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Soon after this expedition, having received intelligence that a considerable convoy of provisions and stores, for the garrison of Oswego, would in a little time set out from Schenectady, and be conveyed in batteaux up the river Onondaga, they formed an ambuscade among the woods and thickets on the north side of that river; but understanding the convoy had passed before they reached the place, they resolved to wait the return of the detachment. Their design, however, was frustrated by the vigilance and valour of colonel Bradstreet, who expected such an attempt, and had taken his measures accordingly. On the third day of July, while he stemmed the stream of the river, with his batteaux formed into three divisions, they were saluted with the Indian war-hoop, and a general discharge of musketry from the north shore. Bradstreet immediately ordered his men to land on the opposite bank, and with a few of the foremost took possession of a small island, where he was forthwith attacked by a party of the enemy, who had forded the river for that purpose; but these were soon repulsed. Another body having passed a mile higher, he advanced to them at the head of two hundred men, and fell upon them, sword in hand, with such vigour, that many were killed on the spot, and the rest driven into the water with such precipitation that a considerable number of them were drowned. Having received information that a third body of them had passed at a ford still higher, he marched thither without hesitation, and pursued them to the other side, where they were entirely routed and dispersed. In this action, which lasted near three hours, about seventy of the batteau-men were killed or wounded, but the enemy lost double the number killed, and above seventy taken prisoners. In all probability the whole detachment of the French, amounting to seven hundred men, would have been cut off had not a heavy rain interposed, and disabled colonel Bradstreet from following his blow; for that same night he was joined by captain Patten with his grenadiers, in his march from Oneida to Oswego, and next morning reinforced with two hundred men, detached to his assistance from the garrison of Oswego; but by this time the rivulets were so swelled by the rain, that it was found impracticable to pursue the enemy through the woods and thickets. Patten and his grenadiers accompanied the detachment to Oswego, while Bradstreet pursued his voyage to Schenectady, from whence he repaired to Albany, and communicated to general Abercrombie the intelligence he had received from the prisoners, that a large body of the enemy were encamped on the eastern side of the lake Ontario, provided with artillery, and all other implements, to besiege the fort of Oswego.
EARL OF LOUDON ARRIVES AT NEW YORK.
In consequence of this information, major-general Webb was ordered to hold himself in readiness to march with one regiment to the relief of that garrison; but, before they could be provided with necessaries, the earl of Loudon arrived at the head-quarters at Albany, on the twenty-ninth day of July. The army at this time is said to have consisted of regular troops to the number of two thousand six hundred, about seven thousand provincials, supposed to be in readiness to march from fort William-Henry, under the command of general Winslow, over and above a considerable number of batteau-men at Albany and Schenectady. The garrison at Oswego amounted to fourteen hundred soldiers, besides three hundred workmen and sailors, either in the fort, or posted in small parties between the fort and place called Burnet's Field, to secure a safe passage through the country of the Six Nations, upon whose friendship there was no longer any reliance. By the best accounts received of the enemy's forces, they had about three thousand men at Crown Point and Ticonderago upon the lake Champlain; but their chief strength was collected upon the banks of the lake Ontario, where their purpose undoubtedly was to reduce the English fort at Oswego. The immediate object, therefore, of lord Loudon's attention was the relief of this place; but his design was strenuously opposed by the province of New York, and other northern governments, who were much more intent upon the reduction of Crown Point, and the security of their own frontiers, which they apprehended was connected with this conquest. They insisted upon Winslow's being joined by some regiments of regular troops before he should march against this fortress; and stipulated that a body of reserve should be detained at Albany, for the defence of that frontier, in case Winslow should fail in his enterprise, and be defeated. At length they agreed, that the regiment which Mr. Abercrombie had destined for that purpose should be detached for the relief of Oswego; and on the twelfth day of August major-general Webb began his march with it from Albany; but on his arrival at the Carrying-place, between the Mohawk's river and Wood's creek, he received the disagreeable news that Oswego was taken, and the garrison made prisoners of war. Mr. Webb, apprehending himself in danger of being attacked by the besieging army, began immediately to render the creek impassable, even to canoes, by felling trees, and throwing them into the stream; while the enemy, ignorant of his numbers, and apprehensive of a like visitation from him, took the very same method of preventing his approach; in consequence of this apprehension, he was permitted to retire unmolested.
OSWEGO REDUCED BY THE ENEMY.
