By this time an action had happened in the Mediterranean, between the British fleet commanded by admiral Matthews, and the combined squadrons of France and Spain, which had been for some time blocked up in the harbour of Toulon. On the ninth day of February they were perceived standing out of the road, to the number of four-and-thirty sail; the English admiral immediately weighed from Hieres bay; and on the eleventh, part of the fleets engaged. Matthews attacked the Spanish admiral, Don Navarro, whose ship, the Real, was a first rate, mounted with above an hundred guns. Rear-admiral Rowley singled out M. de Court, who commanded the French squadron; and a very few captains followed the example of their commanders; but vice-admiral Lestock, with his whole division, remained at a great distance astern; and several captains, who were immediately under the eye of Matthews, behaved in such a manner as reflected disgrace upon their country. The whole transaction was conducted without order or deliberation. The French and Spaniards would have willingly avoided an engagement, as the British squadron was superior to them in strength and number. M. de Court, therefore, made the best of his way towards the Straits’ mouth, probably with intention to join the Brest squadron; but he had orders to protect the Spanish fleet; and as they sailed heavily, he was obliged to wait for them, at the hazard of maintaining a battle with the English. Thus circumstanced, he made sail and lay-to by turns; so that the British admiral could not engage them in proper order; and as they outsailed his ships, he began to fear they would escape him altogether should he wait for vice-admiral Lestock, who was so far astern. Under this apprehension he made the signal for engaging, while that for the line of battle was still displayed; and this inconsistency naturally introduced confusion. The fight was maintained with great vivacity by the few who engaged. The Real being quite disabled, and lying like a wreck upon the water, Mr. Matthews sent a fire-ship to destroy her; but the expedient did not take effect. The ship ordered to cover this machine did not obey the signal; so that the captain of the fire-ship was exposed to the whole fire of the enemy. Nevertheless he continued to advance until he found the vessel sinking; and being within a few yards of the Real, he set fire to the fusees. The ship was immediately in flames, in the midst of which he and his lieutenant, with twelve men, perished. This was likewise the fate of the Spanish launch, which had been manned with fifty sailors to prevent the fire-ship from running on board the Real. One ship of the line belonging to the Spanish squadron, struck to captain Hawke, who sent a lieutenant to take possession of her; she was afterwards retaken by the French squadron; but was found so disabled that they left her deserted, and she was next day burned by order of admiral Matthews. At night the action ceased; and the admiral found his own ship so much damaged, that he moved his flag into another. Captain Cornwall fell in the engagement, after having exhibited a remarkable proof of courage and intrepidity; but the loss of men was very inconsiderable. Next day the enemy appeared to leeward, and the admiral gave chase till night, when he brought to, that he might be joined by the ships astern. They were perceived again on the thirteenth at a considerable distance, and pursued till the evening. In the morning of the fourteenth, twenty sail of them were seen distinctly, and Lestock with his division had gained ground of them considerably by noon; but admiral Matthews displayed the signal for leaving off chase, and bore away for Port Mahon, to repair the damage he had sustained. Meanwhile the combined squadrons continued their course towards the coast of Spain. M. de Court, with his division, anchored in the road of Alicant; and Don Navarro sailed into the harbour of Carthagena. Admiral Matthews, on his arrival at Minorca, accused Lestock of having misbehaved on the day of action; suspended him from his office, and sent him prisoner to England, where, in his turn, he accused his accuser. Long before the engagement, these two officers had expressed the most virulent resentment against each other. Matthews was brave, open, and undisguised; but proud, imperious, and precipitate. Lestock had signalized his courage on many occasions, and perfectly understood the whole discipline of the navy; but he was cool, cunning, and vindictive. He had been treated superciliously by Matthews, and in revenge took advantage of his errors and precipitation. To gratify this passion, he betrayed the interest and glory of his country; for it is not to be doubted, but that he might have come up in time to engage; and, in that case, the fleets of France and Spain would, in all likelihood, have been destroyed; but he intrenched himself within the punctilios of discipline, and saw with pleasure his antagonist expose himself to the hazard of death, ruin, and disgrace. Matthews himself, in the sequel, sacrificed his duty to his resentment, in restraining Lestock from pursuing and attacking the combined squadrons on the third day after the engagement, when they appeared disabled and in manifest disorder, and would have fallen an easy prey had they been vigorously attacked. One can hardly, without indignation, reflect upon these instances in which a community has so severely suffered from the personal animosity of individuals. The miscarriage off Toulon became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry in England. The commons, in an address to the throne, desired that a court-martial might be appointed to try the delinquents. By this time Lestock had accused Matthews, and all the captains of his division who misbehaved on the day of battle. The court-martial was constituted, and proceeded to trial. Several commanders of ships were cashiered; vice-admiral Lestock was honourably acquitted, and admiral Matthews rendered incapable of serving for the future in his majesty’s navy. All the world knew that Lestock kept aloof, and that Matthews rushed into the hottest part of the engagement. Yet the former triumphed on his trial, and the latter narrowly escaped the sentence of death for cowardice and misconduct. Such decisions are not to be accounted for, except from prejudice and faction. The war in Germany, which had been almost extinguished in the last campaign, began to revive, and raged with redoubled violence. The emperor had solicited the