command of the small armament now
fitting out in the harbour of Dunkirk. The British government, being
apprized of all these particulars, took such measures to defeat the
purposed invasion, as must have conveyed a very high idea of the power of
Great Britain, to those who considered, that, exclusive of the force
opposed to this design, they at the same time carried on the most vigorous
and important operations of war in Germany, America, the East and West
Indies. Thurot’s armament at Dunkirk was watched by an English squadron in
the Downs, commanded by commodore Boys; the port of Havre was guarded by
rear-admiral Rodney; Mr. Boscawen had been stationed off Toulon, and the
coast of Vannes was scoured by a small squadron detached from sir Edward
Hawke, who had, during the summer, blocked up the harbour of Brest, where
Conflans lay with his fleet, in order to be joined by the other divisions
of the armament. These different squadrons of the British navy were
connected by a chain of separate cruisers; so that the whole coast of
France, from Dunkirk to the extremity of Bretagne, was distressed by an
actual blockade.

FRENCH FLEET SAILS FROM BREST.

The French fleet being thus hampered, forbore their attempt upon Britain;
and the projected invasion seemed to hang in suspense till the month of
August, in the beginning of which their army in Germany was defeated at
Minden. Their designs in that country being baffled by this disaster, they
seemed to convert their chief attention to their sea armament; the
preparations were resumed with redoubled vigour; and, even after the
defeat of La Clue, they resolved to try their fortune in a descent. They
now proposed to disembark a body of troops in Ireland. Thurot received
orders to sail from Dunkirk with the first opportunity, and shape his
course round the northern parts of Scotland, that he might alarm the coast
of Ireland, and make a diversion from that part where Conflans intended to
effectuate the disembarkation of his forces. The transports and ships of
war were assembled at Brest and Rochefort, having on board a train of
artillery, with saddles, and other accoutrements for cavalry, to be
mounted in Ireland; and a body of French troops, including part of the
Irish brigade, was kept in readiness to embark. The execution of this
scheme was, however, prevented by the vigilance of sir Edward Hawke, who
blocked up the harbour of Brest with a fleet of twenty-three capital
ships; while another squadron of smaller ships and frigates, under the
command of captain Duff, continued to cruise along the French coast, from
Port L’Orient in Bretagne, to the point of St. Gilles in Poitou. At
length, however, in the beginning of November, the British squadron,
commanded by sir Edward Hawke, sir Charles Hardy, and rear-admiral Geary,
were driven from the coast of France by stress of weather, and on the
ninth day of the month anchored in Torbay. The French admiral, Conflans,
snatched this opportunity of sailing from Brest, with one-and-twenty sail
of the line and four frigates, in hopes of being able to destroy the
English squadron commanded by captain Duff, before the large fleet could
return from the coast of England. Sir Edward Hawke, having received
intelligence that the French fleet had sailed from Brest, immediately
stood to sea in order to pursue them; and, in the meantime, the government
issued orders for guarding all those parts of the coast that were thought
the most exposed to a descent. The land-forces were put in motion, and
quartered along the shore of Kent and Sussex: all the ships of war in the
different harbours, even those that had just arrived from America, were
ordered to put to sea, and every step was taken to disconcert the designs
of the enemy.

ADMIRAL HAWKE DEFEATS M. DE CONFLANS.

While these measures were taken with equal vigour and deliberation, sir
Edward Hawke steered his course directly for Quiberon, on the coast of
Bretagne, which he supposed would be the rendezvous of the French
squadron: but, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, he was driven by a hard
gale considerably to the westward, where he was joined by two frigates,
the Maidstone and the Coventry. These he directed to keep ahead of the
squadron. The weather growing more moderate, the former made the signal
for seeing a fleet on the twentieth day of November, at half an hour past
eight o’clock in the morning, and in an hour afterwards discovered them to
be the enemy’s squadron. They were at that time in chase of captain Duff’s
squadron, which now joined the large fleet, after having run some risk of
being taken. Sir Edward Hawke, who, when the Maidstone gave the first
notice, had formed the line abreast, now perceiving that the French
admiral endeavoured to escape with all the sail he could carry, threw out
a signal for seven of his ships that were nearest the enemy to chase, and
endeavour to detain them, until they could be reinforced by the rest of
the squadron, which were ordered to form into a line-of-battle ahead, as
they chased, that no time might be lost in the pursuit. Considering the
roughness of the weather, which was extremely tempestuous; the nature of
the coast, which is in this place rendered very hazardous by a great
number of sand-banks, shoals, rocks, and islands, as entirely unknown to
the British sailors as they were familiar to the French navigators; the
dangers of a short day, dark night, and lee-shore—it required
extraordinary resolution in the English admiral to attempt hostilities on
this occasion: but sir Edward Hawke, steeled with the integrity and
fortitude of his own heart, animated by a warm love for his country, and
well acquainted with the importance of the stake on which the safety of
that country in a great measure depended, was resolved to run
extraordinary risks in his endeavours to frustrate, at once, a boasted
scheme projected for the annoyance of his fellow-subjects. With respect to
his ships of the line, he had but the advantage of one in point of number,
and no superiority in men or metal; consequently, M. de Conflans might
have hazarded a fair battle on the open sea, without any imputation of
temerity; but he thought proper to play a more artful game, though it did
not succeed according to his expectation. He kept his fleet in a body, and
retired close in shore, with a view to draw the English squadron among the
shoals and islands, on which he hoped they would pay dear for their
rashness and impetuosity, while he and his officers, who were perfectly
acquainted with the navigation, could either stay and take advantage of
the disaster, or, if hard pressed, retire through channels unknown to the
British pilots. At half an hour after two, the van of the English fleet
began the engagement with the rear of the enemy, in the neighbourhood of
Belleisle. Every ship, as she advanced, poured in a broadside on the
sternmost of the French, and bore down upon their van, leaving the rear to
those that came after. Sir Edward Hawke, in the Royal George, of one
hundred and ten guns, reserved his fire in passing through the rear of the
enemy, and ordered his master to bring him alongside of the French
admiral, who commanded in person on board the Soliel Royal, a ship mounted
with eighty cannon, and provided with a complement of twelve hundred men.
When the pilot remonstrated that he could not obey his command without the
most imminent risk of running upon a shoal, the veteran replied, “You have
done your duty in showing the danger; now you are to comply with my order,
and lay me alongside the Soleil Royal.” His wish was gratified: the Royal
George ranged up with the French admiral. The Thesée, another large ship
of the enemy, running up between the two commanders, sustained the fire
that was reserved for the Soliel Royal; but in returning the first
broadside foundered, in consequence of the high sea that entered her lower
deck-ports, and filled her with water. Notwithstanding the boisterous
weather, a great number of ships on both sides fought with equal fury and
dubious success, till about four in the afternoon, when the Formidable
struck her colours. The Superb shared the fate of the Thésée in going to
the bottom. The Hero hauled down her colours in token of submission, and
dropped anchor; but the wind was so high that no boat could be sent to
take possession, By this time day-light began to fail, and the greater
part of the French fleet escaped under cover of the darkness. Night
approaching, the wind blowing with augmented violence on a lee-shore, and
the British squadron being entangled among unknown shoals and islands, sir
Edward Hawke made the signal for anchoring to the westward of the small
island Dumet; and here the fleet remained all night in a very dangerous
riding, alarmed by the fury of the storm, and the incessant firing of guns
of distress, without their knowing whether it proceeded from friend or
enemy. The Soliel Royal had, under favour of the night, anchored also in
the midst of the British squadron; but at day-break M. de Conflans ordered
her cable to be cut, and she drove ashore to the westward of Crozie. The
English admiral immediately made signal to the Essex to slip cable and
pursue her; and, in obeying this order, she ran unfortunately on a
sand-bank called Lefour, where the Resolution, another ship of the British
squadron, was already grounded. Here they were both irrecoverably lost, in
spite of all the assistance that could be given; but all their men, and
part of their stores, were saved, and the wrecks were set on fire by order
of the admiral. He likewise detached the Portland, Chatham, and Vengeance,
to destroy the Soleil Royal, which was burned by her own people before the
English ships could approach; but they arrived in time enough to reduce
the Hero to ashes on the Lefour, where she had been also stranded; and the
Juste, another of their great ships, perished in the mouth of the Loire.
The admiral, perceiving seven large ships of the enemy riding at anchor
between Point Penvas and the mouth of the river Vilaine, made the signal
to weigh, in order to attack them; but the fury of the storm increased to
such a degree, that he was obliged to remain at anchor, and even ordered
the top-gallant masts to be struck. In the meantime, the French ships
being lightened of their cannon, their officers took advantage of the
flood, and a more moderate gale under the land, to enter the Vilaine,
where they lay within half a mile of the entrance, protected by some
occasional batteries erected on the shore, and by two large frigates
moored across the mouth of the harbour. Thus they were effectually secured
from any attempts of small vessels; and as for large ships, there was not
water sufficient to float them within fighting distance of the enemy. On
the whole, this battle, in which a very considerable number of lives was
lost, may be considered as one of the most perilous and important actions
that ever happened in any war between the two nations; for it not only
defeated the projected invasion, which had hung menacing so long over the
apprehensions of Great Britain; but it gave the finishing blow to the
naval power of France, which was totally disabled from undertaking
anything of consequence in the sequel.*

* During this war, the English had already taken and
destroyed twenty-seven French ships of the line, and thirty-
one frigates: two of their great ships and four frigates
perished; so that their whole loss, in this particular,
amounted to sixty-four: whereas, the loss of Great Britain
did not exceed seven sail of the line and five frigates. It
may be easily conceived how the French marine, at first
greatly inferior to the naval power of Britain, must have
been affected by this dreadful balance to its prejudice.

By this time, indeed, Thurot had escaped from Dunkirk, and directed his
course to the North Sea, whither he was followed by commodore Boys, who
nevertheless was disappointed in his pursuit; but the fate of that
enterprising adventurer falls under the annals of the ensuing year, among
the transactions of which it shall be recorded. As for sir Edward Hawke,
he continued cruising off the coast of Bretagne for a considerable time
after the victory he had obtained, taking particular care to block up the
mouth of the river Vilaine, that the seven French ships might not escape
and join M. Conflans, who made shift to reach Rochefort with the shattered
remains of his squadron. Indeed, this service became such a considerable
object in the eyes of the British ministry, that a large fleet was
maintained upon this coast, apparently for no other purpose, during a
whole year; and, after all, the enemy eluded their vigilance. Sir Edward
Hawke, having undergone a long and dangerous conflict with tempestuous
weather, was at length recalled, and presented to his sovereign, who
gratified him with a considerable pension, for the courage and conduct he
had so often and so long displayed in the service of his country; and his
extraordinary merit was afterwards honoured with the approbation of the
parliament. The people of France were so dispirited by the defeat of their
army at Minden, and the disaster of their squadron at Lagos, that the
ministry of Versailles thought proper to conceal the extent of their last
misfortunes under a palliating detail published in the gazette of Paris,
as a letter from M. Conflans to the count de St. Florentin, secretary of
the marine. In this partial misrepresentation, their admiral was made to
affirm, that the British fleet consisted of forty ships of the line of
battle, besides frigates; that the Soleil Royal had obliged the Royal
George to sheer off; that the seven ships which retreated into the river
Vilaine had received very little damage, and would be soon repaired; and
that, by the junction of Bompart’s squadron, he should be soon able to
give a good account of the English admiral. These tumid assertions, so
void of truth, are not to be imputed to an illiberal spirit of vain glory,
so much as to a political design of extenuating the national calamity, and
supporting the spirit of the people.

THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.

The alarm of the French invasion, which was thus so happily frustrated,
not only disturbed the quiet of Great Britain, but also diffused itself to
the kingdom of Ireland, where it was productive of some public disorder.
In the latter end of October, the two houses of parliament, assembled at
Dublin, received a formal message from the duke of Bedford,
lord-lieutenant of that kingdom, to the following effect: That, by a
letter from the secretary of state, written by his majesty’s express
command, it appeared that France, far from resigning her plan of invasion,
on account of the disaster that befel her Toulon squadron, was more and
more confirmed in her purpose, and even instigated by despair itself to
attempt, at all hazards, the only resource she seemed to have left for
thwarting, by a diversion at home, the measures of England abroad in
prosecuting a war which hitherto opened, in all parts of the world, so
unfavourable a prospect to the views of French ambition: that, in case the
body of French troops, amounting to eighteen thousand men, under the
command of the duc d’Aiguillon, assembled at Vannes, where also a
sufficient number of transports was prepared, should be able to elude the
British squadron, Ireland would, in all probability, be one of their chief
objects; his grace thought it therefore incumbent upon him, in a matter of
such high importance to the welfare of that kingdom, to communicate this
intelligence to the Irish parliament. He told them, his majesty would make
no doubt but that the zeal of his faithful protestant subjects in that
kingdom had been already sufficiently quickened by the repeated accounts
received of the enemy’s dangerous designs and actual preparations, made at
a vast expense, in order to invade the several parts of the British
dominions. He gave them to understand he had received his sovereign’s
commands, to use his utmost endeavours to animate and excite his loyal
people of Ireland to exert their well-known zeal and spirit in support of
his majesty’s government, and in defence of all that was dear to them, by
timely preparation to resist and frustrate any attempts of the enemy to
disturb the quiet and shake the security of this kingdom; he therefore, in
the strongest manner, recommended it to them to manifest, upon this
occasion, that zeal for the present happy establishment, and that
affection for his majesty’s person and government, by which the parliament
of that nation had been so often distinguished. Immediately after this
message was communicated, the house of commons unanimously resolved to
present an address to the lord-lieutenant, thanking his grace for the care
and concern he had shown for the safety of Ireland, in having imparted
intelligence of so great importance; desiring him to make use of such
means as should appear to him the most effectual for the security and
defence of the kingdom; and assuring him, that the house would make good
whatever expense should be necessarily incurred for that purpose. This
intimation, and the steps that were taken in consequence of it for the
defence of Ireland, produced such apprehensions and distraction among the
people of that kingdom, as had well nigh proved fatal to the public
credit. In the first transports of popular fear, there was such an
extraordinary run upon the banks of Dublin, that several considerable
bankers were obliged to stop payment; and the circulation was in danger of
being suddenly stagnated, when the lord-lieutenant, the members of both
houses of parliament, the lord-mayor, aldermen, merchants, and principal
traders of Dublin, engaged in an association to support public credit, by
taking the notes of bankers in payment: a resolution which effectually
answered the purpose intended.

LOYALTY OF THE IRISH CATHOLICS.

Howsoever the court of Versailles might have flattered itself that their
invading army would in Ireland be joined by a great number of the natives,
in all probability it would have been disappointed in this hope, had their
purposed descent even been carried into execution, for no signs of
disaffection to the reigning family appeared at this juncture. On the
contrary, the wealthy individuals of the Romish persuasion offered to
accommodate the government with large sums of money, in case of necessity,
to support the present establishment against all its enemies; and the
Roman catholics of the city of Cork, in a body, presented an address to
the lord-lieutenant, expressing their loyalty, in the warmest terms of
assurance. After having congratulated his grace on the unparalleled
success which had attended his majesty’s arms, and expressed their sense
of the king’s paternal tenderness for his kingdom of Ireland, they
acknowledged, with the deepest sense of gratitude, that protection and
indulgence they had enjoyed under his majesty’s mild and auspicious reign.
They professed the warmest indignation at the threatened invasion of the
kingdom by an enemy, who, grown desperate from repeated defeats, might
possibly make that attempt as a last effort, vainly flattered with the
imaginary hope of assistance in Ireland, from the former attachment of
their deluded predecessors. They assured his grace, in the most solemn
manner, that such schemes were altogether inconsistent with their
principles and intentions: that they would, to the utmost exertion of
their abilities, with their lives and fortunes, join in the defence and
support of his majesty’s royal person and government against all invaders
whatsoever: that they should be always ready to concur in such measures,
and to act such parts in defence of the kingdom, in common with the rest
of his majesty’s subjects, as his grace in his great wisdom should be
pleased to appoint; and think themselves particularly happy to be under
the direction and command of so known an assertor of liberty, such an
important and distinguished governor. Finally, they expressed the most
earnest wish, that his majesty’s arms might be crowned with such a
continuance of success as should enable him to defeat the devices of all
his enemies, and obtain a speedy and honourable peace. This cordial
address, which was transmitted to the earl of Shannon, and by him
presented to the duke of Bedford, must have been very agreeable to the
government at such a critical conjuncture.

INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN.

Although no traces of disaffection to his majesty’s family appeared on
this trying occasion, it must nevertheless be acknowledged, that a spirit
of dissatisfaction broke out with extraordinary violence among the
populace of Dublin. The present lord-lieutenant was not remarkably popular
in his administration. He had bestowed one place of considerable
importance upon a gentleman whose person was obnoxious to many people in
that kingdom, and perhaps failed in that affability and condescension
which a free and ferocious nation expects to find in the character of him
to whose rule they are subjected. Whether the offence taken at his
deportment had created enemies to his person, or the nation in general
began to entertain doubts and jealousies of the government’s designs,
certain it is, great pains were taken to propagate a belief among the
lower sort of people, that an union would soon be effected between Great
Britain and Ireland; in which case this last kingdom would be deprived of
its parliament and independency, and be subjected to the same taxes that
are levied upon the people of England. This notion inflamed the populace
to such a degree, that they assembled in a prodigious multitude, broke
into the house of lords, insulted the peers, seated an old woman on the
throne, and searched for the journals, which, had they been found, they
would have committed to the flames. Not content with this outrage, they
compelled the members of both houses, whom they met in the streets, to
take an oath that they never would consent to such an union, or give any
vote contrary to the true interest of Ireland. Divers coaches belonging to
obnoxious persons were destroyed, and their horses killed; and a gibbet
was erected for one gentleman in particular, who narrowly escaped the
ungovernable rage of those riotous insurgents. A body of horse and
infantry were drawn out on this occasion, in order to overawe the
multitude, which at night dispersed of itself. Next day addresses to the
lord-lieutenant were agreed to by both houses of parliament, and a
committee of inquiry appointed, that the ringleaders of the tumult might
be discovered and brought to condign punishment.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

ALARM OF A DESCENT IN SCOTLAND.

When the ministry of England received the first advice, that M. Thurot had
escaped from Dunkirk with a small squadron of armed ships, having on board
a body of land-troops, designed for a private expedition on the coast of
Scotland or Ireland, expresses were immediately despatched to the
commanding officers of the forces in North Britain, with orders to put the
forts along the coast of that kingdom in the best posture of defence; and
to hold every thing in readiness to repel the enemy, in case they should
attempt a descent. In consequence of these instructions, beacons were
erected for the immediate communication of intelligence; places of
rendezvous appointed for the regular troops and militia; and strict orders
issued that no officer should absent himself from his duty, on any
pretence whatever. The greatest encomium that can be given to the
character of this partisan, is an account of the alarm which the sailing
of his puny armament spread through the whole extent of such a powerful
kingdom, whose fleets covered the ocean. Perhaps Thurot’s career would
have been sooner stopped, had commodore Boys been victualled for a longer
cruise; but this commander was obliged to put into Leith for a supply of
provisions, at the very time when Thurot was seen hovering on the coast
near Aberdeen; and, before the English squadron was provided for the
prosecution of the cruise, the other had taken shelter at Gottenburgh, in
Sweden.

CHAPTER XVII.

State of the Island of Martinique….. Expedition against
that Island….. Attempt upon St. Pierre….. Descent on the
Island of Guadaloupe….. Skirmishes with the Islanders…..
Fort Louis reduced….. Fate of Colonel Debrisay….. The
English Fleet sails to Dominique….. General Harrington
takes Gosier, and Storms the Post of Licorne….. He takes
Petitbourg and St. Mary’s….. The Island capitulates…..
Island of Marigalante taken by General Barrington….. He
returns to England….. Treaty with the Indians in North
America….. Plan of the Campaign….. Ticonderoga and Crown
Point abandoned by the French….. General Amherst embarks
on Lake Champlain….. Niagara reduced….. Introduction to
the Expedition against Quebec….. General Wolfe lands on
the Island of Orleans, and takes Point Levi….. The English
Fleet damaged by a Storm….. General Wolfe encamps near the
Falls of the River Montmorenci, and attacks the French
Intrenchments there, but is repulsed….. Brigadier Murray
detached up the River….. Council of War called….. The
Troops land at the Heights of Abraham….. Battle of
Quebec….. Quebec taken….. Rejoicings in England

STATE OF THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE.

Having finished the detail of the actions achieved in the European seas by
the naval force of Great Britain, within the compass of the present year,
we shall now proceed to record the exploits of the British arms within the
tropics, and particularly the expedition to Martinique and Guadaloupe,
which is said to have succeeded even beyond the expectation of the
ministry. A plan had been formed for improving the success of the
preceding year in North America, by carrying the British arms up the river
St. Laurence, and besieging Quebec, the capital of Canada. The armament
employed against the French islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe
constituted part of this design, inasmuch as the troops embarked on that
expedition were, in case of a miscarriage at Martinique, intended to
reinforce the British army in North America, which was justly considered
as the chief seat of the war. What hope of success the administration
conceived from an attempt upon Martinique, may be guessed from the state
of that island, as it appeared in a memorial presented by the French
king’s lieutenants of its several districts, to the general of the French
island, in consequence of an order issued in November, for holding them in
readiness to march and defend the island from the English, of whose design
they were apprized. They represented that the trade with the Dutch was
become their sole dependence: that they could expect no succour from
Europe, by which they had been abandoned ever since the commencement of
the war: that the traders vested with the privileges of trafficking among
them had abused the intention of the general; and, instead of being of
service to the colony, had fixed an arbitrary price for all the provisions
which they brought in, as well as for the commodities which they exported;
of consequence, the former was valued at as high a price as their avarice
could exact, and the latter sunk as low in value as their own selfish
hearts could conceive: that the colony for two months had been destitute
of all kinds of provision; the commodities of the planters lay upon their
hands, and their negroes were in danger of perishing through hunger; a
circumstance that excited the apprehension of the most dreadful
consequences; as to slaves, half starved, all kinds of bondage were equal;
and people reduced to such a situation were often driven to despair,
seeking in anarchy and confusion a remedy from the evils by which they
were oppressed; that the best provided of the inhabitants laboured under
the want of the common necessaries of life; and others had not so much as
a grain of salt in their houses: that there was an irreparable scarcity of
slaves to cultivate their land; and the planters were reduced to the
necessity of killing their own cattle to support the lives of those who
remained alive; so that the mills were no longer worked, and the
inhabitants consumed beforehand what ought to be reserved for their
sustenance, in case of being blocked up by the enemy. They desired,
therefore, that the general would suppress the permission granted to
particular merchants, and admit neutral vessels freely into their ports,
that they might trade with the colonists unmolested and unrestrained. They
observed, that the citadel of Port-Royal seemed the principal object on
which the safety and defence of the country depended; as the loss of it
would be necessarily attended with the reduction of the whole island: they
therefore advised that this fort should be properly provided with every
thing necessary for its safety and defence; and that magazines of
provision, as well as ammunition, should be established in different
quarters of the island.—This remonstrance plainly proves that the
island was wholly unprepared to repel the meditated invasion, and
justifies the plan adopted by the ministry of Great Britain. The regular
troops of Martinique consisted of about twenty independent companies,
greatly defective in point of number. The militia was composed of burghers
and planters distressed and dissatisfied, mingled with a parcel of
wretched negro slaves, groaning under the most intolerable misery, from
whence they could have no hope of deliverance but by a speedy change of
masters; their magazines were empty, and their fortifications out of
repair.

EXPEDITION AGAINST THAT ISLAND.

Such was the state of Martinique, when the inhabitants every day expected
a visit from the British armament, whose progress we shall now relate. On
the twelfth day of November in the preceding year, captain Hughes sailed
from St. Helen’s with eight sail of the line, one frigate, four
bomb-ketches, and a fleet of transports, having on board six regiments of
infantry, and a detachment of artillery, besides eight hundred marines
distributed among the ships of war; this whole force being under the
command of major-general Hopson, an old experienced officer, assisted by
major-general Barrington, the colonels Armigerand Haldane, the
lieutenant-colonels Trapaud and Clavering, acting in the capacity of
brigadiers. After a voyage of seven weeks and three days, the fleet
arrived at Barbadoes, and anchored in Carlisle-bay; where they joined
commodore Moore, appointed by his majesty to command the united squadron,
amounting to ten ships of the line, besides frigates and bomb-ketches. Ten
days were employed in supplying the fleet with wood and water, in waiting
for the hospital ship, in reviews, re-embarkations, councils of war,
assemblies of the council belonging to the island, in issuing
proclamations, and beating up for volunteers. At length, every great ship
being reinforced with forty negroes, to be employed in drawing the
artillery; and the troops, which did not exceed five thousand eight
hundred men, being joined by two hundred Highlanders, belonging to the
second battalion of the regiment commanded by lord John Murray in North
America, who were brought as recruits from Scotland under convoy of the
ship Ludlow-castle; the whole armament sailed from Carlisle-bay on the
thirteenth day of January; but by this time the troops, unaccustomed to a
hot climate, were considerably weakened and reduced by fevers, diarrhoeas,
the scurvy, and the small-pox; which last disease had unhappily broke out
amongst the transports. Next morning the squadron discovered the island of
Martinique, which was the place of its destination. The chief
fortification of Martinique was the citadel of Port-Royal, a regular fort,
garrisoned by four companies, that did not exceed the number of one
hundred and fifty men, thirty-six bombardiers, eighty Swiss, and fourteen
officers. One hundred barrels of beef constituted their whole store of
provisions; and they were destitute of all other necessaries. They were
almost wholly unprovided with water in the cisterns, with spare carriages
for their cannon, match, wadding, and langrage; they had but a small stock
of other ammunition; and the walls were in many parts decayed. The only
preparations they had made for receiving the English were some paltry
intrenchments thrown up at St, Pierre, and a place called Casdenavires,
where they imagined the descent would probably be attempted. On the
fifteenth day of the month, the British squadron entered the great bay of
Port-Royal, some of the ships being exposed to the shot of a battery
erected on the isle de Ranieres, a little island about half way up the
bay. At their first appearance, the Florissant, of seventy-four guns,
which had been so roughly handled by captain Tyrrel in the Buckingham,
then lying under the guns of Fort-Negro, along with two frigates, turned
up under the citadel, and came to an anchor in the Carenage, behind the
fortification. One frigate, called the Vestal, under favour of the night,
made her escape through the transports, and directed her course for
Europe; where she was taken by captain Hood, as we have already related.
Next day three ships of the line were ordered to attack Fort-Negro, a
battery at the distance of three miles from the citadel, which, being
mounted with seven guns only, was soon silenced, and immediately possessed
by a detachment of marines and sailors; who, being sanded in flat-bottomed
boats, clambered up the rock, and entered through the embrasures with
their bayonets fixed. Here, however, they met with no resistance: the
enemy had abandoned the fort with precipitation. The British colours were
immediately hoisted, and sentinels of marines posted upon the parapet. The
next care was to spike and disable the cannon, break the carriages, and
destroy the powder which they found in the magazine: nevertheless, the
detachment was ordered to keep possession of the battery. This service
being successfully performed, three ships were sent to reduce the other
battery at Casdenavires, which consisted only of four guns, and these were
soon rendered unserviceable. The French troops, reinforced with militia
which had been detached from the citadel to oppose the disembarkation,
perceiving the whole British squadron, and all the transports, already
within the bay, and Fort-Negro occupied by the marines, retired to
Port-Royal, leaving the beach open; so that the English troops were landed
without opposition; and, being formed, advanced into the country towards
Fort-Negro, in the neighbourhood of which they lay all night upon their
arms; while the fleet, which had been galled by bomb-shells from the
citadel, shifted their station, and stood farther up the bay. By ten next
day, the English officers had brought up some field-pieces to an eminence,
and scoured the woods, from whence the troops had been greatly annoyed by
the small shot of the enemy during the best part of the night, and all
that morning. At noon the British forces advanced in order towards the
hill that overlooked the town and citadel of Port-Royal, and sustained a
troublesome fire from enemies they could not see; for the French militia
were entirely covered by the woods and bushes. This eminence, called the
Morne Tortueson, though the most important post of the whole island, was
neglected by the general of Martinique, who had resolved to blow up the
fortifications of the citadel: but, luckily for the islanders, he had not
prepared the materials for this operation, which must have been attended
with the immediate destruction of the capital, and indeed of the whole
country. Some of the inferior officers, knowing the importance of the
Morne Tortueson, resolved to defend that post with a body of the militia,
which was reinforced by the garrisons of Fort-Negro and Casdenavires, as
well as by some soldiers detached from the Florissant: but,
notwithstanding all their endeavours, as they were entirely unprovided
with cannon, extremely defective in point of discipline, dispirited by the
pusillanimity of their governor, and in a great measure disconcerted by
the general consternation that prevailed among the inhabitants, in all
probability they could not have withstood a spirited and well-conducted
attack by regular forces. About two o’clock general Hopson thought proper
to desist from his attempt. He gave the commodore to understand that he
could not maintain his ground, unless the squadron would supply him with
heavy cannon, landed near the town of Port-Royal, at a savannah, where the
boats must have been greatly exposed to the fire of the enemy; or assist
him in attacking the citadel by sea, while he should make his approaches
by land. Both these expedients* being deemed impracticable by a council of
war, the troops were recalled from their advanced posts, and re-embarked
in the evening, without any considerable molestation from the enemy.

* The commodore offered to land the cannon on the other side
of Point-Negro, at a place equally near the road from the
English army to Port-Royal, and even cause them to be drawn
up by the seamen, without giving the troops the least
trouble. But this offer was not accepted. General Hopson
afterwards declared, that he did not understand Mr. Moore’s
message in the sense which it was meant to imply.

Their attempt on the Morne Tortueson had cost them several men, including
two officers, killed or wounded in the attack; and, in revenge for this
loss, they burned the sugar-canes, and desolated the country, in their
retreat. The inhabitants of Martinique could hardly credit the testimony
of their own senses, when they saw themselves thus delivered from all
their fears, at a time when they were overwhelmed with terror and
confusion; when the principal individuals among them had resigned all
thought of further resistance, and were actually assembled at the public
hall in Port-Royal, to send deputies to the English general, with
proposals of capitulation and surrender.

ATTEMPT UPON ST. PIERRE.

The majority of the British officers, who constituted a council of war
held for this purpose,* having given their opinion, that it might be for
his majesty’s service to make an attack upon St. Pierre, the fleet
proceeded to that part of the island, and entered the bay on the
nineteenth.

* The commodore did not attend at this council: it was
convoked to deliberate upon the opinion of the chief
engineer, who thought they should make another landing to
the southward of the Carenage. In this case, the pilots
declared it would be extremely difficult, if not
impracticable, for the fleet to keep up a communication with
the army.

The commodore told the general, that he made no doubt of being able to
reduce the town of St. Pierre; but as the ships might be disabled in the
attack so as not to be in a condition to proceed immediately on any
material service; as the troops might be reduced in their numbers, so as
to be incapable of future attacks; and as the reduction of the island of
Guadaloupe would be of great benefit to the sugar colonies; Mr. Mooro
proposed that the armament should immediately proceed to that island, and
the general agreed to the proposal. The reasons produced on this occasion
are, we apprehend, such as may be urged against every operation of war.
Certain it is, no conquest can be attempted, either by sea or land,
without exposing’ the ships and troops to a possibility of being disabled
and diminished; and the same possibility militated as strongly against an
attempt upon Guadeloupe, as it could possibly discourage the attack of St.
Pierre. Besides, Martinique was an object of greater importance than
Guadaloupe;* as being the principal place possessed by the French in those
seas, and that to which the operations of the armament were expressly
limited by the instructions received from the ministry.

* Only as being the seat of government; for Guadaloupe makes
a much greater quantity of sugar, and equipped a much
greater number of privateers, with the assistance of the
Dutch of St. Eustatia, situated in its neighbourhood.

St. Pierre was a place of considerable commerce; and at that very
juncture, above forty sail of merchant ships lay at anchor in the bay. The
town was defended by a citadel regularly fortified, but at that time
poorly garrisoned, and so situated as to be accessible to the fire of the
whole squadron; for the shore was bold, and the water sufficient to float
any ship of the line. Before the resolution of proceeding to Gua-daloupe
was taken, the commodore had ordered the bay to be sounded; and directed
the Rippon to advance, and silence a battery situated a mile and a half to
the northward of St. Pierre. Accordingly, captain Jekyll, who commanded
that ship, stood in, and anchoring close to the shore, attacked it with
such impetuosity, that in a few minutes it was abandoned. At the same time
the Rippon was exposed to the fire of three other batteries, from which
she received considerable damage both in her hull and rigging; and was in
great danger of running aground, when orders were given to tow her out of
danger.

DESCENT ON GUADALOUPE.

The whole armament having abandoned the design on Martinique, directed
their course to Guadeloupe, another of the Caribbee islands, lying at the
distance of thirty leagues to the westward, about fifteen leagues in
length, and twelve in breadth; divided into two parts by a small channel,
which the inhabitants cross in a ferry-boat. The western division is known
by the name of Basseterre; and here the metropolis stands, defended by the
citadel and other fortifications. The eastern part, called Grandterre, is
destitute of fresh water, which abounds in the other division; and is
defended by fort Louis, with a redoubt, which commands the road in the
district of Gosier. The cut, or canal, that separates the two parts, is
distinguished by the appellation of the Salt-river, having a road or bay
at each end; namely, the great Cul de Sac, and the small Cul de Sac.
Gua-daloupe is encumbered with high mountains and precipices, to which the
inhabitants used to convey their valuable effects in time of danger; but
here are also beautiful plains watered by brooks and rivers, which
fertilize the soil, enabling it to produce a great quantity of sugar,
cotton, indigo, tobacco, and cassia; besides plenty of rice, potatoes, all
kinds of pulse, and fruit peculiar to the island. The country is populous
and flourishing, and the government comprehends two smaller islands called
All-Saints and Deseada, which appear at a small distance from the coast,
on the eastern side of the island. The British squadron having arrived at
Bassaterre, it was resolved to make a general attack by sea upon the
citadel, the town, and other batteries by which it was defended. A
disposition being made for this purpose, the large ships took their
respective stations next morning, which was the twenty-third day of
January. At nine, the Lion, commanded by captain Trelawney, began the
engagement against a battery of nine guns; and the rest of the fleet
continued to place themselves abreast of the other batteries and the
citadel, which mounted forty-six cannon, besides two mortars. The action
in a little time became general, and was maintained on both sides for
several hours with great vivacity; while the commodore, who had shifted
his pendant into the Woolwrch frigate, kept aloof without gun-shot, that
he might be the more disengaged to view the state of the battle, * and
give his orders with the greater deliberation.

* He shifted lus broad pendant on board the Woolwich, as
well to direct and keep the transports together in a proper
posture for the landing of the troops, as to cover the
disembarkation; and also to consult proper measures with the
general, who saw the necessity of Mr. Moore’s being with
him; and requested that he, with the other general officers
and engineers, might be admitted on board the Woolwich, in
order to consult, and take the earliest opportunity of
landing the troops, as the service necessarily required.

This expedient of an admiral’s removing his flag, and retiring from the
action while his own ship is engaged, however consonant to reason., we do
not remember to have seen practised upon any occasion, except in one
instance, at Carthagena, where sir Chaloner Ogle quitted his own ship,
when she was ordered to stand in and cannonade the fort of Boca-Chica. In
this present attack, all the sea-commanders behaved with extraordinary
spirit and resolution, particularly the captains Leslie, Burnet, Gayton,
Jekyll, Trelawney, and Shuldam, who, in the hottest tumult of the action,
distinguished themselves equally by their courage, impetuosity, and
deliberation. About five in the afternoon the fire of the citadel
slackened. The Burford and Berwick were driven out to sea: so that captain
Shuldam, in the Panther, was unsustained; and two batteries played upon
the Rippon, captain Jekyll, who, by two in the afternoon, silenced the
guns of one, called the Morne-rouge; but at the same time could not
prevent his ship from running aground. The enemy perceiving her disaster,
assembled in great numbers on the hill, and lined the trenches, from
whence they poured in, a severe fire of musketry. The militia afterwards
brought up a cannon of eighteen pound ball, and for two hours raked her
fore and aft with considerable effect: nevertheless, captain Jekyll
returned the fire with equal courage and perseverance, though his people
dropped on every side, until all his grape-shot and wadding were expended,
and all his rigging cut to pieces; to crown his misfortune, a box,
containing nine hundred cartridges, blew up on the poop, and set the ship
on fire: which, however, was soon extinguished. In the meantime, the
captain threw out a signal of distress, to which no regard was paid,* till
captain Leslie of the Bristol, coming from sea, and observing his
situation, ran in between the Rippon and the battery, and engaged with
such impetuosity, as made an immediate diversion in favour of captain
Jekyll, whose ship remained aground, notwithstanding all the assistance
that could be given, till midnight, when she floated, and escaped from the
very jaws of destruction.

* In all probability it was not perceived by the Commodore.

At seven in the evening, all the other large ships, having silenced the
guns to which they had been respectively opposed, joined the rest of the
fleet. The four bombs being anchored near the shore, began to ply the town
with shells and carcasses; so that in a little time the houses were in
flames, the magazines of gunpowder blew up with the most terrible
explosion; and about ten o’clock the whole place blazed out in one general
conflagration. Next day, at two in the afternoon, the fleet came to an
anchor in the road of Bassaterre, where they found the hulls of divers
ships which the enemy had set on fire at their approach: several ships
turned out and endeavoured to escape, but were intercepted and taken by
the English squadron. At five, the troops landed without opposition, and
took possession of the town and citadel, which they found entirely
abandoned. They learned from a Genoese deserter, that the regular troops
of the island consisted of five companies only, the number of the whole
not exceeding one hundred men; and that they had lain a train to blow up
the powder magazine in the citadel: but had been obliged to retreat with
such precipitation as did not permit them to execute this design. The
train was immediately cut off, and the magazine secured. The nails with
which they had spiked up their cannon were drilled out by the matrosses;
and in the meantime the British colours were hoisted on the parapet. Part
of the troops took possession of an advantageous post on an eminence, and
part entered the town, Which still continued burning with great violence.
In the morning at day-break, the enemy appeared, to the number of two
thousand, about four miles from the town, as if they intended to throw up
intrenchments in the neighbourhood of a house where the governor had fixed
his head-quarters, declaring he would maintain his ground to the last
extremity. To this resolution, indeed, he was encouraged by the nature of
the ground, and the neighbourhood of a pass called the Dos d’Ane, a cleft
through a mountainous ridge, opening a communication with Capesterre, a
more level and beautiful part of the island. The ascent from Basseterre to
this pass was so very steep, and the way so broken and interrupted by
rocks and gullies, that there was no prospect of attacking it with
success, except at the first landing, when the inhabitants were under the
dominion of a panic. They very soon recovered their spirits and
recollection, assembled and fortified themselves among the hills, armed
and arrayed their negroes, and affected to hold the invaders at defiance.
A flag of truce being sent, with offers of terms to their governor, the
chevalier d’Etriel, he rejected them in a letter, with which his
subsequent conduct but ill agreed. 504 [See note 3 U, at
the end of this Vol.] Indeed, from the beginning his deportment had
been such as gave a very unfavourable impression of his character. When
the British squadron advanced to the attack, instead of visiting in person
the citadel and the batteries, in order to encourage and animate his
people by his exhortation and example, he retired out of the reach of
danger to a distant plantation, where he remained a tame spectator of the
destruction in which his principal town and citadel were involved. Next
morning, when he ought to have exerted himself in preventing the
disembarkation of the English troops, who had a difficult shore and
violent surf to surmount, and when he might have defended the
intrenchments and lines which had been made to oppose their landing, he
abandoned all these advantages, and took shelter among the mountains that
were deemed inaccessible.

But, howsoever deficient the governor might have been in the article of
courage, certain it is, the inhabitants behaved with great spirit and
activity in defence of their country. They continually harassed the
scouring detachments, by firing upon them from woods and sugar
plantations, which last the English burned about their ears in resentment.
Their armed negroes were very expert in this kind of bush fighting. The
natives or militia appeared in considerable parties, and even encountered
detached bodies of the British army. A lady of masculine courage, whose
name was Ducharmy, having armed her slaves, they made several bold
attempts upon an advanced post occupied by major Melville, and threw up
intrenchments upon a hill opposite to the station of this officer, who had
all along signalized himself by his uncommon intrepidity, vigilance, and
conduct. At length the works of this virago were stormed by a regular
detachment, which, after an obstinate and dangerous conflict, entered the
intrenchment sword in hand, and burned the houses and plantations. Some of
the enemy were killed, and a great number taken. Of the English detachment
twelve soldiers were slain, and thirty wounded, including three subaltern
officers, one of whom lost his arm. The greatest body of the enemy always
appeared at the governor’s head-quarters, where they had raised a redoubt,
and thrown up intrenchments. From these a considerable detachment advanced
on the sixth day of February, in the morning, towards the citadel, and
fell in with an English party, whom they engaged with great vivacity; but,
after a short though warm dispute, they were obliged to retire with some
loss. Without all doubt, the inhabitants of Guadaloupe pursued the most
sensible plan that could possibly have been projected for their own
safety. Instead of hazarding a general engagement against regular troops,
in which they could have no prospect of success, they resolved to weary
them out by maintaining a kind of petty war in separate parties, to alarm
and harass the English with hard duty in a sultry climate, where they were
but indifferently supplied with provisions and refreshments. Nor were
their hopes in this particular disappointed. Both the army and the navy
were invaded with fevers, and other diseases, epidemical in those hot
countries; and the regimental hospitals were so crowded, that it was
judged convenient to send five hundred sick men to the island of Antigua,
where they might be properly attended.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

FORT-LOUIS REDUCED, &c.

In the meantime, the reduction of the islanders on the side of Guadaloupe
appearing more and more impracticable, the general determined to transfer
the seat of war to the eastern and more fertile part of the island, called
Grandterre, which, as we have already observed, was defended by a strong
battery, called Fort-Louis. In pursuance of this determination, the great
ships were sent round to Grandterre, in order to reduce this
fortification, which they accordingly attacked on the thirteenth day of
February. After a severe cannonading, which lasted six hours, a body of
marines being landed, with the Highlanders,* they drove the enemy from
their intrenchments sword in hand; and, taking possession of the fort,
hoisted the English colours.

* A reinforcement of two or three hundred Highlanders, had
joined the fleet immediately before the troops landed on
Guadaloupe.

In a few days after this exploit, general Hopson dying at Basseterre, the
chief command devolved on general Barrington, who resolved to prosecute
the final reduction of the island with vigour and despatch. As one step
towards this conquest, the commodore ordered two ships of war to cruise
off the island of Saint Eustatia, and prevent the Dutch traders from
assisting the natives of Guadaloupe, whom they had hitherto constantly
supplied with provisions since they retired to the mountains. General
Barrington, on the very first day of his command, ordered the troops who
were encamped to strike their tents and huts, that the enemy might imagine
he intended to remain in this quarter; but in a few days the batteries in
and about Basseterre were blown up and destroyed, the detachments recalled
from the advanced posts, and the whole army re-embarked, except one
regiment, with a detachment of artillery, left in garrison at the citadel,
the command of which was bestowed on colonel Debrisay, an accomplished
officer of great experience. The enemy no sooner perceived the coast clear
than they descended from the hills, and endeavoured to take possession of
the town, from which, however they were driven by the fire of the citadel.
They afterwards erected a battery, from whence they annoyed this
fortification both with shot and shells, and even threatened a regular
attack; but as often as they approached the place, they were repulsed by
sallies from the castle. *

* The battery which they had raised was attacked at noon,
taken, and destroyed by captain Blomer, of the sixty-first
regiment.

In the midst of these hostilities, the gallant Debrisay, together with
major Trollop, one lieutenant, two bombardiers, and several common
soldiers, were blown up, and perished, by the explosion of a powder
magazine at the flanked angle of the south-east bastion. The confusion
necessarily produced by such an unfortunate accident, encouraged the enemy
to come pouring down from the hills, in order to make their advantage of
the disaster; but they were soon repulsed by the fire of the garrison. The
general, being made acquainted with the fate of colonel Debrisay,
conferred the government of the fort upon major Melville, and sent thither
the chief engineer to repair and improve the fortifications.

ENGLISH FLEET SAILS TO DOMINIQUE.

In the meantime, commodore Moore having received certain intelligence that
monsieur de Bompart had arrived at Martinique, with a squadron consisting
of eight sail of the line and three frigates, having on board a whole
battalion of Swiss, and some other troops, to reinforce the garrisons of
the island, he called in his cruisers, and sailed immediately to the bay
of Dominique, an island to windward, at the distance of nine leagues from
Guadaloupe, whence he could always sail to oppose any design which the
French commander might form against the operations of the British
armaments. For what reason Mr. Moore did not sail immediately to the bay
of Port-Royal in Martinique, where he knew the French squadron lay at
anchor, we shall not pretend to determine. Had he taken that step, M.
Bompart must either have given him battle, or retired into the Carenage,
behind the citadel; in which last case, the English commander might have
anchored between Pigeon-Island and Fort-Negro, and thus blocked him up
effectually. By retiring to Dominique, he left the sea open to French
privateers, who rowed along the coasts of these islands, and in a very
little time carried into Martinique above fourscore merchant-ships,
belonging to the subjects of Great Britain. These continual depredations,
committed under the nose of the English commodore, irritated the planters
of the English islands, some of whom are said to have circulated
unfavourable reports of that gentleman’s character. 505 [See note 3 X, at
the end of this Vol.]

GENERAL BARRINGTON TAKES GOSIER, &c.

General Barrington being left with no more than one ship of forty guns for
the protection of the transports, formed a plan of prosecuting the war in
Guadaloupe by detachments, and the success fully answered his expectation.
He determined to make a descent on the division of the island called
Grandterre, and for that purpose allotted six hundred men; who, under the
command of colonel Crump, landed between the towns of St. Anne and St.
Francois, and destroyed some batteries of the enemy, from whom he
sustained very little opposition. While he was thus employed, a detachment
of three hundred men attacked the town of Gosier, which, notwithstanding a
severe fire, they took by storm, drove the garrison into the woods, set
fire to the place, and demolished the battery and intrenchment raised for
its defence. This service being happily performed, the detachment was
ordered to force their way to Fort-Louis, while the garrison of that
castle was directed to make two sallies in order to favour their
irruption. They accordingly penetrated, with some loss sustained in
forcing a strong pass, and took possession of a battery which the enemy
had raised against the English camp, in the neighbourhood of Fort Louis.
The general, having hitherto succeeded in his designs, formed the scheme
of surprising at one time the three towns of Petitbourg, Gonoyave, and St.
Mary’s situated on the Basseterre side of the little Cul de Sac, and
committed the execution of it to the colonels Crump and Clavering: but the
night appointed for the service proved exceedingly dark and tempestuous;
and the negro conductors were so frightened, that they ran several of the
flat-bottomed boats on the shoals that skirt this part of the island.
Colonel Clavering landed with about eighty men; but found himself so
entangled with mangrove trees, and the mud so impassably deep, that he was
obliged to re-embark, though not before the enemy had discovered his
design. This project having miscarried, the general detached the same
commanders, whose gallantry and conduct cannot be sufficiently applauded,
with a detachment of fifteen hundred men, including one hundred and fifty
volunteers from Antigua, to land in a bay not far from the town of
Arnonville, at the bottom of the little Cul de Sac, under the protection
of his majesty’s ship Woolwich. The enemy made no opposition to their
landing; but retreated, as the English advanced, to a strong intrenchment
thrown up behind the river Licorne, a post of the utmost importance, as it
covered the whole country as far as the bay of Ma-haut, where provisions
and supplies of all sorts were landed from St. Eustatia. The river was
rendered inaccessible by a morass covered with mangroves, except at two
narrow passes, which they had fortified with a redoubt, and intrenchments
well pallisadoed, mounted with cannon, and defended by a numerous militia:
besides, the narrow roads, through which only they could be attacked, were
intersected with deep and wide ditches. Notwithstanding these
disadvantages, the English commanders determined to hazard an assault.
While four field-pieces and two howitzers maintained a constant fire upon
the top of the intrenchments, the regiment of Duroure and the Highlanders
advanced under this cover, firing by platoons with the utmost regularity.
The enemy, intimidated by their cool and resolute behaviour, began to
abandon the first intrenchment on the left. Then the Highlanders, drawing
their swords, and sustained by part of the regiment, threw themselves in
with their usual impetuosity, and followed the fugitives pell-mell into
the redoubt, of which they took possession: but they still maintained
their ground within the intrenchments on the right, from whence they
annoyed the assailants both with musquetry and cannon. In half an hour, an
occasional bridge being made, the English troops passed the river in order
to attack this post, which the enemy abandoned with precipitation;
notwithstanding all their haste, however, about seventy were taken
prisoners, and among those some of the most considerable inhabitants of
the island. This advantage cost the English two officers and thirteen men
killed, and above fifty wounded.

The roads being mended for the passage of the artillery, the troops
advanced towards Petitbourg, harassed in their march by flying bodies of
the enemy, and arrived late at night on the banks of the river Lizarde,
the only ford of which the French had fortified with strong intrenchments,
protected by a battery of four cannon erected on a rising ground in the
rear. Colonel Clavering, while he amused them all night at this place by a
constant fire into their lines, transported in two canoes, which he
launched about a mile and a half farther down the river, a sufficient
number of troops, by day-break, to attack them on the other side in flank,
while he advanced in front at the head of his little army; but they did
not think proper to sustain the assault. On the contrary, they no sooner
perceived his intention, than they forsook the post, and fled without
order. Colonel Clavering, having passed the river, pursued them to Petit
bourg, which they had also fortified; and here he found captain Uvedale,
of the Grenada bomb-ketch, throwing shells into the redoubt. He forthwith
sent detachments to occupy the neighbouring heights; a circumstance which
the enemy no sooner observed, than they deserted the place, and retired
with great expedition. On the fifteenth day of April, captain Steel
destroyed a battery at Gonoyave, a strong post, which, though it might
have been defended against an army, the French abandoned at his approach,
after having made a hasty discharge of their artillery. At the same time
colonel Crump was detached with seven hundred men to the bay of Mahaut,
where he burned the town and batteries which he found abandoned, together
with a vast quantity of provisions which had been brought from the island
of St. Eustatia. Colonel Clavering, having left a small garrison at
Petitbourg, began his march on the twentieth day of the month towards St.
Mary’s, where he understood the enemy had collected their whole force,
thrown up intrenchments, and raised barricadoes; but they had left their
rear unguarded. The English commander immediately detached colonel Barlow
with a body of troops to attack them from that quarter, while he himself
advanced against the front of their intrenchment. They stood but one
cannon-shot, and then fled to their lines and batteries at St. Mary’s, the
flanks of which were covered with woods and precipices. When they
perceived the English troops endeavouring to surmount these difficulties,
and turn their lines, they quitted them in order to oppose the design, and
were immediately attacked with such vivacity, in the face of a severe fire
of musketry and cannon, that they abandoned their ground, and fled in the
utmost confusion, leaving the field and all their artillery to the
victors, who took up their quarters for that night at St. Mary’s. Next day
they entered the charming country of Capesterre, where eight hundred and
seventy negroes belonging to one planter surrendered at discretion. Here
colonel Clavering was met by messieurs de Clainvilliers and Duqueruy,
deputed by the principal inhabitants of the island to know what
capitulation would be granted. These he conducted to Petitbourg, where
they were presented to general Barrington; who, considering the absence of
the fleet, the small number of his forces daily diminishing, the
difficulty of the country, and the possibility of the enemy’s being
reinforced from Martinique, wisely took the advantage of the present
panic, and settled terms of capitulation without delay. The sanity of this
resolution soon appeared. The inhabitants had just signed the agreement,
when a messenger arrived in their camp with information that M. de
Beauharnois, the general of the French islands, had landed at St. Anne’s,
to the windward, with a reinforcement from Martinique, consisting of six
hundred regulars from Europe, about fifteen hundred volunteers, besides a
great number of the militia drafted from the companies of Martinique, with
a great supply of arms and ammunition, mortars and artillery, under convoy
of the squadron commanded by M. de Bompart, who no sooner learned that the
capitulation was signed, than he re-embarked the troops and stores with
all possible expedition, and returned to Martinique. Thus we see the
conquest of this important island, which is said to produce a greater
quantity of sugar than is made in any of the English plantations, was as
much owing to accident as to the valour of the troops and the conduct of
the general; for, had the reinforcement arrived an hour sooner than it
actually landed, in all probability the English would have found it
impracticable to finish the reduction of Guadaloupe. Be that as it may,
the natives certainly deserved great commendation, not only for
persevering so gallantly in defence of their country, but also for their
fortitude in bearing every species of distress. They now quitted the Dos
d’Ane, and all their other posts, and returned to their respective
habitations. The town of Basseterre being reduced to a heap of ashes, the
inhabitants began to clear away the rubbish, and erect occasional sheds,
where they resumed their several occupations with that good humour so
peculiar to the French nation; and general Barrington humanely indulged
them with all the assistance in his power.

ISLAND OF MARIGALANTE TAKEN.

The small islands of Deseada, Los Santos, and Petit-terre, were comprised
in the capitulation of Guadaloupe. The inhabitants of Marigalante, which
lies about three leagues to the south-east of Grandterre, extending twenty
miles in length, fifteen in breadth, flat and fertile, but poorly watered
and ill fortified, having refused to submit when summoned by the squadron
to surrender, general Barrington resolved to reduce them by force. He
embarked a body of troops on board of transports, which sailed thither
under convoy of three ships of war and two bomb vessels from Prince
Rupert’s Bay, and at their appearance the islanders submitting, received
an English garrison. Before this period, commodore Moore having received
intelligence that M. de Bompart had sailed from Martinique, with a design
to land a reinforcement on Guadaloupe, and that his squadron was seen
seven leagues to windward of Marigalante, he sailed from Prince Rupert’s
Bay, and turned to windward. After having been beating about for five days
to very little purpose, he received notice from one of his cruisers, that
the French admiral had returned to Martinique; upon which information he
retired quietly to his former station in the bay of Dominique, the people
of which were so insolent as to affirm, in derision, that the English
squadron sailed on one side of the island, and the French upon the other,
that they might be sure of not meeting; but this, without doubt, was an
impudent calumny.*

* The commodore declared that he carried a press-sail night
and day, in order to come up with the French squadron, and
took every step that could be devised for that purpose. He
says, if he had pursued any other course, the French
commander might have run into the road of St. Kitt’s, and
destroyed or taken a great number of merchant ships which
were then loading with sugar for England. He says he tried
every stratagem he could contrive for bringing M. de Bompart
to action. He even sent away part of his squadron out of
sight of the inhabitants of Dominique, that they might
represent to their friends at Martinique his force much
inferior to what it really was; but this expedient had no
effect upon M. de Bompart, who made the best of his way to
Cape François, on the island of Hispaniols.

General Barrington, having happily finished the conquest of Guadaloupe,
gave notice to the commodore, that he intended to send back part of the
troops with the transports to England, about the beginning of July. In
consequence of this intimation, Mr. Moore sailed with his squadron to
Basseterre road, where he was next day joined by two ships of the line
from England, which rendered him greatly superior in strength to the
commander of the French squadron, who had retired to the island of
Grenada, lying about eight leagues from Guadaloupe. Here he was discovered
by the ship Rippon, whose captain returned immediately to Basseterre, to
make the commodore acquainted with this circumstance: but before he could
weigh anchor, a frigate arrived with information, that Bompart had quitted
Grenada, and was supposed to have directed his course to Hispaniola. The
commodore immediately despatched the Ludlow Castle with this intelligence
to admiral Coats, who commanded the squadron at Jamaica. General
Barrington having made a tour of the island, in order to visit and repair
such fortifications as he thought necessary to be maintained, and the
affairs relating to the inhabitants being entirely settled, he sent the
Highlanders, with a body of drafts, to North America, under convoy: he
garrisoned the principal strength of the island, and left the chief
command to colonel Crump, who had for some time acted as
brigadier-general; colonel Clavering having been sent home to England with
the account of the capitulation. Colonel Melville, who had signalized
himself in a remarkable manner ever since their first landing, continued
governor of the citadel at Basseterre; and the command at Grandterre was
conferred on colonel Delgarno. Three complete regiments were alloted as a
sufficient guard for the whole island, and the other three were embarked
for England. General Barrington himself went on board the Roebuck in the
latter end of June, and took his departure for England. About a month
after, the transports, under convoy of captain Hughes, with a small
squadron, set sail for Great Britain; while commodore Moore, with his
large fleet, directed his course to Antigua.

TREATY WITH THE INDIANS.

While this armament had been employed in the conquest of Guadaloupe, North
America exhibited still more sanguinary scenes of war and devastation;
which, in order properly to introduce, it will be necessary to explain the
steps that were taken on this continent, previous to this campaign. In
October of the preceding year, a grand assembly was held at Easton, about
ninety miles from Philadelphia; and there, peace was established, by a
formal treaty, between Great Britain and the several nations of Indians
inhabiting the country between the Apalachian mountains and the lakes. The
Twightwees, however, settled between the river Ohio and the lakes, did not
assist at this treaty, though some steps had been taken towards an
alliance with that people. The conferences were managed by the governors
of Pennsylvania and new Jersey, accompanied by sir William Johnston’s
deputy for Indian affairs, four members of the council of Pennsylvania,
six members of the assembly, two agents for the province of New Jersey, a
great number of planters and citizens of Philadelphia, chiefly Quakers.
They were met by the deputies and chiefs of the Mohawks, Oneidoes,
Onondagoes, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras, Nanticoques, and Conoys; the
Tuteloes, Chugnues, Delawares, and Unamies; the Minisinks, Mohicans, and
Wappingers; the whole number, including their women and children,
amounting to five hundred. Some of the Six Nations, thinking themselves
aggrieved by the British colonists, who had imprisoned certain individuals
of their nation, and had killed a few, and treated others with contempt,
did not fail to express their resentment, which had been artfully fomented
by the French emissaries, even into an open rapture. The Delewares and
Minisinks, in particular, complained that the English had encroached upon
their lands, and on that account were provoked to hostilities: but their
chief, Teedyuscung, had made overtures of peace; and in the character of
ambassador from all the Ten Nations, had been very instrumental in forming
this assembly. The chiefs of the Six Nations, though very well disposed to
peace, took umbrage at the importance assumed by one of the Delawares,
over whom, as their descendants, they exercise a kind of parental
authority; and on this occasion they made no scruple to disclose their
dissatisfaction. The business, therefore, of the English governors at this
congress, was to ascertain the limits of the lands in dispute, reconcile
the Six Nations with their nephews the Delawares, remove every cause of
misunderstanding between the English and the Indians, detach these savages
entirely from the French interest, establish a firm peace, and induce them
to exert their influence in persuading the Twightwees to accede to this
treaty. Those Indians, though possessed of few ideas, circumscribed in
their mental faculties, stupid, brutal, and ferocious, conducting
themselves nevertheless, in matters of importance to the community, by the
general maxims of reason and justice; and their treaties are always
founded upon good sense, conveyed in a very ridiculous manner. Their
language is guttural, harsh, and polysyllabical; and their speech consists
of hyperbolical metaphors and similies, which invest it with an air of
dignity and heighten the expression. They manage their conferences by
means of wampum, a kind of bead formed of a hard shell, either in single
strings, or sewed in broad belts of different dimensions, according to the
importance of the subject. Every proposition is offered, every answer
made, every promise corroborated, every declaration attested, and every
treaty confirmed, by producing and interchanging these belts of wampum.
The conferences were continued from the eighth to the twenty-sixth day of
October, when every article was settled to the mutual satisfaction of all
parties. The Indian deputies were gratified with a valuable present,
consisting of looking-glasses, knives, tobacco-boxes, sleeve-buttons,
thimbles, sheers, gun-locks, ivory combs, shirts, shoes, stockings, hats,
caps, handkerchiefs, thread, clothes, blankets, gartering, serges,
watch-coats, and a few suits of laced clothes for their chieftains. To
crown their happiness, the stores of rum were opened; they drank
themselves into a state of brutal intoxication, and next day returned in
peace to their respective places of habitation.

PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN.

This treaty with the Indians, who had been debauched from the interest of
Great Britain, auspiciously paved the way for those operations which had
been projected against the French settlements in Canada. Instead of
employing the whole strength of the British arms in North America against
one object, the ministry proposed to divide the forces, and make
impressions on three different parts at once, that the enemy might be
divided, distracted, and weakened, and the conquest of Canada completed in
one campaign. That the success might be the more certain, the different
expeditions were planned in such a manner as to co-operate with each
other, and even join occasionally; so practicable was it thought for them
to maintain such a correspondence as would admit of a junction of this
nature. The project of this campaign imported, that general Wolfe, who had
distinguished himself so eminently in the siege of Louis-bourg, should
proceed up the river St. Laurence, as soon as the navigation should be
clear of ice, with a body of eight thousand men, and a considerable
squadron of ships from England, to undertake the siege of Quebec, the
capital of Canada: that general Amherst, who commanded in chief, should,
with another army of regular troops and provincials, amounting to twelve
thousand men, reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point, cross the lake
Champlain, and, proceeding along the river Richelieu to the banks of the
river St. Laurence, join general Wolfe in the siege of Quebec: that
brigadier-general Prideaux, with a third body, reinforced with a
considerable number of friendly Indians, assembled by the influence and
under the command of sir William Johnston, should invest the French fort
erected at the fall or cataract of Niagara, which was certainly the most
important post of all French America, as it in a manner commanded all the
interior parts of that vast continent. It overawed the whole country of
the Six Nations, who were cajoled into a tame acquiescence in its being
built on their territory: it secured all the inland trade, the navigation
of the great lakes, the communication between Canada and Louisiana, and
opened a passage for inroads into the colonies of Great Britain. It was
proposed that the British forces, having reduced Niagara, should be
embarked on the lake Ontario, fall down the river St. Laurence, besiege
and take Montreal, and then join or co-operate with Amherst’s army.
Besides these larger armaments, colonel Stanwix commanded a smaller
detachment for reducing smaller forts, and scouring the banks of the lake
Ontario. How far this project was founded on reason and military knowledge
may be judged by the following particulars, of which the projectors were
not ignorant. The navigation of the river St. Laurence is dangerous and
uncertain. The city of Quebec was remarkably strong from situation, and
fortification, from the bravery of the inhabitants, and the number of the
garrison. Monsieur de Montcalm, an officer of great courage and activity,
kept the field between Montreal and Quebec, with a body of eight or ten
thousand men, consisting of regular troops and disciplined militia,
reinforced by a considerable number of armed Indians; and another body of
reserve hovered in the neighbourhood of Montreal, which was the residence
of monsieur de Vaudreuil, governor-general of Canada. The garrison of
Niagara consisted of above six hundred men; the march to it was tedious
and embarrassed; and monsieur de Levi scoured the country with a flying
detachment, well acquainted with all the woods and passes. With respect to
general Amherst’s share of the plan, the forts of Ticonderoga and
Crown-Point stood in his way. The enemy were masters of the lake
Champlain, and possessed the strong fort of Chambly, by the fall of the
river Richelieu, which defended the pass to the river St. Laurence. Even
had these obstacles been removed, it was hardly possible that he and Mr.
Wolfe should arrive at Quebec in the same instant of time. The first that
reached it, far from being in condition to undertake the siege of Quebec,
would have run the risk of being engaged and defeated by the covering
army; in which case the other body must have been exposed to the most
imminent hazard of destruction, in the midst of an enemy’s country, far
distant from any place of safety to which it could retreat. Had these
disasters happened (and, according to the experience of war, they were the
natural consequences of the scheme), the troops at Niagara would in all
probability have fallen an easy sacrifice, unless they had been so
fortunate as to receive intelligence in time enough to accomplish their
retreat before they could be intercepted. The design would, we apprehend,
have been more justifiable, or at least not so liable to objection, had
Mr. Amherst left two or three regiments to protect the frontiers of
New-York, and, joining Mr. Wolfe with the rest, sailed by the river St.
Laurence to besiege Quebec. Even in that case the whole number of his
troops would not have been sufficient, according to the practice of war,
to invest the place, and cope with the covering enemy. Nevertheless, had
the enterprise succeeded, Montcalm must either have hazarded an engagement
against great odds, or retired farther into the country; then the route
would have been open by land and water to Montreal, which could have made
little resistance. The two principal towns being taken, and the navigation
of the river St. Laurence blocked up, all the dependent forts must have
surrendered at discretion, except Niagara, which there was a bare
possibility of supplying at an incredible trouble and expense, from the
distant Mississippi; but even then, it might have been besieged in form,
and easily reduced. Whatever defects there might have been in the plan,
the execution, though it miscarried in some essential points, was attended
with surprising success. The same good fortune that prospered the British
arms so remarkably in the conquest of Guadaloupe, seemed to interpose
still more astonishingly in their favour at Quebec, the siege of which we
shall record in its proper place. At present, we must attend the
operations of general Amherst, whose separate army was first in motion,
though such impediments were thrown in his way as greatly retarded the
progress of his operations; impediments said to have arisen from the
pride, insolence, and obstinacy of certain individuals, who possessed
great influence in that part of the world, and employed it all to thwart
the service of their country. The summer was already far advanced before
general Amherst could pass lake George with his forces, although they met
with no opposition, and reached the neighbourhood of Ticonderoga, where,
in the preceding year, the British troops had sustained such a terrible
disaster. At first the enemy seemed determined to defend this fortress:
but perceiving the English commander resolute, cautious, and well prepared
for undertaking the siege; having, moreover, orders to retreat from place
to place, towards the centre of operations at Quebec, rather than run the
least risk of being made prisoners of war, they, in the night of July the
twenty-seventh, abandoned the post, after having in some measure
dismantled the fortifications; and retired to Crown -Point, a fort
situated on the verge of lake Champlain, General Amherst having taken
possession of this important post, which effectually covered the frontiers
of New-York, and secured to himself a safe retreat in case of necessity,
ordered the works to be repaired, and allotted a strong garrison for its
defence. This acquisition, however, was not made without the loss of a
brave accomplished young officer, colonel Boger Townshend, who, in
reconnoitering the fort, was killed with a cannon-shot, and fell near the
same spot which, in the former year, had been enriched with the blood of
the gallant lord Howe, whom he strongly resembled in the circumstances of
birth, age, qualifications and character.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

GENERAL AMHERST EMBARKS ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

While the general superintended the repairs of Ticonderoga, and the men
were employed in preparing batteaux and other vessels, his scouting
parties hovered in the neighbourhood of Crown-Point, in order to watch the
motions of the enemy. From one of these detachments he received
intelligence, on the first day of August, that the enemy had retired from
Crown-Point. He immediately detached a body of rangers before him to take
possession of the place: then he embarked with the rest of the army, and
on the fourth day of the month landed at the fort, where the troops were
immediately encamped. His next care was to lay the foundation of a new
fort, to be maintained for the further security of the British dominions
in that part of the country; and particularly for preventing the inroads
of scalping parties, by whom the plantations had been dreadfully infested.
Here information was received that the enemy had retired to the Isle aux
Noix, at the other end of the lake Champlain, five leagues on the hither
side of St. John’s; that their force encamped in that place, under the
command of M. de Burlemaque, consisted of three battalions and five
piquets of regular troops, with Canadians and marines, amounting in the
whole to three thousand five hundred effective men, provided with a
numerous artillery; and that the lake was occupied by four large vessels
mounted with cannon, and manned with piquets of different regiments, under
the command and direction of M. le Bras, a captain in the French navy,
assisted by M. de Rigal, and other sea-officers. In consequence of this
intimation, general Amherst, who had for some time employed captain Loring
to superintend the building of vessels at Ticonderoga, being resolved to
have the superiority on the lake, directed the captain to build with all
possible expedition a sloop of sixteen guns, and a radeau eighty-four feet
in length, capable of carrying six large cannon. These, together with a
brigantine, being finished, victualled, and manned by the eleventh day of
October, the general embarked with the whole of the troops in batteaux, in
order to attack the enemy; but next day, the weather growing tempestuous,
was obliged to take shelter in a bay on the western shore, where the men
were landed for refreshment. In the meantime, captain Loring, with his
small squadron, sailing down the lake, gave chase to a French schooner,
and drove three of their ships into a bay, where two of them were sunk,
and the third run aground by their own crew, who escaped; one, however,
was repaired and brought away by captain Loring, so that now the French
had but one schooner remaining. General Amherst, after having been some
days wind-bound, re-embarked his forces, and proceeded down the lake; but
the storm, which had abated, beginning to blow with redoubled fury, so as
to swell the waves mountains high, the season for action being elapsed,
and winter setting in with the most rigorous severity, he saw the
impossibility of accomplishing his design, and was obliged to desist.
Returning to the same bay where he had been sheltered, he landed the
troops, and began his march for Crown-Point, where he arrived on the
twenty-first day of October. Having secured a superiority on the lake, he
now employed all his attention in rearing the new fortress at Crown-Point,
together with three small outforts for its better defence; in opening
roads of communication with Ticonderoga, and the governments of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire; and in making dispositions for the
winter-quarters of his troops, so as to protect the country from the
inroads of the enemy.

NIAGARA REDUCED.

During this whole summer he received not the least intelligence of Mr.
Wolfe’s operations, except a few hints in some letters relating to the
exchange of prisoners, that came from the French general Montcalm, who
gave him to understand that Mr. Wolfe had landed in the neighbourhood of
Quebec, and seemed determined to undertake the siege of that city; that he
had honoured him (the French general) with several notes, sometimes
couched in a soothing strain, sometimes filled with threats; that the
French army intended to give him battle, and a few days would determine
the fate of Quebec. Though Mr. Amherst was ignorant of the proceedings of
the Quebec squadron, his communication continued open with the forces
which undertook the siege of Niagara; and he received an account of their
success before he had quitted the lines of Ticonderoga. General Prideaux,
with his body of troops, reinforced by the Indian auxiliaries under sir
William Johnston, advanced to the cataract of Niagara, without being
exposed to the least inconvenience on his march; and investing the French
fortress about the middle of July, carried on his approaches with great
vigour till the twentieth day of that month, when, visiting the trenches,
he was unfortunately slain by the bursting of a cohorn. Mr. Amherst was no
sooner informed of his disaster, than he detached brigadier-general Gage
from Ticonderoga, to assume the command of that army. In the meantime it
devolved on sir William Johnston, who happily prosecuted the plan of his
predecessor with all the success that could have been desired. The enemy,
alarmed with the apprehension of losing a place of such importance,
resolved to exert their endeavours for its relief. They assembled a body
of regular troops, amounting to twelve hundred men, drawn from Detroit,
Venango, and Presque Isle; and these, with a number of Indian auxiliaries,
were detached under the command of monsieur d’Aubry, on an attempt to
reinforce the garrison of Niagara. Sir William Johnston having received
intelligence of their design, made a disposition to intercept them in
their march. In the evening he ordered the light infantry and picquets to
post themselves to the left, on the road leading from Niagara Falls to the
fortress; these were reinforced in the morning with the grenadiers and
part of the forty-sixth regiment, commanded by lieutenant-colonel Massey;
and another regiment, under lieutenant-colonel Farquhar, was posted at the
tail of the works, in order to support the guard of the trenches. About
eight in the morning, the enemy being in sight, the Indians in the English
army advanced to speak with their countrymen who served under the French
banners; but this conference was declined by the enemy. Then the French
Indians having uttered the horrible scream called the war-whoop, which by
this time had lost its effect among the British forces, the enemy began
the action with impetuosity; but they met with such a hot reception in
front, while the Indian auxiliaries fell upon their flanks, that in a
little more than half an hour their whole army was routed, their general,
with all his officers, taken, and the pursuit continued through the woods
for several miles with considerable slaughter. This battle, which happened
on the twenty-fourth day of July, having been fought in sight of the
French garrison at Niagara, sir William Johnston sent major Harvey with a
trumpet to the commanding officer, to present him with a list of seventeen
officers taken in the engagement, and to exhort him to surrender before
more blood was shed, while he had it in his power to restrain the Indians.
The commandant, having certified himself of the truth, by sending an
officer to visit the prisoners, agreed to treat, and in a few hours the
capitulation was ratified. The garrison, consisting of six hundred and
seven effective men, marched out with the honours of war, in order to be
embarked in vessels on the lake, and conveyed in the most expeditious
manner to New-York. They laid down their arms when they embarked; but were
permitted to keep their baggage, and by proper escort protected from the
savage insolence and rapacity of the Indians. All the women were
conducted, at their own request, to Montreal; and the sick and wounded,
who could not bear the fatigue of travelling, were treated with humanity.
This was the second complete victory obtained on the continent of North
America, in the course of the same war, by sir William Johnston, who,
without the help of a military education, succeeded so signally in the
field by dint of innate courage and natural sagacity. What remarkably
characterizes these battles, is the circumstance of his having taken, in
both, the commanders of the enemy. Indeed, the war in general may be
distinguished by the singular success of this gentleman and the celebrated
lord Clive, two self-taught generals; who, by a series of shining actions,
have demonstrated that uninstructed genius can, by its own internal light
and efficacy, rival, if not eclipse, the acquired art of discipline and
experience. Sir William Johnston was not more serviceable to his country
by his valour and conduct in the field, than by the influence and
authority which his justice, benevolence, and integrity, had acquired
among the Indian tribes of the Six Nations, whom he not only assembled at
Niagara to the number of eleven hundred, but also restrained within the
bounds of good order and moderation.

INTRODUCTION TO THE EXPEDITION AGAINST QUEBEC.

The reduction of Niagara, and the possession of Crown-Point, were exploits
much more easily achieved than the conquest of Quebec, the great object to
which all these operations were subordinate. Of that we now come to give
the detail fraught with singular adventures and surprising events; in the
course of which a noble spirit of enterprise was displayed, and the scenes
of war were exhibited in all the variety of desolation. It was about the
middle of February that a considerable squadron sailed from England for
Cape Breton, under the command of admirals Saunders and Holmes, two
gentlemen of worth and probity, who had on several occasions signalised
their courage and conduct in the service of their country. By the
twenty-first day of April they were in sight of Louisbourg; but the
harbour was blocked up with ice in such a manner, that they were obliged
to bear away for Halifax in Nova-Scotia. From hence rear-admiral Durell
was detached with a small squadron to sail up the river St. Laurence as
far as the Isle de Coudres, in order to intercept any supplies from France
intended for Quebec: he accordingly took two store-ships; but he was
anticipated by seventeen sail, laden with provision, stores, and some
recruits, under convoy of three frigates, which had already reached the
capital of Canada. Meanwhile admiral Saunders arrived at Louisbourg; and
the troops being embarked, to the number of eight thousand, proceeded up
the river without further delay. The operations by land were intrusted to
the conduct of major-general James Wolfe, whose talents had shone with
such superior lustre at the siege of Louisbourg; and his subordinates in
command were the brigadiers Monckton, Townshend, and Murray; all four in
the flower of their age, who had studied the milifeiry art with equal
eagerness and proficiency, and though young in years, were old in
experience. The first was a soldier by descent, the son of major-general
Wolfe, a veteran officer of acknowledged capacity: the other three
resembled each other, not only in years, qualifications, and station, but
also in family rank, all three being the sons of noblemen. The situation
of brigadier Townshend was singular; he had served abroad in the last war
with reputation, and resigned his commission during the peace, in disdain
at some hard usage he had sustained from his superiors. That his military
talents, however, might not be lost to his country, he exercised them with
equal spirit and perseverance in projecting and promoting the plan of a
national militia. When the command and direction of the army devolved to a
new leader, so predominant in his breast was the spirit of patriotism and
the love of glory, that though heir-apparent to a British peerage,
possessed of a very affluent fortune, remarkably dear to his acquaintance,
and solicited to a life of quiet by every allurement of domestic felicity;
he waived these considerations: he burst from all entanglements; proffered
his services to his sovereign; exposed himself to the perils of a
disagreeable voyage, the rigours of a severe climate, and the hazard of a
campaign peculiarly fraught with toil, danger, and difficulty.

