The Rebels are totally defeated at Culloden..... The Duke of Cumberland takes Possession of Inverness, and afterwards encamps at Fort-Augustus..... The Prince Pretender escapes to France..... Convulsion in the Ministry..... Liberality of the Commons..... Trial of the Rebels..... Kilmarnock, Balmerino, Lovat, and Mr. Ratcliff, are beheaded on Tower- hill..... The States-general alarmed at the Progress of the French in the Netherlands..... Count Saxa subdues all Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault..... Reduces the strong Fortress of Namur, and defeats the Allied Army at Roucoux..... The French and Spaniards are compelled to abandon Piedmont and the Milanese..... Don Philip is worsted at Codogno, and afterwards at Porto Freddo..... The Austrians take Possession of Genoa..... Count Brown penetrates into Provence..... The Genoese expel the Austrians from their City..... Madras in the East Indies taken by the French..... Expedition to the Coast of Bretagne, and Attempt upon Port L’Orient..... Naval Transactions in the West-Indies..... Conferences at Breda..... Vast Supplies granted by the Commons of England..... Parliament dissolved..... The French and Allies take the Field in Flanders..... Prince of Orange elected Stadtholder, Captain-general, and Admiral of the United Provinces..... The Confederates defeated at Laffeldt..... Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom—The Austrians undertake the Siege of Genoa, which however, they abandon..... The Chevalier de Belleisle slain in the Attack of Exilles..... A French Squadron defeated and taken by the Admirals Anson and Warren..... Admiral Hawke obtains another Victory over the French at Sea..... Other Naval Transactions..... Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle..... Compliant Temper of the new Parliament..... Preliminaries signed..... Preparations for the Campaign in the Netherlands..... Siege of Maestrieht..... Cessation of Arms..... Transactions in the East and West Indies..... Conclusion of the Definitive Treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle
THE REBELS ARE TOTALLY DEFEATED.
In the beginning of April, the duke of Cumberland began his march from Aberdeen, and on the twelfth passed the deep and rapid river Spey, without opposition from the rebels, though a detachment of them appeared on the opposite side. Why they did not dispute the passage is not easy to be conceived; But, indeed, from this instance of neglect, and their subsequent conduct, we may conclude they were under a total infatuation. His royal highness proceeded to Nairn, where he received intelligence that the enemy had advanced from Inverness to Culloden, about the distance of nine miles from the royal army, with intention to give him battle. The design of Charles was to march in the night from Culloden, and surprise the duke’s army at day-break; for this purpose the English camp had been reconnoitred; and on the night of the fifteenth the highland army began to march in two columns. Their design was to surround the enemy, and attack them at once on all quarters; but the length of the columns embarrassed the march, so that the army was obliged to make many halts: the men had been under arms during the whole preceding night, were faint with hunger and fatigue, and many of them overpowered with sleep. Some were unable to proceed; others dropped off unperceived in the dark; and the march was retarded in such a manner, that it would have been impossible to reach the duke’s camp before sun-rise. The design being thus frustrated, the prince-pretender was with great reluctance prevailed upon by his general officers to measure back his way to Culloden; at which place he had no sooner arrived, than great numbers of his followers dispersed in quest of provisions; and many, overcome with weariness and sleep, threw themselves down on the heath and along the park walls. Their repose, however, was soon interrupted in a very disagreeable manner. Their prince receiving intelligence that his enemies were in full march to attack him, resolved to hazard an engagement, and ordered his troops to be formed for that purpose. On the sixteenth day of April, the duke of Cumberland, having made the proper dispositions, decamped from Nairn early in the morning, and after a march of nine miles perceived the highlanders drawn up in order of battle, to the number of four thou-sand men, in thirteen divisions, supplied with some pieces of artillery. The royal army, which was much more numerous, the duke immediately formed into three lines, disposed in excellent order: and about one o’clock in the afternoon the cannonading began. The artillery of the rebels was ill served, and did very little execution; but that of the king’s troops made dreadful havock among the enemy. Impatient of this fire, their front line advanced to the attack, and about five hundred of the clans charged the duke’s left wing with their usual impetuosity. One regiment was disordered by the weight of this column; but two battalions advancing from the second line, sustained the first, and soon put a stop to their career, by a severe fire, that killed a great number. At the same time the dragoons under Hawley, and the Argyleshire militia, pulled down a park wall that covered their flank, and the cavalry falling in among the rebels sword in hand, completed their confusion. The French picquets on their left, covered the retreat of the highlanders by a close and regular fire; and then retired to Inverness, where they surrendered themselves prison-ers of war. An entire body of the rebels marched off the field in order, with their pipes playing, and the pre-tender’s standard displayed; the rest were routed with great slaughter; and their prince