hief of such unfortunate captives, and con- in the enjoyment of their offices, during taining a clause framed with a view to per- their good behavior, notwithstanding any petual, but well-regulated indulgence. By it, such demise, as shall be most expedient. any creditor might compel a prisoner, charg"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, ed in execution, to appear at the quarter ses- "I must desire of you, in particular, that sions with the copy of his detainer, and to de- I may be enabled to grant, and establish liver, upon oath, a just schedule of his estate. upon the judges such salaries as I shall think After producing and subscribing the schedule, proper, so as to be absolutely secured to he was to be discharged; but, if he refused them, during the continuance of their comto do so, or concealed to the value of twenty missions." pounds, he was to suffer as a felon. This This speech was received with the apclause seemed likely to be productive of the plause due to such a declaration. The combest effects: it was designed to operate as mons, to whom he had more particularly ada penal check on persons of a different de- dressed himself on the occasion, acknowscription, who might be inclined to continue ledged their most grateful sense of his main prison and to spend their substance there, jesty's attention to an object so interesting rather than give up their property for the to his people: they assured him, that his satisfaction of their creditors. But the laud-faithful commons saw with joy and veneraable intentions of the legislature were de- tion the warm regard and concern, which feated, and its clemency abused by fraud animated his royal breast, for the security and collusion. Great numbers of people in of the religion, laws, liberties, and properties all stations of life seized this opportunity of of his subjects; that the house would immedisencumbering themselves of their debts. diately proceed upon the important work, The alarm, in consequence, was so great, recommended by his majesty with such tenand personal credit received such a shock, der care of his people; and would enable that the common council of London instruct-him to establish the salaries of the judges ed their representatives in the new parlia- in such a permanent manner, that they ment to use their best endeavors to procure might be enjoyed during the continuance of the repeal of the compulsive clause, as a their commissions. These assurances were manifest grievance to the public. INDEPENDENCY OF THE JUDGES. converted into so many resolutions of the house on the fifth of March, and became the basis of a law, by which the independency of the bench was better secured. THE SPEAKER RETIRES. In the beginning of March the king proposed a step for securing the independency of the judges, which was justly admired as an eminent proof of his majesty's candor, THE Commons concluded their proceedmoderation, and public spirit. Having gone ings with some very flattering testimonies of to the house of lords to give his assent to their regard for Mr. Onslow, the speaker, some bills then ready, he commanded the at- who had signified his intention to resign the tendance of the commons, and explained his chair, which he had filled during the course purpose in the following manner: of above thirty-three years, in five successive parliaments. "My Lords and Gentlemen, "Upon granting new commissions to the judges, the present state of their offices fell naturally under consideration. The king closed the scene on the nineteenth of March with a speech to both houses in which his majesty touched upon the fur"In consequence of the act passed in the ther progress of the war in Germany, where, reign of my late glorious predecessor king as his majesty observed, the superior ability William III. for settling the succession of and indefatigable activity of prince Ferdithe crown in my family, their commissions nand, and the spirit and ardor of the other have been made during their good behavior; officers and troops, had been surprisingly exbut, notwithstanding that wise provision, erted, notwithstanding all the difficulties their offices have determined upon the de- arising from the season. mise of the crown, or at the expiration of six months afterwards, in every instance of that nature which has happened. ADVANTAGEOUS POSITION OF THE FRENCH. AT the close of the last campaign, the "I look upon the independency and up-French continued masters of the whole terrightness of the judges of the land, as essen-ritory of Hesse, where they had amassed tial to the impartial administration of jus- large stores, and strengthened all the tenatice; as one of the best securities to the ble places with additional works. On their rights and liberties of my loving subjects; left, they had driven the allies from the and as most conducive to the honor of the lower Rhine, and kept so considerable a crown: and I come now to recommend this body of troops there as to check any hostile interesting object to the consideration of effort in that quarter. On