GENERAL WOLFE LANDS ON THE ISLAND OF ORLEANS.

The armament intended for Quebec sailed up the river St. Laurence, without
having met with any interruption, or having perceived any of those
difficulties and perils with which it had been reported that the
navigation of it was attended. Their good fortune in this particular,
indeed, was owing to some excellent charts of the river, which had been
found in vessels taken from the enemy. About the latter end of June the
land-forces were disembarked in two divisions upon the isle of Orleans,
situated a little below Quebec, a large fertile island, well cultivated,
producing plenty of grain, abounding with people, villages, and
plantations. General Wolfe no sooner landed on the island of Orleans, than
he distributed a manifesto among the French colonists, giving them to
understand that the king his master, justly exasperated against the French
monarch, had equipped a considerable armament in order to humble his
pride, and was determined to reduce the most considerable French
settlements in America. He declared it was not against the industrious
peasants, their wives and children, nor against the ministers of religion,
that he intended to make war; on the contrary, he lamented the misfortunes
to which they must be exposed by the quarrel; he offered them his
protection; and promised to maintain them in their temporal possessions,
as well as in the free exercise of their religion, provided they would
remain quiet, and take no part in the difference between the two crowns.
He observed, that the English were masters of the river St. Laurence, so
as to intercept all succours from Europe; and had besides a powerful army
on the continent, under the command of general Amherst. He affirmed, that
the resolution they ought to take was neither difficult nor doubtful; as
the utmost exertion of their valour would be useless, and serve only to
deprive them of the advantages which they might reap from their
neutrality. He reminded them that the cruelties exercised by the French
upon the subjects of Great Britain in America, would excuse the most
severe reprisals; but Britons were too generous to follow such barbarous
examples. He again offered to the Canadians the sweets of peace, amidst
the horrors of war; and left it to themselves to determine their own fate
by their own conduct. He expressed his hope that the world would do him
justice, should they oblige him, by rejecting these favourable terms, to
adopt violent measures. He expatiated upon the strength and power, as well
as upon the generosity, of Great Britain, in thus stretching out the hand
of humanity; a hand ready to assist them on all occasions, even when
France was by her weakness compelled to abandon them in the most critical
conjuncture. This declaration produced no immediate effect; nor indeed did
the Canadians depend on the sincerity and promised faith of a nation, whom
their priests had industriously represented as the most savage and cruel
enemy on earth. Possessed of these notions, which prevailed even among the
better sort, they chose to abandon their habitations, and expose
themselves and families to certain ruin, in provoking the English by the
most cruel hostilities, rather than be quiet, and confide in the general’s
promise of protection. Instead of pursuing this prudent plan of conduct,
they joined the scalping parties * of Indians who skulked among the woods;
and falling upon the English stragglers by surprise, butchered them with
the most inhuman barbarity.

* The operation of scalping, which, to the shame of both
nations, was encouraged both by French and English, the
savages performed in this manner—The hapless victim being
disabled, or disarmed, the Indian, with a sharp knife,
provided and worn for the purpose, makes a circular incision
to the bone round the upper part of the head, and tears off
the scalp with his fingers. Previous to this execution, he
generally despatches the prisoner by repeated blows on the
head, with the hammer-side of the instrument called a
tomahawk: but sometimes they save themselves the trouble,
and sometimes the blows prove ineffectual; so that the
miserable patient is found alive, groaning in the utmost
agony of torture. The Indian strings the scalps he has
procured, to be produced as a testimony of his prowess, and
receives a premium for each from the nation under whose
banners he has been enlisted.

Mr. Wolfe, whose nature revolted against this wanton and perfidious
cruelty, sent a letter to the French general, representing that such
enormities were contrary to the rules of war observed among civilized
nations, dishonourable to the service of France, and disgraceful to human
nature; he therefore desired that the French colonists and Indians might
be restrained within due bounds, otherwise he would burn their villages,
desolate their plantations, and retaliate upon the persons of his
prisoners whatever cruelties should, in the sequel, be committed on the
soldiers or subjects of his master. In all probability the French
general’s authority was not sufficient to bridle the ferocity of the
savages, who continued to scalp and murder, with the most brutal appetite
for blood and revenge, so that Mr. Wolfe, in order to intimidate the enemy
into a cessation of these outrages, found it necessary to connive at some
irregularities in the way of retaliation.

M. de Montcalm, who commanded the French troops, though superior in number
to the invaders, very wisely resolved to depend upon the natural strength
of the country, which appeared almost insurmountable, and had carefully
taken all his precautions of defence. The city of Quebec was tolerably
fortified, secured with a numerous garrison, and plentifully supplied with
provisions and ammunition. Montcalm had reinforced the troops of the
colony with five regular battalions formed of the best of the inhabitants,
completely disciplined all the Canadians of the neighbourhood capable of
bearing arms, and several tribes of savages. With this army he had taken
the field in a very advantageous situation, encamped along the shore of
Beaufort, from the river St. Charles to the Falls of Montmorenci, every
accessible part being deeply intrenched. To undertake the siege of Quebec
against such odds and advantages, was not only a deviation from the
established maxims of war, but a rash enterprise, seemingly urged in
diametrical opposition to the dictates of common sense. Mr. Wolfe was well
acquainted with all the difficulties of the undertaking; but he knew at
the same time he should always have it in his power to retreat, in case of
emergency, while the British squadron maintained its station in the river;
he was not without hope of being joined by general Amherst; and he was
stimulated by an appetite for glory, which the prospect of accumulated
dangers could not allay. Understanding that there was a body of the enemy
posted, with cannon, at the Point of Levi, on the south shore, opposite
the city of Quebec, he detached against them brigadier Monckton, at the
head of four battalions, who passed the river at night; and next morning,
having skirmished with some of the enemy’s irregulars, obliged them to
retire from that post, which the English immediately occupied. At the same
time colonel Carlton, with another detachment, took possession of the
western point of the island of Orleans: and both these posts were
fortified, in order to anticipate the enemy; who, had they kept possession
of either, might have rendered it impossible for any ship to lie at anchor
within two miles of Quebec. Besides, the Point of Levi was within cannon
shot of the city, against which a battery of mortars and artillery was
immediately erected. Montcalm, foreseeing the effect of this manoeuvre,
detached a body of sixteen hundred men across the river, to attack and
destroy the works before they were completed; but the detachment fell into
disorder, fired upon each other, and retired in confusion. The battery
being finished without further interruption, the cannons and mortars began
to play with such success, that in a little time the upper town was
considerably damaged, and the lower town reduced to a heap of rubbish.

ENGLISH FLEET DAMAGED BY A STORM.

In the meantime, the fleet was exposed to the most imminent danger.
Immediately after the troops had been landed on the island of Orleans, the
wind increased to a furious storm, which blew with such violence, that
many transports ran foul of one another, and were disabled. A number of
boats and small craft foundered, and divers large ships lost their
anchors. The enemy resolving to take advantage of the confusion which they
imagined this disaster must have produced, prepared seven fire ships; and
at midnight sent them down from Quebec among the transports, which lay so
thick as to cover the whole surface of the river. The scheme, though well
contrived, and seasonably executed, was entirely defeated by the
deliberation of the British admiral, and the dexterity of his mariners,
who resolutely boarded the fire ships, and towed them fast aground, where
they lay burning to the water’s edge, without having done the least
prejudice to the English squadron. On the very same day of the succeeding
month they sent down a raft of fire-ships, or radeaux, which were likewise
consumed without producing any effect.

GENERAL WOLFE ENCAMPS NEAR THE FALLS OF THE RIVER MONTMORENCI.

The works for the security of the hospital and the stores, on the island
of Orleans, being finished, the British forces crossed the north channel
in boats; and, landing under cover of two sloops, encamped on the side of
the river Montmorenci, which divided them from the left of the enemy. Next
morning a company of rangers, posted in a wood to cover some workmen, were
attacked by the French Indians, and totally defeated; however, the nearest
troops advancing, repulsed the Indians in their turn with considerable
loss. The reasons that induced general Wolfe to choose this situation by
the Falls of Montmorenci, in which he was divided from Quebec by this and
another river called St. Charles, he explained in a letter to the
secretary of state. He observed, that the ground which he had chosen was
high, and in some measure commanded the opposite side on which the enemy
was posted: that there was a ford below the Falls passable in every tide
for some hours, at the latter part of the ebb and beginning of the flood;
and he hoped that means might be found of passing the river higher up, so
as to fight the marquis de Montcalm upon less disadvantageous terms than
those of directly attacking his intrenchments. Accordingly, in
reconnoitring the river Montmorenci, a ford was discovered about three
miles above; but the opposite banks, which were naturally steep and
covered with woods, the enemy had intrenched in such a manner, as to
render it almost inaccessible. The escort was twice attacked by the
Indians, who were as often repulsed; but these rencounters cost the
English about forty men killed and wounded, including some officers. Some
shrewd objections might be started to the general’s choice of ground on
this occasion. He could not act at all without passing the river
Montmorenci at a very great disadvantage, and attacking an enemy superior
to himself in number, secured by redoubts and intrenchments. Had he even,
by dint of extraordinary valour, driven them from these strong posts, the
success must have cost him a great number of officers and men: and the
enemy might have retreated behind the river St. Charles, which he also
must have passed under the same disadvantages, before he could begin his
operations against the city of Quebec. Had his good fortune enabled him to
surmount all these difficulties, and after all to defeat the enemy in a
pitched battle, the garrison of Quebec might have been reinforced by the
wreck of their army; and he could not, with any probability of success,
have undertaken the siege of an extensive fortified place, which he had
not troops sufficient to invest, and whose garrison would have been nearly
equal in number to the sum total of the troops he commanded. At any rate,
the chance of a fair engagement in the open field was what he had little
reason to expect in that situation, from the known experience, and the
apparent conduct, of the French general. These objections appeared so
obvious and important, that general Wolfe would not determine to risk an
attack, until he had surveyed the upper part of the river St. Laurence, in
hopes of finding some place more favourable for a descent.

On the eighteenth day of July, the admiral, at his request, sent two ships
of war, two armed sloops, and some transports with troops on board, up the
river; and they passed the city of Quebec, without having sustained any
damage. The general, being on board of this little armament, carefully
observed the banks on the side of the enemy, which were extremely
difficult from the nature of the ground; and these difficulties were
redoubled by the foresight and precaution of the French commander. Though
a descent seemed impracticable between the city and Cape Rouge, where it
was intended, general Wolfe, in order to divide the enemy’s force, and
procure intelligence, ordered a detachment, under the command of colonel
Carleton, to land higher up, at the Point au Tremble, to which place he
was informed a great number of the inhabitants of Quebec had retired with
their most valuable effects. This service was performed with little loss;
and some prisoners were brought away, but no magazine was discovered. The
general, thus disappointed in his expectation, returned to Montmorenci,
where brigadier Townshend had, by maintaining a superior fire across that
river, prevented the enemy from erecting a battery, which would have
commanded the English camp; and now he resolved to attack them, though
posted to great advantage, and everywhere prepared to give him a warm
reception. His design was, first to reduce a detached redoubt close to the
water’s edge, seemingly situated without gunshot of the intrenchment on
the hill. Should this fortification be supported by the enemy, he foresaw
that he should be able to bring on a general engagement: on the contrary,
should they remain tame spectators of its reduction, he could afterwards
examine their situation at leisure, and determine the place at which they
could be most easily attacked. Preparations were accordingly made for
storming the redoubt. On the last day of July, in the forenoon, part of
brigadier Monckton’s brigade was embarked in the boats of the fleet, to be
transported from the Point of Levi. The two brigades, commanded by the
brigadiers Townshend and Murray, were drawn out in order to pass the ford
when it should be necessary. To facilitate their passage, the admiral had
stationed the Centurion ship of war in the channel, to check the fire of
the lower battery, by which the ford was commanded: a numerous train of
artillery was placed upon the eminence, to batter and enfilade the left of
the enemy’s intrenchment; and two flat-bottomed armed vessels, prepared
for the purpose, were run aground near the redoubt, to favour the descent
of the forces. The manifest confusion produced among the French by these
previous measures, and by the fire of the Centurion, which was
well-directed and sustained, determined Mr. Wolfe to storm this
intrenchment without further delay. Orders were issued that the three
brigadiers should put their troops in motion at a certain signal, which
was accordingly made at a proper time of the tide. Many of the boats from
Point Levi ran aground upon a ledge that runs off a considerable distance
from the shore; and this accident occasioned a disorderly which so much
time was lost, that the general was obliged to stop the march of brigadier
Townshend’s corps, which he perceived to be in motion. In the meantime,
the boats were floated, and ranged in proper order, though exposed to a
severe fire of shot and shells; and the general in person sounding the
shore, pointed out the place where the troops might disembark with the
least difficulty. Thirteen companies of Grenadiers, and two hundred men of
the second American battalion, were the first who landed. They had
received orders to form in four distinct bodies, and begin the attack,
supported by the corps of brigadier Monckton, as soon as the other troops
should have passed the ford, and be near enough to contribute to their
assistance. These instructions, however, were entirely neglected. Before
Mr. Monckton had landed, and while brigadier Townshend was on his march at
a considerable distance, the grenadiers, without waiting to be drawn up in
a regular form, impetuously rushed towards the enemy’s intrenchments in
the utmost disorder. Their courage served only to increase their
misfortune. The first fire they received did such execution among them,
that they were obliged to shelter themselves under the redoubt which the
French had abandoned at their approach. In this uncomfortable situation
they remained some time, unable to form under so hot a fire,
notwithstanding the utmost efforts of many gallant officers, who lavishly
exposed, and even lost their lives in the honourable discharge of their
duty. 511
[See note 3 Y, at the end of this Vol.] The general, seeing all
their efforts abortive, ordered them to retreat, and form behind
Monckton’s brigade, which was by this time landed, and drawn up on the
beach in order. They accordingly retired in confusion, leaving a
considerable number lying on the field, to the barbarity of the Indian
savages, who massacred the living, and scalped the dead, even in the sight
of their indignant companions. This unhappy accident occasioned a new
delay, and the day was already far advanced. The wind began to blow with
uncommon violence, and the tide to make; so that in case of a second
repulse, the retreat of brigadier Townshend might have been rendered
hazardous and uncertain; Mr. Wolfe, therefore, thought proper to desist,
and returned without further molestation to the other side of the river
Montmorenci. The admiral ordered the two vessels which were aground to be
set on fire, that they might not fall into the hands of the enemy. The
advantages that favoured an attack in this part, consisted of the
following particulars:—All the artillery could be used with good
effect; all the troops could act at once; and in case of a miscarriage,
the retreat was secure and open, at least for a certain time of the tide.
These, however, seemed to be over-balanced by other considerations. The
enemy were posted on a commanding eminence; the beach was covered with
deep mud, slippery, and broken into holes and gullies; the hill was steep,
and in some places impracticable; the enemy were numerous, and poured in a
very severe fire from their intrenchments. Had the attack succeeded, the
loss of the English must have been very heavy, and that of the French
inconsiderable, because the neighbouring woods afforded them immediate
shelter. Finally, the river St. Charles still remained to be passed before
the town could be invested.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

BRIGADIER MURRAY DETACHED UP THE RIVER.

Immediately after this mortifying check, in which above five hundred men,
and many brave officers, were lost, the general detached brigadier Murray,
with twelve hundred men, in transports, above the town, to co-operate with
rear-admiral Holmes, whom the admiral had sent up with some force against
the French shipping, which he hoped to destroy. The brigadier was likewise
instructed to seize every opportunity of fighting the enemy’s detachments,
and even of provoking them to battle. In pursuance of these directions, he
twice attempted to land on the north shore; but these attempts were
unsuccessful. The third effort was more fortunate. He made a sudden
descent at Chambaud, and burned a considerable magazine, filled with arms,
clothing, provisions, and ammunition. The enemy’s ships being secured in
such a manner as not to be approached, and nothing else occurring that
required the brigadier’s longer stay, he returned to the camp, with
intelligence obtained from his prisoners, that the fort of Niagara was
taken, Crown Point abandoned, and general Amherst employed in making
preparations to attack the corps at the isle aux Nois, commanded by M.
Burlemaque. The disaster at the Falls of Montmorenci made a deep
impression on the mind of general Wolfe, whose spirit was too great to
brook the most distant prospect of censure or disgrace. He knew the
character of the English people—rash, impatient, and capricious;
elevated to exultation by the least gleam of success, dejected even to
despondency by the most inconsiderable frown of adverse fortune; sanguine,
even to childish hyperbole, in applauding those servants of the public who
have prospered in their undertakings; clamorous, to a degree of
prosecution, against those who have miscarried in their endeavours,
without any investigation of merit, without any consideration of
circumstances. A keen sense of these vexatious peculiarities conspiring
with the shame of disappointment, and eager desire of retrieving the
laurel that he might by some be supposed to have lost at the Falls of
Montmorenci, and the despair of finding such an occasion, excited an
internal agitation, which visibly affected his external frame, and
disordered his whole constitution, which was naturally delicate and
tender. Among those who shared his confidence, he was often seen to sigh;
he was often heard to complain; and even in the transports of his chagrin
declare, that he would never return without success, to be exposed, as
other unfortunate commanders had been, to the censure and reproach of an
ignorant and ungrateful populace. This tumult of the mind, added to the
fatigues of the body he had undergone, produced a fever and dysentery, by
which for some time he was totally disabled.

Before he recovered any degree of strength, he desired the general
officers to consult together for the public utility. It was their opinion,
that, the Points of Levi and Orleans being left in a proper state of
defence, the rest of the troops should be conveyed up the river, with a
view to draw the enemy from their present situation, and bring them if
possible to an engagement. This measure, however, was not adopted, until
the general and admiral had reconnoitred the town of Quebec, with a view
to a general assault; and concluded from their own observations,
reinforced by the opinion of the chief engineer, who was perfectly well
acquainted with the interior of the place, that such an attack could not
be hazarded with any prospect of success. The ships of war, indeed, might
have silenced the batteries of the lower town, but they could not affect
the upper works, from which they must have sustained considerable damage.
When we consider the situation of this place, and the fortifications with
which it was secured; the natural strength of the country; the great
number of vessels and floating batteries they had provided for the defence
of the river; the skill, valour, superior force, and uncommon vigilance of
the enemy; their numerous bodies of savages continually hovering about the
posts of the English, to surprise parties, and harass detachments; we must
own that there was such a combination of difficulties as might have
discouraged and perplexed the most resolute and intelligent commander.

THE TROOPS LAND AT THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM.

In consequence of the resolution taken to quit the camp at Montmorenci,
the troops and artillery were re-embarked, and landed at Point Levi: they
afterwards passed up the river in transports, while admiral Holmes made a
movement with his ships to amuse the enemy posted on the north shore; and
the men being much crowded on board, the general ordered one-half of them
to be landed for refreshment on the other side of the river. As no
possibility appeared of annoying the enemy above the town, the scheme of
operations was totally changed. A plan was formed for conveying the troops
farther down in boats, and landing them in the night within a league of
Cape Diamond, in hopes of ascending the heights of Abraham, which rise
abruptly with a steep ascent from the banks of the river, that they might
take possession of the ground on the back of the city, where it was but
indifferently fortified. The dangers and difficulties attending the
execution of this design were so peculiarly discouraging, that one would
imagine it could not have been embraced but by a spirit of enterprise that
bordered on desperation. The stream was rapid; the shore shelving; the
bank of the river lined with sentinels; the landing place so narrow as to
be easily missed in the dark; and the ground so difficult as hardly to be
surmounted in the day-time, had no opposition been expected. If the enemy
had received the least intimation from spy or deserter, or even suspected
the scheme; had the embarkation been disordered in consequence of the
darkness of the night, the rapidity of the river, or the shelving nature
of the north shore, near which they were obliged to row; had one sentinel
been alarmed, or the landing place much mistaken; the heights of Abraham
must have been instantly secured by such a force as would, have rendered
the undertaking abortive: confusion would necessarily have ensued in the
dark; and this would have naturally produced a panic, which might have
proved fatal to the greater part of the detachment. These objections could
not escape the penetration of the gallant Wolfe, who nevertheless adopted
the plan without hesitation, and even executed it in person; though at
that time labouring under a severe dysentery and fever, which had
exhausted his constitution, and reduced him almost to an extremity of
weakness. The previous steps being taken, and the time fixed for this
hazardous attempt, admiral Holmes moved with his squadron farther up the
river, about three leagues above the place appointed for the
disembarkation, that he might deceive the enemy, and amuse M. de
Bougainville, whom Montcalm had detached with fifteen hundred men to watch
the motions of that squadron; but the English admiral was directed to sail
down the river in the night, so as to protect the landing of the forces;
and these orders he punctually fulfilled. On the twelfth day of September,
an hour after midnight, the first embarkation, consisting of four complete
regiments, the light infantry commanded by colonel Howe, a detachment of
Highlanders, and the American grenadiers, was made in flat-bottomed boats,
under the immediate command of the brigadiers Monck-ton and Murray; though
general Wolfe accompanied them in person, and was among the first who
landed; and they began to fall down with the tide, to the intended place
of disembarkation, rowing close to the north shore in order to find it the
more easily. Without any disorder the boats glided gently along: but by
the rapidity of the tide, and the darkness of the night, the boats
over-shot the mark, and the troops landed a little below the place at
which the disembarkation was intended. 513 [See note 3 Z, at
the end of this Vol.] As the troops landed the boats were sent back
for the second embarkation, which was superintended by brigadier
Townshend. In the meantime, colonel Howe, with the light infantry and the
Highlanders, ascended the woody precipices with admirable courage and
activity, and dislodged a sergeant’s guard which defended a small
intrenched narrow path, by which alone the rest of the forces could reach
the summit. Then they mounted without further molestation from the enemy,
and the general drew them up in order as they arrived. Monsieur de
Montcalm no sooner understood that the English had gained the heights of
Abraham, which in a manner commanded the town on its weakest part, than he
resolved to hazard a battle; and began his march without delay, after
having collected his whole force from the side of Beauport.

BATTLE OF QUEBEC.

General Wolfe, perceiving the enemy crossing the river St. Charles, began
to form his own line, which consisted of six battalions and the Louisbourg
grenadiers; the right commanded by brigadier Monckton, and the left by
brigadier Murray: to the rear of the left, colonel Howe was posted with
his light infantry, just returned from a four-gun battery, which they had
taken without opposition. M. de Montcalm advancing in such a manner as to
show his intention was to flank the left of the English, brigadier
Townshend was sent thither with the regiment of Amherst, which he formed
en potence, presenting a double front to the enemy: he was
afterwards reinforced by two battalions; and the reserve consisted of one
regiment drawn up in eight sub-divisions, with large intervals. The right
of the enemy was composed of half the colony troops, two battalions, and a
body of Canadians and savages; their centre consisted of a column formed
by two other regular battalions; and on the left one battalion, with the
remainder of the colony troops, was posted; the bushes and corn-fields in
their front were lined with fifteen hundred of their best marksmen, who
kept up an irregular galling fire, which proved fatal to many brave
officers, thus singled out for destruction. This fire, indeed, was in some
measure checked by the advanced posts of the British line, who piqueered
with the enemy for some hours before the battle began. Both armies were
destitute of artillery, except two small pieces on the side of the French,
and a single gun which the English seamen made shift to draw up from the
landing place. This was very well served, and galled their column
severely. At length, about nine in the morning, the enemy advanced to the
charge with great order and vivacity, though their fire was irregular and
ineffectual. On the contrary, the British forces reserved their shot until
the French had approached within forty yards of their line: then they
poured in a terrible discharge; and continued the fire with such
deliberation and spirit, as could not fail to produce a very considerable
effect. General Wolfe was stationed on the right, at the head of Bragg’s
regiment and the Louisbourg grenadiers, where the attack was most warm. As
he stood conspicuous in the front of the line, he had been aimed at by the
enemy’s marksmen, and received a shot in the wrist, which however did not
oblige him to quit the field. Having wrapped a handkerchief round his
hand, he continued giving orders without the least emotion; and advanced
at the head of the grenadiers with their bayonets fixed; when another ball
unfortunately pierced the breast of this young hero,* who fell in the arms
of victory, just as the enemy gave way.

* When the fatal ball took place, general Wolfe, finding
himself unable to stand, leaned upon the shoulder of a
lieutenant, who sat down for that purpose. This officer
seeing the French give way, exclaimed, “They run! they
run!”—“Who run?” cried the gallant Wolfe, with great
eagerness. When the lieutenant replied, “The French.”—
“What!” said he, “do the cowards run already? then I die
happy.” So saying, the glorious youth expired.

ENLARGE

At that very instant, every separate regiment of the British army seemed
to exert itself for the honour of its own peculiar character. While the
right pressed on with their bayonets, brigadier Murray briskly advanced
with the troops under his command, and soon broke the centre of the enemy:
then the High landers, drawing their broad-swords, fell in among them,
with irresistible impetuosity, and drove them with great slaughter into
the town, and the works they had raised at the bridge of the river St.
Charles. On the left and rear of the English, the action was not so
violent. Some of the light infantry had thrown themselves into houses;
where, being attacked, they defended themselves with great courage and
resolution. Colonel Howe having taken post with two companies behind a
small copse, sallied out frequently on the flanks of the enemy during this
attack, and often drove them into heaps; while brigadier Townshend
advanced platoons against their front; so that the right wing of the
French were totally prevented from executing their first intention. The
brigadier himself remained with Amherst’s regiment, to support this
disposition, and to overawe a body of savages posted opposite to the light
infantry, waiting for an opportunity to fall upon the rear of the British
army. General Wolfe being slain, and at the same time Mr. Monckton
dangerously wounded at the head of Lascelles’ regiment, where he
distinguished himself with remarkable gallantry, the command devolved on
brigadier Townshend, who hastened to the centre; and finding the troops
disordered in the pursuit, formed them again with all possible expedition.
This necessary task was scarce performed, when M. de Bougainville, with a
body of two thousand fresh men, appeared in the rear of the English. He
had begun his march from Cape Rouge, as soon as he received intelligence
that the British troops had gained the heights of Abraham, but did not
come up in time to have any share in the battle. Mr. Townshend immediately
ordered two battalions, with two pieces of artillery, to advance against
this officer; who retired, at their approach, among woods and swamps,
where general Townshend very wisely declined hazarding a precarious
attack. He had already obtained a complete victory, taken a great number
of French officers, and was possessed of a very advantageous situation,
which it would have been imprudent to forego. The French general, M. de
Montcalm, was mortally wounded in the battle, and conveyed into Quebec;
from whence, before he died, he wrote a letter to general Townshend,
recommending the prisoners to that generous humanity by which the British
nation is distinguished. His second in command was left wounded on the
field; and next day expired on board an English ship, to which he had been
conveyed. About one thousand of the enemy were made prisoners, including a
great number of officers; and about five hundred were slain on the field
of battle. The wreck of their army, after they had reinforced the garrison
of Quebec, retired to Point-au-Tremble; from whence they proceeded to
Jacques Quatiers, where they remained intrenched until they were compelled
by the severity of the weather to make the best of their way to Trois
Rivieres and Montreal. This important victory was obtained at the expense
of fifty men killed, including nine officers; and of about five hundred
men wounded: but the death of general Wolfe was a national loss,
universally lamented. He inherited from nature an animating fervour of
sentiment, an intuitive perception, an extensive capacity, and a passion
for glory, which stimulated him to acquire every species of military
knowledge that study could comprehend, that actual service could
illustrate and confirm. This noble warmth of disposition, seldom fails to
call forth and unfold the liberal virtues of the soul. Brave above all
estimation of danger, he was also generous, gentle, complacent and humane;
the pattern of the officer, the darling of the soldier: there was a
sublimity in his genius which soared above the pitch of ordinary minds;
and had his faculties been exercised to their full extent by opportunity
and action, had his judgment been fully matured by age and experience, he
would without doubt have rivalled in reputation the most celebrated
captains of antiquity.

QUEBEC TAKEN.

Immediately after the battle of Quebec, admiral Saunders, who, together
with his subordinates Durell and Holmes, had all along co-operated
heartily with the land-forces for the advantage of the service, sent up
all the boats of the fleet with artillery and ammunition; and on the
seventeenth day of the month sailed up with all the ships of war, in a
disposition to attack the lower town, while the upper part should be
assaulted by general Townshend. This gentleman had employed the time from
the day of action in securing the camp with redoubts, in forming a
military road for the cannon, in drawing up the artillery, preparing
batteries, and cutting off the enemy’s communication with the country. On
the seventeenth, before any battery could be finished, a flag of truce was
sent from the town, with proposals of capitulation; which, being maturely
considered by the general and admiral, were accepted, and signed at eight
next morning. They granted the more favourable terms, as the enemy
continued to assemble in the rear of the British army; as the season was
become wet, stormy, and cold, threatening the troops with sickness, and
the fleet with accident; and as a considerable advantage would result from
taking possession of the town while the walls were in a state of defence.
What rendered the capitulation still more fortunate for the British
general, was the information he afterwards received from deserters, that
the enemy had rallied, and were reinforced behind cape Rouge, under the
command of M. de Levy, arrived from Montreal for that purpose, with two
regular battalions; and that M. de Bougainville, at the head of eight
hundred men, with a convoy of provisions, was actually on his march to
throw himself into the town on the eighteenth, that very morning on which
it was surrendered. The place was not then completely invested, as the
enemy had broke the bridge of boats, and posted detachments in very strong
works on the other side of the river St. Charles. The capitulation was no
sooner ratified, than the British forces took possession of Quebec on the
land side; and guards were posted in different parts of the town, to
preserve order and discipline; at the same time captain Palliser, with a
body of seamen, entered the lower town and took the same precautions. Next
day about a thousand prisoners were embarked on board transports, which
proceeded to France with the first opportunity. Meanwhile the inhabitants
of the country came in great numbers, to deliver up their arms, and take
the oath of fidelity to the English government. The death of Montcalm,
which was indeed an irreparable loss to France, in all probability
overwhelmed the enemy with consternation, and confounded all their
councils; otherwise we cannot account for the tame surrender of Quebec to
a handful of troops, even after the victory they had obtained: for
although the place was not regularly fortified on the land-side, and most
of the houses were in ruins, their walls and parapets had not yet
sustained the least damage; the besiegers were hardly sufficient to
complete the investiture; a fresh army was assembled in the neighbourhood,
with which their communication continued open; the season was so far
advanced, that the British forces in a little time must have been forced
to desist by the severity of the weather, and even retire with their fleet
before the approach of winter, which never fails to freeze up the river
St. Laurence.

Immediately after the action at the Falls of Montmorenci, general Wolfe
had despatched an officer to England, with a detail of that disaster,
written with such elegance and accuracy, as would not have disgraced the
pen of a Cæsar. Though the public acquiesced in his conduct, they were
exceedingly mortified at his miscarriage; and this mortification was the
greater, as he seemed to despair of being able to strike any other stroke
of importance for the accomplishment of their hope, which had aspired at
the absolute conquest of Canada. The first transports of their chagrin
were not yet subsided, when colonel Hale arrived in the ship Alcide, with
an account of the victory and surrender of Quebec; which was immediately
communicated to the people in an Extraordinary Gazette. The joy which this
excited among the populace rose in proportion to the despondence which the
former had produced: all was rapture and riot; all was triumph and
exultation, mingled with the praise of the all-accomplished Wolfe, which
they exalted even to a ridiculous degree of hyperbole. The king expressed
his satisfaction by conferring the honour of knighthood upon captain
Douglas, whose ship brought the first tidings of this success; and
gratified him and colonel Hale with considerable presents. A day of solemn
thanksgiving was appointed by proclamation through all the dominions of
Great Britain. The city of London, the universities, and many other
corporations of the kingdom, presented congratulatory addresses to his
majesty. The parliament was no sooner assembled, than the secretary of
state, in the house of commons, expatiated upon the successes of the
campaign, the transcendent merit of the deceased general, the conduct and
courage of the admirals and officers who assisted in the conquest of
Quebec. In consequence of this harangue, and the motion by which it was
succeeded, the house unanimously resolved to present an address, desiring
his majesty would order a monument to be erected in Westminster-abbey to
the memory of major-general Wolfe; at the same time they passed another
resolution, that the thanks of the house should be given to the surviving
generals and admirals employed in the glorious and successful expedition
to Quebec. Testimonies of this kind, while they reflect honour upon the
character of the nation, never fail to animate individuals to a spirited
exertion of their talents in the service of the public. The people of
England were so elevated by the astonishing success of this campaign,
which was also prosperous on the continent of Europe, that, far from
expressing the least sense of the enormous burdens which they bore, they,
with a spirit peculiar to the British nation, voluntarily raised large
contributions to purchase warm jackets, stockings, shoes, coats, and
blankets, for the soldiers who were exposed to the rigours of an inclement
sky in Germany and America. But they displayed a more noble proof of
unrestrained benevolence, extended even to foes. The French ministry,
straitened in their finances, which were found scarce sufficient to
maintain the war, had sacrificed their duty to their king, and every
sentiment of compassion for his unhappy subjects, to a thirst of
vengeance, and sanguinary views of ambition. They had withdrawn the usual
allowance from their subjects who were detained prisoners in England; and
those wretched creatures, amounting in number to near twenty thousand,
were left to the mercy of those enemies whom their sovereign had taken
such pains to exasperate. The allowance with which they were indulged by
the British government effectually secured them from the horrors of
famine; but still they remained destitute of other conveniences, and
particularly exposed to the miseries of cold and nakedness. The generous
English beheld these forlorn captives with sentiments of sympathy and
compassion; they considered them as their fellow-creatures and brethren in
humanity, and forgot their country while they beheld their distress. A
considerable subscription was raised in their behalf; and in a few weeks
they were completely clothed by the charity of their British benefactors.
This beneficent exertion was certainly one of the noblest triumphs of the
human mind, which even the most inveterate enemies of Great Britain cannot
but regard with reverence and admiration.—The city of Quebec being
reduced, together with great part of the circumjacent country, brigadier
Townshend, who had accepted his commission with the express proviso that
he should return to England at the end of the campaign, left a garrison of
five thousand effective men, victualled from the fleet, under the command
of brigadier Murray; and, embarking with admiral Saunders, arrived in
Great Britain about the beginning of winter. As for brigadier Monckton, he
was conveyed to New York, where he happily recovered of his wound.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Siege of Madras….. Colonel Forde defeats the Marquis de
Conflans near Gola-pool….. Captain Knox takes Rajamundry
and Narsipore….. Colonel Forde takes Masulipatam…..
Surat taken by the English….. Unsuccessful Attack upon
Wandewash….. Admiral Pococke defeats Monsieur d’Apehé…..
Hostilities of the Dutch on the River of Bengal….. Colonel
Coote takes Wandewash….. Defeats General Lally….. and
conquers the Province of Arcot….. State of the
Belligerent Powers in Europe….. Frankfort seized by the
French….. Progress of the Hereditary Prince of
Brunswick….. Prince Ferdinand attacks the French at
Bergen….. The British Ministry appoint an Inspector
General of the Forage….. Prince Ferdinand retreats before
the French Army….. Animosity between the General of the
Allied Army and the Commander of the British Forces….. The
French encamp at Min-den….. and are defeated by the
Allies….. Duke de Brissac routed by the Hereditary Prince
of Brunswick….. General Imhoff takes Munster from the
French….. who retreat before Prince Ferdinand….. The
Hereditary Prince beats up the Duke of Wirtemberg’s Quarters
at Fulda….. A Body of Prussians make an incursion into
Poland….. Prince Henry penetrates into Bohemia….. He
enters Franconia, and obliges the Imperial Army to
retire….. King of Prussia vindicates his Conduct with
respect to his Prisoners….. The Prussian General Wedel
defeated by the Russians at Zullichau….. The King of
Prussia takes the Command of General Wedel’s Corps…..
Battle of Cunersdorf….. Advantages gained by the Prussians
in Saxony….. Prince Henry surprises General Vehla…..
General Finck, with his whole Corps of Prussians, surrounded
and taken by the Austrian General….. Disaster of the
Prussian General Diercke….. Conclusion of the
Campaign….. Arret of the Evangelical Body at Ratisbon…..
The French Ministry stop Payment….. The States-General
send over Deputies to England….. Memorial presented to the
States by Major-General Yorke….. A counter Memorial
presented by the French Minister….. Death of the King of
Spain….. He is succeeded by his brother Don Carlos, who
makes a remarkable Settlement….. Detection and
Punishment of the Conspirators at Lisbon….. Session opened
in England….. Substance of the Addresses….. Supplies
granted….. Ways and Means, Annuities, &c……. Bills for
granting several Duties on Malt, &c…… Petitions for and
against the Prohibition of the Malt Distillery…..
Opposition to the Bill for preventing the excessive
Use of Spirituous Liquors….. Bill for continuing the
Importation of Irish Beef….. Attempt to establish a
Militia in Scotland….. Further Regulations relative to the
Militia of England….. Bill for removing the Powder
Magazine from Greenwich….. Act for improving the Streets
of London….. Bill relative to the Sale of Fish in London
and Westminster….. New Act for ascertaining the
Qualifications of Members of Parliament….. Act for
consolidating the Annuities granted in 1759….. Bill for
securing the Payment of Prize and Bounty Money appropriated
for the Use of Greenwich Hospital….. Act in Favour of
George Keith, late Earl Marshal of Scotland….. Session
closed

SIEGE OF MADRAS.

While the arms of Great Britain triumphed in Europe and America, her
interest was not suffered to languish in other parts of the world. This
was the season of ambition and activity, in which every separate armament,
every distinct corps, and individual officer, seemed to exert themselves
with the most eager appetite of glory. The East Indies, which in the
course of the preceding year had been the theatre of operations carried on
with various success, exhibited nothing now but a succession of trophies
to the English commanders. The Indian transactions of the last year were
interrupted at that period when the French general, Lally, was employed in
making preparations for the siege of Madras. In the month of October he
had marched into Arcot without opposition; and in the beginning of
December, he advanced towards Madras. On the twelfth he marched over
Choultry plain, in three divisions, cannonaded by the English artillery
with considerable effect, and took post at Egmore and St. Thome. Colonel
Laurence, who commanded the garrison of Madras, retired to the island, in
order to prevent the enemy from taking possession of the island bridge;
and at the same time ordered the posts to be occupied in the Blacktown, or
suburbs of Madras. In the morning of the fourteenth, the enemy marched
with their whole force to attack this place; the English detachments
retreated into the garrison; and within the hour a grand sally was made,
under the command of colonel Draper, a gallant officer, who signalized
himself remarkably on this occasion. He attacked the regiment of Lorrain
with great impetuosity; and in all probability would have beat them off,
had they not been sustained by the arrival of a fresh brigade. After a
very warm dispute, in which many officers and a great number of men were
killed on each side, colonel Draper was obliged to retreat, not altogether
satisfied with the conduct of his grenadiers. As the garrison of Madras
was not very numerous, nothing further was attempted on their side without
the works. In the meantime, the enemy used all their diligence in erecting
batteries against the fort and town; which being opened on the sixth day
of January, they maintained a continual discharge of shot and shells for
twenty days, advancing their trenches all the time under cover of this
fire, until they reached the breast of the glacis. There they erected a
battery of four pieces of cannon, and opened it on the last day of the
month; but for five days successively they were obliged to close their
embrasures by the superior fire of the fort, and at length to abandon it
entirely: nevertheless, they still maintained a severe fire from the first
grand battery, which was placed at the distance of four hundred and fifty
yards from the defences. This artillery was so well served, as to disable
twenty-six pieces of cannon, three mortars, and effect an inconsiderable
breach. Perhaps they might have had more success, had they battered in
breach from the beginning; but M. Lally, in order to intimidate the
inhabitants, had cruelly bombarded the town, and demolished the houses: he
was, however, happily disappointed in his expectation by the wise and
resolute precautions of governor Pigot; by the vigilance, conduct, and
bravery of the colonels Laurence and Draper, seconded by the valour and
activity of major Brereton, and the spirit of the inferior officers. The
artillery of the garrison was so well managed, that from the fifth day of
February, the fire of the enemy gradually decreased from twenty-three to
six pieces of cannon: nevertheless, they advanced their sap along the
sea-side, so as to embrace entirely the north-east angle of the covered
way, from whence their musketry drove the besieged. They likewise
endeavoured to open a passage into the ditch by a mine; but sprung it so
injudiciously, that they could make no advantage of it, as it lay exposed
to the fire of several cannon. While these preparations were carried on
before the town, major Caillaud and captain Preston, with a body of
sepoys, some of the country horse, and a few Europeans drawn from the
English garrisons of Trichinopoly and Chingalaput, hovered at the distance
of a few miles, blocking up the roads in such a manner that the enemy were
obliged, four several times, to send large detachments against them, in
order to open the communication: thus the progress of the siege was in a
great measure retarded. On the sixteenth day of February, in the evening,
the Queenborough ship of war, commanded by captain Kempenfeldt, and the
company’s ship the Revenge, arrived in the road of Madras, with a
reinforcement of six hundred men belonging to colonel Draper’s regiment,
and part of them was immediately disembarked. From the beginning of the
siege the enemy had discovered a backwardness in the service, very
unsuitable to their national character. They were ill supplied by their
commissaries and contractors: they were discouraged by the obstinate
defence of the garrison, and all their hope of success vanished at the
arrival of this reinforcement. After a brisk fire, they raised the siege
that very night, abandoning forty pieces of cannon; and having destroyed
the powder-mills at Egmore, retreated to the territory of Arcot. 515
[See note 4 A, at the end of this Vol.]

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SUCCESS OF COLONEL FORDE.

M. Lally having weakened his forces that were at Masalipatam, under the
conduct of the marquis de Conflans, in order to strengthen the army with
which he undertook the siege of Madras, the rajah of Vizanapore drove the
French garrison from Vizagapatam, and hoisted English colours in the
place. The marquis having put his troops in motion to revenge this insult,
the rajah solicited succour from colonel Clive at Calcutta; and, with the
consent of the council, a body of troops was sent under the command of
colonel Forde to his assistance. They consisted of five hundred Europeans,
including a company of artillery, and sixteen hundred sepoys; with about
fifteen pieces of cannon, one howitzer, and three mortars. The forces of
Conflans were much more considerable. On the twentieth day of October
colonel Forde arrived at Vizagapatam, and made an agreement with the
rajah, who promised to pay the expense of the expedition, as soon as he
should be put in possession of Rajamundry, a large town and fort possessed
by the French. It was stipulated that he should have all the inland
country belonging to the Indian powers in the French interest, and at
present in arms; and that the English company should retain all the
conquered sea-coast from Vizagapatam to Masulipatam. On the first of
November colonel Forde proceeded on his march; and on the third joined the
rajah’s army, consisting of between three and four thousand men. On the
third of December, they came in sight of the enemy, near the village of
Golapool; but the French declining battle, the colonel determined to draw
them from their advantageous situation, or march round and get between
them and Rajamundry. On the seventh, before day-break, he began his march,
leaving the rajah’s forces on their ground; but the enemy beginning to
cannonade the Indian forces, he, at the request of the rajah, returned and
took them under his protection. Then they marched together to the village
of Colapool, and halted on a small plain about three miles from their
encampment. About nine he formed the line of battle. About ten the enemy
were drawn up, and began the cannonade. The firing on both sides having
continued about forty minutes, the enemy’s line advanced to the charge
with great resolution; and were so warmly received, that, after several
spirited efforts, at eleven they gave way, and retreated in disorder
towards Rajamundry. During this conflict the rajah’s forces stood as idle
spectators, nor could their horse be prevailed upon to pursue the
fugitives. The victory cost the English forty-four Europeans killed and
wounded, including two captains and three lieutenants. The French lost
above three times the number, together with their whole camp-baggage,
thirty-two pieces of cannon, and all their ammunition. A great number of
black forces fell on both sides. The marquis de Conflans did not remain at
Rajamundry, but proceeded to Masulipatam; while captain Knox, with a
detachment from the English army, took possession of the fort of
Rajamundry, which is the barrier and key to the country of Vizagapatam.
This was delivered to the rajah on his paying the expense of the
expedition; and captain Knox being detached with a battalion of sepoys,
took possession of the French factory at Narsipore. This was also the fate
of a small fort at Coucate, which surrendered to captain Maclean, after
having made an obstinate defence. In the meantime, however, the French
army of observation made shift to retake Rajamundry, where they found a
considerable quantity of money, baggage and effects, belonging to English
officers.

Colonel Forde advancing to the neighbourhood of Masulipatam, the marquis
de Conflans with his forces retired within the place, which on the seventh
day of March was invested. By the seventh day of April the ammunition of
the besiegers being almost expended, colonel Forde determined to give the
assault, as two breaches were already made, and made his disposition
accordingly. The attack was begun in the night, and the assailants arrived
at the ditch before they were discovered. But here they underwent a
terrible discharge of grape-shot and musquetry; notwithstanding which they
entered the breaches and drove the enemy from bastion to bastion. At
length, the marquis de Conflans sent an officer to demand quarter for the
garrison, which was granted as soon as he ordered his men to cease firing.
Thus, with about three hundred and forty European soldiers, a handful of
seamen, and seven hundred sepoys, colonel Forde took by assault the strong
town of Masulipatam, garrisoned by five hundred and twenty-one Europeans,
two thousand and thirty-nine Caffres, Topasses, and sepoys; and here he
found above one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, with a great quantity
of ammunition. Salabatzing, the suba of De-can, perceiving the success of
the English here as well as at Madras, being sick of his French alliance,
and in dread of his brother Nizam Allée, who had set up a separate
interest, and taken the field against him, made advances to the company,
with which he forthwith concluded a treaty to the following effect:—“The
whole of the circar of Masulipatam shall be given to the English company.
Salabatzing will not suffer the French to have a settlement in this
country, nor keep them in his service, nor give them any assistance. The
English, on their part, will not assist nor give protection to the suba’s
enemies.”—In a few clays after Masulipatam was reduced, two ships
arrived in the road with a reinforcement of four hundred men to the
marquis de Conflans; but, understanding the fate of the place, made the
best of their way to Ganjam.

SURAT TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH.

The merchants residing at Surat, finding themselves exposed to numberless
dangers, and every species of oppression, by the sidee who commanded the
castle on one hand, by the governor of the city on the other, and by the
Mahrattas, who had a claim to a certain share of the revenue, made
application to the English presidency at Bombay, desiring they would equip
an expedition for taking possession of the castle and tanka, and settle
the government of the city upon Pharass Cawn, who had been naib or
deputy-governor under Meah Atchund, and regulated the police to the
satisfaction of the inhabitants. The presidency embraced the proposal:
admiral Pococke spared two of his ships for this service. Eight hundred
and fifty men, artillery and infantry, with fifteen hundred sepoys, under
the command of captain Richard Maitland, of the royal regiment of
artillery, were embarked on board the company’s armed vessels commanded by
captain Watson, who sailed on the ninth of February. On the fifteenth they
were landed at a place called Dentiloury, about nine miles from Surat; and
here they were encamped for refreshment: in two days he advanced against
the French garden, in which a considerable number of the sidee’s men were
posted, and drove them from thence after a very obstinate dispute. Then he
erected a battery, from which he battered the wall in breach: but this
method appearing tedious, he called a council of war, composed of the land
and sea-officers, and laid before them the plan of a general attack, which
was accordingly executed next morning. The company’s grab, and the
bomb-ketches, being warped up the river in the night, were ranged in a
line of battle opposite to the Bundar, which was the strongest
fortification that the enemy possessed; and under the fire of these the
troops being landed, took the Bundar by assault. The outward town being
thus gained, he forthwith began to bombard the inner town and castle with
such fury, that next morning they both surrendered, on condition of being
allowed to inarch out with their effects; and captain Maitland took
possession without further dispute. Meah Atchund was continued governor of
Surat, and Pharass Cawn was appointed naib. The artillery and ammunition
found in the castle were secured for the company, until the mogul’s
pleasure was known; and in a little time a phirmaund, or grant, arrived
from Delhi, appointing the English company admiral to the mogul; so that
the ships and stores belonged to them of course, as part of the tanka; and
they were now declared legal possessors of the castle. This conquest,
which cost about two hundred men, including a few officers, was achieved
with such expedition, that captain Watson returned to Bombay by the ninth
day of April.

The main body of the English forces, which had been centered at Madras,
for the preservation of that important settlement, took the field after
the siege was raised, and possessed themselves of Conjeveram, a place of
great consequence; which, with the fort of Schengelpel, commanded all the
adjacent country, and secured the British possessions to the northward. M.
Lally, sensible of the importance of the post, took the same route in
order to dislodge them; but finding all his attempts ineffectual, he
retired towards Wandewash, where his troops were put into quarters of
cantonment. No other operations ensued till the month of September; when
major Brere-ton, who commanded the English forces, being joined by major
Gordon with three hundred men of colonel Coote’s battalion, resolved to
attack the enemy in his turn. On the fourteenth day of the month he began
his march from Conjeveram for Wandewash, at the head of four hundred
Europeans, seven thousand sepoys, seventy European and three hundred black
horse, with fourteen pieces of artillery. In his march he invested and
took the fort of Trivitar; from whence he proceeded to the village of
Wandewash, where the French, to the number of one thousand, were strongly
encamped under the guns of a fort, commanded by a rajah, mounting twenty
cannon, under the direction of a French gunner. On the thirteenth day of
September, at two in the morning, the English attacked the village in
three different places, and drove them from it after a very obstinate
dispute; but this advantage they were not able to maintain. The black
pioneers ran away during the attack, so that proper traverses could not be
made in the streets; and at day-break the fort poured in upon them a
prodigious discharge of grape-shot with considerable effect. The enemy had
retired to a dry ditch, which served as an intrenchment, from whence they
made furious sallies; and a body of three hundred European horse were
already in motion, to fall upon and complete their confusion. In this
emergency, they retired in disorder; and might have been entirely ruined,
had not the body of reserve effectually covered their retreat: yet this
could not be effected without the loss of several officers, and above
three hundred men killed and wounded. After this mortifying check, they
encamped a few days in sight of the fort, and, the rainy season setting
in, returned to Conjeveram. The fort of Wandewash was afterwards
garrisoned by French and sepoys; and the other forces of the enemy were
assembled by brigadier-general de Bussy, at Arcot.

ADMIRAL POCOCKE DEFEATS MONSIEUR D’APCHE.

During these transactions by land, the superiority at sea was still
disputed between the English and French admirals. On the first day of
September, vice-admiral Pococke sailed from Madras to the southward, in
quest of the enemy, and next day descried the French fleet, consisting of
fifteen sail, standing to the northward. He forthwith threw out the signal
for a general chase, and stood towards them with all the sail he could
carry; but the wind abating, he could not approach near enough to engage.
During the three succeeding days, he used his utmost endeavours to bring
them to a battle, which they still declined, and at last they disappeared.
He then directed his course to Pondicherry, on the supposition that they
were bound to that harbour; and on the eighth day of the month perceived
them standing to the southward: but he could not bring them to an
engagement till the tenth, when M. d’Apché, about two in the afternoon,
made the signal for battle, and the cannonading began without further
delay. The British squadron did not exceed nine ships of the line; the
enemy’s fleet consisted of eleven; but they had still a greater advantage
in number of men and artillery. Both squadrons fought with great
impetuosity till about ten minutes after four, when the enemy’s rear began
to give way: this example was soon followed by their centre; and finally
the van, with the whole squadron, bore to the south-south-east, with all
the canvass they could spread. The British squadron was so much damaged in
their masts and rigging, that they could not pursue; so that M. d’Apché
retreated at his leisure unmolested. On the fifteenth, admiral Pococke
returned to Madras, where his squadron being repaired by the twenty-sixth,
he sailed again to Pondicherry, and in the road saw the enemy lying at
anchor in line of battle. The wind being off shore, he made the line of
battle a-head, and for some time continued in this situation. At length
the French admiral weighed anchor, and came forth; but instead of bearing
down upon the English squadron, which had fallen to leeward, he kept close
to the wind, and stretched away to the southward. Admiral Pococke finding
him averse to another engagement, and his own squadron being in no
condition to pursue, he, with the advice of his captains, desisted, and
measured back his course to Madras. On the side of the English, above
three hundred men were killed in the engagement, including captain Miche,
who commanded the Newcastle, captain Gore of the marines, two lieutenants,
a master gunner, and boatswain: the captains Somerset and Brereton, with
about two hundred and fifty men, were wounded; and many of the ships
considerably damaged. The loss of the enemy must have been much more
considerable, because the English in battle always fire at the body of the
ship; because the French squadron was crowded with men; because they gave
way, and declined a second engagement; and, finally, because they now made
the best of their way to the island of Mauritius, in order to be refitted,
having on board general Lally and some other officers. Thus they left the
English masters of the Indian coast; superiority still more confirmed by
the arrival of rear-admiral Cornish, with four ships of the line, who had
set sail from England in the beginning of the year, and joined admiral
Pococke at Madras on the eighteenth day of October.

HOSTILITIES OF THE DUTCH.

The French were not the only enemies with whom the English had to cope in
the East Indies. The great extension of their trade in the kingdom of
Bengal, had excited the envy and avarice of the Dutch factory, who
possessed a strong fort at Chinchura, on the river of Bengal; and
resolved, if possible, to engross the whole saltpetre branch of commerce.
They had, without doubt, tampered with the new suba, who lay under such
obligations to the English, and probably secured his connivance. Their
scheme was approved by the governor of Batavia, who charged himself with
the execution of it; and, for that purpose, chose the opportunity when the
British squadron had retired to the coast of Malabar. On pretence of
reinforcing the Dutch garrisons in Bengal, he equipped an armament of
seven ships, having on board five hundred European troops, and six hundred
Malayese, under the command of colonel Russel. This armament having
touched at Negapatam, proceeded up the bay, and arrived in the river of
Bengal about the beginning of October. Colonel Clive, who then resided at
Calcutta, had received information of their design, which he was resolved,
at all events, to defeat. He complained to the suba; who, upon such
application, could not decently refuse an order to the director and
council of Hughley, implying that this armament should not proceed up the
river. The colonel, at the same time, sent a letter to the Dutch
commodore, intimating that, as he had received intimation of their design,
he could not allow them to land forces, and march to Chinchura. In answer
to this declaration, the Dutch commodore, whose whole fleet had not yet
arrived, assured the English commander that he had no intention to send
any forces to Chinchura; and begged liberty to land some of his troops for
refreshment—a favour that was granted, on condition that they should
not advance. Notwithstanding the suba’s order, and his own engagement to
this effect, the rest of the ships were no sooner arrived, than he
proceeded up the river to the neighbourhood of Tannah-fort, where his
forces being disembarked, began their march to Chinchura. In the meantime,
by way of retaliating the affront he pretended to have sustained in being
denied a passage to their own factory, he took several small vessels on
the river belonging to the English company; and the Calcutta Indiaman,
commanded by captain Wilson, homeward-bound, sailing down the river, the
Dutchman gave him to understand, that if he presumed to pass he would sink
him without further ceremony. The English captain seeing them run out
their guns as if really resolved to put their threats in execution,
returned to Calcutta, where two other India ships lay at anchor, and
reported his adventure to colonel Clive, who forthwith ordered the three
ships to prepare for battle, and attack the Dutch armament. The ships
being properly manned, and their sides lined with saltpetre, they fell
down the river, and found the Dutch squadron drawn up in a line of battle,
in order to give them a warm reception, for which indeed they seemed well
prepared; for three of them were mounted with thirty-six guns each, three
of them with twenty-six, and the seventh carried sixteen. The duke of
Dorset, commanded by captain Forrester, being the first that approached
them, dropped anchor close to their line, and began the engagement with a
broadside, which was immediately returned. A dead calm unfortunately
intervening, this single ship was for a considerable time exposed to the
whole fire of the enemy; but a small breeze springing up, the Calcutta and
the Hard wick advanced to her assistance, and a severe fire was maintained
on both sides, till two of the Dutch ships, slipping their cables, bore
away, and a third was driven ashore. Their commodore, thus weakened, after
a few broadsides struck his flag to captain Wilson, and the other three
followed his example. The victory being thus obtained, without the loss of
one man on the side of the English, captain Wilson took possession of the
prizes, the decks of which were strewed with carnage, and sent the
prisoners to colonel Clive at Calcutta. The detachment of troops which
they had landed, to the number of eleven hundred men, was not more
fortunate in their progress. Colonel Clive no sooner received intelligence
that they were in full march to Chinchura, than he detached colonel Forde
with five hundred men from Calcutta, in order to oppose and put a stop to
their march at the French gardens. He accordingly advanced to the
northward, and entered the town of Chandernagore, where he sustained the
fire of a Dutch party sent out from Chinchura to join and conduct the
expected reinforcement. These being routed and dispersed, after a short
action, colonel Forde in the morning proceeded to a plain in the
neighbourhood of Chinchura, where he found the enemy prepared to give him
battle on the twenty-fifth day of November. They even advanced to the
charge with great resolution and activity; but found the fire of the
English artillery and battalion so intolerably hot, that they soon gave
way, and were totally defeated. A considerable number were killed, and the
greater part of those who survived the action were taken prisoners. During
this contest, the nabob, at the head of a considerable army, observed a
suspicious neutrality; and in all likelihood would have declared for the
Dutch had they proved victorious, as he had reason to believe they would,
from their great superiority in number. But fortune no sooner determined
in favour of the English, than he made a tender of his service to the
victor, and even offered to reduce Chinchura with his own army. In the
meantime, proposals of accommodation being sent to him by the directors
and council of the Dutch factory at Chinchura, a negotiation ensued, and a
treaty was concluded to the satisfaction of all parties. Above three
hundred of the prisoners entered into the service of Great Britain; the
rest embarked on board their ships, which were restored as soon as the
peace was ratified, and set out on their return for Batavia. After all,
perhaps, the Dutch company meant nothing more than to put their factory of
Chinchura on a more respectable footing; and, by acquiring greater weight
and consequence among the people of the country than they formerly
possessed, the more easily extend their commerce in that part of the
world. At any rate, it will admit of a dispute among those who profess the
law of nature and nations, whether the Dutch company could be justly
debarred the privilege of sending a reinforcement to their own garrisons.
Be that as it will, the ships were not restored until the factory at
Chinchura had given security to indemnify the English for the damage they
had sustained on this occasion.

COLONEL COOTE TAKES WANDEWASH.

The success of the English army was still more conspicuous on the coast of
Coromandel. The governor and council of Madras having received information
that the French general, Lally, had sent a detachment of his army to the
southward, taking Syringham, and threatened Trichinopoly with a siege, it
was determined that colonel Coote, who had lately arrived from England,
should take the field, and endeavour to make a diversion to the southward.
He accordingly began his march at the head of seventeen hundred Europeans,
including cavalry, and three thousand blacks, with fourteen pieces of
cannon and one howitzer. On the twenty-seventh day of November, he
invested the fort of Wandewash: having made a practicable breach, the
garrison, consisting of near nine hundred men, surrendered prisoners of
war; and he found in the place forty-nine pieces of cannon, with a great
quantity of ammunition. Then he undertook the siege of Carangoly, a
fortress commanded by colonel O’Kennely, at the head of one hundred
Europeans, and five hundred sepoys. In a few days he dismounted the
greater part of their guns; and they submitted, on condition that the
Europeans should be allowed to march out with the honours of war, but the
sepoys were disarmed and dismissed.

General Lally, alarmed at the progress of this brave, vigilant, and
enterprising officer, assembled all his forces at Arcot, to the number of
two thousand two hundred Europeans, including horse; three hundred
Caffres, and ten thousand black troops, or sepoys; with five-and-twenty
pieces of cannon. Of these he assumed the command in person; and on the
tenth day of January began his march in order to recover Wandewash.
Colonel Coote, having received intelligence on the twelfth that he had
taken possession of Conjeveram, endeavoured by a forced march to save the
place, which they accordingly abandoned at his approach, and pursuing
their march to Wandewash, invested the fort without delay. The English
commander passed the river Palla, in order to follow the same route; and,
on the twenty-first day of the month, understanding that a breach was
already made, resolved to give them battle without further delay. The
cavalry being formed, and supported by five companies of sepoys, he
advanced against the enemy’s horse, which being at the same time galled by
two pieces of cannon, retired with precipitation. Then colonel Coote,
having taken possession of a tank which they had occupied, returned to the
line, which was by this time formed in order of battle. Seeing the men in
high spirits, and eager to engage, he ordered the whole army to advance;
and by nine in the morning they were within two miles of the enemy’s camp,
where they halted about half an hour. During this interval, the colonel
reconnoitred the situation of the French forces, who were very
advantageously posted; and made a movement to the right, which obliged
them to alter their disposition. They now advanced, in their turn, within
three quarters of a mile of the English line, and the cannonading began
with great fury on both sides. About noon their European cavalry coming up
with a resolute air to charge the left of the English, colonel Coote
brought up some companies of sepoys, and two pieces of cannon, to sustain
the horse, which were ordered to oppose them; and these advancing on their
flank, disturbed them so much that they broke, and were driven by the
English cavalry above a mile from the left, upon the rear of their own
army. Meanwhile, both lines continued advancing to each other; and about
one o’clock the firing with small-arms began with great vivacity. One of
the French tumbrils being blown up by an accidental shot, the English
commander took immediate advantage of their confusion. He ordered major
Brere-ton to wheel Draper’s regiment to the left, and fall upon the
enemy’s flank. This service was performed with such resolution and
success, that the left wing of the French was completely routed and fell
upon their centre, now closely engaged with the left of the English. About
two in the afternoon their whole line gave way, and fled towards their own
camp; which, perceiving themselves closely pursued, they precipitately
abandoned, together with twenty-two pieces of cannon. In this engagement
they lost about eight hundred men killed and wounded, besides about fifty
prisoners, including brigadier-general de Bussy, the chevalier Godeville,
quarter-master-general, lieutenant-colonel Murphy, three captains, five
lieutenants, and some other officers. On the side of the English two
hundred and sixty-two were killed or wounded, and among the former the
gallant and accomplished major Brereton, whose death was a real loss to
his country.

COLONEL COOTE CONQUERS ARCOT.

General Lally having retreated with his broken troops to Pondicherry, the
baron de Vasserot was detached towards the same place, with a thousand
horse and three hundred sepoys, to ravage and lay waste the French
territory. In the meantime, the indefatigable colonel Coote undertook the
siege of Chilliput, which in two days was surrendered by the chevalier de
Tilly; himself and his garrison remaining prisoners of war. Such also was
the fate of fort Timmery; which being reduced, the colonel prosecuted his
march to Arcot, the capital of the province, against the fort of which he
opened his batteries on the fifth day of February. When he had carried on
his approaches within sixty yards of the crest of the glacis, the
garrison, consisting of two hundred and fifty Europeans, and near three
hundred sepoys, surrendered as prisoners of war; and here the English
commander found two-and-twenty pieces of cannon, four mortars, and a great
quantity of all kinds of military stores. Thus the campaign was gloriously
finished with the conquest of Arcot; after the French army had been routed
and ruined by the diligence of colonel Coote, whose courage, conduct, and
activity, cannot be sufficiently admired. The reader will perceive, that,
rather than interrupt the thread of such an interesting narration, we have
ventured to encroach upon the annals of the year one thousand seven
hundred and sixty.

STATE OF THE BELLIGERENT POWERS IN EUROPE.

Having thus followed the British banners through the glorious tracks they
pursued in different parts of Asia and America, we must now convert our
attention to the continent of Europe, where the English arms, in the
course of this year, triumphed with equal lustre and advantage. But first
it may be necessary to sketch out the situation in which the belligerent
powers were found at the close of winter. The vicissitudes of fortune with
which the preceding campaign had been chequered, were sufficient to
convince every potentate concerned in the war, that neither side possessed
such a superiority in strength or conduct as was requisite to impose terms
upon the other. Battles had been fought with various success; and
surprising efforts of military skill had been exhibited, without producing
one event which tended to promote a general peace, or even engender the
least desire of, accommodation. On the contrary, the first and most
violent transports of animosity had by this time subsided into a confirmed
habit of deliberate hatred; and every contending power seemed more than
ever determined to protract the dispute; while the neutral states kept
aloof, without expressing the least desire of interposing their mediation.
Some of them were restrained by considerations of conveniency; and others
waited in suspense for the death of the Spanish monarch, as an event
which, they imagined, would be attended with very important consequences
in the southern parts of Europe. With respect to the maintenance of the
war, whatever difficulties might have arisen in settling funds to support
the expense, and finding men to recruit the different armies, certain it
is all these difficulties were surmounted before the opening of the
campaign. The court of Vienna, though hampered by the narrowness of its
finances, still found resources in the fertility of its provinces, in the
number and attachment of its subjects, who more than any other people in
Europe acquiesce in the dispositions of their sovereign; and, when pay
cannot be afforded, willingly contribute free quarters for the subsistence
of the army. The czarina, though she complained that the stipulated
subsidies were ill paid, nevertheless persisted in pursuing those
favourite aims which had for some time influenced her conduct; namely, her
personal animosity to the king of Prussia, and her desire of obtaining a
permanent interest in the German empire. Sweden still made a show of
hostility against the Prussian monarch, but continued to slumber over the
engagements she had contracted. France, exhausted in her finances, and
abridged of her marine commerce, maintained a resolute countenance;
supplied fresh armies for her operations in Westphalia; projected new
schemes of conquest; and cajoled her allies with fair promises, when she
had nothing more solid to bestow. The king of Prussia’s dominions were
generally drained, or in the hands of the enemy; but to balance these
disadvantages he kept possession of Saxony; and enjoyed his annual subsidy
from Great Britain, which effectually enabled him to maintain his armies
on a respectable footing, and open the campaign with equal eagerness and
confidence.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

FRANCKFORT SEIZED BY THE FRENCH.

The Hanoverian army, commanded by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, was
strengthened by fresh reinforcements from England, augmented with German
recruits, regularly paid, and well supplied with every comfort and
convenience which foresight could suggest, or money procure; yet, in spite
of all the precautions that could be taken, they were cut off from some
resources which the French, in the beginning of the year, opened to
themselves by a flagrant stroke of perfidy, which even the extreme
necessities of a campaign can hardly excuse. On the second day of January,
the French regiment of Nassau presented itself before the gates of
Franckfort-on-the-Maine, a neutral imperial city; and, demanding a
passage, it was introduced, and conducted by a detachment of the garrison
through the city as far as the gate of Saxenhausen, where it unexpectedly
halted, and immediately disarmed the guards. Before the inhabitants could
recover from the consternation into which they were thrown by this
outrageous insult, five other French regiments entered the place; and here
their general, the prince de Soubise, established his head-quarters. How
deeply soever this violation of the laws of the empire might be resented
by all honest Germans, who retained affection for the constitution of
their country, it was a step from which the French army derived a very
manifest and important advantage; for it secured to them the course of the
Maine and the Upper Rhine; by which they received, without difficulty or
danger, every species of supply from Mentz, Spire, Worms, and even the
country of Alsace, while it maintained their communication with the chain
formed by the Austrian forces and the army of the empire.

PROGRESS OF THE HEREDITARY PRINCE OF BRUNSWICK.

The scheme of operation for the ensuing campaign was already formed between
the king of Prussia and prince Ferdinand of Brunswick; and before the
armies took the field, several skirmishes were fought and quarters
surprised. In the latter end of February, the prince of Ysembourg detached
major-general Urst with four battalions and a body of horse; who,
assembling in Rhotenbourg, surprised the enemy’s quarters in the night
between the first and second day of March, and drove them from Hirchfield,
Vacha, and all the Hessian bailiwicks of which they had taken possession;
but the Austrians soon returning in greater numbers, and being supported
by a detachment of French troops from Franckfort, the allies fell back in
their turn. In a few days, however, they themselves retreated again with
great precipitation, though they did not all escape. The hereditary prince
of Brunswick, with a body of Prussian hussars, fell upon them suddenly at
Molrichstadt, where he routed and dispersed a regiment of Hohenzollern
cuirassiers, and a battalion of the troops of Wurtzburg. He next day,
which was the first of April, advanced with a body of horse and foot to
Meinungen, where he found a considerable magazine, took two battalions
prisoners, and surprised a third posted at Wafungen, after having defeated
some Austrian troops that were on the march to its relief. While the
hereditary prince was thus employed, the duke of Holstein, with another
body of the confederates, dislodged the French from the post of
Freyingstenau.

PRINCE FERDINAND ATTACKS THE FRENCH.

But the great object was to drive the enemy from Franckfort, before they
should receive the expected reinforcements. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick
being determined upon this enterprise, assembled all his forces near
Fulda, to the amount of forty thousand choice troops, and began his march
on the tenth day of April. On the thirteenth he came in sight of the
enemy, whom he found strongly encamped about the village of Bergen,
between Franckfort and Hanau. Their general, the duke de Broglio, counted
one of the best officers in France with respect to conduct and
intrepidity, having received intelligence of the prince’s design, occupied
this post on the twelfth; the right of his army being at Bergen, and his
centre and flanks secured in such a manner, that the allies could not make
their attack any other way but by the village. Notwithstanding the
advantage of their situation, prince Ferdinand resolved to give them
battle, and made his dispositions accordingly. About ten in the morning,
the grenadiers of the advanced guard began the attack on the village of
Bergen with great vivacity, and sustained a most terrible fire from eight
German battalions, supported by several brigades of French infantry. The
grenadiers of the allied army, though reinforced by several battalions
under the command of the prince of Ysembourg, far from dislodging the
enemy from the village, were, after a very obstinate dispute, obliged to
retreat in some disorder, but rallied again behind a body of Hessian
cavalry. The allies being repulsed in three different attacks, their
general made a new disposition, and brought up his artillery, with which
the village, and different parts of the French line, were severely
cannonaded. They were not slow in retorting an equal fire, which continued
till night, when the allies retreated to Windekin, with the loss of five
pieces of cannon, and about two thousand men, including the prince of
Ysembourg, who fell in the action. The French, by the nature of their
situation, could not suffer much; but they were so effectually amused by
the artful disposition of prince Ferdinand, that instead of taking
measures to harass him in his retreat, they carefully maintained their
situation, apprehensive of another general attack. Indeed, they had great
reason to be satisfied with the issue of this battle, without risking in
any measure the advantage which they had gained. It was their business to
remain quiet until their reinforcements should arrive, and this plan they
invariably pursued. On the other hand, the allies, in consequence of their
miscarriage, were reduced to the necessity of acting upon the defensive,
and encountering a great number of difficulties and inconveniences during
great part of the campaign, until the misconduct of the enemy turned the
scale in their favour. In the meantime, the prince thought proper to begin
his retreat in the night towards Fulda, in which his rear suffered
considerably from a body of the enemy’s light troops under the command of
M. de Blaisel, who surprised two squadrons of dragoons and a battalion of
grenadiers. The first were taken or dispersed, the last escaped with the
loss of their baggage. The allied army returned to their cantonments about
Munster, and the prince began to make preparations for taking the field in
earnest.

While the French enjoyed plenty in the neighbourhood of Dusseldorp and
Creveldt, by means of the Rhine, the allies laboured under a dearth and
scarcity of every species of provisions, because the country which they
occupied was already exhausted, and all the supplies were brought from an
immense distance. The single article of forage occasioned such an enormous
expense, as alarmed the administration of Great Britain, who, in order to
prevent mismanagement and fraud for the future, nominated a member of
parliament inspector-general of the forage, and sent him over to Germany
in the beginning of the year, with the rank and appointments of a general
officer, that the importance of his character, and the nature of his
office, might be a check upon those who were suspected of iniquitous
appropriations. This gentleman is said to have met with such a cold
reception, and so many mortifications in the execution of his office, that
he was in a very little time sick of his employment. An inquiry into the
causes of his reception, and of the practices which rendered it necessary
to appoint such a superintendent, may be the province of some future
historian, when truth may be investigated freely, without any apprehension
of pains and penalties.

RETREAT OF PRINCE FERDINAND.

While great part of the allied army remained in cantonments about Munster,
the French armies on the Upper and Lower Rhine, being put in motion,
joined on the third day of June near Marburgh, under the command of the
mareschal de Contades, who advanced to the northward, and fixed his
head-quarters at Corbach, from whence he detached a body of light troops
to take possession of Cassel, which, at his approach, was abandoned by
general Imhoff. The French army being encamped at Stadtberg, the duke de
Broglio, who commanded the right wing, advanced from Cassel into the
territories of Hanover, where he occupied Gottin-gen without opposition;
while the allied army assembled in the neighbourhood of Lipstadt, and
encamped about Soest and Werle. Prince Ferdinand, finding himself inferior
to the united forces of the enemy, was obliged to retire as they advanced,
after having left strong garrisons in Lipstadt, Retberg, Munster, and
Minden. These precautions, however, seemed to produce little effect in his
favour. Retberg was surprised by the duke de Broglio, who likewise took
Minden by assault, and made general Zastrow, with his garrison of fifteen
hundred men, prisoners of war, a misfortune considerably aggravated by the
loss of an immense magazine of hay and corn, which fell into the hands of
the enemy. They likewise made themselves masters of Munster, invested
Lipstadt, and all their operations were hitherto crowned with success. The
regency of Hanover, alarmed at their progress, resolved to provide for the
worst, by sending their chancery and most valuable effects to Stade, from
whence, in case of necessity, they might be conveyed by sea to England.

In the meantime they exerted all their industry in pressing men for
recruiting and reinforcing the army under prince Ferdinand, who still
continued to retire; and on the eleventh day of July removed his
headquarters from Osnabruck to Bompte, near the Weser. Here having
received advice that Minden was taken by the French, he sent forward a
detachment to secure the post of Soltznau on that river, where on the
fifteenth he encamped.

ANIMOSITY BETWEEN PRINCE FERDINAND AND THE BRITISH COMMANDER.

The general of the allied army had for some time exhibited marks of
animosity towards lord George Sackville, the second in command, whose
extensive understanding, penetrating eye, and inquisitive spirit, could
neither be deceived, dazzled, nor soothed into tame acquiescence. He had
opposed, with all his influence, a design of retiring towards the
frontiers of Brunswick in order to cover that country. He supported his
opposition by alleging, that it was the enemy’s favourite object to cut
off their communication with the Weser and the Elbe, in which, should they
succeed, it would be found impossible to transport the British troops to
their own country, which was at that time threatened with an invasion. He,
therefore, insisted on the army’s retreating, so as to keep the
communication open with Stade, where, in case of emergency, the English
troops might be embarked. By adhering tenaciously to this opinion, and
exhibiting other instances of a prying disposition, he had rendered
himself so disagreeable to the commander-in-chief, that, in all
appearance, nothing was so eagerly desired as an opportunity of removing
him from the station he filled.

THE FRENCH ENCAMP AT MINDEN.

Meanwhile the French general advancing to Minden, encamped in a strong
situation; having that town on his right, a steep hill on his left, a
morass in front, and a rivulet in rear. The duke de Broglio commanded a
separate body between Hansbergen and Minden, on the other side of the
Weser; and a third, under the duke de Brissac, consisting of eight
thousand men, occupied a strong post by the village of Coveldt, to
facilitate the route of the convoy’s from Paderborn. Prince Ferdinand
having moved his camp from Soltznau to Petershagen, detached the
hereditary prince on the twenty-eighth day of July to Lubeck, from whence
he drove the enemy, and proceeding to Rimsel, was joined by major-general
Dreves, who had retaken Osnabruck, and cleared all that neighbourhood of
the enemy’s parties: then he advanced towards Hervorden, and fixed his
quarters at Kirchlinneger, to hamper the enemy’s convoys from Paderborn.
During these transactions, prince Ferdinand marched with the allied army
in three columns from Petershagen to Hille, where it encamped, having a
morass on the right, the village of Fredewalde on the left, and in front
those of Northemmern and Holtzenhausen. Fifteen battalions and nineteen
squadrons, with a brigade of heavy artillery, were left under the command
of general Wangenheim, on the left, behind the village of Dodenhausen,
which was fortified with some redoubts, defended by two battalions.
Colonel Luckner, with the Hanoverian hussars and a brigade of hunters,
sustained by two battalions of grenadiers, was posted between Buckebourg
and the Weser, to observe the body of troops commanded by the duke de
Broglio on the other side of the river.

