Chapter IV (2)

Sir Robert Godschall having moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act for septennial parliaments, he was seconded by sir John Barnard; but warmly opposed by Mr. Pulteney and Mr. Sandys; and the question passed in the negative. The committee of secrecy being chosen, began to examine evidence, and Mr. Paxton, solicitor to the treasury, refusing to answer such questions as were put to him, lord Limerick, chairman of the committee, complained to the house of his obstinacy. He was first taken into custody; and still persisting in his refusal, committed to Newgate. Then his lordship moved, that leave should be given to bring in a bill for indemnifying evidence against the earl of Orford; and it was actually prepared by a decision of the majority. In the house of lords it was vigorously opposed by lord Carteret, and as strenuously supported by the duke of Argyle; but fell upon a division, by the weight of superior numbers. Those members in the house of commons who heartily wished the inquiry might be prosecuted, were extremely incensed at the fate of this bill. A committee was appointed to search the journals of the lords for precedents; their report being read, lord Strange, son to the earl of Derby, moved for a resolution, “That the lords refusing to concur with the commons of Great Britain, in an indemnification necessary to the effectual carrying on the inquiry now depending in parliament, is an obstruction to justice, and may prove fatal to the liberties of this nation.”--This motion, which was seconded by lord Quarendon, son of the earl of Lichfield, gave rise to a warm debate; and Mr. Sandys declaimed against it, as a step that would bring on an immediate dissolution of the present form of government. It is really amazing to see with what effrontery some men can shift their maxims, and openly contradict the whole tenor of their former conduct. Mr. Sandys did not pass uncensured: he sustained some severe sarcasms on his apostacy from sir John Hinde Cotton, who refuted all his objections; nevertheless, the motion passed in the negative. Notwithstanding this great obstruction, purposely thrown in the way of the inquiry, the secret committee discovered many flagrant instances of fraud and corruption in which the earl of Orford had been concerned. It appeared, that he had granted fraudulent contracts for paying the troops in the West Indies; that he had employed iniquitous arts to influence elections; that for secret service, during the last ten years, he had touched one million four hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred pounds of public money; that above fifty thousand pounds of this sum had been paid to authors and printers of newspapers and political tracts, written in defence of the ministry; that on the very day which preceded his resignation, he had signed orders on the civil list revenues for above thirty thousand pounds; but as the cash remaining in the exchequer did not much exceed fourteen thousand pounds, he had raised the remaining part of the thirty thousand, by pawning the orders to a banker. The committee proceeded to make further progress in their scrutiny, and had almost prepared a third report, when they were interrupted by the prorogation of parliament.

The ministry finding it was necessary to take some step for conciliating the affection of the people, gave way to a bill for excluding certain officers from scats in the house of commons. They passed another for encouraging the linen manufacture; a third for regulating the trade of the plantations; and a fourth to prevent the marriage of lunatics. They voted forty thousand seamen, and sixty-two thousand five hundred landmen, for the service of the current year. They provided for the subsidies to Denmark and Hesse-Cassel, and voted five hundred thousand pounds to the queen of Hungary. The expense of the year amounted to near six millions, raised by the land-tax at four shillings in the pound, by the malt-tax, by one million from the sinking-fund, by annuities granted upon it for eight hundred thousand pounds, and a loan of one million six hundred thousand pounds from the bank. In the month of July, John lord Gower was appointed keeper of his majesty’s privy-seal; Allen lord Bathurst was made captain of the band of pensioners; and on the fifteenth day of the month, Mr. Pulteney took his seat in the house of peers as earl of Bath. The king closed the session in the usual way, after having given them to understand, that a treaty of peace was concluded between the queen of Hungary and the king of Prussia, under his mediation; and that the late successes of the Austrian arms were in a great measure owing to the generous assistance afforded by the British nation.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE ELECTOR OF BAVARIA CHOSEN EMPEROR.

