Read Ebook: The History of England in Three Volumes Vol.II. Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II. by Smollett T Tobias

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EXTRAORDINARY RETREAT OF M. DE BELLEISLE.

These generals seeing themselves surrounded on all hands, returned to Prague, from whence Broglio made his escape in the habit of a courier, and was sent to command the army of Maillebois, who was by this time disgraced. Prince Lobkowitz, who now directed the blockade of Prague, had so effectually cut off all communication between that place and the adjacent country, that in a little time the French troops were reduced to great extremity, both from the severity of the season, and the want of provisions. They were already reduced to the necessity of eating horse flesh, and unclean animals; and they had no other prospect but that of perishing by famine or war, when their commander formed the scheme of a retreat, which was actually put in execution. Having taken some artful precautions to deceive the enemy, he, in the middle of December, departed from Prague at midnight, with about fourteen thousand men, thirty pieces of artillery, and some of the principal citizens as hostages for the safety of nine hundred soldiers whom he had left in garrison. Notwithstanding the difficulties he must have encountered at that season of the year, in a broken and unfrequented road, which he purposely chose, he marched with such expedition, that he had gained the passes of the mountains before he was overtaken by the horse and hussars of prince Lobkowitz. The fatigue and hardships which the miserable soldiers underwent are inexpressible. A great number perished in the snow, and many hundreds, fainting with weariness, cold, and hunger, were left to the mercy of the Austrian irregulars, consisting of the most barbarous people on the face of the earth. The count de Belleisle, though tortured with the hip-gout, behaved with surprising resolution and activity. He caused himself to be carried on a litter to every place where he thought his presence was necessary, and made such dispositions, that the pursuers never could make an impression upon the body of his troops; but all his artillery, baggage, and even his own equipage, fell into the hands of the enemy. On the twenty-ninth day of December, he arrived at Egra, from whence he proceeded to Alsace without further molestation; but when he returned to Versailles, he met with a very cold reception, notwithstanding the gallant exploit which he had performed. After his escape, prince Lobkowitz returned to Prague, and the small garrison which Belleisle had left in that place surrendered upon honourable terms; so that this capital reverted to the house of Austria.

THE KING OF GREAT BRITAIN FORMS AN ARMY IN FLANDERS.

The king of Great Britain resolved to make a powerful diversion in the Netherlands, and in the month of April, ordered sixteen thousand effective men to be embarked for that country; but as this step was taken without any previous concert with the states-general, the earl of Stair, destined to the command of the forces in Flanders, was in the meantime appointed ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to their high mightinesses, in order to persuade them to co-operate vigorously in the plan which his Britannic majesty had formed; a plan by which Great Britain was engaged as a principal in a foreign dispute, and entailed upon herself the whole burden of an expensive war, big with ruin and disgrace. England, from being the umpire, was now become a party in all continental quarrels; and, instead of trimming the balance of Europe, lavished away her blood and treasure in supporting the interest and allies of a puny electorate in the north of Germany. The king of Prussia had been at variance with the elector of Hanover. The duchy of Mecklenburgh was the avowed subject of dispute; but his Prussian majesty is said to have had other more provoking causes of complaint, which however he did not think proper to divulge. The king of Great Britain found it convenient to accommodate these differences. In the course of this summer the two powers concluded a convention, in consequence of which the troops of Hanover evacuated Mecklenburgh, and three regiments of Brandenburgh took possession of those bailiwicks that were mortgaged to the king of Prussia. The elector of Hanover being now secured from danger, sixteen thousand troops of that country, together with the six thousand auxiliary Hessians, began their march for the Netherlands; and about the middle of October arrived in the neighbourhood of Brussels, where they encamped. The earl of Stair repaired to Ghent, where the British forces were quartered: a body of Austrians was assembled; and though the season was far advanced, he seemed determined upon some expedition; but all of a sudden the troops were sent into winter-quarters. The Austrians retired to Luxembourg; the English and Hessians remained in Flanders; and the Hanoverians marched into the county of Liege, without paying any regard to the bishop's protestation.