was with reluctance prevailed upon to retire. In less than thirty minutes they were totally defeated, and the field covered with the slain. The road, as far as Inverness, was strewed with dead bodies; and a great number of people, who from motives of curiosity had come to see the battle, were sacrificed to the undistinguished vengeance of the victors. Twelve hundred rebels were slain or wounded on the field, and in the pursuit. The earl of Kilmarnock was taken; and in a few days lord Balmerino surrendered to a country gentleman, at whose house he presented himself for this purpose. The glory of the victory was sullied by the barbarity of the soldiers. They had been provoked by their former disgraces to the most savage thirst of revenge. Not contented with the blood which was so profusely shed in the heat of action, they traversed the field after the battle, and massacred those miserable wretches who lay maimed and expiring: nay, some officers acted a part in this cruel scene of assassination, the triumph of low illiberal minds, uninspired by sentiment, untinctured by humanity. The vanquished adventurer rode off the field, accompanied by the duke of Perth, lord Elcho, and a few horsemen; he crossed the water at Nairn, and retired to the house of a gentleman in Strutharrick, where he conferred with old lord Lovat; then he dismissed his followers, and wandered about a wretched and solitary fugitive among the isles and mountains for the space of five months, during which he underwent such a series of dangers, hardships, and misery, as no other person ever outlived. Thus, in one short hour, all his hope vanished, and the rebellion was entirely extinguished. One would almost imagine, the conductors of this desperate enterprise had conspired their own destruction, as they certainly neglected every step that might have contributed to their safety or success. They might have opposed the duke of Cumberland at the passage of the Spey; they might, by proper conduct, have afterwards attacked his camp in the night, with a good prospect of success. As they were greatly inferior to him in number, and weakened with hunger and fatigue, they might have retired to the hills and fastnesses, where they would have found plenty of live cattle for provision, recruited their regiments, and been joined by a strong reinforcement, which was actually in full march to their assistance. But they were distracted by dissensions and jealousies; they obeyed the dictates of despair, and wilfully devoted themselves to ruin and death. When the news of the battle arrived in England, the nation was transported with joy, and extolled the duke of Cumberland as a hero and deliverer, Both houses of parliament congratulated his majesty on the auspicious event. They decreed, in the most solemn manner, their public thanks to his royal highness, which were transmitted to him by the speakers; and the commons, by bill, added five-and-twenty thousand pounds per annum to his former revenue.
ENLARGE
Culloden Moor
Immediately after the decisive action at Culloden, the duke took possession of Inverness, where six-and-thirty deserters, convicted by a court-martial, were ordered to be executed: then he detached several parties to ravage the country. One of these apprehended the lady Mackintosh, who was sent prisoner to Inverness. They did not plunder her house, but drove away her cattle, though her husband was actually in the service of government. The castle of lord Lovat was destroyed. The French prisoners were sent to Carlisle and Penrith: Kilmarnock, Balmerino, Cromartie, and his son the lord Macleod, were conveyed by sea to London; and those of an inferior rank were confined in different prisons. The marquis of Tullibardine, together with a brother of the earl of Dunmore, were seized and transported to the Tower of London, to which the earl of Traquaire had been committed on suspicion: in a few months after the battle of Culloden, Murray, the pretender’s secretary, was apprehended; and the eldest son of lord Lovat, having surrendered himself, was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. In a word, all the gaols of Great Britain, from the capital northwards, were filled with those unfortunate captives; and great numbers of them were crowded together in the holds of ships, where they perished in the most deplorable manner, for the want of necessaries, air, and exercise. Some rebel chiefs escaped in two French frigates, which had arrived on the coast of Lochaber about the end of April, and engaged three vessels belonging to his Britannic majesty, which they obliged to retire. Others embarked on board of a ship on the coast of Buchan, and were conveyed to Norway; from thence they travelled to Sweden. In the month of May, the duke of Cumberland advanced with the army into the highlands as far as Fort-Augustus, where he encamped, and sent off detachments on all hands to hunt down the fugitives, and lay waste the country with fire and sword. The castles of Glengary and Lochiel were plundered and burned; every house, hut, or habitation, met with the same fate without distinction; all the cattle and provision were carried off; the men were either shot upon the mountains like wild beasts, or put to death in cold blood, without form of trial; the women, after having seen their husbands and fathers murdered, were subjected to brutal violation, and then turned out naked, with their children, to starve on the barren heaths. One whole family was enclosed in a barn, and consumed to ashes. Those ministers of vengeance were so alert in the execution of their office, that in a few days there was neither house, cottage, man, nor beast, to be seen in the compass of fifty miles: all was ruin, silence, and desolation.