The loss of the two small forts called Ontario and Oswego, was a considerable national misfortune. They were erected on the south side of the great lake Ontario, standing on the opposite sides of the mouth of the Onondago river, that discharges itself into the lake, and constituted a post of great importance, where vessels had been built to cruise upon the lake, which is a kind of inland sea, and interrupt the commerce as well as the motions and designs of the enemy. The garrison, as we have already observed, consisted of fourteen hundred men, chiefly militia and new-raised recruits, under the command of lieutenant-colonel Mercer, an officer of courage and experience; but the situation of the forts was very ill chosen; the materials mostly timber or logs of wood; the defences wretchedly contrived and unfinished; and, in a word, the place altogether untenable against any regular approach. Such were the forts which the enemy wisely resolved to reduce. Being under no apprehension for Crown Point, they assembled a body of troops, consisting of thirteen hundred regulars, seventeen hundred Canadians, and a considerable number of Indian auxiliaries, under the command of the marquis de Montcalm, a vigilant and enterprising officer, to whom the conduct of the siege was entrusted by the marquis de Vaudreuil, governor and lieutenant-general of New France. The first step taken by Montcalm was to block up Oswego by water with two large armed vessels, and post a strong body of Canadians on the road between Albany and the forts, to cut off all communication of succour and intelligence. In the meantime he embarked his artillery and stores upon the lake, and landed them in the bay of Nixouri, the place of general rendezvous. At another creek, within half a league of Oswego, he erected a battery for the protection of his vessels, and on the twelfth day of August, at midnight, after his dispositions had been made, he opened the trenches before fort Ontario. The garrison having fired away all their shells and ammunition, spiked up the cannon, and deserting the fort, retired next day across the river into Oswego, which was even more exposed than the other, especially when the enemy had taken possession of Ontario, from whence they immediately began to fire without intermission. Colonel Mercer being on the thirteenth killed by a cannon ball, the fort destitute of all cover, the officers divided in opinion, and the garrison in confusion, they next day demanded a capitulation, and surrendered prisoners of war, on condition that they should be exempted from plunder, conducted to Montreal, and treated with humanity. These conditions, however, the marquis did not punctually observe. The British officers and soldiers were insulted by the savage Indians, who robbed them of their clothes and baggage, massacred several men as they stood defenceless on the parade, assassinated lieutenant de la Court as he lay wounded in his tent, under the protection of a French officer, and barbarously scalped all the sick people in the hospital: finally, Montcalm, in direct violation of the articles, as well as in contempt of common humanity, delivered up above twenty men of the garrison to the Indians, in lieu of the same number they had lost during the siege; and in all probability these miserable captives were put to death by those barbarians, with the most excruciating tortures, according to the execrable custom of the country. Those who countenance the perpetration of cruelties, at which human nature shudders with horror, ought to be branded as infamous to all posterity. Such, however, were the trophies that, in the course of the American war, distinguished the operations of a people who pique themselves upon politeness, and the virtues of humanity. The prisoners taken at Oswego, after having been thus barbarously treated, were conveyed in batteaux to Montreal, where they had no reason to complain of their reception; and before the end of the year they were exchanged. The victors immediately demolished the two forts (if they deserve that denomination,) in which they found one hundred and twenty-one pieces of artillery, fourteen mortars, with a great quantity of ammunition, warlike stores, and provisions, besides two sloops, and two hundred batteaux, which likewise fell into their hands. Such an important magazine, deposited in a place altogether indefensible, and without the reach of immediate succour, was a flagrant proof of egregious folly, temerity, and misconduct.
FURTHER PROCEEDINGS IN AMERICA.
The earl of Loudon finding the season too far advanced to admit of any enterprise against the enemy, exerted all his endeavours in making preparations for an early campaign in the spring, securing the frontiers of the English colonies, in forming an uniform plan of action, and promoting a spirit of harmony among the different governments, which had been long divided by jarring interests, and other sources of dissension. Meanwhile, the forts Edward and William-Henry were put in a proper posture of defence, and secured with numerous garrisons; and the forces put into winter quarters at Albany where comfortable barracks were built for that purpose. Fort Granville, on the confines of Pennsylvania, an inconsiderable block-house, was surprised by a party of French and Indians, who made the garrison prisoners, consisting of two-and-twenty soldiers, with a few women and children. These they loaded with flour and provisions, and drove them into captivity; but the fort they reduced to ashes. Many shocking murders were perpetrated upon defenceless people, without distinction of age or sex, in different parts of the frontiers; but these outrages were in some measure balanced by the advantages resulting from a treaty of peace, which the governor of Pennsylvania concluded with the Delaware Indians, a powerful tribe that dwell upon the river Sasquehanna, forming, as it were, a line along the southern skirts of the province. At the same time the governor of Virginia secured the friendship and alliance of the Cherokees and Catawbas, two powerful nations adjoining to that colony, who were able to bring three thousand fighting men into the field. All these circumstances considered, Great Britain had reason to expect that the ensuing campaign would be vigorously prosecuted in America, especially as a fresh reinforcement of troops, with a great supply of warlike stores, were sent to that country in fourteen transports, under convoy of two ships of war, which sailed from Cork in Ireland about the beginning of November.
NAVAL OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.
No action of great importance distinguished the naval transactions of this year on the side of America. In the beginning of June, captain Spry, who commanded a small squadron cruising off Louisbourg, in the island of Cape Breton, took the Arc en Ciel, a French ship of fifty guns, having on board near six hundred men, with a large quantity of stores and provisions for the garrison. He likewise made prize of another French ship, with seventy soldiers, two hundred barrels of powder, two large brass mortars, and other stores of the like destination. On the twenty-seventh day of July, commodore Holmes, being in the same latitude, with two large ships and a couple of sloops, engaged two French ships of the line and four frigates, and obliged them to sheer off after an obstinate dispute. A great number of privateers were equipped in this country, as well as in the West India islands belonging to the crown of Great Britain; and as those seas swarmed with French vessels, their cruises proved very advantageous to the adventurers.
TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST INDIES.
Scenes of higher import were this year acted by the British arms in the East Indies. The cessation of hostilities between the English and French companies on the peninsula of Indus, though it encouraged Mr. Clive to visit his native country, was not of long duration; for in a few months both sides recommenced their operations, no longer as auxiliaries to the princes of the country, but as principals and rivals both in arms and commerce. Major Laurence, who now enjoyed the chief command of the English force, obtained divers advantages over the enemy; and prosecuted his success with such vigour, as, in all probability, would in a little time have terminated the war according to his own wish, when the progress of his arms was interrupted and suspended by an unfortunate event at Calcutta, the cause of which is not easily explained; for extraordinary pains have been taken to throw a vail over some transactions from whence this calamity was immediately or remotely derived.
CALCUTTA BESIEGED.