PROGRESS OF THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The states-general had made a considerable augmentation of their forces by sea and land; but, notwithstanding the repeated instances of the earl of Stair, they resolved to adhere to their neutrality; they dreaded the neighbourhood of the French; and they were far from being pleased to see the English get footing in the Netherlands. The friends of the house of Orange began to exert themselves; the states of Groningen and West Friesland protested, in favour of the prince, against the promotion of foreign generals which had lately been made; but his interest was powerfully opposed by the provinces of Zealand and Holland, which had the greatest weight in the republic. The revolution in Russia did not put an end to the war with Sweden. These two powers had agreed to an armistice of three months, during which the czarina augmented her forces in Finland.

THE KING OF SARDINIA DECLARES FOR THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.

The court of Versailles were now heartily tired of maintaining the war in Germany, and had actually made equitable proposals of peace to the queen of Hungary, by whom they were rejected. Thus repulsed, they redoubled their preparations; and endeavoured, by advantageous offers, to detach the king of Sardinia from the interest of the house of Austria. This prince had espoused a sister to the grand duke, who pressed him to declare for her brother, and the queen of Hungary promised to gratify him with some territories in the Milanese; besides, he thought the Spaniards had already gained too much ground in Italy; but, at the same time, he was afraid of being crushed between France and Spain, before he could be properly supported. He therefore temporized, and protracted the negotiation, until he was alarmed at the progress of the Spanish arms in Italy, and fixed in his determination by the subsidies of Great Britain. The Spanish army assembled at Rimini under the duke de Montemar; and being joined by the Neapolitan forces, amounted to sixty thousand men, furnished with a large train of artillery. About the beginning of May, they entered the Bolognese; then the king of Sardinia declaring against them, joined the Austrian army commanded by count Traun; marched into the duchy of Parma; and understanding that the duke of Modena had engaged in a treaty with the Spaniards, dispossessed that prince of his dominions. The duke de Montemar, seeing his army diminished by sickness and desertion, retreated to the kingdom of Naples, and was followed by the king of Sardinia as far-as Rimini.

Here he received intelligence that Don Philip, third son of his catholic majesty, had made an irruption into Savoy with another army of Spaniards, and already taken possession of Chamberri, the capital. He forthwith began his march for Piedmont. Don Philip abandoned Savoy at his approach, and retreating into Dauphin?, took post under the cannon of fort Barreaux. The king pursued him thither, and both armies remained in sight of each other till the month of December, when the marquis de Minas, an active and enterprising general, arrived from Madrid, and took upon him the command of the forces under Don Philip. This general's first exploit was against the castle of Aspremont, in the neighbourhood of the Sardinian camp. He attacked it so vigorously, that the garrison was obliged to capitulate in four-and-forty hours. The loss of this important post compelled the king to retire into Piedmont, and the Spaniards marched back into Savoy, where they established their winter quarters. In the meantime the duke de Montemar, who directed the other Spanish army, though the duke of Modena was nominal generalissimo, resigned his command to count Gages, who attempted to penetrate into Tuscany; but was prevented by the vigilance of count Traun, the Austrian general. In December he quartered his troops in the Bolognese and Romagna; while the Austrian s and Piedmontese were distributed in the Modenese and Parmesan. The pope was passive during the whole campaign; the Venetians maintained their neutrality, and the king of the two Sicilies was overawed by the British fleet in the Mediterranean.

The new ministry in England had sent out admiral Matthews to assume the command of this squadron, which had been for some time conducted by Lestock, an inferior officer, as Haddock had been obliged to resign his commission on account of his ill state of health. Matthews was likewise invested with the character of minister-plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia and the states of Italy. Immediately after he had taken possession of his command, he ordered captain Norris to destroy five Spanish galleys which had put into the bay of St. Tropez; and this service was effectually performed. In May he detached commodore Rowley, with eight sail, to cruise off the harbour of Toulon; and a great number of merchant ships belonging to the enemy fell into his hands. In August he sent commodore Martin with another squadron into the bay of Naples, to bombard that city, unless his Sicilian majesty would immediately recall his troops, which had joined the Spanish army, and promise to remain neutral during the continuance of the war. Naples was immediately filled with consternation; the king subscribed to these conditions; and the English squadron rejoined the admiral on the road of Hieres, which he had chosen for his winter station. Before this period he had landed some men at St. Remo, in the territories of Genoa, and destroyed the magazines that were erected for the use of the Spanish army. He had likewise ordered two of his cruisers to attack a Spanish ship of the line which lay at anchor in the port of Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica; but the Spanish captain set his men on shore, and blew up his ship, rather than she should fall into the hands of the English.

OPERATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES.

In August, a ship of war was sent from thence, with about three hundred soldiers, to the small island of Rattan in the bay of Honduras, of which they took possession. In September, Vernon and Wentworth received orders to return to England with such troops as remained alive; these did not amount to a tenth part of the number which had been sent abroad in that inglorious service. The inferior officers fell ignobly by sickness and despair, without an opportunity of signalizing their courage, and the commanders lived to feel the scorn and reproach of their country. In the month of June the new colony of Georgia was invaded by an armament from St. Augustine, commanded by Don Marinel de Monteano, governor of that fortress. It consisted of six-and-thirty ships, from which four thousand men were landed at St. Simon's; and began their march for Frederica. General Oglethorpe, with a handful of men, took such wise precautions for opposing their progress, and harassed them in their march with such activity and resolution, that after two of their detachments had been defeated, they retired to their ships and totally abandoned the enterprise.

EXTRAORDINARY MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

When the house of lords took into consideration the several estimates of the expense occasioned by the forces in the pay of Great Britain, earl Stanhope, at the close of an elegant speech, moved for an address, to beseech and advise his majesty, that in compassion to his people, loaded already with such numerous and heavy taxes, such large and growing debts, and greater annual expenses than the nation at any time before had ever sustained, he would exonerate his subjects of the charge and burden of those mercenaries who were taken into the service last year, without the advice or consent of parliament. The motion was supported by the earl of Sandwich, who took occasion to speak with great contempt of Hanover; and, in mentioning the royal family, seemed to forget that decorum which the subject required. He had, indeed, reason to talk with asperity on the contract by which the Hanoverians had been taken into the pay of Great Britain. Levy-money was charged to the account, though they were engaged for one year only, and though not a single regiment had been raised on this occasion; they had been levied for the security of the electorate; and would have been maintained if England had never engaged in the affairs of the continent. The duke of Bedford enlarged upon the same subject. He said it had been suspected, nor was the suspicion without foundation, that the measures of the English ministry had long been regulated by the interest of his majesty's electoral territories; that these had been long considered as a gulf into which the treasures of Great Britain had been thrown; that the state of Hanover had been changed, without any visible cause, since the accession of its princes to the throne of England; affluence had begun to wanton in their towns, and gold to glitter in their cottages, without the discovery of mines, or the increase of their commerce; and new dominions had been purchased, of which the value was never paid from the revenues of Hanover. The motion was hunted down by the new ministry, the patriot lord Bathurst, and the earl of Bath, which last nobleman declared, that he considered it as an act of cowardice and meanness, to fall passively down the stream of popularity, to suffer his reason and integrity to be overborne by the noise of vulgar clamours, which had been raised against the measures of government by the low arts of exaggeration, fallacious reasonings, and partial representations. This is the very language which sir Robert Walpole had often used against Mr. Pulteney and his confederates in the house of commons. The associates of the new secretary pleaded the cause of Hanover, and insisted upon the necessity of a land-war against France, with all the vehemence of declamation. Their suggestions were answered; their conduct was severely stigmatized by the earl of Chesterfield, who observed, that the assembling an army in Flanders, without the concurrence of the states-general, or any other power engaged by treaty, or bound by interest, to support the queen of Hungary, was a rash and ridiculous measure; the taking sixteen thousand Hanoverians into British pay, without consulting the parliament, seemed highly derogatory to the rights and dignity of the great council of the nation, and a very dangerous precedent to future times; that these troops could not be employed against the emperor, whom they had already recognised; that the arms and wealth of Britain alone were altogether insufficient to raise the house of Austria to its former strength, dominion, and influence; that the assembling an army in Flanders would engage the nation as principals in an expensive and ruinous war, with a power which it ought not to provoke, and could not pretend to withstand in that manner; that while Great Britain exhausted herself almost to ruin, in pursuance of schemes founded on engagements to the queen of Hungary, the electorate of Hanover, though under the same engagements, and governed by the same prince, did not appear to contribute any thing as an ally to her assistance, but was paid by Great Britain for all the forces it had sent into the field, at a very exorbitant price; that nothing could be more absurd and iniquitous than to hire these mercenaries, while a numerous army lay inactive at home, and the nation groaned under such intolerable burdens. "It may be proper," added he, "to repeat what may be forgotten in the multitude of other objects, that this nation, after having exalted the elector of Hanover from a state of obscurity to the crown, is condemned to hire the troops of that electorate to fight their own cause; to hire them at a rate which was never demanded before; and to pay levy-money for them, though it is known to all Europe that they were not raised for this occasion." All the partisans of the old ministry joined in the opposition to earl Stanhope's motion, which was rejected by the majority. Then the earl of Scarborough moved for an address, to approve of the measures which had been taken on the continent; and this was likewise carried by dint of numbers. It was not, however, a very eligible victory; what they gained in parliament they lost with the people. The new ministers became more odious than their predecessors; and people began to think that public virtue was an empty name.