The humane reader cannot reflect upon such a scene without grief and horror; what then must have been the sensation of the fugitive prince, when he beheld these spectacles of woe, the dismal fruit of his ambition? He was now surrounded by armed troops, that chased him from hill to dale, from rock to cavern, and from shore to shore. Sometimes he lurked in caves and cottages, without attendants, or any other support but that which the poorest peasant could supply. Sometimes he was rowed in fisher-boats from isle to isle among the Hebrides, and often in sight of his pursuers. For some days he appeared in woman’s attire, and even passed through the midst of his enemies unknown. But understanding his disguise was discovered, he assumed the habit of a travelling mountaineer, and wandered about among the woods and heaths, with a matted beard, and squalid looks, exposed to hunger, thirst, and weariness, and in continual danger of being apprehended. He was obliged to trust his life to the fidelity of above fifty individuals, and many of these were in the lowest paths of fortune. They knew that a price of thirty thousand pounds was set upon his head; and that, by betraying him, they should enjoy wealth and affluence: but they detested the thought of obtaining riches on such infamous terms, and ministered to his necessities with the utmost zeal and fidelity, even at the hazard of their own destruction. In the course of these peregrinations, he was more than once hemmed in by his pursuers in such a manner as seemed to preclude all possibility of escaping; yet he was never abandoned by his hope and recollection; he still found some expedient that saved him from captivity and death; and through the whole course of his distresses maintained the most amazing equanimity and good humour. At length a privateer of Saint Malo, hired by the young Sheridan and some other Irish adherents, arrived in Lochnannach; and on the twentieth day of September, this unfortunate prince embarked in the habit which he wore for disguise. His eye was hollow, his visage wan, and his constitution greatly impaired by famine and fatigue. He was accompanied by Cameron of Lochiel and his brother, with a few other exiles. They set sail for France, and after having passed unseen, by means of a thick fog, through a British squadron commanded by admiral Lestock, and been chased by two English ships of war, arrived in safety at Roscau, near Morlaix, in Bretagne. Perhaps he would have found it still more difficult to escape, had not the vigilance and eagerness of the government been relaxed, in consequence of a report that he had already fallen among some persons that were slain by a volley from one of the duke’s detachments.
Having thus explained the rise, progress, and extinction of the rebellion, it will be necessary to take a retrospective view of the proceedings in parliament. The necessary steps being taken for quieting the intestine commotions of the kingdom, the two houses began to convert their attention to the affairs of the continent. On the fourteenth day of January, the king repaired to the house of peers, and, in a speech from the throne, gave his parliament to understand that the states-general had made pressing instances for his assistance in the present conjuncture, when they were in such danger of being oppressed by the power of France in the Netherlands; that he had promised to co-operate with them towards opposing the further progress of their enemies; and even concerted measures for that purpose. He declared it was with regret that he asked any further aids of his people; he exhorted them to watch over the public credit; and expressed his entire dependence on their zeal and unanimity. He was favoured with loyal addresses, couched in the warmest terms of duty and affection; but the supplies were retarded by new convulsions in the ministry. The earl of Granville had made an effort to retrieve his influence in the cabinet, and his sovereign favoured his pretensions. The two brothers, who knew his aspiring genius, and dreaded his superior talents, refused to admit such a colleague into the administration; they even resolved to strengthen their party, by introducing fresh auxiliaries into the office of state. Some of these were personally disagreeable to his majesty, who accordingly rejected the suit by which they were recommended. The duke of Newcastle and his brother, with all their adherents, immediately resigned their employments. The earl of Granville was appointed secretary of state, and resumed the reins of administration; but, finding himself unequal to the accumulated opposition that preponderated against him; foreseeing that he should not be able to secure the supplies in parliament; and dreading the consequence of that confusion which his restoration had already produced, he, in three days, voluntarily quitted the helm; and his majesty acquiesced in the measures proposed by the opposite party. The seals were re-delivered to the duke of Newcastle and the earl of Harrington; Mr. Pel-ham, and all the rest who had resigned, were reinstated in their respective employments; and offices were conferred on several individuals who had never before been in the service of the government. William Pitt, esq., was appointed vice-treasurer of Ireland, and soon promoted to the place of paymaster-general of the forces; at the same time the king declared him a privy-counsellor. This gentleman had been originally designed for the army, in which he actually bore a commission; but fate reserved him a more important station. In point of fortune he was barely qualified to be elected member of parliament, when he obtained a seat in the house of commons, where he soon outshone all his compatriots. He displayed a surprising extent and precision of political knowledge, an irresistible energy of argument, and such power of elocution as struck his hearers with astonishment and admiration. It flashed like the lightning of heaven against the ministers and sons of corruption, blasting where it smote, and withering the nerves of opposition; but his more substantial praise was founded upon his disinterested integrity his incorruptible heart, his unconquerable spirit of independence, and his invariable attachment to the interest and liberty of his country.
The quiet of the ministry being re-established, the house of commons provided for forty thousand seamen, nearly the same number of land forces, besides fifteen regiments raised by the nobility on account of the rebellion, and about twelve thousand marines. They settled funds for the maintenance of the Dutch and Hessian troops that were in England, as well as for the subsidy to the landgrave. They granted three hundred thousand pounds to the king of Sardinia; four hundred thousand pounds to the queen of Hungary; three hundred and ten thousand pounds to defray the expense of eighteen thousand Hanoverians; about three-and-thirty thousand pounds in subsidies to the electors of Mentz and Cologn; and five hundred thousand pounds in a vote of credit and confidence to his majesty. The whole charge of the current year amounted to seven millions two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which was raised by the land and malt taxes, annuities on the additional duties imposed on glass and spirituous liquors, a lottery, a deduction from the sinking fund, and exchequer bills, chargeable on the first aids that should be granted in the next session of parliament.