The old suba or viceroy of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa, dying in the month of April, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, was succeeded by his adopted son, Sur Raja al Dowlat, a young man of violent passions, without principle, fortitude, or good faith, who began his administration with acts of perfidy and violence. In all probability, his design against the English settlements was suggested by his rapacious disposition, on a belief that they abounded with treasure; as the pretences which he used for commencing hostilities, were altogether inconsistent, false, and frivolous. In the month of May, he caused the English factory at Cassimbuzzar to be invested, and inviting Mr. Watts, the chief of the factory, to a conference, under the sanction of a safe conduct, detained him as prisoner; then, by means of fraud and force intermingled, made himself master of the factory. This exploit being achieved, he made no secret of his design to deprive the English of all their settlements. With this view he marched to Calcutta at the head of a numerous army, and invested the place, which was then in no posture of defence.
FATE OF THOSE WHO PERISHED IN THE DUNGEON AT CALCUTTA.
The governor, intimidated by the number and power of the enemy, abandoned the fort, and with some principal persons residing in the settlement, took refuge on board a ship in the river, carrying along with them their most valuable effects, and the books of the company. Thus the defence of the place devolved to Mr. Holwell, the second in command, who, with the assistance of a few gallant officers, and a very feeble garrison, maintained it with uncommon courage and resolution against several attacks, until he was overpowered by numbers, and the enemy had forced their way into the castle. Then he was obliged to submit; and the suba, or viceroy, promised on the word of a soldier, that no injury should be done to him or his garrison. Nevertheless, they were all driven, to the number of one hundred and forty-six persons of both sexes, into a place called the Black Hole Prison, a cube of about eighteen feet, walled up to the eastward and southward, the only quarters from which they could expect the least refreshing air, and open to the westward by two windows strongly barred with iron, through which there was no perceptible circulation. The humane reader will conceive with horror the miserable situation to which they must have been reduced, when thus stewed up in a close sultry night under such a climate as that of Bengal, especially when he reflects that many of them were wounded, and all of them fatigued with hard duty. Transported with rage to find themselves thus barbarously cooped up in a place where they must be exposed to suffocation, those hapless victims endeavoured to force open the door that they might rush upon the swords of the barbarians by whom they were surrounded; but all their efforts were ineffectual; the door was made to open inwards, and being once shut upon them, the crowd pressed upon it so strongly as to render all their endeavours abortive; then they were overwhelmed with distraction and despair. Mr. Holwell, who had placed himself at one of the windows, accosted a jemmautdaar, or Serjeant of the Indian guard, and having endeavoured to excite his compassion, by drawing a pathetic picture of their sufferings, promised to gratify him with a thousand rupees in the morning, if he could find means to remove one half of them into a separate apartment. The soldier, allured by the promise of such a reward, assured him he would do his endeavour for their relief, and retired for that purpose, but in a few minutes returned and told them that the suba, by whose order alone such a step could be taken, was asleep, and no person durst disturb his repose. By this time a profuse sweat had broke out on every individual, and this was attended with an insatiable thirst, which became the more intolerable as the body was drained of its moisture. In vain those miserable objects stripped themselves of their clothes, squatted down on their hams, and fanned the air with their hats, to produce a refreshing undulation. Many were unable to rise again from this posture, but falling down, were trod to death or suffocated. The dreadful symptom of thirst was now accompanied with a difficulty of respiration, and every individual gasped for breath. Their despair became outrageous: again they attempted to force the door, and provoke the guard to fire upon them by execration and abuse. The cry of "Water! water!" issued from every mouth. Even the jemmautdaar was moved to compassion at their distress. He ordered his soldiers to bring some skins of water, which served only to enrage the appetite, and increase the general agitation. There was no other way of conveying it through the windows but by hats, and this was rendered ineffectual by the eagerness and transports of the wretched prisoners, who at sight of it struggled and raved even into fits of delirium. In consequence of these contests, very little reached those who stood nearest the windows, while the rest, at the farther end of the prison, were totally excluded from all relief, and continued calling upon their friends for assistance, and conjuring them by all the tender ties of pity and affection. To those who were indulged it proved pernicious, for instead of allaying their thirst, it enraged their impatience for more. The confusion became general and horrid; all was clamour and contest; those who were at a distance endeavoured to force their passage to the window, and the weak were pressed down to the ground never to rise again. The inhuman ruffians without derived entertainment from their misery; they supplied the prisoners with more water, and held up lights close to the bars that they might enjoy the inhuman pleasure of seeing them fight for the baneful indulgence. Mr. Holwell seeing all his particular friends lying dead around him, and trampled upon by the living, finding himself wedged up so close as to be deprived of all motion, begged, as the last instance of their regard, that they would remove the pressure, and allow him to retire from the window, that he might die in quiet. Even in those dreadful circumstances, which might be supposed to have levelled all distinction, the poor delirious wretches manifested a respect for his rank and character: they forthwith gave way, and he forced his passage into the centre of the place, which was not crowded so much, because by this time about one-third of the number had perished, and lay on small compass on the floor, while the rest still crowded to both windows. He retired to a platform at the farther end of the room, and lying down upon some of his dead friends, recommended his soul to heaven. Here his thirst grew insupportable; his difficulty in breathing increased, and he was seized with a strong palpitation. These violent symptoms, which he could not bear, urged him to make another effort: he forced his way back to the window, and cried aloud, "Water! for God's sake!" He had been supposed already dead by his wretched companions, but finding him still alive, they exhibited another extraordinary proof of tenderness and regard to his person: "Give him water," they cried; nor would any of them attempt to touch it until he had drank. He now breathed more freely, and the palpitation ceased; but finding himself still more thirsty after drinking, he abstained from water, and moistened his mouth from time to time by sucking the perspiration from his shirt sleeves.*
* In his despair of obtaining water, this unhappy gentleman had attempted to drink his own urine, but found it intolerably bitter; whereas the moisture that flowed from the pores of his body, was soft, pleasant, and refreshing.