On the last day of July, the mareschal de Contades, resolving to attack
the allied army, ordered the corps of Broglio to repass the river; and,
advancing in eight columns, about midnight, passed the rivulet of Barta,
that runs along the morass and falls into the Weser at Minden. At
day-break he formed his army in order of battle: part of it fronting the
corps of general Wangenheim at Dodenhausen, and part of it facing Hille;
the two wings consisting of infantry, and the cavalry being stationed in
the centre. At three in the morning the enemy began to cannonade the
prince’s quarters at Hille, from a battery of six cannon, which they had
raised in the preceding evening on the dike of Rickhorst. This was
probably the first intimation he received of their intention. He forthwith
caused two pieces of artillery to be conveyed to Hille; and ordered the
officer of the piquet-guard posted there to defend himself to the last
extremity; at the same time he sent orders to general Giesen, who occupied
Lubeck, to attack the enemy’s post at Eickhorst; and this service was
successfully performed. The prince of Anhalt, lieutenant-general for the
day, took possession with the rest of the piquets of the village of Halen,
where prince Ferdinand resolved to support his right. It was already in
the hands of the enemy, but they soon abandoned it with precipitation. The
allied army being put in motion, advanced in eight columns, and occupied
the ground between Halen and Hemmern, while general Wangenheim’s corps
filled up the space between this last village and Dodenhausen. The enemy
made their principal effort on the left, intending to force the infantry
of Wangenheim’s corps, and penetrate between it and the body of the allied
army. For this purpose the duke de Broglio attacked them with great fury;
but was severely checked by a battery of thirty cannon, prepared for his
reception by the count de Buckebourg, grand master of the artillery, and
served with admirable effect, under his own eye and direction. About five
in the morning both armies cannonaded each other: at six the fire of
musketry began with great vivacity; and the action became very hot towards
the right, where six regiments of English infantry, and two battalions of
Hanoverian guards, not only bore the whole brunt of the French carabineers
and gendarmerie, but absolutely broke every body of horse and foot that
advanced to attack them on the left and in the centre. The Hessian
cavalry, with some regiments of Holstein, Prussian, and Hanoverian
dragoons, posted on the left, performed good service. The cavalry on the
right had no opportunity of engaging. They were destined to support the
infantry of the third line: they consisted of the British and Hanoverian
horse, commanded by lord George Sackville, whose second was the marquis of
Granby. They were posted at a considerable distance from the first line of
infantry, and divided from it by a scanty wood that bordered on a heath.
Orders were sent, during the action, to bring them up; but whether these
orders were contradictory, unintelligible, or imperfectly excited, they
did not arrive in time to have any share in the action 521
[See note 4 B, at the end of this Vol.]; nor, indeed, were they
originally intended for that purpose; nor was there the least occasion for
their service; nor could they have come up in time and condition to
perform effectual service, had the orders been explicit and consistent,
and the commander acted with all possible expedition. Be that as it will,
the enemy were repulsed in all their attacks with considerable loss; at
length they gave way in every part, and, about noon, abandoning the field
of battle, were pursued to the ramparts of Minden. In this action they
lost a great number of men, with forty-three large cannon, and many
colours and standards; whereas the loss of the allies was very
inconsiderable, as it chiefly fell upon a few regiments of British
infantry, commanded by the major-generals Waldegrave and Kingsley. To the
extraordinary prowess of these gallant brigades, and the fire of the
British artillery, which was admirably served by the captains Philips,
Macbean, Drummond, and Foy, the victory was in a great measure ascribed.
The same night the enemy passed the Weser and burnt the bridges over that
river. Next day the garrison of Minden surrendered at discretion; and here
the victors found a great number of French officers wounded.

DUKE DE BRISSAC ROUTED.

At last the mareschal de Contades seemed inclined to retreat through the
defiles of Wittekendstein to Paderborn; but he was fain to change his
resolution, in consequence of his having received advice, that on the very
day of his own defeat the duke de Brissac was vanquished by the hereditary
prince in the neighbourhood of Coveldt, so that the passage of the
mountains was rendered impracticable. The duke de Brissac had been
advantageously encamped, with his left to the village of Coveldt, having
the Werra in his front, and his right extending to the salt-pits. In this
advantageous situation he was attacked by the hereditary prince and
general de Kilmanseg, with such vivacity and address that his troops were
totally routed, with the loss of six cannon, and a considerable number of
men killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. After the battle of Minden,
colonel Freytag, at the head of the light troops, took, in the
neighbourhood of Detmold, all the equipage of the mareschal de Contades,
the prince of Condé, and the duke de Brissac, with part of their military
chest and chancery, containing papers of the utmost consequence. 522
[See note 4 C, at the end of this Vol.]

GENEEAL IMHOFF TAKES MUNSTER.

Prince Ferdinand having garrisoned Minden, marched to Hervorden; and the
hereditary prince passed the Weser at Hamelen, in order to pursue the
enemy, who retreated to Cassel, and from thence by the way of Marburg as
far as Giessen. In a word, they were continually harassed by that
enterprising prince, who seized every opportunity of making an impression
upon their army, took the greatest part of their baggage, and compelled
them to abandon every place they possessed in Westphalia. The number of
his prisoners amounted to fifteen hundred men, besides the garrison left
at Cassel, which surrendered at discretion. He likewise surprised a whole
battalion, and defeated a considerable detachment under the command of M.
d’Armentieres. In the meantime, the allied army advanced in regular
marches; and prince Ferdinand, having taken possession of Cassel, detached
general Imhoff with a body of troops to reduce the city of Munster, which
he accordingly began to bombard and cannonade; but d’Armentieres being
joined by a fresh body of troops from the Lower Rhine, advanced to its
relief, and compelled Imhoff to raise the siege. It was not long, however,
before this general was also reinforced; then he measured back his march
to Munster, and the French commander withdrew in his turn. The place was
immediately shut up by a close blockade, which, however, did not prevent
the introduction of supplies. The city of Munster being an object of
importance, was disputed with great obstinacy. Armentieres received
reinforcements, and the body commanded by Imhoff was occasionally
augmented; But the siege was not formally undertaken till November, when
some heavy artillery being brought from England, the place was regularly
invested, and the operations carried on with such vigour, that in a few
days the city surrendered on capitulation.

Prince Ferdinand having possessed himself of the town and castle of
Marburg, proceeded with the army to Neidar-Weimar, and there encamped;
while Contades remained at Giessen, on the south side of the river Lahn,
where he was joined by a colleague in the person of the mareschal
d’Etrées. By this time he was become very unpopular among the troops, on
account of the defeat at Minden, which he is said to have charged on the
misconduct of Broglio, who recriminated on him in his turn, and seemed to
gain credit at the court of Versailles. While the two armies lay encamped
in the neighbourhood of each other, nothing passed but skirmishes among
the light troops, and little excursive expeditions. The French army was
employed in removing their magazines, and fortifying Giessen, as if their
intention was to retreat to Franckfort-on-the-Maine, after having consumed
all the forage, and made a military desert between the Lahn and that
river. In the beginning of November, the duke de Broglio returned from
Paris, and assumed the command of the army, from whence Contades and
d’Etrêes immediately retired, with several other general officers that
were senior to the new commander.

The duke of Wirtemberg having taken possession of Fulda, the hereditary
prince of Brunswick resolved to beat up his quarters. For this purpose he
selected a body of troops, and began his march from Marburg early in the
morning on the twenty-eighth day of November. Next night they lay at
Augerbauch, where they defeated the volunteers of Nassau; and at one
o’clock in the morning of the thirtieth they marched directly to Fulda:
where the duke of Wirtemberg, far from expecting such a visit, had invited
all the fashionable people in Fulda to a sumptuous entertainment. The
hereditary prince having reconnoitred the avenues in person, took such
measures, that the troops of Wirtemberg, who were scattered in small
bodies, would have been cut off if they had not hastily retired into the
town, where however they found no shelter. The prince forced open the
gates, and they retreated to the other side of the town, where four
battalions of them were defeated and taken; while the duke himself, with
the rest of his forces, filed off on the other side of the Fulda. Two
pieces of cannon, two pair of colours, and all their baggage, fell into
the hands of the victors; and the hereditary prince advanced as far as
Rupertenrade, a place situated on the right flank of the French army.
Perhaps this motion hastened the resolution of the duke de Broglio to
abandon Giessen, and fall back to Friedberg, where he established his
head-quarters. The allied army immediately took possession of his camp at
Kleinlinnes and Heuchelam, and seemed to make preparations for the siege
of Giessen.

A BODY OF PRUSSIANS MAKE AN INCURSION INTO POLAND.

While both armies remained in this position, the duke de Broglio received
the staff as mareschal of France, and made an attempt to beat up the
quarters of the allies. Having called in all his detachments, he marched
up to them on the twenty-fifth day of December; but found them so well
disposed to give him a warm reception, that he thought proper to lay aside
his design, and nothing but a mutual cannonade ensued; then he returned to
his former quarters. From. Kleinlinnes the allied army removed to
Corsdoff, where they were cantoned till the beginning of January, when
they fell back as far as Marburg, where prince Ferdinand established his
head-quarters. The enemy had by this time retrieved their superiority, in
consequence of the hereditary prince being detached with fifteen thousand
men to join the king of Prussia at Fribourge, in Saxony. Thus, by the
victory at Minden, the dominions of Hanover and Brunswick were preserved,
and the enemy obliged to evacuate that part of Westphalia. Perhaps they
might have been driven to the other side of the Ehine, had not the general
of the allies been obliged to weaken his army for the support of the
Prussian monarch, who had met with divers disasters in the course of this
campaign. It was not to any relaxation or abatement of his usual vigilance
and activity, that this warlike prince owed the several checks he
received. Even in the middle of winter, his troops under general
Manteuffel acted with great spirit against the Swedes in Pomerania. They
made themselves masters of Damgarten, and several other places which the
Swedes had garrisoned; and the frost setting in, those who were quartered
in the isle of Useclom passed over the ice to Wolgast, which they reduced
without much difficulty. They undertook the sieges of Demmen and Anclam at
the same time; and the garrisons of both surrendered themselves prisoners
of war, to the number of two thousand seven hundred men, including
officers. In Demmen they found four-and-twenty pieces of cannon, with a
large quantity of ammunition. In Anclam there was a considerable magazine,
with six-and-thirty cannon, mortars, and howitzers. A large detachment
under general Knobloch surprised Erfurth, and raised considerable
contributions at Gotha, Isenach, and Fulda; from whence also they conveyed
all the forage and provisions to Saxe-Naumberg. In the latter end of
February, the Prussian major-general Wobersnow marched with a strong body
of troops from Glogau in Silesia, to Poland; and, advancing by way of
Lissa, attacked the castle of the prince Sulkowski, a Polish grandee, who
had been very active against the interest of the Prussian monarch. After
some resistance he was obliged to surrender at discretion, and was sent
prisoner with his whole garrison to Silesia. From hence Wobersnow
proceeded to Posna, where he made himself master of a considerable
magazine, guarded by two thousand cossacks, who retired at his approach;
and having destroyed several others, returned to Silesia. In April, the
fort of Penamunde, in Pomerania, was surrendered to Manteuffel; and about
the same time a detachment of Prussian troops bombarded Schwerin, the
capital of Mecklenburgh. Meanwhile reinforcements were sent to the Russian
army in Poland, which in April began to assemble upon the Vistula. The
court of Petersburgh had likewise begun to equip a large fleet, by means
of which the army might be supplied with military stores and provisions;
but this armament was retarded by an accidental fire at Revel, which
destroyed all the magazines and materials for ship-building to an immense
value.

PRINCE HENRY PENETRATES into BOHEMIA.

About the latter end of March, the king of Prussia assembled his army at
Rhonstock, near Strigau; and advancing to the neighbourhood of Landshut,
encamped at Bolchenhayne. On the other hand, the Austrian army, under the
command of mareschal Daun, was assembled at Munchengratz, in Bohemia; and
the campaign was opened by an exploit of general Beck, who surprised and
made prisoners a battalion of Prussian grenadiers, posted under colonel
Duringsheven, at Griefenberg, on the frontiers of Silesia. This advantage,
however, was more than counterbalanced by the activity and success of
prince Henry, brother to the Prussian king, who commanded the army which
wintered in Saxony. About the middle of April, he marched in two columns
towards Bohemia, forced the pass of Peterswalde, destroyed the Austrian
magazine at Assig, burned their boats upon the Elbe, seized the forage and
provisions which the enemy had left at Lowositz and Leutmeritz, and
demolished a new bridge which they had built for their convenience. At the
same time general Hulsen attacked the pass of Passberg, guarded by general
Reynard, who was taken, with two thousand men, including fifty officers:
then he advanced to Sate, in hopes of securing the Austrian magazines; but
these the enemy consumed, that they might not fall into his hands, and
retired towards Prague with the utmost precipitation.

Prince Henry having happily achieved these adventures, and filled all
Bohemia with alarm and consternation, returned to Saxony, and distributed
his troops in quarters of refreshment in the neighbourhood of Dresden. In
a few days, however, they were again put in motion, and marched to
Obelgeburgen; from whence he continued his route through Voightland, in
order to attack the army of the empire in Franconia. He accordingly
entered this country by the way of Hoff, on the seventh of May, and next
day sent a detachment to attack general Macguire, who commanded a body of
imperialists at Asch, and sustained the charge with great gallantry: but
finding himself in danger of being overpowered by numbers, he retired in
the night towards Egra. The army of the empire, commanded by the prince de
Deux-Ponts, being unable to cope with the Prussian general in the field,
retired from Cullembach to Bamberg, and from thence to Nuremberg, where,
in all probability, they would not have been suffered to remain
unmolested, had not prince Homy been recalled to Saxony. He had already
taken Cronach and the castle of Rottenberg, and even advanced as far as
Bamberg, when he received advice that a body of Austrians, under general
Gemmingen, had penetrated into Saxony. This diversion effectually saved
the army of the empire, as prince Henry immediately returned to the
electorate, after having laid the bishopric of Bamberg and the marquisate
of Cullembach under contribution, destroyed all the magazines provided for
the imperial army, and sent fifteen hundred prisoners to Leipsic. A party
of imperialists, under count Palfy, endeavoured to harass him in his
retreat; but they were defeated near Hoff, with considerable slaughter:
nevertheless, the imperial army, though now reduced to ten thousand men,
returned to Bamberg; and as the Prussians approached the frontiers of
Saxony, the Austrian general, Gemmingen, retired into Bohemia. During all
these transactions, the mareschal count Daun remained with the grand
Austrian army at Schurtz, in the circle of Koningsgratz; while the
Prussians commanded by the king in person, continued quietly encamped
between Landshut and Schweidnitz. General Fouquet commanded a large body
of troops in the southern part of Silesia; but these being mostly
withdrawn, in order to oppose the Russians, the Austrian general de Fille,
who hovered on the frontiers of Moravia with a considerable detachment,
took advantage of this circumstance; and advancing into Silesia, encamped
within sight of Neiss. As mutual calumny and recriminations of all kinds
were not spared on either side, during the progress of this war, the
enemies of the Prussian monarch did not fail to charge him with cruelties
committed at Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburgh, which his troops had
bombarded, plundered of its archives, cannon, and all its youth fit to
carry arms, who were pressed into his service: he besides taxed the duchy
at seven thousand men and a million of crowns, by way of contribution. He
was also accused of barbarity, in issuing an order for removing all the
prisoners from Berlin to Spandau; but this step he justified in a letter
to his ministers at foreign courts, declaring that he had provided for all
the officers that were his prisoners the best accommodation, and permitted
them to reside in his capital; that some of them had grossly abused the
liberty they enjoyed, by maintaining illicit correspondence, and other
practices equally offensive, which had obliged him to remove them to the
town of Spandau: he desired, however, that the town might not be
confounded with the fortress of that name, from which it was entirely
separated, and in which they would enjoy the same ease they had found at
Berlin, though under more vigilant inspection. His conduct on this
occasion, he said, was sufficiently authorized, not only by the law of
nations, but also by the example of his enemies; inasmuch as the
empress-queen had never suffered any of his officers who had fallen into
her hands to reside at Vienna; and the court of Russia had sent some of
them as far as Casan. He concluded with saying, that, as his enemies had
let slip no opportunities of blackening his most innocent proceedings, he
had thought proper to acquaint his ministers with his reasons for making
this alteration with regard to his prisoners, whether French, Austrians,
or Russians.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

GENERAL WEDEL DEFEATED BY THE RUSSIANS.

In the beginning of June, the king of Prussia, understanding that the
Russian army had begun their march from the Vistula, ordered the several
bodies of his troops, under Hulsen and Wobersnow, reinforced by
detachments from his other armies, to join the forces under count Dohna,
as general in chief, and march into Poland. Accordingly, they advanced to
Meritz, where the count having published a declaration 523
[See note 4 D, at the end of this Vol.], he continued his march
towards Posna, where he found the Russian army, under count Soltikoff,
strongly encamped, having in their rear that city and the river Warta, and
in their front a formidable intrenchment mounted with a great number of
cannon.

Count Dohna, judging it impracticable to attack them in this situation
with any prospect of success, endeavoured to intercept their convoys to
the eastward; but for want of provisions, was in a little time obliged to
return towards the Oder: then the Russians advanced to Zullichaw, in
Silesia. The king of Prussia thinking count Dohna had been rather too
cautious, considering the emergency of his affairs, gave him leave to
retire for the benefit of his health, and conferred his command upon
general Wedel, who resolved to give the Russians battle without delay.
Thus determined, he marched against them in two columns, and on the
twenty-third day of July attacked them at Kay, near Zullichaw, where,
after a very obstinate engagement, he was repulsed with great loss,
Wobersnow being killed and Manteuffel wounded in the action; and in a few
days the Russians made themselves masters of Franckfort upon the Oder.

By this time the armies of count Daun and the king of Prussia had made
several motions. The Austrians having quitted their camp at Schurtz,
advanced towards Zittau in Lusatia, where having halted a few days, they
resumed their march, and encamped at Gorlithayn, between Sudenberg and
Mark-Dissau. His Prussian majesty, in order to observe their motions,
marched by the way of Hertzberg to Lahn, and his vanguard skirmished with
that of the Austrians, commanded by Laudohn, who entered Silesia by the
way of Griffenberg. The Austrian general was obliged to retreat with loss;
while the king penetrated into Silesia, that he might be at hand to act
against the Russians, whose progress was now become the chief object of
his apprehension. He no sooner received intimation that Wedel had been
worsted, than he marched with a select body of ten thousand men from his
camp in Silesia, in order to take upon him the command of Wedel’s army,
leaving the rest of his forces strongly encamped, under the direction of
his brother prince Henry, who had joined him before this event. Count Daun
being apprized of the king’s intention, and knowing the Russians were very
defective in cavalry, immediately detached a body of twelve thousand horse
to join them, under the command of Laudohn, and these, penetrating in two
columns through Silesia and Lusatia, with some loss, arrived in the
Russian camp at a very critical juncture. Meanwhile the king of Prussia
joined general Wedel on the fourth day of August, at Muhlrose, where he
assumed the command of the army; but finding it greatly inferior to the
enemy, he recalled general Finck, whom he had detached some time before,
with a body of nine thousand men, to oppose the progress of the
imperialists in Saxony; for when prince Henry joined his brother in
Silesia, the army of the empire had entered that electorate. Thus
reinforced, the number of the king’s army at Muhlrose did not exceed fifty
thousand, whereas the Russians were more numerous by thirty thousand. They
had chosen a strong camp at the village of Cunersdorf, almost opposite to
Franckfort upon the Oder, and increased the natural strength of their
situation, by intrenchments mounted with a numerous artillery. In other
circumstances it might have been deemed a rash and ridiculous enterprise,
to attack such an army under such complicated disadvantages; but here was
no room for hesitation. The king’s affairs seemed to require a desperate
effort, and perhaps he was partly impelled by self-confidence and
animosity.

BATTLE OF CUNERSDORF.

Having determined to hazard an attack, he made his disposition, and on the
twelfth day of August, at two in the morning, his troops were in motion.
The army feeing formed in a wood, advanced towards the enemy, and about
eleven the action was begun with a severe cannonade. This having produced
the desired effect, he charged the left wing of the Russian army with his
best troops formed in columns. After a very obstinate dispute, the enemy’s
intrenchments were forced with great slaughter, and seventy pieces of
cannon fell into the hands of the Prussians. A narrow defile was
afterwards passed, and several redoubts that covered the village of
Cunersdorf were taken by assault, one after another: one-half of the task
was not yet performed; the Russians made a firm stand at the village, but
they were overborne by the impetuosity of the Prussians, who drove them
from post to post up to the last redoubts they had to defend. As the
Russians kept their ground until they were hewn down in their ranks, this
success was not acquired without infinite labour, and a considerable
expense of blood. After a furious contest of six hours, fortune seemed to
declare so much in favour of the Prussians, that the king despatched the
following billet to the queen at Berlin:—“Madam, we have driven the
Russians from their intrenchments. In two hours expect to hear of a
glorious victory.” This intimation was premature, and subjected the writer
to the ridicule of his enemies. The Russians were staggered, not routed.
General Soltikoff rallied his troops, and reinforced his left wing under
cover of a redoubt, which was erected on an eminence called the Jews’
Burying-ground, and here they stood in order of battle, with the most
resolute countenance, favoured by the situation, which was naturally
difficult of access, and now rendered almost impregnable by the
fortification, and a numerous artillery, still greatly superior to that of
the Prussians. Had the king contented himself with the advantage already
gained, all the world would have acknowledged he had fought against
terrible odds with astonishing prowess, and that he judiciously desisted
when he could no longer persevere, without incurring the imputation of
being actuated by frenzy or despair. His troops had not only suffered
severely from the enemy’s fire, which was close, deliberate, and well
directed; but they were fatigued by the hard service, and fainting with
the heat of the day, which was excessive. His general officers are said to
have reminded him of all these circumstances, and to have dissuaded him
from hazarding an attempt attended with such danger and difficulty, as
even an army of fresh troops could hardly hope to surmount. He rejected
this salutary advice, and ordered his infantry to begin a new attack,
which being an enterprise beyond their strength, they were repulsed with
great slaughter. Being afterwards rallied, they returned to the charge;
they miscarried again, and their loss was redoubled. Being thus rendered
unfit for further service, the cavalry succeeded to the attack, and
repeated their unsuccessful efforts, until they were almost broke, and
entirely exhausted. At this critical juncture, the whole body of the
Austrian and Russian cavalry, which had hitherto remained inactive, and
were therefore fresh and in spirits, fell in among the Prussian horse with
great fury, broke their line at the first charge, and forcing them back
upon the infantry, threw them into such disorder as could not be repaired.
The Prussian army being thus involved in confusion, was seized with a
panic, and in a few minutes totally defeated and dispersed,
notwithstanding the personal efforts of the king, who hazarded his life in
the hottest parts of the battle, led on his troops three times to the
charge, had two horses killed under him, and his clothes in several parts
penetrated with musket-balls. His army being routed, and the greater part
of his generals either killed or disabled by wounds, nothing but the
approach of night could have saved him from total ruin. When he abandoned
the field of battle, he despatched another billet to the queen, couched in
these terms: “Remove from Berlin with the royal family. Let the archives
be carried to Potsdam. The town may make conditions with the enemy.” The
horror and confusion which this intimation produced at Berlin may be
easily conceived: horror the more aggravated, as it seized them in the
midst of their rejoicings occasioned by the first despatch; and this was
still more dreadfully augmented, by a subsequent indistinct relation,
importing that the army was totally routed, the king missing, and the
enemy in full march to Berlin. The battle of Cunersdorf was by far the
most bloody action which happened since the commencement of hostilities.
The carnage was truly horrible: above twenty thousand Prussians lay dead
on the field; and among these general Putkammer. The generals Seydlitz,
Itzenplitz, Hulsen, Finck, and Wedel, the prince of Wirtemberg, and five
major-generals, were wounded. The loss of the enemy amounted to ten
thousand. It must be owned, that if the king was prodigal of his own
person, he was likewise very free with the lives of his subjects. At no
time, since the days of ignorance and barbarity, were the lives of men
squandered away with such profusion as in the course of this German war.
They were not only unnecessarily sacrificed in various exploits of no
consequence, but lavishly exposed to all the rigour and distemper of
winter campaigns, which were introduced on the continent, in despite of
nature, and in contempt of humanity. Such are the improvements of warriors
without feeling! such the refinements of German discipline! On the day
that succeeded the defeat at Cunersdorf, the king of Prussia, having lost
the best part of his army, together with his whole train of artillery,
repassed the Oder, and encamped at Retwin, from whence he advanced to
Fustenwalde, and saw with astonishment the forbearance of the enemy.
Instead of taking possession of Berlin, and overwhelming the wreck of the
king’s troops, destitute of cannon, and cut off from all communication
with prince Henry, they took no step to improve the victory they had
gained. Laudohn retired with his horse immediately after the battle; and
count Soltikoff marched with part of the Russians into Lusatia, where he
joined Daun, and held consultations with that general. Perhaps the safety
of the Prussian monarch was owing to the jealousy subsisting among his
enemies. In all probability, the court of Vienna would have been chagrined
to see the Russians in possession of Brandenburgh, and therefore thwarted
their designs upon that electorate. The king of Prussia had now reason to
be convinced, that his situation could not justify such a desperate attack
as that in which he had miscarried at Cunersdorf; for if the Russians did
not attempt the reduction of his capital, now that he was totally
defeated, and the flower of his army cut off, they certainly would not
have aspired at that conquest while he lay encamped in the neighbourhood
with fifty thousand veterans, inured to war, accustomed to conquer,
confident of success, and well supplied with provisions, ammunition, and
artillery. As the victors allowed him time to breathe, he improved this
interval with equal spirit and sagacity. He re-assembled and refreshed his
broken troops: he furnished his camp with cannon from the arsenal at
Berlin, which likewise supplied him with a considerable number of
recruits; he recalled general Kleist, with five thousand men, from
Pome-rania, and in a little time retrieved his former importance.

ADVANTAGES GAINED BY THE PRUSSIANS IN SAXONY.

The army of the empire having entered Saxony, where it reduced Leipsic,
Torgau, and even took possession of Dresden itself, the king detached six
thousand men under general Wunch, to check the progress of the
imperialists in that electorate; and perceiving the Russians intended to
besiege Great Glogau, he, with the rest of the army, took post between
them and that city, so as to frustrate their design. While the four great
armies, commanded by the king of Prussia, general Soltikoff, prince Henry,
and count Daun, lay encamped in Lusatia, and on the borders of Silesia,
watching the motions of each other, the war was carried on by detachments
with great vivacity. General Wunch having retaken Leipsic, and joined
Finck at Rulinbourg, the united body began their march towards Dresden;
and a detachment from the army of the empire, which had encamped near
Dobelia, retired at their approach. As they advanced to Nossin, general
Haddick abandoned the advantageous posts he occupied near Roth-Seemberg;
and, being joined by the whole army of the empire, resolved to attack the
Prussian generals, who now encamped at Corbitz near Meissen. Accordingly,
on the twenty-first day of September, he advanced against them, and
endeavoured to dislodge them by a furious cannonade, which was mutually
maintained from morning to night, when he found himself obliged to retire
with considerable loss; leaving the field of battle, with about five
hundred prisoners, in the hands of the Prussians.

GENERAL FINCK SURROUNDED AND TAKEN.

This advantage was succeeded by another exploit of prince Henry, who, on
the twenty-third day of the month, quitted his camp at Hornsdorf, near
Gorlitz; and, after an incredible march of eleven German miles, by the way
of Rothenberg, arrived about five in the afternoon at Hoyerswerda, where
he surprised a body of four thousand men, commanded by general Vehla,
killed six hundred, and made twice that number prisoners; including the
commander himself. After this achievement he joined the corps of Finck and
Wunch; while mareschal Daun likewise abandoned his camp in Lusatia, and
made a forced march to Dresden, in order to frustrate the prince’s
supposed design on that capital. The Russians, disappointed in their
scheme upon Glogau, had repassed the Oder at Neusalze, and were en? camped
at Fraustadt; general Laudohn, with a body of Austrians, lay at
Sclichtingsheim; and the king of Prussia at Koben; all three on or near
the banks of that river. Prince Henry, perceiving his army almost
surrounded by Austrian detachments, ordered general Finck to drive them
from Vogelsang, which they abandoned accordingly; and sent Wunch, with six
battalions and some cavalry, across the Elbe, to join the corps of general
Rebentish at Wittenberg, whither he retired from Duben at the approach of
the Austrians. On the twenty-ninth day of October, the duke d’Aremberg,
with sixteen thousand Austrians, decamped from Dammitch, in order to
occupy the heights near Pretsch, and was encountered by general Wunch;
who, being posted on two rising grounds, cannonaded the Austrians on their
march with considerable effect; and the prince took twelve hundred
prisoners, including lieutenant-general Gemmington, and twenty inferior
officers, with some cannon, great part of their tents, and a large
quantity of baggage. The duke was obliged to change his route, while Wunch
marched from Duben to Rulenburgh; and general Wassersleben occupied
Strehla, where next day the whole army encamped. In this situation the
prince remained till the sixteenth day of November; when, being in danger
of having his communication with Torgau cut off by the enemy, he removed
to a strong camp, where his left flank was covered with that city and the
river Elbe; his right being secured by a wood, and great part of his front
by an impassable morass. Here he was reinforced with about twenty thousand
men from Silesia, and joined by the king himself, who forthwith detached
general Finck, with nineteen battalions and thirty-five squadrons, to take
possession of the defiles of Maxen and Ottendorf, with a view to hinder
the retreat of the Austrians to Bohemia. This motion obliged Daun to
retire to Plauen; and the king advanced to Wilsdurf, imagining that he had
effectually succeeded in his design. Letters were sent to Berlin and
Magdebourg, importing, that count Daun would be forced to hazard a battle,
as he had now no resource but in victory. Finck had no sooner taken post
on the hill near the village of Maxen, than the Austrian general sent
officers to reconnoitre his situation, and immediately resolved to attack
him with the corps de reserve, under the baron de Sincere, which was
encamped in the neighbourhood of Dippodeswalda. It was forthwith divided
into four columns, which filed off through the neighbouring woods; and the
Prussians never dreamed of their approach until they saw themselves
entirely surrounded. In this emergency they defended themselves with their
cannon and musketry until they were overpowered by numbers, and their
battery was taken; then they retired to another rising ground, where they
rallied, but were driven from eminence to eminence, until, by favour of
the night, they made their last retreat to Falkenhayn. In the meantime,
count Daun had made such dispositions, that at day-break general Finck
found himself entirely enclosed, without the least possibility of
escaping, and sent a trumpet to count Daun to demand a capitulation. This
was granted in one single article, importing, that he and eight other
Prussian generals, with the whole body of troops they commanded, should be
received as prisoners of war. He was obliged to submit; and his whole
corps, amounting to nineteen battalions and thirty-five squadrons, with
sixty-four pieces of cannon, fifty pair of colours, and twenty-five
standards, fell into the hands of the Austrian generals. This misfortune
was the more mortifying to the king of Prussia, as it implied a censure on
his conduct, for having detached such a numerous body of troops to a
situation where they could not be sustained by the rest of the army. On
the other hand, the court of Vienna exulted in this victory, as an
infallible proof of Daun’s superior talents; and, in point of glory and
advantage, much more than an equivalent for the loss of the Saxon army,
which, though less numerous, capitulated in the year one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-six, after having held out six weeks against the whole
power of the Prussian monarch. General Hulsen had been detached, with
about nine battalions and thirty squadrons, to the assistance of Finck;
but he arrived at Klingenberg too late to be of any service; and, being
recalled, was next day sent to occupy the important post of Fribourg.

DISASTER OF THE PRUSSIAN GENERAL DIERCKE.

The defeat of general Finck was not the only disaster which befel the
Prussians at the close of this campaign. General Diercke, who was posted
with seven battalions of infantry and a thousand horse, on the right bank
of the Elbe, opposite to Meissen, finding it impracticable to lay a bridge
of pontoons across the river, on account of the floating ice, was obliged
to transport his troops in boats; and when all were passed except himself,
with the rear-guard, consisting of three battalions, he was, on the third
day of December, in the morning, attacked by a strong body of Austrians,
and taken, with all his men, after an obstinate dispute. The king of
Prussia, weakened by these two successive defeats that happened in the
rear of an unfortunate campaign, would hardly have been able to maintain
his ground at Fribourg, had he not been at this juncture reinforced by the
body of troops under the command of the hereditary prince of Brunswick. As
for Daun, the advantages he had gained did not elevate his mind above the
usual maxims of his cautious discretion. Instead of attacking the king of
Prussia, respectable and formidable even in adversity, he quietly occupied
the strong camp at Pirna, where he might be at hand to succour Dresden in
case it should be attacked, and maintain his communication with Bohemia.

CONCLUSION OF THE CAMPAIGN.

By this time the Russians had retired to winter-quarters in Poland; and
the Swedes, after a fruitless excursion in the absence of Manteuffel,
retreated to Stralsund and the isle of Rugen. This campaign, therefore,
did not prove more decisive than the last. Abundance of lives were lost,
and great part of Germany was exposed to rapine, murder, famine,
desolation, and every species of misery that war could engender. In vain
the confederating powers of Austria, Russia, and Sweden, united their
efforts to crush the Prussian monarch. Though his army had been defeated,
and he himself totally overthrown with great slaughter in the heart of his
own dominions; though he appeared in a desperate situation, environed by
hostile armies, and two considerable detached bodies of his troops were
taken or destroyed; yet he kept all his adversaries at bay till the
approach of winter, which proved his best auxiliary, and even maintained
his footing in the electorate of Saxony, which seemed to be the prize
contested between him and the Austrian general. Yet, long before the
approach of winter, one would imagine he must have been crushed between
the shock of so many adverse hosts, had they been intent upon closing him
in, and heartily concurred for his destruction; but, instead of urging the
war with accumulated force, they acted in separate bodies, and with
jealous eye seemed to regard the progress of each other. It was not,
therefore, to any compunction, or kind forbearance, in the court of
Vienna, that the inactivity of Daun was owing. The resentment of the house
of Austria seemed, on the contrary, to glow with redoubled indignation;
and the majority of the Germanic body seemed to enter with warmth into her
quarrel. 526 [See note 4 E, at the end of this Vol.]

ARRET OF THE EVANGELICAL BODY AT RATISBON.

When the protestant states in arms against the court of Vienna were put
under the ban of the empire, the evangelical body, though without the
concurrence of the Swedish and Danish ministers, issued an arrêt at
Ratisbon, in the month of November of the last year, and to this annexed
the twentieth article of the capitulation signed by the emperor at his
election, in order to demonstrate that the protestant states claimed
nothing but what was agreeable to the constitution. They declared, that
their association was no more than a mutual engagement, by which they
obliged themselves to adhere to the laws without suffering, under any
pretext, that the power of putting under the ban of the empire should
reside wholly in the emperor. They affirmed that this power was renounced,
in express terms, by the capitulation: they therefore refused to admit, as
legal, any sentence of the ban deficient in the requisite conditions: and
inferred that, according to law, neither the elector of Brandenburgh, nor
the elector of Hanover, nor the duke of Wolfenbuttel, nor the landgrave of
Hesse, nor the count of Lippe-Buckebourg, ought to be proscribed. The
imperial protestant cities having acceded to this arrêt or declaration,
the emperor, in a rescript, required them to retract their accession to
the resolution of the evangelic body; which, it must be owned, was
altogether inconsistent with their former accession to the resolutions of
the diet against the king of Prussia. This rescript having produced no
effect, the arrêt was answered in February by an imperial decree of
commission carried to the dictature, importing, that the imperial court
could no longer hesitate about the execution of the ban, without
infringing that very article of the capitulation which they had specified:
that the invalidity of the arrêt was manifest, inasmuch as the electors of
Brandenburgh and Brunswick, the dukes of Saxe-Gotha and
Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, were the very
persons who disturbed the empire, this, therefore, being an affair in
which they themselves were parties, they could not possibly be qualified
to concur in a resolution of this nature; besides, the number of the other
states which had acceded was very inconsiderable: for these reasons, the
emperor could not but consider the resolution in question as an act
whereby the general peace of the empire was disturbed, both by the parties
that had incurred the ban, and by the states which had joined them, in
order to support and favour their frivolous pretensions. His imperial
majesty expressed his hope and confidence, that the other electors,
princes, and states of the empire, would vote the said resolution to be
null and of no force; and never suffer so small a number of states, who
were adherents of, and abettors to, the disturbers of the empire, to
prejudice the rights and prerogatives of the whole Germanic body; to abuse
the name of the associated states of the Augsburgh confession, in order
forcibly to impose a factum entirely repugnant to the constitution
of the empire; to deprive their co-estates of the right of voting freely,
and thereby endeavouring totally to subvert the system of the Germanic
body. These remarks will speak for themselves to the reflection of the
unprejudiced reader.

FRENCH MINISTRY STOP PAYMENT.

The implacability of the court of Vienna was equalled by nothing but the
perseverance of the French ministry. Though their numerous army had not
gained one inch of ground in Westphalia, the campaign on that side having
ended exactly where it had begun; though the chief source of their
commerce in the West Indies had fallen into the hands of Great Britain,
and they had already laid their account with the loss of Quebec; though
their coffers hung with emptiness, and their confederates were clamorous
for subsidies,—they still resolved to maintain the war in Germany.
This was doubtless the most politic resolution to which they could adhere;
because their enemies, instead of exerting all their efforts where there
was almost a certainty of success, kindly condescended to seek them where
alone their whole strength could be advantageously employed, without any
great augmentation of their ordinary expense. Some of the springs of their
national wealth were indeed exhausted, or diverted into other channels;
but the subjects declared for a continuation of the war, and the
necessities of the state were supplied by the loyalty and attachment of
the people. They not only acquiesced in the bankruptcy of public credit,
when the court stopped payment of the interest on twelve different
branches of the national debt, but they likewise sent in large quantities
of plate to be melted down, and coined into specie, for the maintenance of
the war. All the bills drawn on the government by the colonies were
protested to an immense amount, and a stop was put to all the annuities
granted at Marseilles on sums borrowed for the use of the marine. Besides
the considerable savings occasioned by these acts of state-bankruptcy,
they had resources of credit among the merchants of Holland, who beheld
the success of Great Britain with an eye of jealousy; and were, moreover,
inflamed against her with the most rancorous resentment, on account of the
captures which had been made of their West India ships by the English
cruisers.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE STATES-GENERAL SEND OVER DEPUTIES TO ENGLAND.

In the month of February, the merchants of Amsterdam having received
advice that the cargoes of their West India ships detained by the English,
would, by the British courts of judicature, be declared lawful prizes, as
being French property, sent a deputation, with a petition to the
states-general, entreating them to use their intercession with the court
of London, representing the impossibility of furnishing the proofs
required, in so short a time as that prescribed by the British admiralty;
and that, as the island of St. Eustatia had but one road, and there was no
other way of taking in cargoes but that of overschippen,* to which the
English had objected, a condemnation of these ships, as legal prizes,
would give the finishing stroke to the trade of the colony.

* The method called overschippen is that of using French
boats to load Dutch vessels with the produce of France.

Whatever remonstrances the states-general might have made on this subject
to the ministry of Great Britain, they had no effect upon the proceedings
of the court of admiralty, which continued to condemn the cargoes of the
Dutch ships as often as they were proved to be French property; and this
resolute uniformity, in a little time intimidated the subjects of Holland
from persevering in this illicit branch of commerce. The enemies of
England in that republic, however, had so far prevailed, that in the
beginning of the year the states of Holland had passed a formal resolution
to equip five-and-twenty ships of war; and orders were immediately
despatched to the officers of the admiralty to complete the armament with
all possible expedition. In the month of April, the states-general sent
over to London three ministers-extraordinary, to make representations, and
remove if possible the causes of misunderstanding that had arisen between
Great Britain and the United Provinces. They delivered their credentials
to the king with a formal harangue: they said his majesty would see, by
the contents of the letter they had the honour to present, how ardently
their high mightinesses desired to cultivate the sincere friendship which
had so long subsisted between the two nations, so necessary for their
common welfare and preservation; they expressed an earnest wish that they
might be happy enough to remove those difficulties which had for some time
struck at this friendship, and caused so much prejudice to the principal
subjects of the republic; who, by the commerce they carried on,
constituted its greatest strength and chief support. They declared their
whole confidence was placed in his majesty’s equity, for which the
republic had the highest regard; and in the good-will he had always
expressed towards a state which on all occasions had interested itself in
promoting his glory—a state which was the guardian of the precious
trust bequeathed by a prince so dear to his affection. “Full of this
confidence (said they), we presume to flatter ourselves that your majesty
will be graciously pleased to listen to our just demands, and we shall
endeavour, during the course of our ministry, to merit your approbation,
in strengthening the bonds by which the two nations ought to be for ever
united.” In answer to this oration, the king assured them that he had
always regarded their high mightinesses as his best friends. He said, if
difficulties had arisen concerning trade, they ought to be considered as
the consequences of a burdensome war which he was obliged to wage with
France. He desired they would assure their high mightinesses, that he
should endeavour, on his part, to remove the obstacles in question; and
expressed his satisfaction that they the deputies were come over with the
same disposition.—What representations these deputies made, further
than complaints of some irregularities in the conduct of the British
sea-officers, we cannot pretend to specify; but as the subject in dispute
related entirely to the practice of the courts of judicature, it did not
fall properly under the cognizance of the government, which hath no right
to interfere with the administration of justice. In all probability, the
subjects of Holland were by no means pleased with the success of this
negotiation, for they murmured against the English nation without ceasing.
They threatened and complained by turns; and eagerly seized every
opportunity of displaying their partiality in favour of the enemies of
Great Britain.

MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES BY MAJOR-GENERAL YORKE.

In the month of September, major-general Yorke, the British minister at
the Hague, presented a memorial to the states-general, remonstrating, that
the merchants of Holland carried on a contraband trade in favour of
France, by transporting cannon and warlike stores from the Baltic to
Holland, in Dutch bottoms, under the borrowed names of private persons;
and then conveying them by the inland rivers and canals, or through the
Dutch fortresses, to Dunkirk and other places of France. He desired that
the king his master might be made easy on that head, by their putting an
immediate stop to such practices, so repugnant to the connexions
subsisting by treaty between Great Britain and the United Provinces, as
well as to every idea of neutrality. He observed, that the attention which
his majesty had lately given to their representations against the excesses
of the English privateers, by procuring an act of parliament, which laid
them under proper restrictions, gave him a good title to the same regard
on the part of their high mightinesses. He reminded them that their
trading towns felt the good effects of these restrictions; and that the
freedom of navigation which their subjects enjoyed amidst the troubles and
distractions of Europe, had considerably augmented their commerce. He
observed, that some return ought to be made to such solid proofs of the
king’s friendship and moderation; at least, the merchants, who were so
ready to complain of England, ought not to be countenanced in excesses
which would have justified the most rigorous examination of their conduct.
He recalled to their memories that, during the course of the present war,
the king had several times appealed to their high mightinesses, and to
their ministers, on the liberty they had given to carry stores through the
fortresses of the republic for the use of France, to invade the British
dominions; and though his majesty had passed over in silence many of these
instances of complaisance to his enemy, he was no less sensible of the
injury; but he chose rather to be a sufferer himself, than to increase the
embarrassment of his neighbours or extend the flames of war. He took
notice that even the court of Vienna had, upon more than one occasion,
employed its interest with their high mightinesses, and lent its name to
obtain passes for warlike stores and provisions for the French troops,
under colour of the barrier-treaty, which it no longer observed; nay,
after having put France in possession of Ostend and Nieuport, in manifest
violation of that treaty, and without any regard to the rights which they
and the king his master had acquired in that treaty, at the expense of so
much blood and treasure.

A COUNTER-MEMORIAL PRESENTED BY THE FRENCH MINISTER.

This memorial seems to have made some impression on the states-general, as
they scrupled to allow the artillery and stores belonging to the French
king to be removed from Amsterdam; but these scruples vanished entirely on
the receipt of a counter-memorial presented by the count d’Affrey, the
French ambassador, who mingled some effectual threats with his
expostulation. He desired them to remember, that, during the whole course
of the war, the French king had required nothing from their friendship
that was inconsistent with the strictest impartiality; and, if he had
deviated from the engagements subsisting between him and the republic, it
was only by granting the most essential and lucrative favours to the
subjects of their high mightinesses. He observed, that the English,
notwithstanding the insolence of their behaviour to the republic, had
derived, on many occasions, assistance from the protection their effects
had found in the territories of the United Provinces; that the artillery,
stores, and ammunition belonging to Wessel were deposited in their
territories, which the Hanoverian army in passing the Rhine had very
little respected; that when they repassed that river, they had no other
way of saving their sick and wounded from the hands of the French, than by
embarking them in boats, and conveying them to places where the French
left them unmolested, actuated by their respect for the neutrality of the
republic; that part of their magazines was still deposited in the towns of
the United Provinces, where also the enemies of France had purchased and
contracted for very considerable quantities of gunpowder. He told them
that, though these and several other circumstances might have been made
the subject of the justest complaints, the king of France did not think it
proper to require that the freedom and independency of the subjects of the
republic should be restrained in branches of commerce that were not
inconsistent with its neutrality, persuaded that the faith of an
engagement ought to be inviolably preserved, though attended with some
accidental and transient disadvantages. He gave them to understand, that
the king his master had ordered the generals of his army carefully to
avoid encroaching on the territory of the republic, and transferring
thither the theatre of the war, when his enemies retreated that way
before they were forced to pass the Ehine. After such unquestionable marks
of regard, he said, his king would have the justest ground of complaint,
if, contrary to expectation, he should hear that the artillery and stores
belonging to him were detained at Amsterdam. Thirdly, he declared that
such detention would be construed as a violation of the neutrality; and
demanded, in the name of the king his master, that the artillery and
stores should, without delay, be forwarded to Flanders by the canals of
Amsterdam and the inland navigation. This last argument was so conclusive,
that they immediately granted the necessary passports; in consequence of
which the cannon were conveyed to the Austrian Netherlands.

DEATH OF THE KING OF SPAIN.

The powers in the southern parts of Europe were too much engrossed with
their own concerns, to interest themselves deeply in the quarrels that
distracted the German empire. The king of Spain, naturally of a melancholy
complexion and delicate constitution, was so deeply affected with the loss
of his queen, who died in the course of the preceding year, that he
renounced all company, neglected all business, and immured himself in a
chamber at Villa-Viciosa, where he gave a loose to the most extravagant
sorrow. He abstained from food and rest until his strength was quite
exhausted. He would neither shift himself, nor allow his beard to be
shaved; he rejected all attempts of consolation; and remained deaf to the
most earnest and respectful remonstrances of those who had a right to
render their advice. In this case, the affliction of the mind must have
been reinforced by some peculiarity in the constitution. He inherited a
melancholy taint from his father, and this seems to have been dreaded as a
family disease; for the infant don Louis, who likewise resided in the
palace of Villa-Viciosa, was fain to amuse himself with hunting and other
diversions, to prevent his being infected with the king’s disorder, which
continued to gain ground notwithstanding all the efforts of medicine. The
Spanish nation, naturally superstitious, had recourse to saints and
relics; but they seemed insensible to all their devotion. The king,
however, in the midst of all his distress, was prevailed upon to make his
will, which was written by the count de Valparaiso, and signed by the duke
de Bejar, high-chancellor of the kingdom. The exorbitancy of his grief,
and the mortifications he underwent, soon produced an incurable malady,
under which he languished from the month of September in the preceding
year till the tenth of August in the present, when he expired. In his will
he had appointed his brother don Carlos, king of Naples, successor to the
crown of Spain; and nominated the queen-dowager as regent of the kingdom
until that prince should arrive. Accordingly, she assumed the reins of
government, and gave directions for the funeral of the deceased king, who
was interred with great pomp in the church belonging to the convent of the
Visitation at Madrid.

DON CARLOS SUCCEEDS TO THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN.

As the death of this prince had been long expected, so the politicians of
Europe had universally prognosticated that his demise would be attended
with great commotions in Italy. It had been agreed among the subscribing
powers to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, that in case don Carlos should be
advanced in the course of succession to the throne of Spain, his brother
don Philip should succeed him on the throne of Naples; and the duchies of
Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, which now constituted his establishment,
should revert to the house of Austria. The king of Naples had never
acceded to this article; therefore he paid no regard to it on the death of
his elder brother, but retained both kingdoms, without minding the claims
of the empress-queen, who he knew was at that time in no condition to
support her pretensions. Thus the German war proved a circumstance very
favourable to his interest and ambition. Before he embarked for Spain,
however, he took some extraordinary steps, which evinced him a sound
politician and sagacious legislator. His eldest son don Philip, who had
now attained the thirteenth year of his age, being found in a state of
incurable idiotism 529 [See note 4 F, at the end of this Vol.],
he wisely and resolutely removed him from the succession, without any
regard to the pretended right of primogeniture, by a solemn act of
abdication, and the settlement of the crown of the two Sicilies in favour
of his third son don Ferdinand. In this extraordinary act he observes,
that according to the spirit of the treaties of this age, Europe required
that the sovereignty of Spain should be separated from that of Italy, when
such a separation could be effected, without transgressing the rules of
justice: that the unfortunate prince-royal having been destitute of reason
and reflection ever since his infancy, and no hope remaining that he could
ever acquire the use of these faculties, he could not think of appointing
him to the succession, how agreeable soever such a disposition might be to
nature and his paternal affection: he was therefore constrained, by the
Divine will, to set him aside in favour of his third son don Ferdinand,
whose minority obliged him to vest the management of these realms in a
regency, which he accordingly appointed, after having previously declared
his son Ferdinand from that time emancipated and freed, not only from all
obedience to his paternal power, but even from all submission to his
supreme and sovereign authority. He then declared that the minority of the
prince succeeding to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies should expire with
the fifteenth year of his age, when he should act as sovereign, and have
the entire power of the administration. He next established and explained
the order of succession in the male and female line; on condition that the
monarchy of Spain should never be united with the kingdoms of the Two
Sicilies. Finally, he transferred and made over to the said don Ferdinand
these kingdoms, with all that he possessed in Italy; and this ordinance,
signed and sealed by himself and the infant don Ferdinand, and
countersigned by the counsellors and secretaries of state, in quality of
members of the regency, received all the usual forms of authenticity. Don
Carlos having taken these precautions for the benefit of his third son,
whom he left king of Naples, embarked with the rest of his family on board
a squadron of Spanish ships, which conveyed him to Barcelona. There he
landed in the month of October, and proceeded to Madrid; where, as king of
Spain, he was received amid the acclamations of his people. He began his
reign, like a wise prince, by regulating the interior economy of his
kingdom; by pursuing the plan adopted by his predecessor; by retaining the
ministry under whose auspices the happiness and commerce of his people had
been extended; and with respect to the belligerent powers, by scrupulously
adhering to that neutrality from whence these advantages were in a great
measure derived.

DETECTION AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CONSPIRATORS AT LISBON.

While he serenely enjoyed the blessings of prosperity, his neighbour the
king of Portugal was engrossed by a species of employment, which, of all
others, must be the most disagreeable to a prince of sentiment, who loves
his people; namely, the trial and punishment of those conspirators, by
whose atrocious attempt his life had been so much endangered. Among these
were numbered some of the first noblemen of the kingdom, irritated by
disappointed ambition, inflamed by bigotry, and exasperated by revenge.
The principal conspirator, don Joseph Mascarenhas and Lencastre, duke de
Aveiro, marquis of Torres Novas, and conde of Santa Cruz, was hereditary
lord-steward of the king’s household, and president of the palace-court,
or last tribunal of appeal in the kingdom, so that he possessed the first
office at the palace, and the second of the realm. Francisco de Assiz,
marquis of Tavora, conde of St. John and Alvor, was general of the horse,
and head of the third noble house of the Tavoras, the most illustrious
family in the kingdom, deriving their original from the ancient kings of
Leon: he married his kinswoman, who was marchioness of Tavora in her own
right, and by this marriage acquired the marquisate. Louis Bernardo de
Tavora was their eldest son, who, by virtue of a dispensation from the
pope, had espoused his own aunt, donna Theresa de Tavora. Joseph Maria de
Tavora, his youngest brother, was also involved in the guilt of his
parents. The third principal concerned was don Jeronymo de Attaide, conde
of Attouguia, himself a relation, and married to the eldest daughter of
the marquis of Tavora. The characters of all these personages were
unblemished and respectable, until this machination was detected. In the
course of investigating this dark affair, it appeared that the duke de
Aveiro had conceived a personal hatred to the king, who had disappointed
him in a projected match between his son and a sister of the duke de
Cadaval, a minor, and prevented his obtaining some commanderies which the
late duke de Aveiro had possessed; that this nobleman, being determined to
gratify his revenge against the person of his sovereign, had exerted all
his art and address in securing the participation of the malecontents;
that with this view he reconciled himself to the Jesuits, with whom he had
been formerly at variance, knowing they were at this time implacably
incensed against the king, who had dismissed them from their office of
penitentiaries at court, and branded them with other marks of disgrace, on
account of their illegal and rebellious practices in South America: the
duke, moreover, insinuated himself into the confidence of the marchioness
of Tavora, notwithstanding an inveterate rivalship of pride and ambition,
which had long subsisted between the two families. Her resentment against
the king was inflamed by the mortification of her pride in repeated
repulses, when she solicited the title of duke for her husband. Her
passions were artfully fomented and managed by the Jesuits, to whom she
had resigned the government of her conscience; and they are said to have
persuaded her, that it would be a meritorious action to take away the life
of a prince who was an enemy to the church, and a tyrant to his people.
She, being reconciled to the scheme of assassination, exerted her
influence in such a manner as to inveigle her husband, her sons and son-in
law, into the same infamous design: and yet this lady had been always
remarkable for her piety, affability, and sweetness of disposition. Many
consultations were held by the conspirators at the colleges of the
Jesuits, St. Autoa and St. Roque, as well as at the houses of the duke and
the marquis; at last they resolved that the king should be assassinated,
and employed two ruffians, called Antonio Alvarez and Joseph Policarpio,
for the execution of this design, the miscarriage of which we have related
among the transactions of the preceding year. In the beginning of January,
before the circumstances of the conspiracy were known, the counts de
Oberas and de Ribeira Grande were imprisoned in the castle of St. Julian,
on a suspicion arising from their freedom of speech. The duchess de
Aveiro, the countess of Attouguia, and the marchioness of Alorna, with
their children, were sent to different nunneries; and eight Jesuits were
taken into custody. A council being appointed for the trial of the
prisoners, the particulars we have related were brought to light by the
torture; and sentence of death was pronounced and executed upon the
convicted criminals. Eight wheels were fixed upon a scaffold raised in the
square opposite to the house where the prisoners had been confined; and
the thirteenth of January was fixed for the day of execution. Antonio
Alvarez Ferreira, one of the assassins who had fired into the king’s
equipage, was fixed to a stake at one corner of the scaffold; and at the
other was placed the effigy of his accomplice, Joseph Policarpio de
Azevedo, who had made his escape. The marchioness of Tavora, being brought
upon the scaffold between eight and nine in the morning, was beheaded at
one stroke, and then covered with a linen cloth. Her two sons, and her
son-in-law, the count of Attouguia, with three servants of the duke de
Aveiro, were first strangled at one stake, and afterwards broke upon
wheels, where their bodies remained covered; but the duke and the marquis,
as chiefs of the conspiracy, were broken alive, and underwent the most
excruciating torments. The last that suffered was the assassin Alvarez,
who being condemned to be burned alive, the combustibles which had been
placed on the scaffold were set on fire, the whole machine with their
bodies consumed to ashes, and these ashes thrown into the sea. The estates
of the three unfortunate noblemen were confiscated, and their
dwelling-houses razed to the ground. The name of Tavora was suppressed for
ever by a public decree; but that of Mascarenhas spared, because the duke
de Aveiro was a younger branch of the family. A reward of ten thousand
crowns was offered to any person who should apprehend the assassin who had
escaped: then the embargo was taken off the shipping. The king and royal
family assisted at a public Te Deum, sung in the chapel of Nossa
Senhoro de Livramento; on which occasion the king, for the satisfaction of
his people, waved his handkerchief with both hands, to show he was not
maimed by the wounds he had received. If such an attempt upon the life of
a king was infamously cruel and perfidious, it must be owned that the
punishment inflicted upon the criminals was horrible to human nature. The
attempt itself was attended with some circumstances that might have
staggered belief, had it not appeared but too plain that the king was
actually wounded. One would imagine that the duke de Aveiro, who was
charged with designs on the crown, would have made some preparation for
taking advantage of the confusion and disorder which must have been
produced by the king’s assassination; but we do not find that any thing of
this nature was premeditated. It was no more than a desperate scheme of
personal revenge, conceived without caution, and executed without conduct;
a circumstance the more extraordinary, if we suppose the conspirators were
actuated by the councils of the Jesuits, who have been ever famous for
finesse and dexterity. Besides, the discovery of all the particulars was
founded upon confession extorted by the rack, which at best is a
suspicious evidence. Be that as it will, the Portuguese government,
without waiting for a bull from the pope, sequestered all the estates and
effects of the Jesuits in that kingdom, which amounted to considerable
sums, and reduced the individuals of the society to a very scanty
allowance. Complaint of their conduct having been made to the pope, he
appointed a congregation to examine into the affairs of the Jesuits in
Portugal. In the meantime the court of Lisbon ordered a considerable
number of them to be embarked for Italy, and resolved that no Jesuits
should hereafter reside within its realms. When these transports arrived
at Civita-Vecchia, they were, by the pope’s order, lodged in the Dominican
and Capuchin convents of that city, until proper houses could be prepared
for their reception at Tivoli and Frescati. The most guilty of them,
however, were detained in close prison in Portugal; reserved, in all
probability, for a punishment more adequate to their enormities.

SESSION OPENED IN ENGLAND.

England still continued to enjoy the blessings of peace, even amidst the
triumphs of war. In the month of November the session of parliament was
opened by commission; and, the commons attending in the house of peers,
the lord-keeper harangued the parliament to this effect:—He gave
them to understand that his majesty had directed him to assure them, that
he thought himself peculiarly happy in being able to convoke them in a
situation of affairs so glorious to his crown, and advantageous to his
kingdoms: that the king saw and devoutly adored the hand of Providence, in
the many signal successes, both by sea and land, with which his arms had
been blessed in the course of the last campaign: that he reflected with
great satisfaction on the confidence which the parliament had placed in
him, by making such ample provisions, and intrusting him with such
extensive powers for carrying on a war, which the defence of their
valuable rights and possessions, together with the preservation of the
commerce of his people, had rendered both just and necessary. He
enumerated the late successes of the British arms—the reduction of
Goree on the coast of Africa; the conquest of so many important places in
America; the defeat of the French army in Canada; the reduction of their
capital city of Quebec, effected with so much honour to the courage and
conduct of his majesty’s officers and forces; the important advantage
obtained by the British squadron off Cape Lagos, and the effectual
blocking up for so many months the principal part of the French navy in
their own harbours: events which must have filled the hearts of all his
majesty’s faithful subjects with the sincerest joy; and convinced his
parliament that there had been no want of vigilance or vigour on his part,
in exerting those means which they, with so much prudence and
public-spirited zeal, had put into his majesty’s hands. He observed, that
the national advantages had extended even as far as the East-Indies,
where, by the Divine blessing, the dangerous designs of his majesty’s
enemies had miscarried, and that valuable branch of commerce had received
great benefit and protection; that the memorable victory gained over the
French at Minden had long made a deep impression on the minds of his
majesty’s people: that if the crisis in which the battle was fought, the
superior number of the enemy, the great and able conduct of his majesty’s
general, prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, were considered, that action must
be the subject of lasting admiration and thankfulness: that if any thing
could fill the breasts of his majesty’s good subjects with still further
degrees of exultation, it would be the distinguished and unbroken valour
of the British troops, owned and applauded by those whom they overcame. He
said the glory they had gained was not merely their own; but, in a
national view, was one of the most important circumstances of our success,
as it must be a striking admonition to our enemies with whom they have to
contend. He told them that his majesty’s good brother and ally, the king
of Prussia, attacked and surrounded by so many considerable powers, had,
by his magnanimity and abilities, and the bravery of his troops, been
able, in a surprising manner, to prevent the mischiefs concerted with such
united force against him. He declared, by the command of his sovereign,
that as his majesty entered into this war not from views of ambition, so
he did not wish to continue it from motives of resentment: that the desire
of his majesty’s heart was to see a stop put to the effusion of Christian
blood: that whenever such terms of peace could be established as should be
just and honourable for his majesty and his allies; and by procuring such
advantages as, from the successes of his majesty’s arms, might in reason
and equity be expected should bring along with them full security for the
future; his majesty would rejoice to see the repose of Europe restored on
such solid and durable foundations; and his faithful subjects, to whose
liberal support and unshaken firmness his majesty owed so much, happy in
the enjoyment of the blessings of peace and tranquillity: but, in order to
this great and desirable end, he said his majesty was confident the
parliament would agree with him, that it was necessary to make ample
provision for carrying on the war, in all parts, with the utmost vigour.
He assured the commons, that the great supplies they had granted in the
last session of parliament, had been faithfully employed for the purposes
for which they were granted; but the uncommon extent of the war, and the
various services necessary to be provided for, in order to secure success
to his majesty’s measures, had unavoidably occasioned extraordinary
expenses. Finally, he repeated the assurances from the throne, of the high
satisfaction his majesty took in that union and good harmony which was so
conspicuous among his good subjects; he said, his sovereign was happy in
seeing it continued and confirmed; he observed that experience had shown
how much the nation owed to this union, which alone could secure the true
happiness of his people.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SUBSTANCE OF THE ADDRESSES.

We shall not anticipate the reader’s own reflection, by pretending to
comment upon either the matter or form of this harangue, which however
produced all the effect which the sovereign could desire. The houses, in
their respective addresses, seemed to vie with each other in expressions
of attachment and complacency. The peers professed their utmost readiness
to concur in the effectual support of such further measures as his
majesty, in his great wisdom, should judge necessary or expedient for
carrying on the war with vigour in all parts, and for disappointing and
repelling any desperate attempts which might be made upon these kingdoms.
The commons expressed their admiration of that true greatness of mind
which disposed his majesty’s heart, in the midst of prosperities, to wish
a stop put to the effusion of Christian blood, and to see tranquillity
restored. They declared their entire reliance on his majesty’s known
wisdom and firmness, that this desirable object, whenever it should be
obtained, would be upon teems just and honourable for his majesty and his
allies; and, in order to effect that great end, they assured him they
would cheerfully grant such supplies as should be found necessary to
sustain, and press with effect, all his extensive operations against the
enemy. They did not fail to re-echo the speech, as usual; enumerating the
trophies of the year, and extolling the king of Prussia for his consummate
genius, magnanimity, unwearied activity, and unshaken constancy of mind.
Very great reason, indeed, had his majesty to be satisfied with an address
of such a nature, from a house of commons in which opposition lay
strangled at the foot of the minister; in which those demagogues, who had
raised themselves to reputation and renown by declaiming against
continental measures, were become so perfectly reconciled to the object of
their former reprobation, as to cultivate it even with a degree of
enthsiasm unknown to any former administration, and lay the nation under
such contributions in its behalf, as no other ministry durst ever
meditate. Thus disposed, it was no wonder they admired the moderation of
their sovereign in offering to treat of peace, after above a million of
men had perished by the war, and twice that number been reduced to misery;
after whole provinces had been depopulated, whole-countries subdued, and
the victors themselves almost crushed by the trophies they had gained.

Immediately after the addresses were presented, the commons resolved
themselves into a committee of the whole house; and having unanimously
voted a supply to his majesty, began to take the particulars into
consideration. This committee was continued till the twelfth of May, when
that whole business was accomplished. For the service of the ensuing year
they voted seventy thousand seamen, including eighteen thousand three
hundred and fifty-five marines, and for their maintenance allotted three
millions six hundred and forty thousand pounds. The number of land-forces,
including the British troops in Germany, and the invalids, they fixed at
fifty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety-four men, and granted for
their subsistence one million three hundred and eighty-three thousand
seven hundred and forty-eight pounds and tenpence. For maintaining other
forces in the plantations, Gibraltar, Guadaloupe, Africa, and the East
Indies, they allowed eight hundred forty-six thousand one hundred and
sixty-eight pounds, nineteen shillings: for the expense of four regiments
on the Irish establishment, serving in North America, they voted
thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-four pounds, eight shillings
and fourpence. For pay to the general and general staff officers, and
officers of the hospital for the land-forces, they assigned fifty-four
thousand four hundred and fifty-four pounds, eleven shillings and
ninepence. They voted for the expense of the militia in South and North
Britain, the sum of one hundred two thousand and six pounds, four
shillings and eightpence. They granted for the maintenance of thirty-eight
thousand seven hundred and fifty men, being the troops of Hanover,
Wolfenbuttle, Saxe-Gotha, and Buckebourg, retained in the service of Great
Britain, the sum of four hundred forty-seven thousand eight hundred and
eighty-two pounds, ten shillings and fivepence halfpenny; and for nineteen
thousand Hessian troops, in the same pay, they gave three hundred
sixty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty-five pounds, one shilling and
sixpence. They afterwards bestowed the sum of one hundred eight thousand
and twelve pounds, twelve shillings and sevenpence, for defraying the
additional expense of augmentations in the troops of Hanover and Hesse,
and the British army serving in the empire. For the ordinary of the navy,
including half-pay to sea-officers; for carrying on the building of two
hospitals, one near Gosport, and the other in the neighbourhood of
Plymouth; for the support of the hospital at Greenwich; for purchasing
ground, erecting wharfs and other accommodations necessary for refitting
the fleets at Halifax in Nova-Scotia; for the charge of the office of
ordnance, and defraying the extraordinary expense incurred by that office
in the course of the last year, they allowed seven hundred eighty-one
thousand four hundred and eighty-nine pounds, six shillings and sixpence.
Towards paying off the navy debt, buildings, re-buildings, and repairs of
the king’s ships, together with the charges of transport service, they
granted one million seven hundred and one thousand seventy-eight pounds,
sixteen shillings and sixpence. For defraying the extraordinary expenses
of the land-forces and other services not provided for by parliament,
comprehending the pensions for the widows of reduced officers, they
allotted the sum of nine hundred fifty-five thousand three hundred and
forty-four pounds, fifteen shillings and fivepence halfpenny. They voted
one million to empower his majesty to discharge the like sum, raised in
pursuance of an act made in the last session of parliament, and charged
upon the first aids or supplies to be granted in this session of
parliament. They gave six hundred and seventy thousand pounds, for
enabling his majesty to make good his engagements with the king of
Prussia, pursuant to a new convention between him and that monarch,
concluded on the ninth day of November in the present year. Fifteen
thousand pounds they allowed upon account, towards enabling the principal
officers of his majesty’s ordnance to defray the necessary charges and
expenses of taking down and removing the present magazine for gunpowder,
situated in the neighbourhood of Greenwich, and of erecting it in some
less dangerous situation. Sixty thousand pounds they gave to enable his
majesty to fulfil his engagements With the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel,
pursuant to the separate article of a treaty between the two powers,
renewed in the month of November, the sum to be paid as his most serene
highness should think it most convenient, in order to facilitate the means
by which the landgrave might again fix his residence in his own dominions,
and by his presence give fresh courage to his faithful subjects. Five
hundred thousand pounds they voted upon account, as a present supply
towards defraying the charges of forage, bread, bread-waggons, train of
artillery, wood, straw, provisions, and contingencies of his majesty’s
combined army, under the command of prince Ferdinand. To the Foundling
hospital they granted five thousand pounds; and fifteen thousand for
improving, widening, and enlarging the passage over and through London
bridge. To replace divers sums taken from the sinking fund, they granted
two hundred twenty-five thousand two hundred and eighty-one pounds,
nineteen shillings and fourpence. For the subsistence of reduced officers,
including the allowances to the several officers and private men of the
two troops of horse-guards, and regiment of horse reduced, and to the
superannuated gentlemen of the four troops of horse-guards, they voted
thirty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-seven pounds, nine
shillings. Upon account, for the support of the colonies of Nova-Scotia
and Georgia, they granted twenty-one thousand six hundred ninety-four
pounds, two shillings and twopence. For enabling the king to give a proper
compensation to the provinces in North America, for the expenses they
might incur in levying and maintaining troops, according as the vigour and
activity of those respective provinces should be thought by his majesty to
merit, they advanced the sum of two hundred thousand pounds. The East
India company they gratified with twenty thousand pounds, towards enabling
them to defray the expense of a military force in their settlements, in
lieu of a battalion of the king’s troops now returned to Ireland.
Twenty-five thousand pounds were provided for the payment of the
out-pensioners of Chelsea hospital. For subsequent augmentation of the
British forces, since the first estimate of guards and garrisons for the
ensuing year was presented, they allowed one hundred thirty-four thousand
one hundred and thirty-nine pounds, seventeen shillings and fourpence.
They further voted, upon account, towards enabling the governors and
guardians of the Foundling hospital to maintain, educate, and bind
apprentice the children admitted into the said charity, the sum of
forty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty-five pounds. For defraying the
expense of maintaining the militia in South and North Britain, to the
twenty-fourth day of December of the ensuing year, they voted an
additional grant of two hundred ninety thousand eight hundred and
twenty-six pounds, sixteen shillings and eightpence: and, moreover, they
granted four-score thousand pounds, upon account, towards defraying the
charge of pay and clothing of the unembodied militia for the year ending
on the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred
and sixty-one. For reimbursing the colony of New-York, their expenses 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, they allowed two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven
pounds, seven shillings and eightpence; and for maintaining the British
forts and settlements on the coast of Africa, they renewed the grant of
ten thousand pounds. For the maintenance and augmentation of the troops of
Brunswick in the pay of Great Britain for the ensuing year, pursuant to an
ulterior convention concluded and signed at Paderborn on the fifth day of
March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, they granted the
sum of ninety thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine pounds, eight
shillings and elevenpence farthing; and for the troops of Hesse-Cassel in
the same pay, during the same period, they allotted one hundred and one
thousand and ninety-six pounds, three shillings and twopence. For the
extraordinary expenses of the land-forces, and other services, incurred
from the twenty-fourth day of November in the present year, to the
twenty-fourth of December following, and not-provided for, they granted
the sum of four hundred twenty thousand one hundred and twenty pounds, one
shilling. To make good the deficiency of the grants for the service of
this present year, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, they
assigned the sum of seventy-five thousand one hundred and seventy pounds,
and threepence farthing. For printing the journals of the house of commons
they gave five thousand pounds; and six hundred and thirty-four pounds,
thirteen shillings and seven-pence, as interest at the rate of four per
centum per annum, from the twenty-fifth day of August in the present year,
to the same day of April next, for the sum of twenty-three thousand eight
hundred pounds, eleven shillings and elevenpence, remaining in the office
of ordnance, and not paid into the hands of the deputy of the king’s
remembrancer of the court of exchequer, as directed by an act made in the
last session of parliament, to make compensation for lands and
hereditaments purchased for his majesty’s service at Chatham, Portsmouth,
and Plymouth, by reason of doubts and difficulties which had arisen
touching the execution of the said act. For defraying the extraordinary
charge of the mint during the present year, they allowed eleven thousand
nine hundred and forty pounds, thirteen shillings and ten-pence; and two
thousand five hundred pounds upon account, for paying the debts claimed
and sustained upon a forfeited estate in North Britain. They likewise
allowed twelve thousand eight hundred and seventy-four pounds, fifteen
shillings and tenpence, for defraying the charge of a regiment of
light-dragoons, and of an additional company to the corps commanded by
lieutenant-colonel Vaughan. Finally, they voted one million upon account,
to enable the king to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war,
incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty; and to take all such measures as might be
necessary to defeat any enterprise or design of his enemies, as the
exigency of affairs might require. On the whole, the sum total granted in
this session of parliament amounted to fifteen millions five hundred and
three thousand five hundred and sixty-three pounds, fifteen shillings and
ninepence halfpenny: a sum so enormous, whether we consider the nation
that raised it, or the purposes for which it was raised, that every Briton
of a sedate mind, attached to the interest and welfare of his country,
must reflect upon it with equal astonishment and concern: a sum
considerably more than double the largest subsidy that was granted in the
reign of queen Anne, when the nation was in the zenith of her glory, and
retained half the powers of Europe in her pay: a sum almost double of what
any former administration durst have asked: and near double of what the
most sanguine calculators, who lived in the beginning of this century,
thought the nation could give without the most imminent hazard of
immediate bankruptcy. Of the immense supply which we have particularized,
the reader will perceive that two millions three hundred forty-four
thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds, sixteen shillings and
sevenpence three farthings, were paid to foreigners for supporting the war
in Germany, exclusive of the money expended by the British troops in that
country, the number of which amounted, in the course of the ensuing year,
to twenty thousand men: a number the more extraordinary, if we consider
they were all transported to that continent during the administration of
those who declared in parliament (the words still sounding in our ears)
that not a man, nor even half a man, should be sent from Great Britain to
Germany, to fight the battles of any foreign elector. Into the expense of
the German war sustained by Great Britain, we must also throw the charge
of transporting the English troops; the article of forage, which alone
amounted, in the course of the last campaign, to one million two hundred
thousand pounds, besides pontage, waggons, horses, and many other
contingencies. To the German war we may also impute the extraordinary
expense incurred by the actual service of the militia, which the absence
of the regular troops rendered in a great measure necessary; and the loss
of so many hands withdrawn from industry, from husbandry, and manufacture.
The loss sustained by this connexion was equally grievous and apparent;
the advantage accruing from it, either to Britain or Hanover, we have not
discernment sufficient to perceive, consequently cannot be supposed able
to explain.

The committee of ways and means, having duly deliberated on the articles
of supply, continued sitting from the twenty-second day of November to the
fourteenth of May, during which period they established the necessary
funds to produce the sums which had been granted. The land-tax at four
shillings in the pound, and the malt-tax, were continued, as the standing
revenue of Great Britain. The whole provision made by the committee of
ways and means amounted to sixteen millions one hundred thirty thousand
five hundred and sixty-one pounds, nine shillings and eightpence,
exceeding the grants for the service of the year one thousand seven
hundred and sixty, in the sum of six hundred twenty-six thousand nine
hundred ninety-seven pounds, thirteen shillings and tenpence halfpenny.
This excess, however, will not appear extraordinary, when we consider that
it was destined to make good the premium of two hundred and forty thousand
pounds to the subscribers upon the eight million loan, as well as the
deficiencies in the other grants, which never fail to make a considerable
article in the supply of every session. That these gigantic strides
towards the ruin of public credit were such as might alarm every
well-wisher to his country, will perhaps more plainly appear in the sum
total of the national debt, which, including the incumbrance of one
million charged upon the civil-list revenue, and provided for by a tax
upon salaries and pensions payable out of that revenue, amounted, at this
period, to the tremendous sum of one hundred eight millions four hundred
ninety-three thousand one hundred and fifty-four pounds, fourteen
shillings and elevenpence one farthing.—A comfortable reflection
this to a people involved in the most expensive war that ever was waged,
and already burdened with such taxes as no other nation ever bore!