their right, havparliament, in order that such farther pro- ing forced prince Ferdinand to raise the vision may be made for securing the judges siege of Gottingen, they remained in quiet possession of that important fortress, while informed that he might easily surprise it. the electorate of Hanover lay quite open to But he was deceived in his intelligence: he their enterprises. Thus their cantonments found the garrison prepared and resolute: presented the appearance of an immense after an assault, therefore, conducted with crescent, the two advanced points of which his usual spirit, he was obliged to draw off were at Gottingen and Wesel, and the body with no inconsiderable loss. Cannon and extended in Hesse: so that being perfectly mortars, which the hereditary prince had well provided with magazines, and unob- before neglected, were brought before Fritzstructed in all their communications neces- lar, and soon obliged it to surrender. A sary for their current subsistence, with large magazine was found there. Some strong places in their rear, and in both forts and castles in the neighborhood were their flanks, they seemed to have nothing also reduced by the marquis of Granby. more to do, next campaign, than to advance The victorious troops then continued their their several posts in a manner to inclose progress, and as they advanced, the French the allied army, which, without some signal gradually retired, abandoning post after post, success, would find itself absolutely incapa- till they were nearly driven to the banks of ble of making any stand against them. the Maine. In their retreat, they set fire PRINCE FERDINAND'S PLAN OF ATTACK. to their magazines; but the allies pursuPRINCE FERDINAND was sensible of the ed with so much rapidity, that they saved inconveniencies of his own situation, and of five capital stores, one of which contained the advantages the enemy had over him. eighty thousand sacks of meal, fifty thousand He therefore resolved to strike the first blow; sacks of oats, and a million rations of hay, and having, on the ninth of February, as- a very small part of which had been desembled his forces at three different places stroyed. These acquisitions were of the of rendezvous with all possible secrecy, he utmost advantage: as it was almost impossicommunicated his designs to his generals next ble that the troops could otherwise have day, and immediately began to carry them been supplied with subsistence, and the into execution. horse with provender, in such a season, and The centre of the army was led on by at so great a distance from their original his serene highness in person: it marched quarters. directly into Hesse, and made its way to- Notwithstanding the success of the allies wards Cassel. The right and left wings, or in front, it was not there the grand object rather detachments, were each at a consid- of their operations lay. Cassel, Gottingen, erable distance from the main body, but so Marpurg, Ziegenhayn, and several smaller disposed that their separate effects might posts were still unreduced at their backs, fully concur in the general plan of opera- and might cut off their retreat, in case of tions. The hereditary prince commanded any reverse of fortune. As soon therefore on the right; he pushed forward with the as the army, under the command of marshal utmost expedition into the heart of the Broglio, had been driven quite out of Hesse, French quarters, leaving the country of and had retreated towards Frankfort on the Hesse a little to the east. General Sporken, Maine, prince Ferdinand ceased to advance, at the head of the third division of the forces and made the best dispositions for the acon the left, had orders to penetrate into complishment of the other objects. The Thuringia, and to endeavor, by a rapid and marquis of Granby, with a large body of judicious movement, to break the commu- troops, was ordered to Marpurg, which the nication of the French and Imperialists, to French abandoned at his approach. Anopen one for the allies with the Prussians, other detachment was sent off to the blockand to cut off all intercourse between the ade of Ziegenhayn: but this fortress held grand army of the enemy and their garrison out with great obstinacy. The siege of at Gottingen. Cassel was committed to the count of Lippe FRITZLAR AND SEVERAL MAGAZINES Schamburgh, a sovereign prince of the empire, who was reputed to be one of the By this sudden, extensive, and vigorous ablest engineers in Europe, and whose forattack, the French were thrown into the ut- mer management of the artillery at Thornmost consternation. They retreated, or ra- hausen had been a principal cause in the ther fled on every side. But, happily for acquisition of that great victory. Prince them, they had very sufficient means of Ferdinand himself formed the part of the securing their retreat, and such a number of army which remained with him, into a chain garrisons as the allies could not leave be- of cantonments, so as to watch all the steps hind them in their career, without being ex- of marshal