But the most severe opposition they underwent was in their endeavours to support a bill which they had concerted, and which had passed through the house of commons with great precipitation; it repealed certain duties on spirituous liquors, and licenses for retailing these liquors; and imposed others at an easier rate. When those severe duties, amounting almost to a prohibition, were imposed, the populace of London were sunk into the most brutal degeneracy, by drinking to excess the pernicious spirit called gin, which was sold so cheap that the lowest class of the people could afford to indulge themselves in one continued state of intoxication, to the destruction of all morals, industry, and order. Such a shameful degree of profligacy prevailed, that the retailers of this poisonous compound set up painted boards in public, inviting people to be drunk at the small expense of one penny; assuring them they might be dead drunk for two-pence, and have straw for nothing. They accordingly provided cellars and places strewed with straw, to which they conveyed those wretches who were overwhelmed with intoxication. In these dismal caverns they lay until they recovered some use of their faculties, and then they had recourse to the same mischievous potion; thus consuming their health, and ruining their families, in hideous receptacles of the most filthy vice, resounding with riot, execration, and blasphemy. Such beastly practices too plainly denoted a total want of all policy and civil regulations, and would have reflected disgrace upon the most barbarous community. In order to restrain this evil, which was become intolerable, the legislature enacted that law which we have already mentioned. But the populace soon broke through all restraint. Though no license was obtained, and no duty paid, the liquor continued to be sold in all corners of the streets, informers were intimidated by the threats of the people, and the justices of the peace, either from indolence or corruption, neglected to put the law in execution. The new ministers foresaw that a great revenue would accrue to the crown from a repeal of this act; and this measure they thought they might the more decently take, as the law had proved ineffectual; for it appeared that the consumption of gin had considerably increased every year since those heavy duties were imposed. They therefore pretended, that should the price of the liquor be moderately raised, and licenses granted at twenty shillings each to the retailers, the lowest class of people would be debarred the use of it to excess; their morals would of consequence be mended; and a considerable sum of money might be raised for the support of the war, by mortgaging the revenue arising from the duty and the licenses. Upon these maxims the new bill was founded, and passed through the lower house without opposition; but among the peers it produced the most obstinate dispute which had happened since the beginning of this parliament. The first assault it sustained was from lord Hervey, who had been divested of his post of privy-seal, which was bestowed on lord Gower, and these two noblemen exchanged principles from that instant. The first was hardened into a sturdy patriot, the other suppled into an obsequious courtier. Lord Hervey, on this occasion, made a florid harangue upon the pernicious effects of that destructive spirit they were about to let loose upon their fellow-creatures. Several prelates expatiated on the same topics; but the earl of Chesterfield attacked the bill with the united powers of reason, wit, and ridicule. Lord Carteret, lord Bathurst, and the earl of Bath, were numbered among its advocates; and shrewd arguments were advanced on both sides of the question. After very long, warm, and repeated debates, the bill passed without amendments, though the whole bench of bishops voted against it; and we cannot help owning, that it has not been attended with those dismal consequences which the lords in the opposition foretold. When the question was put for committing this bill, and the earl of Chesterfield saw the bishops join in his division, "I am in doubt," said he, "whether I have not got on the other side of the question; for I have not had the honour to divide with so many lawn sleeves for several years."