It is not at all necessary to particularize the acts that were founded
upon the resolutions touching the supply. We shall only observe that, in
the act for the land-tax, and in the act for the malt-tax, there was a
clause of credit, empowering the commissioners of the treasury to raise
the money which they produced by loans on exchequer bills, bearing an
interest of four per cent, per annum, that is, one per cent, higher than
the interest usually granted in time of peace. While the house of commons
deliberated on the bill for granting to his majesty several duties upon
malt, and for raising a certain sum of money to be charged on the said
duties, a petition was presented by the maltsters of Ipswich and parts
adjacent against an additional duty on the stock of malt in hand: but no
regard was paid to this remonstrance; and the bill, with several new
amendments, passed through both houses, under the title of “An act for
granting to his majesty several duties upon malt, and for raising the sum
of eight millions by way of annuities and a lottery, to be charged on the
said duties: and to prevent the fraudulent obtaining of allowances in the
gauging of corn making into malt; and for making forth duplicates of
exchequer-bills, tickets, certificates, receipts, annuity orders, and
other orders lost, burned, or otherwise destroyed.” The other three bills
that turned wholly on the supply were passed in common course, without the
least opposition in either house, and received the royal assent by
commission at the end of the session. The first of these, entitled, “A
bill for enabling his majesty to raise a certain sum of money for the uses
and purposes therein mentioned,” contained a clause of approbation, added
to it by instruction; and the Bank was enabled to lend the million which
the commissioners of the treasury were empowered by the act to borrow, at
the interest of four pounds per cent. The second, granting to his majesty
a certain sum of money out of the sinking-fund, for the service of the
year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, comprehended a clause of credit
for borrowing the money thereby granted; and another clause, empowering
the Bank to lend it without any limitation or interest; and the third,
enabling his majesty to raise a certain sum of money towards discharging
the debt of the navy, and for naval services during the ensuing year,
enacted, that the exchequer bills thereby to be issued should not be
received, or pass to any receiver or collector of the public revenue, or
at the receipt of the exchequer, before the twenty-sixth day of March, in
the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.

PETITIONS RESPECTING THE PROHIBITION OF THE MALT DISTILLERY.

As the act of the preceding session, prohibiting the malt distillery, was
to expire at Christmas, the commons thinking it necessary to consider of
proper methods for laying the malt distillery under such regulations as
might prevent, if possible, its being prejudicial to the health and morals
of the people, began as early as the month of November to deliberate on
this affair; which being under agitation, petitions were presented to the
house by several of the principal inhabitants of Spital-fields; the mayor
and commonalty of New Sarum; the gentlemen, clergy, merchants,
manufacturers, tradesmen, and other inhabitants of Colchester; the mayor,
aldermen, and common council of King’s Lynn in Norfolk; the mayor and
bailiffs of Berwick-upon-Tweed; representing the advantages accruing from
the prohibition of the malt distillery, and praying the continuance of the
act by which it was prohibited. On the other hand, counter-petitions were
offered by the mayor, magistrates, merchants, manufacturers, and other
gentlemen of the city of Norwich; by the land-owners and holders of the
south-west part of Essex; and by the freeholders of the shires of Ross and
Cromartic, in North Britain; alleging, that the scarcity of corn, which
had made it necessary to prohibit the malt distillery, had ceased; and
that the continuing the prohibition beyond the necessity which had
required it would be a great loss and discouragement to the landed
interest: they therefore prayed that the said distillery might be again
opened, under such regulations and restrictions as the house should think
proper. These remonstrances being taken into consideration, and divers
accounts perused, the house unanimously agreed that the prohibition should
be continued for a limited time; and a bill being brought in, pursuant to
this resolution, passed through both houses, and received the royal
assent; by which means the prohibition of the malt distillery was
continued till the twenty-fourth day of December, in the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty, unless such continuation should be abridged by
any other act to be passed in the present session.

OPPOSITION TO THE BILL FOR PREVENTING THE EXCESSIVE USE OF SPIRITS.

The committee, having examined a great number of accounts and papers
relating to spirituous liquors, agreed to four resolutions, importing,
that the present high price of spirituous liquors is a principal cause of
the diminution in the home consumption thereof, and hath greatly
contributed to the health, sobriety, and industry of the common people:
that, in order to continue for the future the present high price of all
spirits used for home consumption, a large additional duty should be laid
upon all spirituous liquors whatsoever, distilled within or imported into
Great Britain: that there should be a drawback of the said additional
duties upon all spirituous liquors distilled in Great Britain, which
should be exported; and that an additional bounty should be granted under
proper regulations, upon the exportation of all spirituous liquors drawn
from corn in Great Britain. A great many accounts being perused, and
witnesses examined, relating to the distillery, a bill was brought in to
prevent the excessive use of spirituous liquors, by laying an additional
duty thereupon; and to encourage the exportation of British-made spirits.
Considerable opposition was made to the bill, on the opinion that the
additional duty proposed was too small; and that, among the resolutions,
there was not so much as one that looked like a provision or restriction
for preventing the pernicious abuse of such liquors. Nay, many persons
affirmed, that what was proposed looked more like a scheme for increasing
the public revenues, than a salutary measure to prevent excess. The
merchants and manufacturers of the town of Birmingham petitioned for such
instructions. The lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council of London
presented a petition by the hands of the two sheriffs, setting forth, that
the petitioners had, with great pleasure, observed the happy consequences
produced upon the morals, behaviour, industry, and health of the lower
class of people, since the prohibition of the malt distillery; that the
petitioners, having observed a bill was brought in to allow the distilling
of spirits from corn, were apprehensive that the encouragement given to
the distillers thereof would prove detrimental to the commercial interests
of the nation; and they conceived the advantages proposed to be allowed
upon the exportation of such spirits, being so much above the value of
their commodity, would lay such a temptation for smuggling and perjury as
no law could prevent. They expressed their fears, that, should such a bill
pass into a law, the excessive use of spirituous liquors would not only
debilitate and enervate the labourers, manufacturers, sailors, soldiers,
and all the lower class of people, and thereby extinguish industry, and
that remarkable intrepidity which had lately so eminently appeared in the
British nation, which must always depend on the vigour and industry of its
people; but also its liberty and happiness, which cannot be supported
without temperance and morality, would run the utmost risk of being
destroyed. They declared themselves also apprehensive, that the
extraordinary consumption of bread corn by the still would not only raise
the price, so as to oppress the lower class of people, but would raise
such a bar to the exportation thereof, as to deprive the nation of a great
influx of money, at that time essential towards the maintaining of an
expensive war, and therefore highly injure the landed and commercial
interests: they therefore prayed that the present prohibition of
distilling spirits from corn might be continued, or that the use of wheat
might not be allowed in distillation. This remonstrance was corroborated
by another to the same purpose, from several merchants, manufacturers, and
traders, residing in and near the city of London; and seemed to have some
weight with the commons, who made several amendments in the bill, which
they now intituled, “A bill for preventing the excessive use of spirituous
liquors, by laying additional duties thereon; for shortening the
prohibition for making low wines and spirits from wheat; for encouraging
the exportation of British-made spirits, and preventing the fraudulent
relanding or importation thereof.” Thus altered and amended, it passed on
a division; and, making its way through the house of lords, acquired the
royal sanction. Whether the law be adequate to the purposes for which it
was enacted, time will determine. The best way of preventing the excess of
spirituous liquors would be to lower the excise on beer and ale, so as to
enable the poorer class of labourers to refresh themselves with a
comfortable liquor for nearly the same expense that will procure a
quantity of Geneva sufficient for intoxication; for it cannot be supposed
that a poor wretch will expend his last penny upon a draught of small
beer, without strength or the least satisfactory operation, when for the
half of that sum he can purchase a cordial, that will almost
instantaneously allay the sense of hunger and cold, and regale his
imagination with the most agreeable illusions. Malt was at this time sold
cheaper than it was in the first year of king James I. when the parliament
enacted, that no innkeeper, victualler, or alehouse-keeper, should sell
less than a full quart of the best ale or beer, or two quarts of the
small, for one penny, under the penalty of twenty shillings. It appears,
then, that in the reign of king James the subject paid but fourpence for a
gallon of strong beer, which now costs one shilling; and as the malt is
not increased in value, the difference in the price must be entirely owing
to the taxes on beer, malt, and hops, which are indeed very grievous,
though perhaps necessary. The duty on small beer is certainly one of the
heaviest taxes imposed upon any sort of consumption that cannot be
considered as an article of luxury. Two bushels of malt, and two pounds of
hops, are required to make a barrel of good small beer, which was formerly
sold for six shillings; and the taxes payable on such a barrel amounted to
three shillings and sixpence; so that the sum total of the imposition on
this commodity was equal to a land-tax of eleven shillings and eightpence
in the pound.

Immediately after the resolution relating to the prohibition of spirits
from wheat, a motion was made and leave given to bring in a bill to
continue, for a time limited, the act of the last session, permitting the
importation of salted beef from Ireland. This permission was accordingly
extended to the twenty-fourth day of December in the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty-one. In all probability this short and temporary
continuance was proposed by the favourers of the bill, in order to avoid
the clamour and opposition of prejudice and ignorance, which would have
been dangerously alarmed, had it been rendered perpetual. Yet as undoubted
evidence had proved before the committee, while the bill was depending,
that the importation had been of great service to England, particularly in
reducing the price of salted beef for the use of the navy, perhaps no
consideration ought to have prevented the legislature from perpetuating
the law; a measure that would encourage the graziers of Ireland to breed
and fatten horned cattle, and certainly put a stop to the practice of
exporting salted beef from that kingdom to France, which undoubtedly
furnishes the traders of that kingdom with opportunities of exporting wool
to the same country.

ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A MILITIA IN SCOTLAND.

As several lieutenants of counties had, for various reasons, suspended all
proceedings in the execution of the laws relating to the militia for
limited times, which suspensions were deemed inconsistent with the intent
of the legislature, a bill was now brought in, to enable his majesty’s
lieutenants of the several counties of England and Wales to proceed in the
execution of the militia laws, notwithstanding any adjournments. It was
enacted, that, as the speedy execution of the laws for regulating the
militia was most essentially necessary at this juncture to the peace and
security of the kingdom., every lieutenant of the place where such
suspension had happened should, within one month after the passing of this
act, proceed as if there had been no such suspension; and summon a meeting
for the same purpose once in every succeeding month until a sufficient
number of officers, qualified and willing to serve, should be found, or
until the expiration of the act for the better ordering the militia
forces. The establishment of a regular militia in South Britain could not
fail to make an impression upon the patriots of Scotland. They were
convinced, from reason and experience, that nothing could more tend to the
peace and security of their country than such an establishment in North
Britain, the inhabitants of which had been peculiarly exposed to
insurrections, which a well-regulated militia might have prevented or
stifled in the birth; and their coast had been lately alarmed by a
threatened invasion, which nothing but the want of such an establishment
had rendered formidable to the natives. They thought themselves entitled
to the same security which the legislature had provided for their
fellow-subjects in South Britain, and could not help being uneasy at the
prospect of seeing themselves left unarmed, and exposed to injuries both
foreign and domestic, while the sword was put in the hands of their
southern neighbours. Some of the members who represented North Britain in
parliament, moved by these considerations, as well as by the earnest
injunctions of their constituents, resolved to make a vigorous effort, in
order to obtain the establishment of a regular militia in Scotland. In the
beginning of March it was moved, and resolved, that the house would, on
the twelfth day of the month, resolve itself into a committee, to consider
the laws in being which relate to the militia in that part of Great
Britain, called Scotland. The result of that inquiry was, that these laws
were ineffectual. Then a motion was made for leave to bring-in a bill for
the better ordering of the militia forces in North Britain, and, though it
met with great opposition, was carried by a large majority. The principal
Scottish members of the house were appointed, in conjunction with others,
to prepare the bill, which was soon printed, and reinforced by petitions
presented by the gentlemen, justices of the peace, and commissioners of
the supply for the shire of Ayr; and by the freeholders of the shires of
Edinburgh, Stirling, Perth, and Forfar. They expressed their approbation
of the established militia in England, and their ardent wish to see the
benefit of that wise and salutary measure extended to North Britain. This
was an indulgence they had the greater reason to hope for, as by the
articles of the union they were undoubtedly entitled to be on the same
footing with their brethren of England; and as the legislature must now be
convinced of the necessity of some such measures, by the consternation
lately produced in their defenceless country, from the threatened invasion
of a handful of French freebooters. These remonstrances had no weight with
the majority in the house of commons, who, either unable or unwilling to
make proper distinctions between the ill and well affected subjects of
North Britain, rejected the bill, as a very dangerous experiment in favour
of a people among whom so many rebellions had been generated and produced.
When the motion was made for the bill’s being committed, a warm debate
ensued, in the course of which many Scottish members spoke in behalf of
their country with great force of argument, and a very laudable spirit of
freedom. Mr. Elliot, in particular, one of the commissioners of the board
of admiralty, distinguished himself by a noble flow of eloquence, adorned
with all the graces of oratory, and warmed with the true spirit of
patriotism. Mr. Oswald, of the treasury, acquitted himself with great
honour on the occasion; ever nervous, steady, and sagacious, independent
though in office, and invariable in pursuing the interest of his country.
It must be owned, for the honour of North Britain, that all her
representatives, except two, warmly contended for this national measure,
which was carried in the negative by a majority of one hundred and six,
though the bill was exactly modelled by the late act of parliament for the
establishment of the militia in England.

Even this institution, though certainly laudable and necessary, was
attended with so many unforeseen difficulties, that every session of
parliament since it was first established has produced new acts for its
better regulation. In April, leave was given to prepare a bill for
limiting, confining, and better regulating the payment of the weekly
allowances made by act of parliament, for the maintenance of families
unable to support themselves during the absence of militia-men embodied,
and ordered out into actual service; as well as for amending and improving
the establishment of the militia, and lessening the number of officers
entitled to pay within that part of Great Britain, called England. While
this bill was under consideration, the house received a petition from the
mayor, aldermen, town-clerk, sheriffs, gentlemen, merchants, clergy,
tradesmen, and others, inhabitants of the ancient city of Lincoln,
representing, That by an act passed relating to the militia it was
provided, that when any militia-men should be ordered out into actual
service, leaving families unable to support themselves during their
absence, the overseers of the parish where such families reside, should
allow them such weekly support as should be prescribed by any one justice
of the peace, which allowance should be reimbursed out of the county
stock. They alleged, that a considerable number of men, inhabitants of the
said city, had entered themselves to serve in the militia of the county of
Lincoln, as volunteers, for several parishes and persons; yet their
families were, nevertheless, supported by the county stock of the city and
county of the city of Lincoln. They took notice of the bill under
deliberation, and prayed that if it should pass into a law, they might
have such relief in the premises, as to the house should seem meet. Regard
was had to this petition in the amendments to the bill, 535
[See note 4 G, at the end of this Vol.] which passed through both
houses, and received the royal assent by commission. During the dependence
of this bill another was brought in, to explain so much of the militia act
passed in the thirty-first year of his majesty’s reign, as related to the
money to be given to private militia-men, upon their being ordered out
into actual service. By this law it was enacted, that the guinea, which by
the former act was due to every private man of every regiment or company
of militia, when ordered out into actual service, should be paid to every
man that shall afterwards be enrolled into such regiment or company whilst
in actual service; that no man should be entitled to his clothes for his
own use, until he should have served three years, if unembodied, or one
year, if embodied, after the delivery of the clothes; and that the full
pay of the militia should commence from the date of his majesty’s warrant
for drawing them out. The difficulties which these successive regulations
were made to obviate, will be amply recompenced by the good effects of a
national militia, provided it be employed in a national way, and for
national purposes: but if the militia are embodied, and the different
regiments that compose it are marched from the respective counties to
which they belong; if the men are detained for any length of time in
actual service, at a distance from their families, when they might be
employed at home in works of industry, for the support of their natural
dependents; the militia becomes no other than an addition to, or
augmentation of, a standing army, enlisted for the term of three years;
the labour of the men is lost to the community; they contract the idle
habits and dissolute manner of the other troops; their families are left
as incumbrances on the community; and the charge of their subsistence is,
at least, as heavy as that of maintaining an equal number of regular
forces. It would not, we apprehend, be very easy to account for the
government’s ordering the regiments of militia to march from their
respective counties, and to do duty for a considerable length of time at a
great distance from their own homes, unless we suppose this measure was
taken to create in the people a disgust to the institution of the militia,
which was an establishment extorted from the secretary by the voice of the
nation. We may add, that some of the inconveniencies attending a militia
will never be totally removed, while the persons drawn by lot for that
service are at liberty to hire substitutes; for it cannot be supposed that
men of substance will incur the danger, fatigue, and damage of service in
person, while they can hire among the lowest class of people mercenaries
of desperate fortune and abandoned morals, who will greedily seize the
opportunity of being paid for renouncing that labour by which they were
before obliged to maintain themselves and their family connexion: it
would, therefore, deserve the consideration of the legislature, whether
the privilege of hiring substitutes should not be limited to certain
classes of men, who are either raised by their rank in life above the
necessity of serving in person, or engaged in such occupations as cannot
be intermitted without prejudice to the commonwealth. It must be allowed,
that the regulation in this new act, by which the families of substitutes
are deprived of any relief from the parish, will not only diminish the
burden of the poor’s rates; but also, by raising the price of mercenaries,
oblige a greater number of the better sort to serve in person. Without all
doubt, the fewer substitutes that are employed, the more dependence may be
placed upon the militia in the preservation of our rights and privileges,
and the more will the number of the disciplined men be increased; because
at the expiration of every three years the lot-men must be changed, and
new militia-men chosen; but the substitutes will, in all probability,
continue for life in the service, provided they can find lot-men to hire
them at every rotation. The reader will forgive our being so
circumstantial upon the regulations of an institution, which we cannot
help regarding with a kind of enthusiastic affection.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

BILL FOR REMOVING THE POWDER MAGAZINE AT GREENWICH.

In the latter end of November, the house of commons received a petition
from several noblemen, gentlemen, and others, inhabitants of East
Greenwich, and places adjacent, in Kent, representing, that in the said
parish, within a quarter of a mile of the town distinguished by a royal
palace, and royal hospital for seamen, there was a magazine, containing
great quantities of gunpowder, frequently to the amount of six thousand
barrels: that besides the great danger which must attend all places of
that kind, the said magazine stood in an open field uninclosed by any
fortification or defence whatsoever, consequently exposed to treachery and
every other accident. They alleged, that if through treachery, lightning,
or any other accident, this magazine should take fire, not only their
lives and properties, but the palace and hospital, the king’s yards and
stores at Deptford and Woolwich, the banks and navigation of the Thames,
with the ships sailing and at anchor in that river, would be inevitably
destroyed, and inconceivable damage would accrue to the cities of London
and Westminster. They, moreover, observed, that the magazine was then in a
dangerous condition, supported on all sides by props that were decayed at
the foundation; that in case it should fall, the powder would, in all
probability, take fire, and produce the dreadful calamities above recited:
they therefore prayed that the magazine might be removed to some more
convenient place, where any accident would not be attended with such
dismal consequences. The subject of this remonstrance was so pressing and
important, that a committee was immediately appointed to take the affair
into consideration, and procure an estimate for purchasing lands, and
erecting a powder magazine at Purfleet, in Essex, near the banks of the
river, together with a guard-house, barracks, and all other necessary
conveniences. While the report of the committee lay upon the table for the
perusal of the members, Mr. chancellor of the exchequer, by his majesty’s
command, acquainted the house, that the king, having been informed of the
subject matter of the petition, recommended it to the consideration of the
commons. Leave was immediately given to prepare a bill, founded on the
resolutions of the committee; which having been duly considered, altered,
and amended, passed through both houses to the foot of the throne, where
it obtained the royal sanction. The magazine was accordingly removed to
Purfleet, an inconsiderable and solitary village, where there will be
little danger of accident, and where no great damage would attend an
explosion; but in order to render this possible explosion still less
dangerous, it would be necessary to form the magazine of small distinct
apartments, totally independent of each other, that in case one should be
accidentally blown up, the rest might stand unaffected. The same plan
ought to be adopted in the construction of all combustible stores subject
to conflagration. The marine bill and mutiny bill, as annual regulations,
were prepared in the usual form, passed both houses without opposition,
and received the royal assent.

ACT FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE STREETS OF LONDON.

The next affair that engrossed the deliberation of the commons, was a
measure relating to the internal economy of the metropolis. The sheriffs
of London delivered a petition from the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons,
in common council assembled, representing that several streets, lanes, and
passages within the city of London, and liberties thereof, were too narrow
and incommodious for the passing and repassing as well of foot passengers
as of coaches, carts, and other carriages, to the prejudice and
inconvenience of the owners and inhabitants of houses, and to the great
hinderance of business, trade, and commerce. They alleged that these
defects might be remedied, and several new streets opened within the said
city and liberties, to the great ease, safety, and convenience of
passengers, as well as to the advantage of the public in general, if they,
the petitioners, were enabled to widen and enlarge the narrow streets,
lanes, and passages, to open and lay out such new streets and ways, and to
purchase the several houses, buildings, and grounds which might be
necessary for these purposes. They took notice that there were several
houses within the city and liberties, partly erected over the ground of
other proprietors; and others, of which the several floors or apartments
belonged to different persons, so that difficulties and disputes
frequently arose amongst the said several owners and proprietors, about
pulling down or rebuilding the party walls and premises; that such
rebuilding was often prevented or delayed, to the great injury and
inconvenience of those owners who were desirous to rebuild; that it would
therefore be of public benefit, and frequently prevent the spreading of
the fatal effects of fire, if some provision were made by law, as well for
determining such disputes in a summary way, as for explaining and amending
the laws then in being relating to the building of party-walls. They
therefore prayed that leave might be given to bring in a bill for enabling
the petitioners to widen and enlarge the several streets, lanes, and
passages, and to open new streets and ways to be therein limited and
prescribed, as well as for determining, in a summary way, all disputes
arising about the rebuilding of houses or tenements within the said city
and liberties, wherein several persons have an intermixed property; and
for explaining and amending the laws in being, relating to these
particulars. A committee being appointed to examine the matter of this
petition, agreed to a report, upon which leave was given to prepare a
bill, and this was brought in accordingly. Next day a great number of
citizens represented, in another petition, that the pavement of the city
and liberties was often damaged, by being broken up for the purposes of
amending or new-laying water-pipes belonging to the proprietors of
water-works, and praying that provision might be made in the bill then
depending, to compel those proprietors to make good any damage that should
be done to the pavement by the leaking or bursting of the water-pipes, or
opening the pavement for alterations. In consequence of this
representation, some amendments were made in the bill, which passed
through both houses, and was enacted into a law, under the title of “An
act for widening certain streets, lanes, and passages, within the city of
London and liberties thereof, and for opening certain new streets and ways
within the same, and for other purposes therein mentioned.” 536
[See note 4 H, at the end of this Vol.]

BILL RELATIVE TO THE SALE OF FISH, &c.

The inhabitants of Westminster had long laboured under the want of a
fish-market, and complained that the price of this species of provision
was kept up at an exorbitant rate by the fraudulent combination of a few
dealers, who engrossed the whole market at Billingsgate, and destroyed
great quantities of fish, in order to enhance the value of those that
remained. An act of parliament had passed, in the twenty-second year of
his present majesty’s reign, for establishing a free market for the sale
of fish in Westminster; and, seven years after that period, it was found
necessary to procure a second, for explaining and amending the first. but
neither effectually answered the purposes of the legislature. In the month
of January, of the present session, the house took into consideration a
petition of the several fishermen trading to Billingsgate market,
representing the hardships to which they were exposed by the said acts;
particularly forfeitures of vessels and cargoes, incurred by the
negligence of servants who had omitted to make the particular entries
which the two acts prescribed. This petition being examined by a
committee, and the report being made, leave was given to bring in a new
bill, which should contain effectual provision for the better supplying
the cities of London and Westminster with fish, and for preventing the
abuses of the fishmongers. It was intituled, “A bill to repeal so much of
an act passed in the twenty-ninth of George II. concerning a free market
for fish at Westminster, as requires fishermen to enter their fishing
vessels at the office of the searcher of the customs at Gravesend, and to
regulate the sale of fish at the first hand in the fish-markets of London
and Westminster; and to prevent salesmen of fish buying fish to sell again
on their own account; and to allow bret and turbot, brill and pearl,
although under the respective dimensions mentioned in a former act, to be
imported and sold; and to punish persons who shall take or sell any spawn,
brood, or fry of fish, unsizeable fish, or fish out of season, or smelts
under the size of five inches, and for other purposes.” Though this, and
the former bill relating to the streets and houses of London, are
instances that evince the care and attention of the legislature, even to
minute particulars of the internal economy of the kingdom, we can hardly
consider them as objects of such dignity and importance as to demand the
deliberations of the parliament, but think they naturally fall within the
cognizance of the municipal magistracy. After all, perhaps, the most
effectual method for supplying Westminster with plenty of fish at
reasonable rates, would be to execute with rigour the laws already enacted
against forestalling and regrating, an expedient that would soon dissolve
all monopolies and combinations among the traders; to increase the number
of markets in London and Westminster, and to establish two general markets
at the Nore, one on each side of the river, where the fishing vessels
might unload their cargoes, and return to sea without delay. A number of
light boats might be employed to convey fresh fish from these marts to
London and Westminster, where all the different fish-markets might be
plentifully supplied at a reasonable expense; for it cannot be supposed
that, while the fresh fish are brought up the river in the fishing smacks
themselves, which can hardly save the tides, to Billingsgate, they will
ever dream of carrying their cargoes above bridge, or that the price of
fish can be considerably lowered, while the fishing vessels lose so much
time in running up to Gravesend or Billingsgate.

ACT FOR ASCERTAINING the QUALIFICATIONS OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

The annual committee being appointed to inquire what laws were expired or
near expiring, agreed to certain resolutions; upon which a bill was
prepared, and obtained the royal assent, importing a continuation of
several laws, namely, the several clauses mentioned of the acts in the
fifth and eighth of George I. against the clandestine running of
uncustomed goods, except the clauses relating to quarantine; the act
passed in the third of George II. relating to the carrying rice from
Carolina; the act of the seventh of the same reign, re-fating to cochineal
and indigo; and that of the twelfth of George II. so far as it related to
the importation of printed books. There was also a law enacted, to
continue to the twenty-ninth day of September in the year one thousand
seven hundred and sixty-seven, an act passed in the twelfth year of queen
Anne, for encouraging the making of sail-cloth, by a duty of one penny per
ell laid upon all foreign-made sails and sail-cloth imported; and a bounty
in the same proportion granted upon all home-made sail-cloth and canvass
fit for or made into sails, and exported; another act was passed, for
continuing certain laws relating to the additional number of one hundred
hackney coaches and chairs, which law was rendered perpetual. The next law
we shall mention was intended to be one of the most important that ever
fell under the cognizance of the legislature: it was a law that affected
the freedom, dignity, and independency of parliaments. By an act, passed
in the ninth year of the reign of queen Anne, it was provided that no
person should be chosen a member of parliament who did not possess in
England or Wales an estate, freehold or copyhold, for life, according to
the following qualifications: for every knight of a shire six hundred
pounds per annum, over and above what will satisfy all incumbrances; and
three hundred pounds per annum, for every citizen, burgess, and baron of
the cinque ports. It was also decreed, that the return of any person not
thus qualified should be void; and that every candidate should, at the
reasonable request of any other candidate at the time of election, or of
two or more persons who had a right to vote, take an oath prescribed to
establish his qualifications. This restraint was by no means effectual. So
many oaths of different kinds had been prescribed since the revolution,
that they began to lose the effect they were intended to have on the minds
of men; and, in particular, political perjury grew so common, that it was
no longer considered as a crime. Subterfuges were discovered, by means of
which this law relating to the qualification of candidates was effectually
eluded. Those who were not actually possessed of such estates, procured
temporary conveyances from their friends and patrons, on condition of
their being restored and cancelled after the election. By this scandalous
fraud the intention of the legislature was frustrated, the dignity of
parliament prostituted, the example of perjury and corruption extended,
and the vengeance of heaven set at defiance. Through this infamous channel
the ministry had it in their power to thrust into parliament a set of
venal beggars, who, as they depended upon their bounty, would always be
obsequious to their will, and vote according to direction, without the
least regard to the dictates of conscience, or to the advantage of their
country. The mischiefs attending such a vile collusion, and in particular
the undue influence which the crown must have acquired from the practice,
were either felt or apprehended by some honest patriots, who after divers
unsuccessful efforts, at length presented to the house a bill, importing
that every person who shall be elected a member of the house of commons,
should, before he presumed to take his seat, deliver to the clerk of the
house, at the table, while the commons were sitting, and the speaker in
the chair, a paper, or schedule, signed by himself, containing a rental or
particular of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, whereby he makes out
his qualification, specifying the nature of his estate, whether messuage,
land, rent, tithe, or what else; and if such estate consists of messuages,
lands, or tithes, then specifying in whose occupation they are; and if in
rent, then specifying the names of the owners or possessors of the lands
and tenements out of which such rent is issuing, and also specifying the
parish, township, or precinct and county, in which the said estate lies,
and the value thereof; and every such person shall, at the same time, also
take and subscribe the following oath, to be fairly written at the bottom
of the paper or schedule: “I, A. B. do swear that the above is a true
rental; and that I truly, and bona fide, have such an estate in law
or equity, to and for my own use and benefit, of and in the lands,
tenements, or hereditaments, above described, over and above what will
satisfy and clear all incumbrances that may affect the same; and that such
estate hath not been granted or made over to me fraudulently, on purpose
to qualify me to be a member of this house. So help me God!” It was
provided that the said paper or schedule, with the oath aforesaid, should
be carefully kept by the clerk, to be inspected by the members of the
house of commons, without fee or reward: that if any person elected to
serve in any future parliament, should presume to sit or vote as a member
of the house of commons before he had delivered in such a paper or
schedule, and taken the oath aforesaid, or should not be qualified
according to the true intent or meaning of this act, his election should
be void; and every person so sitting and voting should forfeit a certain
sum to be recovered, by such persons as should sue for the same by action
of debt, bill, plaint, or information, whereon no essoign, privilege,
protection, or wager of law should be allowed, and only one imparlance:
that if any person should have delivered in, and sworn to his
qualification as aforesaid, and taken his seat in the house of commons,
yet at any time after should, during the continuance of such parliament,
sell, dispose of, alien, or any otherwise incumber the estate, or any part
thereof comprised in the schedule, so as to lessen or reduce the same
under the value of the qualification by law directed, every such person,
under a certain penalty, must deliver in a new or further qualification,
according to the true intent and meaning of this act, and swear to the
same, in manner before directed, before he shall again presume to sit or
vote as a member of the house of commons; that in case any action, suit,
or information should be brought, in pursuance of this act, against any
member of the house of commons, the clerk of the house, shall, upon
demand, forthwith deliver a true and attested copy of the paper or
schedule so delivered in to him as aforesaid by such member to the
plaintiff or prosecutor, or his attorney or agent, on paying a certain sum
for the same; which, being proved a true copy, shall be admitted to be
given in evidence upon the trial of any issue in any such action. Provided
always, that nothing contained in this act shall extend to the eldest son
or heir apparent of any peer or lord of parliament, or of any person
qualified to serve as knight of the shire, or to the members for either of
the universities in that part of Great Britain called England, or to the
members of that part of Great Britain called Scotland. Such was the
substance of the bill, as originally presented to the house of commons;
but it was altered in such a manner as we are afraid will fail in
answering the salutary purposes for which it was intended by those who
brought it into the house. Notwithstanding the provisions made in the act
as it now stands, any minister or patron may still introduce his
pensioners, clerks, and creatures into the house, by means of the old
method of temporary conveyance, though the farce must now be kept up till
the member shall have delivered in his schedule, taken his oath, and his
seat in parliament; then he may deliver up the conveyance, or execute a
re-conveyance, without running any risk of losing his seat, or of being
punished for his fraud and perjury. The extensive influence of the crown,
the general corruptibility of individuals, and the obstacles so
industriously thrown in the way of every scheme contrived to vindicate the
independency of parliaments, must have produced very mortifying
reflections in the breast of every Briton warmed with the genuine love of
his country. He must have perceived that all the bulwarks of the
constitution were little better than buttresses of ice, which would
infallibly thaw before the heat of ministerial influence, when artfully
concentrated; that either a minister’s professions of patriotism were
insincere; or his credit insufficient to effect any essential alteration
in the unpopular measures of government; and that, after all, the
liberties of the nation could never be so firmly established, as by the
power, generosity, and virtue of a patriot king. This inference could not
fail to awake the remembrance of that amiable prince, whom fate untimely
snatched from the eager hopes and warm affection of a whole nation,
before, he had it in his power to manifest and establish his favourite
maxim, “That a monarch’s glory was inseparably connected with the
happiness of his people.” 538 [See note 4 I, at the end of this Vol.]

1760

ACT FOR CONSOLIDATING ANNUITIES GRANTED IN 1759.

On the first day of February, a motion was made, and leave given, to bring
in a bill for enabling his majesty to make leases and copies of offices,
lands, and hereditaments, parcel of his duchy of Cornwall, or annexed to
the same; accordingly it passed through both houses without opposition;
and enacted that all leases and grants made, or to be made, by his
majesty, within seven years next ensuing, in or annexed to the said duchy,
under the limitations therein mentioned, should be good and effectual in
law against his majesty, his heirs, and successors, and against all other
persons that should hereafter inherit the said duchy, either by an act of
parliament, or any limitation whatsoever. This act appears the more
extraordinary as the prince of Wales, who has a sort of right by
prescription to the duchy of Cornwall, was then of age, and might have
been put in possession of it by the passing of a patent. The house having
perused an account of the produce of the fund established for paying
annuities granted in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine,
with the charge on that fund on the fifth day of January in the succeeding
year, it appeared that there had been a considerable deficiency in the
said fund on the fifth day of July preceding, and this had been made good
out of the sinking fund, by a resolution of the seventh of February,
already particularized. They therefore instructed the committee of ways
and means to consider so much of the annuity and lottery act passed in the
preceding session as related to the three per centum annuities, amounting
to the sum of seven millions five hundred and ninety thousand pounds,
granted in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine; and also to
consider so much of the said act as related to the subsidy of poundage
upon certain goods and merchandise to be imported into this kingdom, and
the additional inland duty on coffee and chocolate. The committee having
taken these points into deliberation, agreed to the two resolutions we
have already mentioned with respect to the consolidation; and a bill was
brought in for adding those annuities granted in the year one thousand
seven hundred and fifty-nine, to the joint stock of throe per centum
annuities consolidated by the acts of the twenty-fifth, twenty-eighth,
twenty-ninth, and thirty-second years of his majesty’s reign, and for
several duties therein mentioned, to the sinking fund. The committee was
afterwards empowered to receive a clause for cancelling such lottery
tickets as were made forth in pursuance of an act passed in the thirtieth
year of his majesty’s reign, and were not then disposed of: a clause for
this purpose was accordingly added to the bill, which passed through both
houses without opposition, and received the royal assent at the end of the
session.

BILL FOR SECURING MONIES FOR THE USE OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL.

On the twenty-ninth day of April, lord North presented to the house a bill
for encouraging the exportation of rum and spirits of the growth, produce,
and manufacture of the British sugar-plantations, from Great Britain, and
of British spirits made from molasses; a bill which in a little time
acquired the sanction of the royal assent. Towards the end of April,
admiral Town-shend presented a bill for the more effectual securing the
payment of such prize and bounty-monies as were appropriated to the use of
Greenwich hospital, by an act passed in the twenty-ninth year of his
majesty’s reign. As by that law no time was limited, or particular method
prescribed, for giving notifications of the day appointed for the payment
of the shares of the prizes and bounty-money; and many agents had
neglected to specify, in the notification given in the London Gazette for
payment of shares of prizes condemned in the courts of admiralty in Groat
Britain, the particular day or time when such payments were to commence,
whereby it was rendered difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the
time when the hospital at Greenwich became entitled to the unclaimed
shares, of consequence could not enjoy the full benefit of the act; the
bill now prepared imported, that, from and after the first day of
September in the present year, all notifications of the payment of the
shares of prizes taken by any of his majesty’s ships of war, and condemned
in Great Britain, and from and after the first day of February, in the
year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, all notifications of the
payment of the shares and prizes taken and condemned in any other of his
majesty’s dominions in Europe, or in any of the British plantations in
America; and from and after the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, all notifications of the payment
of the shares of prizes taken and condemned in any other of his majesty’s
dominions, shall be respectively given and published in the following
manner:—If the prize be condemned in any court of admiralty in Great
Britain, such notification, under the agent’s hand, shall be published in
the London Gazette; and if condemned in any court of admiralty in any
other of his majesty’s dominions, such notification shall be published in
like manner in the Gazette, or other newspaper of public authority, of the
island or place where the prize is condemned; and if there shall be no
Gazette, or such newspaper, published there, then in some or one of the
public newspapers of the place; and such agents shall deliver to the
collector, customer, or searcher, or his lawful deputy; and if there shall
be no such officer, then to the principal officer or officers of the place
where the prize is condemned, or to the lawful deputy of such principal
officers, two of the Gazettes or other newspapers in which such
notifications are inserted; and if there shall not be any public
newspapers in any such island or place, the agent shall give two such
notifications in writing, under his hand; and every such collector, or
other officer as aforesaid, shall subscribe his name on both the said
Gazettes, newspapers, or written notifications; and, by the first ship
which shall sail from thence to any port of Great Britain, shall transmit
to the treasurer or deputy-treasurers of the said royal hospital one of
the said notifications, with his name so subscribed, to be there
registered; and shall faithfully preserve and keep the other, with his
name thereon subscribed, in his own custody; and in every notification as
aforesaid the agent shall specify his place of abode, and the precise day
of the month and year appointed for the payment of the respective shares
to the captors; and all notifications with respect to prizes condemned in
Great Britain, shall be published in the London Gazette three days at
least before any share of such prize shall be paid; and with respect to
prizes condemned in any other part of his majesty’s dominions, such
notifications shall be delivered to the said collector, or other officers
as aforesaid, three days at least before any share of such prizes shall be
paid. It was likewise enacted, that the agents for the distribution of
bounty-bills should insert, and publish under their hands, in the London
Gazette, three days at least before payment, public notifications of the
day and year appointed for such payment, and also insert therein their
respective places of abode. The bill, even as it now stands, is liable to
several objections. It may be dangerous to leave the money of the
unclaimed shares so long as three years in the hands of the agent, who,
together with his securities, may prove insolvent before the expiration of
that term: then the time prescribed to the sailors, within which their
claim is limited, appears to be too short, when we consider that they may
be so circumstanced, turned over to another ship, and conveyed to a
distant part of the globe, that they shall have no opportunity to claim
payment; and should three years elapse before they could make application
to the agent, they would find their bounty or prize money appropriated to
the use of Greenwich hospital; nay, should they die in the course of the
voyage, it would be lost to their heirs and executors, who, being ignorant
of their title, could not possibly claim within the time limited.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

ACT IN FAVOUR OF GEOEGE KEITH, &c.

A committee having been appointed to inquire into the original standards
of weights and measures in the kingdom of England, to consider the laws
relating thereto, and to report their observations thereupon, together
with their opinion of the most effectual means for ascertaining and
enforcing uniform and certain standards of weights and measures, they
prepared copies, models, patterns, and multiples, and presented them to
the house; then they were locked up by the clerk of the house; and lord
Garysfort presented a bill, according to order, for enforcing uniformity
of weights and measures to the standards by law to be established; but
this measure, which had been so long in dependence, was not yet fully
discussed, and the standards and weights were reserved to another
occasion. A law was made for reviving and continuing so much of the act
passed in the twenty-first year of his majesty’s reign as relates to the
more effectual trial and punishment of high-treason in the highlands of
Scotland; and also for continuing two other acts passed in the nineteenth
and twenty-first years of his majesty’s reign, so far as they relate to
the more effectual disarming the highlands of Scotland, and securing the
peace thereof; and to allow further time for making affidavits of the
execution of articles or contracts of clerks to attorneys or solicitors,
and filing thereof. The king having been pleased to pardon George Keith,
earl-marshal of Scotland, who had been attainted for rebellion in the year
one thousand seven hundred and sixteen, the parliament confirmed this
indulgence, by passing an act to enable the said George Keith, late
earl-marshal, to sue or entertain any action or suit, notwithstanding his
attainder, and to remove any disability in him, by reason of the said
attainder, to take or inherit any real or personal estate that might or
should hereafter descend or come to him, or which he was entitled to in
reversion or remainder before his attainder. This nobleman, universally
respected for his probity and understanding, had been employed as
ambassador to the court of France by the king of Prussia, and was actually
at this juncture in the service of that monarch, who in all probability
interceded with the king of England in his behalf. When his pardon had
passed the seals, he repaired to London, and was presented to his majesty,
by whom he was very graciously received.

SESSION CLOSED.

These, and a good number of other bills of less importance, both private
and public, were passed into laws by commission, on the twenty-second day
of May, when the lord-keeper of the great seal closed the session with a
speech to both houses. He began with an assurance that his majesty looked
back on their proceedings with entire satisfaction. He said, the duty and
affection which they had expressed for the king’s person and government,
the zeal and unanimity they had showed in maintaining the true interest of
their country, could only be equalled by what his majesty had formerly
experienced from his parliament. He told them it would have given his
majesty the most sensible pleasure, had he been able to assure them that
his endeavours to promote a general peace had met with more suitable
returns. He observed that his majesty, in conjunction with his good
brother and ally the king of Prussia, had chosen to give their enemies
proofs of this equitable disposition, in the midst of a series of glorious
victories; an opportunity the most proper to take such a step with
dignity, and to manifest to all Europe the purity and moderation of his
views. After such a conduct, he said, the king had the comfort to reflect
that the further continuance of the calamities of war could not be imputed
to him or his allies; that he trusted in the blessing of heaven upon the
justice of his arms, and upon those ample means which the zeal of the
parliament in so good a cause had wisely put into his hands; that his
future successes in carrying on the war would not fall short of the past;
and that, in the event, the public tranquillity would be restored on solid
and durable foundations. He acquainted them that his majesty had taken the
most effectual care to augment the combined army in Germany; and at the
same time to keep up such a force at home as might frustrate any attempts
of the enemy to invade these kingdoms; such attempts as had hitherto ended
only in their own confusion. He took notice that the royal navy was never
in a more flourishing and respectable condition; and the signal victory
obtained last winter over the French fleet on their own coast, had given
lustre to his majesty’s arms, fresh spirit to his maritime forces, and
reduced the naval strength of France to a very low ebb. He gave them to
understand that his majesty had disposed his squadrons in such a manner as
might best conduce to the annoyance of his enemies; to the defence of his
own dominions, both in Europe and America; to the preserving and pursuing
his conquests, as well as to the protection of the trade of his subjects,
which he had extremely at heart. He told the commons, that nothing could
relieve his majesty’s royal mind, under the anxiety he felt for the
burdens of his faithful subjects, but the public-spirited cheerfulness
with which their house had granted him such large supplies, and his
conviction that they were necessary for the security and essential
interest of his kingdoms; he therefore returned them his hearty thanks for
these supplies, and assured them they should be duly applied to the
purposes for which they had been given. Finally, he recommended to both
houses the continuance of that union and good harmony which he had
observed with so much pleasure, and from which he had derived such
important effects. He desired they would study to promote these desirable
objects, to support the king’s government, and the good order of their
respective counties, and consult their own real happiness and prosperity.

CHAPTER XIX.

Remarkable Detection of a Murder by William Andrew
Horne….. Popular Clamor against Lord George Sackville…..
His Address to the Public….. He demands a Court-
martial….. Substance of the charge against him….. His
Defence….. Remarks on it….. Sentence of the Court-
martial….. Earl Ferrers apprehended for Murder….. Tried
by the House of Peers….. Convicted, and executed at
Tyburn….. Assassination of Mr. Matthews, by one Stirn, a
Hessian….. New Bridge begun at Blackfriars…..
Conflagration in Portsmouth Yard….. Number of Ships taken
by the Enemy….. Progress of Monsieur Thurot….. He makes
a Descent at Carrickfergus….. Is slain, and his Ships
taken….. Exploit of Captain Kennedy….. Remarkable
Adventure of five Irish Seamen….. The Ramillies Man of War
wrecked upon the Bolthead….. Treaty with the
Cherokees….. Hostilities recommenced….. Their Towns
destroyed by Colonel Montgomery….. His Expedition to the
Middle Settlements….. Pate of the Garrison at Port
Loudoun….. The British Interest established on the
Ohio….. The French undertake the Siege of Quebec…..
Defeat Brigadier Murray, and oblige him to retire into the
Town….. Quebec besieged….. The Enemy’s Shipping
destroyed….. They abandon the Siege….. General Amherst
reduces the French Port at the Isle Royale….. and takes
Montreal….. French Ships destroyed in the Bay of
Chaleurs….. Total Reduction of Canada….. Demolition of
Louisbourg….. Insurrection of the Negroes in Jamaica…..
Action at Sea off Hispaniola….. Gallant Behaviour of
Captains O’Brien and Taylor in the Leeward Islands…..
Transactions in the East Indies….. Achievements in the Bay
of Quiberon….. Admiral Rodney destroys some Vessels on the
Coast of France….. Preparations for a secret
Expedition….. Astronomers sent to the East Indies…..
Earthquakes in Syria….. Wise Conduct of the Catholic
King….. Affairs of Portugal….. Turkish Ship of the Line
carried into Malta….. Patriotic Schemes of the King of
Denmark….. Memorial presented by the British Ambassador to
the States-General….. State of the Powers at War…..
Death of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel….. Offers made by
the Neutral Powers of a Place for holding a Congress…..
Skirmishes in Westphalia during the Winter….. Exactions by
the French in Westphalia….. Skirmish to the Advantage of
the Allies at Vacha….. Situation of the French Armies…..
Exploit of Colonel Luckner at Butzback….. The French
advance to Neustadt….. The Hereditary Prince of Brunswick
defeated at Corback….. but retrieves his honour at
Exdorf….. Victory obtained by the Allies at Warbourg…..
The Hereditary Prince beats up the Quarters of the French at
Zeirenberg….. Petty Advantages on both sides….. The
Hereditary Prince marches to the Lower Rhine….. Is worsted
at Canipen….. and repasses the Rhine….. Attempt of the
Enemy against him….. Advantages gained by M. de
Stainville….. The Allies and French go into Winter-
quarters

DETECTION OF A MURDER.

The successes of the last campaign had flushed the whole nation with the
most elevated hope of future conquest, and the government was enabled to
take every step which appeared necessary to realize that sanguine
expectation; but the war became every day more and more Germanised.
Notwithstanding the immense sums that were raised for the expenses of the
current year; notwithstanding the great number of land-forces maintained
in the service, and the numerous fleets that filled the harbours of Great
Britain; we do not find that one fresh effort was made to improve the
advantages she had gained upon her own clement, or for pushing the war on
national principles: for the reduction of Canada was no more than the
consequence of the measures which had been taken in the preceding
campaign. But, before we record the progress of the war, it may be
necessary to specify some domestic occurrences that for a little while
engrossed the public attention. In the month of December, in the preceding
year, William Andrew Home, a gentleman of some fortune in Derbyshire, was
executed at Nottingham, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, for the
murder of an infant born of his own sister, in the year one thousand seven
hundred and twenty-four. On the third day after the birth, this brutal
ruffian thrust the child into a linen bag, and accompanied by his own
brother on horseback, conveyed it to Annesley, in Nottinghamshire, where
it was next day found dead under a hay-stack. Though this cruel rustic
knew how much he lay at the mercy of his brother, whom he had made privy
to this affair, far from endeavouring to engage his secrecy by offices of
kindness and marks of affection, he treated him as an alien to his blood;
not barely with indifference, but even with the most barbarous rigour. He
not only defrauded him of his right, but exacted of him the lowest menial
services; beheld him starving in a cottage, while he lived himself in
affluence; and refused to relieve with a morsel of charity the children of
his own brother begging at his gate. It was the resentment of this pride
and barbarity which, in all likelihood, first impelled the other to
revenge. He pretended qualms of conscience, and disclosed the transaction
of the child to several individuals. As the brother was universally hated
for the insolence and brutality of his disposition, information was given
against him, and a resolution formed to bring him to condign punishment.
Being informed of this design, he tampered with his brother, and desired
that he would retract upon the trial the evidence he had given before the
justices. Though the brother rejected this scheme of subornation, he
offered to withdraw himself from the kingdom, if he might have five pounds
to defray the expense of his removal. So sordidly avaricious was the
other, that he refused to advance this miserable pittance, though he knew
his own life depended upon his compliance. He was accordingly apprehended,
tried, and convicted on his brother’s evidence; and then he confessed the
particulars of his exposing the infant. He denied, indeed, that he had any
thought the child would perish, and declared he intended it as a present
to a gentleman at whose gate it was laid; butas he appeared to be a
hardened miscreant, devoid of humanity, stained with the complicated
crimes of tyranny, fraud, rapine, incest, and murder, very little credit
is due to his declaration.—In the course of the same month, part of
Westminster was grievously alarmed by a dreadful conflagration, which
broke out in the house of a cabinet-maker near Covent-garden, raged with
great fury, and reduced near twenty houses to ashes. Many others were
damaged, and several persons either burned in their apartments, or buried
under the ruins. The bad consequences of this calamity were in a great
measure alleviated by the humanity of the public, and the generous
compassion of the prince of Wales, who contributed liberally to the relief
of the sufferers.

CLAMOUR AGAINST LORD SACKVILLE.

But no subject so much engrossed the conversations and passions of the
public as did the case of lord George Sackville, who had by this time
resigned his command in Germany, and returned to England, the country
which, of all others, it would have been his interest to avoid at this
juncture, if he was really conscious of the guilt the imputation of which
his character now sustained. With the first tidings of the battle fought
at Minden the defamation of this officer arrived. He was accused of having
disobeyed orders, and his conduct represented as infamous in every
particular. These were the suggestions of a vague report, which no person
could trace to its origin; yet this report immediately gave birth to one
of the most inflammatory pamphlets that ever was exhibited to the public.
The first charge had alarmed the people of England, jealous in honour,
sudden and rash in their sentiments, and obstinately adhering to the
prejudices they have espoused. The implied accusation in the orders of
prince Ferdinand, and the combustible matter superadded by the
pamphlet-writer, kindled up such a blaze of indignation in the minds of
the people, as admitted of no temperament or control. An abhorrence and
detestation of lord George Sackville, as a coward and a traitor, became
the universal passion, which acted by contagion, infecting all degrees of
people from the cottage to the throne; and no individual, who had the
least regard for his own character and quiet, would venture to preach up
moderation, or even advise a suspension of belief until more certain
information could be received. Fresh fuel was continually thrown in by
obscure authors of pamphlets and newspapers, who stigmatized and insulted
with such virulent perseverance, that no one would have imagined they were
actuated by personal motives, not retained by mercenary booksellers,
against that unfortunate nobleman. Not satisfied with inventing
circumstances to his dishonour, in his conduct on the last occasion, they
pretended to take a retrospective view of his character, and produced a
number of anecdotes to his prejudice, which had never before seen the
light, and but for this occasion had probably never been known. Not that
all the writings which appeared on this subject contained fresh matters of
aggravation against lord George Sackville. Some writers, either animated
by the hope of advantage, or hired to betray the cause which they
undertook to defend, entered the lists as professed champions of the
accused, assumed the pen in his behalf, devoid of sense, unfurnished with
materials, and produced performances which could not fail to injure his
character among all those who believed that he countenanced their
endeavours, and supplied them with the facts and arguments of his defence.
Such precisely was the state of the dispute when lord George arrived in
London. While prince Ferdinand was crowned with laurel; while the king of
Great Britain approved his conduct, and, as the most glorious mark of that
approbation, invested him with the order of the garter, while his name was
celebrated through all England, and extolled, in the warmest expressions
of hyperbole, above all the heroes of antiquity; every mouth was opened in
execration of the late commander of the British troops in Germany. He was
now made acquainted with the particulars of his imputed guilt, which he
had before indistinctly learned. He was accused of having disobeyed three
successive orders he had received from the general, during the action at
Minden, to advance with the cavalry of the right wing, which he commanded,
and sustain the infantry that were engaged; and, after the cavalry were
put in motion, of having halted them unnecessarily, and marched so slow,
that they could not reach the place of action in time to be of any
service, by which conduct the opportunity was lost of attacking the enemy
when they gave way, and rendering the victory more glorious and decisive.
The first step which lord George took towards his own vindication with the
public, was in printing a short address, entreating them to suspend their
belief with respect to his character, until the charge brought against him
should be legally discussed by a court-martial, a trial which he had
already solicited, and was in hopes of obtaining.

HE DEMANDS A COURT-MARTIAL.

Finding himself unable to stem the tide of popular prejudice, which flowed
against him with irresistible impetuosity, he might have retired in quiet
and safety, and left it to ebb at leisure. This would have been generally
deemed a prudential step, by all those who consider the unfavourable
medium through which every particular of his conduct must have been viewed
at that juncture, even by men who cherished the most candid intentions;
when they reflected upon the power, influence, and popularity of his
accuser, the clanger of aggravating the resentment of the sovereign,
already too conspicuous, and the risk of hazarding his life on the honour
and integrity of witnesses, who might think their fortunes depended upon
the nature of the evidence they should give. Notwithstanding those
suggestions, lord George, seemingly impatient of the imputation under
which his character laboured, insisted upon the privilege of a legal
trial, which was granted accordingly, after the judges had given it as
their opinion that he might be tried by a court-martial, though he no
longer retained any commission in the service. A court of general officers
being appointed and assembled to inquire into his conduct, the
judge-advocate gave him to understand that he was charged with having
disobeyed the orders of prince Ferdinand, relative to the battle of
Minden. That the reader may have the more distinct idea of the charge, it
is necessary to remind him, that lord George Sackville commanded the
cavalry of the right wing, consisting of Hanoverian and British horse,
disposed in two lines, the British being at the extremity of the right,
extending to the village of Hartum; the Hanoverian cavalry forming the
left, that reached almost to an open wood or grove, which divided the
horse from the line of infantry, particularly from that part of the line
of infantry consisting of two brigades of British foot, the Hanoverian
guards, and Hardenberg’s regiment. This was the body of troops which
sustained the brunt of the battle with the most incredible courage and
perseverance. They of their own accord advanced to attack the left of the
enemy’s cavalry, through a most dreadful fire of artillery and small arms,
to which they were exposed in front and flank; they withstood the repeated
attacks of the whole French gendarmerie, whom at length they totally
routed, together with a body of Saxon troops on their left, and to their
valour the victory was chiefly owing. The ground from which these troops
advanced was a kind of heath or plain, which opened a considerable way to
the left, where the rest of the army was formed in order of battle; but on
the right it was bounded by the wood, on the other side of which the
cavalry of the right wing was posted, having in front the village of
Halen, from whence the French had been driven by the piquets in the army
there posted, and in front of them a windmill, situated in the middle
space between them and a battery placed on the left of the enemy.

Early in the morning captain Malhorti had, by order of prince Ferdinand,
posted the cavalry of the right wing in the situation we have just
described; the village of Hartum with enclosures on the right, a narrow
wood on the left, the village of Halen in their front, and a windmill in
the middle of an open plain, which led directly to the enemy. In this
position lord George Sackville was directed to remain, until he should
receive further orders; and here it was those orders were given which he
was said to have disobeyed. Indeed he was previously charged with having
neglected the orders of the preceding evening, which imported that the
horses should be saddled at one in the morning, though the tents were not
to be struck, nor the troops under arms, until they should receive further
orders. He was accused of having disobeyed these orders, and of having
come late into the field, after the cavalry was formed. Captain
Winchingrode, aidecamp to prince Ferdinand, declared upon oath, that while
the infantry of the right wing were advancing towards the enemy for the
second time, he was sent with orders to lord George Sackville to advance
with the cavalry of the right wing, and sustain the infantry, which was
going to engage, by forming the horse under his command, upon the heath,
in a third line behind the regiments; that he delivered these orders to
lord George Sackville, giving him to understand, that he should march the
cavalry through the woods or trees on his left to the heath, where they
were to be formed; that on his return to the heath, he met colonel Fitzroy
riding at full gallop towards lord George; and that he (Winchingrode)
followed him back, in order to hasten the march of the cavalry. Colonel
Ligonier, another of the prince’s aidsdecamp, deposed, that he carried
orders from the general to lord George to advance with the cavalry, in
order to profit from the disorder which appeared in the enemy’s cavalry;
that lord George made no answer to these orders, but turning to the
troops, commanded them to draw their swords, and march; that the colonel
seeing them advance a few paces on the right forwards, told his lordship
he must march to the left; that in the meantime colonel Fitzroy arriving
with orders for the British cavalry only to advance, lord George said the
orders were contradictory; and colonel Ligonier replied, they differed
only in numbers, but the destination of his march was the same, to the
left. Colonel Fitzroy, the third aidecamp to prince Ferdinand, gave
evidence that when he told lord George it was the prince’s order for the
British cavalry to advance towards the left, his lordship observed that it
was different from the order brought by colonel Ligonier, and he could not
think the prince intended to break the line; that he asked which way the
cavalry was to march, and who was to be their guide; that when he (the
aidecamp) offered to lead the column through the wood on the left, his
lordship seemed still dissatisfied with the order, saying, it did not
agree with the order brought by colonel Ligonier, and desired to be
conducted in person to the prince, that he might have an explanation from
his own mouth; a resolution which was immediately executed. The next
evidence, an officer of rank in the army, made oath that, in his opinion,
when the orders were delivered to lord George, his lordship was alarmed to
a very great degree, and seemed to be in the utmost confusion. A certain
nobleman, of high rank and unblemished reputation, declared, that captain
Winchingrode having told him it was absolutely necessary that the cavalry
should march, and form a line to support the foot, he had given orders to
the second line to march, and form a line to support the foot; that as
soon as they arrived at the place where the action began, he was met by
colonel Fitzroy, with an order for the cavalry to advance as fast as
possible; that in marching to this place, an order came to halt, until
they could be joined by the first line of cavalry; that afterwards, in
advancing, they were again halted by lord George Sackville; that, in his
opinion, they might have marched with more expedition, and even come up in
time enough to act against the enemy: some other officers who were
examined on this subject, agreed with the marquis in these sentiments.

Lord George, in his defence, proved, by undeniable evidence, that he never
received the orders issued on the eve of the battle, nor any sort of
intimation or plan of action, although he was certainly entitled to some
such communication, as commander-in-chief of the British forces; that,
nevertheless, the orders concerning the horses were obeyed by those who
received them; that lord George, instead of loitering or losing time while
the troops were forming, prepared to put himself at the head of the
cavalry on the first notice that they were in motion; that he was so eager
to perform his duty, as to set out from his quarters without even waiting
for an aidecamp to attend him, and was in the field before any general
officer of his division. He declared that, when captain Winchingrode
delivered the order to form the cavalry in one line, making a third, to
advance and sustain the infantry, he neither heard him say he was to march
by the left, nor saw him point with his sword to the wood through which he
was to pass. Neither of these directions were observed by any of the
aids-de-camp or officers then present, except one gentleman, the person
who bore witness to the confusion in the looks and deportment of his
lordship. It was proved that the nearest and most practicable way of
advancing against the enemy was by the way of the windmill, to the left of
the village of Halen. It appeared that lord George imagined this was the
only way by which he should be ordered to advance; that, in this
persuasion, he had sent an officer to reconnoitre the village of Halen, as
an object of importance, as it would have been upon the flank of the
cavalry in advancing forwards; that when he received the order from
Winchingrode to form the line, and advance, he still imagined this was his
route, and on this supposition immediately detached an aidecamp to remove
a regiment of Saxe-Gotha which was in the front; that he sent a second to
observe the place where the infantry were, and a third to reconnoitre the
enemy; that in a few minutes colonel Ligonier coming up with an order from
prince Ferdinand to advance the cavalry, his lordship immediately drew his
sword, and ordered them to march forward by the windmill. The colonel
declared that when he delivered the order, he added, “by the left;” but
lord George affirmed that he heard no such direction, nor did it reach the
ears of any other person then present, except of that officer who
witnessed to the same direction given by Winchingrode. It was proved that
immediately after the troops were put in motion, colonel Fitzroy arrived
with an order from prince Ferdinand, importing that the British cavalry
only should advance by the left; that lord George declared their orders
were contradictory, and seemed the more puzzled, as he understood that
both these gentlemen came off nearly at the same time from the prince, and
were probably directed to communicate the same order. It was therefore
natural to suppose there was a mistake, as there might be danger in
breaking the line, as the route by the wood appeared more difficult and
tedious than that by the windmill, which led directly through open ground
to the enemy: and as he could not think that if a body of horse was
immediately wanted, the general would send for the British, that were at
the farthest extremity of the wing, rather than for the Hanoverian cavalry
who formed the left of the line, and consequently were much nearer the
scene of action. It was proved that lord George, in this uncertainty,
resolved to apply for an explanation to the prince in person, who he
understood was at a small distance; that with this view he set out with
all possible expedition; that having entered the wood, and perceived that
the country beyond it opened sooner to the left than he had imagined, and
captain Smith, his aidecamp advising, that the British cavalry should be
put in motion he sent back that gentleman, with orders for them to advance
by the left with all possible despatch; that he rode up to the general,
who received him without any marks of displeasure, and ordered him to
bring up the whole cavalry of the right wing in a line upon the heath; an
order, as the reader will perceive, quite different from that which was so
warmly espoused by the aidecamp; that as the marquis of Granby had already
put the second line in motion, according to a separate order which he had
received, and the head of his column was already in view, coming out of
the wood, lord George thought it necessary to halt the troops on the left
until the right should come into the line; and afterwards sent them orders
to march slower, that two regiments, which had been thrown out of the
line, might have an opportunity to replace themselves in their proper
stations.

With respect to the confusion which one officer affirmed was perceivable
in the countenance and deportment of this commander, a considerable number
of other officers then present being interrogated by his lordship,
unanimously declared that they saw no such marks of confusion, but that he
delivered his orders with all the marks of coolness and deliberation. The
candid reader will of himself determine, whether a man’s heart is to be
judged by any change of his complexion, granting such a change to have
happened; whether the evidence of one witness, in such a case, will weigh
against the concurrent testimony of all the officers whose immediate
business it was to attend and observe the commander: whether it was likely
that an officer, who had been more than once in actual service, and
behaved without reproach so as to attain such an eminent rank in the army,
should exhibit symptons of fear and confusion, when there was in reality
no appearance of danger; for none of the orders imported that he should
attack the enemy, but only advance to sustain the infantry. The time which
elapsed from the first order he received by captain Winchingrode, to the
arrival of colonel Ligonier, did not exceed eight minutes, during which
his aide-camp, captain Hugo, was employed in removing the Saxe-Gotha
regiment from the front, by which he proposed to advance. From that period
till the cavalry actually marched in consequence of an order from lord
George, the length of time was differently estimated in the opinion of
different witnesses, but at a medium computed by the judge-advocate at
fifteen minutes, during which the following circumstances were transacted:
The troops were first ordered to advance forwards, then halted; the
contradictory orders arrived and were disputed; the commander desired the
two aidsdecamp to agree about which was the precise order, and he would
obey it immediately: each insisting upon that which he had delivered, lord
George hastened to the general for an explanation; and, as he passed the
wood, sent back captain Smith to the right of the cavalry, which was at a
considerable distance, to put the British horse in motion. We shall not
pretend to determine whether the commander of such an important body may
be excusable for hesitating, when he received contradictory orders at the
same time, especially when both orders run counter to his own judgment,
whether in that case it is allowable for him to suspend the operation for
a few minutes, in order to consult in person the commander-in-chief about
a step of such consequence to the preservation of the whole army. Neither
will we venture to decide dogmatically on the merits of the march, after
the cavalry were put in motion; whether they marched too slow, or were
unnecessarily halted in their way to the heath. It was proved, indeed,
that lord George was always remarkably slow in his movements of cavalry,
on the supposition that if horses are blown they must be unfit for
service, and that the least hurry is apt to disorder the line of horse to
such a degree, as would rob them of their proper effect, and render all
their efforts abortive. This being the system of lord George Sackville, it
may deserve consideration, whether he could deviate from it on this
delicate occasion, without renouncing the dictates of his own judgment and
discretion; and whether he was at liberty to use his own judgment, after
having received the order to advance. After all, whether he was
intentionally guilty; and what were the motives by which he was really
actuated, are questions which his own conscience alone can solve. Even
granting him to have hesitated from perplexity, to have lingered from
vexation, to have failed through error of judgment, he will probably find
favour with the candid and humane part of his fellow-subjects, when they
reflect upon the nature of his situation, placed at the head of such a
body of cavalry, uninstructed and uninformed of plan or circumstance,
divided from the rest of the army, unacquainted with the operations of the
day, chagrined with doubt and disappointment, and perplexed by
contradictory orders, neither of which he could execute without offering
violence to his own judgment; when they consider the endeavours he used to
manifest his obedience; the last distinct order which he in person
received and executed; that mankind are liable to mistakes; that the
cavalry were not originally intended to act, as appears in the account of
the battle published at the Hague, by the authority of prince Ferdinand,
expressly declaring that the cavalry on the right did not act, because it
was destined to sustain the infantry in a third line; that if it had
really been designed for action, it ought either to have been posted in
another place, or permitted to advance straight forwards by the windmill,
according to the idea of its commander; finally, when they recall to view
the general confusion that seems to have prevailed through the manouvres
of that morning, and remember some particulars of the action; that the
brigades of British artillery had no orders until they applied to lord
George Sackville, who directed them to the spot where they acquitted
themselves with so much honour and effect, in contributing to the success
of the day; that the glory and advantage acquired by the few brigades of
infantry, who may be said to have defeated the whole French army, was in
no respect owing to any general or particular orders or instructions, but
entirely flowing from the native valour of the troops, and the spirited
conduct of their immediate commanders; and that a great number of officers
in the allied army, even of those who remained on the open heath, never
saw the face of the enemy, or saw them at such a distance that they could
not distinguish more than the hats and the arms of the British regiments
with which they were engaged. With respect to the imputation of cowardice
levelled at lord George by the unthinking multitude, and circulated with
such industry and clamour, we ought to consider it as a mob accusation
which the bravest of men, even the great duke of Marlborough, could not
escape; we ought to receive it as a dangerous suspicion, which strikes at
the root of character, and may blast that honour in a moment which the
soldier has acquired in a long course of painful service, at the continual
hazard of his life; we ought to distrust it as a malignant charge,
altogether inconsistent with the former conduct of the person accused, as
well as with his subsequent impatience and perseverance in demanding a
trial, to which he never would have been called; a trial which, though his
life was at stake, and his cause out of countenance, he sustained with
such courage, fortitude, and presence of mind, as even his enemies
themselves could not help admiring. Thus have we given a succinct detail
of this remarkable affair, with that spirit of impartiality, that sacred
regard to truth, which the importance of history demands. To the best of
our recollection, we have forgot no essential article of the accusation,
nor suppressed any material circumstance urged in defence of lord George
Sackville. Unknown to his person, unconnected with his friends, unmoved by
fear, unbiassed by interest, we have candidly obeyed the dictates of
justice, and the calls of humanity, in our endeavours to dissipate the
clouds of prejudice and misapprehension; warmed, perhaps, with an honest
disdain at the ungenerous, and in our opinion, unjust persecution, which
previous to his trial, an officer of rank, service, and character, the
descendant of an illustrious family, the son of a nobleman universally
respected, a Briton, a fellow-subject, had undergone.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

SENTENCE OF THE COURT-MARTIAL.

The court-martial having examined the evidence and heard the defence, gave
judgment in these words: “The court, upon due consideration of the whole
matter before them, is of opinion that lord George Sackville is guilty of
having disobeyed the orders of prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, whom he was,
by his commission and instructions, directed to obey as
commander-in-chief, according to the rules of war; and it is the further
opinion of this court, that the said lord George Sackville is, and he is
hereby adjudged, unfit to serve his majesty in any military capacity
whatsoever.” His sentence was confirmed by the king, who moreover
signified his pleasure that it should be given out in public orders, not
only in Britain, but in America, and every quarter of the globe where any
English troops happened to be, that officers being convinced that neither
high birth nor great employments can shelter offences of such a nature,
and that seeing they are subject to censures much worse than death to a
man who has any sense of honour, they may avoid the fatal consequences
arising from disobedience of orders. To complete the disgrace of this
unfortunate general, his majesty in council called for the council-book,
and ordered the name of lord George Sackville to be struck out of the list
of privy-counsellors.

EARL FERRERS APPREHENDED.

This summer was distinguished by another trial still more remarkable.
Laurence earl Ferrers, a nobleman of a violent spirit, who had committed
many outrages, and, in the opinion of all who knew him, given manifold
proofs of insanity, at length perpetrated a murder, which subjected him to
the cognizance of justice. His deportment to his lady was so brutal, that
application had been made to the house of peers, and a separation effected
by act of parliament. Trustees were nominated; and one Mr. Johnson, who
had, during the best part of his life, been employed in the family, was
now appointed receiver of the estates, at the earl’s own request. The
conduct of this man, in the course of his stewardship, gave umbrage to
lord Ferrers, whose disposition was equally jealous and vindictive. He
imagined all his own family had conspired against his interest, and that
Johnson was one of their accomplices; that he had been instrumental in
obtaining the act of parliament, which his lordship considered as a
grievous hardship; that he had disappointed him in regard to a certain
contract about coal-mines; in a word, that there was a collusion between
Johnson and the earl’s adversaries. Fired with these suppositions, he
first expressed his resentment, by giving Johnson notice to quit the farm
which he possessed on the estate; but finding the trustees had confirmed
the lease, he determined to gratify his revenge by assassination, and laid
his plan accordingly. On Sunday, the thirteenth day of January, he
appointed this unhappy man to come to his house on the Friday following,
in order to peruse papers, or settle accounts; and Johnson went thither
without the least suspicion of what was prepared for his reception; for
although he was no stranger to his lordship’s dangerous disposition, and
knew he had some time before incurred his displeasure, yet he imagined his
resentment had entirely subsided, as the earl had of late behaved to him
with remarkable complacency. He therefore, at the time appointed, repaired
to his lordship’s house at Stanton, in Leicestershire, at the distance of
a short mile from his own habitation, and was admitted by a maid-servant.
The earl had dismissed every person in the house, upon various pretences,
except three women who were left in the kitchen. Johnson, advancing to the
door of his apartment, was received by his lordship, who desired him to
walk into another room, where he joined him in a few minutes, and then the
door was locked on the inside. After a great deal of warm expostulation,
the earl insisted upon his subscribing a paper, acknowledging himself a
villain; and on his refusing to comply with this demand, declared he would
put him to death. In vain the unfortunate man remonstrated against this
cruel injustice, and deprecated the indignation of this furious nobleman.
He remained deaf to all his entreaties, drew forth a pistol, which he had
loaded for the purpose, and commanding him to implore heaven’s mercy on
his knees, shot him through the body while he remained in that
supplicating attitude. The consequence of this violence was not immediate
death; but his lordship, seeing the wretched victim still alive and
sensible, though agonized with pain, felt a momentary motion of pity. He
ordered his servants to convey Mr. Johnson up stairs to a bed, to send for
a surgeon, and give immediate notice of the accident to the wounded man’s
family. When Mr. Johnson’s daughter came to the house, she was met by the
earl, who told her he had shot her father on purpose, and with
deliberation. The same declaration he made to the surgeon on his arrival.
He stood by him while he examined the wound, described the manner in which
the ball had penetrated, and seemed surprised that it should be lodged
within the body. When he demanded the surgeon’s opinion of the wound, the
operator thought proper to temporize for his own safety, as well as for
the sake of the public, lest the earl should take some other desperate
step, or endeavour to escape. He therefore amused him with hopes of
Johnson’s recovery, about which he now seemed extremely anxious. He
supported his spirits by immoderate drinking, after having retired to
another apartment with the surgeon, whom he desired to take all possible
care of his patient. He declared, however, that he did not repent of what
he had done; that Johnson was a villain who deserved to die; that, in case
of his death, he (the earl) would surrender himself to the house of peers
and take his trial. He said he could justify the action to his own
conscience, and owned his intention was to have killed Johnson outright;
but as he still survived, and was in pain, he desired that all possible
means might be used for his recovery. Nor did he seem altogether
neglectful of his own safety: he endeavoured to tamper with the surgeon,
and suggest what evidence he should give when called before a court of
justice. He continued to drink himself into a state of intoxication, and
all the cruelty of his hate seemed to return. He would not allow the
wounded man to be removed to his own house; saying he would keep him under
his own roof that he might plague the villain. He returned to the chamber
where Johnson lay, insulted him with the most opprobrious language,
threatened to shoot him through the head, and could hardly be restrained
from committing further acts of violence on the poor man, who was already
in extremity. After he retired to bed, the surgeon procured a sufficient
number of assistants, who conveyed Mr. Johnson in an easy chair to his own
house, where he expired that same morning in great agonies. The same
surgeon assembled a number of armed men to seize the murderer, who at
first threatened resistance, but was soon apprehended, endeavouring to
make his escape, and committed to the county prison. From thence he was
conveyed to London by the gaoler of Leicester, and conducted by the usher
of the black rod and his deputy into the house of lords, where the
coroner’s inquest, and the affidavits touching the murder, being read, the
gaoler delivered up his prisoner to the care of the black rod, and he was
immediately committed to the Tower. He appeared very calm, composed, and
unconcerned, from the time of his being apprehended; conversed coolly on
the subject of his imprisonment; made very pertinent remarks upon the
nature of the habeas-corpus act of parliament, of which he hoped to
avail himself; and when they withdrew from the house of peers, desired he
might not be visited by any of his relations or acquaintances. His
understanding, which was naturally good, had been well cultivated; his
arguments were rational, but his conduct was frantic.

TRIED BY THE HOUSE OF PEERS.