The rebellion being quelled, the legislature resolved to make examples of those who had been concerned in disturbing the peace of their country. In June, an act of attainder was passed against the principal persons who had embarked in that desperate undertaking; and courts were opened in different parts of England for the trial of the prisoners. Seventeen persons who had borne arms in the rebel army were executed at Kennington Common, in the neighbourhood of London, and suffered with great constancy under the dreadful tortures which their sentence prescribed; nine were put to death in the same manner at Carlisle; six at Brampton, seven at Penrith, eleven at York: of these a considerable number were gentlemen, and had acted as officers; about fifty had been executed as deserters in different parts of Scotland; eighty-one suffered the pains of the law as traitors. A few obtained pardons, and a considerable number were transported to the plantations. Bills of indictment for high treason were found by the county of Surrey against the earls of Kilmarnock and Cromartie, and lord Balmerino. These noblemen were tried by their peers in Westminster-hall, the lord chancellor presiding as lord high-steward for the occasion. The two earls confessed their crimes, and in pathetic speeches recommended themselves to his majesty’s mercy. Lord Balmerino pleaded not guilty; he denied his having been at Carlisle at the time specified in the indictment, but this exception was over-ruled; then he moved a point of law in arrest of judgment, and was allowed to be heard by his counsel. They might have expatiated on the hardship of being tried by an ex post facto law; and claimed the privilege of trial in the county where the act of treason was said to have been committed. The same hardship was imposed upon all the imprisoned rebels: they were dragged in captivity to a strange country, far from their friends and connexions, destitute of means to produce evidence in their favour, even if they had been innocent of the charge. Balmerino waived this plea, and submitted to the court, which pronounced sentence of death upon him and his two associates. Cromartie’s life was spared; but the other two were beheaded, in the month of August, on Tower-hill. Kilmarnock was a nobleman of fine personal accomplishments; he had been educated in revolution principles, and engaged in the rebellion partly from the desperate situation of his fortune, and partly from resentment to the government, on his being deprived of a pension which he had for some time enjoyed. He was convinced of his having acted criminally, and died with marks of penitence and contrition. Balmerino had been bred up to arms, and acted upon principle: he was gallant, brave, rough, and resolute; he eyed the implements of death with the most careless familiarity, and seemed to triumph in his sufferings. In November, Mr. Ratcliffe, the titular earl of Derwentwater, who had been taken in a ship bound for Scotland, was arraigned on a former sentence passed against him in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixteen: he refused to acknowledge the authority of the court, and pleaded that he was a subject of France, honoured with a commission in the service of his most christian majesty. The identity of his person being proved, a rule was made for his execution; and on the eighth day of December he suffered decapitation, with the most perfect composure and serenity. Lord Lovat, now turned of four-score, was impeached by the commons, and tried in Westminster-hall before the lord high-steward. John Murray, secretary to the prince-pretender, and some of his own domestics, appearing against him, he was convicted of high treason, and condemned. Notwithstanding his age, infirmities, and the recollection of his conscience, which was supposed to be not altogether void of offence, he died like an old Roman, exclaiming, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.” He surveyed the crowd with attention, examined the axe, jested with the executioner, and laid his head upon the block with the utmost indifference. From this last scene of his life, one would have concluded that he had approved himself a patriot from his youth, and never deviated from the paths of virtue.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
The flame of war on the continent did not expire at the election of an emperor, and the re-establishment of peace among the princes of the empire. On the contrary, it raged with double violence in consequence of these events; for the force that was before divided being now united in one body, exerted itself with great vigour and rapidity. The states-general were overwhelmed with consternation. Notwithstanding the pains they had taken to avoid a war, and the condescension with which they had soothed and supplicated the French monarch in repeated embassies and memorials, they saw themselves striped of their barrier, and once mere in danger of being overwhelmed by that ambitious nation. The city of Brussels had been reduced during the winter; so that the enemy were in possession of all the Austrian Netherlands, except a few fortresses. Great part of the forces belonging to the republic were restricted from action by capitulations, to which they had subscribed. The states were divided in their councils between the two factions which had long subsisted. They trembled at the prospect of seeing Zealand invaded in the spring. The Orange party loudly called for an augmentation of their forces by sea and land, that they might prosecute the war with vigour. The common people, fond of novelty, dazzled by the splendour of greatness, and fully persuaded that nothing but a chief was wanting to their security, demanded the prince of Orange as a stadtholder; and even mingled menaces with their demands. The opposite faction dreaded alike the power of a stadtholder, the neighbourhood of a French army, and the seditious disposition of the populace. An ambassador was sent to London with representations of the imminent dangers which threatened the republic, and he was ordered to solicit in the most pressing terms the assistance of his Britannic majesty, that the allies might have a superiority in the Netherlands by the beginning of the campaign. The king was very well disposed to comply with their request; but the rebellion in his kingdom, and the dissensions in his cabinet, had retailed the supplies and embarrassed him so much, that he found it impossible to make those early preparations that were necessary to check the career of the enemy.