Broglio's army, and to cover the posed to the most imminent danger. Fritz- progress of the before mentioned operations. lar was the first place, on which the hered- The siege of Cassel in particular attracted itary prince made an attack, with only a his notice, and required his utmost vigilance. few battalions and musketry, having been Trenches were opened on the first of March. TAKEN. and every effort of vigor and judgment | Marshal Broglio, toward the close of the called forth in an enterprise, on the success last campaign, had been obliged, by the bold of which the whole fortune of the campaign projects of the hereditary prince, to detach depended. from his army in Hesse a large body to the VICISSITUDES OF THE CAMPAIGN. lower Rhine. He now found it equally In the mean time, general Sporken and proper to recall this body, together with the troops under his command, who had further reinforcements, in order to maintain taken their route to the left, on the side of his ground in the country northward of the Saxony, advanced with an intrepidity equal Maine, where he was closely pressed by the to the rest of the allied forces. Having allies, and which he must be compelled been joined by a corps of Prussians, they shamefully to relinquish, if Cassel was not attacked the Saxons in one of their strongest relieved in time. posts on the Unstrut, and totally defeated DEFEAT OF THE HEREDITARY PRINCE. them. A great number were killed in the He advanced without delay. The troops action: five entire battalions were made under the hereditary prince were, from their prisoners, and several pieces of cannon were situation, exposed to the first attack. This taken, besides a large magazine, which the was made by the dragoons of the enemy, routed enemy had not time to destroy. This whose charge was so impetuous as instantly blow was well followed: one body of the to break the whole foot, consisting of nine combined army pushed on to Eisemach and regiments, Hanoverians, Hessians, and Gotha, whilst another by forced marches Brunswickers. Two thousand prisoners, and got forward to Fulda: the French gave way several trophies of victory fell into the hands on their right, and the army of the empire of the French; though very few were killed on the left, abandoning a very large tract of or wounded on either side. The blow was country to their pursuers. decisive. The allies could no longer think Such was the flattering posture of affairs, of maintaining their ground. They broke as detailed in the last advices from Germa- up the blockade of Ziegenhayn: raised the ny, when the king was about to put an end siege of Cassel, after twenty-seven days to the sessions of parliament. It was there- open trenches; and evacuated the whole fore very natural for him to speak of it to country of Hesse, retiring behind the Dyboth houses with some degree of exultation. mel, and falling back nearly to the quarters But this extraordinary course of prosperity they possessed before this undertaking. But, was not of long continuance. The allies notwithstanding the failure of their expediwere obliged to undertake too many enter- tion in other respects, they accomplished prises at the same time, and these too ardu- one very great and important purpose in the ous for the number of which their army destruction or seizure of so many of the consisted. In proportion as general Spor- principal magazines of the enemy. Such ken's victorious troops were carried forward stores could not be quickly replaced; and by their activity and success, they left the the French, for want of them, were disabled countries on their rear more and more ex- from taking the field till the end of June. posed to the powerful garrison of Gottingen. PARLIAMENT DISSOLVED. The count de Vaux, who commanded there, As it was in the moment of the most asno sooner perceived that the allies were tonishing success that the king took notice wholly intent upon pushing the advantages of the operations of the allied army, he they had acquired, than he marched out showed great wisdom and temper in adding, with a strong detachment; attacked and "that the only use he proposed to make of routed a Hanoverian convoy; fell upon the such victories, and of the important acquisitown of Duderstadt with great violence; tions gained in various parts of the world, and after some checks, made himself master was to secure and promote the welfare of of that post and of the most considerable his kingdoms, and to procure to them the places near it. He thus prevented general blessings of peace on safe and honorable Sporken's corps from returning by the way conditions." they had advanced, and even put it out of With such sentiments, the king took his their power to act separately from their farewell of the parliament, which was immain army, to which their junction soon mediately dissolved; and writs were issued after became necessary on another account. for the election of new members. 