mediation of his Britannic majesty, for compromising the differences between him and the court of Vienna. Prince William of Hesse-Cassel had conferred with the king of England on this subject; and a negotiation was begun at Hanau. The emperor offered to dismiss the French auxiliaries, provided the Austrians would evacuate his hereditary dominions. Nay, prince William and lord Carteret, as plenipotentiaries, actually agreed to preliminaries, by which his Imperial majesty engaged to renounce the alliance of France, and throw himself into the arms of the maritime powers; to resign all pretensions to the succession of the house of Austria; and to revive the vote of Bohemia in the electoral college, on condition of his being re-established in the possession of his dominions, recognised as emperor by the queen of Hungary, and accommodated with a monthly subsidy for his maintenance, as his own territories were exhausted and impoverished by the war. By a separate article, the king of Great Britain promised to furnish him with three hundred thousand crowns, and to interpose his good offices with the queen of Hungary, that his electoral dominions should be favourably treated. These preliminaries, though settled, were not signed. The court of Vienna was unwilling to part with their conquests in Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate. The queen trusted too much to the valour of her troops, and the wealth of her allies, to listen to such terms of accommodation; and whatever arguments were used with the king of Great Britain, certain it is the negotiation was dropped, on pretence that the articles were disapproved by the ministry of England. The emperor, environed with distress, renewed his application to the king of Great Britain; and even declared that he would refer his cause to the determination of the maritime powers; but all his advances were discountenanced; and the treaty of Worms dispelled all hope of accommodation. In this manner did the British ministry reject the fairest opportunity that could possibly occur of terminating the war in Germany with honour and advantage, and of freeing their country from that insufferable burden of expense under which she groaned.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
The inflexibility of the house of Austria, and its chief ally, proved serviceable to the emperor. The forlorn situation of this unfortunate prince excited the compassion of divers princes; they resented the insolence with which the head of the empire had been treated by the court of Vienna; and they were alarmed at the increasing power of a family noted for pride, tyranny, and ambition. These considerations gave rise to the treaty of Franckfort, concluded in May between the emperor, the king of Prussia, the king of Sweden as landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the elector palatine. They engaged to preserve the constitution of the empire, according to the treaty of Westphalia, and to support the emperor in his rank and dignity. They agreed to employ their good offices with the queen of Hungary, that she might be induced to acknowledge the emperor, to restore his hereditary dominions, and give up the archives of the empire that were in her possession. They guaranteed to each other their respective territories; the disputes about the succession of the late emperor they referred to the decision of the states of the empire; they promised to assist one another in case of being attacked; and they invited the king of Poland, the elector of Cologn, and the bishop of Liege, to accede to this treaty. Such was the confederacy that broke all the measures which had been concerted between the king of Great Britain and her Hungarian majesty, for the operations of the campaign. In the meantime, the French king declared war against this princess, on pretence that she was obstinately deaf to all terms of accommodation, and determined to carry the war into the territories of France. In her counter-declaration, she taxed Louis with having infringed the most solemn engagement, with respect to the pragmatic sanction; with having spirited up different pretenders to lay claim to the succession of the late emperor; with having endeavoured to instigate the common enemy of Christendom against her; and with having acted the incendiary in the north of Europe, that the czarina might be prevented from assisting the house of Austria, while his numerous armies overspread the empire and desolated her hereditary countries. These recriminations were literally true. The houses of Bourbon and Austria have, for many centuries, been the common disturbers and plagues of Europe.
The king of France, though in himself pacific and unenterprising, was stimulated by his ministry to taste the glory of conquest in the Netherlands, where he had assembled an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, provided with a very formidable train of artillery. The chief command was vested in the mareschal count de Saxe, who possessed great military talents, and proved to be one of the most fortunate generals of the age in which he lived. The allied forces, consisting of English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Austrians, to the number of seventy thousand effective men, were in the month of May assembled in the neighbourhood of Brussels, from whence they marched towards Oudenarde, and posted themselves behind the Schelde, being unable to retard the progress of the enemy. The French monarch, attended by his favourite ladies, with all the pomp of eastern luxury, arrived at Lisle on the twelfth day of the same month; and in the adjacent plain reviewed his army. The states-general, alarmed at his preparations, had, in a conference with his ambassador at the Hague, expressed their apprehensions, and entreated his most christian majesty would desist from his design of attacking their barrier. Their remonstrances having proved ineffectual, they now sent a minister to wait upon that monarch, to enforce their former representations, and repeat their entreaties; but no regard was paid to his request. The French king told him, he was determined to prosecute the war with vigour, as his moderation hitherto had served to no other purpose but that of rendering his enemies more intractable. Accordingly, his troops invested Menin, which was in seven days surrendered upon capitulation. Ypres, Fort Knocke, and Furnes, underwent the same fate; and on the twenty-ninth day of June the king of France entered Dunkirk in triumph.