The circumstances of the assassination appeared so cruel and deliberate,
that the people cried aloud for vengeance; and the government gave up the
offender to the justice of his country. The lord-keeper Henley was
appointed lord high-steward for the trial of earl Ferrers, and sat in
state with all the peers and judges in Westminster-hall, which was for
this purpose converted into a very august tribunal. On the sixteenth day
of April the delinquent was brought from the Tower in a coach, attended by
the major of the Tower, the gentleman-gaoler, the warders, and a
detachment of the foot-guards. He was brought into court about ten; and
the lord-steward with the peers taking their places, he was arraigned
aloud in the midst of an infinite concourse of people, including many
foreigners, who seemed wonderfully struck with the magnificence and
solemnity of the tribunal. The murder was fully proved by unquestionable
evidence; but the earl pleaded insanity of mind; and, in order to
establish this plea, called many witnesses to attest his lunacy in a
variety of instances, which seemed too plainly to indicate a disordered
imagination: unfounded jealousy of plots and conspiracies, unconnected
ravings, fits of musing, incoherent ejaculations, sudden starts of fury,
denunciations of unprovoked revenge, frantic gesticulations, and a strange
caprice of temper, were proved to have distinguished his conduct and
deportment. It appeared that lunacy had been a family taint, and affected
divers of his lordship’s relations; that a solicitor of reputation had
renounced his business on the full persuasion of his being disordered in
his brain; that long before this unhappy event, his nearest relations had
deliberated upon the expediency of taking out a commission of lunacy
against him, and were prevented by no other reason than the apprehension
of being convicted of scandalum magnatum, should the jury find his
lordship compos mentis: a circumstance which, in all probability,
would have happened, inasmuch as the earl’s madness did not appear in his
conversation, but in his conduct. A physician of eminence, whose practice
was confined to persons labouring under this infirmity, declared that the
particulars of the earl’s deportment and personal behaviour seemed to
indicate lunacy. Indeed all his neighbours and acquaintances had long
considered him as a madman; and a certain noble lord declared in the house
of peers, when the bill of separation was on the carpet, that he looked
upon him in the light of a maniac, and that if some effectual step was not
taken to divest him of the power of doing mischief, he did not doubt but
that one day they should have occasion to try him for murder. The lawyers,
who managed the prosecution in behalf of the crown, endeavoured to
invalidate the proofs of his lunacy, by observing that his lordship was
never so much deprived of his reason but that he could distinguish between
good and evil; that the murder he had committed was the effect of revenge
for a conceived injury of some standing; that the malice was deliberate,
and the plan artfully conducted; that immediately after the deed was
perpetrated, the earl’s conversation and reasoning were cool and
consistent, until he drank himself into a state of intoxication; that in
the opinion of the greatest lawyers, no criminal can avail himself of the
plea of lunacy, provided the crime was committed during a lucid interval;
but his lordship, far from exhibiting any marks of insanity, had in the
course of this trial displayed uncommon understanding and sagacity in
examining the witnesses, and making many shrewd and pertinent observations
on the evidence which was given. These sentiments were conformable to the
opinion of the peers, who unanimously declared him guilty.—After
all, in examining the vicious actions of a man who has betrayed manifest
and manifold symptoms of insanity, it is not easy to distinguish those
which are committed during the lucid interval. The suggestions of madness
are often momentary and transient: the determinations of a lunatic, though
generally rash and instantaneous, are sometimes the result of artful
contrivance; but there is always an absurdity which is the criterion of
the disease, either in the premises or conclusion. The earl, it is true,
had formed a deliberate plan for the perpetration of the murder; but he
had taken no precautions for his own safety or escape; and this neglect
will the more plainly appear to have been the criterion of insanity, if we
reflect that he justified what he had done as a meritorious action; and
declared he would, upon Mr. Johnson’s death, surrender himself to the
house of lords. Had he been impelled to this violence by a sudden gust of
passion, it could not be expected that he should have taken any measure
for his own preservation; but as it was the execution of a deliberate
scheme, and his lordship was by no means defective in point of ingenuity,
he might easily have contrived means for concealing the murder until he
should have accomplished his escape; and, in our opinion, any other than a
madman would either have taken some such measures, or formed some plan for
the concealment of his own guilt. The design itself seems to have been
rather an intended sacrifice to justice than a gratification of revenge.
Neither do we think that the sanity of his mind was ascertained by the
accuracy and deliberation with which he made his remarks, and examined the
evidence at his trial. The influence of his frenzy might be past; though
it was no sign of sound reason to supply the prosecutor with such an
argument to his prejudice. Had his judgment been really unimpaired, he
might have assumed the mask of lunacy for his own preservation. The trial
was continued for two days; and on the third the lord-steward, after
having made a short speech touching the heinous nature of the offence,
pronounced the same sentence of death upon the earl which malefactors of
the lowest class undergo: that from the Tower, in which he was imprisoned,
he should, on the Monday following, be led to the common place of
execution, there to be hanged by the neck, and his body be afterwards
dissected and anatomized. This last part of the sentence seemed to shock
the criminal extremely; he changed colour, his jaw quivered, and he
appeared to be in great agitation; but during the remaining part of his
life he behaved with surprising composure, and even unconcern. After he
had received sentence, the lords, his judges, by virtue of a power vested
in them, respited his execution for one month, that he might have time to
settle his temporal and spiritual concerns. Before sentence was passed,
the earl read a paper, in which he begged pardon of their lordships for
the trouble he had given, as well as for having, against his own
inclination, pleaded lunacy at the request of his friends. He thanked them
for the candid trial with which he had been indulged, and entreated their
lordships to recommend him to the king for mercy. He afterwards sent a
letter to his majesty, remonstrating, that he was the representative of a
very ancient and honourable family, which had been allied to the crown;
and requesting that, if he could not be favoured with the species of death
which in cases of treason distinguishes the nobleman from the plebeian, he
might at least, out of consideration for his family, be allowed to suffer
in the Tower, rather than at the common place of execution; but this
indulgence was refused. From his return to the Tower to the day of his
execution, he betrayed no mark of apprehension or impatience, but
regulated his affairs with precision, and conversed without concern or
restraint.

EARL FERRERS EXECUTED.

On the fifth day of May, his body being demanded by the sheriffs at the
Tower-gate, in consequence of a writ under the great seal of England,
directed to the lieutenant of the Tower, his lordship desired permission
to go in his own landau; and appeared gaily dressed in a light coloured
suit of clothes, embroidered with silver. He was attended in the landau by
one of the sheriffs, and the chaplain of the Tower, followed by the
chariots of the sheriffs, a mourning coach and six, filled with his
friends, and a hearse for the conveyance of his body. He was guarded by a
posse of constables, and a party of horse grenadiers, and a detachment of
infantry; and in this manner the procession moved from the Tower, through
an infinite concourse of people, to Tyburn, where the gallows, and the
scaffold erected under it, appeared covered with black baize. The earl
behaved with great composure to Mr. sheriff Vaillant, who attended him in
the landau: he observed that the gaiety of his apparel might seem odd on
such an occasion, but that he had particular reasons for wearing that suit
of clothes; he took notice of the vast multitude which crowded round him,
brought thither, he supposed, by curiosity to see a nobleman hanged: he
told the sheriff he had applied to the king by letter, that he might be
permitted to die in the Tower, where the earl of Essex, one of his
ancestors, had been beheaded in the reign of queen Elizabeth; an
application which, he said, he had made with the more confidence, as he
had the honour to quarter part of his majesty’s arms. He expressed some
displeasure at being executed as a common felon, exposed to the eyes of
such a multitude. The chaplain who had never been admitted to him before,
hinting that some account of his lordship’s sentiments on religion would
be expected by the public, he made answer that he did not think himself
accountable to the public for his private sentiments; that he had always
adored one God, the creator of the universe; and with respect to any
particular opinions of his own, he had never propagated them, or
endeavoured to make proselytes, because he thought it was criminal to
disturb the established religion of his country, as lord Bolingbroke had
done by the publication of his writings. He added, that the great number
of sects, and the multiplication of religious disputes, had almost
banished morality. With regard to the crime for which he suffered, he
declared that he had no malice against Mr. Johnson; and that the murder
was owing to a perturbation of mind, occasioned by a variety of crosses
and vexations. When he approached the place of execution, he expressed an
earnest desire to see and take leave of a certain person who waited in the
coach, a person for whom he entertained the most sincere regard and
affection; but the sheriff prudently observing that such an interview
might shock him, at a time when he had occasion for all his fortitude and
recollection, he acquiesced in the justness of the remark, and delivered
to him a pocket-book, a ring, and a purse, desiring they might be given to
that person, whom he now declined seeing. On his arrival at Tyburn he came
out of the landau, and ascended the scaffold with a firm step and
undaunted countenance. He refused to join the chaplain in his devotions;
but kneeling with him on black cushions, he repeated the Lord’s Prayer,
which he said he had always admired; and added, with great energy, “O
Lord, forgive me all my errors, pardon all my sins.” After this exercise,
he presented his watch to Mr. sheriff Vaillant; thanked him and the other
gentlemen for all their civilities; and signified his desire of being
buried at Breden or Stanton, in Leicestershire. Finally, he gratified the
executioner with a purse of money; then, the halter being adjusted to his
neck, he stepped upon a little stage, erected upon springs, on the middle
of the scaffold; and the cap being pulled over his eyes, the sheriff made
a signal, at which the stage fell from under his feet, and he was left
suspended. His body having hung an hour and five minutes, was cut down,
placed in the hearse, and conveyed to the public theatre for dissection;
where being opened, and lying for some days as the subject of a public
lecture, at length it was carried off and privately interred. Without all
doubt, this unhappy nobleman’s disposition was so dangerously mischievous,
that it became necessary, for the good of society, either to confine him
for life as au incorrigible lunatic, or give him up at once as a sacrifice
to justice. Perhaps it might be no absurd or unreasonable regulation in
the legislature, to divest all lunatics of the privilege of insanity, and,
in cases of enormity, subject them to the common penalties of the law; for
though, in the eye of casuistry, consciousness must enter into the
constitution of guilt, the consequences of murder committed by a maniac
may be as pernicious to society as those of the most criminal and
deliberate assassination, and the punishment of death can be hardly deemed
unjust or rigorous, when inflicted upon a mischievous being, divested of
all the perceptions of reason and humanity. At any rate, as the nobility
of England are raised by many illustrious distinctions above the level of
plebeians, and as they are eminently distinguished from them in suffering
punishment for high treason, which the law considers as the most atrocious
crime that can be committed, it might not be unworthy of the notice of the
legislature to deliberate whether some such pre-eminence ought not to be
extended to noblemen convicted of other crimes, in order to alleviate as
much as possible the disgrace of noble families which have deserved well
of their country; to avoid any circumstance that may tend to diminish the
lustre of the English nobility in the eyes of foreign nations; or to bring
it into contempt with the common people of our own, already too
licentious, and prone to abolish those distinctions which serve as the
basis of decorum, order, and subordination.

ASSASSINATION OF MR. MATTHEWS.

Homicide is the reproach of England: one would imagine there is something
in the climate of this country that not only disposes the natives to this
inhuman outrage, but even infects foreigners who reside among them.
Certain it is, high passions will break out into the most enormous
violence in that country where they are least controlled by the restraint
of regulation and discipline; and it is equally certain, that in no
civilized country under the sun there is such a relaxation of discipline,
either religious or civil, as in England. The month of August produced a
remarkable instance of desperate revenge, perpetrated by one Stirn, a
native of Hesse-Cassel, inflamed and exasperated by a false punctilio of
honour. This unhappy young man was descended of a good family, and
possessed many accomplishments both of mind and person; but his character
was distinguished by such a jealous sensibility, as rendered him unhappy
in himself, and disagreeable to his acquaintance. After having for some
years performed the office of usher in a boarding-school, he was admitted
to the house of one Mr. Matthews, a surgeon, in order to teach him the
classics, and instruct his children in music, which he perfectly
understood. He had not long resided in his family, when the surgeon took
umbrage at some part of his conduct, taxed him roughly with fraud and
ingratitude, and insisted upon his removing to another lodging. Whether he
rejected this intimation, or found difficulty in procuring another
apartment, the surgeon resolved to expel him by violence, called in the
assistance of a peace-officer, and turned him out into the street in the
night, after having loaded him with the most provoking reproaches. These
injuries and disgraces operating upon a mind jealous by nature and galled
by adversity, produced a kind of frenzy of resentment, and he took the
desperate resolution of sacrificing Mr. Matthews to his revenge. Next day,
having provided a case of pistols, and charged them for the occasion, he
reinforced his rage by drinking an unusual quantity of wine, and repaired
in the evening to a public house, which Mr. Matthews frequented, in the
neighbourhood of Hatton-Garden. There he accordingly found the unhappy
victim sitting with some of his friends; and the surgeon, instead of
palliating his former conduct, began to insult him afresh with the most
opprobrious invectives. Stirn, exasperated by this additional indignity,
pulled his pistols from his bosom; shot the surgeon, who immediately
expired; and discharged the other at his own breast, though his confusion
was such that it did not take effect. He was apprehended on the spot, and
conveyed to prison; where, for some days, he refused all kind of
sustenance, but afterwards became more composed. At his trial he pleaded
insanity of mind; but, being found guilty, he resolved to anticipate the
execution of the sentence. That same evening he drank poison; and,
notwithstanding all the remedies that could be administered, died in
strong convulsions. His body was publicly dissected, according to the
sentence of the law; and afterwards interred with those marks of indignity
which are reserved for the perpetrators of suicide.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

NEW BRIDGE BEGUN AT BLACKFRIARS.

We shall close the domestic occurrences of this year with an account of
two incidents, which, though of a very different nature in respect of each
other, nevertheless concurred in demonstrating that the internal wealth
and vigour of the nation were neither drained nor diminished by the
enormous expense and inconveniencies of the war. The committee appointed
to manage the undertaking for a new bridge over the river Thames, at
Blackfriars, having received and examined a variety of plans presented by
different artists, at length gave the preference to the design of one Mr.
Mylne, a young architect, a native of North Britain, just returned from
the prosecution of his studies at Rome, where he had gained the prize in
the capital, which the academy of that city bestows on him who produces
the most beautiful and useful plan on a given subject of architecture.
This young man being in London, on his return to his own country, was
advised to declare himself a candidate for the superintendency of the new
bridge; and the plan which he presented was approved and adopted. The
place being already ascertained, the lord-mayor of London, attended by the
committee, and a great concourse of people, repaired to Blackfriars, and
laid the first stone of the bridge; placing upon it a plate, with an
inscription, which does more honour to the public spirit of the
undertakers than to the classical taste of the author. 547
[See note 4 K, at the end of this Vol.] The other instance that
denoted the wealth and spirit of the nation, was the indifference and
unconcern with which they bore the loss of a vast magazine of naval stores
belonging to the dock-yard at Portsmouth, which, in the month of July, was
set on fire by lightning; and, consisting of combustibles, burned with
such fury, notwithstanding all the endeavours of the workmen in the yard,
the sailors in the harbour, and the troops in the town, that before a stop
was put to the conflagration it had consumed a variety of stores to an
immense value. The damage, however, was so immediately repaired, that it
had no sort of effect in disconcerting any plan, or even in retarding any
naval preparation.

How important these preparations must have been, may be judged from the
prodigious increase of the navy, which, at this juncture, amounted to one
hundred and twenty ships of the line, besides frigates, fire-ships,
sloops, bombs, and tenders. Of these capital ships, seventeen were
stationed in the East Indies, twenty for the defence of the West India
islands, twelve in North America, ten in the Mediterranean, and sixty-one
either on the coast of France, in the harbours of England, or cruising in
the English seas for the protection of the British commerce.
Notwithstanding these numerous and powerful armaments, the enemy, who had
not a ship of the line at sea, were so alert with their small privateers
and armed vessels, that in the beginning of this year, from the first of
March to the tenth of June, they had made prize of two hundred vessels
belonging to Great Britain and Ireland. The whole number of British ships
taken by them, from the first day of June, in the year one thousand seven
hundred and fifty-six, to the first of June in the present year, amounted
to two thousand five hundred and thirty-nine; of these, seventy-eight were
privateers, three hundred and twenty-one were retaken, and about the same
number ransomed. In the same space of time, the British cruisers had made
captures of nine hundred and forty-four vessels, including two hundred and
forty-two privateers, many fishing boats and small coasters, the value of
which hardly defrayed the expense of condemnation. That such a small
proportion of ships should be taken from the enemy is not at all
surprising, when we consider the terrible shocks their commerce had
previously received, and the great number of their mariners imprisoned in
England; but the prodigious number of British vessels taken by their petty
coasting privateers, in the face of such mighty armaments, numerous
cruisers, and convoys, seem to argue that either the English ships of war
were inactive or improperly disposed, or that the merchants hazarded their
ships without convoy. Certain it is, in the course of this year we find
fewer prizes taken from the enemy, and fewer exploits achieved at sea,
than we had occasion to record in the annals of the past. Not that the
present year is altogether barren of events which redound to the honour of
our marine commanders. We have, in recounting the transactions of the
preceding year, mentioned a small armament equipped at Dunkirk, under the
command of M. de Thurot, who, in spite of all the vigilance of the British
commander stationed in the Downs, found means to escape from the harbour
in the month of October last, and arrived at Gottenburgh in Sweden, from
whence he proceeded to Bergen in Norway. His instructions were to make
occasional descents upon the coast of Ireland: and, by dividing the
troops, and distracting the attention of the government in that kingdom,
to facilitate the enterprise of M. de Confians, the fate of which we have
already narrated. The original armament of Thurot consisted of five ships,
one of which, called the mareschal de Belleisle, was mounted with
forty-four guns; the Begon, the Blond, the Terpsichore, had thirty guns
each; and the Marante carried twenty-four. The number of soldiers put on
board this little fleet did not exceed one thousand two hundred and
seventy, exclusive of mariners, to the number of seven hundred; but two
hundred of the troops were sent sick on shore before the armament sailed
from Dunkirk; and in their voyage between Gottenburgh and Bergen they lost
company of the Begon, during a violent storm. The severity of the weather
detained them nineteen days at Bergen, at the expiration of which they set
sail for the western islands of Scotland, and discovered the northern part
of Ireland in the latter end of January. The intention of Thurot was to
make a descent about Derry; but before this design could be executed, the
weather growing tempestuous, and the wind blowing off shore, they were
driven out to sea, and in the night lost sight of the Marante, which never
joined them in the sequel. After having been tempest-beaten for some time,
and exposed to a very scanty allowance of provisions, the officers
requested of Thurot that he would return to France, lest they should all
perish by famine; but he lent a deaf ear to this proposal, and frankly
told them he could not return to France, without having struck some stroke
for the service of his country. Nevertheless, in hopes of meeting with
some refreshment, he steered to the island of Islay, where the troops were
landed; and here they found black cattle, and a small supply of oatmeal,
for which they paid a reasonable price; and it must be owned, Thurot
himself behaved with great moderation and generosity.

While this spirited adventurer struggled with these wants and
difficulties, his arrival in those seas filled the whole kingdom with
alarm. Bodies of regular troops and militia were posted along the coast of
Ireland and Scotland; and besides the squadron of commodore Boys, who
sailed to the northward on purpose to pursue the enemy, other ships of war
were ordered to scour the British channel, and cruise between Scotland and
Ireland. The weather no sooner permitted Thurot to pursue his destination,
than he sailed from Islay to the bay of Carrickfergus, in Ireland, and
made all the necessary preparations for a descent; which was accordingly
effected with six hundred men, on the twenty-first day of February.
Lieutenant-colonel Jennings, who commanded four companies of raw
undisciplined men at Carrickfergus, having received information that three
ships had anchored about two miles and a half from the castle, which was
ruinous and defenceless, immediately detached a party to make
observations, and ordered the French prisoners there confined to be
removed to Belfast. Meanwhile, the enemy landing without opposition,
advanced towards the town, which they found as well guarded as the nature
of the place, which was entirely open, and the circumstances of the
English commander, would allow. A regular attack was carried on, and a
spirited defence made,* until the ammunition of the English failed; then
colonel Jennings retired in order to the castle, which, however, was in
all respects untenable; for, besides a breach in the wall, near fifty feet
wide, they found themselves destitute of provisions and ammunition.

* One circumstance that attended this dispute deserves to be
transmitted to posterity, as an instance of that courage,
mingled with humanity, which constitutes true heroism. While
the French and English were hotly engaged in one of the
streets, a little child ran playfully between them, having
no idea of the danger to which it was exposed: a common
soldier of the enemy, perceiving the life of this poor
innocent at stake, grounded his piece, advanced deliberately
between the lines of fire, took up the child in his arms,
conveyed it to a place of safety; then returning to his
place, resumed his musket, and renewed his hostility.

Nevertheless, they repulsed the assailants in the first attack, even after
the gate was burst open, and supplied the want of shot with stones and
rubbish. At length the colonel and his troops were obliged to surrender,
on condition that they should not be sent prisoners to France, but be
ransomed, by sending thither an equal number of French prisoners from
Great Britain or Ireland: that the castle should not be demolished, nor
the town of Carrickfergus plundered or burned, on condition that the mayor
and corporation should furnish the French troops with necessary
provisions. The enemy, after this exploit, did not presume to advance
farther into the country; a step which indeed they could not have taken
with any regard to their own safety; for by this time a considerable body
of regular troops was assembled; and the people of the country manifested
a laudable spirit of loyalty and resolution, crowding in great numbers to
Belfast, to offer their service against the invaders. These circumstances,
to which the enemy were no strangers, and the defeat of Conflans, which
they had also learned, obliged them to quit their conquest, and re-embark
with some precipitation, after having laid Carrickfergus under moderate
contributions.

The fate they escaped on shore they soon met with at sea. Captain John
Elliot, who commanded three frigates at Kinsale, and had in the course of
this war more than once already distinguished himself even in his early
youth, by extraordinary acts of valour, was informed by a despatch from
the duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, that three of the enemy’s
ships lay at anchor in the bay of Carrickfergus; and thither he
immediately shaped his course in the ship Æolus, accompanied by the Pallas
and Brilliant, under the command of the captains Clements and Logic. On
the twenty-eighth day of February they descried the enemy, and gave chase
in sight of the Isle of Man; and about nine in the morning, captain
Elliot, in his own ship, engaged the Belleisle, commanded by Thurot,
although considerably his superior in strength of men, number of guns, and
weight of metal. In a few minutes his consorts were also engaged with the
other two ships of the enemy. After a warm action, maintained with great
spirit on all sides for an hour and a half, captain Elliot’s lieutenant
boarded the Belleisle; and, striking her colours with his own hand, the
commander submitted: his example was immediately followed by the other
French captains; and the English commodore, taking possession of his
prizes, conveyed them into the bay of Ramsay, in the Isle of Man, that
their damage might be repaired. Though the Belleisle was very leaky, and
had lost her boltsprit, mizen-mast, and main-yard, in all probability the
victory would not have been so easily obtained, had not the gallant Thurot
fallen during the action. The victor had not even the consolation to
perform the last offices to his brave enemy; for his body was thrown into
the sea by his own people in the hurry of the engagement. The loss on the
side of the English did not exceed forty men killed and wounded, whereas
above three hundred of the enemy were slain and disabled. The service
performed on this occasion was deemed so essential to the peace and
commerce of Ireland, that the thanks of the house of commons in that
kingdom were voted to the conquerors of Thurot, as well as to
lieutenant-colonel Jennings, for his spirited behaviour at Carrickfergus;
and the freedom of the city of Cork was presented in silver boxes to the
captains Elliot, Clements, and Logie. The name of Thurot was become
terrible to all the trading seaports of Great Britain and Ireland; and
therefore the defeat and capture of his squadron were celebrated with as
hearty rejoicings as the most important victory could have produced.

In the beginning of April another engagement between four frigates, still
more equally matched, had a different issue, though not less honourable
for the British commanders. Captain Skinner of the Biddeford, and captain
Kennedy of the Flamborough, both frigates, sailed on a cruise from Lisbon;
and on the fourth day of April, fell in with two large French frigates,
convoy to a fleet of merchant-ships, which the English captains
immediately resolved to engage. The enemy did not decline the battle,
which began about half an hour after six in the evening, and raged with
great fury till eleven. By this time the Flamborough had lost sight of the
Biddeford; and the frigate with which captain Kennedy was engaged bore
away with all the sail she could carry. He pursued her till noon the next
day, when she had left him so far astern, that he lost sight of her, and
returned to Lisbon with the loss of fifteen men killed and wounded,
including the lieutenant of marines, and considerable damage both in her
hull and rigging. In three days he was joined by the Biddeford, which had
also compelled her antagonist to give way, and pursued her till she was
out of sight. In about an hour after the action began, captain Skinner was
killed by a cannon-ball; and the command devolved to lieutenant Knollis,
son to the earl of Banbury,* who maintained the battle with great spirit,
even after he way wounded, until he received a second shot in his body,
which proved mortal.

* Five sons of this nobleman were remarkably distinguished
in this war. The fourth and fifth were dangerously wounded
at the battle of Minden; the second was hurt in the
reduction of Guadaloupe; lord Wallingford, the eldest,
received a shot at Carrickfergus; and the third was slain in
this engagement.

Then the master, assuming the direction, continued the engagement with
equal resolution till the enemy made his escape; which he the more easily
accomplished, as the Biddeford was disabled in her masts and rigging.

REMARKABLE ADVENTURE OF FIVE IRISHMEN.

The bravery of five Irishmen and a boy, belonging to the crew of a ship
from Waterford, deserves commemoration. The vessel, in her return from
Bilboa, laden with brandy and iron, being taken by a French privateer off
Ushant, about the middle of April, the captors removed the master, and all
the hands but these five men and the boy, who were left to assist nine
Frenchmen in navigating the vessel to France. These stout Hibernians
immediately formed a plan of insurrection, and executed it with success.
Four of the French mariners being below deck, three aloft among the
rigging, one at the helm, and another walking the deck, Brian, who headed
the enterprise, tripped up the heels of the French steersman, seized his
pistol, and discharged it at him who walked the deck; but missing the
mark, he knocked him down with the but-end of the piece. At the same time
hallooing to his confederates below, they assailed the enemy with their
own broadswords; and, soon compelling them to submit, came upon deck, and
shut the hatches. Brian being now in possession of the quarter-deck, those
who were aloft called for quarter, and surrendered without opposition. The
Irish having thus obtained a complete victory, almost without bloodshed,
and secured the prisoners, another difficulty occurred: neither Brian nor
any of his associates could read or write, or knew the least principle of
navigation; but supposing his course to be north, he steered at a venture,
and the first land he made was the neighbourhood of Youghall, where he
happily arrived with his prisoners.

THE RAMILLIES MAN OF WAR WRECKED.

The only considerable damage sustained by the navy of Great Britain, since
the commencement of this year, was the loss of the Ramillies, a
magnificent ship of the second rate, belonging to the squadron which
admiral Boscawen commanded on the coast of France, in order to watch the
motions and distress the commerce of that restless enterprising enemy. In
the beginning of February, a series of stormy weather obliged the admiral
to return from the bay of Quiberon to Plymouth, where he arrived with much
difficulty: but the Ramillies overshot the entrance to the sound; and,
being embayed near a point called the Bolthead, about four leagues higher
up the channel, was dashed in pieces among the rocks, after all her
anchors and cables had given way. All her officers and men, amounting to
seven hundred, perished on this occasion, except one midshipman and
twenty-five mariners, who had the good fortune to save themselves by
leaping on the rocks as the hull was thrown forwards, and raised up by the
succeeding billows. Such were the most material transactions of the year,
relating to the British empire in the seas of Europe.

TREATY WITH THE CHEROKEES. HOSTILITIES RECOMMENCED.

We shall now transport the reader to the continent of North America,
which, as the theatre of war, still maintained its former importance. The
French emissaries from the province of Louisiana had exercised their arts
of insinuation with such success among the Cherokees—a numerous and
powerful nation of Indians settled on the confines of Virginia and
Carolina—that they had infringed the peace with the English towards
the latter end of the last year, and begun hostilities by plundering,
massacring, and scalping several British subjects of the more southern
provinces. Mr. Lyttleton, governor of South Carolina, having received
information of these outrages, obtained the necessary aids from the
assembly of the province, for maintaining a considerable body of forces,
which was raised with great expedition. He marched in the beginning of
October, at the head of eight hundred provincials, reinforced with three
hundred regular troops, and penetrated into the heart of the country
possessed by the Cherokees, who were so much intimidated by his vigour and
despatch, that they sent a deputation of their chiefs to sue for peace,
which was re-established by a new treaty, dictated by the English
governor. They obliged themselves to renounce the French interest, to
deliver up all the spies and emissaries of that nation then resident among
them; to surrender to justice those of their own people who had been
concerned in murdering and scalping the British subjects; and for the
performance of these articles two-and-twenty of their head men were put as
hostages into the hands of the governor. So little regard, however, was
paid by these savages to this solemn accommodation, that Mr. Lyttleton had
been returned but a few days from their country, when they attempted to
surprise the English fort Prince George, near the frontiers of Carolina,
by going thither in a body, on pretence of delivering up some murderers;
but the commanding officer, perceiving some suspicious circumstances in
their behaviour, acted with such vigilance and circumspection as entirely
frustrated their design. 549 [See note 4 L, at the end of this Vol.]
Thus disappointed, they wreaked their vengeance upon the English subjects
trading in their country, all of whom they butchered without mercy. Not
contented with this barbarous sacrifice, they made incursions on the
British settlements at the Long Lanes, and the forks of the Broad River,
and massacred about forty defenceless colonists, who reposed themselves in
full security on the peace so lately ratified. As views of interest could
not have induced them to act in this manner, and their revenge had not
been inflamed by any fresh provocation, these violences must be imputed to
the instigation of French incendiaries; and too plainly evinced the
necessity of crowning our American conquests with the reduction of
Louisiana, from whence these emissaries were undoubtedly despatched.

The cruelty and mischief with which the Cherokees prosecuted their renewed
hostilities alarmed all the southern colonies of the English, and
application was made for assistance to Mr. Amherst, the commander-in-chief
of the king’s forces in America. He forthwith detached twelve hundred
chosen men to South Carolina, under the command of colonel Montgomery,
brother to the earl of Eglinton, an officer of approved conduct and
distinguished gallantry. Immediately after his arrival at Charles-Town, he
advanced to Ninety-Six, and proceeded to Twelve-mile river, which he
passed in the beginning of June, without opposition. He continued his
route by forced marches until he arrived in the neighbourhood of the
Indian town called Little Keowee, where he encamped in an advantageous
situation. Having reason to believe the enemy were not yet apprized of his
coming, he resolved to rush upon them in the night by surprise. With this
view, leaving his tents standing with a sufficient guard for the camp and
waggons, he marched through the woods towards the Cherokee town of
Estatoe, at the distance of five-and-twenty miles: and in his route
detached a company of light infantry to destroy the village of Little
Keowee, where they were received with a smart fire; but they rushed in
with their bayonets, and all the men were put to the sword. The main body
proceeded straight to Estatoe, which they reached in the morning; but it
had been abandoned about half an hour before their arrival. Some few of
the Indians, who had not time to escape, were slain; and the town,
consisting of two hundred houses, well stored with provisions, ammunition,
and all the necessaries of life, was first plundered, and then reduced to
ashes: some of the wretched inhabitants who concealed themselves perished
in the flames. It was necessary to strike a terror into those savages by
some examples of severity; and the soldiers became deaf to all the
suggestions of mercy when they found in one of the Indian towns the body
of an Englishman, whom they had put to the torture that very morning.
Colonel Montgomery followed his blow with surprising rapidity. In the
space of a few hours he destroyed Sugar-Town, which was as large as
Estateo, and every village and house in the Lower Nation. The Indian
villages in this part of the world were agreeably situated, generally
consisting of about one hundred houses, neatly and commodiously built, and
well supplied with provisions. They had in particular large magazines of
corn, which were consumed in the flames. All the men that were taken
suffered immediate death; but the greater part of the nation had escaped
with the utmost precipitation. In many houses the beds were yet warm, and
the table spread with victuals. Many loaded guns went off while the houses
were burning. The savages had not time to save their most valuable
effects. The soldiers found some money, three or four watches, a good
quantity of wampum, clothes, and peltry. Colonel Montgomery having thus
taken vengeance on the perfidious Cherokees, at the expense of five or six
men killed or wounded, returned to Fort Prince George, with about forty
Indian women and children whom he had made prisoners. Two of their
warriors were set at liberty, and desired to inform their nation, that,
though they were now in the power of the English, they might still, on
their submission, enjoy the blessings of peace. As the chief called
Attakullakulla, alias the Little Carpenter, who had signed the last
treaty, disapproved of the proceedings of his countrymen, and had done
many good offices to the English since the renovation of the war, he was
now given to understand that he might come down with some other chiefs to
treat of an accommodation, which would be granted to the Cherokees on his
account; but that the negotiation must be begun in a few days, otherwise
all the towns in the Upper Nation would be ravaged and reduced to ashes.

These intimations having produced little or no effect, colonel Montgomery
resolved to make a second irruption into the middle settlements of the
Cherokees, and began his march on the twenty-fourth day of June. On the
twenty-seventh, captain Morrison, of the advanced party, was killed by a
shot from a thicket, and the firing became so troublesome that his men
gave way. The grenadiers and light infantry being detached to sustain
them, continued to advance, notwithstanding the fire from the woods;
until, from a rising ground, they discovered a body of the enemy. These
they immediately attacked, and obliged to retire into a Swamp; which, when
the rest of the troops came up, they were after a short resistance
compelled to abandon: but, as the country was difficult, and the path
extremely narrow, the forces suffered on their march from the fire of
scattered parties who concealed themselves behind trees and bushes. At
length they arrived at the town of Etchowee, which the inhabitants had
forsaken after having removed every thing of value. Here, while the army
encamped on a small plain, surrounded by hills, it was incommoded by
volleys from the enemy, which wounded some men, and killed several horses.
They were even so daring as to attack the piquet guard, which repulsed
them with difficulty; but, generally speaking, their parties declined an
open engagement. Colonel Montgomery, sensible that, as many horses were
killed or disabled, he could not proceed farther without leaving his
provisions behind, or abandoning the wounded men to the brutal revenge of
a savage enemy, resolved to return; and began his retreat in the night,
that he might be the less disturbed by the Indians. Accordingly, he
pursued his route for two days without interruption; but afterwards
sustained some straggling fires from the woods, though the parties of the
enemy were put to flight as often as they appeared. In the beginning of
July he arrived at Fort Prince George; this expedition having cost him
about seventy men killed and wounded, including five officers.

FATE OF THE GARRISON AT FORT LOUDOUN.

In revenge for these calamities, the Cherokees assembled to a considerable
number, and formed the blockade of Fort Loudoun, a small fortification
near the confines of Virginia, defended by an inconsiderable garrison, ill
supplied with provisions and necessaries. After having sustained a long
siege, and being reduced to the utmost distress, captain Demere, the
commander, held a council of war with the other officers, to deliberate
upon their present situation; when it appeared that their provisions were
entirely exhausted; that they had subsisted a considerable time without
bread upon horse-flesh, and such supplies of pork and beans as the Indian
women could introduce by stealth: that the men were so weakened with
famine and fatigue, that in a little time they would not be able to do
duty; that, for two nights past, considerable parties had deserted, and
some thrown themselves upon the mercy of the enemy; but the garrison in
general threatened to abandon their officers, and betake themselves to the
woods; and that there was no prospect of relief, their communication
having been long cut off from all the British settlements: for these
reasons they were unanimously of opinion that it was impracticable to
prolong their defence; and they should accept of an honourable
capitulation; and captain Stuart should be sent to treat with the warriors
and the head men of the Cherokees, about the conditions of their
surrender. This officer, being accordingly despatched with full powers,
obtained a capitulation of the Indians, by which the garrison was
permitted to retire. The Indians desired that, when they arrived at
Keowee, the Cherokee prisoners confined at that place should be released,
all hostilities cease, a lasting accommodation be re-established, and a
regulated trade revived. In consequence of this treaty the garrison
evacuated the fort, and had marched about fifteen miles on their return to
Carolina, when they were surrounded and surprised by a large body of
Indians, who massacred all the officers except captain Stuart, and slew
five and twenty of the soldiers: the rest were made prisoners, and
distributed among the different towns and villages of the nation. Captain
Stuart owed his life to the generous intercession of the Little Carpenter,
who ransomed him at the price of all he could command, and conducted him
safe to Holston River, where he found major Lewis advanced so far with a
body of Virginians. The savages, encouraged by their success at Fort
Loudoun, undertook the siege of Ninety-Six, and other small
fortifications; but retired precipitately on the approach of a body of
provincials.

BRITISH INTEREST ESTABLISHED ON THE OHIO.

In the meantime, the British interest and empire were firmly established
on the banks of the Ohio, by the prudence and conduct of major-general
Stanwix, who had passed the winter at Pittsburgh, formerly Du Quesne, and
employed that time in the most effectual manner for the service of his
country. He repaired the old works, established posts of communication
from the Ohio to Monongahela, mounted the bastions that cover the isthmus
with artillery, erected casemates, store-houses, and barracks, for a
numerous garrison, and cultivated with equal diligence and success the
friendship and alliance of the Indians. The happy consequences of these
measures were soon apparent in the production of a considerable trade
between the natives and the merchants of Pittsburgh, and in the perfect
security of about four thousand settlers, who now returned to the quiet
possession of the lands from whence they had been driven by the enemy on
the frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

THE FRENCH UNDERTAKE THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC.

The incidents of the war were much more important and decisive in the more
northern parts of this great continent. The reader will remember that
brigadier-general Murray was left to command the garrison of Quebec,
amounting to about six thousand men; that a strong squadron of ships was
stationed at Halifax, in Nova-Scotia, under the direction of lord
Colville, an able and experienced officer, who had instructions to revisit
Quebec in the beginning of summer, as soon as the river St. Laurence
should be navigable; and that general Amherst, the commander-in-chief of
the forces in America, wintered in New-York, that he might be at hand to
assemble his troops in the spring, and re-commence his operations for the
entire reduction of Canada. General Murray neglected no step that could be
taken by the most vigilant officer for maintaining the important conquest
of Quebec, and subduing all the Lower Canada; the inhabitants of which
actually submitted, and took the oath of allegiance to the king of Great
Britain. 550 [See note 4 M, at the end of this Vol.]
The garrison., however, within the walls of Quebec, suffered greatly from
the excessive cold in the winter, and the want of vegetables and fresh
provisions; insomuch that, before the end of April, one thousand soldiers
were dead of the scurvy, and twice that number rendered unfit for service.
Such was the situation of the garrison, when Mr. Murray received undoubted
intelligence that the French commander, the chevalier de Levis, was
employed in assembling his army, which had been cantoned in the
neighbourhood of Montreal; that from the inhabitants of the country he had
completed his eight battalions, regimented forty companies of the troops
de Colonie, and determined to undertake the siege of Quebec, whenever the
river St. Laurence should be so clear of ice that he could use his four
frigates, and other vessels, by means of which he was entirely master of
the river.

The brigadier, considering the city of Quebec as no other than a strong
cantonment, had projected a plan of defence, by extending lines, and
intrenching his troops on the heights of Abraham, which at the distance of
eight hundred paces, entirely commanded the ramparts of the city, and
might have been defended by a small force against a formidable army.
Fascines, and every other necessary for this work, had been provided; and
in the month of April the men were set at work upon the projected lines:
but the earth was so hardened by the frost, that it was found
impracticable to proceed. Being informed on the night of the twenty-sixth,
that the enemy had landed at Point-au-Tremble, to the number of ten
thousand men, with five hundred savages, he ordered all the bridges over
the river Cape Rouge to be broken down, secured the landing places at
Sylleri and the Foulon; and next day, marching in person with a strong
detachment, and two field-pieces, took possession of an advantageous
situation, and thus defeated the scheme which the French commander had
laid for cutting off the posts which the English had established. These
being all withdrawn, the brigadier that same afternoon marched back to
Quebec, with little or no loss, although his rear was harassed by the
enemy. Here he formed a resolution which hath been censured by some
critics in war, as a measure that savoured more of youthful impatience and
overboiling courage than of that military discretion which ought to
distinguish a commander in such a delicate situation; but it is more easy
to censure with an appearance of reason, than to act in such circumstances
with any certainty of success. Mr. Murray, in his letter to the secretary
of state, declared, that, although the enemy were greatly superior to him
in number, yet, when he considered that the English forces were habituated
to victory, that they were provided with a fine train of field-artillery;
that, in shutting them at once within the walls, he should have risked his
whole stake on the single chance of defending a wretched fortification; a
chance which could not be much lessened by an action in the field, though
such an action would double the chance of success: for these reasons he
determined to hazard a battle; should the event prove unprosperous, he
resolved to hold out the place to the last extremity; then to retreat to
the Isle of Orleans, or Coudres, with the remainder of the garrison, and
there wait for a reinforcement. In pursuance of these resolutions he gave
the necessary orders over night; and on the twenty-eighth day of April, at
half an hour after six in the morning, marched out with his little army of
three thousand men, which he formed on the heights in order of battle. The
right brigade, commanded by colonel Burton, consisted of the regiments of
Amherst, Anstruther, Webb, and the second battalion of Royal Americans;
the left, under colonel Fraser, was formed of the regiments of Kennedy,
Lascelles, Town-shend, and the Highlanders. Otway’s regiment, and the
third battalion of Royal Americans, constituted the corps de reserve.
Major Dalling’s corps of light infantry covered the right flank; the left
was secured by captain Huzzen’s company of rangers, and one hundred
volunteers, under the command of captain Donald Mac-donald; and each
battalion was supplied with two field-pieces. Brigadier Murray, having
reconnoitred the enemy, perceived their van had taken possession of the
rising grounds about three quarters of a mile in his front; but that their
army was on the march in one column. Thinking this was the critical moment
to attack them before they were formed, he advanced towards them with
equal order and expedition. They were soon driven from the heights, though
not without a warm dispute; during which the body of their army advanced
at a round pace, and formed in columns. Their van consisted of ten
companies of grenadiers, two of volunteers, and four hundred savages;
eight battalions, formed in four columns, with some bodies of Canadians in
the intervals, constituted their main body; their rear was composed of two
battalions, and some Canadians in the flanks; and two thousand Canadians
formed the reserve. Their whole army amounted to upwards of twelve
thousand men. Major Balling, with great gallantry, dispossessed their
grenadiers of a house and windmill which they occupied, in order to cover
their left flank; and in this attack the major and some of his officers
were wounded: nevertheless, the light infantry pursued the fugitives to a
corps which was formed to sustain them; then the pursuers halted, and
dispersed along the front of the right; a circumstance which prevented
that wing from taking advantage of the first impression they had made on
the left of the enemy. The light infantry, being ordered to regain the
flank, were, in attempting this motion, furiously charged, and thrown into
disorder: then they retired to the rear in such a shattered condition,
that they could never again be brought up during the whole action. Otway’s
regiment was instantly ordered to advance from the body of the reserve,
and sustain the right wing, which the enemy twice in vain attempted to
penetrate. Meanwhile the left brigade of the British forces did not remain
inactive: they had dispossessed the French of two redoubts, and sustained
with undaunted resolution the whole efforts of the enemy’s right, until
they were fairly fought down, overpowered by numbers, and reduced to a
handful, notwithstanding the assistance they received from the third
battalion of Royal Americans, which had been stationed with the body of
the reserve, as well as from Kennedy’s regiment, posted in the centre. The
French attacked with great impetuosity; and at length a fresh column of
the regiment de Rousillon penetrating the left wing of the British army,
it gave way; the disorder was soon communicated to the right; so that
after a very obstinate dispute, which lasted an hour and three quarters,
brigadier Murray was obliged to quit the field, with the loss of one
thousand men killed or wounded, and the greater part of his artillery. The
enemy lost twice the number of men and reaped no essential advantage from
their victory.

QUEBEC BESIEGED.

Mr. Murray, far from being dispirited by his defeat, no sooner retired
within the walls of Quebec, than he resolved to prosecute the
fortifications of the place, which had been interrupted by the severity of
the winter; and the soldiers exerted themselves with incredible alacrity,
not only in labouring at the works, but also in the defence of the town,
before which the enemy had opened trenches on the very evening of the
battle. Three ships anchored at the Foulon below their camp; and for
several days they were employed in landing their cannon, mortars, and
ammunition. Meanwhile they worked incessantly at their trenches before the
town; and on the eleventh day of May, opened one bomb-battery, and three
batteries of cannon. Brigadier Murray made the necessary dispositions to
defend the place to the last extremity: he raised two cavaliers, contrived
some out-works, and planted the ramparts with one hundred and thirty-two
pieces of artillery, dragged thither mostly by the soldiery. Though the
enemy cannonaded the place with great vivacity the first day, their fire
soon slackened; and their batteries were in a manner silenced by the
superior fire of the garrison: nevertheless, Quebec would in all
probability have reverted to its former owners, had a French fleet from
Europe got the start of an English squadron in sailing up the river.

THE ENEMIES SHIPPING DESTROYED.

Lord Colville had sailed from Halifax, with the fleet under his command,
on the twenty-second day of April; but was retarded in his passage by
thick fogs, contrary winds, and great shoals of ice floating down the
river. Commodore Swanton, who had sailed from England with a small
reinforcement, arrived about the beginning of May at the Isle of Bee, in
the river St. Laurence, where, with two ships, he purposed to wait for the
rest of his squadron, which had separated from him in the passage: but one
of these, the Lowestoffe, commanded by captain Deane, had entered the
harbour of Quebec on the ninth day of May, and communicated to the
governor the joyful news that the squadron was arrived in the river.
Commodore Swanton no sooner received intimation that Quebec was besieged,
than he sailed up the river with all possible expedition, and on the
fifteenth in the evening anchored above Point Levi. The brigadier
expressing an earnest desire that the French squadron above the town might
be removed, the commodore ordered captain Schomberg of the Diana, and
captain Deane of the Lowestoffe, to slip their cables early next morning,
and attack the enemy’s fleet, consisting of two frigates, two armed ships,
and a great number of smaller vessels. They were no sooner in motion than
the French ships fled in the utmost disorder. One of their frigates was
driven on the rocks above Cape Diamond; the other ran ashore, and was
burned at Point-au-Tremble, about ten leagues above the town; and all the
other vessels were taken or destroyed.

The enemy were so confounded and dispirited by this disaster, and the
certain information that a strong English fleet was already in the river
St. Laurence, that in the following night they raised the siege of Quebec,
and retreated with great precipitation, leaving their provisions,
implements, and artillery to governor Murray, who had intended to make a
vigorous sally in the morning, and attempt to penetrate into the camp of
the besiegers, which, from the information of prisoners and deserters, he
conceived to be a very practicable scheme. For this purpose he had
selected a body of troops, who were already under arms, when a lieutenant,
whom he had sent out with a detachment to amuse the enemy, came and
assured him that their trenches were abandoned. He instantly marched out
of Quebec at the head of his forces, in hopes of overtaking and making an
impression on their rear, that he might have ample revenge for his late
discomfiture; but they had passed the river Cape Rouge before he could
come up with their army: however, he took some prisoners, and a great
quantity of baggage, including their tents, stores, magazines of provision
and ammunition, with thirty-four pieces of battering cannon, ten
field-pieces, six mortars, four petards, a great number of scaling
ladders, intrenching tools, and every other implement for a siege. They
retired to Jaques-Quartiere, where their ammunition began to fail, and
they were abandoned by great part of the Canadians; so that they resigned
all hope of succeeding against Quebec, and began to take measures for the
preservation of Montreal, against which the force under general Amherst
was directed. There M. Vaudreuil had fixed his head-quarters, and there he
proposed to make his last stand against the efforts of the British
general. He not only levied forces, collected magazines, and erected new
fortifications in the island of Montreal, but he had even recourse to
feigned intelligence, and other arts of delusion, to support the spirits
of the Canadians and their Indian allies, which had begun to flag in
consequence of their being obliged to abandon the siege of Quebec. It must
be owned, he acted with all the spirit and foresight of an experienced
general, determined to exert himself for the preservation of the colony,
even though very little prospect of success remained. His hopes, slender
as they were, depended upon the natural strength of the country, rendered
almost inaccessible by woods, mountains, and morasses, which might have
retarded the progress of the English, and protracted the war until a
general pacification could be effected. In the meantime, major-general
Amherst was diligently employed in taking measures for the execution of
the plan he had projected, in order to complete the conquest of Canada. He
conveyed instructions to general Murray, directing him to advance by water
towards Montreal, with all the troops that could be spared from the
garrison of Quebec. He detached colonel Haviland, with a body of troops
from Crown-Point, to take possession of the Isle-aux-Noix, in the lake
Champlain, and from thence penetrate the shortest way to the bank of the
river St. Laurence; while he himself, with the main body of the army,
amounting to about ten thousand men, including Indians, should proceed
from the frontiers of New York, by the rivers of the Mohawks and Oneidas,
to the lake Ontario, and sail down the river St. Laurence to the island of
Montreal. Thus, on the supposition that all these particulars could be
executed, the enemy must have been hemmed in and entirely surrounded. In
pursuance of this plan, general Amherst had provided two armed sloops to
cruise in the lake Ontario, under the command of captain Loring; as well
as a great number of bateaux, or smaller vessels, for the transportation
of the troops, artillery, ammunition, implements, and baggage. Several
regiments were ordered to proceed from Albany to Oswego: and the general
taking his departure from Schenectady, with the rest of the forces, in the
latter end of June, arrived at the same place on the ninth day of July.

GENERAL AMHERST REDUCES THE FRENCH FORT AT THE ISLE ROYALE.

Being informed that two French vessels had appeared off Oswego, he
despatched some bateaux to Niagara, with intelligence to captain Loring,
who immediately set sail in quest of them; but they escaped his pursuit,
though they had twice appeared in the neighbourhood of Oswego since the
arrival of the general, who endeavoured to amuse them, by detaching
bateaux to different parts of the lake. The army being assembled, and
joined by a considerable body of Indians, under the command of sir William
Johnston, the general detached colonel Haviland, with the light infantry,
the grenadiers, and one battalion of highlanders, to take post at the
bottom of the lake, and assist the armed vessels in finding a passage to
La Galette. On the tenth day of August the army embarked on board the
bateaux and whale-boats, and proceeded on the lake towards the mouth of
the river St. Laurence. Understanding that one of the enemy’s vessels had
run aground and was disabled, and that the other lay off La Galette, he
resolved to make the best of his way down the river to Swegatchie, and
attack the French fort at Isle Royale, one of the most important posts on
the river St. Laurence, the source of which it in a great measure
commands. On the seventeenth, the row-galleys fell in with the French
sloop commanded by M. de la Broquerie, who surrendered after a warm
engagement. Mr. Amherst having detached some engineers to reconnoitre the
coasts and islands in the neighbourhood of Isle Royale, he made a
disposition for the attack of that fortress, which was accordingly
invested, after he had taken possession of the islands. Some of these the
enemy had abandoned with such precipitation, as to leave behind a few
scalps they had taken on the Mohawk river, a number of tools and utensils,
two swivels, some barrels of pitch, and a large quantity of iron. The
Indians were so incensed at sight of the scalps, that they burned a chapel
and all the houses of the enemy. Batteries being raised on the nearest
islands, the fort was cannonaded not only by them, but likewise by the
armed sloops, and a disposition was made for giving the assault, when M.
Pouchart, the governor, thought proper to beat a parley, and surrender on
capitulation. The general, having taken possession of the fort, found it
so well situated for commanding the lake Ontario and the Mohawk river,
that he resolved to maintain it with a garrison, and employed some days in
repairing the fortifications.

From this place his navigation down the river St. Laurence was rendered
extremely difficult and dangerous, by a great number of violent riffs or
rapids, and falls; among which he lost above fourscore men, forty-six
bateaux, seventeen whale-boats, one row-galley, with some artillery,
stores, and ammunition. On the sixth day of September the troops were
landed on the island of Montreal, without any opposition, except from some
flying parties, which exchanged a few shot, and then fled with
precipitation. That same day he repaired a bridge which they had broken
down in their retreat; and, after a march of two leagues, formed his army
on a plain before Montreal, where they lay all night on their arms.
Montreal is, in point of importance, the second place in Canada, situated
in an island of the river St. Laurence, at an equal distance from Quebec
and the lake Ontario. Its central situation rendered it the staple of the
Indian trade; yet the fortifications of it were inconsiderable, not at all
adequate to the value of the place. General Amherst ordered some pieces of
artillery to be brought up immediately from the landing-place at La Chine,
where he had left some regiments for the security of the boats, and
determined to commence the siege in form; but in the morning of the
seventh he received a letter from the marquis de Vaudreuil by two
officers, demanding a capitulation; which, after some letters had passed
between the two generals, was granted upon as favourable terms as the
French had reason to expect, considering that general Murray, with the
troops from Quebec, had by this time landed on the island; and colonel
Haviland, with the body under his command, had just arrived on the south
side of the river, opposite to Montreal; circumstances equally favourable
and surprising, if we reflect upon the different routes they pursued,
through an enemy’s country, where they had no intelligence of the motions
of each other. Had any accident retarded the progress of general Amherst,
the reduction of Montreal would have been attempted by general Murray, who
embarked with his troops at Quebec on board of a great number of small
vessels, under the command of captain Deane in the Diana. This gentleman,
with uncommon abilities, surmounted the difficulties of an unknown,
dangerous, and intricate navigation; and conducted the voyage with such
success, that not a single vessel was lost in the expedition. M. de Levis,
at the head of his forces, watched the motions of general Murray, who, in
advancing up the river, published manifestoes among the Canadians, which
produced all the effect he could desire. Almost all the parishes on the
south shore, as far as the river Sorrel, submitted, and took the oath of
neutrality; and lord Rolle disarmed all the inhabitants of the north
shore, as far as Trois Rivieres, which, though the capital of a district,
being no more than an open village, was taken without resistance. In a
word, general Amherst took possession of Montreal, and thus completed the
conquest of all Canada; a conquest the most important of any that ever the
British arms achieved, whether we consider the safety of the English
colonies in North America, now secured from invasion and encroachment; the
extent and fertility of the country subdued; or the whole Indian commerce
thus transferred to the traders of Great Britain. The terms of the
capitulation may perhaps be thought rather too favourable, as the enemy
were actually enclosed and destitute of all hope of relief: but little
points like these ought always to be sacrificed to the consideration of
great objects; and the finishing the conquest of a great country without
bloodshed, redounds as much to the honour as it argues the humanity of
general Amherst, whose conduct had been irreproachable during the whole
course of the American operations. At the same time, it must be allowed he
was extremely fortunate in having subordinate commanders, who perfectly
corresponded with his ideas; and a body of troops whom no labours could
discourage, whom no dangers could dismay. Sir William Johnston, with a
power of authority and insinuation peculiar to himself, not only
maintained a surprising ascendancy over the most ferocious of all the
Indian tribes, but kept them within the bounds of such salutary restraint,
that not one single act of inhumanity was perpetrated by them during the
whole course of this expedition. The zeal and conduct of brigadier-general
Gage, the undaunted spirit and enterprising genius of general Murray, the
diligence and activity of colonel Haviland, happily co-operated in
promoting this great event.

FRENCH SHIPS DESTROYED, &c.

The French ministry had attempted to succour Montreal by equipping a
considerable number of store ships, and sending them out in the spring
under convoy of a frigate; but as their officers understood that the
British squadron had sailed up the river St. Laurence before their
arrival, they took shelter in the bay of Chaleurs, on the coast of Acadia,
where they did not long remain unmolested. Captain Byron, who commanded
the ships of war that were left at Louisbourg, having received
intelligence of them from brigadier-general Whitmore, sailed thither with
his squadron, and found them at anchor. The whole fleet consisted of one
frigate, two large store-ships, and nineteen sail of smaller vessels; the
greater part of which had been taken from the merchants of Great Britain;
all these were destroyed, together with two batteries which had been
raised for their protection. The French town, consisting of two hundred
houses, was demolished, and the settlement totally ruined. All the French
subjects inhabiting the territories from the bay of Funda to the banks of
the river St. Laurence, and all the Indians through that tract of country,
were now subdued, and subjected to the English government. In the month of
December of the preceding year, the French colonists at Miramachi,
Rickebuctou, and other places lying along the gulf of St. Laurence, made
their submission by deputies to colonel Frye, who commanded in Fort
Cumberland at Chignecto. They afterwards renewed this submission in the
most formal manner, by subscribing articles, by which they obliged
themselves, and the people they represented, to repair in the spring to
Bay Verte, with all their effects and shipping, to be disposed of
according to the direction of colonel Laurence, governor of Halifax, in
Nova-Scotia. They were accompanied by two Indian chiefs of the nation of
the Mickmacks, a powerful and numerous people, now become entirely
dependent upon his Britannic majesty. In a word, by the conquest of
Canada, the Indian fur trade, in its full extent, fell into the hands of
the English. The French interest among the savage tribes, inhabiting an
immense tract of country, was totally extinguished; and their American
possessions shrunk within the limits of Louisiana, an infant colony on the
south of the Mississippi, which the British arms may at any time easily
subdue.

DEMOLITION OF LOUISBOURG.

The conquest of Canada being achieved, nothing now remained to be done in
North America, except the demolition of the fortifications of Louisbourg
on the island of Cape Breton; for which purpose some able engineers had
been sent from England with the ships commanded by captain Byron. By means
of mines artfully disposed and well constructed, the fortifications were
reduced to a heap of rubbish, the glacis was levelled, and the ditches
were filled. All the artillery, ammunition, and implements of war, were
conveyed to Halifax; but the barracks were repaired, so as to accommodate
three hundred men occasionally; the hospital, with the private houses,
were left standing. The French still possessed, upon the continent of
America, the fertile country lying on each side of the great river
Mississippi, which disembogues itself into the gulf of Florida; but the
colony was so thinly peopled, and so ill provided, that, far from being
formidable, it scarcely could have subsisted, unless the British traders
had been base and treacherous enough to supply it from time to time with
provisions and necessaries. The same infamous commerce was carried on with
divers French plantations in the West Indies; insomuch that the governors
of provinces, and commanders of the squadrons stationed in those seas,
made formal complaints of it to the ministry. The temptation of
extraordinary profit excited the merchants not only to assist the enemies
of their country, but also run all risks in eluding the vigilance of the
legislature. The inhabitants of Martinique found a plentiful market of
provision furnished by the British subjects at the Dutch islands of
Eustatia and Curaeoa: and those that were settled on the island of
Hispaniola were supplied in the same manner at the Spanish settlement of
Monte-Christo.

INSURRECTION IN JAMAICA.

While the British commanders exerted themselves by sea and land with the
most laudable spirit of vigilance and courage against the foreign
adversaries of their country, the colonists of Jamaica ran the most
imminent hazard of being extirpated by a domestic enemy. The negro slaves
of that island, grown insolent in the contemplation of their own
formidable numbers, or by observing the supine indolence of their masters,
or stimulated by that appetite for liberty so natural to the mind of man,
began, in the course of this year, to entertain thoughts of shaking off
the yoke by means of a general insurrection. Assemblies were held and
plans resolved for this purpose. At length they concerted a scheme for
rising in arms all at once in different parts of the island, in order to
massacre all the white men, and take possession of the government. They
agreed that this design should be put in execution immediately after the
departure of the fleet for Europe; but their plan was defeated by their
ignorance and impatience. Those of the conspirators that belonged to
captain Forest’s estate, being impelled by the fumes of intoxication, fell
suddenly upon the overseer, while he sat at supper with some friends, and
butchered the whole company. Being immediately joined by some of their
confederates, they attacked the neighbouring plantations, where they
repeated the same barbarities; and, seizing all the arms and ammunition
that fell in their way, began to grow formidable to the colony. The
governor no sooner received intimation of this disturbance, than he, by
proclamation, subjected the colonists to martial law. All other business
was interrupted, and every man took to his arms. The regular troops,
joined by the troop of militia, and a considerable number of volunteers,
marched from Spanish Town to Saint Mary’s, where the insurrection began,
and skirmished with the insurgents; but as they declined standing any
regular engagement, and trusted chiefly to bush-fighting, the governor
employed against them the free blacks, commonly known by the name of the
wild negroes, now peaceably settled under the protection of the
government. These auxiliaries, in consideration of a price set upon the
heads of the rebels, attacked them in their own way, slew them by
surprise, until their strength was broken, and numbers made away with
themselves in despair; so that the insurrection was supposed to be quelled
about the beginning of May, but in June it broke out again with redoubled
fury, and the rebels were reinforced to a very considerable number. The
regular troops and the militia, joined by a body of sailors, formed a camp
under the command of colonel Spragge, who sent out detachments against the
negroes, a great number of whom were killed, and some taken; but the rest,
instead of submitting, took shelter in the woods and mountains. The
prisoners, being tried and found guilty of rebellion, were put to death by
a variety of tortures. Some were hanged, some beheaded, some burned, and
some fixed alive upon gibbets. One of these last lived eight days and
eighteen hours, suspended under a vertical sun, without being refreshed by
one drop of water, or receiving any manner of sustenance. In order to
prevent such insurrections for the future, the justices assembled at the
sessions of the peace established regulations, importing, that no
negro-slave should be allowed to quit his plantation without a white
conductor, or a ticket of leave; that every negro playing at any sort of
game should be scourged through the public streets; that every publican
suffering such gaming in his house should forfeit forty shillings; that
every proprietor suffering his negroes to beat a drum, blow a horn, or
make any other noise in his plantation, should be fined ten pounds; and
every overseer allowing these irregularities should pay half that sum, to
be demanded, or distrained for, by any civil or military officer; that
every free negro, or mulatto, should wear a blue cross on his right
shoulder, on pain of imprisonment; that no mulatto, Indian, or negro,
should hawk or sell any thing, except fresh fish or milk, on pain of being
scourged; that rum and punch houses should be shut up during divine
service on Sundays, under the penalty of twenty shillings; and that those
who had petit licenses should shut up their houses on other nights at nine
o’clock.

ACTION AT SEA OFF HISPANIOLA.

Notwithstanding these examples and regulations, a body of rebellious
negroes still subsisted in places that were deemed inaccessible to regular
forces; and from these they made nocturnal irruptions into the nearest
plantations, where they acted with all the wantonness of barbarity: so
that the people of Jamaica were obliged to conduct themselves with the
utmost vigilance and circumspection; while rear-admiral Holmes, who
commanded at sea, took every precaution to secure the island from insult
or invasion. He not only took measures for the defence of Jamaica, but
also contrived and executed schemes for annoying the enemy. Having in the
month of October received intelligence that five French frigates were
equipped at Cape François, on the island of Hispaniola, in order to convoy
a fleet of merchant-ships to Europe, he stationed the ships under his
command in such a manner as was most likely to intercept this fleet; and
his disposition was attended with success. The enemy sailed from the Cape
to the number of eight sail, on the sixteenth; and next day they were
chased by the king’s ships the Hampshire, Lively, and Boreas; which
however made small progress, as there was little wind, and that variable.
In the evening the breeze freshened; and about midnight the Boreas came up
with the Sirenne, commanded by commodore M’Cartie. They engaged with great
vivacity for about twenty-five minutes, when the Sirenne shot a-head, and
made the best of her way. The Boreas was so damaged in her rigging, that
she could not close with the enemy again till next day, at two in the
afternoon, when the action was renewed off the east end of Cuba, and
maintained till forty minutes past four, when Mr. M’Cartie struck. In the
meantime, the Hampshire and Lively gave chase to the other four French
frigates, which steered to the southward with all the sail they could
carry, in order to reach the west end of Tortuga, and shelter themselves
in Port-au-Prince. On the eighteenth, the Lively, by the help of her oars,
came up with the Valeur, at half an hour past seven in the morning; and
after a hot action, which continued an hour and a half, compelled the
enemy to submit. The Hampshire stood after the three others, and about
four in the afternoon ran up between the duke de Choiseul and the prince
Edward. These she engaged at the same time; but the first, having the
advantage of the wind, made her retreat into Port-au-Paix, the other ran
ashore about two leagues to leeward, and struck her colours; but at the
approach of the Hampshire the enemy set her on fire, and she blew up. This
was also the fate of the Fleur de Lys, which had run into Freshwater Bay,
a little farther to leeward of Port-au-Prince. Thus, by the prudent
disposition of admiral Holmes, and the gallantry of his three captains
Norbury, Uvedale, and Maitland, two large frigates of the enemy were
taken, and three destroyed. The spirit of the officers was happily
supported by an uncommon exertion of courage in the men, who cheerfully
engaged in the most dangerous enterprises. Immediately after the capture
of the French frigates, eight of the enemy’s privateers were destroyed or
brought into Jamaica. Two of these, namely, the Vainqueur of ten guns,
sixteen swivels, and ninety men, and the Mackau of six swivels, and
fifteen men, had run into shoal water in Cumberland harbour on the island
of Cuba. The boats of the Trent and Boreas, manned under the direction of
the lieutenants Miller and Stuart, being rowed up to the Vainqueur,
boarded and took possession under a close fire, after having surmounted
many other difficulties. The Mackau was taken without any resistance; then
the boats proceeded against the Guespe, of eight guns, and eighty-five
men, which laid at anchor farther up in the Lagoon, but before they came
up the enemy had set her on fire, and she was destroyed.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

GALLANT BEHAVIOUR OF CAPTAINS O’BRIEN AND TAYLOR.

The same activity and resolution distinguished the captains and officers
belonging to the squadron commanded by sir James Douglas off the Leeward
islands. In the month of September, the captains O’Brien and Taylor, of
the ships Temple and Griffin, being on a joint cruise off the islands
Granadas, received intelligence that the Virgin, formerly a British sloop
of war, which had been taken by the enemy, then lay at anchor, together
with three privateers, under protection of three forts on the island,
sailed thither in order to attack them, and their enterprise was crowned
with success. After a warm engagement which lasted several hours, the
enemy’s batteries were silenced, and indeed demolished, and the English
captains took possession of the four prizes. They afterwards entered
another harbour of that island, having first demolished another fort; and
there they lay four days unmolested, at the expiration of which they
carried off three other prizes. In their return to Antigua, they fell in
with thirteen ships bound to Martinique with provisions, and took them all
without resistance. About the same time eight or nine privateers were
taken by the ships which commodore sir James Douglas employed in cruising
round the island of Guadaloupe, so that the British commerce in those seas
flourished under his care and protection.

TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST-INDIES.

In the East-Indies the British arms still continued to prosper. After the
reduction of Arcot, the garrisons of Permacoil and Allumparva surrendered
themselves prisoners of war in the beginning of May. The Falmouth obliged
the Haarlem, a French ship from Meguy, to run ashore to the northward of
Pondicherry. The important settlement of Carical was reduced by the sea
and land forces commanded by rear-admiral Cornish and major Monson, and
the French garrison made prisoners of war; and colonel Coote formed the
blockade of Pondicherry by laud, while the harbour was beset by the
English squadron.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE BAY OF QUIBERON.

No action of importance was in the course of this year achieved by the
naval force of Great Britain in the seas of Europe. A powerful squadron
still remained in the hay of Quiberon, in order to amuse and employ a body
of French forces on that part of the coast, and interrupt the navigation
of the enemy; though the principal aim of this armament seems to have been
to watch and detain the few French ships which had run into the river
Vil-laine, after the defeat of Confians; an object, the importance of
which will doubtless astonish posterity. The fleet employed in this
service was alternately commanded by admiral Boscawen and sir Edward
Hawke, officers of distinguished abilities, whose talents might have been
surely rendered subservient to much greater national advantages. All that
Mr. Boscawen could do in this circumscribed scene of action was, to take
possession of a small island near the river Vannes, which he caused to be
cultivated, and planted with vegetables, for the use of the men infected
with scorbutic disorders arising from salt provision, sea air, and want of
proper exercise. In the month of September, sir Edward Hawke, who had by
this time relieved Mr. Boscawen, detached the gallant lord Howe, in the
Magnanime, with the ships Prince Frederick and Bedford, to reduce the
little island of Dumet, about three miles in length, and two in breadth,
abounding with fresh water. It was defended by a small fort, mounted with
nine cannon, and manned with one company of the regiment of Bourbon, who
surrendered in a very short time after the ships had begun the attack. By
this small conquest a considerable expense was saved to the nation in the
article of transports employed to carry water for the use of the squadron.

Admiral Rodney still maintained his former station off the coast of Havre
de Grace, to observe what should pass at the mouth of the Seine. In the
month of July, while he hovered in this neighbourhood, five large flat
bottomed boats, laden with cannon and shot, feet sail from Harfleur in the
middle of the day, with their colours flying, as if they had set the
English squadron at defiance; for the walls of Havre de Grace, and even
the adjacent hills, were covered with spectators, assembled to behold the
issue of this adventure. Having reached the river of Caen, they stood
backwards and forwards upon the shoals, intending to amuse admiral Rodney
till night, and then proceed under cover of the darkness. He perceived
their drift, and gave directions to his small vessels to be ready, that,
as soon as day-light failed, they should make all the sail they could for
the mouth of the river Orne, in order to cut off the enemy’s retreat,
while he himself stood with the larger ships to the steep coast of Port
Bassin. The scheme succeeded to his wish. The enemy, seeing their retreat
cut off, ran ashore at Port Bassin, where the admiral destroyed them,
together with the small fort which had been erected for the defence of
this harbour. Each of those vessels was one hundred feet in length, and
capable of containing four hundred men for a short passage. What their
destination was we cannot pretend to determine; but the French had
provided a great number of these transports, for ten escaped into the
river Orne leading to Caen; and in consequence of this disaster one
hundred were unloaded, and sent up again to Rouen. This was not all the
damage that the enemy sustained on this part of the coast. In the month of
November, captain Curry, of the Acteon, chased a large privateer, and
drove her ashore between Cape Barfleur and La Hogue, where she perished.
The cutters belonging to admiral Rodney’s squadron scoured the coast
towards Dieppe, where a considerable fishery was carried on, and where
they took or destroyed near forty vessels of considerable burden. Though
the English navy suffered nothing from the French during this period, it
sustained some damage from the weather. The Conqueror, a new ship of the
line, was lost in the channel, on the island of St. Nicholas, but the crew
and cannon were saved. The Lyme, of twenty guns, foundered in the Categat,
in Norway, and fifty of the men perished; and, in the West Indies, a
tender belonging to the Dublin, commanded by commodore sir James Douglas,
was lost in a single wind, with a hundred chosen mariners.

Of the domestic transactions relating to the war, the most considerable
was the equipment of a powerful armament destined for some secret
expedition. A numerous body of forces was assembled, and a great number of
transports collected at Portsmouth. Generals were nominated to the command
of this enterprise. The troops were actually embarked with a great train
of artillery; and the eyes of the whole nation were attentively fixed upon
this armament, which could not have been prepared without incurring a
prodigious expense. Notwithstanding these preparations, the whole summer
was spent in idleness and inaction; and in the latter end of the season
the undertaking was laid aside. The people did not fail to clamour against
the inactivity of the summer, and complained that, notwithstanding the
immense subsidies granted for the prosecution of the war, no stroke of
importance was struck in Europe for the advantage of Great Britain; but
that her treasure was lavished upon fruitless parade, or a German alliance
still more pernicious. It must be owned indeed, that no new attempt was
made to annoy the enemy on British principles; for the surrender of
Montreal was the natural consequence of the steps which had been taken,
and of the measures concerted in the course of the preceding year. It will
be allowed, we apprehend, that the expense incurred by the armament at
Portsmouth, and the body of troops there detained, would have been
sufficient, if properly applied, to reduce the island of Mauritius in the
Indian ocean, Martinique in the West Indies, or Minorca in the
Mediterranean; and all these three were objects of importance. In all
probability, the design of the armament was either to intimidate the
French into proposals of peace; to make a diversion from the Rhine, by
alarming the coast of Bretagne; or to throw over a body of troops into
Flanders, to effect a junction with the hereditary prince of Brunswick,
who, at the head of twenty thousand men, had made an irruption as far as
the Lower Rhine, and even crossed that river; but he miscarried in the
execution of his design.

ASTRONOMERS SENT TO THE EAST INDIES.

In the midst of these alarms some regard was paid to the improvements of
natural knowledge. The Royal Society having made application to the king,
representing that there would be a transit of Venus over the disc of the
sun, on the sixth day of June; and that there was reason to hope the
parallax of that planet might be more accurately determined by making
proper observations of this phenomenon at the island of St. Helena, near
the coast of Africa, and at Bencoolen in the East Indies, his majesty
granted a sum of money to defray the expense of sending able astronomers
to those two places, and ordered a ship of war to be equipped for their
conveyance. Accordingly, Mr. Nevil Maskelyne and Mr. Robert Waddington
were appointed to make the observations at St. Helena; and Mr. Charles
Mason and Mr. Jeremiah Dixon undertook the voyage to Bencoolen, on the
island of Sumatra.*

* In the beginning of April, the king granted to his
grandson prince Edward Augustus, and to the heirs male of
his royal highness, the dignities of duke of the kingdom of
Great Britain, and of earl of the kingdom of Ireland, by the
names, styles, and titles, of duke of York and Albany, and
earl of Ulster.

EARTHQUAKES IN SYRIA.

Except the countries that were actually the scenes of war, no political
revolution or disturbance disquieted the general tranquillity. Syria,
indeed, felt all the horrors and wreck of a dreadful earthquake,
protracted in repeated shocks, which began on the thirteenth day of
October, in the neighbourhood of Tripoli. A great number of houses were
overthrown at Seyde, and many people buried under the ruins. It was felt
through a space of ten thousand square leagues, comprehending the
mountains of Libanus and Antilibanus, with an infinite number of villages,
that were reduced to heaps of rubbish. At Acra, or Ptolemais, the sea
overflowed its banks, and poured into the streets, though eight feet above
the level of the water. The city of Saphet was entirely destroyed, and the
greatest part of its inhabitants perished. At Damascus, all the minarets
were overthrown, and six thousand people lost their lives. The shocks
diminished gradually till the twenty-fifth day of November, when they were
renewed with redoubled havoc; the earth trembled with the most dreadful
convulsions, and the greater part of Tripoli was destroyed. Balbeck was
entirely ruined, and this was the fate of many other towns and castles; so
that the people who escaped the ruins were obliged to sojourn in the open
fields, and all Syria was threatened with the vengeance of heaven. Such a
dangerous ferment arose at Constantinople, that a revolution was
apprehended. Mustapha, the present emperor, had no sons; but his brother
Bajazet, whose life he had spared, contrary to the maxims of Turkish
policy, produced a son by one of the women with whom he was indulged in
his confinement; a circumstance which aroused the jealousy of the emperor
to such a degree, that he resolved to despatch his brother. The great
officers of the Porte opposed this design, which was so disagreeable to
the people, that an insurrection ensued. Several Turks and Armenians,
taking it for granted that a revolution was at hand, bought up great
quantities of grain; and a dreadful dearth was the consequence of this
monopoly. The sultan assembled the troops, quieted the insurgents, ordered
the engrossers of corn to be executed, and in a little time the repose of
the city was reestablished.

Notwithstanding the prospect of a rupture in Italy, no new incident
interrupted the tranquillity which the southern parts of Europe enjoyed.
The king of Spain, howsoever solicited by the other branch of the house of
Bourbon to engage in the war as its ally, refused to interpose in any
other way than as a mediator between the courts of London and Versailles.
He sent the condé de Fuentes, a nobleman of high rank and character, in
quality of ambassador-extraordinary to the king of Great Britain, in order
to offer his good offices for effecting a peace; and the condé, after
having conferred with the English minister, made an excursion to Paris:
but his proposal with respect to a cessation of hostilities, if in reality
such a proposal was ever made, did not meet with a cordial reception.
Other differences subsisting between the crowns of Great Britain and
Spain, he found no difficulty in compromising. His catholic majesty
persisted in the execution of a plan truly worthy of a patriot king. In
the first place, he spared no pains and application to make himself
thoroughly acquainted with the state of his kingdom. He remitted to his
people all they owed the crown, amounting to threescore millions of reals:
he demanded an exact account of his father’s debts, that they might be
discharged with the utmost punctuality: an order was sent to the treasury,
that ten millions of reals should be annually appropriated for this
purpose, until the whole should be liquidated; and to the first year’s
payment be added fifty millions, to be divided equally among the legal
claimants. He took measures for the vigorous execution of the laws against
offenders; encouraged industry; protected commerce; and felt the exquisite
pleasure in being beloved as the father of his people. To give importance
to his crown, and extend his influence among the powers of Europe, he
equipped a powerful squadron of ships at Carthagena; and is said to have
declared his intention to employ them against Algiers, should the dey
refuse to release the slaves of the Spanish nation.

AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL.

Portugal still seemed agitated from the shock of the late conspiracy which
was quelled in that kingdom. The pope’s nuncio was not only forbid the
court, but even sent under a strong guard to the frontiers; an indignity
which induced the pontiff to order the Portuguese minister at Rome to
evacuate the ecclesiastical dominions. In the meantime, another
embarkation of Jesuits was sent from Lisbon to Civita Vecchia; yet the
expulsion of these fathers did not restore the internal peace of Portugal,
or put an end to the practice of plotting; for, even since their
departure, some persons of rank have either been committed to close
prison, or exiled from the kingdom. The Jesuits were not more fortunate in
America; for in the month of October, in the foregoing year, an obstinate
battle was fought between the united forces of Spain and Portugal and the
Indians of Paraguay, who were under the dominion of the Jesuits: victory
at length declared in favour of the two crowns; so that the vanquished
were obliged to capitulate, and lay down their arms. As the court of
Portugal had made remonstrances to the British ministry against the
proceedings of the English squadron under admiral Boscawen, which had
attacked and destroyed some French ships under the Portuguese fort in the
bay of Lagos, his Britannic majesty thought proper to send the earl of
Kinnoul as ambassador-extraordinary to Lisbon, where that nobleman made
such excuses for the insult of the English admiral, as entirely removed
all the misunderstanding between the two crowns; and could not fail of
being agreeable to the Portuguese monarch, thus respected, soothed, and
deprecated by a mighty nation, in the very zenith of power and prosperity.
On the sixth of June, being the birthday of the king of Portugal, the
marriage of his brother don Pedro with the princess of Brazil was
celebrated in the chapel of the palace where the king resides, to the
universal joy of the people. The nuptials were announced to the public by
the discharge of cannon, and celebrated with illuminations and all kinds
of rejoicing.