The miserable prisoners, perceiving that water rather aggravated than relieved their distress, grew clamorous for air, and repeated their insults to the guard, loading the suba and his governor with the most virulent reproach. From railing they had recourse to prayer, beseeching heaven to put an end to their misery. They now began to drop on all hands; but then a steam arose from the living and the dead, as pungent and volatile as spirit of hartshorn; so that all who could not approach the windows were suffocated. Mr. Holwell, being weary of life, retired once more to the platform, and stretched himself by the Rev. Mr. Jer-vis Bellamy, who, together with his son, a lieutenant, lay dead in each other's embrace. In this situation he was soon deprived of sense, and lay to all appearance dead till day broke, when his body was discovered and removed by his surviving friends to one of the windows, where the fresh air revived him, and he was restored to his sight and senses. The suba, at last, being informed that the greater part of the prisoners were suffocated, inquired if the chief was alive; and being answered in the affirmative, sent an order for their immediate release, when no more than twenty-three survived of an hundred and forty-six who had entered alive.
ADDITIONAL CRUELTIES EXERCISED ON MR. HOLWELL.
Nor was the late deliverance, even of these few, owing to any sentiment of compassion in the viceroy. He had received intimation that there was a considerable treasure secreted in the fort, and that Mr. Holwell knew the place where it was deposited. That gentleman, who, with his surviving companions, had been seized with a putrid fever immediately upon their release, was dragged in that condition before the inhuman suba, who questioned him about the treasure, which existed nowhere but in his own imagination; and would give no credit to his protestations, when he solemnly declared he knew of no such deposit. Mr. Holwell and three of his friends were loaded with fetters, and conveyed three miles to the Indian camp, where they lay all night exposed to a severe rain; next morning they were brought back to town still manacled, under the scorching beams of a sun intensely hot, and must infallibly have expired, had not nature expelled the fever in large painful boils, that covered almost the whole body. In this piteous condition they were embarked in an open boat for Muxadavad, the capital of Bengal, and underwent such cruel treatment and misery in their passage, as would shock the humane reader should he peruse the particulars. At Maxadavad they were led through the city in chains, as a spectacle to the inhabitants, lodged in an open stable, and treated for some days as the worst of criminals. At length the suba's grandmother interposed her mediation in their behalf, and as that prince was by this time convinced that there was no treasure concealed at Calcutta, he ordered them to be set at liberty. When some of his sycophants opposed this indulgence, representing that Mr. Holwell had still enough left to pay a considerable ransom, he replied, with some marks of compunction and generosity, "If he has anything left, let him keep it: his sufferings have been great: he shall have his liberty." Mr. Holwell and his friends were no sooner unfettered, than they took water from the Dutch Tank-sail or mint, in the neighbourhood of that city, where they were received with great tenderness and humanity. The reader, we hope, will excuse us for having thus particularized a transaction so interesting and extraordinary in all its circumstances. The suba having destroyed Calcutta and dispersed the inhabitants, extorted large sums from the French and Dutch factories, that he might display a spirit of impartiality against all the Europeans, even in his oppression, returned to his city of Muxadavad in triumph. By the reduction of Calcutta, the English East India company's affairs were so much embroiled in that part of the world, that perhaps nothing could have retrieved them but the interposition of a national force, and the good fortune of a Clive, whose enterprises were always crowned with success.
As the English East India Company had, for a whole century, been at a considerable expense in maintaining a marine force at Bombay, to protect their ships from the piracies of the Angrias, who had rendered themselves independent princes, and fortified Geriah in that neighbourhood; many unsuccessful attempts had been made to destroy their naval power, and reduce the fortress, under which they always took shelter. In the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, the fleet of Tullagree Angria, the reigning prince, attacked three Dutch ships of force, which they either took or destroyed. Elated with this success, he boasted that he should in a little time sweep the seas of the Europeans, and began to build some large ships, to reinforce his grabs and gallivats, which were the vessels on which he had for merely depended. Next year his neighbours, the Malirattas, having signified to the presidency of Bombay, that they were disposed to join in the necessary service of humbling this common enemy, so formidable to the whole Malabar coast, commodore James was detached with some ships of force to attack Angria, in conjunction with those allies. They accordingly joined him with seven grabs and sixty gallivats. They proceeded to the harbour of Severndroog, where Angria's fleet lay at anchor; but they no sooner received intelligence of his approach, than they slipped their cables and stood out to sea. He chased them with all the canvass he could carry, but their vessels being lighter than his they escaped; and he returned to Severndroog, which is a fortress situated on an island within musket shot of the main land, strongly but irregularly fortified, and mounted with fifty-four pieces of cannon. There were three other small forts on the continent, the largest of which was called Goa. On the second day of April the commodore began to batter and bombard the island, fort, and fort Goa, at the same time. That of Severndroog was set on fire; one of the magazines blew up; a general conflagration ensued; the garrison was overwhelmed with fire and confusion; the English seamen landed un der cover of the fire from the ships, and took the place by storm, with very little loss. The other forts were immediately surrendered, and all of these, by treaty, delivered to the Mahrattas. On the eighth of April the commodore anchored off Bancote, now called fort Victoria, one of the most northern parts of Angria's dominions, which surrendered without opposition, and still remains in the hands of the English East India company, by the consent of the Mahrattas. The harbour is good, and here is great trade for salt and other commodities sent hither from Bombay.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
FORT GERIAH TAKEN BY ADMIRAL WATSON AND MR. CLIVE.