He had taken such precautions for the defence of Alsace, which was guarded by considerable armies under the command of Coigny and Seckendorf, that he thought he had nothing to fear from the Austrians in that quarter; besides, he had received secret assurances that the king of Prussia would declare for the emperor; so that he resolved to pursue his conquests in the Netherlands. But all his measures were defeated by the activity of prince Charles of Lorraine, and his officers, who found means to pass the Rhine, and oblige the French and Bavarian generals to retire to Lampertheim, that they might cover Strasburgh. The Austrians made themselves masters of Haguenau and Saverne; they secured the passes of Lorraine; and laid all the country of Lower Alsace under contribution. The king of France was no sooner apprized of the prince’s having passed the Rhine and penetrated into this province, than he sent off a detachment of thirty thousand men from his army in Flanders, to reinforce that under the mareschal de Coigny; and he himself began his journey from the Rhine, that he might in person check the progress of the enemy; but this design was anticipated by a severe distemper that overtook him at Mentz in Lorraine. The physicians despaired of his life. The queen, with her children, and all the princes of the blood, hastened from Versailles to pay the last duties to their dying sovereign, who, as a true penitent, dismissed his concubines, and began to prepare himself for death; yet the strength of his constitution triumphed over the fever, and his recovery was celebrated all over his dominions with uncommon marks of joy and affection.
In the meantime the schemes of the Austrian general were frustrated by the king of Prussia, who, in the month of August, entered the electorate of Saxony at the head of a numerous army. There he declared, in a public manifesto, that his aims were only to re-establish the peace of the empire, and to support the dignity of its head. He assured the inhabitants that they might depend upon his protection, in case they should remain quiet; but threatened them with fire and sword should they presume to oppose his arms. In a rescript, addressed to his ministers at foreign courts, he accused the queen of Hungary of obstinacy, in refusing to acknowledge the emperor, and restore his hereditary dominions; he said, he had engaged in the league of Franckfort, to hinder the head of the empire from being oppressed; that he had no intention to violate the peace of Breslau, or enter as a principal into this war; he affirmed, that his design was to act as auxiliary to the emperor, and establish the quiet of Germany. He penetrated into Bohemia, and undertook the siege of Prague, the governor of which surrendered himself and his garrison prisoners of war on the sixteenth day of September. He afterwards reduced Tabor, Bodweis, and Teyn, and in a word subdued the greatest part of the kingdom; the Austrian forces in that country being in no condition to stop his progress. Nevertheless, he was soon obliged to relinquish his conquests. Prince Charles of Lorraine was recalled from Alsace, and repassed the Rhine in the face of the French army, commanded by the mareschals de Coigny, Noailles, and Belleisle. Then he marched to the Danube, laid the Upper Palatine under contribution, and entering Bohemia, joined the troops under Bathiani at Merotiz. The king of Poland elector of Saxony, at this juncture declared in favour of her Hungarian majesty. A convention for the mutual guarantee of their dominions, had been signed between those two powers in December; and now prince Charles of Lorraine was reinforced by twenty thousand Saxon troops, under the conduct of the duke of Saxe-Wessenfels. The combined army was superior to that of his Prussian majesty, whom they resolved to engage. But he retired before them, and having evacuated all the places he had garrisoned in Bohemia, retreated with precipitation into Silesia. There his troops were put into winter-quarters; and he himself returned to Berlin, extremely mortified at the issue of the campaign.