An accident which happened in the Mediterranean had like to have drawn the
indignation of the Ottoman Porte on the knights of the order of Malta. A
large Turkish ship of the line, mounted with sixty-eight brass cannon,
having on board a complement of seven hundred men, besides seventy
christian slaves, under the immediate command of the Turkish admiral, had,
in company with two frigates, five galleys, and other smaller vessels,
sailed in June from the Dardanelles; cruised along the coast of Smyrna,
Scio, and Trio; and at length anchored in the channel of Stangie, where
the admiral, with four hundred persons, went on shore, on the nineteenth
day of September: the christian slaves, seizing this opportunity, armed
themselves with knives, and fell upon the three hundred that remained with
such fury and effect, that a great number of the Turks were instantly
slain; many leaped overboard into the sea, where they perished; and the
rest sued for mercy. The christians, having thus secured possession of the
ship, hoisted sail, and bore away for Malta: which, though chased by the
two frigates and a Ragusan ship, they reached by crowding all their
canvas, and brought their prize safe into the harbour of Valette, amidst
the acclamations of the people. The order of Malta, as a recompence for
this signal act of bravery and resolution, assigned to the captors the
whole property of the ship and slaves, together with all the effects on
board, including a sum of money which the Turkish commander had collected
by contribution, amounting to a million and a half of florins. The grand
seignior was so enraged at this event, that he disgraced his admiral, and
threatened to take vengeance on the order of Malta, for having detained
the ship, and countenanced the capture.

PATRIOTIC SCHEMES OF THE KING OF DENMARK.

With respect to the disputes which had so long embroiled the northern
parts of Europe, the neutral powers seemed as averse as ever to a
participation. The king of Denmark continued to perfect those plans which
he had wisely formed for increasing the wealth, and promoting the
happiness of his subjects; nor did he neglect any opportunity of improving
natural knowledge for the benefit of mankind in general. He employed men
of ability, at his own expense, to travel into foreign countries, and to
collect the most curious productions, for the advancement of natural
history: he encouraged the liberal and mechanic arts at home, by
munificent rewards and peculiar protection: he invited above a thousand
foreigners from Germany to become his subjects, and settle in certain
districts in Jutland, which had lain waste above three centuries; and they
forthwith began to build villages, and cultivate the lands, in the
dioceses of Wibourg, Arhous, and Ripen. Their travelling expenses from
Altona to their new settlement were defrayed by the king, who moreover
maintained them until the produce of the lands could afford a comfortable
subsistence. He likewise bestowed upon each colonist a house, a barn, and
a stable, with a certain number of horses and cattle. Finally, this
generous patriot having visited these new subjects, who received him with
unspeakable emotions of joy and affection, he ordered a considerable sum
of money to be distributed among them as an additional mark of his favour.
Such conduct in a prince cannot fail to secure the warmest returns of
loyalty and attachment in his people; and the execution of such laudable
schemes will endear his name to the contemplation of posterity.

MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES-GENERAL.

The Dutch, as usual, persevered in prosecuting every branch of commerce,
without being diverted to less profitable schemes of state-policy by the
insinuations of France, or the remonstrances of Great Britain. The
violation of the peace by their subjects in Bengal was no sooner known at
the court of London, than orders were sent to general Yorke, the English
ambassador at the Hague, to demand an explanation. He accordingly
presented a memorial to the states-general, signifying that their high
mightinesses must doubtless be greatly astonished to hear, by the public
papers, of the irregularities committed by their subjects in the East
Indies; but that they would be much more amazed on perusing the piece
annexed to his memorial, containing a minute account, specified with the
strictest regard to truth, of the irregular conduct observed by the Dutch
towards the British subjects in the river Bengal, at a time when the
factors and traders of Holland enjoyed all the sweets of peace and all the
advantages of unmolested commerce: at a time when his Britannic majesty,
from his great regard to their high mightinesses, carefully avoided giving
the least umbrage to the subjects of the United Provinces. He observed
that the king his sovereign was deeply affected by these outrageous doings
and mischievous designs of the Dutch in the East Indies, whose aim was to
destroy the British settlements in that country; an aim that would have
been accomplished, had not the king’s victorious arms brought them to
reason, and obliged them to sue for an accommodation. He told them his
majesty would willingly believe their high mightinesses had given no order
for proceeding to such extremities, and that the directors of their India
company had no share in the transaction: nevertheless, he (the ambassador)
was ordered to demand signal satisfaction, in the name of the king his
master; that all who should be found to have shared in the offence, so
manifestly tending to the destruction of the English settlements in that
country, should be exemplarily punished; and that their high mightinesses
should confirm the stipulations agreed upon immediately after the action
by the directors of the respective companies, in consideration of which
agreement the Dutch ships were restored, after their commanders
acknowledged their fault, in owning themselves the aggressors. To this
remonstrance the states-general replied, that nothing of what was laid to
the charge of their subjects had yet reached their knowledge: but they
requested his Britannic majesty to suspend his judgment until he should be
made perfectly acquainted with the grounds of those disputes; and they
promised he should have reason to be satisfied with the exemplary
punishment that would be inflicted upon all who should be found concerned
in violating the peace between the two nations. *

* In the month of March, the states of Holland and West
Friesland having, after warm debates, agreed to the proposed
match between the princess Caroline, sister to the prince of
Orange, and the prince of Nassau Weilbourg, the nuptials
were solemnized at the Hague with great magnificence.

STATE OF THE POWERS AT WAR.

The war in Germany still raged with unrelenting fury, and the mutual
rancour of the contending parties seemed to derive fresh force from their
mutual disappointments; at least the house of Austria seemed still
implacable, and obstinately bent upon terminating the war with the
destruction of the Prussian monarch. Her allies, however, seemed less
actuated by the spirit of revenge. The French king had sustained so much
damage and disgrace in the course of the war, that his resources failed,
and his finances fell into disorder; he could no longer afford the
subsidies he had promised to different powers; while his subjects
clamoured aloud at the burden of impositions, the ruin of trade, and the
repeated dishonour entailed upon the arms of France. The czarina’s zeal
for the alliance was evidently cooled by the irregular and defective
payments of the subsidies she had stipulated. Perhaps she was disappointed
in her hope of conquest, and chagrined to see her armies retire from
Germany at the approach of every winter; and the British ministry did not
fail to exert all their influence to detach her from the confederacy in
which she had embarked. Sweden still languished in an effectual parade of
hostilities against the house of Bran-denburgh; but the French interest
began to lose ground in the diet of that kingdom. The king of Prussia,
howsoever exhausted in the article of men, betrayed no symptom of
apprehension, and made no advance towards a pacification with his
adversaries. He had employed the winter in recruiting his armies by every
expedient his fertile genius could devise; in levying contributions to
reinforce the vast subsidy he received from England, in filling magazines,
and making every preparation for a vigorous campaign. In Westphalia, the
same foresight and activity were exerted by prince Ferdinand of Brunswick,
who in the beginning of summer found himself at the head of a very
numerous army, paid by Great Britain, and strengthened by two-and-twenty
thousand national troops.

DEATH OF THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE-CASSEL.

No alteration in the terms of this alliance was produced by the death of
William, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who breathed his last, in an advanced
age, on the twenty-eighth day of January, at Rintelen upon the Weser. He
was succeeded in the landgraviate by his son Frederick, whose consort, the
princess Mary, daughter to the king of Great Britain, now, in quality of
governess of her children, assumed the regency and administration of the
county of Hanau-Muntzenberg, by virtue of the settlement made in the
lifetime of her father-in-law, and confirmed by her husband. She had for
some years been separated from him, and resided with his father, at whose
decease she retired with her children to the city of Zell. The present
landgrave, who lived at Magdebourg as vice-governor under the kin g of
Prussia, no sooner learned the news of his father’s death, than he sent an
intimation of it to that prince and the king of Great Britain; declaring,
at the same time, that he would scrupulously adhere to the engagements of
his predecessor.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

OFFERS MADE BY THE NEUTRAL POWERS, &c.

The advances towards a peace, which had been made in the preceding year by
the kings of England and Prussia, in their declaration published at the
Hague by prince Louis of Brunswick, seemed to infuse in the neutral powers
a good opinion of their moderation. We have already seen that the king of
Spain offered his best offices in quality of mediator. When a congress was
proposed, the states-general made an offer of Breda, as a place proper for
the negotiation. The king of Great Britain, by the mouth of his
ambassador, thanked their high mightinesses for the sincere desire they
expressed to put an end to the ravages of war, which had extended
desolation over the face of Europe: he readily closed with their gracious
offer; and in consequence of his high regard and invariable friendship for
their high mightinesses, wished earnestly that it might be acceptable to
the other powers at war. The French king expressed his sentiments nearly
to the same purpose. His ambassador declared, that his most christian
majesty was highly sensible of the offer they had made of Breda for
holding the congress; that, in order to give a fresh proof of his sincere
desire to increase the good harmony that subsisted between him and the
states-general, he accepted their offer with pleasure; butas he could take
no step without the concurrence of his high allies, he was obliged to wait
for their answer, which could not fail to be favourable, if nothing
remained to be settled but the place for holding the congress. King
Stanislaus having written a letter to his Britannic majesty, offering the
city of Nancy for the same purpose, he received a civil answer, expressing
the king of England’s sense of his obliging offer, which however he
declined, as a place not conveniently situated for all the powers
interested in the great works of pacification. Civilities of the same
nature likewise passed between the sovereign of Nancy and the king of
Prussia. As the proposals for an accommodation made by the king of England
and his allies might have left an unfavourable impression of their
adversaries had they been altogether declined, the court of Vienna was
prevailed upon to concur with her allies in a declaration professing their
desire of peace; which declaration was delivered, on the third day of
April, by the Austrian minister residing at the Hague, to his serene
highness prince Louis of Brunswick; and a paper of the same nature was
also delivered to him separately by the French and Russian ministers. 558
[See note 4 N, at the end of this Vol.] These professions, however,
did not interrupt the operations of the campaign.

SKIRMISHES IN WESTPHALIA.

Though the French army under the mareschal duke de Broglio remained in
cantonment in the neighbourhood of Friedberg, and prince Ferdinand had
retired from Corsdorff to Marburg, where in the beginning of January he
established his head-quarters, nevertheless the winter was by no means
inactive. As far back as the twenty-fifth day of December, the duke de
Broglio, having called in his detachments, attempted to surprise the
allied army by a forced march to Kleinlinnes; but finding them prepared to
give him a warm reception, nothing but a cannonade ensued, and he
retreated to his former quarters. On the twenty-ninth, colonel Luckner, at
the head of the Hanoverian hunters, fell in with a detachment of the
enemy, consisting of four hundred men, under the command of count Muret.
These he attacked with such vigour, that the count was made prisoner, and
all his party either killed or taken, except two-and-twenty, who escaped.
On the third day of January, the marquis de Vogue attacked the town of
Herborn, which he carried, and took a small detachment of the allies who
were posted there. At the same time the marquis Dauvet made himself master
of Dillembourg, the garrison of the allied troops being obliged to retire
into the castle, where they were closely besieged. Prince Ferdinand no
sooner understood their situation, than he began his march with a strong
detachment for their relief, on the seventh day of the month, when he
attacked and totally defeated the besiegers, took seven hundred prisoners,
including forty officers, with seven pair of colours, and two pieces of
cannon. On that very day, the Highlanders, under major Keith, supported by
the hussars of Luckner, who commanded the whole detachment, attacked the
village of Ryebach, where Beaufremont’s regiment of dragoons was posted on
the side of Dillembourg, and routed them with great slaughter. The greater
part of the regiment was killed, and many prisoners were taken, together
with two hundred horses, and all their baggage. The Highlanders
distinguished themselves on this occasion by their intrepidity, which was
the more remarkable, as they were no other than raw recruits, just arrived
from their own country, and altogether unacquainted with discipline. On
the eighth day of January, M. de St. Germain advanced on the left of the
allies with the grenadiers of the French army, supported by eight
battalions, and a body of dragoons; but he was encountered by the duke of
Holstein, at the head of a strong detachment, in the neighbourhood of
Ersdorff, who, by dint of a furious cannonade, obliged him to retreat with
precipitation. After this attempt the French parties disappeared, and
their army retired into winter-quarters, in and about Franckfort on the
Maine; while prince Ferdinand quartered the allies at Cassel, Paderborn,
Munster, and Osnabruck; this last place being allotted to the British
troops, as being the nearest to Embden, where the reinforcements from
Britain were to be landed. In the beginning of February, the hereditary
prince of Brunswick, with the detachment of the allied army under his
command, began his march from Chemnitz in Saxony for Westphalia, where he
safely arrived, after having assisted at a long conference in Hamelen,
with his father the reigning duke, his uncle prince Ferdinand, and some
principal members of the regency of Hanover.

The French general continued to send out detachments to beat up the
quarters of the allies, and lay their towns under contribution. In the
beginning of March, the marquis de Blaisel marched at the head of two
thousand four hundred men from Giessen, where he commanded, to Marburg,
forced the gates of the town, and compelled the garrison of the allies to
take shelter in the castle. As he could not pretend to undertake the siege
of the fortress, by the fire of which he was exceedingly galled, he
demanded of the town a contribution of one hundred thousand florins, and
carried some of the magistrates along with him as hostages for the payment
of this imposition. He afterwards appeared at Hombourg, Alsfeldt, and
Hartzberg, the frontier posts of the allies; but did not think proper to
attack either, because he perceived that measures were taken for his
reception. The French, with all their boasted politeness and humanity, are
sometimes found as brutal and rapacious as the most barbarous enemy. On
pretence of taking umbrage at the town of Hanau Muntzenberg, for having
without their permission acknowledged the regency of the landgraviate of
Hesse-Cassel, they, in the month of February, ordered the magistrates of
that place to pay, within the term of twenty-four hours, the sum of seven
hundred and fifty thousand livres, on pain of being subjected to plunder.
This order was signified by the prince de Robecq; to whom the magistrates
represented the impossibility of raising such a sum, as the country was
totally exhausted, and their credit absolutely destroyed, in consequence
of their inability to pay the interest of the capitals negotiated in the
course of the preceding year. He still insisted upon their finding the
money before night; they offered to pay eighty thousand florins, which
they raised with the utmost difficulty, and begged the payment of the rest
might be postponed for a few weeks: but their request was rejected with
disdain. The garrison was reinforced by two battalions, and four squadrons
dispersed in the principal squares and markets of the city, and the gates
were shut. They even planted cannon in the streets, and tarred matches
were fixed to many houses, in order to intimidate the inhabitants. These
expedients proving ineffectual, detachments of grenadiers entered the
houses of the principal magistrates and merchants, from whence they
removed all their best effects to the town-hall, where they were kept in
deposit, until they were redeemed with all the money that could possibly
be raised. This exaction, so little to the honour of a civilized nation,
the French minister declared to the diet at Ratisbon was agreeable to the
instructions of his most christian majesty.

By way of retaliation for the cruelty practised at Hanau, a detachment of
the allied army under general Luckner was sent to raise contributions in
Fulda, and actually carried off hostages from that city; but retired
before a strong body of the enemy, who took possession of the place. From
hence the French marched, in their turn, to plunder the towns of
Hirchfeldt and Vacha. Accordingly, they appeared at Vacha, situated on the
frontiers of Hesse, and formed the head of the chain of cantonments which
the allies had on the Werra. This place was attacked with such vigour,
that colonel Frey-tag, who commanded the post, was obliged to abandon the
town: but he maintained himself on a rising ground in the neighbourhood,
where he amused the enemy until two battalions of grenadiers came to his
assistance. Thus reinforced, he pursued the French for three leagues, and
drove them with considerable loss from Giessa, where they had resolved to
fix their quarters. These skirmishes happened in the beginning of May,
when the grand armies were just in motion to begin the campaign.

SITUATION OF THE FRENCH ARMIES.

By this time the forces under the mareschal duke de Broglio were augmented
to one hundred thousand; while the count de St. Germain commanded a
separate army on the Rhine, consisting of thirty thousand men, assembled
from the quarters of Dusseldorp, Cologn, Cleves, and Wesel. The second
corps was intended to divide the allied army, which, by such a division,
would be considerably weakened; and the French court threatened to form a
third army under the prince de Soubise; but this did not appear. The duke
de Broglio was in such high favour with the French ministry at this
juncture, that he was promoted over the heads of many old generals, who
now demanded and obtained their dismission; and every step was taken to
render the campaign glorious to this admired commander: but
notwithstanding all their care, and his own exertion, he found it
impossible to take the field early in the season, from want of forage for
his cavalry. While his quarters were established at Franckfort, his troops
were plentifully supplied with all sorts of provisions from the Upper
Rhine; but this convenience depended upon his being master of the course
of the river; but he could not move from this position without forfeiting
the advantage, and providing magazines for the use of his forces; so that
he was obliged to lie inactive until he could have the benefit of green
forage in his march. The same inconveniences operated more powerfully on
the side of prince Ferdinand, who, being in an exhausted country, was
obliged to fall back as far as Paderborn, and draw his supplies from
Hamburg and Bremen on the Elbe and the Weser. By this time, however, he
had received a reinforcement of British troops from Embden, under the
direction of major-general Griffin; and before the end of the campaign,
the forces of that nation in Germany were augmented to five-and-twenty
thousand; a greater number than had served at one time upon the continent
for two centuries. The allied army marched from their cantonments on the
fifth day of May, and proceeded by the way of Paderborn to Fritzlar,
where, on the twentieth, they encamped: but part of the troops left in the
bishopric of Munster, under general Sporcken, were ordered to form a camp
at Dulmen, to make head against the French corps commanded by the count de
St. Germain.

EXPLOIT OF COLONEL LUCKNER.

General Imhoff was sent with a detachment to Kirchaven on the Orme: and
general Gilsoe, with another corps, advanced to the neighbourhood of
Hirchfeldt on the Fulda. The former of these having ordered colonel
Luckner to scour the country with a body of hussars, that officer, on the
twenty-fourth of May, fell in with a French patrole, which gave the alarm
at Butzbach; when the garrison of that place, amounting to five hundred
piquets, under general Waldemar, fled with great precipitation. Being,
however, pursued, and overtaken near a wood, they were routed and
dispersed. Colonel Luckner, entering Butzbach, found a considerable
quantity of forage, flour, wine, and equipage, belonging to the fugitives.
What he could not carry off he distributed among the poor inhabitants, and
returned to general Imhoff’s camp at Ameneberg, with about an hundred
prisoners. This excursion alarmed the enemy to such a degree, that their
whole army was put in motion; and the duke de Broglio in person advanced
with a large body of troops as far as Friedberg: but undemanding the
allies had not quitted their camp at Fritzlar, he returned to Franckfort,
after having cantoned that part of his army in the Wetteraw. This alarm
was not so mortifying as the secession of the Wirtemberg troops, amounting
to ten thousand men, commanded by their duke in person, who left the
French army in disgust, and returned to his own country. The imperial
army, under the prince de Deuxponts, quartered at Bamberg, began their
march to Naumberg on the twentieth of May: but one of their detachments of
cavalry having received a check from a body of Prussians near Lutzen, they
fell back; and on the fourth day of June encamped at Litchenfels upon the
Maine. The small detachments of the grand armies, as well as those
belonging to the bodies commanded by general Sporcken and the count de St.
Germain, in the neighbourhood of Dusseldorp, skirmished with various
success. The hereditary prince of Brunswick being detached from the allied
army, with some battalions of grenadiers, and two regiments of English
dragoons, advanced to the country of Fulda, where he was joined by the
troops under general Gilsoe, and achieved some inconsiderable exploits,
particularly at Hosenfeldt and Zielbach, where he surprised and took
divers parties of the enemy.

By the twenty-fourth of June, prince Ferdinand, quitting his situation at
Fritzlar, marched to Frillendorf, and encamped on the hills between
Ziegenheim and Freysa; general Imhoff commanding at a small distance on
the right, and the hereditary prince, now returned from Fulda, being
posted on the left of the army. In the meantime, the duke de Broglio,
assembling his forces between Merlau and Laubach, advanced to Neustadt,
where he encamped on the twenty-eighth day of the month, and at the same
time occupied a strong post at Wassenburgh. His intention was to penetrate
through the country of Hesse into Hanover, and make himself entirely
master of that electorate. With this view he resolved to effect a junction
with the count de St. Germain, whom he directed to advance towards Brilau
and Corbach; while he himself, decamping from Neustadt on the eighth day
of July, advanced by the way of Frankenburg. Prince Ferdinand, having
received intelligence that the count de St. Germain was in motion, began
his march from Ziegenheim, and on the ninth day of July reached the
heights of Bruneau, in the neighbourhood of Wildungen.

THE HEREDITARY PRINCE OF BRUNSWICK DEFEATED.

The hereditary prince, at the head of the advanced corps, reinforced with
some battalions and squadrons under major-general Griffin, was sent
forward to Sauxenhausen, whither the army followed the next morning. The
hereditary prince continuing to advance, found the enemy already formed at
Corbach; but judging their whole force did not exceed ten thousand
infantry and seventeen squadrons, and being impelled by the impetuosity of
his own courage, he resolved to give them battle. He accordingly attacked
them about two in the afternoon, and the action became very warm and
obstinate; but the enemy being continually reinforced with fresh
battalions, and having the advantage of a numerous artillery, all the
prince’s efforts were ineffectual. Prince Ferdinand, being at too great a
distance to sustain him, sent him an order to rejoin the army which was by
this time formed at Sauxenhausen. He forthwith made dispositions for a
retreat, which however was attended with great confusion. The enemy
observing the disorder of the allied troops, plied their artillery with
redoubled diligence, while a powerful body of their cavalry charged with
great vivacity. In all likelihood the whole infantry of the allies would
have been cut off, had not the hereditary prince made a diversion in their
favour, by charging in person at the head of the British dragoons, who
acted with their usual gallantry and effect. This respite enabled the
infantry to accomplish their retreat to Sauxenhausen; but they lost above
five hundred men and fifteen pieces of cannon. General count Kielmansegge,
major-general Griffin, and major Hill, of Bland’s dragoons, distinguished
themselves by their conduct and intrepidity on this occasion. The
hereditary prince exposed his life in the hottest part of the action, and
received a slight wound in the shoulder, which gave him far less
disturbance than he felt from the chagrin and mortification produced by
his defeat.

Many days, however, did not pass before he found an opportunity of
retaliating this disgrace. Prince Ferdinand, receiving advice that a body
of the enemy, commanded by major-general Glaubitz, had advanced on the
left of the allies to Ziegenheim, detached the hereditary prince to oppose
them, at the head of six battalions of Hanoverians and Hessians, with
Elliot’s regiment of English light-horse, Luckner’s hussars, and two
brigades of chasseurs; on the sixteenth day of the month, he engaged the
enemy near the village of Exdorf, and a very warm action ensued, in which
Elliot’s regiment signalized themselves remarkably by repeated charges.*

* Though this was the first time that Elliot’s regiment
appeared in the field, it performed wonders. They charged
five different times, and broke through the enemy at every
charge; but these exploits they did not achieve without
sustaining a heavy loss in officers, men, and horses.

At length victory declared for the allies. Five battalions of the enemy,
including the commander-in-chief and the prince of Anhalt Cothen, were
taken, with six pieces of cannon, all their arms, baggage, and artillery.
During these transactions, the mareschal duke de Broglio remained encamped
on the heights of Corbach. He had, in advancing from Franckfort, left
detachments to reduce the castles of Marburg and Dillembourg, which were
occupied by the allies, and they fell into his hands, the garrison of both
being obliged to surrender prisoners of war. These were but inconsiderable
conquests; nor did the progress of the French general equal the idea which
had been formed of his talents and activity. The count de St. Germain, who
was his senior officer, and believed by many to be at least his equal in
capacity, having now joined his corps to the grand army, and conceiving
disgust at his being obliged to serve under the duke de Broglio,
relinquished his command, in which he was succeeded by the chevalier de
Muy. At the same time, the marquis de Voyer and the count de Luc, two
generals of experience and reputation, quitted the army, and returned to
France, actuated by the same motives.

VICTORY OBTAINED BY THE ALLIES.

The allied army having moved their camp from Saxenhansen to the village of
Kalle near Cassel, remained in that situation till the thirtieth day of
July, when the troops were again put in motion. The chevalier de Muy,
having passed the Dymel at Stradtbergen, with the reserve of the French
army, amounting to thirty-five thousand men, extended this body down the
banks of the river, in order to cut off the communication of the allies
with Westphalia; while the duke de Broglio marched up with his main wing
to their camp at Kalle, and prince Xavier of Saxony, who commanded their
reserve on the left, advanced towards Cassel; prince Ferdinand, leaving
general Kielmansegge with a body of troops for the defence of the city,
decamped in the night of the thirtieth, and passed the Dymel without loss
between Gibenau and Dringleberg. The hereditary prince, who had the
preceding day passed the same river, in order to reinforce general
Sporcken, who was posted near Corbeke, now reconnoitred the position of
the enemy, and found them possessed of a very advantageous camp between
Warbourg and Ochsendorff. Prince Ferdinand having resolved to attack them,
ordered the hereditary prince and general Sporcken to turn their left,
while he himself advanced against their front, with the main body of the
army.. The enemy was accordingly attacked almost at the same instant, both
in flank and in rear, with equal impetuosity and success. As the infantry
of the allied army could not march fast enough to charge at the same time,
the marquis of Granby was ordered to advance with the cavalry of the
right; and the brigade of English artillery, commanded by captain
Phillips, made such expedition, that they were up in time to second the
attack in a most surprising manner. The French cavalry, though very
numerous, retired at the approach of the marquis, except three squadrons,
who stood the charge and were immediately broken. Then the English horse
fell upon the enemy’s infantry, which suffered greatly, while the town of
Warbourg was assaulted by the Britannic legion. The French, finding
themselves hard pressed on both flanks, as well in front as in rear,
retired precipitately, with considerable damage, occasioned chiefly by the
British cannon and dragoons, and many were drowned in attempting to ford
the Dymel. The battalion of Maxwell, and a brigade under colonel Beckwith,
composed of grenadiers and highlanders, distinguished themselves
remarkably on this occasion. The enemy left about fifteen hundred men
killed or wounded on the field of battle; with some colours, and ten
pieces of cannon; and about the same number were made prisoners. Monsieur
de Muy lay all night under arms, on the heights of Volk-Missen, from
whence he next day retired towards Wolfshagen. On the evening of the
battle, the marquis of Granby received orders to pass the river in pursuit
of them, with twelve British battalions and ten squadrons, and encamped at
Wilda, about four miles from Warbourg, the heights of which were possessed
by the enemy’s grand army. 561 [See note 4 O, at the end of this Vol.]
By this success, prince Ferdinand was enabled to maintain his
communication with Westphalia, and keep the enemy at a distance from the
heart of Hanover; but to these objects he sacrificed the country of
Cassel: for prince Xavier of Saxony, at the head of a detached body, much
more numerous than that which was left under general Kielmansegge,
advanced towards Cassel, and made himself master of that city; then he
reduced Munden, Gottengen, and Eimbeck in the electorate of Hanover. All
that prince Ferdinand could do, considering how much he was out-numbered
by the French, was to secure posts and passes, with a view to retard their
progress, and employ detachments to harass and surprise their advanced
parties. In a few days after the action at Warbourg, general Luckner
repulsed a French detachment which had advanced as far as Eimbeck, and
surprised another at Nordheim. At the same period, colonel Donap, with a
body of the allied army, attacked a French corps of two thousand men,
posted in the wood of Sababourg, to preserve the communication between
their grand army and their troops on the other side of the Weser; and,
notwithstanding the strength of their situation, drove them from their
posts, with the loss of five hundred men, either killed or made prisoners;
but this advantage was overbalanced by the reduction of Ziegenheim,
garrisoned by seven hundred men of the allied army, who, after a vigorous
resistance, were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war.

On the fifth day of August, prince Ferdinand, being encamped at Buhne,
received intelligence that a considerable body of the enemy, amounting to
upwards of twenty thousand men, were in motion to make a general forage in
the neighbourhood of Geismar. He passed the Dymel early in the morning,
with a body of troops and some artillery, and posted them in such an
advantageous manner, as to render the enemy’s attempt totally ineffectual,
although the foragers were covered with great part of their army. On the
same morning, the hereditary prince set out on an expedition to beat up
the quarters of a French detachment. Being informed that the volunteers of
Clermont and Dauphiné, to the number of one thousand, horse and foot, were
cantoned at Zierenberg, at a small distance from the French camp at
Dierenberg, and passed their time in the most careless security, he
advanced towards them from his camp at Warbourg, within a league of their
cantonment, without seeing any of their posts, or meeting with any of
their patrols, a circumstance that encouraged him to beat up their
quarters by surprise; for this service he pitched upon five battalions,
with a detachment of Highlanders, and eight regiments of dragoons. Leaving
their tents standing, they began their march at eight in the evening, and
passed the Dymel near Warbourg. About a league on the other side of the
Dymel, at the village of Witzen, they were joined by the light troops
under major Bulow; and now the disposition was made both for entering the
town, and securing a retreat in case of being repulsed. When they were
within two miles of Zierenberg, and in sight of the fires of the enemy’s
grand guard, the grenadiers of Maxwell, the regiment of Kinsley, and the
Highlanders, advanced by three separate roads, and marched in profound
silence: at length the noise of their feet alarmed the French, who began
to fire, when the grenadiers proceeded at a round pace with unloaded
firelocks, pushed the piquets, slew the guard at the gate, and rushing
into the town, drove everything before them with incredible impetuosity.
The attack was so sudden, and the surprise so great, that the French had
not time to assemble in any considerable number; but they began to fire
from the windows; and in so doing, exasperated the allied troops, who,
bursting into the houses, slaughtered them without mercy. Having remained
in the place from two to three in the morning, they retreated with about
four hundred prisoners, including forty officers, and brought off two
pieces of artillery. This nocturnal adventure, in which the British troops
displayed equal courage and activity, was achieved with very little loss;
but after all, it deserves no other appellation than that of a partisan
exploit; for it was attended with no sort of advantage to the allied army.

Considering the superiority of the French army, we cannot account for the
little progress made by the duke de Broglio, who, according to our
conception, might either have given battle to the allies with the utmost
probability of success, or penetrated into the heart of Hanover, the
conquest of which seemed to be the principal object of the French
ministry. Instead of striking an important stroke, he retired from
Immenhausen towards Cassel, where he fortified his camp as if he had
thought himself in danger of being attacked; and the war was carried on by
small detachments. Major Bulow, being sent with a strong party from the
camp of the allied army at Buline, surprised the town of Marburg,
destroyed the French ovens, and brought off a considerable quantity of
stores and baggage, with some prisoners. He met with the same success at
Butzback, where he surprised and took two companies belonging to the
regiment of Baugrave, and retired with this body to Franckenberg, where he
joined colonel Forsen. On the twelfth day of September they made a
movement towards Franckenau; and M. de Stainville, who was posted with a
body of French troops at Merdenhagen, advanced to check their progress. He
came up with their rear in the neighbourhood of Munden, and attacked them
in passing the river Orck with such vigour, that Forsen, with some of his
cavalry, was taken, and Bulow obliged to abandon some pieces of cannon.
The action was just determined, when this last was reinforced by the
hereditary prince of Brunswick, who had made a forced march of five German
miles, which had fatigued the troops to such a degree, that he deferred
his attack till next morning; but, in the meantime, M. de Stainville
retired towards Franckenberg. The Hanoverian general Wangenheim, at the
head of four battalions and six squadrons, had driven the enemy from the
defiles of Soheite, and encamped at Lawenthagen; but, being attacked by a
superior number, he was obliged in his turn to give way, and his retreat
was not effected without the loss of two hundred men, and some pieces of
artillery. When the enemy retired, general Wangenheim repassed the Weser,
and occupied his former situation at Ussar. Meanwhile, general Luckner
gained an advantage over a detachment of French cavalry near Norten.
Prince Ferdinand, when mareschal Broglio quitted his camp at Immenhausen,
made a motion of his troops, and established his head-quarters at
Geismer-wells, the residence of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; from
thence, however, he transferred them, about the latter end of September,
to Ovilgune, on the Westphalian side of the Dymel.

THE HEREDITARY PRINCE MARCHES TO THE LOWER RHINE.

Such was the position of the two opposite grand armies, when the world was
surprised by an expedition to the Lower Rhine, made by the hereditary
prince of Brunswick. Whether this excursion was intended to hinder the
French from reinforcing their army in Westphalia—or to co-operate in
the Low Countries with the armament now ready equipped in the ports of
England; or to gratify the ambition of a young prince, overboiling with
courage and glowing with the desire of conquest—we cannot explain to
the satisfaction of the reader; certain it is, that the Austrian
Netherlands were at this juncture entirely destitute of troops, except the
French garrisons of Ostend and Nieuport, which were weak and
inconsiderable. Had ten thousand English troops been landed on the coast
of Blankenburg, they might have taken possession of Bruges, Ghent,
Brussels, and Antwerp, without resistance, and joined the hereditary
prince in the heart of the country; in that case he would have found
himself at the head of thirty thousand men, and might have made such a
diversion in favour of Hanover, as to transfer the seat of war from
Westphalia into Flanders. The empress-queen might, indeed, have complained
of this invasion, as the formality of declaring war against her had not
been observed by Great Britain; but considering that she was the declared
enemy of Hanover, and had violated the barrier-treaty, in establishing
which the kingdom of Great Britain had lavished away so much blood and
treasure, a step of this kind, we apprehend, might have been taken,
without any imputation of perfidy or injustice. Whatever the motives of
the prince’s expedition might have been, he certainly quitted the grand
army of the allies in the month of September; and traversing Westphalia,
with twenty battalions, and as many squadrons, appeared on the Lower
Ehine, marching by Schermbeck and Dusseldorp. On the twenty-ninth day of
the month he sent a large detachment over the river at Rocroot, which
surprised part of the French partisan Fischer’s corps at Ehynberg, and
scoured the country. Next day, other parties, crossing at Eees and
Emmerick, took possession of some redoubts which the French had raised
along the bank of the river; and here they found a number of boats
sufficient to transport the rest of the forces. Then the prince advanced
to Cleves; and at his approach the French garrison, consisting of five
hundred men, under the command of M. de Barrai, retired into the castle,
which, however, they did not long defend; for on the third day of October
they capitulated, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war, after
having in vain endeavoured to obtain more favourable conditions.

A more important object was Wesel, which the prince invested, and began to
besiege in form. The approaches were made on the right of the Ehine, while
the prince in person remained on the left to cover the siege; and kept his
communication open with the other side, by a bridge above, and another
below the place. He had hoped to carry it by a vigorous exertion, without
the formality of a regular siege; but he met with a warmer reception than
he expected; and his operations were retarded by heavy rains, which, by
swelling the river, endangered his bridges, and laid his trenches under
water. The difficulties and delays occasioned by this circumstance
entirely frustrated his design. The French, being made acquainted with his
motions, were not slow in taking measures to anticipate his success. M. de
Castries was detached after him with thirty battalions, and thirty-eight
squadrons; and, by forced marches, arrived on the fourteenth day of
October at Ehynberg, where the prince’s light troops were posted. These he
attacked immediately, and compelled to abandon the post, notwithstanding
all the efforts of the prince, who commanded in person, and appeared in
the warmest parts of this short but sanguinary affair. The enemy leaving
five battalions, with some squadrons, at Ehynberg, marched by the left,
and encamped behind the convent of Campen. The prince, having received
intimation that M. de Castries was not yet joined by some reinforcements
that were on the march, determined to be beforehand with them, and attempt
that very night to surprise him in his camp. For this purpose he began his
march at ten in the evening, after having left four battalions, and five
squadrons, under general Beck, with instructions to observe Rhynberg, and
attack that post, in case the attempt on Campen should succeed. Before the
allied forces could reach the enemy’s camp, they were under the necessity
of overpowering Fischer’s corps of irregulars, which occupied the convent
of Campen, at the distance of half a league in their front. This service
occasioned some firing, the noise of which alarmed the French army. Their
commander formed them with great expedition, and posted them in the wood,
where they were immediately attacked, and at first obliged to give ground;
but they soon retrieved all they had lost, and sustained without flinching
an unceasing fire of musketry, from five in the morning till nine at
night, when they reaped the fruits of their perseverance. The hereditary
prince, whose horse was killed under him, seeing no prospect of success in
prolonging an action which had already cost him a considerable number of
men, thought proper to give orders for a retreat, which was not effected
without confusion, and left the field of battle to the enemy. His loss on
this occasion did not fall short of sixteen hundred choice men, killed,
wounded, and taken; and his loss fell chiefly on the troops of Great
Britain, who were always found in the foremost ranks of danger. All the
officers, both of infantry and dragoons, distinguished themselves
remarkably, and many were dangerously wounded. Among these, the nation
regretted the loss of lord Downe, whose wounds proved mortal: he was a
young nobleman of spirit, who had lately embraced a military life, though
he was not regularly trained in the service.

Next day, which was the sixteenth of October, the enemy attacked an
advanced body of the allies, which was posted in a wood before Elverick,
and extended along the Rhine. The firing of cannon and musketry was
maintained till night. Meanwhile, a column of the French infantry,
commanded by M. de Cabot, marched through Walach, and took post among the
thickets, at the distance of a quarter of a league, in the front of the
prince’s army. By this time the Ehine was so much swelled by the rains and
the banks of it were overflown in such a manner, that it was necessary to
repair, and move lower down, the bridge which had been thrown over that
river. This work was accordingly performed in the presence of the enemy;
and the prince passing without molestation, proceeded to Bruymen, where he
fixed his head-quarters. His passing the Ehine so easily, under the eye of
a victorious army so much superior to him in number, may be counted among
the fortunate incidents of his life. Such was the issue of an expedition
which exposed the projector of it to the imputation of temerity. Whatever
his aim might have been, besides the reduction of Wesel, with the strength
of which he did not seem to have been very well acquainted, he certainly
miscarried in his design; and his miscarriage was attended with a very
considerable loss of troops, occasioned not only by the action, but also
by the diseases engendered from the wet weather, the fatigue of long
marches, and the want of proper conveniences; not to mention the enormous
expense in contingencies incurred by this fruitless undertaking.

In the month of November, while he lay encamped in the neighbourhood of
Schermbeck, a body of the enemy attempted to beat up his quarters; having
received intimation of their design, he immediately called in his advanced
posts, and made a disposition for giving them a proper reception. He
abandoned the tents that were in the front of his camp, and posted his
infantry in ambuscade behind those that were in the rear; at the same time
he ordered some regiments of horse and hussars to fetch a compass, and
fall upon the back of the enemy. This stratagem succeeded to his wish. The
French detachment, believing the allies had actually abandoned their camp,
began to pillage the tents in the utmost disorder: then the infantry
sallied from the place where they were concealed, and fell upon them with
great impetuosity: the artillery opened, and the cavalry charged them in
flank. In a word, of twelve hundred who marched from Wesel on this
expedition, scarcely two hundred escaped.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

ADVANTAGES GAINED by M. DE STAINVILLE.

The duke de Broglio endeavoured, by sundry means, to take advantage of the
allied army on the other side of the Weser, thus weakened by the absence
of the troops under the hereditary prince; but he found prince Ferdinand
too vigilant to be surprised, and too strongly situated to be attacked
with any prospect of success. He therefore contented himself with ravaging
the country by detachments: he sent M. de Stainville, with a considerable
body of forces, to penetrate into the heart of Hanover; and on the
fifteenth day of September, that officer, falling in with a detachment of
the allies, commanded by major Bulow, attacked them near the abbey of
Schaken. After a warm and obstinate engagement, they were defeated, and
driven to Bulemont, with the loss of their cannon, baggage, and a good
number of men, who fell into the hands of the victors. After this exploit,
M. de Stainville advanced to Halberstadt, and demanded of that capital a
contribution of one million five hundred thousand livres; but the citizens
had been so drained by former exactions, that they could not raise above
thirty thousand: for the remainder the French partisan took hostages, with
whom he returned to the grand army encamped at Cassel, from whence they in
a little time fell back as far as Gottengen.

THE ALLIES AND FRENCH GO INTO WINTER QUARTERS.

As the enemy retreated, prince Ferdinand advanced as far as Hurste, where
he established his head-quarters about the latter end of November. While
he remained in this position, divers skirmishes happened in the
neighbourhood of Gottengen. Major-general Briedenbach, at the head of two
regiments of Hanoverian and Brunswick guards, with a detachment of
cavalry, attacked, on the twenty-ninth day of November, the French post at
Heydemunden, upon the river Worrau. This he carried, and took possession
of the town, which the enemy hastily abandoned. Part of their detachment
crossed the river in boats; the rest threw themselves into an intrenchment
that covered the passage, which the allies endeavoured to force in several
unsuccessful attempts, galled as they were by the fire of the enemy’s
redoubts on the other side of the river. At length M. Briedenbach was
obliged to desist, and fall back into the town; from whence he retired at
midnight, after having sustained considerable damage. Prince Ferdinand had
it very much at heart to drive the French from Gottengen, and accordingly
invested that city; but the French garrison, which was numerous and well
provided, made such a vigorous defence, as baffled all the endeavours of
the allies, who were moreover impeded by the rainy weather, which, added
to other considerations, prevented them from undertaking the siege in
form. Nevertheless, they kept the place blocked up from the twenty-second
day of November to the twelfth of the following month, when the garrison,
in a desperate sally, took one of their principal posts, and compelled
them to raise the blockade. About the middle of December, prince Ferdinand
retired into winter-quarters; he himself residing at Uslar, and the
English troops being cantoned in the bishopric of Paderborn. Thus the
enemy were left in possession of Hesse, and the whole country to the
eastward of the Weser, to the frontiers of the electorate of Hanover. If
the allied army had not been weakened for the sake of a rash,
ill-concerted, and unsuccessful expedition to the Lower Rhine, in all
probability the French would have been obliged to abandon the footing they
had gained in the course of this campaign; and, in particular, to retreat
from Gottengen, which they now maintained and fortified with great
diligence and circumspection.

CHAPTER XX.

Exploit of the Swedes in Pomerania….. Skirmishes between
the Prussians and Austrians in Saxony….. Position of the
Armies in Saxony and Silesia….. General Laudohn defeats
General Fouquet, and reduces Glatz….. and then undertakes
the Siege of Breslau, which is relieved by Prince Henry of
Prussia….. The King of Prussia makes an unsuccessful
Attempt upon Dresden….. He marches into Silesia…..
Defeats General Laudohn, and raises the Blockade of
Schweidnitz….. Action between General Hulsen and the
Imperial Army in Saxony….. Dangerous Situation of the
Prussian Monarch….. The Russians and Austrians make an
Irruption into Brandenburgh, and possess themselves of
Berlin….. The Ring of Prussia defeats the Austrians at
Torgau….. Both Armies go into Quarters of Cantonment…..
The Diets of Poland and Sweden assembled….. Intimation
given by the King of Prussia to the States of
Westphalia….. King of Poland’s Remonstrance….. Reduction
of Pondicherry….. Part of the British Squadron wrecked in
a Storm….. Death of King George II….. His Character…..
Recapitulation of the principal Events of his Reign….. His
Death universally lamented….. Account of the Commerce of
Great Britain….. State of Religion and Philosophy…..
Fanaticism….. Metaphysics and Medicine….. Mechanics…..
Genius….. Music….. Painting, and Sculpture

EXPLOIT OF THE SWEDES IN POMERANIA.

The king of Prussia, after all his labours, notwithstanding the great
talents he had displayed, and the incredible efforts he had made, still
found himself surrounded by his enemies, and in danger of being-crushed by
their closing and contracting their circle. Even the Swedes, who had
languished so long, seemed to be roused to exertion in Pomerania, during
the severity of the winter season. The Prussian general Manteuffel had, on
the twentieth day of January, passed the river Peene, overthrown the
advanced posts of the enemy at Ziethen, and penetrated as far as the
neighbourhood of Griessewalde; but finding the Swedes on their guard, he
returned to Anclam, where his head-quarters were established. This insult
was soon retaliated with interest. On the twenty-eighth day of the month,
at five in the morning, a body of Swedes attacked the Prussian troops
posted in the suburbs of Anclam, on the other side of the Peene, and drove
them into the city, which they entered pell-mell. General Manteuffel,
being alarmed, endeavoured to rally the troops; but was wounded and taken,
with about two hundred men, and three pieces of cannon. The victors,
having achieved this exploit, returned to their own quarters. As for the
Russian army, which had wintered on the other side of the Vistula, the
season was pretty far advanced before it could take the field; though
general Tottleben was detached from it, about the beginning of June, at
the head of ten thousand cossacks, and other light troops, with which he
made an irruption into Pomerania, and established his head-quarters at
Belgarden.

SKIRMISHES BETWEEN THE PRUSSIANS AND

AUSTRIANS IN SAXONY.

At the beginning of the campaign, the king of Prussia’s chief aim was to
take measures for the preservation of Silesia, the conquest of which
seemed to be the principal object with the court of Vienna. While the
Austrian army, under mareschal count Daun, lay strongly intrenched in the
neighbourhood of Dresden, the king of Prussia had endeavoured, in the
month of December, to make him quit that advantageous situation, by
cutting off his provisions, and making an irruption into Bohemia. For
these purposes he had taken possession of Dippeswalde, Maxen, and
Pretchendorff, as if he intended to enter Bohemia by the way of Passberg:
but this scheme being found impracticable, he returned to his camp at
Fribourg, and in January the Prussian and Austrian armies were cantoned so
near each other, that daily skirmishes were fought with various success.
The head of the Prussian camp was formed by a body of four thousand men
under general Zettwitz, who, on the twenty-ninth day of January, was
attacked with such impetuosity by the Austrian general Beck, that he
retreated in great confusion to Torgau, with the loss of five hundred men,
eight pieces of artillery, and a considerable quantity of new clothing and
other baggage. Another advantage of the same nature was gained by the
Austrians at Neustadt, over a small body of Prussians who occupied that
city. In the month of Maroh, general Laudohn advanced with a strong
detachment of horse and foot, in order to surprise the Prussians, who, in
attempting to effect a retreat to Steinau, were surrounded accordingly,
and very roughly handled. General Laudohn summoned them twice by sound of
trumpet to lay down their arms; but their commanders, the captains
Blumenthal and Zettwitz, rejecting the proposal with disdain, the enemy
attacked them on all hands with a great superiority of number. In this
emergency the Prussian captains formed their troops into a square, and by
a close continued fire kept the enemy at bay; until, perceiving that the
Croats had taken possession of a wood between Siebenhausen and Steinau,
they, in apprehension of being intercepted, abandoned their baggage, and
forced their way to Steinau, which they reached with great difficulty,
having been continually harassed by the Austrians, who paid dear for this
advantage. Several other petty exploits of this kind were achieved by
detachments on both sides, before the campaign was begun by the grand
armies.

POSITION OF THE ARMIES IN SAXONY AND SILESIA.

Towards the end of April the king of Prussia altered his position, and
withdrew that part of his chain of cantonments, extending from the forest
of Thurundt to the right of the Elbe. He now took possession of a very
strong camp between the Elbe and the Mulda, which he intrenched in every
part that was accessible, and fortified with two hundred and fifty pieces
of cannon. By these precautions he was enabled to keep his ground against
the army of count Daun, and at the same time detach a body of troops, as a
reinforcement to his brother prince Henry, who assembled a separate army
near Franckfort upon the Oder, that he might be at hand either to oppose
the Russians, or march to the relief of Silesia, which the enemy was bent
upon invading. It was for this purpose that the Austrian general Laudohn
advanced, with a considerable army, into Lusatia about the beginning of
May; and general Beck, with another body of troops, took possession of
Corbus: meanwhile count Daun continued in his old situation on the Elbe;
general Lascy formed a small detached army upon the frontiers of Saxony,
to the southward of Dresden; and the prince de Deuxponts marched into the
same neighbourhood with the army of the empire. Prince Henry of Prussia
having encamped with his army for some time at Sagan, in Silesia, moved
from thence to Gorlitz, in Lusatia, to observe the motions of general
Laudohn, encamped at Koningsgratz; from whence, in the beginning of June,
he marched into the country of Glatz, and advanced to the neighbourhood of
Schweidnitz, which he seemed determined to besiege, having a train of
eight pieces of cannon. With a view to thwart his designs, prince Henry
reinforced the body of troops under general Fouquet; and at the same time
he sent a detachment into Pomerania, under colonel Lessow, who defeated
the rear guard of general Tottleben, and compelled that officer to
evacuate Pomerania. By this time, however, mareschal Soltikoff had arrived
from Petersburg, and taken the command of the grand Russian army, which
passed the Vistula in June, and began its march towards the frontiers of
Silesia.

GEN. LAUDOHN DEFEATS GEN. FOUQUET, AND REDUCES GLATZ.

In the month of June, general Laudohn made an unsuccessful attempt to
carry Glatz by assault; but he succeeded better in his next enterprise.
Understanding that general Fouquet, who occupied the posts at Landshut,
had weakened himself by sending off detachments under the majors-general
Zeithen and Grant, he resolved to attack him with such a superiority of
number that he should not be able to resist. Accordingly, on the
twenty-third day of June, at two in the morning, he began the assault with
his whole army upon some redoubts which Fouquet occupied; and these were
carried one after another, though not without a very desperate opposition.
General Fouquet being summoned to surrender, refused to submit; and having
received two wounds, was at length taken prisoner: about three thousand of
his men escaped to Breslan; the rest were killed or taken: but the loss of
the victors is said to have exceeded that of the vanquished. In July,
general Laudohn undertook the siege of Glatz, which was taken after a very
faint resistance; for, on the very day the batteries were opened against
the place, the garrison abandoned part of the fortifications, which the
besiegers immediately occupied. The Prussians made repeated efforts to
regain the ground they had lost; but they were repulsed in all their
attempts. At length the garrison laid down their arms, and surrendered at
discretion. From this tame behaviour of the Prussians, one would imagine
the garrison must have been very weak; a circumstance which we cannot
reconcile with the known sagacity of the Prussian monarch, as the place
was of great importance, on account of the immense magazine it contained,
including above one hundred brass cannon, a great number of mortars, and a
vast quantity of ammunition.

Laudohn, encouraged by this success at Glatz, advanced immediately to
Breslau, which he began to bombard with great fury 564 [See Note 4 P, at
the end of this Vol.]; but, before he could make a regular attack, he
found himself obliged to retire. Prince Henry of Prussia, one of the most
accomplished generals which this age produced, having received repeated
intelligence that the Russian army intended to join Laudohn at Breslau,
resolved to advance and give them battle before the purposed junction. In
the latter end of July he began his march from Gleissen, and on the last
day of that month had reached Linden, near Slauve, where he understood
that Tottleben’s detachment only had passed through the plains of
Polnich-Lissa, and that the grand Russian army had marched through Kosten
and Gustin. The prince finding it impossible to pursue them by that route,
directed his march to Glogau, where he learned that Breslau was besieged
by general Laudohn, and immediately advanced by forced marches to its
relief. Such was his expedition, that in five days he marched above one
hundred and twenty English miles; and at his approach the Austrian general
abandoned his enterprise. Thus, by his prudence and activity, he not only
prevented the junction of the Russian and Austrian armies, but also saved
the capital of Silesia; and hampered Laudohn in such a manner as subjected
him to a defeat by the Prussian monarch, to whose motions we shall now
turn our attention.

THE KING OF PRUSSIA MAKES AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT UPON DRESDEN.

Whether his design was originally upon Dresden, or he purposed to
co-operate with his brother prince Henry in Silesia, which his adversaries
seemed to have pitched upon as the scene of their operations, we cannot
presume to determine; but certain it is, he, in the beginning of July,
began his march in two columns through Lusatia; and count Daun being
informed of his march, ordered his army to be put in motion. Leaving the
army of the empire, and the body of troops under Lascy, to guard Saxony in
his absence, he marched with great expedition towards Silesia, in full
persuasion that the Prussian monarch had thither directed his route. On
the seventh day of July, the king knowing that Daun was now removed at a
distance, repassed the Polsnitz, which he had passed but two days before,
and advanced with the van of his army towards Lichtenberg, in order to
attack the forces of general Lascy, who was posted there; but the
Austrians retired at his approach. Then the army marched to Marienstern,
where the king received intelligence that count Daun was in full march for
Lauban, having already gained two marches upon the Prussians. Perhaps it
was this intimation that determined the king to change his plan, and
return to the Elbe. On the eighth day of the month he repassed the Sprehe,
in the neighbourhood of Bautzen, and marched towards Dresden with
extraordinary diligence. On the thirteenth, his army having passed the
Elbe at Kadetz, on a bridge of boats, encamped between Pirna and Dresden,
which last he resolved to besiege, in hopes of reducing it before count
Daun could return to its relief. How far this expectation was well
grounded, we must leave the reader to judge, after having observed that
the place was now much more defensible than it had been when the last
attempt of the Austrians upon it miscarried; that it was secured with a
numerous garrison, commanded by general Macguire, an officer of courage
and experience. This governor being summoned to surrender, answered that,
having the honour to be intrusted with the defence of the capital, he
would maintain it to the last extremity. Batteries were immediately raised
against the town on both sides of the Elbe; and the poor inhabitants
subjected to a dreadful visitation, that their calamities might either
drive them to despair, or move the heart of the governor to embrace
articles of capitulation; but these expedients proved ineffectual. Though
the suburbs towards the Pirna gate were attacked and carried, this
advantage made no impression on general Macguire, who made several
vigorous sallies, and took every necessary precaution for the defence of
the city; encouraged moreover by the vicinity of Lascy’s body, and the
army of the empire, encamped in an advantageous position near Gross
Seydlitz; and confident that count Daun would hasten to his relief. In
this hope he was not disappointed. The Austrian general, finding himself
duped by the stratagem of the Prussian monarch, and being made acquainted
with his enterprise against Dresden, instantly wheeled about, and marched
back with such rapidity, that on the nineteenth day of the month he
reached the neighbourhood of the capital of Saxony. In consequence of his
approach, the king of Prussia, whose heavy artillery was now arrived,
redoubled his efforts against the city, so as to reduce to ashes the
cathedral church, the new square, several noble streets, some palaces,
together with the curious manufactory of porcelain. His vengeance must
have been levelled against the citizens; for it affected neither the
fortifications, nor the Austrian garrison, which count Daun found means to
reinforce with sixteen battalions. This supply, and the neighbourhood of
three hostile armies, rendered it altogether impossible to prosecute the
siege with any prospect of success; the king therefore abandoned the
undertaking, withdrew his troops and artillery, and endeavoured to bring
Daun to a battle, which that general cautiously avoided.

The fate of this prince seemed now at its crisis. Notwithstanding all the
efforts of his brother prince Henry, the Russians were fast advancing to
join Laudohn, who had already blocked up Schweidnitz and Neifs, and their
junction seemed to threaten the loss of all Silesia. The king had nothing
to oppose to superior numbers but superior activity, of which he
determined to avail himself without delay. Instead of making a feint
towards Silesia, he resolved to march thither in earnest; and for that
purpose, crossing the Elbe, encamped at Dallwitz, on the further bank of
the river; leaving general Hulsen, with fifteen thousand men, in the
intrenched camp of Schlettow, to maintain his footing in Saxony. On the
third day of August he began his march for Silesia, followed by count Daun
with the grand Austrian army; while the detached body under Lascy took
post at Reichenberg, and the imperial army encamped at Kesseldorf. Both
the Prussians and Austrians marched at the rate of one hundred miles in
five days; on the tenth the king took possession of the camp at Lidnitz;
and here he seemed in danger of being quite surrounded by the enemy, who
occupied the whole ground between Parchwitz and Cossendau, an extent of
thirty miles. Count Daun’s army formed the centre of this chain,
possessing the heights of Wahlstadt and Liochkirk; general Laudohn covered
the ground between Jeschkendorf and Coschitz; the rising grounds of
Parchwitz were secured by general Nauendorff; and M. de Beck, who formed
the left, extended his troops beyond Cossendau. The king marched in the
night of the eleventh, with a view to turn the enemy and reach Jauer; but
at break of day he discovered a new camp at Prausnitz, which consisted of
Lascy’s detachment, just arrived from Lauban. The Prussians immediately
passed the Katzbach, to attack this general; but he made such a skilful
disposition for a retreat towards the army of count Daun, that he not only
baffled the endeavours of the king to bring him to action, but, by posting
himself on the heights of Hennersdorff, anticipated his march to Jauer. In
vain the Prussian monarch attempted next day to turn the enemy on the side
of the mountains by Pomsen and Jagersdorff, the roads were found
impassable to the ammunition waggons, and the king returned to the camp at
Lignitz.

While he remained in this situation, he received advice that
four-and-twenty thousand Russians, under count Czernichew, had thrown
bridges over the Oder at Auras, where they intended to cross that river;
and he concluded the enemy had formed a design to close him in, and attack
him with their joint forces. Daun had indeed projected a plan for
surprising him in the night, and had actually put his army in motion for
that purpose; but he was anticipated by the vigilance and good fortune of
the Prussian monarch. That prince reflecting, that if he should wait for
his adversaries in his camp, he ran the risk of being attacked at the same
time by Lascy on his right, by Daun in his front, and by Laudohn on his
left, he altered his disposition, in order to disconcert their operations;
and, on the fourteenth day of the month, marched to the heights of
Psaffendorff, where he formed his army in order of battle. Receiving
intimation about two in the morning, that Laudohn was in full march
advancing in columns by Benowitz, he divided his army into two separate
bodies. One of these remained on the ground, in order to maintain the post
against any attempts that might be made by count Daun to succour Laudohn;
and that this service might be the more effectually performed, the heights
were fortified with batteries, so judiciously disposed, as to impede and
overawe the whole Austrian army. The king having taken this precaution,
wheeled about with sixteen battalions and thirty squadrons, to fall upon
Laudohn as he should advance; but that general knew nothing of his design,
until he himself arrived at the village of Psaffendorff, about three in
the morning, when the day dawning, and a thick fog gradually dispersing,
the whole detachment of the Prussian army appeared in order of battle, in
a well-chosen situation, strengthened with a numerous train of artillery,
placed to the best advantage. Laudohn was not a little mortified to find
himself caught in his own snare, but he had advanced too far to recede;
and therefore, making a virtue of necessity, resolved to stand an
engagement. With this view he formed his troops, as well as the time,
place, and circumstances would permit; and the Prussians advancing to the
attack, a severe action ensued. The king rode along the line to animate
the troops, and superintended every part of the charge; hazarding his life
in the most dangerous scenes of the battle to such a degree, that his
horse was killed under him, and his clothes were shot through in several
places. The Austrians maintained the conflict with great obstinacy, until
six in the morning, when they gave ground, and were pursued to the
Katzbach; beyond which the king would not allow his troops to prosecute
the advantage they had gained, that they might be able to succour the
right in case mareschal count Daun should succeed in his attempt to
advance against them from Lignitz. That general had actually begun his
march to fall upon the Prussians on one side, while Laudohn should attack
them on the other; but he was not a little surprised to find they were
decamped; and when he perceived a thick cloud of smoke at a distance, he
immediately comprehended the nature of the king’s management. He then
attempted to advance by Lignitz; but the troops and artillery, which had
been left on the height of Psaffendorff, to dispute his march, were so
advantageously disposed, as to render all his efforts abortive. Laudohn is
said to have lost in the action above eight thousand men, killed, wounded,
and taken, including eighty officers, with twenty-three pair of colours,
and eighty-two pieces of cannon; over and above this loss, the Austrian
general suffered greatly by desertion. The Prussians obtained the victory
at the expense of one general, with five hundred men killed, and twelve
hundred wounded. Immediately after the action the victor inarched to
Parchwitz; while Daun detached prince Lowenstein and general Beck with the
reserve of his army, to join prince Czernichew, who had crossed the Oder
at Auras; but he was so intimidated by the defeat at Lignitz, that he
forthwith repassed that river, and prince Lowenstein retired on the side
of Jauer. By this bold and well-conducted adventure, the Prussian monarch
not only escaped the most imminent hazard of a total defeat from the joint
efforts of two strong armies, but also prevented the dreaded junction of
the Eussian and Austrian forces. His business was now to open the
communication with Breslau and his brother prince Henry, whom he joined at
Neumarcke. The prince, after Laudohn was obliged to relinquish the siege
of Breslau, had kept a watchful eye over the motions of the Eussian army,
which had advanced into the neighbourhood of that city; and, without all
doubt, would have bombarded it from some commanding heights, had they not
been prevented by prince Henry, who took possession of these posts, and
fortified them with redoubts. The king having freed Breslau from the
neighbourhood of his enemies, and being strengthened by the junction with
his brother, left a considerable detachment under the command of general
Boltze, to protect the country against the Eussian irregulars; and
advanced with his whole force to the relief of Schweidnitz, which was
blocked up by the Austrian forces under the command of the mareschal count
Daun. In his march he fell upon a separate body under general Beck, made
two battalions of Croats prisoners, and dispersed several squadrons. This
achievement had such an effect upon the enemy, that they raised the
blockade, and retreated with some precipitation to the mountains of
Landshut.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

ACTION BETWEEN GENEEAL HULSEN AND THE IMPERIAL ARMY IN SAXONY.

While the king thus exerted himself, with a spirit altogether unexampled,
in defending Silesia, general Hulsen, who commanded his troops in Saxony,
was exposed to the most imminent danger. Understanding that the army of
the empire had formed a design to cut off his communication with Torgau,
he quitted his camp at Meissen, and marched to Strehla. The enemy having
divided their forces into two bodies, one of them, on the twentieth clay
of August, attacked an advanced post of the Prussians; while the other was
disposed in such a manner, as to overawe Hulsen’s camp, and prevent him
from taking any step for the relief of his battalions, who maintained
their ground with difficulty against a superior number of assailants. In
this emergency the Prussian general ordered his cavalry to make a circuit
round a rising ground, and, if possible, charge the enemy in flank. This
order was executed with equal vigour and success. They fell upon the
imperial army with such impetuosity, as drove their battalions and horse
upon each other in the utmost confusion. A considerable number of the
enemy were slain, and forty-one officers, with twelve hundred men, made
prisoners. By this advantage, which was obtained at a very small expense,
general Hulsen opened for himself a way to Torgau, whither he instantly
retreated, perceiving that the whole army of the imperialists was
advancing to cut off his communication with the Elbe. This retreat
furnished the enemy with a pretext for claiming the victory.

SITUATION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

After all these heroic endeavours of the Prussian monarch and his
officers, his affairs remained in such a desperate situation as seemed to
presage approaching ruin; for, though in person he commanded a numerous
and well-appointed army, he found it absolutely impossible to guard
against the different detachments from the three separate armies of his
adversaries. Bodies of Austrian troops scoured the country of Lusatia; the
Russians traversed part of Silesia, and made irruptions even into
Brandenburgh; the imperial army domineered in Saxony; the Swedish army,
meeting with no opposition, advanced into the heart of Pomerania; so that
the king was not only threatened on every side, but all correspondence
between him and his hereditary dominions was at this juncture intercepted.

THE RUSSIANS AND AUSTRIANS POSSESS THEMSELVES OF BERLIN.

His adversaries, having been hitherto baffled by his activity and
resolution in their designs upon Silesia, now meditated a scheme, the
execution of which he could not but feel in the most sensible manner. The
Russian army being on its retreat from Silesia, count Czernichew was sent
with a strong detachment into the marche of Brandenburgh; while a numerous
body of Austrians, under Lascy and Brentano, penetrated into the same
country from Saxony, with instructions to join the Russians at the gates
of Berlin. The Prussian general Hulsen, finding himself too weak to cope
with the army of the empire in Misnia, had fallen back to this capital,
where he was joined by the troops under general Werner, lately returned
from Pomerania; but as their forces, after this junction, did not exceed
sixteen thousand men, and the allies advancing against them amounted to
forty thousand, they would not pretend to oppose the enemy in the open
field, nor to defend a city of such extent, and so imperfectly fortified.
Such an attempt would have only exposed their troops to ruin, without
being able to save the capital, which, on the contrary, would have been
the more severely handled, in consequence of their opposition. They
therefore resolved to retire, after having repulsed the advanced guard of
the Russians under Tottleben, which attacked the gates, and even bombarded
the town, before the great armies appeared. At their approach the Prussian
generals retreated, leaving three weak battalions in the place, in hopes
they might be the means of obtaining some sort of terms for the city. They
made no resistance, however; but on the first summons proposed articles of
capitulation, which being refused, they surrendered themselves prisoners
of war. In favour of the city, the foreign ministers there residing
interposed their mediation with such zeal and success, that tolerable
conditions were obtained. The inhabitants were indulged with the free
exercise of their religion, and an immunity from violence to their persons
and effects. The enemy promised that the Russian irregulars should not
enter the town; and that the king’s palace should not be violated. These
articles being ratified, the Austrian and Russian troops entered the
place, where they totally destroyed the magazines, arsenals, and
foundries, with an immense quantity of military stores, and a great number
of cannon and small arms: then they demanded the immediate payment of
eight hundred thousand guilders; and afterwards exacted a contribution of
one million nine hundred thousand German crowns. Many outrages were
committed by the licentious soldiery, in spite of all the precautions
which the officers could take to preserve the most exact discipline. The
houses of the private inhabitants were tolerably protected, but the king’s
palaces were subjected to the most rigorous treatment. In the royal palace
of Charlottenburg they pillaged and spoiled the rich furniture: they
defaced and mutilated the valuable pictures and antique statues collected
by cardinal de Polignac, and purchased by the house of Brandenburgh. The
castle of Schonhausen, belonging to the queen, and that of
Fredericksfeldt, the property of the margrave Charles, were pillaged of
effects to a very considerable value. The palace of Potsdam was
effectually protected by prince Esterhasi, who would not suffer one
article of furniture to be touched; but desired leave to take one picture
of the king, and two of his German flutes, that he might preserve them as
memorials of an illustrious prince, whose heroic character he admired. The
Austrian and Russian troops entered Berlin on the ninth day of October,
and quitted it on the thirteenth, on hearing that the king was in full
march to the relief of his capital. In their retreat, by different routes,
from Brandenburgh, they drove away all the cattle and horses they could
find, ravaged the country, and committed brutal outrages on the
inhabitants, which the pretence of retaliation could never excuse. The
body of Russians which entered Berlin marched from thence into Poland, by
the way of Furstenwalde; while the Austrians took the route of Saxony,
from whence they had advanced into Brandenburgh. Meanwhile the town of
Wirtem-berg, in that electorate, was reduced by the duke de Deux-Ponts,
commander of the imperial army, which, in conjunction with the Austrians,
made themselves masters also of Torgau and Leipsic.

KING OF PRUSSIA DEFEATS THE AUSTRIANS AT TORGAU.

The king of Prussia, in his march through Lusatia, was still attended by
count Daun, at the head of his grand army, and both passed the Elbe about
the latter end of October. The Prussian crossed the river at Coswick,
where he was joined by the troops under prince Eugene of Wirtemberg and
general Ilulsen, so that his army now amounted to eighty thousand fighting
men, with whom he resolved to strike some stroke of importance. Indeed, at
this time his situation was truly critical. General Laudohn, with a
considerable body of Austrians, remained in Silesia; the Russian army
still threatened Breslau, the capital of that country. The Imperialists
and Austrians had taken possession of all the great towns in Saxony, and
were masters on both sides of the Elbe. In the eastern part of Pomerania,
the Russians had invested Colberg by sea and land, seemingly determined to
reduce the place, that they might have a seaport by which they could be
supplied with provisions, ammunition, necessaries, and reinforcements,
without the trouble and inconvenience of a long and laborious march from
the banks of the Vistula. On the western side of Pomerania, the war, which
had hitherto languished, was renewed by the Swedes with uncommon vivacity.
They passed the river Pene without opposition; and obliging general
Stutterheim to retreat, advanced as far as Stransberg. That officer,
however, being reinforced, attacked a Swedish post at Passelvalik, slew
about five hundred of the enemy, and took an equal number, with six pieces
of cannon; but he was not numerous enough to keep the field against their
whole army. Thus the Prussian monarch saw himself obliged to abandon
Silesia, deprived of all the places he held in Saxony, which had been his
best resource; and in danger of being driven into his hereditary country
of Brandenburgh, which was unable either to maintain, or even to recruit,
his army. On this emergency he resolved to make one desperate effort
against the grand Austrian army under count Daun, who had passed the Elbe
at Torgau, and advanced to Eulenbourg, from whence, however, he retreated
to his former camp at Torgau; and the king chose his situation between
this last place and Schilda, at Lang-Reichenbach, where the hussars
attacked a body of horse under general Brentano, and made four hundred
prisoners. The right wing of the Austrians being at Groswich, and their
left at Torgau, the Prussian king determined to attack them next day,
which was the third of November. His design was to march through the wood
of Torgau by three different routes, with thirty battalions and fifty
squadrons of his left wing: the first line was ordered to advance by the
way of Mackrene to Neiden; the second by Peckhutte to Elsnick; and the
third, consisting of cavalry, to penetrate by the wood of Wildenhayn to
Vogelsand. On the other hand, general Ziethen was directed to take the
great Leipsic road, with thirty battalions and seventy squadrons of the
right; and quitting it at the ponds of Torgau, to attack the village of
Suptitz and Groswich. The king’s line, in its march, fell in with a corps
of Austrians under general Reid, who retired into the wood of Torgau; and
another more considerable body, posted in the wood of Wildenhayn, likewise
retreated to Groswich, after having fired some pieces of artillery; but
the dragoons of Saint Ignon, being enclosed between two columns of
Prussian infantry, were either killed or taken. By two in the afternoon
the king had penetrated through the wood to the plain of Neiden, from
whence another body of the enemy retired to Torgau, where a continued
noise of cannon and small arms declared that general Ziethen was already
engaged. The Prussians immediately advanced at a quicker pace, and passing
the morasses near Neiden, inclined to the right in three lines, and soon
came to action. Daun had chosen a very advantageous position: his right
extended to Groswich, and his left to Zinne: while his infantry occupied
some eminences along the road of Leipsic, and his front was strength-ened
with no less than two hundred pieces of cannon. His second line was
disposed on an extent of ground, which terminated in hillocks towards the
Elbe; and against this the king directed his attack. He had already given
his troops to understand that his affairs were in such a situation, that
they must either conquer or perish: and they began the battle with the
most desperate impetuosity; but they met with such a warm reception from
the artillery, small arms, and in particular from the Austrian
carabineers, that their grenadiers were shattered and repulsed. The second
charge, though enforced with incredible vigour, was equally unsuccessful:
then the king ordered his cavalry to advance, and they fell upon some
regiments of infantry with such fury as obliged them to give way. These,
however, were compelled to retire, in their turn, before about seventy
battalions of the enemy, who advanced towards Torgau, stretching with
their right to the Elbe, and their left to Zinne. While the prince of
Holstein rallied his cavalry, and returned to the charge, the third line
of Prussian infantry attacked the vineyard of Suptitz, and general Ziethen
with the right wing took the enemy in rear. This disposition threw the
Austrians into disorder; which was greatly augmented by the disaster of
count Daun, who was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and carried off the
field of battle. But the Prussians could not pursue their victory, because
the action had lasted until nine; and the night being unusually dark,
facilitated the retreat of the enemy, who crossed the Elbe on three
bridges of boats thrown over the river at Torgau. The victor possessed the
field of battle, with seven thousand prisoners, including two hundred
officers, twenty-nine pair of colours, one standard, and about forty
pieces of cannon. The carnage was very great on both sides; about three
thousand Prussians were killed, and five thousand wounded; and, in the
first attacks, two general officers, with fifteen hundred soldiers, were
made prisoners by the enemy. The king, as usual, exposed his person in
every part of the battle, and a musket-ball grazed upon his breast. In the
morning, the king of Prussia entered Torgau; then he secured Meissen, and
took possession of Fribourg: so that, in consequence of this well-timed
victory, his position was nearly the same as at the opening of the
campaign.

The Austrians, however, notwithstanding this check, maintained their
ground in the neighbourhood of Dresden; while the Prussians were
distributed in quarters of cantonment in and about Leipsic and Meissen. As
the Austrian general had, after the battle, recalled his detachments,
general Laudohn abandoned Landshut, wrhich again fell into the hands of
the Prussians, and the Imperial army was obliged to retire into Franconia.
The Swedes having penetrated a great way into Pom-crania, returned again
to their winter-quarters at Stralsund; and the Russian generals measured
back their way to the Vistula: so that the confederates gained little else
in the course of this campaign but the contributions which they raised in
Berlin, and the open country of Brandenburgh. Had the allies been heartily
bent upon crushing the Prussian monarch, one would imagine the Russians
and Swedes might have joined their forces in Pomerania, and made good
their winter-quarters in Brandenburgh, where they could have been supplied
with magazines from the Baltic, and been at hand to commence their
operations in the spring; but, in all probability, such an establishment
in the empire would have given umbrage to the Germanic body.

DIETS of POLAND AND SWEDEN ASSEMBLED.

The diet of Poland being assembled in the beginning of October, the king
entertained the most sanguine hope they would take some resolution in his
favour, but the partisans of Prussia frustrated all his endeavours: one of
the deputies protesting against holding a diet while there were foreign
troops in the kingdom, the assembly broke up in a tumultuous manner, even
before they had chosen a mareschal. The diet of Sweden, which was convoked
about the same period, seemed determined to proceed upon business. They
elected count Axel Person their grand mareschal, in opposition to count
Horn, by a great majority; which was an unlucky circumstance for the
Prussian interest at Stockholm, inasmuch as the same majority obstinately
persisted in opinion, that the war should be prosecuted in the spring with
redoubled vigour, and the army in Germany reinforced to the number of at
least thirty thousand fighting men. This unfavourable circumstance made
but little impression upon the Prussian monarch, who had maintained his
ground with surprising resolution and success since the beginning of the
campaign; and now enjoyed in prospect the benefit of winter, which he is
said to have termed his best auxiliary.

INTIMATION GIVEN TO THE STATES OF WESTPHALIA BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

The animosity which inflamed the contending parties was not confined to
the operations in war, but broke out, as usual, in printed declarations,
which the belligerent powers diffused all over Europe. In the beginning of
the season, the states of the circle of Westphalia had been required, by
the Imperial court, to finish their contingent of troops against the king
of Prussia, or to commute for this contingent with a sum of money. In
consequence of this demand, some of the Westphalian estates had sent
deputies to confer with the assembly of the circle of Cologn; and to these
the king signified, by a declaration dated at Munster, that as this demand
of money, instead of troops, was no less extraordinary than contrary to
the constitutions of the empire, should they comply with it, or even
continue to assist his enemies either with troops or money, he would
consider them as having actually taken part in the war against him and his
allies, and treat them accordingly on all occasions. This intimation
produced little effect in his favour. The duke of Mecklenburgh adhered to
the opposite cause; and the elector of Cologn co-operated with the French
in their designs against Hanover. By way of retaliation for this
partiality, the Prussians ravaged the country of Mecklenburgh, and the
Hanoverians levied contributions in the territories of Cologn. The parties
thus aggrieved had recourse to complaints and remonstrances. The duke’s
envoy at Ratisbon communicated a rescript to the Imperial ministers,
representing that the Prussian troops under general Werner and colonel de
Belling had distressed his country in the autumn by grievous extortions;
that afterwards prince Eugene of Wirtemberg, in the service of Prussia,
had demanded an exorbitant quantity of provisions, with some millions of
money, and a great number of recruits; or, in lieu of these, that the
duke’s forces should act under the Prussian banner. He therefore declared
that, as the country of Mecklenburgh was impoverished, and almost
depopulated, by these oppressions, the duke would find himself obliged to
take measures for the future security of his subjects, if not immediately
favoured with such assistance from the court of Vienna as would put a stop
to these violent proceedings. This declaration was by some considered as
the prelude of his renouncing his engagements with the house of Austria.
As the Imperial court had threatened to put the elector of Hanover under
the ban of the empire, in consequence of the hostilities which his troops
had committed in the electorate of Cologn, his resident at Ratisbon
delivered to the ministers who assisted at the diet a memorial,
remonstrating that the emperor hath no power, singly, to subject any
prince to the ban, or declare him a rebel; and that, by arrogating such a
power, he exposed his authority to the same contempt into which the pope’s
bulls of excommunication were so justly fallen. With respect to the
elector of Cologn, he observed that this prince was the first who
commenced hostilities, by allowing his troops to co-operate with the
French in their invasion of Hanover, and by celebrating with rejoicings
the advantages which they had gained in that electorate; he therefore gave
the estates of the empire to understand, that the best way of screening
their subjects from hostile treatment would be a strict observance of
neutrality in the present disputes of the empire.