BILL FOR QUIETING CORPORATIONS.

On the twenty-first day of April the session was closed in the usual manner. The king, in his speech to both houses, told them, that, at the requisition of the queen of Hungary, he had ordered his army, in conjunction with the Austrians, to pass the Rhine for her support and assistance; that he continued one squadron of ships in the Mediterranean, and another in the West Indies. He thanked the commons for the ample supplies they had granted; and declared it was the fixed purpose of his heart to promote the true interest and happiness of his kingdoms. Immediately after the prorogation of parliament he embarked for Germany, accompanied by the duke of Cumberland, lord Carteret, and other persons of distinction.

CONVENTION BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY.

At this period the queen of Hungary seemed to triumph over all her enemies. The French were driven out of Bohemia and part of the Upper Palatinate; and their forces under mareschal Broglio were posted on the Danube. Prince Charles of Lorraine, at the head of the Austrian army, entered Bavaria; and in April obtained a victory over a body of Bavarians at Braunau; at the same time, three bodies of Croatians penetrating through the passes of the Tyrolese, ravaged the whole country to the very gates of Munich. The emperor pressed the French general to hazard a battle; but he refused to run the risk, though he had received a strong reinforcement from France. His Imperial majesty thinking himself unsafe in Munich, retired to Augsburgh; mareschal Seckendorf retreated with the Bavarian troops to Ingoldstadt, where he was afterwards joined by mareschal Broglio, whose troops had in this retreat been pursued and terribly harassed by the Austrian cavalry and hussars. Prince Charles had opened a free communication with Munich, which now for the third time fell into the hands of the queen of Hungary. Her arms likewise reduced Friedberg and Landsperg, while prince Charles continued to pursue the French to Dona-wert, where they were joined by twelve thousand men from the Bhine. Broglio still avoided an engagement, and retreated before the enemy to Hailbron. The emperor being thus abandoned by his allies, and stripped of all his dominions, repaired to Franckfort, where he lived in indigence and obscurity. He now made advances towards an accommodation with the queen of Hungary. His general, Seckendorf, had an interview with count Khevenhuller at the convent of Lowerscon-field, where a convention was signed. This treaty imported, that the emperor should remain neuter during the continuance of the present war, and that his troops should be quartered in Franconia; that the queen of Hungary should keep possession of Bavaria till the peace; that Braunau and Scarding should be delivered up to the Austrians; that the French garrison of Ingoldstadt should be permitted to withdraw, and be replaced by Bavarians; but that the Austrian generals should be put in possession of all the artillery, magazines, and warlike stores belonging to the French, which should be found in the place. The governors of Egra and Ingoldstadt refusing to acquiesce in the capitulation, the Austrians had recourse to the operations of war; and both places were reduced. In Ingoldstadt they found all the emperor's domestic treasure, jewels, plate, pictures, cabinets, and curiosities, with the archives of the house of Bavaria, the most valuable effects belonging to the nobility of that electorate, a prodigious train of artillery, and a vast quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND THE ELECTOR OF HANOVER.