It was in November following that the squadron under admiral Watson arrived at Bombay, where it was resolved to give Angria the finishing stroke, still in conjunction with the Mahrattas. Meanwhile commodore James was sent to reconnoitre Geriah, the capital of his dominions, and to sound the depth of the harbour, a service which he successfully performed. The admiral being joined by a division of ships, fitted out at the company's expense, having on board a body of troops commanded by colonel Clive, sailed on the seventeenth day of January, and found in the neighbourhood of Geriah the Mahratta fleet, consisting of four grabs, and forty smaller vessels called gallivats, lying to the northward of the place, in a creek called Rajipore; and a land-army of horse and foot, amounting to seven or eight thousand men, the whole commanded by Rhamagee Punt, who had already taken one small fort, and was actually treating about the surrender of Geriah. Angria himself had quitted the place, but his wife and family remained under the protection of his brother-in-law; who, being summoned to surrender by a message from the admiral, replied, that he would defend the place to the last extremity. In consequence of this refusal, the whole English fleet, in two divisions, sailed on the twelfth day of February into the harbour, and sustained a warm fire from the enemy's batteries as they passed, as well as from the grabs posted in the harbour for that purpose; this, however, was soon silenced after the ships were brought to their stations, so as to return the salutation. Between the hours of four and five in the afternoon, a shell being thrown into one of Angria's armed vessels, set her on fire; and the flames communicating to the rest, they were all destroyed: between six and seven the fort was set on fire by another shell; and soon after the firing ceased on both sides. The admiral, suspecting that the governor of the place would surrender it to the Mahrattas, rather than to the English, disembarked all the troops under Mr. Clive, that he might be at hand, in case of emergency, to take possession. In the meantime, the fort was bombarded; the line of battle ships were warped near enough to batter in breach, and then the admiral sent an officer with a flag of truce to the governor, requiring him to surrender. His proposal being again rejected, the English ships renewed their fire next day with redoubled vigour. About one o'clock the magazine of the fort blew up, and at four the garrison hung out a white flag for capitulation. The parley that ensued proving ineffectual, the engagement began again, and continued till fifteen minutes after five; when the white flag was again displayed, and now the governor submitted to the conditions which were imposed. Angria's flag was immediately hauled down; and two English captains taking possession of the fort with a detachment, forthwith hoisted the British ensign. To these captains, whose names were Buchanan and Forbes, the Mahrattas offered a bribe of fifty thousand rupees, if they would allow them to pass their guards, that they might take possession of the fort for themselves; but this offer was rejected with disdain, and immediately disclosed to colonel Clive, who took effectual measures to frustrate their design. In this place, which was reduced with very inconsiderable loss, the conquerors found above two hundred cannon, six brass mortars, a large quantity of ammunition, with money and effects to the value of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds. The fleet which was destroyed consisted of eight grabs, one ship finished, two upon the stocks, and a good number of gallivats. Among the prisoners, the admiral found Angria's wife, children, and mother, toward whom he demeaned himself with great humanity.*
* When the admiral entered their apartment, the whole family, shedding floods of tears, fell with their faces to the ground; from which being raised, the mother of Angria told him, in a piteous tone, "the people had no king, she no son, her daughter no husband, their children no father." The admiral replying, "they must look upon him as their father and their friend," the youngest boy, about six years of age, seized him by the hand, and sobbing exclaimed, "Then you shall be my father." Mr. Watson was so affected with this pathetic address, that the tears trickled down his cheeks, while he assured them they might depend upon his protection and friendship.
Three hundred European soldiers, and as-many sepoys, were left to guard the fort; and four of the company's armed vessels remained in the harbour for the defence of the place, which was extremely well situated for commerce.
The admiral and Mr. Clive sailed back to Madras in triumph, and there another plan was formed for restoring the company's affairs upon the Ganges, recovering Calcutta, and taking vengeance on the cruel viceroy of Bengal. In October they set sail again for the bottom of the bay; and about the beginning of December arrived at Balasore, in the kingdom of Bengal. Having crossed the Braces, they proceeded up the river Ganges as far as Falta, where they found governor Drake, and the other persons who had escaped on board of the ships when Calcutta was invested. Colonel Clive was disembarked with his forces to attack the fort of Busbudgia by land, while the admiral battered it by sea; but the place being ill provided with cannon, did not hold out above an hour after the firing began. This conquest being achieved at a very easy purchase, two of the great ships anchored between Tanny fort and a battery on the other side of the river, which were abandoned before one shot was discharged against either; thus the passage was laid open to Calcutta, the reduction of which we shall record among the transactions of the ensuing year.
CHAPTER XII.