THE KING OF POLAND’S REMONSTRANCE.

This was a strain much more effectual among princes and powers who are
generally actuated by interested motives, than was the repetition of
complaints, equally pathetic and unavailing, uttered by the unfortunate
king of Poland, elector of Saxony. The damage done to his capital by the
last attempt of the Prussian monarch on that city, affected the old king
in such a manner, that he published at Vienna an appeal to all the powers
of Europe, from the cruelty and unprecedented outrages which distinguished
the conduct of his adversaries in Saxony. All Europe pitied the hard fate
of this exiled prince, and sympathized with the disasters of his country:
but in the breasts of his enemies, reasons of state and convenience
overruled the suggestions of humanity; and his friends had hitherto
exerted themselves in vain for the deliverance of his people.

REDUCTION OF PONDICHERRY.

From this detail of continental affairs, our attention is recalled to
Great Britain, by an incident of a very interesting nature; an account of
which, however, we shall postpone until we have recorded the success that,
in the course of this year, attended the British arms in the East Indies.
We have already observed that colonel Coote, after having defeated the
French general Lally in the field, and reduced divers of the enemy’s
settlements on the coast of Coromandel, at length cooped them up within
the walls of Pondicherry, the principal seat of the French East India
company, large, populous, well-fortified, and secured with a numerous
garrison, under the immediate command of their general. In the month of
October, admiral Stevens sailed from Trincomalê with all his squadron, in
order to its being refitted, except five sail of the line, which he left
under the command of captain Ilaldane, to block up Pondicherry by sea,
while Mr. Coote carried on his operations by land. By this disposition,
and the vigilance of the British officers, the place was so hampered as to
be greatly distressed for want of provisions, even before the siege could
be undertaken in form; for the rainy season rendered all regular
approaches impracticable. These rains being abated by the twenty-sixth day
of November, colonel Coote directed the engineers to pitch upon proper
places for erecting batteries that should enfilade or flank the works of
the garrison, without exposing their own men to any severe fire from the
enemy. Accordingly, four batteries were constructed in different places,
so as to answer these purposes, and opened altogether on the eighth day of
December at midnight. Though raised at a considerable distance, they were
plied with good effect, and the besieged returned the fire with great
vivacity. This mutual cannonading continued until the twenty-ninth day of
the month, when the engineers were employed in raising another battery,
near enough to effect a breach in the north-west counter-guard and
curtain. Though the approaches were retarded some days by a violent storm,
which almost ruined the works, the damage was soon repaired: a
considerable post was taken from the enemy by assault, and afterwards
regained by the French grenadiers, through the timidity of the sepoys, by
whom it was occupied. By the fifteenth clay of January, a second battery
being raised within point-blank, a breach was made in the curtain: the
west face and flank of the north-west bastion were ruined, and the guns of
the enemy entirely silenced. The garrison and inhabitants of Pondicherry
were now reduced to an extremity of famine which would admit of no
hesitation. General Lally sent a colonel, attended by the chief of the
Jesuits, and two civilians, to Mr. Coote, with proposals of surrendering
the garrison prisoners of war, and demanding a capitulation in behalf of
the French East India company. On this last subject he made no reply; but
next morning took possession of the town and citadel, where he found a
great quantity of artillery, ammunition, small arms, and military stores;
then he secured the garrison, amounting to above two thousand Europeans.
Lally made a gallant defence; and had he been properly supplied with
provisions, the conquest of the place would not have been so easily
achieved. He certainly flattered himself with the hope of being supplied;
otherwise an officer of his experience would have demanded a capitulation,
before he was reduced to the necessity of acquiescing in any terms the
besieger might have thought proper to impose. That he spared no pains to
procure supplies, appears from an intercepted letter,* written by this
commander to monsieur Raymond, French resident at Pullicat…… The
billet is no bad sketch of the writer’s character, which seems to have a
strong tincture of oddity and extravagance.

* “Monsieur Raymond—The English squadron is no more, sir—
of the twelve ships they had in our road seven are lost,
crews and all; the other four dismasted; and no more than
one frigate hath escaped—therefore lose not an instant in
sending chelingoes upon chelingoes, laden with rice. The
Dutch have nothing to fear now. Besides, according to the
law of nations, they are only restricted from sending us
provisions in their own bottoms; and we are no longer
blockaded by sea. The salvation of Pondicherry hath been
once in your power already: if you neglect this opportunity
it will be entirely your own fault—don’t forget some small
chelingoes also—offer great rewards—in four days I expect
seventeen thousand Mahrattas. In short, risk all—attempt
all—force all, and send us some rice, should it be but half
a garse at a time.”

PART OF THE BRITISH SQUADRON WRECKED IN A STORM.

By the reduction of Pondicherry, the French interest was annihilated on
the coast of Coromandel, and therefore of the utmost importance to the
British nation. It may be doubted, however, whether colonel Coote, with
all his spirit, vigilance, and military talents, could have succeeded in
this enterprise without the assistance of the squadrons, which co-operated
with him by sea, and effectually excluded all succour from the besieged.
It must be owned, for the honour of the service, that no incident
interrupted the good understanding which was maintained between the land
and sea officers, who vied with each other in contributing their utmost
efforts towards the success of the expedition. On the twenty-fifth day of
December, rear-admiral Stevens arrived with four ships of the line, having
parted with rear-admiral Cornish and his division in stormy weather: but
he joined them at Pondicherry before the place was surrendered. On the
first day of January a violent tempest obliged admiral Stevens to slip his
cables and to put to sea, where he parted with the rest of the squadron;
and when in three days he returned to the road of Pondicherry, he had the
mortification to find that his division had suffered severely from the
storm. The ships of war called the duke of Aquitaine and the Sunderland
foundered in the storm, and their crews perished. The Newcastle, the
Queenborough, and the Protector fireship, were driven ashore and
destroyed; but the men were saved, together with the cannon, stores, and
provisions. Many other ships sustained considerable damage, which however
was soon repaired. Admiral Stevens having intercepted the letter from
Lally to Raymond, (See-note *), immediately despatched letters to the
Dutch and Danish settlements on this coast, intimating that,
notwithstanding the insinuations of general Lally, he had eleven sail of
the line, with two frigates, under his command, all fit for service, in
the road of Pondicherry, which was closely invested and blockaded both by
sea and land: he therefore declared, that, as in that case it was contrary
to the law of nations for any neutral power to relieve or succour the
besieged, he was determined to seize any vessel that should attempt to
throw provisions into the place.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

DEATH and CHARACTER of KING GEORGE II.

While the arms of Great Britain still prospered in every effort tending to
the real interest of the nation, an event happened which for a moment
obscured the splendour of her triumphs, and could not but be very alarming
to those German allies, whom her liberality had enabled to maintain an
expensive and sanguinary war of humour and ambition. On the twenty-fifth
day of October, George II. king of Great Britain, without any previous
disorder, was in the morning suddenly seized with the agony of death, at
the palace at Kensington. He had risen at the usual hour, drank his
chocolate, and inquired, about the wind, as anxious for the arrival of the
foreign mails; then he opened a window of his apartment, and perceiving
the weather was serene, declared he would walk in the garden. In a few
minutes after this declaration, while he remained alone in his chamber, he
fell down upon the floor; the noise of his fall brought his attendants
into the room, who lifted him on the bed, where he desired, in a faint
voice, that the princess Amelia might be called; but before she could
reach the apartments he had expired. An attempt was made to bleed him, but
without effect: and indeed his malady was far beyond the reach of art; for
when the cavity of the thorax or chest was opened, and inspected by the
sergeant-surgeons, they found the right ventricle of the heart actually
ruptured, and a great quantity of blood discharged through the aperture
into the surrounding pericardium; so that he must have died
instantaneously, in consequence of the effusion. The case, however, was so
extraordinary, that we question whether there is such another instance
upon record. A rupture of this nature appears the more remarkable, as it
happened to a prince of a healthy constitution, unaccustomed to excess,
and far advanced beyond that period of life, when the blood might be
supposed to flow with a dangerous impetuosity.

Thus died George II. at the age of seventy-seven, after a long reign of
thirty-four years, distinguished by a variety of important events, and
chequered with a vicissittide of character and fortune. He was in his
person rather lower than the middle size, well shaped, erect, with eyes
remarkably prominent, a high nose, and fair complexion. In his disposition
he is said to have been hasty, prone to anger, especially in his youth,
yet soon appeased; otherwise mild, moderate, and humane; in his way of
living temperate, regular, and so methodical in every branch of private
economy, that his attention descended to objects which a great king,
perhaps, had better overlook. He was fond of military pomp and parade; and
personally brave. He loved war as a soldier—he studied it as a
science; and corresponded on this subject with some of the greatest
officers whom Germany has produced. The extent of his understanding, and
the splendour of his virtue, we shall not presume to ascertain, or attempt
to display; we rather wish for opportunities to expatiate on his
munificence and liberality—his generous regard to genius and
learning—his royal encouragement and protection of those arts by
which a nation is at once benefited and adorned. With respect to his
government, it very seldom deviated from the institutions of law, or
encroached upon private property, or interfered with the common
administration of justice. The circumstances that chiefly marked his
public character, were a predilection for his native country, and a close
attention to the political interests of the Germanic body; points and
principles to which he adhered with the most invincible fortitude: and if
ever the blood and treasure of Great Britain were sacrificed to these
considerations, we ought not so much to blame the prince, who acted from
the dictates of natural affection, as we should detest a succession of
venal ministers, all of whom in their turns devoted themselves, soul and
body, to the gratification of his passion, or partiality, so prejudicial
to the true interest of their country.

GEORGE II., 1727-1760

RECAPITULATION OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS REIGN.

The reign of George II. produced many revolutions, as well in the internal
schemes of economy and administration, as in the external projects of
political connexions; revolutions that exposed the frailties of human
nature, and demonstrated the instability of systems founded upon
convenience. In the course of this reign, a standing army was, by dint of
ministerial influence, engrafted on the constitution of Great Britain. A
fatal stroke was given to the liberty of the press, by the act subjecting
all dramatic writings to the inspection of a licenser. The great machine
of corruption, contrived to secure a constant majority in parliament, was
overturned, and the inventor of it obliged to quit the reins of
government. Professed patriots resigned the principles they had long
endeavoured to establish, and listed themselves for the defence of that
fortress against which their zeal and talents had been levelled. The
management of a mighty kingdom was consigned into the hands of a motley
administration—ministers without knowledge, and men without
integrity, whose councils were timid, weak, and wavering; whose folly and
extravagance exposed the nation to ridicule and contempt; by whose
ignorance and presumption it was reduced to the verge of ruin. The kingdom
was engaged in a quarrel truly national, and commenced a necessary war on
national principles: but that war was starved; and the chief strength of
the nation transferred to the continent of Europe, in order to maintain an
unnecessary war, in favour of a family whose pride and ambition can be
equalled by nothing but its insolence and ingratitude. While the strength
of the nation was thus exerted abroad for the support of worthless allies,
and a dangerous rebellion raged in the bowels of the kingdom, the
sovereign was insulted by his ministers, who deserted his service at this
critical juncture, and refused to resume their functions, until he had
truckled to their petulant humour, and dismissed a favourite servant, of
whose superior talents they were meanly jealous. Such an unprecedented
secession at any time would have merited the imputation of insolence; but
at that period, when the sovereign was perplexed and embarrassed by a
variety of dangers and difficulties; when his crown, and even his life,
were at stake; to throw up their places, abandon his councils, and, as far
as in them lay, detach themselves from his fortune, was a step so likely
to aggravate the disorder of the nation, so big with cruelty, ingratitude,
and sedition, that it seems to deserve an appellation which, however, we
do not think proper to bestow. An inglorious war was succeeded by an
ignominious peace, which proved of short duration; yet in this interval
the English nation exhibited such a proof of commercial opulence as
astonished all Europe. At the close of a war which had drained it of so
much treasure, and increased the public debt to an enormous burden, it
acquiesced under such a reduction of interest as one would hardly think
the ministry durst have proposed, even before one-half of the national
debt was contracted. A much more unpopular step was a law that passed for
natural-izing the Jews—a law so odious to the people in general,
that it was soon repealed, at the request of that minister by whom it had
been chiefly patronized. An ill-concerted peace was in a little time
productive of fresh hostilities, and another war with France, which
Britain began to prosecute under favourable auspices. Then the whole
political system of Germany was inverted. The king of England abandoned
the interest of that house which he had in the former war so warmly
espoused, and took into his bosom a prince whom he had formerly considered
as his inveterate enemy. The unpropitious beginning of this war against
France being imputed to the misconduct of the administration, excited such
a ferment among the people, as seemed to threaten a dangerous
insurrection. Every part of the kingdom resounded with the voice of
dissatisfaction, which did not even respect the throne. The king found
himself obliged to accept of a minister presented by the people; and this
measure was attended with consequences as favourable as his wish could
form. From that instant all clamour was hushed—all opposition
ceased. The enterprising spirit of the new minister seemed to diffuse
itself through all the operations of the war, and conquest everywhere
attended the efforts of the British arms. Now appeared the fallacy of
those maxims, and the falsehood of those assertions, by which former
ministers had established, and endeavoured to excuse, the practices of
corruption. The supposed disaffection, which had been insisted on as the
source of parliamentary opposition, now entirely vanished; nor was it
found necessary to use any sinister means for securing a majority, in
order to answer the purposes of the administration. England for the first
time saw a minister of state in full possession of popularity. Under the
auspices of this minister, it saw a national militia formed, and trained
to discipline by the invincible spirit of a few patriots, who pursued this
salutary measure in the face of unwearied opposition, discouraged by the
jealousy of a court, and ridiculed by all the venal retainers to a
standing army. Under his ministry it saw the military genius of Great
Britain revive, and shine with redoubled lustre; it saw her interest and
glory coincide, and an immense extent of country added by conquest to her
dominions. The people, confiding in the integrity and abilities of their
own minister, and elevated by the repeated sounds of triumph, became
enamoured of the war, and granted such liberal subsidies for its support,
as no other minister would have presumed to ask, as no other nation
believed they could afford. Nor did they murmur at seeing great part of
their treasure diverted into foreign channels; nor did they seem to bestow
a serious thought on the accumulating load of the national debt, which
already exceeded the immense sum of one hundred millions.

In a word, they were intoxicated with victory; and as the king happened to
die in the midst of their transports, occasioned by the final conquest of
Canada, their good humour garnished his character with a prodigality of
encomiums. A thousand pens were drawn to paint the beauties and sublimity
of his character, in poetry as well as prose. They extolled him above
Alexander in courage and heroism, above Augustus in liberality, Titus in
clemency, Antoninus in piety and benevolence, Solomon in wisdom, and Saint
Edward in devotion. Such hyperbolical eulogiums served only to throw a
ridicule upon a character which was otherwise respectable. The two
universities vied with each other in lamenting his death; and each
published a huge collection of elegies on the subject: nor did they fail
to exalt his praise, with the warmest expressions of affection and regret,
in the compliments of condolence and congratulation which they presented
to his successor. The same panegyric and pathos appeared in all the
addresses with which every other community in the kingdom approached the
throne of our present sovereign: insomuch that we may venture to say, no
prince was ever more popular at the time of his decease. The English are
naturally warm and impetuous; and in generous natures, affection is as apt
as any other passion to run riot. The sudden death of the king was
lamented as a national misfortune by many, who felt a truly filial
affection for their country; not that they implicitly subscribed to all
the exaggerated praise which had been so liberally poured forth on his
character, but because the nation was deprived of him at a critical
juncture, while involved in a dangerous and expensive war, of which he had
been personally the chief mover and support. They knew the burden of
royalty devolved upon a young prince, who, though heir-apparent to the
crown, and already arrived at years of maturity, had never been admitted
to any share of the administration, nor made acquainted with any schemes
or secrets of state. The real character of the new king was very little
known to the generality of the nation. They dreaded an abrupt change of
measures, which might have rendered useless all the advantages obtained in
the course of the war. As they were ignorant of his connexions, they
dreaded a revolution in the ministry, which might fill the kingdom with
clamour and confusion. But the greatest shock occasioned by his decease
was undoubtedly among our allies and fellow-subjects in Germany, who saw
themselves suddenly deprived of their sole prop and patron, at a time when
they could not pretend of themselves to make head against the numerous
enemies by whom they were surrounded. But all these doubts and
apprehensions vanished like mists before the rising sun; and the people of
Great Britain enjoyed the inexpressible pleasure of seeing their loss
repaired in such a manner, as must have amply fulfilled the most sanguine
wish of every friend to his country.

ACCOUNT OF THE COMMERCE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The commerce of Great Britain continued to increase during the whole
course of this reign; but this increase was not the effect of
extraordinary encouragement. On the contrary, the necessities of
government, the growing expenses of the nation, and the continual
augmentation of the public debt, obliged the legislature to hamper trade
with manifold and grievous impositions; its increase, therefore, must have
been owing to the natural progress of industry and adventure extending
themselves to that farthest line or limit beyond which they will not be
able to advance: when the tide of traffic has flowed to its highest mark,
it will then begin to recede in a gradual ebb, until it is shrunk within
the narrow limits of its original channel. War, which naturally impedes
the traffic of other nations, had opened new sources to the merchants of
Great Britain. The superiority of her naval power had crushed the
navigation of France, her great rival in commerce; so that she now
supplied, on her own terms, all those foreign markets, at which, in time
of peace, she was undersold by that dangerous competitor. Thus her trade
was augmented to a surprising pitch; and this great augmentation alone
enabled her to maintain the war at such an enormous expense. As this
advantage will cease when the French are at liberty to re-establish their
commerce, and prosecute it without molestation, it would be for the
interest of Great Britain to be at continual variance with that restless
neighbour, provided the contest could be limited to the operations of a
sea-war, in which England would be always invincible and victorious.

STATE OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.

The powers of the human mind were freely and fully exercised in this
reign. Considerable progress was made in mathematics and astronomy by
divers individuals; among whom we number Sanderson, Bradley, Maclaurin,
Smith, and the two Simpsons. Natural philosophy became a general study;
and the new doctrine of electricity grew into fashion. Different methods
were discovered for rendering sea-water potable and sweet; and divers
useful hints were communicated to the public by the learned doctor Stephen
Hales, who directed all his researches and experiments to the benefit of
society. The study of alchemy no longer prevailed; but the art of
chemistry was perfectly understood, and assiduously applied to the
purposes of sophistication. The clergy of Great Britain were generally
learned, pious, and exemplary. Sherlock, Hoad-ley, Seeker, and Conybeare,
were promoted to the first dignities of the church. Warburton, who had
long signalized himself by the strength and boldness of his genius, his
extensive capacity and profound erudition, at length obtained the mitre.
But these promotions were granted to reasons ef state convenience and
personal interest, rather than as rewards of extraordinary merit. Many
other ecclesiastics of worth and learning were totally overlooked. Nor was
ecclesiastical merit confined to the established church. Many instances of
extraordinary genius, unaffected piety, and universal moderation, appeared
among the dissenting ministers of Great Britain and Ireland; among these
we particularize the elegant, the primitive Foster; the learned,
ingenious, and penetrating Leland.

FANATICISM.

The progress of reason, and free cultivation of the human mind, had not,
however, entirely banished those ridiculous sects and schisms of which the
kingdom had been formerly so productive. Imposture and fanaticism still
hung upon the skirts of religion. Weak minds were seduced by the delusion
of a superstition styled Methodism, raised upon the affectation of
superior sanctity, and maintained by pretensions to divine illumination.
Many thousands in the lower ranks of life were infected with this species
of enthusiasm, by the unwearied endeavours of a few obscure preachers,
such as Whitfield and the two Wesleys, who propagated their doctrine to
the most remote corners of the British dominions, and found means to lay
the whole kingdom under contribution. Fanaticism also formed a league with
false philosophy. One Hutchinson, a visionary, intoxicated with the fumes
of rabbinical learning, pretended to deduce all demonstration from Hebrew
roots, and to confine all human knowledge to the five books of Moses. His
disciples became numerous after his death. With the methodists, they
denied the merit of good-works, and bitterly inveighed against Newton as
an ignorant pretender, who had presumed to set up his own ridiculous
chimeras in opposition to the sacred philosophy of the Pentateuch. But the
most extraordinary sect which distinguished this reign was that of the
Moravians, or Hernhutters, imported from Germany by count Zinzendorf, who
might have been termed the Melchisedec of his followers, inasmuch as he
assumed among them the threefold character of prophet, priest, and king.
They could not be so properly styled a sect, as the disciples of an
original, who had invented a new system of religion. Their chief adoration
was paid to the second person in the Trinity; the first they treated with
the most shocking neglect. Some of their tenets were blasphemous, some
indecent, and others ridiculously absurd. Their discipline was a strange
mixture of devotion and impurity. Their exterior worship consisted of
hymns, prayers, and sermons; the hymns extremely ludicrous, and often
indecent, alluding to the side-hole or wound which Christ received from a
spear in his side while he remained upon the cross. Their sermons
frequently contained very gross incentives to the work of propagation.
Their private exercises are said to have abounded with such rites and
mysteries, as we cannot explain with any regard to decorum. They professed
a community of goods, and were governed as one family, in temporals as
well as spirituals, by a council or kind of presbytery, in which the
count, as their ordinary, presided. In cases of doubt, or great
consequence, these pretended to consult the Saviour, and to decide from
immediate inspiration; so that they boasted of being under the immediate
direction of a theocracy, though in fact they were slaves to the most
dangerous kind of despotism; for as often as any individual of the
community pretended to think for himself, or differ in opinion from the
ordinary and his band of associates, the oracle decreed that he should be
instantly sent upon the mission which they had fixed in Greenland, or to
the colony they had established in Pennsylvania. As these religionists
consisted chiefly of manufacturers who appeared very sober, orderly, and
industrious; and their chief declared his intention of prosecuting works
of public emolument; they obtained a settlement under a parliamentary
sanction in England, where they soon made a considerable number of
proselytes, before their principles were fully discovered and explained.

METAPHYSICS AND MEDICINE.

Many ingenious treatises on metaphysics and morality appeared in the
course of this reign, and a philosophical spirit of inquiry diffused
itself to the farthest extremities of the united kingdom. Though few
discoveries of importance were made in medicine, yet that art was well
understood in all its different branches, and many of its professors
distinguished themselves in other provinces of literature. Besides the
medical essays of London and Edinburgh, the physician’s library was
enriched with many useful modern productions; with the works of the
classical Freind, the elegant Mead, the accurate Huxham, and the
philosophical Pringle. The art of midwifery was elucidated by science,
reduced to fixed principles, and almost wholly consigned into the hands of
men practitioners. The researches of anatomy were prosecuted to some
curious discoveries, by the ingenuity and dexterity of a Hunter and a
Monro. The numerous hospitals in London contributed to the improvement of
surgery, which was brought to perfection under the auspices of a Cheselden
and a Sharpe. The advantages of agriculture, which had long flourished in
England, extended themselves gradually to the most remote and barren
provinces of the island.

MECHANICS.

The mechanic powers were well understood, and judiciously applied to many
useful machines of necessity and convenience. The mechanical arts had
attained to all that perfection which they were capable of acquiring; but
the avarice and oppressions of contractors obliged the handicraftsman to
exert his ingenuity, not in finishing his work well, but in affording it
cheap; in purchasing bad materials, and performing his task in a hurry; in
concealing flaws, substituting show for solidity, and sacrificing
reputation to the thirst of lucre. Thus, many of the English manufactures,
being found slight and unserviceable, grew into discredit abroad; thus the
art of producing them more perfect may in time be totally lost at home.
The cloths now made in England are inferior in texture and fabric to those
which were manufactured in the beginning of the century; and the same
judgment may be pronounced upon almost every article of hardware. The
razors, knives, scissors, hatchets, swords, and other edge-utensils,
prepared for exportation, are generally ill-tempered, half finished,
flawed, or brittle; and the muskets, which are sold for seven or eight
shillings a-piece to the exporter, so carelessly and unconscientiously
prepared, that they cannot be used without imminent danger of mutilation:
accordingly, one hardly meets with a negro man upon the coast of Guinea,
in the neighbourhood of the British settlements, who has not been wounded
or maimed in some member by the bursting of the English fire-arms. The
advantages of this traffic, carried on at the expense of character and
humanity, will naturally cease, whenever those Africans can be supplied
more honestly by the traders of any other nation.

GENIUS.

Genius in writing spontaneously arose; and, though neglected by the great,
flourished under the culture of a public which had pretensions to taste,
and piqued itself on encouraging literary merit. Swift and Pope we have
mentioned on another occasion. Young still survived, a venerable monument
of poetical talents. Thomson, the poet of the Seasons, displayed a
luxuriancy of genius in describing the beauties of nature. Akenside and
Armstrong excelled in didactic poetry. Even the Epopoea did not disdain an
English dress; but appeared to advantage in the Leonidas of Glover, and
the Epigoniad of Wilkie. The public acknowledged a considerable share of
dramatic merit in the tragedies of Young, Mallet, Home, and some other
less distinguished authors. Very few regular comedies, during this period,
were exhibited on the English theatre; which, however, produced many less
laboured pieces, abounding with satire, wit, and humour. The Careless
Husband of Gibber, and Suspicious Husband of Hoadley, are the only
comedies of this age that bid fair for reaching posterity. The exhibitions
of the stage were improved to the most exquisite entertainment by the
talents and management of Garrick, who greatly surpassed all his
predecessors of this and perhaps every other nation, in his genius for
acting; in the sweetness and variety of his tones, the irresistible magic
of his eye, the fire and vivacity of his action, the elegance of attitude,
and the whole pathos of expression. Quin excelled in dignity and
declamation, as well as exhibiting some characters of humour, equally
exquisite and peculiar. Mrs. Cibber breathed the whole soul of female
tenderness and passion; and Mrs. Pritchard displayed all the dignity of
distress. That Great Britain was not barren of poets at this period,
appears from the detached performances of Johnson, Mason, Gray, the two
Whiteheads, and the two Whartons; besides a great number of other bards,
who have sported in lyric poetry, and acquired the applause of their
fellow-citizens. Candidates for literary fame appeared even in the higher
sphere of life, embellished by the nervous style, superior sense, and
extensive erudition of a Corke; by the delicate taste, the polished muse,
and tender feelings of a Lyttleton. King shone unrivalled in Roman
eloquence. Even the female sex distinguished themselves by their taste and
ingenuity. Miss Carter rivalled the celebrated Dacier in learning and
critical knowledge; Mrs. Lennox signalized herself by many successful
efforts of genius, both in poetry and prose; and Miss Reid excelled the
celebrated Rosalba in portrait painting, both in miniature and at large,
in oil as well as in crayons. The genius of Cervantes was transfused into
the novels of Fielding, who painted the characters, and ridiculed the
follies of life, with equal strength, humour, and propriety. The field of
history and biography was cultivated by many writers of ability: among
whom we distinguish the copious Guthrie, the circumstantial Ralph, the
laborious Carte, the learned and elegant Robertson, and above all, the
ingenious, penetrating, and comprehensive Hume, whom we rank among the
first writers of the age, both as an historian and philosopher. Nor let us
forget the merit conspicuous in the works of Campbell, remarkable for
candour, intelligence, and precision. Johnson, inferior to none in
philosophy, philology, poetry, and classical learning, stands foremost as
an essayist, justly admired for the dignity, strength, and variety of his
style, as well as for the agreeable manner in which he investigates the
human heart, tracing every interesting emotion, and opening all the
sources of morality. The laudable aim of enlisting the passions on the
side of virtue, was successfully pursued by Richardson, in his Pamella,
Clarissa, and Grandison; a species of writing equally new and
extraordinary, where, mingled with much superfluity, we find a sublime
system of ethics, an amazing knowledge and command of human nature. Many
of the Greek and Roman classics made their appearance in English
translations, which were favourably received as works of merit; among
these we place, after Pope’s Homer, Virgil by Pitt and Wharton, Horace by
Francis, Polybius by Hampton, and Sophocles by Franklin. The war
introduced a variety of military treatises, chiefly translated from the
French language; and a free country, like Great Britain, will always
abound with political tracts and lucubrations. Every literary production
of merit, calculated for amusement or instruction, that appeared in any
country or language of Christendom, was immediately imported and
naturalized among the English people. Never was the pursuit after
knowledge so universal, or literary merit more regarded, than at this
juncture, by the body of the British nation; but it was honoured by no
attention from the throne, and little indulgence from particular patrons.
The reign of Queen Anne was propitious to the fortunes of Swift and Pope,
who lived in all the happy pride of independence. Young, sequestered from
courts and preferment, possessed a moderate benefice in the country, and
employed his time in a conscientious discharge of his ecclesiastical
functions. Thomson, with the most benevolent heart that ever warmed the
human breast, maintained a perpetual war with the difficulties of a narrow
fortune. He enjoyed a place in chancery by the bounty of lord Talbot, of
which he was divested by the succeeding chancellor. He afterwards enjoyed
a small pension from Frederick prince of Wales, which was withdrawn in the
sequel. About two years before his death, he obtained, by the interest of
his friend lord Lyttleton, a comfortable place; but he did not live to
taste the blessing of easy circumstances, and died in debt.*

* However he was neglected when living, his memory has been
honoured with peculiar marks of regard, in an ample
subscription for a new edition of his works. The profits
were employed in erecting a monument to his fame in
Westminster Abbey, a subscription to which his present
majesty king George III. has liberally subscribed. The
remaining surplus was distributed among his poor relations.

None of the rest whom we have named enjoyed any share of the royal bounty,
except W. Whitehead, who succeeded to the place of laureate at the death
of Cibber; and some of them whose merit was the most universally
acknowledged, remained exposed to all the storms of indigence, and all the
stings of mortification. While the queen lived, some countenance was given
to learning. She conversed with Newton, and corresponded with Leibnitz.
She took pains to acquire popularity; the royal family on certain days
dined in public, for the satisfaction of the people: the court was
animated with a freedom of spirit and vivacity, which rendered it at once
brilliant and agreeable. At her death that spirit began to languish, and a
total stagnation of gaiety and good humour ensued. It was succeeded by a
sudden calm, an ungracious reserve, and a still rotation of insipid forms.
*

* George II. by his queen Caroline, had two sons and five
daughters, who attained the age of maturity. Frederick,
prince of Wales, father to his present majesty George III.;
William duke of Cumberland; Anne, the princess royal,
married to the late prince of Orange, and mother to the
present stadtholder; Mary, landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel;
Louisa, late queen of Denmark; Amelia and Carolina, who were
never married.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

MUSIC.

England was not defective in other arts that embellish and amuse. Music
became a fashionable study, and its professors were generally caressed by
the public. An Italian opera was maintained at a great expense, and well
supplied with foreign performers. Private concerts were instituted in
every corner of the metropolis. The compositions of Handel were
universally admired, and he himself lived in affluence. It must be owned
at the same time, that Geminiani was neglected, though his genius
commanded esteem and veneration. Among the few natives of England who
distinguished themselves by their talents in this art, Green, Howard,
Arne, and Boyce, were the most remarkable.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

The British soil, which had hitherto been barren in the article of
painting, now produced some artists of extraordinary merit. Hogarth
excelled all the world in exhibiting the scenes of ordinary life; in
humour, character, and expression. Hayman became eminent for historical
designs and conversation pieces. Reynolds and Ramsay distinguished
themselves by their superior merit in portraits; a branch that was
successfully cultivated by many other English painters. Wootton was famous
for representing live animals in general; Seymour for race-horses; Lambert
and the Smiths for landscapes; and Scot for sea-pieces. Several spirited
attempts were made on historical subjects, but little progress was made in
the sublime parts of painting. Essays of this kind were discouraged by a
false taste, founded upon a reprobation of British genius. The art of
engraving was brought to perfection by Strange, and laudably practised by
Grignon, Baron, Ravenet, and several other masters; great improvements
were made in mezzotinto, miniature, and enamel. Many fair monuments of
sculpture or statuary were raised by Rysbrach, Roubilliac, and Wilton.
Architecture, which had been cherished by the elegant taste of Burlington,
soon became a favourite study; and many magnificent edifices were reared
in different parts of the kingdom. Ornaments were carved in wood, and
moulded in stucco, with all the delicacy of execution; but a passion for
novelty had introduced into gardening, building, and furniture, an absurd
Chinese taste, equally void of beauty and convenience. Improvements in the
liberal and useful arts will doubtless be the consequence of that
encouragement given to merit by the society instituted for these purposes,
which we have described on another occasion. As for the Royal Society, it
seems to have degenerated in its researches, and to have had very little
share, for half a century at least, in extending the influence of true
philosophy.

We shall conclude this reign with a detail of the forces and fleets of
Great Britain, from whence the reader will conceive a just idea of her
opulence and power.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760

NOTES TO VOLUME II.

237 (return)
[ Note 2 K, p.237 Nothing
was heard within doors in parliament, but sarcastic repartee and violent
declamation between the two parties, who did not confine their altercation
to these debates, but took the field against each other in periodical
papers and occasional pamphlets. The paper called The Craftsman, had
already risen into high reputation all over England, for the wit, humour,
and solid reasoning it contained. Some of the best writers in the
opposition, including lord Bolingbroke and Mr. P. made use of this vehicle
to convey their animadversions upon the minister, who, on his side,
employed the most wretched scribblers to defend his conduct. It was in
consequence of two political pamphlets, written in opposition to each
other, by “lord Hervey and Mr. P., and some recrimination they produced in
the house of commons, that his lordship challenged the other to single
combat, and had well nigh lost his life in the duel, which was fought in
Hyde Park.]

260 (return)
[ Note 2. L, p. 260.
Captain Jenkins was master of a Scottish merchant-ship. He was boarded by
the captain of a Spanish guardacosta, who treated him in the most
barbarous manner. The Spaniards, after having rummaged his vessel for what
they called contraband commodities, without finding anything to justify
their search, insulted him with the most opprobrious invectives. They tore
off one of his ears, bidding him carry it to his king, and tell him they
would serve him in the same manner should an opportunity offer: they
tortured him with the most shocking cruelty, and threatened him with
immediate death. This man was examined at the bar of the house of commons,
and being asked by a member, what he thought when he found himself in the
hands of such barbarians? “I recommended my soul to God,” said he, “and my
cause to my country.” The behaviour of this brave seaman, the sight of his
ear, which was produced, with his account of the indignities which had
been offered to the nation and sovereign of Great Britain, filled the
whole house with indignation. Jenkins was afterwards employed in the
service of the East India company; he approved himself worthy of his good
fortune, in a long engagement with the pirate Angria, during which he
behaved with extraordinary courage and conduct; and saved his own ship,
with three others that were under his convoy.]

262 (return)
[ Note 2 M, p. 262. Among
the laws enacted in the course of this session was an act against gaming,
which had become universal through all ranks of people, and likely to
prove destructive to all morals, industry, and sentiment. Another bill
passed, for granting a reward to Joanna Stevens, on her discovering, for
the benefit of the public, a nostrum for the cure of persons afflicted
with the stone—a medicine which has by no means answered the
expectations of the legislature.

In the house of lords,
complaint was made by lord Delaware of a satire, entitled Manners, written
by Mr. Whitehead, in which some characters of distinction were severely
lashed in the true spirit of poetry. It was voted a libel: a motion was
made to take the author into custody; but he having withdrawn himself, the
resentment of the house fell upon E. Dodsley, the publisher of the work,
who was committed to the usher of the black rod, though lord Carteret, the
earl of Abingdon, and lord Talbot, spoke in his behalf.]

283 (return)
[ Note 2 N, p.283. In
May, a dreadful plague broke out at Messina in Sicily. It was imported in
cotton and other commodities brought from the Morea; and swept off such a
multitude of people, that the city was almost depopulated: all the galley
slaves who were employed in burying the dead, perished by the contagion;
and this was the fate of many priests and monks who administered to those
who were infected. The dead bodies lay in heaps in the streets, corrupting
the air, and adding fresh fuel to the rage of the pestilence. Numbers died
miserably, for want of proper attendance and necessaries; and all was
horror and desolation. At the beginning of winter it ceased, after having
destroyed near fifty thousand inhabitants of Messina, and of the garrisons
in the citadel and castle. It was prevented from spreading in Sicily by a
strong barricado drawn from Melazzo to Taormina; but it was conveyed to
Reggio in Calabria by the avarice of a broker of that place, who bought
some goods at Messina. The king of Naples immediately ordered lines to be
formed, together with a chain of troops, which cut off all communication
between that place and the rest of the continent.]

301 (return)
[ Note 2 O, p. 301. This
nobleman, so remarkable for his courage and thirst of glory, exhibited a
very extraordinary instance of presence of mind on the morning that
preceded this battle. He and some volunteers, accompanied by his aidecamp,
and attended by two orderly dragoons, the rode out before day to
reconnoitre the situation of the enemy; and fell in with one of their
advanced guards. The sergeant who commanded it immediately turned out his
men, and their pieces were presented when the earl first perceived them.
Without betraying the least mark of disorder, he rode up to the sergeant,
and assuming the character of a French general, told him, in that
language, that there was no occasion for such ceremony. Then he asked, if
they had perceived any of the enemy’s parties; and being answered in the
negative, “Very well,” said he, “be upon your guard; and if you should be
attacked, I will take care that you shall be sustained.” So saying, he and
his company retired, before the sergeant could recollect himself from the
surprise occasioned by this unexpected address. In all probability he was
sensible of his mistake; for the incident was that very day publicly
mentioned in the French army. The prince of Tingray, an officer in the
Austrian service, having been taken prisoner in the battle that ensued,
dined with mares-chal count Saxe, who dismissed him on his parole, and
desired he would charge himself with a facetious compliment to his old
friend, the earl of Crawford. He wished his lordship joy of being a French
general, and said he could not help being displeased with the sergeant, as
he had not procured him the honour of his lordship’s company at dinner.]

310 (return)
[ Note 2 P, p. 310. Such
an expensive war could not be maintained without a very extraordinary
exertion of a commercial spirit: accordingly we find that Great Britain,
since the death of king William, has risen under our pressures with
increased vigour and perseverance. Whether it be owing to the natural
progression of trade extending itself from its origin to its acme,
or ne plus ultra, or to the encouragement given by the
administration to monied men of all denominations; or to necessity,
impelling those who can no longer live on small incomes to risk their
capitals in traffic, that they may have a chance for bettering their
fortunes; or lastly, to a concurrence of all these causes; certain it is,
the national exports and imports have been sensibly increasing for these
forty years: the yearly medium of woollen exports, from the year 1738 to
1743 inclusive, amounted to about three millions and a half, which was a
yearly increase, on the medium, of five hundred thousand pounds above the
medium from 1718 to 1724. From this article, the reader will conceive the
prodigious extent, and importance of the British commerce.]

321 (return)
[ Note 2 Q, p. 321. The
resolutions of the commons on this head were printed by authority in the
London Gazette, signifying, that those who were, or should be, proprietors
of any part of the public debt, redeemable by law, incurred before
Michaelmas, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine,
carrying an interest of four per centum per annum, who should, on or
before the twenty-eighth day of February in that year, subscribe their
names, signifying their consent to accept of an interest of three pounds
per centum, to commence from the twenty-fifth day of December, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, subject to the same
provisions, notices, and classes of redemption, to which their respective
sums at four per centum were then liable, should, in lieu of their present
interest, be entitled to four per centum till the twenty-fifth day of
December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty; and after that
day, to three pounds ten shillings per centum per annum, till the
twenty-fifth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven;
and no part of that debt, except what was due to the East India company,
should be redeemable to this period. That if any part of the national
debt, incurred before last Michaelmas, redeemable by law, and carrying an
interest of four per centum, should remain unsubscribed on or before the
thirtieth day of May, the government should pay off the principal. For
this purpose Ins majesty was enabled to borrow of any person or persons,
bodies politic or corporate, any sum or sums of money not exceeding that
part of the national debt which might remain unsubscribed, to be charged
on the sinking fund, upon any terms not exceeding the rate of interest in
the foregoing proposal.

All the duties appropriated to the
payment of the interest were still continued, and the surplus of these
incorporated with the sinking fund for the discharge of the principal.
Books were opened for the subscription at the Exchequer, the Bank of
England, and the South Sea house; and copies of these resolutions
transmitted to the directors of all the monied corporations.]

322 (return)
[ Note 2 R, p. 322. The
most remarkable circumstance attending the progress of this bill, which
made its way through both houses, and obtained the royal assent, was the
number of contradictory petitions in favour and in prejudice of it, while
it remained under consideration. The tanners of leather in and about the
town of Sheffield in Yorkshire, represented, That if the bill should pass,
the English iron would be undersold; consequently, a great number of
furnaces and forges would be discontinued; in that case the woods used for
fuel would stand uncut, and the tanners be deprived of oak bark sufficient
for the continuance and support of their occupation. They nevertheless
owned, that should the duty be removed from pig iron only, no such
consequence could be apprehended; because, should the number of furnaces
be lessened, that of forges would be increased. This was likewise the plea
urged in divers remonstrances by masters of iron-works, gentlemen, and
freeholders, who had tracts of wood-land in their possession. The owners,
proprietors, and farmers of furnaces and iron forges, belonging to
Sheffield and its neighbourhood, enlarged upon the great expense they had
incurred in erecting and supporting iron-works, by means of which great
numbers of his majesty’s subjects were comfortably supported. They
expressed their apprehension, that should the bill pass into a law, it
could not in any degree lessen the consumption of Swedish iron, which was
used for purposes which neither the American nor British iron would
answer; but that the proposed encouragement, considering the plenty and
cheapness of wood in America, would enable the colonies to undersell the
British iron, a branch of traffic which would be totally destroyed, to the
ruin of many thousand labourers, who would be compelled to seek their
livelihood in foreign countries. They likewise suggested, that if all the
iron manufacturers of Great Britain should be obliged to depend upon a
supply of iron from the plantations, which must ever be rendered
precarious by the hazard of the seas and the enemy, the manufactures would
probably decay for want of materials, and many thousand families be
reduced to want and misery. On the other hand, the ironmongers and smiths
belonging to the flourishing town of Birmingham in Warwickshire, presented
a petition, declaring, That the bill would be of great benefit to the
trade of the nation, as it would enable the colonists to make larger
returns of their own produce, and encourage them to take a greater
quantity of the British manufactures. They affirmed, that all the
iron-works in the island of Great Britain did not supply half the quantity
of that metal sufficient to carry on the manufacture; that if this
deficiency could be supplied from the colonies in America, the importation
would cease, and considerable sums of money be saved to the nation. They
observed, that the importation of iron from America could no more affect
the iron-works and freeholders of the kingdom, than the like quantity
imported from any other country; but they prayed that the people of
America might be restrained from erecting slitting or rolling-mills, or
forges for plating iron, as they would interfere with the manufacturers of
Great Britain.

Many remonstrances to the same effect were
presented from different parts of the kingdom, and it appeared, upon the
most exact inquiry, that the encouragement of American iron would prove
extremely beneficial to the kingdom, as it had been found, upon trial,
applicable to all the uses of Swedish iron, and as good in every respect
as the produce of that country.]

330 (return)
[ Note 2 S, p. 330. One
of the most remarkable acts which passed in the course of this session,
was that for regulating the commencement of the year, and correcting the
calendar, according to the Gregorian computation, which had been adopted
by all other nations in Europe. By this new law it was decreed that the
new year should begin on the 1st day of January, and that eleven
intermediate nominal days, between the second and fourteenth days of
September, 1752, should for that time be omitted; so that the day
succeeding the second should be denominated the fourteenth of that month.
By this establishment of the new style, the equinoxes and solstices will
happen nearly on the same nominal days on which they fell in the year 325,
at the council of Nice; and the correspondence between the English
merchants and those of foreign countries will be greatly facilitated, with
respect to the dates of letters and accounts.]

331 (return)
[ Note 2 T, p. 330. An
indulgent parent was poisoned by his only daughter, on whom, besides other
marks of tenderness and paternal affection, he had bestowed a liberal
education, which greatly aggravated her guilt and ingratitude. Another
young woman was concerned in the assassination of her own uncle, who had
been her constant benefactor and sole guardian. A poor old woman, having,
from the ignorance and superstition of her neighbours, incurred the
suspicion of sorcery and witchcraft, was murdered in Hertfordshire by the
populace, with all the wantonness of barbarity. Rape and murder were
perpetrated upon an unfortunate woman in the neighbourhood of London, and
an innocent man suffered death for this complicated outrage, while the
real criminals assisted at his execution, heard him appeal to heaven for
his innocence, and, in the character of friends, embraced him, while he
stood on the brink of eternity.]

348 (return)
[ Note 2 U, p. 348.
Several European nations had settlements at Surat, which was one of the
most frequented cities of the East, from the great concourse of Mahometan
pilgrims, who make it their road from India, in their visits to the tomb
of their prophet at Mecca. In order to keep the seas clear of pirates
between Surat and the gulf of Arabia and Persia, the mogul had been at the
annual expense of a large ship, fitted out on purpose to carry the
pilgrims to Judda, which is within a small distance of Mecca. For the
security of this ship, as well as to protect the trade of Surat, he
granted to his admiral, the fiddee, chief of a colony of caffrees,
or blacks, a revenue called the tanka, to the value of three lacks of
rupees, amounting to above thirty-seven thousand pounds, arising partly
from the adjacent lands, and partly from the revenues of Surat, which were
paid him yearly by the governor of the castle, who is appointed by the
mogul to keep the city under proper subjection, without, however,
interfering with the government of it.]

357 (return)
[ Note 2 X, p. 357. The
ministry having resolved to send a body of forces to America, to act in
conjunction with the provincial troops raised on that continent, it became
necessary that the mutiny act should be rendered more clear and extensive.
When this bill, therefore, fell under consideration, it was improved with
a new clause, providing, “That all officers and soldiers of any troops
being mustered and in pay, which are or shall be raised in any of the
British provinces in America, by authority of the respective governors or
governments thereof, shall at all times, and in all places, when they
happen to join or act in conjunction with his majesty’s British forces, be
liable to martial law and discipline, in like manner, to all intents and
purposes, as the British forces are; and shall be subject to the same
trial, penalties, and punishment.”]

364 (return)
[ Note 2 Y, p. 364. The
king, on his side, promised to pay to the landgrave, for these succours,
eighty crowns banco, by way of levy-money, for every trooper or dragoon
duly armed and mounted, and thirty crowns banco for every foot soldier;
the crown to be reckoned at fifty-three sols of Holland, or at four
shillings and ninepence three farthings English money; and also to pay to
his serene highness, for the eight thousand men, an annual subsidy of an
hundred and fifty thousand crowns banco, during the four years, to
commence from the day of signing the treaty; which subsidy was to be
increased to three hundred thousand crowns yearly, from the time of
requiring the troops, to the time of their entering into British pay; and
in case of their being dismissed, the said subsidy of three hundred
thousand crowns was then to revive and be continued during the residue of
the term: but, if twelve thousand men were demanded and furnished, the
subsidy was then to be increased in proportion; and in case the king of
Great Britain should at any time think fit to send back these troops
before the expiration of the treaty, notice thereof was to be given to his
serene highness three months beforehand: one month’s pay was to be allowed
them for their return, and they were to be furnished gratis with the
necessary transport vessels.]

372 (return)
[ Note 2 Z, p. 372. It is
with pleasure we seize this opportunity of recording an instance of
gallantry and patriotism in a British officer, which would have done
honour to the character of a Roman tribune. Captain Cunningham, an
accomplished young gentleman, who acted as engineer in second at Minorca,
being preferred to a majority at home, and recalled to his regiment by an
express order, had repaired with his family to Nice in Italy, where he
waited for the opportunity of a ship bound for England, when he received
certain intelligence that the French armament was destined for the place
he had quitted. His lady, whom he tenderly loved, was just delivered, and
two of his children were dangerously ill of the small-pox. He recollected
that the chief engineer at Minorca was infirm, and indeed disabled by the
gout, and that many things were wanting for the defence of the fortress.
His zeal for the honour and service of his country immediately triumphed
over the calls of tenderness and of nature. He expended a considerable sum
of money in purchasing timber for the platforms, and other necessaries for
the garrison; hired a ship for transporting them thither; and tearing
himself from his wife and children, thus left among strangers in a foreign
country, embarked again for Minorca, where he knew he should be in a
peculiar manner exposed to all the dangers of a furious siege. In the
course of this desperate service he acquitted himself with that vigilance,
skill, and active courage, which he had on divers former occasions
displayed, until the assault was given to the queen’s bastion; when,
mixing with the enemy, sword in hand, he was disabled in his right arm by
the shot of a musket and the thrust of a bayonet. His behaviour was so
acceptable to his sovereign, that when he returned to England he was
preferred to the rank of colonel in the Guards. He afterwards acted as
chief engineer in the attempts and descents which were made on the French
coast. Though grievously maimed, he accepted the same office in the
expedition to Guadaloupe, where he died universally regretted.]

378 (return)
[ Note 3 A, p. 378. When
the French ambassador returned to London, he proposed that orders should
be immediately despatched to the English governors in America, with
express orders to desist from any new undertaking, and all acts of
hostility; but with regard to the lands on the Ohio, to put, without
delay, matters on the same footing in which they stood before the late
war, that the respective claims of both nations might be amicably referred
to the commissaries at Paris. The British court agreed to the cessation of
hostilities, and the discussion of the disputes by the ministers of the
two crowns, on condition that all the possessions in America should be
previously put in the situation prescribed by the treaty of Utrecht,
confirmed by that of Aix-la-Chapelle. The French ministry, instead of
complying with this condition, produced an evasive draft of a preliminary
convention, and this was answered by a counter-proposal. At length the
ambassador of France demanded, as preliminary conditions, that Great
Britain would renounce all claim to the south coast of the river St.
Laurence, and the lakes that discharge themselves into that river; cede to
the French twenty leagues of country lying along the river of Fundy, which
discovers Acadia, or Nova Scotia; and all the land between the rivers Ohio
and Ouabache. A memorial was afterwards presented on the same subject,
including the affairs of the neutral islands in the West Indies; but this
was amply refuted in another piece, in which the British ministry
observed, that even at this very opening of the commission established in
Paris, for terminating amicably the disputes in North America, the French
invaded Nova Scotia, erected three forts in the heart of that province,
and would have destroyed the English settlement at Halifax, had they not
been prevented: that the like hostilities were committed upon his
Britannic majesty’s subjects on the Ohio and Indian lakes, where the
governors appointed by the French king, without any shadow of right,
prohibited the English from trading; seized their traders by force, and
sent them prisoners to France; invaded the territories of Virginia,
attacked a fort that covered its frontier, and, to secure their
usurpations, erected, with an armed force, a chain of forts on the lands
which they had invaded; that his Britannic majesty had complained of these
hostilities to the court of Versailles, but without effect; so that he
found himself obliged to provide for the security of his subjects; and as
the encroachments made by France were hostile, it could never be unlawful,
or irreconcile-able with the assurance of his majesty’s peaceable
disposition, to repel an aggressor; and that the same motive of
self-defence had forced him to seize the French ships and sailors, in
order to deprive that court of the means of making an invasion, with which
their ministers in all the courts of Europe had menaced England.]

379 (return)
[ Note 3B, p. 379. To
Lieut. Gen. Fowke, or, in his absence, to the Commander-in-Chief in his
Majesty’s garrison of Gibraltar. War-office, March 21, 1756. “Sir,—I
am commanded to acquaint you, that it is his majesty’s pleasure that you
receive into your garrison lord Robert Bertie’s regiment to do duty there;
and in case you should apprehend that the French intend to make any
attempt upon his majesty’s island of Minorca, it is his majesty’s pleasure
that you make a detachment out of the troops of your garrison equal to a
battalion, to be commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and major; such
lieutenant-colonel and major to be the eldest in your garrison, to be put
on board the fleet for the relief of Minorca, as the admiral shall think
expedient, who is to carry them to the said island. I am, your humble
servant, B.”

To Lieut. Gen. Fowke, or, in his absence, to
the Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar. War-office, March 26,1756. “Sir,—I
am commanded to acquaint you, that it is his majesty’s pleasure, in case
the island of Minorca should be in any likelihood of being attacked, that
you make a detachment from the troops in your garrison equal to a
battalion, commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and major, for the relief of
that place, to be put on board the fleet, at the disposition of the
admiral: such lieutenant-colonel and major to be the eldest in your
garrison.”

To Lieut. Gen. Fowke, or, in his absence, to the
Commander-in-chief in his Majesty’s garrison of Gibraltar. War-office,
April 1, 1756. “Sir,—It is his majesty’s pleasure, that you receive
into your garrrison the women and children belonging to lord Robert
Bertie’s regiment.”

To Lieut. Gen. Fowke, or the
Commander-in-Chief at Gibraltar. War-office, May 12, 1756. “Sir,—I
wrote to you by general Steward: if that order is not complied with, then
you are now to make a detachment of seven hundred men out of your own
regiment and Guise’s; and also another detachment out of Pulteney’s and
Panmure’s regiments, and send them on board the fleet for the relief of
Mahon. But if that order has been complied with, then you are to make only
one detachment of seven hundred men, to be commanded by another
lieutenant-colonel and major, and to send it to Mahon; and you are also to
detain all such empty vessels as shall come into your harbour, and keep
them in readiness for any further transportation of troops. I have also
his royal highness the duke of Cumberland’s commands, to desire that you
will keep your garrison as alert as possible during this critical time,
and give such other assistance as may be in your power for the relief of
Minorca; taking care, however, not to fatigue or endanger your own
garrison.”]

387 (return)
[ Note 3 C, p. 387. His
majesty seems to have abated of this respect in the sequel, if we may
believe the assertions of his Polish majesty’s queen and the court of
Vienna, who affirmed, that sentinels were posted within the palace where
the queen and royal family resided; as also at the door of the secret
cabinet, where the papers relating to foreign transactions were deposited.
The keys of this cabinet were seized, and all the writings demanded. The
whole Saxon ministry were discharged from their respective employments,
and a new commission was established by the king of Prussia for the
administration of affairs in general. When the queen entreated this prince
to remove the sentinels posted within the palace and contiguous passages,
agreeably to his assurances that all due respect should be observed
towards the royal family, the king ordered the guards to be doubled, and
sent an officer to demand of her majesty the keys of the secret cabinet.
The queen obtained this officer’s consent that the doors should be sealed
up, but afterwards he returned with orders to break them open: then her
majesty, placing herself before the door, said, she trusted so much to the
promise of the king of Prussia, that she could not believe he had given
such orders. The officer declaring that his orders were positive, and that
he durst not disobey them, she continued in the same place, declaring,
that if violence was to be used, he must begin with her. The officer
returning to acquaint the king with what had passed, her majesty conjured
the ministers of Prussia and England to remind his majesty of his promise;
but her representations had no effect: the officer returned with fresh
orders to use force, in spite of the opposition she might make against it
in person. The queen, finding herself in danger of her life, at length
withdrew: the doors were forced, the chests broke open, and all the papers
seized.]

388 (return)
[ Note 3 D, p. 388. The
letter was to the following effect:—“Veldt-Mareschal Count Rutowski,
It is not without extreme sorrow I understand the deplorable situation,
which a chain of misfortunes has reserved for you, the rest of my
generals, and my whole army; but we must acquiesce in the dispensations of
Providence, and console ourselves with the rectitude of our sentiments and
intentions. They would force me, it seems, as you gave me to understand by
major-general the baron de Dyherrn, to submit to conditions the more
severe, in proportion as the circumstances become more necessitous. I
cannot hear them mentioned. I am a free monarch: such I will live; such I
will die; and I will both live and die with honour. The fate of my army I
leave wholly to your discretion. Let your council of war determine whether
you must surrender prisoners of war, fall by the sword, or die by famine.
May your resolutions, if possible, be conducted by humanity: whatever they
may be, I have no longer any share in them; and I declare you shall not be
answerable for aught but one thing, namely, not to carry arms against me
or my allies. I pray God may have you, Mr. Mareschal, in his holy keeping.—Given
at Koningstein, the 14th of October, 1756. “AUGUSTUS, Kex.” “To the
Veldt-Mareschal the Count Rutowski.”

392 (return)
[ Note 3 E, p. 392.
Rear-admiral Knowles being, in the month of December, one thousand seven
hundred and forty-nine, tried at Deptford, before a court-martial, for his
behaviour in and relating to an action which happened on the first day of
October in the preceding year, between a British squadron under his
command, and a squadron of Spain, the court was unanimously of opinion,
that the said Knowles, while he was standing for the enemy, might, by a
different disposition of his squadron, have begun the attack with six
ships as early in the day as four of them were engaged; and that,
therefore, by his neglecting so to do, he gave the enemy a manifest
advantage; that the said Knowles remained on board the ship Cornwall with
his flag, after she was disabled from continuing the action, though he
might, upon her being disabled, have shifted his flag on board another
ship; and the court were unanimously of opinion he ought to have done so,
in order to have conducted and directed, during the whole action, the
motions of the squadron intrusted to his care and conduct. Upon
consideration of the whole conduct of the said Knowles, relating to that
action, the court did unanimously agree that he fell under part of the
fourteenth article of the articles of war, namely, the word negligence,
and no other; and also under the twenty-third article.—The court,
therefore, unanimously adjudged, that he should be reprimanded for not
bringing up the squadron in closer order than he did, and not beginning
the attack with as great force as he might have done; and also for not
shifting his flag, upon the Cornwall’s being disabled.]

395 (return)
[ Note 3 F, p. 395. It
was enacted, that persons pawning, exchanging, or disposing of goods,
without leave of the owner, should suffer in the penalty of twenty
shillings; and, on non-payment, be committed for fourteen days to hard
labour; afterwards, if the money could not be then paid, to be whipped
publicly in the house of correction, or such other place as the justice of
the peace should appoint, on publication of the prosecutor; that every
pawnbroker should make entry of the person’s name and place of abode who
pledges any goods with him; and the pledger, if he require it, should have
a duplicate of that entry; that a pawnbroker receiving linen or apparel
intrusted to others to be washed or mended, should forfeit double the sum
lent upon it, and restore the goods; that upon oath of any person whose
goods are unlawfully pawned or exchanged, the justice should issue a
warrant to search the suspected person’s house; and upon refusal of
admittance the officer might break open the door; that goods pawned for
any sum not exceeding ten pounds might be recovered within two years, the
owner making oath of the pawning, and tendering the principal, interest,
and charges; that goods remaining unredeemed for two years should be
forfeited and sold, the overplus to be accounted for to the owner on
demand.]

396 (return)
[ Note 3 G, p. 395. It
likewise imported, that all contracts or agreements made between clothiers
and weavers in respect to wages, should, from and after the first of May,
in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven, be valid,
notwithstanding any rate established, or to be established; but that these
contracts or agreements should extend only to the actual prices or rates
of workmanship or wages, and not to the payment thereof in any other
manner than in money; and that if any clothier should refuse or neglect to
pay the weaver the wages or price agreed on, in money, within two days
after the work should be performed and delivered, the same being demanded,
he should forfeit forty shillings for every such offence.]

401 (return)
[ Note 3 H, p. 401.
Admiral F….. s’s reasons for not signing the warrant for admiral
Byng’s execution.

“It may be thought great presumption in
me to differ from so great authority as that of the twelve judges; but
when a man is called upon to sign his name to an act which is to give
authority to the shedding of blood, he ought to be guided by his own
conscience, and not by the opinions of other men.

“In the case
before us, it is not the merit of admiral Byng that I consider; whether he
deserves death or not, is not a question for me to decide; but whether or
not his life can be taken away by the sentence pronounced on him by the
court-martial, and after having so clearly explained their motives for
pronouncing such a sentence, is the point which alone has employed my
serious consideration.

“The twelfth article of war, on which
admiral Byng’s sentence is grounded, says (according to my understanding
of its meaning), ‘That every person, who, in time of action, shall
withdraw, keep back, or not come into fight, or do his utmost, &c.
through motives of cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall suffer
death.’ The court-martial does, in express words, acquit admiral Byng of
cowardice and disaffection, and does not name the word negligence. Admiral
Byng does not, as I conceive, fall under the letter or description of the
twelfth article of war. It may be said that negligence is implied, though
the word is not mentioned, otherwise the court-martial would not have
brought his offence under the twelfth article, having acquitted him of
cowardice and disaffection. But it must be acknowledged that the
negligence implied cannot be wilful negligence; for wilful negligence in
admiral Byng’s situation, must have proceeded either from cowardice or
disaffection, and he is expressly acquitted of both these crimes; besides,
these crimes, which are implied only and not named, may indeed justify
suspicion and private opinion, but cannot satisfy the conscience in case
of blood.

“Admiral Byng’s fate was referred to a court-martial,
his life and death were left to their opinions. The court-martial condemn
him to death, because, as they expressly say, they were under a necessity
of doing so by reason of the letter of the law, the severity of which they
complained of, because it admits of no mitigation. The court-martial
expressly say, that for the sake of their consciences, as well as in
justice to the prisoner, they most earnestly recommend him to his majesty
for mercy; it is evident, then, that in the opinions and consciences of
the judges he was not deserving of death.

“The question then
is, shall the opinions or necessities of the court-martial determine
admiral Byng’s fate? If it should be the latter, he will be executed
contrary to the intentions and meaning of his judges; if the former, his
life is not forfeited. His judges declare him not deserving of death; but,
mistaking either the meaning of the law, or the nature of his offence,
they bring him under an article of war, which, according to their own
description of his offence, he does not, I conceive, fall under; and then
they condemn him to death, because, as they say, the law admits of no
mitigation. Can a man’s life be taken away by such a sentence? I would not
willingly be misunderstood, and have it believed that I judge admiral
Byng’s deserts; that was the business of a court-martial, and it is my
duty only to act according to my conscience; which, after deliberate
consideration, assisted by the best light a poor understanding can afford
it, remains still in doubt, and therefore I cannot consent to sign a
warrant whereby the sentence of the court-martial may be carried into
execution; for I cannot help thinking, that however criminal admiral Byng
may be, his life is not forfeited by that sentence. I do not mean to find
fault with other men’s opinions; all I endeavour at is, to give reasons
for my own; and all I desire or wish is, that I may not be misunderstood;
I do not pretend to judge admiral Byng’s deserts, nor to give any opinion
on the propriety of the act. “Signed, 6th Feb. 1757, at the Admiralty, ”
J. F….. S.”]

419 (return)
[ Note 3 I, p. 419. “The
Imperial grenadiers (says he) are an admirable corps; one hundred
companies defended a rising ground, which my best infantry could not
carry. Ferdinand, who commanded them, returned seven times to the charge;
but to no purpose. At first he mastered a battery, but could not hold it.
The enemy had the advantage of a numerous and well-served artillery. It
did honour to Lichtenstein, who had the direction. Only the Prussian army
can dispute it with him. My infantry were too few. All my cavalry were
present, and idle spectators, excepting a bold push by my household
troops, and some dragoons. Ferdinand attacked without powder; the enemy,
in return, were not sparing of theirs. They had the advantage of a rising
ground, of intrenchments, and of a prodigious artillery. Several of my
regiments were repulsed by their musketry. Henry performed wonders. I
tremble for my worthy brothers; they are too brave. Fortune turned her
back on me this day. I ought to have expected it; she is a female, and I
am no gallant. In fact, I ought to have had more infantry. Success, my
dear lord, often occasions destructive confidence. Twenty-four battalions
were not sufficient to dislodge sixty thousand men from an advantageous
post. Another time we will do better. What say you of this league, which
has only the marquis of Brandenburgh for its object? The great elector
would be surprised to see his grandson at war with the Russians, the
Austrians, almost all Germany, and an hundred thousand French auxiliaries.
I know not whether it would be disgrace in me to submit, but I am sure
there will be no glory in vanquishing me.”]

422 (return)
[ Note 3 K, p. 422. This
remarkable capitulation, which we shall give here at full length, on
account of the disputes that rose shortly after, concerning what the
French called an infraction of it, was to the following effect:—

His majesty, the king of Denmark—touched with the
distresses of the countries of Bremen and Verden, to which he has always
granted his special protection; and being desirous, by preventing those
countries from being any longer the theatre of war, to spare also the
effusion of blood in the armies which are ready to dispute the possession
thereof—hath employed his mediation by the ministry of the count de
Lynar. His royal highness the duke of Cumberland, general of the army of
the allies, on the one part, and his excellency the mareschal duke de
Richelieu, general of the king of France’s forces in Germany, on the
other, have, in consideration of the intervention of his Danish majesty,
respectively engaged their word of honour to the count de Lynar, to abide
by the convention hereafter stipulated; and he, the count de Lynar,
correspondently to the magnanimity of the king his master’s intention,
obliges himself to procure the guarantee mentioned in the present
convention; so that it shall be sent to him, with his full powers, which
there was no time to make out in the circumstances which hurried his
departure.

Article I. Hostilities shall cease on both sides
within twenty-four hours, or sooner, if possible. Orders for this purpose
shall be immediately sent to the detached corps.

II. The
auxiliary troops of the army of the duke of Cumberland, namely, those of
Hesse, Brunswick, Saxe-Gotha, and even those of the count de la Lippe
Bucke-bourg, shall be sent home; and as it is necessary to settle
particularly their march to their respective countries, a general officer
of each nation shall be sent from the army of the allies, with whom shall
be settled the route of those troops, the divisions they shall march in,
their subsistence on their march, and their passports to be granted them
by his excellency the duke de Richelieu to go to their own countries,
where they shall be placed and distributed as shall be agreed upon between
the court of France and their respective sovereigns.

III. His
royal highness the duke of Cumberland obliges himself to pass the Elbe,
with such part of his army as he shall not be able to place in the city of
Stade; that the part of his forces which shall enter into garrison in the
said city, and which it is supposed may amount to between four and six
thousand men, shall remain there under the guarantee of his majesty the
king of Denmark, without committing any act of hostility; nor, on the
other hand, shall they be exposed to any of the French troops. In
consequence thereof, commissaries, named on each side, shall agree upon
the limits to be fixed round that place, for the convenieucy of the
garrison; which limits shall not extend beyond half a league or a league
from the place, according to the nature of the ground or circumstances,
which shall be fairly settled by the commissaries. The rest of the
Hanoverian army shall go and take quarters in the country beyond the Elbe;
and, to facilitate the march of those troops, his excellency the duke de
Richelieu shall concert with a general officer, sent from the Hanoverian
army, the route they shall take; obliging himself to give the necessary
passports and security for the free passage of them and their baggage, to
the places of their destination; his royal highness the duke of Cumberland
reserving to himself the liberty of negotiating between the two courts for
an extension of those quarters. As to the French troops, they shall remain
in the rest of the duchies of Bremen and Verden, till the definitive
reconciliation of the two sovereigns.

IV.. As the aforesaid
articles are to be executed as soon as possible, the Hanoverian army, and
the corps which are detached from it, particularly that which is at Buck
Schantz and the neighbourhood, shall retire under Stade in the space of
eight-and-forty hours. The French army shall not pass the river Oste, in
the duchy of Bremen, till the limits be regulated. It shall, besides, keep
all the posts and countries of which it is in possession; and, not to
retard the regulation of the limits between the armies, commissaries shall
be nominated and sent on the 10th instant to Bremen-worden by his royal
highness the duke of Cumberland, and his excellency the mareschal duke de
Richelieu, to regulate, as well the limits to be assigned to the French
army, as those that are to be observed by the garrison at Stade, according
to Art. III.

V. All the aforesaid articles shall be faithfully
executed, according to their form and tenor, and under the faith of his
majesty the king of Denmark’s guarantee, which the count de Lynar, his
minister, engages to procure.

Done at the camp at
Closter-Seven, 8th Sept. 1757. (Signed) WILLIAM.

SEPARATE
ARTICLES. Upon the representation made by the count de Lynar, with a view
to explain some dispositions made by the present convention, the following
articles have been added:—

I. It is the intention of his
excellency the mareschal duke de Richelieu, that the allied troops of his
royal highness the duke of Cumberland shall be sent back to their
respective countries, according to the form mentioned in the second
article; and that, as to their separation and distribution in the country,
it shall be regulated between the courts, those troops not being
considered as prisoners of war.

II. It having been represented
that the country of Lunenberg cannot accommodate more than fifteen
battalions and six squadrons, and that the city of Stade cannot absolutely
contain the garrison of six thousand men allotted to it, his excellency
the mareschal duke de Richelieu, being pressed by M. de Lynar, who
supported this representation by the guarantee of his Danish majesty,
gives his consent; and his royal highness the duke of Cumberland engages
to cause fifteen battalions and six squadrons to pass the Elbe, and the
whole body of hunters, and the remaining ten battalions and twenty-eight
squadrons shall be placed in the town of Stade, and the places nearest to
it that are within the line, which shall be marked by posts from the mouth
of the Liche in the Elbe, to the mouth of the Elmerbeck in the river Oste;
provided always, that the said ten battalions and twenty-eight squadrons
shall be quartered there as they are at the time of signing this
convention, and shall not be recruited under any pretext, or augmented in
any case; and this clause is particularly guaranteed by the count de Lynar
in the name of his Danish majesty.

III. Upon the representation
of his royal highness the duke of Cumberland, that the army and the
detached corps cannot both retire under Stade in eight-and-forty hours,
agreeable to the convention, his excellency the mareschal duke de
Richelieu hath signified, that he will grant them proper time, provided
the corps encamped at Buck Schantz, as well as the army encamped at
Bremen-worden, begin their inarch to retire in four-and-twenty hours after
signing the convention. The time necessary for other arrangements, and the
execution of the articles concerning the respective limits, shall be
settled between lieutenant-general Sporcken, and the marquis de Villemar,
first lieutenant-general of the king’s army. Done, &c]

433 (return)
[ Note 3 L, p. 433. The
letter, which was written in French, we have translated for the reader’s
satisfaction:—“I am informed that the design of a treaty of
neutrality for the electorate of Hanover is not yet laid aside. Is it
possible that your majesty can have so little fortitude and constancy, as
to be dispirited by a small reverse of fortune? Are affairs so ruinous
that they cannot be repaired? I hope your majesty will consider the step
you have made me hazard, and remember that you are the sole cause of these
misfortunes that now impend over my head. I should never have abandoned
the alliance of France, but for your flattering assurances. I do not now
repent of the treaty I have concluded with your majesty: but I expect you
will not ingloriously leave me at the mercy of my enemies, after having
brought upon me all the force of Europe. I depend upon your adhering to
your repeated engagements of the twenty-sixth of last month, and that you
will listen to no treaty in which I am not comprehended.”]

438 (return)
[ Note 3 M, p. 438. It
was enacted, That every person subscribing for five hundred pounds, should
be entitled to four hundred and fifty in annuities, and fifty pounds in
lottery tickets, and so in proportion for a greater or lesser sum; that
the lottery should consist of tickets of the value of ten pounds each, in
a proportion not exceeding eight blanks to a prize; the blanks to be of
the value of six pounds each; the blanks and prizes to bear an interest
after the rate of three pounds per cent., to commence from the first day
of January, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine; and
that the sum of four millions five hundred thousand pounds, to be raised
by annuities, should bear an interest after the rate of three pounds ten
shillings percent, from the fifth day of July in the present year; which
annuities should stand reduced to three pounds per cent, after the
expiration of twenty-four years, and afterwards he redeemable in the
whole, or in part, by sums not less than five hundred thousand pounds, at
one time: six months’ notice having been first given of such payments
respectively; that any subscriber might, on or before the twenty-ninth day
of April, make a deposit of ten pounds per cent, on such sums as he should
choose to subscribe towards raising these five millions, with the cashiers
of the bank, as a security for his future payments on the days appointed
for that purpose; that the several sums so received by the cashiers should
be paid into the receipt of the exchequer, to be applied from time to time
to such services as should then have been voted by the house of commons in
this session of parliament, and not otherwise; that any subscriber, paying
the whole or any part of his subscription previous to the clays appointed
for the respective payments, should be allowed a discount at the rate of
three per cent, from the days of such respective payments to the
respective times on which such payments were directed to be made, and that
all persons who should make their full payments on the said lottery,
should receive their tickets as soon as they could be conveniently made
out.]

440 (return)
[ Note 3 N, p. 440. Among
those rendered perpetual, we find an act of the 13th and 14th of Charles
II. for preventing theft and rapine. An act of the 9th of George I. for
punishing persons going armed in disguise. A clause in the act of the 6th
of George II. to prevent the breaking down the bank of any river; and
another clause in the said act, to prevent the treacherous cutting of
hop-binds. Several clauses in an act of the 10th of George II. for
punishing persons setting on fire any mine, &c. The temporary part of
the act of the 20th of George II. for taking away the hereditary
jurisdictions of Scotland, relating to the power of appealing to circuit
courts. Those continued were,—1. An act of the 12th of George II.
for granting liberty to carry sugar, &c, until the twenty-ninth of
September, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, and to
the end of next session of parliament. 2. An act of the 5th of George II.
to prevent frauds by bankrupts, &c., for the same period. 3. An act of
the 8th of George II. for encouraging the importation of naval stores,
&c, for the same period. 4. An act of the 19th of George II. for
preventing frauds in the admeasurement of coals, &c. until June 24,
1759; and to this was added a perpetual clause for preventing the stealing
or destroying of madder roots. 5. An act of the 9th George II. for
encouraging the manufacture of British sail-cloth until the twenty-ninth
of September, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four. 6. An act of the
4th of George II. for granting an allowance upon British-made gunpowder,
for the same period. 7, An act of the 4th of George II. for encouraging
the trade of the sugar colonies, until the twenty-ninth of September, one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-one. And 8, so much of the act of the
15th and 16th of George II. to empower the importers of rum, &c, as
relates to landing it before the payment of duties, until the 29th of
September, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four.]

461 (return)
[ Note 3 O, p. 461. Translation
of the Letter written by the Duke of Brunswick to his brother Prince
Ferdinand. “Sir,—I know you too well to doubt that the situation
in which we stand at present, with respect to each other, gives you
abundance of uneasiness; nor will you doubt that it gives me equal
concern. Indeed, it afflicts me greatly. Meanwhile I could never, my
dearest brother, have believed that you would be the person who should
carry away from me my eldest son. I am exceedingly mortified to find
myself under the hard necessity of telling you that this step is contrary
to the law of nations, and the constitution of the empire; and that, if
you persist in it, you will disgrace your family, and bring a stain upon
your country, which you pretend to serve. The hereditary prince, my son,
was at Hamburgh by my order, and you have carried him to Stade. Could he
distrust his uncle,—an uncle who hath done so much honour to his
family? Could he believe that this uncle would deprive him of liberty, a
liberty never refused to the lowest officer? I ordered him to make a tour
to Holland: could not the lowest officer have done as much? Let us suppose
for a moment that my troops, among whom he served, were to have staid with
the Hanoverians, would it not have been still in my power to give an
officer leave of absence, or even leave to resign his commission? And
would you hinder your brother, the head of your family, and of such a
family as ours, to exercise this right with regard to a son, who is the
hereditary prince, of whose rights and prerogatives you cannot be
ignorant? It is impossible you could have conceived such designs, without
the suggestion of others. Those who did suggest them have trampled on the
rights of nature, of nations, and of the princes of Germany; they have
induced you to add to all these the most cruel insult on a brother whom
you love, and who always loved you with the warmest affection. Would you
have your brother lay his just complaints against you before the whole
empire, and all Europe? Are not your proceedings without example? What is
Germany become? What are its princes become, and our house in particular?
Is it the interest of the two kings, the cause of your country, and my
cause that you pretend to support?—I repeat it, brother, that this
design could not have been framed by you. I again command my son to pursue
his journey and I cannot conceive you will give the least obstruction; if
you should (which I pray God avert), I solemnly declare that I will not be
constrained by such measures, nor shall I ever forget what I owe to
myself. As to my troops, you may see what I have written on that head to
the Hanoverian ministry. The duke of Cumberland, by the convention of
Closter-Seven, dismissed them, and sent them home; the said ministry gave
me notice of this convention, as a treaty by which I was bound. The march
of the troops was settled; and an incident happening, they halted: that
obstacle being removed, they were to have continued their march. The court
of Hanover will be no longer bound by the convention, while I not only
accepted it upon their word, but have also, in conformity with their
instructions, negotiated at Versailles, and at Vienna. After all these
steps, they would have me contradict myself, break my word, and entirely
ruin my estate, as well as my honour. Did you ever know your brother
guilty of such things? True it is, I have, as you say, sacrificed my all;
or rather, I have been sacrificed. The only thing left me is my honour;
and in the unhappy contrast of our situations, I lament both you and
myself, that it should be from you, my dear brother, I should receive the
cruel advice to give up my honour. I cannot listen to it: I cannot recede
from my promise. My troops, therefore, must return home, agreeably to what
the duke of Cumberland and the Hanoverian ministry stipulated with regard
to me in the strongest manner. I am afraid that the true circumstances of
things are concealed from you. Not to detain your express too long, I
shall send you, by the post, copies of all I have written to the
Hanoverian ministry. It will grieve your honest heart to read it. I am,
with a heart almost broken, yet full of tenderness for you, your, &c.
“Blanckenbourg, Nov. 27,1757.”]

