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.