The French king, baffled in all the efforts he had hitherto made for the support of the emperor, ordered his minister at Franckfort to deliver a declaration to the diet, professing himself extremely well pleased to hear they intended to interpose their mediation for terminating the war. He said, he was no less satisfied with the treaty of neutrality which the emperor had concluded with the queen of Hungary; an event of which he was no sooner informed, than he had ordered his troops to return to the frontiers of his dominions, that the Germanic body might be convinced of his equity and moderation. To this declaration the queen of Hungary answered in a rescript, that the design of France was to embarrass her affairs, and deprive her of the assistance of her allies; that the elector of Bavaria could not be considered as a neutral party in his own cause; that the mediation of the empire could only produce a peace either with or without the concurrence of France; that in the former case no solid peace could be expected; in the latter, it was easy to foresee, that France would pay no regard to a peace in which she should have no concern. She affirmed, that the aim of the French king was solely to gain time to repair his losses, that he might afterwards revive the troubles of the empire. The elector of Mentz, who had favoured the emperor, was now dead, and his successor inclined to the Austrian interest. He allowed this rescript to be entered in the journal of the diet, together with the protests which had been made when the vote of Bohemia was suppressed in the late election. The emperor complained in a circular letter of this transaction, as a stroke levelled at his imperial dignity; and it gave rise to a warm dispute among the members of the Germanic body. Several princes resented the haughty conduct, and began to be alarmed at the success of the house of Austria; while others pitied the deplorable situation of the emperor. The kings of Great Britain and Prussia, as electors of Hanover and Brandenburgh, espoused opposite sides in this contest. His Prussian majesty protested against the investiture of the duchy of Saxe Lawenburgh, claimed by the king of Great Britain; he had an interview with general Seckendorf at Anspach; and was said to have privately visited the emperor at Franckfort.

THE ENGLISH OBTAIN A VICTORY OVER THE FRENCH.

The troops which the king of Great Britain had assembled in the Netherlands, began their march for the Rhine in the latter end of February, and in May they encamped near Hoech on the river Maine, under the command of the earl of Stair. This nobleman sent major-general Bland to Franckfort, with a compliment to the emperor, assuring him, in the name of his Britannic majesty, that the respect owing to his dignity should not be violated, nor the place of his residence disturbed. Notwithstanding this assurance, the emperor retired to Munich, though he was afterwards compelled to return, by the success of the Austrians in Bavaria. The French king, in order to prevent the junction of the British forces with prince Charles of Lorraine, ordered the mareschal de Noailles to assemble sixty thousand men upon the Maine; while Coigny was sent into Alsace with a numerous army to defend that province, and oppose prince Charles should he attempt to pass the Rhine. The mareschal de Noailles, having secured the towns of Spire, Worms, and Oppenheim, passed the Rhine in the beginning of June, and posted himself on the east side of that river, above Franckfort. The earl of Stair advanced towards him, and encamped at Killen-bach, between the river Maine and the forest of d'Armstadt; from this situation he made a motion to Aschaffenburgh, with a view to secure the navigation of the Upper Maine; but he was anticipated by the enemy, who lay on the other side of the river, and had taken possession of the posts above so as to intercept all supplies. They were posted on the other side of the river, opposite to the allies, whose camp they overlooked; and they found means, by their parties and other precautions, to cut off the communication by water between Franckfort and the confederates. The duke of Cumberland had already come to make his first campaign, and his majesty arrived in the camp on the ninth day of June. He found his army, amounting to about forty thousand men, in danger of starving; he received intelligence that a reinforcement of twelve thousand Hanoverians and Hessians had reached Hanau; and he resolved to march thither, both with a view to effect the junction, and to procure provisions for his forces. With this view he decamped on the twenty-sixth day of June. He had no sooner quitted Aschaffenburgh, than it was seized by the French general; he had not marched above three leagues when he perceived the enemy, to the number of thirty thousand, had passed the river farther down, at Selingenstadt, and were drawn up in order of battle at the village of Dettingen, to dispute his passage. Thus he found himself cooped up in a very dangerous situation. The enemy had possessed themselves of Aschaffenburgh behind, so as to prevent his retreat; his troops were confined in a narrow plain, bounded by hills and woods on the right, flanked on the left by the river Maine, on the opposite side of which the French had erected batteries that annoyed the allies on their march; in the front a considerable part of the French army was drawn up, with a narrow pass before them, the village of Dettingen on their right, a wood on their left, and a morass in the centre. Thus environed, the confederates must either have fought at a very great disadvantage, or surrendered themselves prisoners of war, had not the duke de Gramont, who commanded the enemy, been instigated by the spirit of madness to forego these advantages. He passed the defile, and advancing towards the allies, a battle ensued. The French horse charged with great impetuosity, and some regiments of British cavalry were put in disorder; but the infantry of the allies behaved with such intrepidity and deliberation, tinder the eye of their sovereign, as soon determined the fate of the day; the French were obliged to give way, and repass the Maine with great precipitation, having lost about five thousand men, killed, wounded, or taken. Had they been properly pursued, before they recollected themselves from their first confusion, in all probability they would have sustained a total overthrow. The earl of Stair proposed that a body of cavalry should be detached on this service; but his advice was overruled. The loss of the allies in this action amounted to two thousand men. The generals Clayton and Monroy were killed; the duke of Cumberland, who exhibited uncommon proofs of courage, was shot through the calf of the leg; the earl of Albemarle, general Huske, and several other officers of distinction, were wounded. The king exposed his person to a severe fire of cannon as well as musquetry; he rode between the first and second lines with his sword drawn, and encouraged the troops to fight for the honour of England. Immediately after the action he continued his inarch to Hanau, where he was joined by the reinforcement. The earl of Stair sent a trumpet to mareschal de Noailles, recommending to his protection the sick and wounded that were left on the field of battle; and these the French general treated with great care and tenderness. Such generosity softens the rigours of war, and does honour to humanity.