467 (return)
[ Note 3 P, p. 467. A
detail of the cruelties committed by those barbarians cannot be read
without horror. They not only burned a great number of villages, but they
ravished, rifled, murdered, and mutilated the inhabitants, without
distinction of age or sex, without any other provocation or incitement
than brutal lust and wantonness of barbarity. They even violated the
sepulchres of the dead, which have been held sacred among the most savage
nations. At Camin and Breckholtz they forced open the graves and
sepulchral vaults, and stripped the bodies of generals Schlaberndorf and
Ruitz, which had been deposited there. But the collected force of their
vengeance was discharged against Custrin, the capital of the New Marche of
Brandenburgh, situated at the conflux of the Warta and the Oder, about
fifteen English miles from Franckfort. The particulars of the disaster
that befel this city, are particularly related in the following extracts
from a letter written by an inhabitant and eye-witness.

“On the
thirteenth of August, about three o’clock in the afternoon, a sudden
report was spread that a body of Russian hussars and cossacks appeared in
sight of the little suburb. All the people were immediately in motion, and
the whole city was filled with terror, especially as we were certainly
informed that the whole Russian army was advancing from Meseric and
Konigswalda, by the way of Landsberg. A reinforcement was immediately sent
to our piquet-guard, in the suburb, amounting, by this junction, to three
hundred men, who were soon attacked by the enemy, and the skirmish lasted
from four till seven o’clock in the evening. During this dispute, we could
plainly perceive, from our ramparts and church-steeple, several persons of
distinction mounted on English horses, reconnoitring our fortification
through perspective glasses. They retired, however, when our cannon began
to fire: then our piquet took possession of their former post in the
suburb; and the reinforcement we had sent from the city returned, after
having broken down the bridge over the Oder. Next day count Dohna, who
commanded the army near Franckfort, sent in a reinforcement of four
battalions, ten squadrons, and a small body of hussars, under the command
of lieutenant-general Scherlemmer. The hussars and a body of dragoons were
added to the piquet of the little suburb; the four battalions pitched
their tents on the Anger, between the suburbs and the fortification; and
the rest of the dragoons remained in the field to cover the long suburb.
General Scherlemmer, attended by our governor, colonel Schuck, went with a
small party to observe the enemy; but were obliged to retire, and were
pursued by the cossacks to the walls of the city. Between four and five
o’clock next morning the poor inhabitants were roused from their sleep by
the noise of the cannon, intermingled with the dismal shrieks and hideous
yellings of the cossacks belonging to the Russian army. Alarmed at this
horrid noise, I ascended the church-steeple, from whence I beheld the
whole plain, extending from the little suburb to the forest, covered with
the enemy’s troops, and our light horse, supported by the infantry,
engaged in different places with their irregulars. At eight I descried a
body of the enemy’s infantry, whose van consisted of four or five thousand
men, advancing towards the vineyard, in the neighbourhood of which they
had raised occasional batteries in the preceding-evening; from these they
now played on our piquet-guard and hussars, who were obliged to retire.
They then fired, en ricochet, on the tents and baggage of the four
battalions encamped on the Anger, who were also compelled to retreat.
Having thus cleared the environs, they threw into the city such a number
of bombs and red-hot bullets, that by nine in the morning it was set on
fire in three different places; and, the streets being-narrow, it burned
with such fury that all our endeavours to extinguish it proved
ineffectual. At this time the whole atmosphere appeared like a shower of
fiery rain and hail; and the miserable inhabitants thought of nothing but
saving their lives by running into the open fields. The whole place was
filled with terror and consternation, and resounded with the shrieks of
women and children, who ran about in the utmost distraction, exposed to
the shot and bomb-shells, which, bursting, tore in pieces every thing that
stood in their way. As I led my wife, with a young child in her arms, and
drove the rest of my children and servants half naked before me, those
instruments of death and devastation fell about us like hail; but, by the
mercy of God, we all escaped unhurt. Nothing could be more melancholy and
affecting than a sight of the wretched people flying in crowds, and
leaving their all behind, while they rent the sky with their lamentations.
Many women of distinction I saw without shoes and stockings, and almost
without clothes, who had been roused from their beds, and ran out naked
into the streets. When my family had reached the open plain, I endeavoured
to return, and save some of my effects; but I could not force my way
through a multitude of people, thronging out at the gate, some sick and
bed-ridden persons being carried on horseback and in carriages, and others
conveyed on the backs of their friends, through a most dreadful scene of
horror and desolation. A great number of families from the open country,
and the defenceless towns in Prussia and Pomerania, had come hither for
shelter with their most valuable effects, when the Russians first entered
the king’s territories. These, as well as the inhabitants, are all ruined;
and many, who a few days ago possessed considerable wealth, are now
reduced to the utmost indigence. The neighbouring-towns and villages were
soon crowded with the people of Custrin; the roads were filled with
objects of misery; and nothing was seen but nakedness and despair; nothing
heard but the cries of hunger, fear, and distraction. For my own part, I
stayed all night at Goitz, and then proceeded for Berlin. Custrin is now a
heap of ruins. The great magazine, the governor’s house, the church, the
palace, the store and artillery-houses; in a word, the old and new towns,
the suburbs, and all the bridges, were reduced to ashes; nay, after the
ashes were destroyed, the piles and sterlings were burned to the water’s
edge. The writings of all the colleges, together with the archives of the
country, were totally consumed, together with a prodigious magazine of
corn and flour, valued at four millions of crowns. The cannon in the
arsenal were all melted; and the loaded bombs and cartridges, with a large
quantity of gunpowder, went off at once with a most horrid explosion. A
great number of the inhabitants are missing, supposed to have perished in
the flames, or under the ruins of the houses, or to have been suffocated
in the subterraneous vaults and caverns, to which they had fled for
safety.

Nothing could be more inhuman, or contrary to the
practice of a generous enemy, than such vengeance wreaked upon the
innocent inhabitants; for the Russians did not begin to batter the
fortifications until all the rest of the place was destroyed. In the
course of this campaign, the Russian cossacks are said to have plundered
and burned fourteen large towns and two hundred villages, and wantonly
butchered above two thousand defenceless women and children. Such monsters
of barbarity ought to be excluded from all the privileges of human nature,
and hunted down as wild beasts without pity or cessation. What infamy
ought these powers to incur, who employ and encourage such ruthless
barbarians?]

468 (return)
[ Note 3 Q, p. 468. As
very little notice was taken, in the detail published by authority, of any
part which this great man acted in the battle of Hochkirchen, and a report
was industriously circulated in this kingdom, that he was surprised in his
tent, naked, and half asleep,—we think it the duty of a candid
historian to vindicate his memory and reputation from the foul aspersion
thrown by the perfidious and illiberal hand of envious malice, or else
contrived to screen some other character from the imputation of
misconduct. The task we are enabled to perform by a gentleman of candour
and undoubted credit, who learned the following particulars at Berlin from
a person that was eye-witness of the whole transaction. Field-mareschal
Keith, who arrived in the camp the very day that preceded the battle,
disapproved of the situation of the Prussian army, and remonstrated to the
king on that subject. In consequence of his advice, a certain general was
sent with a detachment to take possession of the heights that commanded
the village of Hochkirchcn; but by some fatality he miscarried. Mareschal
Keith was not in any tent, but lodged with prince Francis of Brunswick, in
a house belonging to a Saxon major. When the first alarm was given in the
night, he instantly mounted his horse, assembled a body of the nearest
troops, and marched directly to the place that was attacked. The Austrians
had taken possession of the hill which the Prussian officer was sent to
occupy, and this they fortified with cannon; then they made themselves
masters of the village in which the free companies of Auginelli had been
posted. Mareschal Keith immediately conceived the design of the Austrian
general, and knowing the importance of this place, thither directed all
his efforts. He in person led on the troops to the attack of the village,
from whence he drove the enemy; but being overpowered by numbers
continually pouring down from the hills, he was obliged to retire in his
turn. He rallied his men, returned to the charge, and regained possession
of the place; being again repulsed by fresh reinforcements of the enemy,
he made another effort, entered the village a third time, and finding it
untenable, ordered it to be set on fire. Thus he kept the Austrians at
bay, and maintained a desperate conflict against the flower of the
Austrian army, from four in the morning till nine, when the Prussians were
formed, and began to file off in their retreat. During the whole dispute
he rallied the troops in person, charged at their head, and exposed his
life in the hottest of a dreadful fire, like a private captain of
grenadiers. He found it necessary to exert himself in this manner, the
better to remove the bad effects of the confusion that prevailed, and in
order to inspirit the troops to their utmost exertion by his voice,
presence, and example. Even when dangerously wounded, at eight in the
morning, he refused to quit the field; but continued to signalize himself
in the midst of the carnage until nine, when he received a second shot in
his breast, and fell speechless into the arms of Mr. Tibay, an English
volunteer, who had attended him during the whole campaign. This gentleman,
who was likewise wounded, applied to a Prussian officer for a file of men
to remove the mareschal, being uncertain whether he was entirely deprived
of life. His request was granted; but the soldiers, in advancing to the
spot, were countermanded by another officer. He afterwards spoke on the
same subject to one of the Prussian generals, a German prince, as he
chanced to pass on horseback: when Mr. Tibay told him the field-mareschal
was lying wounded on the field, he asked if his wounds were mortal; and
the other answering he was afraid they were, the prince shrugged up his
shoulders, and rode off without further question. The body of this great
officer, being thus shamefully abandoned, was soon stripped by the
Austrian stragglers, and lay exposed and undistinguished on the field of
battle. In this situation it was perceived by count Lasci, son of the
general of that name, with whom mareschal Keith had served in Russia. This
young count had been the mareschal’s pupil, and revered him as his
military father, though employed in the Austrian service. He recognised
the body by the large scar of a dangerous wound, which general Keith had
received in his thigh at the siege of Oczakow, and could not help bursting
into tears to see his honoured master thus extended at his feet, a naked,
lifeless, and deserted corpse. He forthwith caused his body to be covered
and interred. It was afterwards taken up, and decently buried by the
curate of Hochkirchen; and finally removed to Berlin, by order of the king
of Prussia, who bestowed upon it those funeral honours that were due to
the dignified rank and transcendent merit of the deceased; merit so
universally acknowledged, that even the Saxons lamented him as their best
friend and patron, who protected them from violence and outrage, even
while he acted a principal part in subjecting them to the dominion of his
sovereign.

479 (return)
[ Note 3 R, p. 479. Among
other transactions that distinguish the history of Great Britain, scarce a
year glides away without producing some incident that strongly marks the
singular character of the English nation. A very extraordinary instance of
this nature, relating to the late duke of Marlborough, we shall record
among the events of this year, although it derived its origin from the
latter end of the last, and cannot be properly enumerated among those
occurrences that appertain to general history. Towards the end of
November, in the preceding year, the above-mentioned nobleman received, by
the post, a letter directed “To his Grace the duke of Marlborough, with
care and speed,” and containing this address:

“My Lord,—As
ceremony is an idle thing upon most occasions, more especially to persons
in my state of mind, I shall proceed immediately to acquaint you with the
motive and end of addressing this epistle to you, which is equally
interesting to us both. You are to know, then, that my present situation
in life is such, that I should prefer annihilation to a continuance in it.
Desperate diseases require desperate remedies; and you are the man I have
pitched upon, either to make me or unmake yourself. As I never had the
honour to live among the great, the tenor of my proposals will not be very
courtly; but let that be an argument to enforce a belief of what I am now
going to write. It has employed my invention for some time, to find out a
method of destroying another without exposing my own life: that I have
accomplished, and defy the law. Now, for the application of it. I am
desperate, and must be provided for. You have it in your power: it is my
business to make it your inclination to serve me, which you must determine
to comply with, by procuring me a genteel support for my life, or your own
will be at a period before this session of parliament is over. I have more
motives than one for singling you out upon this occasion; and I give you
this fair warning, because the means I shall make use of are too fatal to
be eluded by the power of physic. If you think this of any consequence,
you will not fail to meet the author on Sunday next, at ten in the
morning, or on Monday (if the weather should be rainy on Sunday), near the
first tree beyond the stile in Hyde-Park, in the foot-walk to Kensington.
Secrecy and compliance may preserve you from a double danger of this sort,
as there is a certain part of the world where your death has more than
been wished for upon other motives. I know the world too well to trust
this secret in any breast but my own. A few days determine me your friend
or enemy. “FELTON.

“You will apprehend that I mean you should
be alone; and depend upon it, that a discovery of any artifice in this
affair will be fatal to you. My safety is insured by my silence, for
confession only can condemn me.”

The duke, in compliance with
this strange remonstrance, appeared at the time and place appointed, on
horseback and alone, with pistols before him, and the star of his order
displayed, that he might be the more easily known. He had likewise taken
the precaution of engaging a friend to attend in the Park, at such a
distance, however, as scarce to be observable. He continued some time on
the spot without seeing any person he could suspect of having wrote the
letter, and then rode away: but chancing to turn his head when he reached
Hyde-Park-Corner, he perceived a man standing at the bridge, and looking
at the water, within twenty yards of the tree which was described in the
letter. He forthwith rode back at a gentle pace, and, passing by the
person, expected to be addressed: but as no advance of this kind was made,
he, in repassing, bowed to the stranger, and asked if he had not something
to communicate? The man replying, “No, I don’t know you;” the duke told
him his name, adding, “Now you know me, I imagine you have something to
say to me.” But he still answered in the negative, and the duke rode home.
In a day or two after this transaction, another letter was brought to him,
couched in the following terms:

“My Lord,—You receive
this as an acknowledgment of your punctuality as to the time and place of
meeting on Sunday last, though it was owing to you it answered no purpose.
The pageantry of being armed, and the ensign of your order, were useless
and too conspicuous. You needed no attendant, the place was not calculated
for mischief, nor was any intended. If you walk in the west aisle of
Westminster Abbey, towards eleven o’clock on Sunday next, your sagacity
will point the person whom you will address, by asking his company to take
a turn or two with you. You will not fail, on inquiry, to be acquainted
with the name and place of abode. According to which direction you will
please to send two or three hundred pound bank-notes the next day by the
penny post. Exert not your curiosity too early; it is in your power to
make me grateful on certain terms. I have friends who are faithful, but
they do not bark before they bite.—“I am, &c, F.”

The
duke, determining if possible to unveil this mystery, repaired to the
Abbey at the time prescribed; and, after having walked up and down for
five or six minutes, saw the very same person to whom he had spoken in
Hyde-Park, enter the Abbey with another man of a creditable appearance.
This last, after they had viewed some of the monuments, went into the
choir, and the other turning back advanced towards the duke, who,
accosting him, asked him if he had anything to say to him,” or any
commands for him? He replied, “No, my lord. I have not.”—“Sure you
have,” said the duke; but he persisted in his denial. Then the duke,
leaving him, took several turns in the aisle, while the stranger walked on
the other side. But nothing further passed between them; and although the
duke had provided several persons in disguise to apprehend the delinquent,
he forebore giving the signal, that, notwithstanding appearances, he might
run no risk of injuring an innocent person. Not long after this second
disappointment he received a third letter, to the following effect:

“My Lord,—I am fully convinced you had a companion on Sunday: I
interpret it as owing to the weakness of human nature; but such proceeding
is far from being ingenuous, and may produce bad effects, whilst it is
impossible to answer the end proposed. You will see me again soon, as it
were by accident, and may easily find where I go to; in consequence of
which, by being sent to, I shall wait on your grace, but expect to be
quite alone, and to converse in whispers; you will likewise give your
honour, upon meeting, that no part of the conversation shall transpire.
These and the former terms complied with ensure your safety; my revenge,
in case of non-compliance (or any scheme to expose me), will be slower,
but not less sure; and strong suspicion the utmost that can possibly ensue
upon it, while the chances would be tenfold against you. You will possibly
be in doubt after the meeting, but it is quite necessary the outside
should be a mask to the in. The family of the Bloods is not extinct,
though they are not in my scheme.”

The expression, “You will
see me again soon, as it were by accident,” plainly pointed at the person
to whom he had spoke in the park and in the Abbey; nevertheless, he saw
him not again, nor did he hear anything further of the affair for two
months, at the expiration of which the post brought him the following
letter:

“May it please your Grace,—I have reason to
believe, that the son of one Barnard, a surveyor, in Abingdon-buildings,
Westminster, is acquainted with some secrets that nearly concern your
safety: his father is now out of town, which will give you an opportunity
of questioning him more privately; it would be useless to your grace, as
well as dangerous to me, to appear more publicly in this affair. “Your
sincere friend, “ANONYMOUS. “He frequently goes to Storey’s-gate
coffee-house.”

In about a week after this intimation was
received, the duke sent a person to the coffee-house, to inquire for Mr.
Barnard, and tell him he would be glad to speak to him. The message was
delivered, and Barnard declared he would wait upon his grace next
Thursday, at half an hour after ten in the morning. He was punctual to his
appointment, and no sooner appeared than the duke recognised him to be the
person to whom he had spoke in the Park and the Abbey. Having conducted
him into an apartment, and shut the door, he asked, as before, if he had
anything to communicate: and was answered, as formerly, in the negative.
Then the duke repeated every circumstance of this strange transaction; to
which Barnard listened with attention and surprise, yet without exhibiting
any marks of conscious guilt or confusion. The duke observing that it was
matter of astonishment to see letters of such import written with the
correctness of a scholar; the other replied, that a man might be very poor
and very learned at the same time. When he saw the fourth letter, in which
his name was mentioned, with the circumstance of his father’s absence, he
said, “If is very odd, my father was then out of town.” An expression the
more remarkable, as the letter was without date, and he could not, as an
innocent man, be supposed to know at what time it was written. The duke
having made him acquainted with the particulars, told him, that if he was
innocent he ought to use his endeavours-to detect the writer of the
letters, especially of the last, in which he was expressely named. To this
admonition he returned no other answer but a smile, and then withdrew.—He
was afterwards taken into custody, and tried at the Old Bailey,for sending
a threatening letter, contrary to the statute; but no evidence could be
found to prove the letters were of his handwriting: nor did any
presumption appear against him, except his being in Hyde-Park, and in
Westminster Abbey, at the time and place appointed in the first two
letters. On the other hand, Mr. Barnard proved, that, on the Sunday when
he saw the duke in Hyde-Park, he was on his way to Kensington on
particular business, by his father’s order, signified to him that very
morning: that he accordingly went thither, and dined with his uncle, in
company with several other persons, to whom he related what had passed
between the duke of Marlborough and him in the Park: that his being
afterwards in Westminster Abbey was the effect of mere accident: that Mr.
James Greenwood, his kinsman, who had lain that preceding night at his
father’s house, desired him to dress himself, that they might walk
together in the Park; and he did not comply with his request till after
much solicitation: that he proposed to enter the Park without passing
through the Abbey, but was prevailed upon by Mr. Greenwood, who expressed
a desire of seeing the newly-erected monument of general Hardgrave: that
as he had formerly communicated to his friend the strange circumstance of
the duke’s speaking to him in Hyde-park, Mr. Greenwood no sooner saw that
nobleman in the Abbey, than he gave notice to Mr. Barnard, who was very
short-sighted; and that from his passing them several times, concluding he
wanted to speak with Mr. Barnard alone, he quitted him and retired into
the choir, that they might commune together without interruption. It
likewise appeared, from undoubted evidence, that Barnard had often
mentioned openly to his friends and acquaintance, the circumstance of what
passed between him and the duke in the Park and in the Abbey; that his
father was a man of unblemished reputation, and in affluent circumstances;
that he himself was never reduced to any want, or such exigence as might
impel him to any desperate methods of obtaining money; that his fidelity
had been often tried, and his life always irreproachable. For these
reasons he was acquitted of the crime laid to his charge, and the mystery
remains to this day undiscovered.

After all, the author of the
letters does not seem to have had any real design to extort money, because
the scheme was very ill calculated for that purpose; and indeed could not
possibly take effect without the most imminent risk of detection. Perhaps
his aim was nothing more than to gratify a petulance and peculiarity of
humour, by alarming the duke, exciting the curiosity of the public,
puzzling the multitude, and giving rise to a thousand ridiculous
conjectures. If anything more was intended, and the duke earnestly desired
to know the extent of the scheme, he might, when he closeted the person
suspected, have encouraged him to a declaration, by promising inviolable
secrecy on his word and honour, in which any man would have confided as a
sacred obligation. On the whole, it is surprising that the death of the
duke, which happened in the course of this year, was never attributed to
the secret practices of this incendiary correspondent, who had given him
to understand that his vengeance, though slow, would not be the less
certain.]

485 (return)
[Note 3 S, p. 485. The
next bill that fell under the cognizance of the house, related to a law
transaction, and was suggested by a petition presented in the name of the
sheriffs, and grantees of post-fines under the crown of England. They
enumerated and explained the difficulties under which they laboured, in
raising and collecting these fines within the respective counties;
particularly when the estate conveyed by fine was no more than a right of
reversion, in which case they could not possibly levy the post-fine,
unless the purchaser should obtain possession within the term of the
sheriffalty, or pay it of his own free will, as they could not distrain
while the lands were in possession of the donee. They therefore proposed a
method for raising these post-fines, by a proper officer to be appointed
for that purpose; and prayed that leave might be given to bring in a bill
accordingly. This petition was seconded by a message from the king,
importing, that his majesty, as far as his interest was concerned, gave
his consent that the house might act in this affair as they should think
propel.

The commons, in a committee of the whole house, having
taken into consideration the merits of the petition, formed several
resolutions; upon which a bill was founded for the more regular and easy
collecting, accounting for, and paying of post-fines, which should be due
to the crown, or to the grantees thereof under the crown, and for the ease
of sheriffs in respect to the same. Before it passed into a law, however,
it was opposed by a petition in favour of one William Daw, a lunatic,
clerk of the king’s silver office, alleging, that should the bill pass, it
would deprive the said Daw and his successors of an ancient fee belonging
to his office, on searches made for post-fines by the under sheriffs of
the several counties; therefore, praying that such provision might be made
for the said lunatic as to the house should seem just and reasonable.
This, and divers other petitions respecting the bill being discussed in
the committee, it underwent several amendments, and was enacted into a
law; the particulars of which cannot be properly understood without a
previous explanation of this method of conveying estates; a subject
obscure in itself, founded upon a seeming subterfuge of law, scarce
reconcileable with the dictates of common sense, and consequently improper
for the pen of an historian.]

490 (return)
[ Note 3 T, p. 490. As
the curiosity of the reader may be interested in these resolutions, we
shall here insert them for his satisfaction. The committee resolved, that
the ell ought to contain one yard and one quarter, according to the yard
mentioned in the third resolution of the former committee upon the subject
of weights and measures; that the pole, or perch, should contain in length
five such yards and a half; the furlong two hundred and twenty; and the
mile one thousand seven hundred and sixty: that the superficial perch
should contain thirty square yards and a quarter; the rood one thousand
two hundred and ten; and the acre four thousand eight hundred and forty:
that according to the fourth, fifth, and sixth resolutions of the former
committee, upon the subject of weights and measures, agreed to by the
house on the second day of June in the preceding year, the quart ought to
contain seventy cubical inches and one half; the pint thirty-five and one
quarter; the peck five hundred and sixty-four; and the bushel two thousand
two hundred and fifty-six. That the several parts of the pound, mentioned
in the eighth resolution of the former committee, examined and adjusted in
presence of this committee,—viz. the half pound or six ounces,
quarter of a pound or three ounces, two ounces, one ounce, two half
ounces, the five-penny weight, three-penny weight, two-penny weight, and
one-penny weight, the twelve grains, six grains, three grains, two grains,
and two of one grain each,—ought to be the models of the several
parts of the said pound, and to be used for sizing or adjusting weights
for the future. That all weights exceeding a pound should be of brass,
copper, bell-metal, or cast-iron; and all those of cast-iron should be
made in the form, and with a handle of hammered iron, such as the pattern
herewith produced, having the mark of the weight cast in the iron; and all
the weights of a pound, or under, should be of gold, silver, brass,
copper, or bell-metal. That all weights of cast-iron should have the
initial letters of the name of the maker upon the upper bar of the handle;
and all other weights should have the same, together with the mark of the
weight, according to this standard, upon some convenient part thereof.
That the yard, mentioned in the second resolution of the former committee
upon the subject of weights and measures, agreed to by the house in the
last session, being the standard of length, and the pound mentioned in the
eighth resolution, being the standard of weight, ought to be deposited in
the court of the receipt of the exchequer, and the chief baron, and the
seal of office of the chamberlain of the exchequer, and not to be opened
but by the order and in the presence of the chancellor of the exchequer
and chief baron for the time being. That the most effectual means to
ascertain uniformity in measures of length and weight, to be used
throughout the realm, would he to appoint certain persons, at one
particular office, with clerks and workmen under them, for the purpose
only of fixing and adjusting, for the use of the subjects, all measures of
length, and all weights, being parts, multiples, or certain proportions of
the standards to be used for the future. That a model or pattern of the
said standard yard, mentioned in the second resolution of the former
committee, and now in the custody of the clerk of the house, and a model
or pattern of the standard pound, mentioned in the eighth resolution of
that committee, together with models or patterns of the parts of the said
pound now presented to the house, and also of the multiples of the said
pound, mentioned in this report (when the same are adjusted), should be
kept in the said office, in custody of the said persons to be appointed
for sizing weights and measures, under the seal of the chief baron of the
exchequer for the time being; to be opened only by order of the said chief
baron, in his presence, or the presence of one of the barons of the
exchequer, on the application of the said persons, for the purpose of
correcting and adjusting, as occasion should require, the patterns or
models used at the said office, for sizing measures of length and weight
delivered out to the subjects. That models or patterns of the said
standard yard and standard pound aforesaid, and also models or patterns of
the parts and multiples aforesaid of the said pound, should be lodged in
the said office for the sizing of such measures of length or weight, as,
being parts, multiples, or proportions of the said standards, should
hereafter he required by any of his majesty’s subjects. That all measures
of length and weight, sized at the said office, should be marked in some
convenient part thereof, with such marks as should be thought expedient,
to show the identity of the measures and weights sized at the said office,
and to discover any frauds that may be committed therein. That the said
office should he kept within a convenient distance of the court of
exchequer at Westminster; and all the measures of length and weight,
within a certain distance of London, should be corrected and re-assized,
as occasion should require, at the said office. That, in order to enforce
the uniformity in weights and measures to be used for the future, all
persons appointed by the crown to act as justices of the peace in any
county, city, or town corporate, being respectively counties within
themselves, throughout the realm, should be empowered to hear and
determine, and put the law in execution, in respect to weights and
measures only, without any of them being obliged to sue out a dedimus,
or to act in any other matter; and the said commissioners should be
empowered to sue, imprison, inflict, or mitigate such penalties as should
be thought proper; and have such other authorities as should be necessary
for compelling the use of weights and measures, agreeably to the aforesaid
standards. The models or patterns of the said standard yard and pound, and
of the parts and multiples thereof, before-mentioned, should be
distributed in each county, in such a manner as to be readily used for
evidence in all eases where measures and weights should be questioned
before the said commissioners, and for adjusting the same in a proper
manner.]

504 (return)
[ Note 3 U, p. 504. The
letter was to this effect: To their excellencies Messrs. Hopson and
Moore, general officers of his Britannic Majesty at Basseterre.
“Gentlemen—I have received the letter which your excellencies have
done me the honour to write, of the twenty-fifth. You make me proposals
which could arise from nothing but the facility with which you have got
possession of the little town and citadel of Basseterre; for otherwise you
ought to do me the justice to believe they could not be received. You have
strength sufficient to subdue the exteriors of the island; but with
respect to the interiors, the match between us is equal. As to the
consequences that may attend my refusal, I am persuaded they will be no
other than such as are prescribed by the laws of war. Should we be
disappointed in this particular, we have a master powerful enough to
revenge any injury we may sustain. “I am, with respect, “Gentlemen, “Your
most obedient servant, “Nadau D’Etreil.” It is pretty remarkable, that the
apprehension of cruel usage from the English, who are undoubtedly the most
generous and humane enemies under the sun, not only prevailed among the
common French soldiery throughout this whole war, but even infected
officers of distinction, who ought to have been exempted from these
prejudices, by a better acquaintance with life, and more liberal turn of
thinking.]

505 (return)
[ Note 3 X, p. 505. The
reasons assigned by the commodore for his conduct in this particular are
these:—The bay of Dominique was the only place in which he could
rendezvous and unite his squadron. Here he refreshed his men, who were
grown sickly in consequence of subsisting on salt provisions. Here he
supplied his ships with plenty of fresh water. Here he had intercourse
once or twice every day with general Barrington, by means of small vessels
which passed and repassed from one island to the other. By remaining in
this situation, he likewise maintained a communication with the English
Leeward Islands, which being in a defenceless condition, their inhabitants
were constantly soliciting the commodore’s protection; and here he
supported the army, the commander of which was unwilling that he should
remove to a greater distance. Had he sailed to Port-Royal, he would have
found the enemy’s squadron so disposed, that he could not have attacked
them, unless M. de Bompart had been inclined to hazard an action. Had he
anchored in the bay, all his cruisers must have been employed in conveying
provisions and stores to the squadron. There he could not have procured
either fresh provisions or water; nor could he have had any communication
with, or intelligence from, the army in the Leeward Islands, in less than
eight or ten days.]

511 (return)
[ Note 3 Y, p. 511. The
following anecdote is so remarkable, and tends so much to the honour of
the British soldiery, that we insert it without fear of the reader’s
disapprobation:—Captain Ochterlony and ensign Peyton belonged to the
regiment of brigadier-general Mouckton. They were nearly of an age, which
did not exceed thirty: the first was a North Briton, the other a native of
Ireland. Both were agreeable in person, and unblemished in character, and
connected together by the ties of mutual friendship and esteem. On the day
that preceded the battle, captain Ochterlony had been obliged to fight a
duel with a German officer, in which, though he wounded and disarmed his
antagonist, yet he himself received a dangerous hurt under the right arm,
in consequence of which his friends insisted on his remaining in camp
during the action of the next day, but his spirit was too great to comply
with this remonstrance. He declared it should never be said that a
scratch, received in a private rencounter, had prevented him from doing
his duty, when his country required his service; and he took the field
with a fusil in his hand, though he was hardly able to carry his arms. In
leading up his men to the enemy’s intrenchment, he was shot through the
lungs with a musquet ball, an accident which obliged him to part with his
fusil: but he still continued advancing; until, by the loss of blood, he
became too weak to proceed farther. About the same time Mr. Peyton was
lamed by a shot, which shattered the small hone of his left leg. The
soldiers, in their retreat, earnestly begged, with tears in their eyes,
that captain Ochterlony would allow them to carry him and the ensign off
the field. But he was so bigoted to a severe point of honour, that he
would not quit the ground, though he desired they would take care of his
ensign. Mr. Peyton, with a generous disdain, rejected their good offices,
declaring, that he would not leave his captain in such a situation; and in
a little time they remained the sole survivors of that part of the field.

Captain Ochterlony sat down by his friend; and, as they
expected nothing but immediate death, they took leave of each other. Yet
they were not altogether abandoned by the hope of being protected as
prisoners: for the captain, seeing a French soldier with two Indians
approach, started up, and accosting them in the French language, which he
spoke perfectly well, expressed his expectation that they would treat him
and his companion as officers, prisoners, and gentlemen. The two Indians
seemed to be entirely under the conduct of the Frenchman, who coming up to
Mr. Peyton, as he sat on the ground, snatched his laced hat from his head,
and robbed the captain of his watch and money. This outrage was a signal
to the Indians for murder and pillage. One of them, clubbing his firelock,
struck at him behind, with a view to knock him down; but the blow missing
his head, took place upon his shoulder. At the same instant the other
Indian poured his shot into the breast of this unfortunate young
gentleman; who cried out, “Oh, Peyton, the villain has shot me.” Not yet
satisfied with cruelty, the barbarian sprung upon him, and stabbed him in
the belly with his scalping-knife. The captain having parted with his
fusil, had no weapon for his defence, as none of the officers wore swords
in the action. The three ruffians, finding him still alive, endeavoured to
strangle him with his own sash; and he was now upon his knees, struggling
against them with surprising exertion. Mr. Peyton, at this juncture,
having a double-barrelled musket in his hand, and seeing the distress of
his friend, fired at one of the Indians, who dropped dead upon the spot.
The other thinking the ensign would now be an easy prey, advanced towards
him; and Mr. Peyton, having taken good aim at the distance of four yards,
discharged his piece the second time, but it seemed to take no effect. The
savage fired in his turn, and wounded the ensign in his shoulder; then,
rushing upon him, thrust his bayonet through his body. He repeated the
blow, which Mr. Peyton attempting to parry, received another wound in his
left hand: nevertheless, he seized the Indian’s musket with the same hand,
pulled him forwards, and with his right drawing a dagger which hung by his
side, plunged it in the barbarian’s side. A violent struggle ensued: but
at length Mr. Peyton was uppermost; and, with repeated strokes of his
dagger, killed his antagonist outright. Here he was seized with an
unaccountable emotion of curiosity, to know whether his shot had taken
place on the body of the Indian: he accordingly turned him up; and,
stripping off his blanket, perceived that the ball had penetrated quite
through the cavity of the breast. Having thus obtained a dear-bought
victory, he started up on one leg; and saw captain Ochterlony standing at
the distance of sixty yards, close by the enemy’s breastwork, with the
French soldier attending him. Mr. Peyton then called aloud,—“Captain
Ochterlony, I am glad to see you have at last got under protection. Beware
of that villain, who is more barbarous than the savages. God bless you, my
dear captain! I see a party of Indians coming this way, and expect to be
murdered immediately.” A number of those barbarians had for some time been
employed on the left, in scalping and pillaging the dying and the dead
that were left upon the field of battle; and above thirty of them were in
full march to destroy Mr. Peyton. This gentleman knew he had no mercy to
expect; for, should his life be spared for the present, they would have
afterwards insisted upon sacrificing him to the manes of their brethren
whom he had slain; and in that case he would have been put to death by the
most excruciating tortures. Full of this idea, he snatched up his musket,
and, notwithstanding his broken leg, ran about forty yards without
halting: feeling himself now totally disabled, and incapable of proceeding
one step farther, he loaded his piece, and presented it to the two
foremost Indians, who stood aloof, waiting to be joined by their fellows;
while the French, from their breastworks, kept up a continual fire of
cannon and small arms upon this poor solitary and maimed gentleman. In
this uncomfortable situation he stood, when he discerned at a distance a
Highland officer, with a party of his men, skirting the plain towards the
field of battle. He forthwith waved his hand in signal of distress, and
being perceived by the officer, he detached three of his men to his
assistance. These brave fellows hastened to him through the midst of a
terrible fire, and one of them bore him off on his shoulders. The Highland
officer was captain Macdonald of colonel Frasor’s battalion; who,
understanding that a young gentleman, his kinsman, had dropped on the
field of battle, had put himself at the head of this party, with which he
penetrated to the middle of the field, drove a considerable number of the
French and Indians before him, and finding his relation still unscalped,
carried him off in triumph. Poor captain Ochterlony was conveyed to
Quebec, where in a few days he died of his wounds. After the reduction of
that place, the French surgeons who attended him declared, that in all
probability he would have recovered of the two shots he had received in
his breast, had he not been mortally wounded in the belly by the Indian’s
scalping-knife.

As this very remarkable scene was acted in
sight of both armies, general Townshend, in the sequel, expostulated with
the French officers upon the inhumanity of keeping up such a severe fire
against two wounded gentlemen who were disabled, and destitute of all hope
of escaping. They answered that the fire was not made by the regulars, but
by the Canadians and savages, whom it was not in the power of discipline
to restrain.]

513 (return)
[ Note 3 Z, p. 513. How
far the success of this attempt depended upon accident, may be conceived
from the following particulars:—In the twilight, two French
deserters were carried on board a ship of war, commanded by captain Smith,
and lying at anchor near the north shore. They told him that the garrison
of Quebec expected that night to receive a convoy of provisions, sent down
the river in boats from the detachment above, commanded by M. de
Bouganville. These deserters, standing upon deck, and perceiving the
English boats with the troops gliding down the river in the dark, began to
shout and make a noise, declaring they were part of the expected convoy,
captain Smith, who was ignorant of general Wolfe’s design, believing their
affirmation, had actually given orders to point the guns at the British
troops; when the general, perceiving a commotion on board, rowed alongside
in person and prevented the discharge, which would have alarmed the town,
and entirely frustrated the attempt.

The French had posted
sentries along shore, to challenge boats and vessels, and give the alarm
occasionally. The first boat that contained the English troops being
questioned accordingly, a captain of Eraser’s regiment, who had served in
Holland, and who was perfectly well acquainted with the French language
and customs, answered without hesitation to Qui vit? which is their
challenging word, La France: nor was he at a loss to answer the
second question, which was much more particular and difficult. When the
sentinel demanded a quell regiment? to what regiment? the captain
replied, De la Reine; which he knew, by accident, to be one of
those that composed the body commanded by Bougainville. The soldier took
it for granted this was the expected convoy; and saying Passe,
allowed all the boats to proceed without further question. In the same
manner the other sentries were deceived; though one, more wary than the
rest, came running down to the water’s edge, and called, “Pourquoi est
ce que vous ne parlez plus haut? Why don’t you speak with an audible
voice?” To this interrogation, which implied doubt, the captain answered,
with admirable presence of mind, in a soft tone of voice, “Tai toi!
nous serons entendues!Hush! we shall be overheard and discovered!”
Thus cautioned, the sentry retired without further altercation. The
midshipman who piloted the first boat, passing by the landing place in the
dark, the same captain, who knew it from his having been posted formerly
with his company on the other side of the river, insisted on the pilot’s
being mistaken; and commanded the rowers to put ashore in the proper
place, or at least very near it.

When general Wolfe landed, and
saw the difficulty of ascending the precipice, he said to the same officer
in a familiar strain, “I don’t believe there is any possibility of getting
up; but you must do your endeavour.” The narrow path that slanted up the
hill from the landing place the enemy had broken up, and rendered
impassible by cross ditches, besides the intrenchment at the top: in every
other part the hill was so steep and dangerous, that the soldiers were
obliged to pull themselves up by the roots and boughs of trees growing on
both sides of the path.]

515 (return)
[ Note 4 A, p. 515 The
chagrin and mortification of Lally are strongly marked in the following
intercepted letter to M. de Legret, dated from the camp before Madras:—

“A good blow might be struck here: there is a ship in the road,
of twenty guns, laden with all the riches of Madras, which it is said will
remain there till the 20th. The expedition is just arrived, but M. Gerlin
is not a man to attack her; for she has made him run away once before. The
Bristol, on the other hand, did but just make her appearance before St.
Thomas; and, on the vague report of thirteen ships coming from Porto-Novo,
she took fright; and, after landing the provisions with which she was
laden, she would not stay long enough even to take on board twelve of her
own guns, which she had lent us for the siege.

“If I was the
judge of the point of honour of the company’s officers, I would break him
like glass, as well as some others of them.

“The Fidelle, or
the Harlem, or even the aforesaid Bristol, with her twelve guns restored
to her, would be sufficient to make themselves masters of the English
ship, if they could manage so as to get to windward of her in the night.
Maugendre and Tremillier are said to be good men; and were they employed
only to transport two hundred wounded men that we have here, their service
would be of importance.

“We remain still in the same position:
the breach made these fifteen clays, all the time within fifty toises of
the wall of the place, and never holding up our heads to look at it.

“I reckon we shall, on our arrival at Pondieherry, endeavour to learn some
other trade, for this of war requires too much patience.

“Of
one thousand five hundred sepoys which attended our army, I reckon near
eight hundred are employed upon the road to Pondieherry, laden with sugar,
pepper, and other goods; and as for the coulis, they are all employed for
the same purpose, from the first day we came here.

“I am taking
my measures from this day to set fire to the Black-town, and to blow up
the powder-mills.

“You will never imagine that fifty French
deserters, and one hundred Swiss, are actually stopping the progress of
two thousand men of the king and company’s troops, which are still here
existing, notwithstanding the exaggerated accounts that every one makes
here according to his own fancy, of the slaughter that has been made of
them; and you will be still more surprised if I tell you, that, were it
not lor the combats and four battles we sustained, and for the batteries
which failed, or, to speak more properly, which were unskilfully made, we
should not have lost fifty men, from the commencement of the siege to this
day. I have written to M. de Larche, that if he persists in not coming
here, let who will raise money upon the Poleagers for me, I will not do
it; and I renounce (as I informed you a month ago I would do) meddling
directly or indirectly with any thing whatever that may have relation to
your administration, whether civil or military. For I had rather go and
command the Caffrees of Madagascar than remain in this Sodom, which it is
impossible but the fire of the English must destroy sooner or later, even
though that from heaven should not. “I have the honour to be, &c.
&c. (Signed) “LALLY.”

“P. S.—I think it necessary to
apprize you, that as M. de Soupire has refused to take upon him the
command of this army, which I have offered to him, and which he is
empowered to accept, by having received from the court a duplicate of my
commission, you must of necessity, together with the council, take it upon
you. For my part, I undertake only to bring it back either to Arcot or
Sadraste. Send, therefore, your orders, or come yourselves to command it;
for I shall quit it upon my arrival there.”]

521 (return)
[ Note 4 B, p. 521. That
the general was not pleased with the behaviour of lord George Sackville,
may be gathered from the following compliment to the marquis of Granby,
implying a severe reflection upon his superior in command.

Orders
of his serene highness prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, relative to the
behaviour of the troops under him, at the famous battle near Minden, on
the first of August, 1759.

“His serene highness ordered his
greatest thanks to be given to the whole army, for their bravery and good
behaviour yesterday, particularly to the English infantry, and the two
battalions of Hanoverian guards; to all the cavalry of the left wing; and
to general Wan-genheim’s corps, particularly the regiment of Holstein, the
Hessian cavalry, the Hanoverian regiment du corps, and Hammerstin’s; the
same to all the brigades of heavy artillery. His serene highness declares
publicly, that, next to God, he attributes the glory of the day to the
intrepidity and extraordinary good behaviour of these troops, which he
assures them he shall retain the strongest sense of as long as he lives;
and if ever, upon any occasion, he shall be able to serve these brave
troops, or any of them in particular, it will give him the utmost
pleasure. His serene highness orders his particular thanks to be likewise
given to general Sporeken, the duke of Holstein, lieutenant-generals
Imhoff and Urf. His serene highness is extremely obliged to the count de
Buckebourg, for his extraordinary care and trouble in the management of
the artillery, which was served with great effect: likewise to the
commanding officers of the several brigades of artillery, viz. colonel
Browne, lieutenant-colonel Hutte, Major Hasse, and the three English
captains, Philips, Drummond, and Foy. His serene highness thinks himself
infinitely obliged to major-generals Waldegrave and Kingsley, for their
great courage, and the good order in which they conducted their brigades.
His serene highness further orders it to be declared to lieutenant-general
the marquis of Grandby, that he is persuaded that, if he had had the good
fortune to have had him at the head of the cavalry of the right wing, his
presence would have greatly contributed to make the decision of that day
more complete and more brilliant. In short, his serene highness orders
that those of his suite whose behaviour he most admired be named, as the
duke of Richmond, colonel Fitzroy, captain Ligonier, colonel Watson,
captain Wilson, aidecamp to major-general Waldegrave, adjutant, generals
Erstorff, Bulow, Durendolle, the counts Tobe and Malerti; his serene
highness having much reason tobe satisfied with their conduct. And his
serene highness desires and orders the generals of the army, that upon all
occasions when orders are brought to them by his aids-de-camp, that they
may be obeyed punctually, and without delay.”]

522 (return)
[ Note 4 C, p. 522. The
following extracts of letters from the duke de Belleisle to the mareschal
de Contades, will convey some idea of the virtue, policy, and necessities
of the French ministry:—

“I am still afraid that Fischer
sets out too late: it is, however, very important, and very essential,
that we should raise large contributions. I see no other resource for our
most urgent expenses, and for refitting the troops, but in the money we
may draw from the enemy’s country, from whence we must likewise procure
subsistence of all kinds (independently of the money), that is to say,
hay, straw, oats for the winter, bread, corn, cattle, horses, even men to
recruit our foreign troops. The war must not be prolonged; and perhaps it
may be necessary, according to the events which may happen between this
time and the end of September, to make a downright desert before the line
of the quarters which it may be thought proper to keep during the winter,
in order that the enemy may be under a real impossibility of approaching
us: at the same time reserving for ourselves a bare subsistence on the
route which may be the most convenient for us to take, in the middle of
winter, to beat up or seize upon the enemy’s quarters. That this object
may be fulfilled, I cause the greatest assiduity to be used in preparing
what is necessary for having all your troops, without exception, well
clothed, well armed, well equipped, and well refitted, in every respect,
before the end of November, with new tents; in order that, if it should be
advisable for the king’s political and military affairs, you may be able
to assemble the whole or part of your army, to act offensively and with
vigour, from the beginning of January; and that you may have the
satisfaction to show your enemies and all Europe, that the French know how
to act and carry on war in all seasons, when they have such a general as
you are, and a minister of the department of war that can foresee and
concert matters with the general.

“You must be sensible, sir,
that what I say to you may become not only useful and honourable, but
perhaps even necessary, with respect to what you know, and of which I
shall say no more in a private letter.

“M. duc de BELLEISLE.”

“After observing all the formalities due to the magistrates of
Cologne, you must seize on their great artillery by force, telling them
that you do so for their own defence against the common enemy of the
empire; that you will restore them when their city has nothing further to
fear, &c. After all, you must take everything you have occasion for,
and give them receipts for it.—

“You must, at any rate,
consume all sorts of subsistence on the higher Lippe, Paderborn, and
Warsburg; you must destroy everything which you cannot consume, so as to
make a desert of all Westphalia, from Lipstadt and Munster, as far as the
Rhine, on one hand: and on the other, from the higher Lippe and Paderborn,
as far as Cassel; that the enemy may find it quite impracticable to direct
their march to the Rhine, or the lower Roer; and this with regard to your
army, and with regard to the army under M. de Soubise, that they may not
have it in their power to take possession of Cassel, and much less to
march to Marburg, or to the quarters which he will have along the Lahn, or
to those which you will occupy, from the lower part of the left side of
the Roer, and on the right side of the Rhine, as far as Dusseldorp, and at
Cologne.”—

“You know the necessity of consuming or
destroying, as far as is possible, all the subsistence, especially the
forage betwixt the Weser and the Rhine on the one hand, and on the other
betwixt the Lippe, the bishopric of Paderborn, the Dymel, the Fulda, and
the Nerra; and so to make a desert of Westphalia and Hesse.”—

“Although the prince of Waldeck appears outwardly neutral, he is very
ill-disposed, and deserves very little favour. You ought, therefore, to
make no scruple of taking all you find in that territory: but this must be
done in an orderly manner, giving receipts, and observing the most exact
discipline. All the subsistence you leave in this country will fall to the
enemy’s share, who will, by that means, be enabled to advance to the Lahn,
and towards the quarters which you are to occupy on the left side of the
Roer. It is therefore a precaution become in a manner indispensably
necessary, to carry it all away from thence.”—

“The
question now is, what plan you shall think most proper for accomplishing,
in the quickest and surest manner, our great purpose: which must be to
consume, carry off, or destroy, all the forage and subsistence of the
country which we cannot keep possession of.”—

“The upper
part of the Lippe, and the country of Paderborn, are the most plentiful;
they must therefore be eat to the very roots.”…..

“You did
mighty well to talk in the most absolute tone with regard to the
necessaries Racroth and Duysbourg must furnish our troops: it is necessary
to speak in that tone to Germans; and you will find your account in using
the same to the regencies of the elector of Cologne, and still more to
that of the palatine.

“After using all becoming ceremony, as we
have the power in our hands, we must make use of it, and draw from the
country of Bergue what shall be necessary for the subsistence of the
garrison of Dusseldorp, and of the light troops, and reserve what may be
brought thither from Alsace and the bishoprics for a case of necessity.”]

523 (return)
[ Note 4 D, p. 523. The
following declarations were published by count Dohna, the Prussian
general, on his entering Poland with a body of Prussian troops.

On the 15th of June.

His Prussian majesty, finding
himself under a necessity to cause part of his armies to enter the
territories of the republic of Poland, in order to protect them against
the threatened invasion of the enemy; declares that,—

It
must not be understood that his majesty, by this step taken, intends to
make any breach in the regard he has always had for the illustrious
republic of Poland, or to lessen the good understanding which has hitherto
subsisted between them: but, on the contrary, to strengthen the same, in
expectation that the illustrious republic will on its part act with the
like neighbourly and friendly good-will as is granted to the enemy, than
which nothing more is desired.

The nobility, gentry, and
magistracy, in their respective districts, between the frontiers of
Prussia, so far as beyond Posen, are required to furnish all kinds of
provisions, corn, and forage necessary to support an army of 40,000 men,
with the utmost despatch, with an assurance of being paid ready money for
the same. But if, contrary to expectation, any deficiency should happen in
supplying this demand, his majesty’s troops will be obliged to forage, and
use the same means as those taken by the enemy for their subsistence.

In confidence, therefore, that the several jurisdictions upon
the Prussian frontiers, within the territories of Poland, will exert
themselves to comply with this demand as soon as possible, for the
subsistence of the royal army of Prussia, they are assured that thereby
all disorders will be prevented, and whatever is delivered will be paid
for in ready money.

On the 17th of June. It was with the
greatest astonishment that the king, my most gracious lord and master,
heard that several of his own subjects had suffered themselves to be
seduced from their allegiance, so far as to enter into the service of a
potentate with whom he is at war; his majesty, therefore, makes known by
these presents, that all of his subjects serving in the enemy’s armies,
who shall be taken with arms in their hands, shall, agreeable to all laws,
be sentenced to be hanged without mercy, as traitors to their king and
country, of which all whom it may concern are desired to take notice,
&c.

On the 22nd of June. We invite and desire that
the nobility, archbishops, bishops, abbeys, convents, seignories,
magistrates, and inhabitants of the republic of Poland, on the road to
Posnania, and beyond it, would repair in person or by deputies, in the
course of this week, or as soon after as possible, to the Prussian
head-quarters, there to treat with the commander-in-chief, or the
commissary at war, for the delivery of forage and provisions for the
subsistence of the army, to be paid for with ready money.

We
promise and assure ourselves that no person in Poland will attempt to
seduce the Prussian troops to desert; that no assistance will be given
them in such perfidious practices; that they will neither be sheltered,
concealed, nor lodged; which would be followed by very disagreeable
consequences: we expect, on the contrary, that persons of all ranks and
conditions will stop any runaway or deserter, and deliver him up at the
first advanced post, or at the head-quarters; and all expenses attending
the same shall be paid, and a reasonable gratification superadded.

If any one hath inclination to enter into the king of Prussia’s service,
with an intention to behave well and faithfully, he may apply to the
head-quarters, and be assured of a capitulation for three or four years.

If any prince or member of the republic of Poland be disposed
to assemble a body of men, and to join in a troop or in a company of the
Prussian army, to make a common cause with it, he may depend on a gracious
reception, and that due regard will be shown to his merit, &c.]

526 (return)
[ Note 4 E, p. 526. The
obstinacy of the powers in opposition to Great Britain and Prussia
appeared still more remarkable in their slighting the following
declaration, which duke Louis of Brunswick delivered to their ministers at
the Hague, in the month of December, after Quebec was reduced, and the
fleet of France totally defeated:

“Their Britannic and Prussian
majesties, moved with compassion at the mischief which the war that has
been kindled for some years has already occasioned, and must necessarily
produce, would think themselves wanting to the duties of humanity, and
particularly to their tender concern for the preservation and well-being
of their respective kingdoms and subjects, if they neglected the proper
means to put a stop to the progress of so severe a calamity, and to
contribute to the re-establishment of public tranquillity. In this view,
and in order to manifest the purity of their intentions in this respect,
their said majesties have determined to make the following declaration,
viz.—

“That they are ready to send plenipotentiaries to
the place which, shall be thought most proper, in order there to treat,
conjointly, of a solid and general peace with those whom the belligerent
parties should think fit to authorize, on their part, for the attaining so
salutary an end.”]

529 (return)
[ Note 4 F, p. 529. Abstract
of the report made to his Catholic majesty by the physicians appointed to
examine the prince royal, his eldest son, in consequence of which his
royal highness was declared incapable of succeeding to the throne of
Spain. Translated from the original, published at Naples, Sept. 27.

1. Though his royal highness don Philip is thirteen years old,
he is of low stature; and yet the king his father, and the queen his
mother, are both of a very proper height.

2. His royal highness
has some contraction in his joints; though he can readily move, and make
use of them upon all occasions.

3. His royal highness is apt to
stoop and to hold down his head as people of weak eyes often do.

4. The prince most evidently squints: and his eyes frequently water and
are gummy, particularly his left eye: though we cannot say he is blind,
but are rather certain of the contrary, as his royal highness can without
doubt distinguish objects, both as to their colour and situation.

5. In his natural functions, and the most common sensations, he is
sometimes indifferent to things that are convenient for him, and at other
times is too warm and impetuous. In general, his passions are not
restrained by reason.

6. The prince has an obstinate aversion
to some kind of common food, such as fruits, sweetmeats, &c.

7. All sorts of noise or sound disturb and disconcert him; and it has the
same effect whether it be soft and harmonious, or harsh and disagreeable.

8. The impressions that he receives from pain or pleasure are
neither strong nor lasting; and he is utterly unacquainted with all the
punctilios of politeness and good-breeding.

9. As to facts and
places, he sometimes remembers them, and sometimes not; but he seems not
to have the least idea of the mysteries of our holy religion.

10. He delights in childish amusements; and those which are the most
boisterous please him best. He is continually changing them, and shifting
from one thing to another.

Signed by Don Francis Beniore, chief
physician to the king and kingdom; Don Emmanuel de la Rosa, physician to
the queen; and the physicians Cæsar Ciribue, Don Thomas Pinto, Don Francis
Sarrao, and Don Dominique San Severino.]

535 (return)
[ Note 4 G, p. 535. By
this law it was enacted, that if any militia-man, who shall have been
accepted and enrolled as a substitute, hired man, or volunteer, before the
passing of the act, or who shall have been chosen by lot, whether before
or after the passing of the act, shall, when embodied, or called out into
actual service, and ordered to march, leave a family unable to support
themselves, the overseers shall, by order of some one justice of the
peace, pay out of the poor’s rates of such parish a weekly allowance to
such family, according to the usual and ordinary price of labour and
husbandry there; viz. for one child under the age of ten years, the price
of one day’s labour; for two children under the age aforesaid, the price
of two days’ labour; for three or four children under the age aforesaid,
the price of three days’ labour; for five or more children under the age
aforesaid, the price of four days’ labour; and for the wife of such
militia-man, the price of one day’s labour; but that the families of such
men only as shall be chosen by lot, and of the substitutes, hired men, and
volunteers already accepted and enrolled, shall, after the passing of this
act, receive any such weekly allowance. For removing the grievance
complained of in the above petition, it is enacted, that where treasurers
shall reimburse to overseers any money in pursuance of this act, on
account of the weekly allowance to the family of any militia-man serving
in the militia of any county or place other than that wherein such family
shall dwell, they are to transmit an account thereof, signed by some
justice for the place where such family shall dwell, to the treasurer of
the county, &c. in the militia whereof such militia-man shall serve,
who is thereupon to pay him the sum so reimbursed to such overseers, and
the same to be allowed in his accounts.]

536 (return)
[ Note 4 H, p. 536. The
openings to be made, and the passages to be improved and enlarged, were
ascertained by two schedules annexed to the act. With respect to the
houses, buildings, and grounds to be purchased, the mayor, aldermen, and
commons of the city, in common council assembled, or a committee appointed
by them, were empowered to fix the price by agreement, with the respective
proprietors, or otherwise by a jury in the usual manner. With regard to
party-walls, the act ordains, that the proprietor of either adjoining
house may compel the proprietor of the other to agree to its being pulled
down and rebuilt, and pay a moiety of the expense even though it should
not be necessary to pull down or rebuild either of their houses: that all
party-walls shall be at least two bricks and a half in thickness in the
cellar, and two bricks thick upwards to the top of the garret-floor. It
enacts, that if any decayed house belongs to several proprietors, any one
of them, who is desirous to rebuild, may oblige the others to concur, and
join with him in the expense, or purchase their shares at a price to be
fixed by a jury. If any house should hereafter be presented by any inquest
or grand jury in London, as being in a ruinous condition, the court of
mayor and aldermen is, by this act, empowered to pull it down at the
expense of the ground landlords. As to damaged pavements, not sufficiently
repaired by the proprietors of the water-works, any justice of the peace
in London is vested with power, upon their refusing or delaying to make it
good, to cause it to be effectually relaid with good materials at their
expense.]

538 (return)
[ Note 4 I, p. 538. The
following declaration made to the chiefs of the opposition will render the
memory of the late prince of Wales dear to latest posterity:—

His royal highness has authorized lord T. and sir F. D. to give the most
positive assurances to the gentlemen in the opposition, of his upright
intentions; that he is thoroughly convinced of the distresses and
calamities that have befallen, and every day are more likely to befal this
country; and therefore invites all well wishers to this country and its
constitution to coalesce and unite with him, and upon the following
principle only.—

His royal highness promises, and will
declare it openly, that it is his intention totally to abolish any
distinctions for the future of parties; and as far as lies in his power,
and as soon as it does lie in his power, to take away for ever all
proscription from any set of men whatever who are friends to the
constitution; and therefore will promote for the present, and when it is
in his power will immediately grant,—

First, A bill to
empower all gentlemen to act as justices of the peace, paying land-tax for
£300 per annum in any county where he intends to serve.

Secondly, His royal highness promises, in like manner, to support, and
forthwith grant, whenever he shall have it in his power, a bill to create
and establish a numerous and effectual militia throughout the kingdom.

Thirdly, His royal highness promises, in like manner, to
promote and support, and likewise grant, when it is in his power, a bill
to exclude all military officers in the land-service under the degree of
colonels of regiments, and in the sea-service under the degree of
rear-admirals, from sitting in the house of commons.

Fourthly,
His royal highness promises that he will, when in his power, grant
inquiries into the great number of abuses in offices, and does not doubt
of the assistance of all honest men, to enable him to correct the same for
the future.

Fifthly, His royal highness promises, and will
openly declare, that he will make no agreement with, or join in the
support of, any administration whatever, without previously obtaining the
above-mentioned points in behalf of the people, and for the sake of good
government. Upon these conditions, and these conditions only, his royal
highness thinks he has a right not to doubt of having a most cordial
support from all those good men who mean their country and this
constitution well, and that they will become his and his family’s friends,
and unite with him, to promote the good government of this country, and
that they will follow him, upon these principles, both in court and out of
court; and if he should live to form an administration, it should be
composed, without distinction, of men of dignity, knowledge, and probity.
His royal highness further promises to accept of no more, if offered to
him, than £800,000 for his civil list, by way of rent-charge.

Answer to the foregoing proposal.

The lords and
gentlemen to whom a paper has been communicated, containing his royal
highness the prince’s gracious intentions upon several weighty and
important points, of the greatest consequence to the honour and interest
of his majesty’s government, and absolutely necessary for the restoring
and perpetuating the true use and design of parliament, the purity of our
excellent constitution, and the happiness and welfare of the whole nation,
do therein with the greatest satisfaction observe, and most gratefully
acknowledge, the uprightness and generosity of his royal highness’s noble
sentiments and resolutions. And therefore beg leave to return their most
dutiful and humble thanks for the same: and to assure his royal highness
that they will constantly and steadily use their utmost endeavours to
support those his wise and salutary purposes, that the throne may be
strengthened, religion and morality encouraged, faction and corruption
destroyed, the purity and essence of parliament restored, and the
happiness and welfare of our constitution preserved.

When the
above answer was returned to the prince, there were present, The Duke of
B.—The Earl of L.—The Earl of S.—The Earl of T.—The
Earl of W.—The Earl of S.—Lord F.—Lord W.—Sir Wat.
Wil. Wynne.—Sir John H. C—Sir Walter B.—Sir Robert G.—Mr.
F.—Mr. F.—Mr. C.]

547 (return)
[ Note 4 K, p. 547.

Ultimo die Octobris anno ab incarnationo

MDCCLX.

Auspicatissimo principe Georgio Tertio

Regnnm jam ineunte,

Pontis hujus, in reipublicæ commodum

Urbisque
majestatem

(Latè turn flagrante bello)

à S. P. Q. L.
suscepti,

Primum lapidem posuit

Thomas Chitty,
miles,

Prætor;

Roberto Mylne, architecte

Utque apud posteros extet monumentum

Voluntatis suæ erga virum,

Qui vigore ingenii, animi constantia,

Probitatis et
virtutis suæ felici quâdam contagione,

(Favente Deo,

Fautisque Georgii Secundi auspiciis!)

Imperium Britannicum

In Asia, Africa, et America

Restituit, auxit, et
stabilivit;

Necnon patriæ antiquum honorem et auctoritateni

Inter Europæ gentes instauravit;

Gives Londinenses,
uno consensu,

Huic ponti inscribi voluerunt nomen

GULIELMI PITT.]

549 (return)
[ Note 4 L, p. 549. This
attempt was conducted in the following manner, having doubtless been
concerted with the two-and-twenty hostages who resided in the fort. On the
sixteenth day of February, two Indian women appearing at Keowee, on the
other side of the river, Mr. Dogharty, one of the officers of the fort,
went out to ask them what news. While he was engaged in conversation with
these females, the great Indian warrior Ocunnastota joined them, desired
he would call the commanding officer, to whom he said he had something to
propose. Accordingly, lieutenant Cotymore appearing, accompanied by ensign
Bell, Dogharty, and Foster the interpreter, Ocunnastota told him he had
something of consequence to impart to the governor, whom he proposed to
visit, and desired he might be attended by a white man as a safeguard. The
lieutenant assuring him he should have a safeguard, the Indian declared he
would then go and catch a horse for him; so saying, he swung a bridle
twice over his head, as a signal; and immediately twenty-five or thirty
muskets, from different ambuscades, were discharged at the English
officers. Mr. Cotymore received a shot in his left breast, and in a few
days expired: Mr. Bell was wounded in the calf of the left leg, and the
interpreter in the buttock. Ensign Milne, who remained in the fort, was no
sooner informed of this treachery, than he ordered the soldiers to shackle
the hostages; in the execution of which order one man was killed on the
spot, and another wounded in his forehead with a tomahawk; circumstances
which, added to the murder of the lieutenant, incensed the garrison to
such a degree, that it was judged absolutely necessary to put the hostages
to death without further hesitation. In the evening a party of Indians
approached the fort, and firing two signal pieces, cried aloud in the
Cherokee language—“Fight manfully, and you shall be assisted.” They
then began an attack; and continued firing all night upon the fort,
without doing the least execution. That a design was concerted between
them and the hostages appeared plainly from the nature of the assault; and
this suspicion was converted into a certainty next day, when some of the
garrison, searching the apartment in which the hostages lay, found a
bottle of poison, probably designed to be emptied into the well, and
several tomahawks buried in the earth; which weapons had been privately
conveyed to them by their friends, who were permitted to visit them
without interruption. On the third day of March, the fort of Ninety-six
was attacked by two hundred Cherokee Indians with musketry, which had
little or no effect; so that they were forced to retire with some loss,
and revenged themselves on the open country, burning and ravaging all the
houses and plantations belonging to English settlers in this part of the
country, and all along the frontiers of Virginia. Not contented with
pillaging and destroying the habitations, they wantoned in the most
horrible barbarities; and their motions were so secret and sudden, that it
was impossible for the inhabitants to know where the storm would burst, or
take proper precautions for their own defence; so that a great number of
the back settlements were totally abandoned.]

550 (return)
[ Note 4 M, p. 550. The
garrison of Quebec, during the winter, repaired above five hundred houses
which had been damaged by the English cannon, built eight redoubts of
wood, raised foot-banks along the ramparts, opened embrasures, mounted
artillery, blocked up all the avenues of the suburbs with a stockade,
removed eleven months’ provisions into the highest parts of the city, and
formed a magazine of four thousand fascines. Two hundred men were posted
at Saint Foix, and twice the number at Lorette. Several hundred men
marched to Saint Augustin, brought off the enemy’s advanced guard, with a
great number of cattle, and disarmed the inhabitants. By these precautions
the motions of the French were observed, the avenues of Quebec were
covered, and their dominions secured over eleven parishes, which furnished
them with some fresh provisions, and other necessaries for subsistence.
Sixteen thousand cords of wood being wanted for the hospitals, guards, and
quarters, and the method of transporting it from the isle of Orleans being
found slow and difficult, on account of the floating ice in the river, a
sufficient number of hand-sledges were made, and two hundred wood-fellers
set at work in the forest of Saint Foix, where plenty of fuel was
obtained, and brought into the several regiments by the men that were not
upon duty. A detachment of two hundred men being sent to the other side of
the river, disarmed the inhabitants, and compelled them to take the oath
of allegiance: by this step the English became masters of the southern
side of St. Laurence, and were supplied with good quantities of fresh
provision. The advanced posts of the enemy were established at Point au
Tremble, Saint Augustin, and Le Calvaire; the main body of their army
quartered between Trois Rivieres and Jaques Quartier. Their general,
having formed the design of attacking Quebec in the winter, began to
provide snow-shoes or rackets, scaling-ladders, and fascines, and make all
the necessary preparations for that enterprise. He took possession of
Point Levi, where he formed a magazine of provisions; great part of which,
however, fell into the hands of the English; for, as soon as the river was
frozen over, brigadier Murray despatched thither two hundred men; at whose
approach the enemy abandoned their magazine, and retreated with great
precipitation. Here the detachment took post in a church until they could
build two wooden redoubts, and mount them with artillery. In the meantime,
the enemy returning with a greater force to recover the post, some
battalions, with the light infantry, marched over the ice, in order to cut
off their communication; but they fled with great confusion, and
afterwards took post at Saint Michael, at a considerable distance farther
down the river. They now resolved to postpone the siege of Quebec, that
they might carry it on in a more regular manner. They began to rig their
ships, repair their small craft, build galleys, cast bombs and bullets,
and prepare fascines and gabions; while brigadier Murray employed his men
in making preparations for a vigorous defence. He sent out a detachment,
who surprised the enemy’s posts at Saint Augustin, Maison Brûlée, and Le
Calvaire, where they took ninety prisoners. He afterwards ordered the
light infantry to possess and fortify Cape Bouge, to prevent the enemy’s
landing at that place, as well as to be nearer at hand to observe their
motions; but when the frost broke up, so that their ships could fall down
the river, they landed at Saint Augustin; and the English posts were
abandoned one after another, the detachments retiring without loss into
the city.]

558 (return)
[ Note 4 N, p. 558. A
translation of the Declaration delivered by the Austrian minister residing
at the Hague, to his serene highness Prince Louis of Brunswick, in answer
to that which his highness had delivered on the part of his Britannic
Majesty and the King of Prussia, on the 25th of November, 1759, to the
ministers of the belligerent powers.

“Their Britannic and
Prussian majesties having thought proper to make known, by the declaration
delivered, on their part, at the Hague, the 25th of November last past, to
the ambassadors and ministers of the courts of Vienna, Petersburgh, and
Versailles, residing there:

“‘That being sincerely desirous of
contributing to the re-establishment of the public tranquillity, they were
ready to send plenipotentiaries to the place that shall be judged the most
convenient, in order to treat there of this important object with those
which the belligerent parties shall think proper to authorize on their
side for attaining so salutary an end:’

“Her majesty the
empress queen of Hungary and Bohemia, her majesty the empress of all the
Russias, and his majesty the most Christian king, equally animated by the
desire of contributing to the re-establishment of the public tranquillity,
on a solid and equitable footing, declare in return,—

“That his majesty the Catholic king having been pleased to offer his
mediation in the war which had subsisted for some years between France and
England; and this war having besides nothing in common with that which the
two empresses, with their allies, have likewise carried on for some years
against the king of Prussia;

“His most Christian majesty is
ready to treat of his particular peace with England, through the good
offices of his Catholic majesty, whose mediation he has a pleasure in
accepting;

“As to the war which regards directly his Prussian
majesty, their majesties, the empress queen of Hungary and Bohemia, the
empress of all the Russias, and the most Christian king, are disposed to
agree to the appointing the congress proposed. But as, by virtue of their
treaties, they cannot enter into any engagement relating to peace but in
conjunction with their allies, it will be necessary, in order that they
may be enabled to explain themselves definitively upon that subject, that
their Britannic and Prussian majesties should previously be pleased to
cause their invitation to a congress to be made to all the powers that are
directly engaged in war against the king of Prussia; and namely, to his
majesty the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, as likewise to his majesty
the king of Sweden, who ought specifically to be invited to the future
congress.”]

561 (return)
[ Note 4 O, p. 561. Copy
of a Letter from the marquis of Granby to the earl of Holdernesse. My
Lord, It is with the greatest satisfaction that I have the honour of
acquainting your lordship of the success of the hereditary prince
yesterday morning.

General Sporcken’s corps marched from the
camp at Kalle to Liebenau, about four in the afternoon of the
twenty-ninth; the hereditary prince followed the same evening with a body
of troops, among which were the two English battalions of grenadiers, the
two of Highlanders, and four squadrons of dragoons, Cope’s and Conway’s.

The army was under arms all day on the thirtieth, and about
eleven at night marched off, in six columns, to Liebenau. About five the
next morning, the whole army be assembled, and formed on the heights near
Corbeke. The hereditary prince was, at this time, marching in two columns,
in order to turn the enemy’s left flank; which he did by marching to
Donhelbourg, leaving Klein-Eder on his left, and forming in two lines,
with the left towards Dossel, and his right near Grimbeck, opposite to the
left flank of the enemy, whose position was with the left to the high hill
near Offendorf, and their right to Warbourg, into which place they had
flung Fischer’s corps. The hereditary prince immediately attacked the
enemy’s flank, and, after a very sharp dispute, obliged them to give way,
and, by a continual fire, kept forcing them to fall back upon Warbourg.
The army was at this time marching with the greatest diligence to attack
the enemy in front, but the infantry could not get up in time: general
Waldegrave, at the head of the British, pressed their march as much as
possible: no troops could show more eagerness to get up than they showed.
Many of the men, from the heat of the weather, and overstraining
themselves to get on through morassy and very difficult ground, suddenly
dropped down on their march.

General Mostyn, who was at the
head of the British cavalry that was formed on the right of our infantry
on the other side of a large wood, upon receiving the duke’s orders to
come up with the cavalry as fast as possible, made so much expedition,
bringing them up at full trot, though the distance was near five miles,
that the British cavalry had the happiness to arrive in time to share the
glory of the day, having successfully charged several times both the
enemy’s cavalry and infantry.

I should do injustice to the
general officers, to every officer and private man of the cavalry, if I
did not beg your lordship would assure his majesty that nothing could
exceed their gallant behaviour on that occasion.

Captain
Philips made so much expedition with his cannon, as to have an
opportunity, by a severe cannonade, to oblige those who had passed the
Dymel, and were formed on the other side, to retire with the utmost
precipitation.

I received his serene highness’s orders
yesterday, in the evening, to pass the river after them, with twelve
British battalions and ten squadrons, and am now encamped upon the heights
of Wilda, about four miles from Warbourg, on the heights of which their
grand army is encamped.

M. de Muy is now retiring from the
heights of Volk-Missen, where he lay under arms last night, towards
Wolfshagen. I cannot give your lordship any account of the loss on either
side. Captain Faucitt, whom I send off with this, shall get all the
intelligence he can upon this head before he sets off. I am, &c,

GRANBY.

Saturday morning, six o’clock.

P.S.—As
I had not an opportunity of sending off captain Faucitt so soon as I
intended, I opened my letter to acquaint your lordship that I have just
joined the grand army with my detachment.]

564 (return)
[ Note 4 P, p. 564. The
Germans are in general but indifferent engineers, and little acquainted
with the art of besieging. On this occasion the Austrian general had no
other prospect than that of carrying the place by a sudden attack, or
intimidating count Tavenzein, the governor, to an immediate surrender: for
he knew the Russian army was at a considerable distance; and judged, from
the character of prince Henry of Prussia, that he would advance to the
relief of the place long before it would be taken according to the usual
forms. Influenced by these considerations, when he had invested the town,
he sent a letter to the governor, specifying that his army consisted of
fifty battalions, and fourscore squadrons; that the Russian army,
amounting to seventy-five thousand men, was within three days’ march of
Breslau; that no succour could be expected from the king of Prussia,
encamped as he was on the other side of the Elbe, and overawed by the army
of count Daun; that prince Henry, far from being in a condition to bring
relief, would not be able to stand his ground against the Russians; that
Breslau, being an open mercantile town (not a fortress), could not be
defended without contravening the established rules of war; and therefore
the governor, in case of obstinacy, had no reason to expect an honourable
capitulation, the benefit of which was now offered. He, at the same time,
sent a memorial to the civil magistrates, threatening the town with
destruction, which could by no other means be prevented than by joining
with the inhabitants in persuading the governor to embrace immediately the
terms that were proposed. Count Tavenzein, instead of being intimidated,
was encouraged by these menaces, which implied an apprehension in Laudolm
that the place would be relieved. He therefore replied to the summons he
had received, that Breslau was not simply a mercantile town, but ought to
be considered as a place of strength, as being surrounded with works and
wet ditches; that the Austrians themselves had defended it as such after
the battle of Lissa, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
fifty-seven; that the king his master having commanded him to defend the
place to the last extremity, he could neither comply with general
Laudohn’s proposals, nor pay the least regard to his threat of destroying
the town; as he had not been intrusted with the care of the houses, but
with the defence of the fortifications. The Austrian convinced him that
same evening, that he threatened nothing but what he meant to perform. He
opened his batteries, and poured in upon the town a most terrible shower
of bombs and red-hot bullets, which continued till midnight. During this
dreadful discharge, which filled the place with horror and desolation, he
attempted the outworks by assault. The Croats attacked the covered way in
different places with their usual impetuosity; but were repulsed with
considerable loss, by the conduct and resolution of the governor and
garrison. These proceedings having made no impression on Tavenzein, the
besieging general had recourse again to negotiation; and offered the most
flattering articles of capitulation, which were rejected with disdain. The
governor gave him to understand, that the destruction of the town had made
no change in his resolution; though it was a practice contrary to the law
of arms, as well as to the dictates of common humanity, to begin the siege
of a fortress by ruining the inhabitants; finally, he assured him he would
wait for him upon the ramparts, and defend the place to the utmost of his
power. His observation was certainly just: nothing could be more
infamously inhuman than this practice of making war upon the helpless
unarmed inhabitants of a town which has the misfortune to be beleaguered;
yet the besieger pleaded the example of the Prussian monarch, who had
before acted the same tragedy at Dresden. Laudohn being thus set at
defiance, continued to batter and bombard; and several subsequent assaults
were given to the fortifications.]