The king of France, with his general the count de Saxe, took the field in the latter end of April, at the head of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and advanced towards the allies, who, to the number of four-and-forty thousand, were intrenched behind the Demer under the conduct of the Austrian general Bathiani, who retired before them, and took post in the neighbourhood of Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant. Mareschal Saxe immediately invested Antwerp, which in a few clays was surrendered. Then he appeared before the strong town of Mons in Hainault, with an irresistible train of artillery, and an immense quantity of bombs and warlike implements. He carried on his approaches with such unabating impetuosity, that, notwithstanding a very vigorous defence, the garrison was obliged to capitulate on the twenty-seventh day of June, in about eight-and-twenty days after the place had been invested. Sieges were not now carried on by the tedious method of sapping. The French king found it much more expeditious and effectual to bring into the field a prodigious train of battering cannon, and enormous mortars, that kept up such a fire as no garrison could sustain, and discharged such an incessant hail of bombs and bullets, as in a very little time reduced to ruins the place with all its fortifications. St. Guislain and Charleroy met with the fate of Mons and Antwerp; so that by the middle of July the French king was absolute master of Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault.
Prince Charles of Lorraine had by this time assumed the command of the confederate army at Terheyde, which being reinforced by the Hessian troops from Scotland, and a fresh body of Austrians under count Palfi, amounted to eighty-seven thousand men, including the Dutch forces commanded by the prince of Waldeck. The generals, supposing the next storm would fall upon Namur, marched towards that place, and took post in an advantageous situation on the eighteenth day of July, in sight of the French army, which was encamped at Gemblours, Here they remained till the eighth day of August, when a detachment of the enemy, commanded by count Lowendahl, took possession of Huy, where he found a large magazine belonging to the confederates; and their communication with Maestricht was cut off. Mareschal Saxe, on the other side, took his measures so well, that they were utterly deprived of all subsistence. Then prince Charles, retiring across the Maese, abandoned Namur to the efforts of the enemy, by whom it was immediately invested. The trenches were opened on the second day of September; and the garrison, consisting of seven thousand Austrian-s, defended themselves with equal skill and resolution; but the cannonading and bombardment were so terrible, that in a few days the place was converted into a heap of rubbish; and on the twenty-third day of the month the French monarch took possession of this strong fortress, which had formerly sustained such dreadful attacks. Meanwhile the allied army encamped at Maestricht, were joined by sir John Ligonier with some British and Bavarian battalions; and prince Charles resolved to give the enemy battle. With this view he passed the Maese on the thirteenth day of September, and advanced towards mareschal Saxe, whom he found so advantageously posted at Tongres, that he thought proper to march back to Maestricht. On the twenty-sixth day of September he crossed the Jaar in his retreat; and his rear was attacked by the enemy, who were repulsed. But count Saxe being reinforced by a body of troops under the count de Clermont, determined to bring the confederates to an engagement. On the thirteenth day of the month he passed the Jaar; while they took possession of the villages of Liers, Warem, and Roucoux, drew up their forces in order of battle, and made preparations for giving him a warm reception. On the first day of October the enemy advanced in three columns; and a terrible cannonading began about noon. At two o’clock prince Waldeck on the left was charged with great fury; and, after an obstinate defence, overpowered by numbers. The villages were attacked in columns, and as one brigade was repulsed another succeeded; so that the allies were obliged to abandon these posts, and retreat towards Maestricht, with the loss of five thousand men and thirty pieces of artillery. The victory, however, cost the French general a much greater number of lives; and was attended with no solid advantage. Sir John ligonier, the earls of Crawford301[See note 2 O, at the end of this Vol.]and Rothes, brigadier Douglas, and other officers of the British troops, distinguished themselves by their gallantry and conduct on this occasion. This action terminated the campaign. The allies passing the Maese, took up their winter-quarters in the duchies of Limeburgh and Luxembourg; while the French cantoned their troops in the places which they had newly conquered.
The campaign in Italy was altogether unfavourable to the French and Spaniards. The house of Austria being no longer pressed on the side of Germany, was enabled to make the stronger efforts in this country; and the British subsidy encouraged the king of Sardinia to act with redoubled vivacity. Mareschal Maillebois occupied the greater part of Piedmont with about thirty thousand men. Don Philip and the count de Gages were at the head of a greater number in the neighbourhood of Milan; and the duke of Modena, with eight thousand, secured his own dominions. The king of Sardinia augmented his forces to six-and-thirty thousand; and the Austrian army, under the prince of Lichtenstein, amounted to a much greater number; so that the enemy were reduced to the necessity of acting on the defensive, and retired towards the Mantuan. In February, baron Leutrum, the Piedmontese general, invested and took the strong fortress of Aste. He afterwards relieved the citadel of Alexandria, which the Spaniards had blocked up in the winter, reduced Casal, recovered Valencia, and obliged Maillebois to retire to the neighbourhood of Genoa. On the other side, Don Philip and count Gages abandoned Milan, Pavia, and Parma, retreating before the Austrians with the utmost precipitation to Placentia, where they were joined on the third of June by the French forces under Maillebois.