During these transactions, count Seckendorf marched into Bavaria at the head of a strong army, drove the Austrians out of that electorate, and the emperor regained possession of Munich, his capital, on the twenty-second day of October. In August the French army passed the Rhine at Fort-Louis, and invested the strong and important city of Fribourg, defended by general Demnitz, at the head of nine thousand veterans. The king of France arrived in the camp on the eleventh day of October; and the siege was carried on with uncommon vigour. The Austrian governor made incredible efforts in the defence of the place, which he maintained until it was reduced to a heap of ruins, and one-half of the garrison destroyed. At length, however, they were obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war, after the trenches had been open five-and-forty days, during which they had killed above fifteen thousand of the besiegers. With this conquest the French king closed the campaign, and his army was cantoned along the Rhine, under the inspection of the count de Maillebois. By the detachments drawn from the French army in Flanders, count Saxe had found himself considerably weaker than the confederates; he threw up strong intrenchments behind the Lys, where he remained on the defensive, until he was reinforced by count d’Clermont, who commanded a separate body on the side of Newport. The allies, to the number of seventy thousand, passed the Schelde, and advanced towards Helchin; but the enemy being so advantageously posted, that they could not attack him with any prospect of advantage, they filed on in sight of Tournay; and on the eighth day of August encamped in the plains of Lisle, in hope of drawing count Saxe from the situation in which he was so strongly fortified. Here they foraged for several days, and laid the open country under contribution; however, they made no attempt on the place itself, which in all probability would have fallen into their hands had they invested it at their first approach; for then there was no other garrison but two or three battalions of militia; but count Saxe soon threw in a considerable reinforcement. The allies were unprovided with a train of battering cannon; and their commanders would not deviate from the usual form of war. Besides, they were divided in their opinions, and despised one another. General Wade, who commanded the English and Hanoverians, was a vain weak man, without confidence, weight, or authority; and the Austrian general, the duke d’Aremberg, was a proud rapacious glutton, devoid of talents and sentiment. After having remained for some time in sight of Lisle, and made a general forage without molestation, they retired to their former camp on the Schelde, from whence they soon marched into winter-quarters. Count Saxe at length quitted his lines; and by way of retaliation, sent out detachments to ravage the Low-countries, to the very gates of Ghent and Bruges. The conduct of the allied generals was severely censured in England, ridiculed in France, not only in private conversation, but also on their public theatres, where it became the subject of farces and pantomimes.
The campaign in Italy produced divers vicissitudes of fortune. The king of Naples having assembled an army, joined count Gages, and published a manifesto in vindication of his conduct, which was a direct violation of the neutrality he had promised to observe. He maintained, that his moderation had been undervalued by the courts of London and Vienna; that his frontiers were threatened with the calamities of war; and that the queen of Hungary made no secret of her intention to invade his dominions. This charge was not without foundation. The emissaries of the house of Austria endeavoured to excite a rebellion in Naples, which prince Lobkowitz had orders to favour by an invasion. This general was encamped at Monte Rotundo, in the neighbourhood of Rome, when, in the month of June, the confederates advanced to Velletri. While the two armies remained in sight of each other, prince Lobkowitz detached a strong body of forces, under count Soro and general Gorani, who made an irruption into the province of Abruzzo, and took the city of Aquilla, where they distributed a manifesto, in which the queen of Hungary exhorted the Neapolitans to shake off the Spanish yoke, and submit again to the house of Austria. This step, however, produced little or no effect; and the Austrian detachment retired at the approach of the duke of Vieuville, with a superior number of forces. In August, count Brown, at the head of an Austrian detachment, surprised Velletri in the night; and the king of the Two Sicilies, with the duke of Modena, were in the utmost danger of being taken. They escaped by a postern with great difficulty, and repaired to the quarters of count Gages, who performed the part of a great general on this occasion. He rallied the fugitives, dispelled the panic and confusion which had begun to prevail in his camp, and made a disposition for cutting off the retreat of the Austrians. Count Brown, finding himself in danger of being surrounded, thought proper to secure his retreat, which he effected with great art and gallantry, carrying off a prodigious booty. Three thousand Spaniards are said to have fallen in this action; and eight hundred men were taken, with some standards and colours. Count Mariani, a Neapolitan general, was among the prisoners. The Austrians lost about six hundred men; and general Novati fell into the hands of the enemy; but the exploit produced no consequence of importance. The heats of Autumn proved so fatal to the Austrians, who were not accustomed to the climate, that prince Lobkowitz saw his army mouldering away, without any possibility of its being recruited; besides, the country was so drained that he could no longer procure subsistence. Impelled by these considerations, he meditated a retreat. On the eleventh day of November, he decamped from Faiola, marched under the walls of Rome, passed the Tiber at Ponte Mole, formerly known by the name of Pons Milvius, which he had just time to break down behind him, when the vanguard of the Spaniards and Neapolitans appeared. Part of his rear-guard, however, was taken, with count Soro who commanded it, at Nocero; and his army suffered greatly by desertion. Nevertheless, he continued his retreat with equal skill and expedition, passed the mountains of Gubio, and by the way of Viterbo reached the Bolognese. The pope was altogether passive. In the beginning of the campaign he had caressed Lobkowitz; and now he received the king of the Two Sicilies with marks of the warmest affection. That prince having visited the chief curiosities of Rome, returned to Naples, leaving part of his troops under the command of count Gages.