TREATY OF WORMS.

The two armies continued on different sides of the river till the twelfth day of July, when the French general receiving intelligence that prince Charles of Lorraine had approached the Neckar, he suddenly retired, and repassed the Rhine between Worms and Oppenheim. The king of Great Britain was visited by prince Charles and count Khevenhuller at Hanau, where the future operations of the campaign were regulated. On the twenty-seventh day of August, the allied army passed the Rhine at Mentz, and the king fixed his head-quarters in the episcopal palace of Worms. Here the forces lay encamped till the latter end of September, when they advanced to Spire, where they were joined by twenty thousand Dutch auxiliaries from the Netherlands. Mareschal Noailles having retreated into Upper Alsace, the allies took possession of Germersheim, and demolished the intrenchments which the enemy had raised on the Queich; then they returned to Mentz, and in October were distributed into winter-quarters, after an inactive campaign that redounded very little to the honour of those by whom the motions of the army were conducted. In September a treaty had been concluded at Worms between his Britannic majesty, the king of Sardinia, and the queen of Hungary. She engaged to maintain thirty thousand men in Italy; the king of Sardinia obliged himself to employ forty thousand infantry and five thousand horse, in consideration of his commanding the combined army, and receiving an annual subsidy of two hundred thousand pounds from Great Britain. As a further gratification, the queen yielded to him the city of Placentia, with several districts in the duchy of Pavia, and in the Nwarese; and all her right and pretensions to Final, at present possessed by the re public of Genoa, which, they hoped, would give it up, on being repaid the purchase money, amounting to three hundred thousand pounds. This sum the king of England promised to disburse; and moreover to maintain a strong squadron in the Mediterranean, the commander of which should act in concert with his Sardinian majesty. Finally, the contracting powers agreed, that Final should be constituted a free port, like that of Leghorn. Nothing could be more unjust than this treaty, by which the Genoese were negotiated out of their property. They had purchased the marquisate of Final of the late emperor for a valuable consideration, and the purchase had been guaranteed by Great Britain. It could not, therefore, be expected that they would part with this acquisition to a prince whose power they thought already too formidable; especially on condition of its being made a free port, to the prejudice of their own commerce. They presented remonstrances against this article, by their ministers at the courts of London, Vienna, and Turin; and, as very little regard was paid to their representations, they threw themselves into the arms of France and Spain for protection.