Before this junction was effected, the Spanish general Pignatelli had passed the river Po in the night with a strong detachment, and beaten up the quarters of seven thousand Austrians posted at Codogno. Don Philip, finding himself at the head of two-and-fifty thousand men by his junction with the French general, resolved to attack the Austrians in their camp at San Lazaro, before they should be reinforced by his Sardinian majesty. Accordingly, on the fourth day of June, in the evening, he marched with equal silence and expedition, and entered the Austrian trenches about eleven, when a desperate battle ensued. The Austrians were prepared for the attack, which they sustained with great vigour till morning. Then they quitted their intrench-ments, and charged the enemy in their turn with such fury, that after an obstinate resistance the combined army was broke, and retired with precipitation to Placentia, leaving on the field fifteen thousand men killed, wounded, and taken, together with sixty colours and ten pieces of artillery. In a few weeks the Austrians were joined by the Piedmontese; the king of Sardinia assumed the chief command; and prince Lichtenstein being indisposed, his place was supplied by the marquis de Botta. Don Philip retired to the other side of the Po, and extended his conquests in the open country of the Milanese. The king of Sardinia called a council of war, in which it was determined that he should pass the river with a strong body of troops, in order to straiten the enemy on one side; while the marquis de Botta should march up the Tydone, to cut off their communication with Placentia. They forthwith quitted all the posts they had occupied between the Lambro and Adda, resolving to repass the Po and retreat to Tortona. With, this view they threw bridges of boats over that river, and began to pass on the ninth day of August in the evening. They were attacked at Rotto Freddo by a detachment of Austrians, under general Serbelloni, who maintained the engagement till ten in the morning, when Botta arrived; the battle was renewed with redoubled rage, and lasted till four in the afternoon, when the enemy retired in great disorder to Tortona, with the loss of eight thousand men, a good number of colours and standards, and eighteen pieces of cannon. This victory cost the Austrians four thousand men killed upon the spot, including the gallant general Bernclau. The victors immediately summoned Placentia to surrender; and the garrison, consisting of nine thousand men, were made prisoners of war; Don Philip continued his retreat, and of all his forces brought six-and-twenty thousand only into the territories of Genoa.
THE AUSTRIANS TAKE POSSESSION OF GENOA. COUNT BROWN ENTERS PROVENCE.
The Piedmontese and Austrians rejoining in the neighbourhood of Pavia, advanced to Tortona, of which they took possession without resistance, while the enemy sheltered themselves under the cannon of Genoa. They did not long continue in this situation; for on the twenty-second day of August they were again in motion, and retired into Provence. The court of Madrid imputing the bad success of this campaign to the misconduct of count Gages, recalled that general, and sent the marquis de las Minas to resume the command of the forces. In the meantime, the victorious confederates appeared before Genoa on the fourth day of December; and the senate of that city thinking it incapable of defence, submitted to a very mortifying capitulation, by which the gates were delivered up to the Austrians, together with all their arms, artillery, and ammunition; and the city was subjected to the most cruel contributions. The marquis de Botta being left at Genoa with sixteen thousand men, the king of Sardinia resolved to pass the Var, and pursue the French and Spaniards into Provence; but that monarch being seized with the small-pox, the conduct of this expedition was entrusted to count Brown, an Austrian general of Irish extract, who had given repeated proofs of uncommon valour and capacity. He was on this occasion assisted by vice-admiral Medley, who commanded the British squadron in the Mediterranean. The French forces had fortified the passes of the Var, under the conduct of the mareschal de Belleisle, who thought proper to abandon his posts at the approach of count Brown; and this general, at the head of fifty thousand men, passed the river without opposition, on the ninth day of November. While he advanced as far as Draguignan, laying the open country under contribution, baron Both, with four-and-twenty battalions, invested Antibes, which was at the same time bombarded on the side of the sea by the British squadron. The trenches were opened on the twentieth day of September; but Belleisle having assembled a numerous army, superior to that of the confederates, and the Genoese having expelled their Austrian guests, count Brown abandoned the enterprise, and repassed the Var, not without some damage from the enemy.
The court of Vienna, which has always patronised oppression, exacted such heavy contribution from the Genoese, and its directions were so rigorously put in execution, that the people were reduced to despair; and resolved to make a last effort for the recovery of their liberty and independence. Accordingly, they took arms in secret, seized several important posts of the city; surprised some battalions of the Austrians; surrounded others, and cut them in pieces; and, in a word, drove them out with great slaughter. The marquis de Botta acted with caution and spirit; but being overpowered by numbers, and apprehensive of the peasants in the country, who were in arms, he retreated to the pass of the Brochetta on the side of Lombardy, where he secured himself in an advantageous situation, until he could receive reinforcements. The loss he had sustained at Genoa did not hinder him from reducing Savona, a sea-port town belonging to that republic; and he afterwards made himself master of Gavi. The Genoese, on the contrary, exerted themselves with wonderful industry in fortifying their city, raising troops, and in taking other measures for a vigorous defence, in case they should again be insulted.