Fortune likewise favoured his brother Don Philip in Savoy and Piedmont. He was, early in the season, joined at Antibes by the French army under the conduct of the prince of Conti. In the latter end of March, the combined forces passed the Var, reduced the castle of Aspremont, and entered the city of Nice without opposition. In April, they attacked the king of Sardinia, who, with twenty thousand men, was strongly intrenched among the mountains of Villa-Franca. The action was obstinate and bloody; but their numbers and perseverance prevailed. He was obliged to abandon his posts, and embark on board of the British squadron, which transported him and his troops to Vado. The intention of Don Philip was to penetrate through the territories of Genoa into the Milanese; but admiral Matthews, who hovered with a strong squadron on that coast, sent a message to the republic, declaring, that should the combined army be suffered to pass through her dominions, the king of Great Britain would consider such a step as a breach of their neutrality. The senate, intimidated by this intimation, entreated the princes to desist from their design, and they resolved to choose another route. They defiled towards Piedmont, and assaulted the strong post of Chateau-Dauphiné, defended by the king of Sardinia in person. After a desperate attack, in which they lost four thousand men, the place was taken; the garrison of Demont surrendered at discretion, and the whole country of Piedmont was laid under contribution. His Sardinian majesty was not in a condition to hazard a battle; and, therefore, posted himself at Saluzzes, in order to cover his capital. The combined army advanced to the strong and important town of Coni, which was invested in the beginning of September, Baron Leutrum, the governor, made an obstinate defence, and the situation of the place was such as rendered the siege difficult, tedious, and bloody. The king of Sardinia being reinforced by ten thousand Austrians, under general Pallavicini, advanced to its relief, and a battle ensued. The action was maintained with great vigour on both sides till night, when his majesty finding it impracticable to force the enemy’s intrenchments, retired in good order to his camp at Murasso, He afterwards found means to throw a reinforcement and supply of provisions into Coni; and the heavy rains that fell at this period, not only retarded but even dispirited the besiegers. Nevertheless, the princes persisted in their design, notwithstanding a dearth of provisions, and the approach of winter, till the latter end of November, when the chevalier de Soto entered the place with six hundred fresh men. This incident was no sooner known than the princes abandoned their enterprise; and leaving their sick and wounded to the mercy of the Piedmontese, marched back to Demont. Having dismantled the fortifications of this place, they retreated with great precipitation to Dauphiné, and were dreadfully harassed by the Vaudois and light troops in the service of his Sardinian majesty, who now again saw himself in possession of Piedmont. The French troops were quartered in Dauphiné; but Don Philip still maintained his footing in Savoy, the inhabitants of which he fleeced without mercy.
After the action at Toulon, nothing of consequence was achieved by the British squadron in the Mediterranean; and indeed the naval power of Great Britain was, during the summer, quite inactive. In the month of June, commodore Anson returned from his voyage of three years and nine months, in which he had surrounded the terraqueous globe. We have formerly observed, that he sailed with a small squadron to the South-Sea, in order to annoy the Spanish settlements of Chili and Peru. Two of his large ships having been separated from him in a storm before he weathered Cape Horn, had put in at Rio de Janeiro, on the coast of Brazil, from whence they returned to Europe. A frigate commanded by captain Cheap, was shipwrecked on a desolate island in the South-Sea. Mr. Anson having undergone a dreadful tempest, which dispersed his fleet, arrived at the island of Juan Fernandez, where he was joined by the Gloucester, a ship of the line, a sloop, and a pink loaded with provisions. These were the remains of his squadron. He made prize of several vessels; took and burned the little town of Payta; set sail from the coast of Mexico for the Philippine Isles; and in this passage the Gloucester was abandoned and sunk: the other vessels had been destroyed for want of men to navigate them, so that nothing now remained but the commodore’s own ship, the Centurion, and that but very indifferently manned; for the crews had been horribly thinned by sickness. Incredible were the hardships and misery they sustained from the shattered condition of the ships, and the scorbutic disorder, when they reached the plentiful island of Tinian, where they were supplied with the necessary refreshments. Thence they prosecuted their voyage to the river of Canton in China, where the commodore ordered the ship to be sheathed, and found means to procure a reinforcement of sailors. The chief object of his attention was the rich annual ship that sails between Acapulco, in Mexico, and Manilla, one of the Philippine islands. In hopes of intercepting her, he set sail from Canton, and steered his course back to the straits of Manilla, where she actually fell into his hands, after a short but vigorous engagement. The prize was called Neustra Signora de Cabodonga, mounted with forty guns, manned with six hundred sailors, and loaded with treasure and effects to the value of three hundred and thirteen thousand pounds sterling; with this windfall he returned to Canton; from whence he proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, and prosecuted his voyage to England, where he arrived in safety. Though this fortunate commander enriched himself by an occurrence that may be termed almost accidental, the British nation was not indemnified for the expense of the expedition; and the original design was entirely defeated. Had the Manilla ship escaped the vigilance of the English commodore, he might have been, on his return to England, laid aside as a superannuated captain, and died in obscurity, but his great wealth invested him with considerable influence, and added lustre to his talents.