AFFAIRS IN THE NORTH.

Sweden was filled with discontents, and divided into factions. The generals Bodenbrock and Lewenhaupt were beheaded, having been sacrificed as scape-goats for the ministry. Some unsuccessful efforts by sea and land were made against the Russians. At last the peace of Abo was concluded; and the duke of Holstein-Utin, uncle to the successor of the Russian throne, was chosen as next heir to the crown of Sweden. A party had been formed in favour of the prince of Denmark; and the order of the peasants actually elected him as successor. The debates in the college of nobles rose to a very dangerous degree of animosity, and were appeased by an harangue in Swedish verse, which one of the senators pronounced. The peasants yielded the point, and the succession was settled on the duke of Holstein. Denmark, instigated by French councils, began to make preparations of war against Sweden; but a body of Russian auxiliaries arriving in that kingdom, under the command of general Keith, and the czarina declaring she would assist the Swedes with her whole force, the king of Denmark thought proper to disarm. It had been an old maxim of French policy to embroil the courts of the North, that they might be too much employed at home to intermeddle in the affairs of Germany, while France was at war with the house of Austria. The good understanding between the czarina and the queen of Hungary was at this period destroyed, in consequence of a conspiracy which had been formed by some persons of distinction at the court of Petersburgh, for removing the empress Elizabeth, and recalling the princess Anne to the administration. This design being discovered, the principal conspirators were corporally punished, and sent in exile to Siberia. The marquis de Botta, the Austrian minister who had resided at the court of the czarina, was suspected of having been concerned in the plot; though the grounds of this suspicion did not appear until after he was recalled, and sent as ambassador to the court of Berlin. The empress demanded satisfaction of the queen of Hungary, who appointed commissioners to inquire into his conduct, and he was acquitted; but the czarina was not at all satisfied of his innocence. In February a defensive treaty of alliance was concluded between the princess and the king of Great Britain.

BATTLE OF CAMPO-SANTO.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BRITISH FLEET.

FRUITLESS ATTEMPTS UPON THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS.

In the West Indies some unsuccessful efforts were made by an English squadron, commanded by commodore Knowles. He attacked La Gueir on the coast of Carraccas, in the month of February; but met with such a warm reception, that he was obliged to desist, and make the best of his way for the Dutch island Curacoa, where he repaired the damage he had sustained. His ships being refitted, he made another attempt upon Porte Cavallo in April, which like the former miscarried. Twelve hundred marines being landed in the neighbourhood of the place, were seized with such a panic, that it was found necessary to re-embark them without delay. Then the commodore abandoned the enterprise and sailed back to his station at the Leeward Islands, without having added much to his reputation, either as to conduct or resolution. On the continent of America the operations of the war were very inconsiderable. General Oglethorpe having received intelligence that the Spaniards prepared for another invasion from St. Augustine, assembled a body of Indians, as a reinforcement to part of his own regiment, with the highlanders and rangers, and in the spring began his march, in order to anticipate the enemy. He encamped for some time in the neighbourhood of St. Augustine, by way of a defiance; but they did not think proper to hazard an engagement; and as he was in no condition to undertake a siege, he returned to Georgia. In October the princess Louisa, youngest daughter of his Britannic majesty, was married by proxy, at Hanover, to the prince-royal of Denmark, who met her at Altona, and conducted her to Copenhagen.

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

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

PROJECTED INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

A FRENCH SQUADRON SAILS UP THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

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

The KINGDOM PUT IN A STATE OF DEFENCE.

THE DESIGN OF THE FRENCH DEFEATED.

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

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

NAVAL ENGAGEMENT OFF TOULON.

TREATY OF FRANCKFORT.

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

PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH KING IN THE NETHERLANDS

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

PRINCE CHARLES OF LORRAINE PASSES THE RHINE.

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

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

CAMPAIGN IN BAVARIA AND FLANDERS.

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-Dauphin?, 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 Dauphin?, 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 Dauphin?; but Don Philip still maintained his footing in Savoy, the inhabitants of which he fleeced without mercy.

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