1 The civil list revenues for those thirty-three years, and the sums granted at different times to NOTE TO CHAPTER I. make good deficiencies, amount- was 217,0191. short of the expected contribution. CHAPTER II. Circumstances which led to the Proposal of a Congress at Augsburg-Plausible Reasons for previously setting on foot a distinct Negotiation at London and Paris-Mr. Pitt unfavorable to a Peace-Secret intrigues of the French Ministry at the Court of Madrid-Difficulties about the mutual retaining of Possessions—-Survey of hostile operations during the Suspension of the Treaty-Expedition against Belleisle―The Negotiation resumed-Remarks on the two main Points of Dispute-Inflexibility of the English Secretary-Some Account of the Family Compact-Candid Inquiries on which side the chief blame lay-The Treaty finally broken off. BURG. PROPOSAL OF A CONGRESS AT AUGS. livered at London on the thirty-first of the same month. The counter-declaration of THE liberal supplies granted by parliament Great Britain and Prussia, expressing their for the ensuing campaign on the continent, cheerful acceptance of the offer, appeared and for the vigorous prosecution of the war on the third of April; and Augsburg, an in general, astonished all Europe, and made independent city in the circle of Suabia, the courts of Vienna and Versailles sensible was fixed upon as the most convenient place of the necessity of proposing terms of peace. for the proposed congress. Lord Egremont, They had slighted some overtures made by lord Stormont, at that time ambassador in the kings of England and Prussia in the Poland, and general Yorke, who acted in the close of the year 1759; but the posture of same capacity at the Hague, were nominated affairs at that time rendered it very evident as the English plenipotentiaries: the count that those offers were dictated by a wish to de Choiseul was appointed on the part of keep up the show of moderation in the height France. Augsburg now became the centre of prosperity, and to reconcile the subjects of attention to all Europe; and each court of the former sovereign to what must then prepared everything towards this important appear a necessary continuance of the war, meeting which it could furnish of splendor rather than by a hope that the adverse par- for the display of its dignity, and of ability ties would pay any serious regard to such for the support of its interest. The thoughts proposals. As the advantages were almost and conversation of men were for a while wholly on the side of Great Britain, France diverted from scenes of horror, bloodshed, could not then expect very favorable terms and pillage; and every mind was more agreefor herself or her allies. She therefore ably employed on the public shows of maglooked forward to the issue of another cam-nificence, and the private game of policy, in paign in Germany, to counterbalance her which so many contending powers were losses elsewhere, and to place her, at least, brought into the closest and most eager comon a footing of honorable equality. In this, petition. however, she met with some disappointment. REASON FOR A NEGOTIATION. The success of the war proved so fluctuating, In order to lessen the intricacy of their even where all her hopes lay, and where her future proceedings, it was unanimously utmost strength was exerted, that she at agreed, in the first place, that none should length began to relent, and apparently to be admitted to the congress but the parties desire peace in earnest. The other members principally concerned, and their allies. But of the grand alliance could not decently, or although this exclusion of the neutral states safely oppose these dispositions on the part tended greatly to disembarrass and simplify of France, as she was not only the prime the treaty, yet such was the variety of sepamover, but the chief supporter of their hos- rate and independent matters which still retile confederacy. The court of Sweden, in mained to be discussed, that it became adparticular, was given to understand, that the visable to make a farther separation, with a diminished resources of France put it out of view to an easier and more speedy adjusther power to furnish any longer the stipulat- ment of their respective concerns. For this ed subsidies, or to comply with the exact purpose it was necessary to reduce the letter of her engagements. In consequence causes of the different quarrels in so compli of these, and other hints on the uncertainty cated a war to their first principles; and to of being at any future period in a better con- disengage the several interests which origindition to treat than at present, the five par- ally, and in their own nature, had no conties to the war on that side made as many nexion, from that mass, in which mutual inpacific declarations, which were signed at juries and a common animosity had blended Paris on the twenty-sixth of March, and de- and confounded them. The court of France therefore proposed to settle the American DUPLICITY OF THE FRENCH MINISTRY. dispute by a distinct negotiation at London FRANCE, on her part, was equally sensible, and Paris, previously to the discussion of the that she could