He soon became the oracle which was consulted in all naval deliberations; and the king raised him to the dignity of a peerage. In July, sir John Balchen, an admiral of approved valour and great experience, sailed from Spithead with a strong squadron, in quest of an opportunity to attack the French fleet at Brest, under the command of M. de Rochambault. In the bay of Biscay he was overtaken by a violent storm, that dispersed the ships, and drove them up the English channel. Admiral Stewart, with the greater part of them, arrived at Plymouth; but sir John Balchen’s own ship, the Victory, which was counted the most beautiful first-rate in the world, foundered at sea; and this brave commander perished, with all his officers, volunteers, and crew, amounting to eleven hundred choice seamen. On the fourth day of October, after the siege of Fribourg, the mareschal duke de Belleisle, and his brother, happened in their way to Berlin to halt at a village in the forest of Hartz, dependent on the electorate of Hanover. There they were apprehended by the bailiff of the place, and conducted as prisoners to Osterode; from whence they were removed to Stade on the Elbe, where they embarked for England. They resided at Windsor till the following year, when they were allowed the benefit of the cartel which had been established between Great Britain and France at Franckfort, and released accordingly, after they had been treated by the British nobility with that respect and hospitality which was due to their rank and merit.*
* Mr. Pope, the celebrated poet, died in the month of June. In October, the old duchess of Marlborough resigned her breath, in the eighty-fifth year of her age, immensely rich, and very little regretted, either by her own family or the world in general.
The dissensions in the British cabinet were now ripened into another revolution in the ministry. Lord Carteret, who was by this time earl Granville, in consequence of his mother’s death, had engrossed the royal favour so much, that the duke of Newcastle and his brother are said to have taken umbrage at his influence and greatness. He had incurred the resentment of those who were distinguished by the appellation of patriots, and entirely forfeited his popularity. The two brothers were very powerful by their parliamentary interest; they knew their own strength, and engaged in a political alliance with the leading men in the opposition, against the prime minister and his measures. This coalition was dignified with the epithet of “The Broad Bottom,” as if it had been established on a true constitutional foundation, comprehending individuals of every class, without distinction of party. The appellation, however, which they assumed was afterwards converted into a term of derision. The earl of Granville perceiving the gathering storm and foreseeing the impossibility of withstanding such an opposition in parliament, wisely avoided the impending danger and disgrace, by a voluntary resignation of his employments. The earl of Harrington succeeded him as secretary of state. The duke of Bedford was appointed first lord of the admiralty, and the earl of Chesterfield declared lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The lords Gower and Cobham were re-established in the offices they had resigned; Mr. Lyttelton was admitted as a commissioner of the treasury; even sir John Hinde Cotton accepted of a place at court; and sir John Phillips sat at the board of trade and plantations, though he soon renounced this employment. This was rather a change of men than of measures, and turned out to the ease and advantage of the sovereign; for his views were no longer thwarted by an obstinate opposition in parliament. The session was opened on the twenty-eighth day of November, in the usual manner. The commons unanimously granted about six millions and an half for the service of the ensuing year, to be raised by the land, the malt, and the salt taxes, the sinking fund, and an additional duty on wines. In January, the earl of Chesterfield set out for the Hague, with the character of ambassador-extraordinary, to persuade, if possible, the states-general to engage heartily in the war. About the same time a treaty of quadruple alliance was signed at Warsaw, by the queen of Hungary, the king of Poland, and the maritime powers. This was a mutual guarantee of the dominions belonging to the contracting parties; but his Polish majesty was paid for his concurrence, with an annual subsidy of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, two-thirds of which were defrayed by England, and the remainder was disbursed by the United Provinces.*
* Robert earl of Orford, late prime minister, died in March, after having for a very short time enjoyed a pension of four thousand pounds granted by the crown, in consideration of his past services. Though he had for such a length of time directed the application of the public treasure, his circumstances were not affluent: he was liberal in his disposition, and had such a number of rapacious dependents to gratify, that little was left for his own private occasions.
1745
The business of the British parliament being discussed, the session was closed in the beginning of May; and, immediately after the prorogation, the king set out for Hanover. The death of the emperor Charles VII. hich happened in the month of January, had entirely changed the face of affairs in the empire, and all the princes of Germany were in commotion. The grand-duke of Tuscany, consort to her Hungarian majesty, was immediately declared a candidate for the Imperial crown; while his pretensions were warmly opposed by the French king and his allies. The court of Vienna, taking advantage of the late emperor’s death, sent an army to invade Bavaria in the month of March, under the conduct of general Bathiani, who routed the French and Palatine troops at Psiffenhoven, took possession of Rain, surrounded and disarmed six thousand Hessians in the neighbouhood of Ingoldstadt, and drove the Bavarian forces out of the electorate. The young elector was obliged to abandon his capital, and retire to Augsburgh, where he found himself in danger of losing all his dominions. In this emergency, he yielded to the earnest solicitations of the empress his mother, enforced by the advice of his uncle the elector of Cologn, and of his general count Secken-dorf, who exhorted him to be reconciled to the court of Vienna. A negotiation was immediately begun at Fuessen; where, in April, the treaty was concluded. The queen consented to recognise the Imperial dignity, as having been vested in the person of his father; to acknowledge his mother as empress dowager; to restore his dominions, with all the fortresses, artillery, stores, and ammunition which she had taken: on the other hand, he renounced all claim to the succession of her father, and became guarantee of the pragmatic sanction; he acknowledged the validity of the electoral vote of Bohemia in the person of the queen; engaged to give his voice for the grand duke at the ensuing election of a king of the Romans. Until that should be determined, both parties agreed that Ingoldstadt should be garrisoned by neutral troops; and that Braumau and Schardingen, with all the country lying between the Inn and the Saltza, should remain in the queen’s possession, though without prejudice to the civil government or the elector’s revenue. In the meantime he dismissed the auxiliaries that were in his pay, and they were permitted to retire without molestation.