By this time great changes had happened in the affairs of the continent. The elector of Bavaria was chosen emperor of Germany at Franckfort on the Maine, and crowned by the name of Charles VII. on the twelfth day of February. Thither the imperial diet was removed from Ratisbon; they confirmed his election, and indulged him with a subsidy of fifty Roman months, amounting to about two hundred thousand pounds sterling. In the meantime the Austrian general, Khevenhuller, ravaged his electorate, and made himself master of Munich the capital of Bavaria; he likewise laid part of the palatinate under contribution, in resentment for that elector’s having sent a body of his troops to reinforce the Imperial army. In March, count Saxe, with a detachment of French and Bavarians, reduced Egra; and the Austrians were obliged to evacuate Bavaria, though they afterwards returned. Khevenhuller took post in the neighbourhood of Passau, and detached general Beraclau to Dinglesing on the Iser, to observe the motions of the enemy, who were now become extremely formidable. In May, a detachment of French and Bavarians advanced to the castle of Hilk-Ersberg on the Danube, with a view to take possession of a bridge over the river; the Austrian garrison immediately marched out to give them battle, and a severe action ensued, in which the Imperialists were defeated.

THE KING OF PRUSSIA GAINS THE BATTLE AT CZASLAW.

In the beginning of the year the queen of Hungary had assembled two considerable armies in Moravia and Bohemia. Prince Charles of Lorraine, at the head of fifty thousand men, advanced against the Saxons and Prussians, who thought proper to retire with precipitation from Moravia, which they had invaded. Then the prince took the route to Bohemia; and marshal Broglio, who commanded the French forces in that country, must have fallen a sacrifice, had not the king of Prussia received a strong reinforcement, and entered that kingdom before his allies could be attacked. The two armies advanced towards each other; and on the seventeenth of May joined battle at Czaslaw, where the Austrians at first gained a manifest advantage, and penetrated as far as the Prussian baggage; then the irregulars began to plunder so eagerly, that they neglected every other consideration. The Prussian infantry took this opportunity to rally; the battle was renewed, and after a very obstinate contest, the victory was snatched out of the hands of the Austrians, who were obliged to retire with the loss of five thousand men killed, and twelve hundred taken by the enemy. The Prussians paid dear for the honour of remaining on the field of battle; and from the circumstances of this action, the king is said to have conceived a disgust to the war. When the Austrians made such progress in the beginning of the engagement, he rode off with great expedition, until he was recalled by a message from his general, the count de Schwerin, assuring his majesty that there was no danger of a defeat. Immediately after this battle, he discovered an inclination to accommodate all differences with the queen of Hungary. The earl of Hyndford, ambassador from the court of Great Britain, who accompanied him in this campaign, and was vested with full powers by her Hungarian majesty, did not fail to cultivate this favourable disposition; and on the first day of June, a treaty of peace between the two powers was concluded at Breslau. The queen ceded to his Prussian majesty the Upper and Lower Selesia, with the county of Glatz in Bohemia; and he charged himself with the payment of the sum lent by the merchants of London to the late emperor, on the Silesian revenues. He likewise engaged to observe a strict neutrality during the war, and to withdraw his forces from Bohemia in fifteen, days after the ratification of the treaty, in which were comprehended the king of Great Britain elector of Hanover, the czarina, the king of Denmark, the states-general, the house of Wolfenbuttle, and the king of Poland elector of Saxony, on certain conditions, which were accepted.

The king of Prussia recalled his troops; while mare-schal Broglio, who commanded the French auxiliaries in that kingdom, and the count de Belleisle, abandoned their magazines and baggage, and retired with precipitation under the cannon of Prague. There they intrenched themselves in an advantageous situation; and prince Charles being joined by the other body of Austrians, under prince Lobkowitz, encamped in sight of them on the hills of Girinsnitz. The grand duke of Tuscany arrived in the Austrian army, of which he took the command; and the French generals offered to surrender Prague, Egra, and all the other places they possessed in Bohemia, provided they might be allowed to march off with their arms, artillery, and baggage. The proposal was rejected, and Prague invested on all sides about the end of July. Though the operations of the siege were carried on in an awkward and slovenly manner, the place was so effectually blocked up, that famine must have compelled the French to surrender at discretion, had not very extraordinary efforts been made for their relief. The emperor had made advances to the queen of Hungary. He promised that the French forces should quit Bohemia, and evacuate the empire; and he offered to renounce all pretensions to the kingdom of Bohemia, on condition that the Austrians would restore Bavaria; but these conditions were declined by the court of Vienna. The king of France was no sooner apprized of the condition to which the generals Broglio and Belleisle were reduced, than he sent orders to mareshal Maillebois, who commanded his army on the Bhine, to march to their relief. His troops were immediately put in motion; and when they reached Amberg in the Upper Palatinate, were joined by the French and Imperialists from Bavaria. Prince Charles of Lorraine having received intelligence of their junction and design, left eighteen thousand men to maintain the blockade of Prague, under the command of general Festititz, while he himself, with the rest of his army, advanced to Hay-don on the frontiers of Bohemia. There he was joined by count Khevenhuller, who from Bavaria had followed the enemy, now commanded by count Seckendorf, and the count de Saxe. Seckendorf however was sent back to Bavaria, while mareschal Maillebois entered Bohemia on the twenty-fifth day of September. But he marched with such precaution, that prince Charles could not bring him to an engagement. Meanwhile Festititz, for want of sufficient force, was obliged to abandon the blockade of Prague; and the French generals being now at liberty, took post at Leutmaritz. Maillebois advanced as far as Kadan; but seeing the Austrians possessed of all the passes of the mountains, he marched back to the palatinate, and was miserably harassed in his retreat by prince Charles, who had left a strong body with prince Lobkowitz to watch the motions of Belleisle and Broglio.