not expect a peace, without German affairs at Augsburg. Nothing could some mortifying concessions. The moment afford a stronger proof of the sincerity of her her particular concerns came to be separated intentions; for it was very certain that, if from the general cause, she had every dismatters could be satisfactorily accommodated advantage in the treaty, because she had between her and Great Britain, and if they suffered almost every disaster in the war. both should carry to the general congress The landgraviate of Hesse, the county of the same candor and good faith, their influ- Hannau, and the town of Gottingen, were ence must necessarily tend to inspire senti- the only acquisitions which she had to balments of moderation into the rest, and must lance her immense losses throughout the contribute largely to accelerate the great rest of the globe. She had reason to supwork of pacification. pose, that the Spaniards could not behold MR. PITT UNFAVORABLE TO A PEACE. with indifference the principal branch of the MINISTERS were mutually sent from both house of Bourbon humbled and stripped of courts: Mr. Stanley on the part of England; its American possessions; because such an and Mr. Bussy on that of France. The for- event would in a manner leave their own mer embarked for Calais on the twenty- colonies at the mercy of England. The late fourth of May; and the latter arrived in king of Spain, Ferdinand VI. had, indeed, London on the thirty-first of the same month. refused to interfere in those disputes; but But unfortunately the plan and disposition of his successor, Charles III. was more likely the treaty were much more easily adjusted to take the alarm at the farther progress of than the matter and the substance of it; and it is also very probable that the secret intrigues, or private views of both parties, did not perfectly correspond with their public professions. OF POSSESSIONS. the English; and it was also probable, that every sacrifice or cession of American territory, which might be exacted from France in the course of the treaty, would prove a fresh incentive to the suspicions and jealousMr. Pitt, one of the British secretaries of ies of the Spanish monarch. Thus the cabistate, whose talents and popularity had en-net of Versailles had a double game to play, abled him, for the last three years, to give in supporting at London the appearance of the law in the council, felt that his influence the most earnest desire of peace, and exertthere was likely to expire with the war. ing at Madrid all the secret springs of poNotwithstanding the greatness of his mind, litical intrigue to continue and spread still and the dignity of his sentiments in many wider the calamities of war. other respects, he was too much actuated by DIFFICULTIES ABOUT THE RETAINING contempt and hatred of the French. But, as he could not absolutely reject their fair pro- SUCH was the mixture of hostile and paposal of a treaty, his aim was to obstruct its cific sentiments, of seeming candor and dark progress, and to renew the quarrel on such design, with which both parties entered upon grounds as might flatter the pride of his the negotiation. The first proposal of the countrymen, and reconcile them to the prose- French minister was, "that the two crowns cution of expensive measures, against which shall remain in possession of what they have they now began to revolt. The posture of conquered one from the other:" and as affairs was singularly favorable to his wishes. France had assuredly been the greatest England had been everywhere victorious, loser, so unexpected an offer on her part apexcept in Germany; and he knew that the peared to every dispassionate and unprejupeople, elated by a series of conquests, would diced member of the British cabinet, an innot approve of much condescension to an stance of singular moderation, if not huenemy, whom they detested, and whom they mility. But Mr. Pitt, who directed all things, considered as lying at their mercy. But it did not treat it with that attention which its was evident that, without a sacrifice of some apparent fairness deserved. He barely acof the objects on which they had set their quiesced in the general principle, while he hearts, it would be impossible to procure any took care to render that acquiescence nugasatisfactory terms for their allies, whose af- tory by his opposition to another article with fairs were only not ruined in the struggle, which it was necessarily connected. As the and who had on that account a stronger war still continued, and might therefore claim to the generous attachment of Great make a daily alteration in the fortune of the Britain. Here, therefore, Mr. Pitt foresaw contracting powers, the French minister had that he could fix the bar of honor, which proposed, "That the situation, in which they was to impede and finally break off the shall stand at certain periods, shall be the treaty, if no other pretence occurred in the position to serve as a basis for the treaty that course of the negotiation. is to be concluded between them." He |