Motives of the War in Germany..... Conspiracy in Sweden..... Measures taken by the King of Prussia and Elector of Hanover..... Endeavours of the Court of Vienna to frustrate them..... His Prussian Majesty demands an Explanation from the Empress-Queen..... Her Answer..... The Prussian Army enters Saxony, and publishes a Manifesto..... Prince Ferdinand takes Leipsic..... King of Prussia takes Possession of Dresden, and blocks up the King of Poland at Pirna..... Prussian Army penetrates into Bohemia, and fights the Battle of Lowoschutz..... Saxon Army surrenders..... King of Poland's Memorial to the States-General..... Imperial Decrees published against the King of Prussia..... Declarations of different Powers..... His Prussian Majesty's Answer to the Saxon Memorial..... and Justification of his Conduct..... Remarks on both those Pieces...... Disputes between the Parliament of Paris and the Clergy..... Dearth of Corn in England..... Hanoverian Auxiliaries sent back..... Session opened..... Debates on the Address..... Bill passed for prohibiting the Exportation of Corn..... Message to the House concerning Admiral Byng..... Supplies granted..... Reflections on the Continental War...... Message from the King to the Parliament..... Measures taken to remove the Scarcity of Corn..... Militia Bill..... Petitions for and against it..... Altered by the Lords..... Bill for quartering the Foreign Troops, and for regulating the Marines while on Shore..... Bill for the more speedy recruiting the Land-Forces and Marines..... Act relating to Pawnbrokers and Gaming-Houses..... Laws relating to the Wages of Weavers, and to the Improvement of the British Fishery..... Act for importing American Iron Duty free..... Regulations with respect to the Importation of Silk..... Smugglers encouraged to enter into his Majesty's Service..... Inquiry into the Scarcity of Corn..... Investigation of the Loss of Minorca..... Examination of the American Contract..... Inquiry into the Conduct of Admiral Snowies, as Governor of Jamaica..... Resolutions concerning Milford-Haven..... Session closed..... Trial of Admiral Byng..... Recommended to Mercy..... Message from the King to the Parliament respecting the Sentence..... Bill to release the Members of the Court-Martial from their Oath of Secrecy..... Execution of Admiral Byng..... Paper delivered by him to the Marshal of the Admiralty..... Remarks on his Fate
MOTIVES OF THE WAR IN GERMANY.
Having thus, to the best of our power, given a faithful and exact detail of every material event in which Great Britain was concerned, either at home, or in her settlements abroad, during the greatest part of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, we shall now return to Europe, and endeavour to explain the beginning of a bloody war in Germany, which then seemed to have become the chief object of the British councils. On the eve of a rupture between France and England, it was natural for his Britannic majesty to provide for the safety of his electoral dominions, the only quarter by which he was at all accessible to the efforts of the enemy, who he foresaw would not fail to annoy him through that avenue. He, at that time, stood upon indifferent terms with the king of Prussia, who was considered as a partisan and ally of France; and he knew that the house of Austria alone would not be sufficient to support him against two such powerful antagonists. In this emergency, he had recourse to the empress of Russia, who, in consequence of a large subsidy granted by England, engaged to furnish a strong body of forces for the defence of Hanover. His Prussian majesty, startled at the conditions of this treaty, took an opportunity to declare that he would not suffer foreign forces of any nation to enter the empire, either as principals or auxiliaries; a declaration which probably flowed from a jealousy and aversion he had conceived to the court of Petersburgh, as well as from a resolution he had formed of striking some great stroke in Germany, without any risk of being restricted or controlled. He knew he should give umbrage to the French king, who had already made preparations for penetrating into Westphalia; but he took it for granted he should be able to exchange his connexions with France for the alliance with Great Britain, which would be much less troublesome, and much more productive of advantage: indeed, such an alliance was the necessary consequence of his declaration. Had his Britannic majesty made a requisition of the Russian auxiliaries, he must have exposed himself to the resentment of a warlike monarch, who hovered on the skirts of his electorate at the head of one hundred and forty thousand men, and could have subdued the whole country in one week; and if he forbore to avail himself of the treaty with the czarina, he did not know how soon the king of Prussia might be reconciled to his most christian majesty's design of invasion. As for the empress-queen, her attention was engrossed by schemes for her interest or preservation; and her hands so full, that she either could not, or would not, fulfil the engagements she had contracted with her former and firmest allies. In these circumstances the king of England sought and obtained the alliance of Prussia, which, to the best of our comprehension, entailed upon Great Britain the enormous burden of extravagant subsidies, together with the intolerable expense of a continental war, without being productive of one advantage, either positive or negative, to England or Hanover. On the contrary, this connexion threw the empress-queen into the arms of France, whose friendship she bought at the expense of the barrier in the Netherlands, acquired with infinite labour, by the blood and treasure of the maritime powers; it gave birth to a confederacy of despotic princes; sufficient, if their joint force was fully exerted, to overthrow the liberties of all the free states in Europe; and, after all, Hanover has been overrun, and subdued by the enemy; and the king of Prussia put to the ban of the empire. All these consequences are, we apprehend, fairly deducible from the resolution which his Prussian majesty took, at this juncture, to precipitate a war with the house of Austria. The apparent motives that prompted him to this measure we shall presently explain. In the meantime, the defensive treaty between the empress-queen and France was no sooner ratified, than the czarina was invited to accede to the alliance, and a private minister sent from Paris to Petersburgh, to negotiate the conditions of this accession, which the empress of Russia accordingly embraced: a circumstance so agreeable to the court of Versailles, that the marquis de l'Hopital was immediately appointed ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of Russia. Applications were likewise made to the courts of Madrid and Turin, soliciting their concurrence; but their catholic and Sardinian majesties wisely resolved to observe a neutrality. At the same time, intrigues were begun by the French emissaries in the senate of Sweden, in order to kindle up a war between that nation and Prussia; and their endeavours succeeded in the sequel, even contrary to the inclination of their sovereign. At present, a plot was discovered for altering the form of government, by increasing the power of the crown; and several persons of rank being convicted upon trial, were beheaded as principals in this conspiracy. Although it did not appear that the king or queen were at all concerned in the scheme, his Swedish majesty thought himself so hardly treated by the diet, that he threatened to resign his royalty, and retire into his own hereditary dominions. This design was extremely disagreeable to the people in general, who espoused his cause in opposition to the diet, by whom they conceived themselves more oppressed than they should have been under an unlimited monarchy.