The naval transactions of this year reflected very little honour on the British nation. Commodore Peyton, who commanded six ships of war in the East Indies, shamefully declined a decisive engagement with a French squadron of inferior force; and abandoned the important settlement of Madras on the coast of Coromandel, which was taken without opposition in the month of September by the French commodore, de la Bourdonnais. Fort St. David, and the other British factories in India, would probably have shared the same fate, had not the enemy’s naval force in that country been shattered and partly destroyed by a terrible tempest. No event of consequence happened in America, though it was a scene that seemed to promise the greatest success to the arms of England. The reduction of Cape Breton had encouraged the ministry to project the conquest of Quebec, the capital of Canada, situated upon the river St. Lawrence. Commissions were sent to the governors of the British colonies in North America, empowering them to raise companies to join the armament from England; and eight thousand troops were actually raised in consequence of these directions; while a powerful squadron and transports, having six regiments on board, were prepared at Portsmouth for this expedition. But their departure was postponed by unaccountable delays, until the season was judged too far advanced to risk the great ships on the boisterous coast of North America. That the armament, however, might not be wholly useless to the nation, it was employed in making a descent upon the coast of Bretagne, on the supposition that Port L’Orient, the repository of all the stores and ships belonging to the French East India company, might be surprised; or, that this invasion would alarm the enemy, and, by making a diversion, facilitate the operations of the Austrian general in Provence.
The naval force intended for this service consisted of sixteen great ships, and eight frigates, besides bomb-ketches and store ships, commanded by Richard Lestock, appointed admiral of the blue division. Six battalions of land troops, with a detachment of matrosses and bombardiers, were embarked in thirty transports, under the conduct of lieutenant-general Sinclair; and the whole fleet set sail from Plymouth on the fourteenth day of September. On the twentieth the troops were landed in Quimperlay-bay, at the distance of ten miles from Port L’Orient. The militia, reinforced by some detachments from different regiments, were assembled to the number of two thousand, and seemed resolved to oppose the disembarkation; but seeing the British troops determined to land at all events, they thought proper to retire. Next day general Sinclair advanced into the country, skirmishing with the enemy in his route; and arriving at the village of Plemure, within half a league from Port L’Orient, summoned that place to surrender. He was visited by a deputation from the town, which offered to admit the British forces, on condition that they should be restrained from pillaging the inhabitants, and touching the magazines; and that they should pay a just price for their provisions. These terms being rejected, the inhabitants prepared for a vigorous defence; and the English general resolved to besiege the place in form, though he had neither time, artillery, nor forces sufficient for such an enterprise. This strange resolution was owing to the declaration of the engineers, who promised to lay the place in ashes in the space of four-and-twenty hours. All his cannon amounted to no more than a few field-pieces; and he was obliged to wait for two iron guns, which the sailors dragged up from the shipping. Had he given the assault on the first night after his arrival, when the town was filled with terror and confusion, and destitute of regular troops, in all probability it would have been easily taken by scalade; but the reduction of it was rendered impracticable by his delay. The ramparts were mounted with cannon from the ships in the harbour; new works were raised with great industry; the garrison was reinforced by several bodies of regular troops; and great numbers were assembling from all parts; so that the British forces were in danger of being surrounded in an enemy’s country. Notwithstanding these discouragements, they opened a small battery against the town, which was set on fire in several places by their bombs and red-hot bullets; they likewise repulsed part of the garrison which had made a sally to destroy their works; but their cannon producing no effect upon the fortifications, the fire from the town daily increasing, the engineers owning they could not perform their promise, and admiral Lestock declaring, in repeated messages, that he could no longer expose the ships on an open coast at such a season of the year, general Sinclair abandoned the siege. Having caused the two iron pieces of cannon and the mortars to be spiked, he retreated in good order to the sea-side, where his troops were re-embarked, having sustained very inconsiderable damage since their first landing. He expected reinforcements from England, and was resolved to wait a little longer for their arrival, in hopes of being able to annoy the enemy more effectually. In the beginning of October, the fleet sailed to Quiberon-bay, where they destroyed the Ardent, a French ship of war of sixty-four guns; and a detachment of the forces being landed, took possession of a fort in the peninsula; while the little islands of Houat and Hey die were reduced by the sailors. In this situation the admiral and general continued till the seventeenth day of the month, when the forts being dismantled, and the troops re-embarked, the fleet sailed from the French coast; the admiral returned to England, and the transports with the soldiers proceeded to Ireland, where they arrived in safety.
This expedition, weak and frivolous as it may seem, was resented by the French nation as one of the greatest insults they had ever sustained; and demonstrated the possibility of hurting France in her tenderest parts, by means of an armament of this nature, well timed, and vigorously conducted. Indeed, nothing could be more absurd or precipitate than an attempt to distress the enemy by landing a handful of troops, without draught-horses, tents, or artillery, from a fleet of ships lying on an open beach, exposed to the uncertainty of weather in the most tempestuous season of the year, so as to render the retreat and re-embarkation altogether precarious. The British squadrons in the West Indies performed no exploit of consequence in the course of this year. The commerce was but indifferently protected. Commodore Lee, stationed off Martinico, allowed a French fleet of merchant-ships, and their convoy, to pass by his squadron unmolested; and commodore Mitchel behaved scandalously in a rencontre with the French squadron, under the conduct of monsieur de Conflans, who in his return to Europe took the Severn, an English ship of fifty guns. The cruisers on all sides, English, French, and Spaniards, were extremely alert; and though the English lost the greater number of ships, this difference was more than overbalanced by the superior value of the prizes taken from the enemy. In the course of this year, two-and-twenty Spanish privateers, and sixty-six merchant vessels, including ten register ships, fell into the hands of the British cruisers; from the French they took seven ships of war, ninety privateers, and about three hundred ships of commerce. The new king of Spain* being supposed well-affected to the British nation, an effort was made to detach him from the interests of France, by means of the marquis de Tabernega, who had formerly been his favourite, and resided many years as a refugee in England.