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.

She likewise ordered the counts Osterman and Munich, with their adherents, to be tried; they were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold, and sent in exile to Siberia. The Swedes, still encouraged by the intrigues of France, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation, unless Carelia, and the other conquests of the czar Peter, should be restored. The French court had expected to bring over the new empress to their measures; but they found her as well disposed as her predecessor to assist the house of Austria. She remitted a considerable sum of money to the queen of Hungary; and at the same time congratulated the elector of Bavaria on his elevation to the Imperial throne. The ceremony of her coronation was performed in May, with great solemnity, at Moscow; and in November she declared her nephew, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, her successor, by the title of grand prince of all the Russias. The cessation of arms being expired, general Lasci reduced Fredericksheim, and obliged the Swedish army, commanded by count Lewenhaupt, to retire before him, from one place to another, until at length they were quite surrounded near Helsingsors. In this emergency the Swedish general submitted to a capitulation, by which his infantry were transported by sea to Sweden; his cavalry marched by land to Abo; and his artillery and magazines remained in the hands of the Russians. The king of Sweden being of an advanced age, the diet assembled in order to settle the succession; and the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as grandson to the eldest sister of Charles XII., was declared next heir to the crown. A courier was immediately despatched to Moscow, to notify to the duke this determination of the diet; and this message was followed by a deputation; but when they understood that he had embraced the religion of the Greek church, and been acknowledged successor to the throne of Russia, they annulled his election for Sweden, and resolved that the succession should not be re-established until a peace should be concluded with the czarina. Conferences were opened at Abo for this purpose. In the meantime, the events of war had been so long unfortunate for Sweden, that it was absolutely necessary to appease the indignation of the people with some sacrifice. The generals Lewenhaupt and Bodenbrock were tried by a court-martial for misconduct; being found guilty and condemned to death, they applied to the diet, by which the sentence was confirmed. The term of the subsidy-treaty between Great Britain and Denmark expiring, his Danish majesty refused to renew it; nor would he accede to the peace of Breslau. On the other hand, he became subsidiary to France, with which also he concluded a new treaty of commerce.

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 Dauphiné, 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 the course of this year admiral Vernon and general Wentworth made another effort in the West Indies. They had in January received a reinforcement from England, and planned a new expedition, in concert with the governor of Jamaica, who accompanied them in their voyage. Their design was to disembark the troops at Porto-Bello, and march across the isthmus of Darien to attack the rich town of Panama. They sailed from Jamaica on the ninth day of March, and on the twenty-eighth arrived at Porto-Bello. There they held a council of war, in which it was resolved, that as the troops were sickly, the rainy season begun, and several transports not yet arrived, the intended expedition was become impracticable. In pursuance of this determination, the armament immediately returned to Jamaica, exhibiting a ridiculous spectacle of folly and irresolution.*

* In May, two English frigates, commanded by captain Smith
and captain Stuart, fell in with three Spanish ships of war,
near the island of St. Christopher’s. They forthwith
engaged, and the action continued till night, by the favour
of which the enemy retired to Porto Rico in a scattered
condition.--In the month of September, the Tilbury ship of
war, of sixty guns, was accidentally set on fire, and
destroyed, off the island of Hispaniola, on which occasion
one hundred and twenty-seven men perished; the rest were
saved by captain Hoare of the Defiance, who happened to be
on the same cruise.