MEASURES TAKEN BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA AND ELECTOR OF HANOVER.
The king of Prussia, alarmed at these formidable alliances, ordered all his forces to be completed, and held in readiness to march at the first notice; and a report was industriously circulated, that by a secret article in the late treaty between France and the house of Austria, these two powers had obliged themselves to destroy the protestant religion, and overturn the freedom of the empire, by a forced election of a king of the Romans. The cry of religion was no impolitic measure; but it no longer produced the same effect as in times past. Religion was made a pretence on both sides; for the partisans of the empress-queen insinuated, on all occasions, that the ruin of the catholic faith in Germany was the principal object of the new alliance between the kings of Great Britain and Prussia. It was in consequence of such suggestions, that his Britannic majesty ordered his electoral minister at the diet, to deliver a memorial to all the ministers at Ratisbon, expressing his surprise to find the treaty he had concluded with the king of Prussia industriously represented as a ground of apprehension and umbrage, especially for religion. He observed, that as France had made open dispositions for invading the electorate of Hanover, and disturbing the peace of the empire; that as he had been denied, by the empress-queen, the succours stipulated in treaties of alliance; and as he was refused assistance by certain states of the empire, who even seemed disposed to favour such a diversion: he had, in order to provide for the security of his own dominions, to establish peace and tranquillity in the empire, and maintain its system and privileges, without any prejudice to religion, concluded a defensive treaty with the king of Prussia; that, by this instance of patriotic zeal for the welfare of Germany, he had done an essential service to the empress-queen, and performed the part which the head of the empire, in dignity and duty, ought to have acted; that time would demonstrate how little it was the interest of the empress-queen to engage in a strict alliance with a foreign power, which, for upwards of two centuries, had ravaged the principal provinces of the empire, maintained repeated wars against the archducal house of Austria, and always endeavoured, as it suited her views, to excite distrust and dissension among the princes and states that compose the Germanic body.
The court of Vienna formed two considerable armies in Bohemia and Moravia; yet pretended that they had nothing in view but self-preservation, and solemnly disclaimed both the secret article, and the design which had been laid to their charge. His most christain majesty declared, by his minister at Berlin, that he had no other intention but to maintain the public tranquillity of Europe; and, this being the sole end of all his measures, he beheld with surprise the preparations and armaments of certain potentates; that, whatever might be the view with which they were made, he was dis posed to make use of the power which God had put into his hands, not only to maintain the public peace of Europe against all who should attempt to disturb it, but also to employ all his forces, agreeably to his engagements, for the assistance of his ally, in case her dominions should be attacked; finally, that he would act in the same manner in behalf of all the other powers with whom he was in alliance. This intimation made very little impression upon the king of Prussia, who had already formed his plan, and was determined to execute his purpose. What his original plan might have been, we shall not pretend to disclose; nor do we believe he imparted it to any confidant or ally. It must be confessed, however, that the intrigues of the court of Vienna furnished him with a specious pretence for drawing the sword, and commencing hostilities. The empress-queen had some reason to be jealous of such a formidable neighbour. She remembered his irruption into Bohemia, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, at a time when she thought that country, and all her other dominions, secure from his invasion by the treaty of Breslau, which she had in no particular contravened. She caballed against him in different courts of Europe; she concluded a treaty with the czarina, which, though seemingly defensive, implied an intention of making conquests upon this monarch; she endeavoured to engage the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, as a contracting power in this confederacy; and, if he had not been afraid of a sudden visit from his neighbour of Prussia, it cannot be supposed but he would have been pleased to contribute to the humiliation of a prince, who had once before, without the least provocation, driven him from his dominions, taken possession of his capital, routed his troops, and obliged him to pay a million of crowns, to indemnify him for the expense of this expedition; but he carefully avoided taking such a step as might expose him to another invasion, and even refused to accede to the treaty of Petersburgh, though it was expressly defensive; the casus faederus being, his Prussian majesty's attacking either of the contracting parties. It appears, however, that count de Bruhl, prime minister and favourite of the king of Poland, had, in conjunction with some of the Austrian ministers, carried on certain scandalous intrigues, in order to embroil the king of Prussia with the empress of Russia, between whom a misunderstanding had long subsisted.
THE KING OF PRUSSIA DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION.
His Prussian majesty, perceiving the military preparations of the court of Vienna, and having obtained intelligence of their secret negotiations with different powers of Europe, ordered M. de Klingraafe, his minister at the imperial court, to demand whether all those preparations of war, on the frontiers of Silesia, were designed against him, and what were the intentions of her imperial majesty? To this demand the empress replied, that in the present juncture she had found it necessary to make armaments, as well for her own defence as for that of her allies; but that they did not tend to the prejudice of any person or state whatever. The king, far from being satisfied with this general answer, sent fresh orders to Klingraafe, to represent, that after the king had dissembled, as long as he thought consistent with his safety and honour, the bad designs imputed to the empress would not suffer him longer to disguise his sentiments: that he was acquainted with the offensive projects which the two courts had formed at Petersburgh; that he knew they had engaged to attack him suddenly with an army of two hundred thousand men; a design which would have been executed in the spring of the year, had not the Russian forces wanted recruits, their fleet mariners, and Livonia a sufficient quantity of corn for their support; that he constituted the empress arbiter of peace or war: if she desired the former, he required a clear and formal declaration, or positive assurance, that she had no intention to attack him either this year or the next; but he should look upon an ambiguous answer as a declaration of war; and he called heaven to witness, that the empress alone would be guilty of the innocent blood that should be spilt, and all the dismal consequences that would attend the commission of hostilities.