* In the month of July, Philip king of Spain dying, in the sixty-third year of his age, was succeeded by his eldest son Ferdinand, born of Maria-Louisa Gabriela, sister to the late king of Sardinia. He espoused Donna Maria Magdalena, infanta of Portugal, but had no issue. Philip was but two days survived by his daughter, the dauphiness of France. The same month was remarkable for the death of Christian VI., king of Denmark, succeeded by his son Frederick V., who had married the princess Louisa, youngest daughter of the king of Great Britain.
This nobleman proceeded to Lisbon, where a negotiation was set on foot with the court of Madrid. But his efforts miscarried; and the influence of the queen-mother continued to predominate in the Spanish councils. The states-general had for some years endeavoured to promote a pacification by remonstrances, and even entreaties, at the court of Versailles; the French king at length discovered an inclination to peace, and in September a congress was opened at Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant, where the plenipotentiaries of the emperor, Great Britain, France, and Holland, were assembled; but the French were so insolent in their demands, that the conferences were soon interrupted.
The parliament of Great Britain meeting in November, the king exhorted them to concert with all possible expedition the proper measures for pursuing the war with vigour, that the confederate army in the Netherlands might be seasonably augmented; he likewise gave them to understand, that the funds appropriated for the support of his civil government had for some years past fallen short of the revenue intended and granted by parliament; and said he relied on their known affection to find out some method to make good this deficiency. As all those who had conducted the opposition were now concerned in the administration, little or no objection was made to any demand or proposal of the government and its ministers. The commons having considered the estimates, voted forty thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and about sixty thousand land-forces, including eleven thousand five hundred marines. They granted four hundred and thirty-three thousand pounds to the empress queen of Hungary; three hundred thousand pounds to the king of Sardinia; four hundred and ten thousand pounds for the maintenance of eighteen thousand Hanoverian auxiliaries; one hundred and sixty one thousand six hundred and seven pounds for six thousand Hessians; subsidies to the electors of Cologn, Mentz, and Bavaria; and the sum of five hundred thousand pounds to enable his majesty to prosecute the war with advantage. In a word, the supplies amounted to nine millions four hundred and twenty-five thousand two hundred and fifty-four pounds; a sum almost incredible, if we consider how the kingdom had been already drained of its treasure. It was raised by the usual taxes, reinforced with new impositions on windows, carriages, and spirituous liquors; a lottery, and a loan from the sinking-fund. The new taxes were mortgaged for four millions by transferable annuities, at an interest of four, and a premium of ten per centum. By reflecting on these enormous grants, one would imagine the ministry had been determined to impoverish the nation; but from the eagerness and expedition with which the people subscribed for the money, one would conclude that the riches of the kingdom were inexhaustible. It may not be amiss to observe, that the supplies of this year exceeded, by two millions and a half, the greatest annual sum that was raised during the reign of queen Anne, though she maintained as great a number of troops as was now in the pay of Great Britain, and her armies and fleets acquired every year fresh harvests of glory and advantage; whereas this war had proved an almost uninterrupted series of events big with disaster and dishonour. During the last two years, the naval expense of England had exceeded that of France about five millions sterling; though her fleets had not obtained one signal advantage over the enemy at sea, nor been able to protect her commerce from their depredations. She was at once a prey to her declared adversaries and professed friends. Before the end of summer, she numbered among her mercenaries two empresses, five German princes, and a powerful monarch, whom she hired to assist her in trimming the balance of Europe, in which they themselves were immediately interested, and she had no more than a secondary concern. Had these fruitless subsidies been saved; had the national revenue been applied with economy to national purposes; had it been employed in liquidating gradually the public incumbrances: in augmenting the navy, improving manufactures, encouraging and securing the colonies, and extending trade and navigation; corruption would have become altogether unnecessary, and disaffection would have vanished: the people would have been eased of their burdens, and ceased to complain; commerce would have flourished, and produced such affluence as must have raised Great Britain to the highest pinnacle of maritime power, above all rivalship of competition. She would have been dreaded by her enemies; revered by her neighbours; oppressed nations would have crept under her wings for protection; contending potentates would have appealed to her decision; and she would have shone the universal arbitress of Europe. How different is her present situation! her debts are enormous, her taxes intolerable, her people discontented, and the sinews of her government relaxed. Without conduct, confidence, or concert, she engages in blundering negotiations; she involves herself rashly in foreign quarrels, and lavishes her substance with the most dangerous precipitation; she is even deserted by her wonted vigour, steadiness, and intrepidity; she grows vain, fantastical, and pusillanimous; her arms are despised by her enemies; and her councils ridiculed through all Christendom.