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.

In England the merchants still complained that their commerce was not properly protected, and the people clamoured against the conduct of the war. They said, their burdens were increased to maintain quarrels with which they had no concern; to defray the enormous expense of inactive fleets and pacific armies. Lord Carteret had by this time insinuated himself into the confidence of his sovereign, and engrossed the whole direction of public affairs. The war with Spain was now become a secondary consideration, and neglected accordingly; while the chief attention of the new minister was turned upon the affairs of the continent. The dispute with Spain concerned Britain only. The interests of Hanover were connected with the troubles of the empire. By pursuing this object he soothed the wishes of his master, and opened a more ample field for his own ambition. He had studied the policy of the continent with peculiar eagerness. This was the favourite subject of his reflection, upon which he thought and spoke with a degree of enthusiasm. The intolerable taxes, the poverty, the ruined commerce of his country, the iniquity of standing armies, votes of credit, and foreign connexions, upon which he had so often expatiated, were now forgotten or overlooked. He saw nothing but glory, conquest, or acquired dominion. He set the power of France at defiance; and as if Great Britain had felt no distress, but teemed with treasure which she could not otherwise employ, he poured forth her millions with a rash and desperate hand, in purchasing beggarly allies, and maintaining mercenary armies. The earl of Stair had arrived in England towards the end of August, and conferred with his majesty. A privy-council was summoned; and in a few days that nobleman returned to Holland. Lord Carteret was sent with a commission to the Hague in September; and when he returned, the baggage of the king and the duke of Cumberland, which had been shipped for Flanders, was ordered to be brought on shore. The parliament met on the sixteenth day of November, when his majesty told them, that he had augmented the British forces in the low countries with sixteen thousand Hanoverians and the Hessian auxiliaries, in order to form such a force, in conjunction with the Austrian troops, as might be of service to the common cause at all events. He extolled the magnanimity and fortitude of the queen of Hungary, as well as the resolute conduct of the king of Sardinia, and that prince’s strict adherence to his engagements, though attacked in his own dominions. He mentioned the requisition made by Sweden, of his good offices for procuring a peace between that nation and Eussia; the defensive alliances which he had concluded with the czarina, and with the king of Prussia; as events which could not have been expected, if Great Britain had not manifested a seasonable spirit and vigour in defence and assistance of her ancient allies, and in maintaining the liberties of Europe. He said the honour and interest of his crown and kingdoms, the success of the war with Spain, the re-establishment of the balance and tranquillity of Europe, would greatly depend on the prudence and vigour of their resolution. The marquis of Tweedale moved for an address of thanks, which was opposed by the earl of Chesterfield, for the reasons so often urged on the same occasion; but supported by lord Carteret on his new-adopted maxims, with those specious arguments which he could at all times produce, delivered with amazing serenity and assurance. The motion was agreed to, and the address presented to his majesty. About this period a treaty of mutual defence and guarantee between his majesty and the king of Prussia, was signed at Westminster. In the house of commons Mr. Lyttelton made a motion for reviving the place-bill; but it was opposed by a great number of members who had formerly been strenuous advocates for this measure, and rejected upon a division. This was also the fate of a motion made to renew the inquiry into the conduct of Robert earl of Orford. As many strong presumptions of guilt had appeared against him in the reports of the secret committee, the nation had reason to expect that this proposal would have been embraced by a great majority; but several members, who in the preceding session had been loud in their demands of justice, now shamefully contributed their talents and interest in stifling the inquiry.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

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.

By the report of the secret committee, it appeared that the then minster had commenced prosecutions against the mayors of boroughs who opposed his influence in the election of members of parliament. These prosecutions were founded on ambiguities in charters, or trivial informalities in the choice of magistrates. An appeal on such a process was brought into the house of lords; and this evil falling under consideration, a bill was prepared for securing the independency of corporations; but as it tended to diminish the influence of the ministry, they argued against it with their usual eagerness and success; and it was rejected on a division. The mutiny bill and several others passed through both houses. The commons granted supplies to the amount of six millions, raised by the land-tax, the malt-tax, duties on spirituous liquors and licenses, and a loan from the sinking fund. In two years the national debt had suffered an increase of two millions four hundred thousand pounds.

{1743}

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.