The court of Vienna had now secured the votes of all the electors, except those of Brandenburgh and the Palatinate. Nevertheless, France assembled a powerful army in the neighbourhood of Franckfort, in order to influence the election. But the Austrian army, commanded by the grand-duke in person, marched thither from the Danube; and the prince of Conti was obliged to repass the Rhine at Nordlingen. Then the grand-duke repaired to Franckfort, where on the second day of September he was, by a majority of voices, declared king of the Romans and emperor of Germany. Meanwhile the king of Prussia had made great progress in the conquest of Silesia. The campaign began in January, when the Hungarian insurgents were obliged to retire into Moravia. In the following month the Prussian general Lehrwald defeated a body of twelve thousand Austrians, commanded by general Helsrich; the town of Eatisbon was taken by assault; and the king entered Silesia, in May, at the head of seventy thousand men. Prince Charles of Lorraine, being joined by the duke of Saxe-Wessenfels and twenty thousand Saxons, penetrated into Silesia by the defiles of Landshut; and were attacked by his Prussian majesty in the plains of Striegau, near Friedberg. The battle was maintained from morning till noon, when the Saxons giving way, prince Charles was obliged to retire with the loss of twelve thousand men, and a great number of colours, standards, and artillery. This victory, obtained on the fourth day of June, complete as it was, did not prove decisive; for, though the victor transferred the seat of the war into Bohemia, and maintained his army by raising contributions in that country, the Austrians resolved to hazard another engagement. Their aim was to surprise him in his camp at Sohr, which they attacked on the thirtieth of September, at day-break; but they met with such a warm reception, that notwithstanding their repeated efforts during the space of four hours, they were repulsed with considerable damage, and retreated to Jaromire, leaving five thousand killed upon the spot, besides two thousand that were taken, with many standards, and twenty pieces of cannon. The loss of this battle was in a great measure owing to the warice of the irregulars, who having penetrated into the Prussian camp, began to pillage with great eagerness, giving the king an opportunity to rally his disordered troops, and restore the battle; nevertheless, they retired with the plunder of his baggage, including his military chest, the officers of his chancery, his own secretary, and all the papers of his cabinet.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
After this action, his Prussian majesty returned to Berlin and breathed nothing but peace and moderation. In August he had signed a convention with the king of Great Britain, who became guarantee of his possessions in Silesia, as yielded by the treaty of Breslau; and he promised to vote for the grand duke of Tuscany at the election of an emperor. This was intended as the basis of a more general accommodation. But he now pretended to have received undoubted intelligence that the king of Poland and the queen of Hungary had agreed to invade Brandenburgh with three different armies; and that, for this purpose, his Polish majesty had demanded of the czarina the succours stipulated by treaty between the two crowns. Alarmed, or seemingly alarmed, at this information, he solicited the maritime powers to fulfil their engagements, and interpose their good offices with the court of Petersburgh. Yet, far from waiting for the result of these remonstrances, he made a sudden irruption into Lusatia, took possession of Gorlitz, and obliged prince Charles of Lorraine to retire before him into Bohemia. Then he entered Leipsic, and laid Saxony under contribution. The king of Poland, unable to resist the torrent, quitted his capital and took refuge in Prague. His troops, reinforced by a body of Austrians, were defeated at Pirna on the fifteenth day of December; and his Prussian majesty became master of Dresden without further opposition. The king of Poland, thus deprived of his hereditary dominions, was fain to acquiesce in such terms as the conqueror thought proper to impose; and the treaty of Dresden was concluded under the mediation of his Britannic majesty. By this convention the king of Prussia retained all the contributions he had levied in Saxony; and was entitled to a million of German crowns, to be paid by his Polish majesty at the next fair of Leipsic. He and the elector palatine consented to acknowledge the grand duke as emperor of Germany; and this last confirmed to his Prussian majesty certain privilegesde non evocando, which had been granted by the late emperor, with regard to some territories possessed by the king of Prussia, though not belonging to the electorate of Brandenburgh. Immediately after the ratification of this treaty, the Prussian troops evacuated Saxony, and the peace of Germany was restored.
Though the French king could not prevent the elevation of the grand duke to the Imperial throne, he resolved to humble the house of Austria, by making a conquest of the Netherlands. A prodigious army was there assembled, under the auspices of mareschal count de Saxe; and his most christian majesty, with the dauphin, arriving in the camp, they invested the strong town of Tournay on the thirtieth day of April. The Dutch garrison consisted of eight thousand men, commanded by the old baron Dorth, who made a vigorous defence. The duke of Cumberland assumed the chief command of the allied army, assembled at Soignes; he was assisted with the advice of the count Konigsegg, an Austrian general, and the prince of Waldeck, commander of the Dutch forces. Their army was greatly inferior in number to that of the enemy; nevertheless, they resolved to march to the relief of Tournay. They accordingly advanced to Leuse; and on the twenty-eight day of April took post at Maulbre, in sight of the French army, which was encamped on an eminence from the village of Antonie, to a large wood beyond Vezon, having Fontenoy in their front. Next day was employed by the allies in driving the enemy from some outposts, and clearing the defiles through which they were obliged to advance to the attack; while the French completed their batteries, and made the most formidable preparations for their reception. On the thirtieth day of April, the duke of Cumberland, having made the proper dispositions, began his march to the enemy at two o’clock in the morning; a brisk cannonade ensued; and about nine both armies were engaged. The British infantry drove the French beyond their lines; but the left wing failing in the attack on the village of Fontenoy, and the cavalry forbearing to advance on the flanks, they measured back their ground with some disorder, from the prodigious fire of the French batteries. They rallied, however, and returning to the charge with redoubled ardour, repulsed the enemy to their camp with great slaughter; but, being wholly unsupported by the other wing, and exposed both in front and flank to a dreadful fire, which did great execution, the duke was obliged to make the necessary dispositions for a retreat about three o’clock in the afternoon, and this was effected in tolerable order. The battle was fought with great obstinacy, and the carnage on both sides was very considerable. The allies lost about twelve thousand men, including a good number of officers; among these were lieutenant-general Campbell, and major-general Ponsonby. The victory cost the French almost an equal number of lives; and no honour was lost by the vanquished. Had the allies given battle on the preceding day, before the enemy had taken their measures and received all their reinforcements, they might have succeeded in their endeavour to relieve Tournay. Although the attack was generally judged rash and precipitate, the British and Hanoverian troops fought with such intrepidity and perseverance, that if they had been properly sustained by the Dutch forces, and their flanks covered by the cavalry, the French in all likelihood would have been obliged to abandon their enterprise. The duke of Cumberland left his sick and wounded to the humanity of the victors; and retiring to Aeth, encamped in an advantageous situation at Lessines. The garrison of Tournay, though now deprived of all hope of succour, maintained the place to the twenty-first day of June, when the governor obtained an honourable capitulation. After the conquest of this frontier, which was dismantled, the duke of Cumberland, apprehending the enemy had a design upon Ghent, sent a detachment of four thousand men to reinforce the garrison of that city; but they fell into an ambuscade at Pas-du-mêle, and were killed or taken, except a few dragoons that escaped to Ostend; on that very night, which was the twelfth of June, Ghent was surprised by a detachment of the French army. Then they invested Ostend, which, though defended by an English garrison, and open to the sea, was, after a short siege, surrendered by capitulation on the fourteenth day of August Dendermonde, Oudenarde, Newport, and Aeth, underwent the same fate; while the allied army lay entranced beyond the canal of Antwerp. The French king having subdued the greatest part of the Austrian Netherlands, returned to Paris, which he entered in triumph.
The campaign in Italy was unpropitious to the queen of Hungary and the king of Sardinia. Count Gages passed the Appenines, and entered the state of Lucca; from thence he proceeded by the eastern coast of Genoa to Lestride-Levante. The junction of the two armies was thus accomplished, and reinforced with ten thousand Genoese; meanwhile prince Lobkowitz decamped from Modena and took post at Parma; but he was soon succeeded by count Schuylemberg, and sent to command the Austrians in Bohemia. The Spaniards entered the Milanese without further opposition. Count Gages, with thirty thousand men, took possession of Serravalle; and advancing towards Placentia, obliged the Austrians to retire under the cannon of Tortona; but when don Philip, at the head of forty thousand troops, made himself master of Acqui, the king of Sardinia and the Austrian general, unable to stem the torrent, retreated behind the Tanaro. The strong citadel of Tortona was taken by the Spaniards, who likewise reduced Parma and Placentia; and forcing the passage of the Tanaro, compelled his Sardinian majesty to take shelter on the other side of the Po. Then Pavia was won by scalade; and the city of Milan submitted to the infant, though the Austrian garrison still maintained the citadel; all Piedmont, on both sides of the Po, as far as Turin, was reduced, and even that capital threatened with a siege; so that by the month of October the territories belonging to the house of Austria, in Italy, were wholly subdued; and the king of Sardinia stripped of all his dominions; yet he continued firm and true to his engagements, and deaf to all proposals of a separate accommodation.