A declaration of this nature might have provoked a less haughty court than that of Vienna, and, indeed, seems to have been calculated on purpose to exasperate the pride of her imperial majesty, whose answer he soon received to this effect: that his majesty the king of Prussia had already been employed, for some time, in all kinds of the most considerable preparations of war, and the most disquieting with regard to the public tranquillity, when he thought fit to demand explanations of her majesty, touching the military dispositions that were making in her dominions; dispositions on which she had not resolved till after the preparations of his Prussian majesty had been made; that though her majesty might have declined explaining herself on those subjects, which required no explanation, she had been pleased to declare, with her own mouth, to M. de Klingraafe, that the critical state of public affairs rendered the measures she was taking absolutely necessary for her own safety, and that of her allies; but that, in other respects, they tended to the prejudice of no person whatsoever; that her imperial majesty had undoubtedly a right to form what judgment she pleased on the circumstances of the times; and likewise that it belonged to none but herself to estimate her own danger; that her declaration was so clear, she never imagined it could be thought otherwise; that being accustomed to receive, as well as to practise, the decorums which sovereigns owe to each other, she could not hear without astonishment and sensibility the contents of the memorial now presented by M. de Klingraafe; so extraordinary, both in the matter and expressions, that she would find herself under a necessity of transgressing the bounds of that moderation which she had prescribed to herself, were she to answer the whole of its contents; nevertheless, she thought proper to declare, that the information communicated to his Prussian majesty, of an offensive alliance against him, subsisting between herself and the empress of Russia, together with the circumstances and pretended stipulations of that alliance, were absolutely false and forged, for no such treaty did exist, or ever had existed. She concluded with observing, that this declaration would enable all Europe to judge of what weight and quality those dreadful events were which Klingraafe's memorial announced; and to perceive that, in any case, they could not be imputed to her imperial majesty. This answer, though seemingly explicit, was not deemed sufficiently categorical, or, at least, not suitable to the purposes of the king of Prussia, who, by his resident at Vienna, once more declared, that if the empress-queen would sign a positive assurance that she would not attack his Prussian majesty, either this year or the next, he would directly withdraw his troops, and let things be restored to their former footing. This demand was evaded, on pretence that such an assurance could not be more binding than the solemn treaty by which he was already secured; a treaty which the empress-queen had no intention to violate. But, before an answer could be delivered, the king had actually invaded Saxony, and published his declaration against the court of Vienna. The court of Vienna believing that the king of Prussia was bent upon employing his arms somewhere; being piqued at the dictatorial manner in which his demands were conveyed; unwilling to lay themselves under further restrictions; apprehensive of giving umbrage to their allies, and confident of having provided for their own security, resolved to run the risk of his resentment, not without hopes of being indemnified in the course of the war, for that part, of Silesia which the queen had been obliged to cede it in the treaty of Breslau.
THE PRUSSIAN ARMY ENTERS SAXONY.
Both sides being thus prepared, and perhaps equally eager for action, the king of Prussia would no longer suspend his operations, and the storm fell first upon Saxony. He resolved to penetrate through that country into Bohemia; and even to take possession of it as a frontier, as well as for the convenience of ingress and egress to and from the Austrian dominions. Besides, he had reason to believe the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, was connected with the czarina and the empress-queen; therefore, he thought it would be impolitic to leave that prince in any condition to give him the least disturbance. His army entered the Saxon territory towards the latter end of August, when he published a declaration, importing, that the unjust conduct and dangerous views of the court of Vienna against his majesty's dominions, laid him under the necessity of taking proper measures for protecting his territories and subjects; that for this purpose he could not forbear taking the disagreeable resolution to enter with his troops the hereditary dominions of his majesty the king of Poland, elector of Saxony; but he protested before God and man, that on account of his personal esteem, and friendship for that prince, he would not have proceeded to this extremity, had he not been forced to it by the laws of war, the fatality of the present conjuncture, and the necessity of providing for the defence and security of his subjects. He reminded the public of the tenderness with which he had treated the elector of Saxony, during the campaign of the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, and of the bad consequences resulting to that monarch from his engagements with the enemies of Prussia. He declared that the apprehensions of being exposed again to such enterprises, had obliged him to take those precautions which prudence dictated; but he protested in the most solemn manner, that he had no hostile views against his Polish majesty, or his dominions; that his troops did not enter Saxony as enemies, and he had taken care that they should observe the best order, and the most exact discipline; that he desired nothing more ardently than the happy minute that should procure him the satisfaction of restoring to his Polish majesty his hereditary dominions, which he had seized only as a sacred depositum. By his minister at Dresden, he had demanded a free passage for his forces through the Saxon dominions; and this the king of Poland was ready to grant, with reasonable limitations, to be settled by commissaries appointed for that purpose. But these were formalities which did not at all suit with his Prussian majesty's disposition or design. Even before this requisition was made, a body of his troops, amounting to fifteen thousand, under the command of prince Ferdinand, brother to the duke of Brunswick, took possession of Leipsic on the twentieth day of September. Here he published a declaration, signifying that it was his Prussian majesty's intention to consider and defend the inhabitants of that electorate as if they were his own subjects; and that he had given precise orders to his troops to observe the most exact discipline. As the first mark of his affection, he ordered them to provide the army with all sorts of provisions, according to a certain rate, on pain of military execution. That same evening notice was given to the corporation of merchants, that their deputies should pay all taxes and customs to the king of Prussia; then he took possession of the custom-house, and excise office, and ordered the magazines of corn and meal to be opened for the use of his soldiers.
The king of Poland, apprehensive of such a visitation, had ordered all the troops of his electorate to leave their quarters, and assemble in a strong camp marked out for them, between Pirna and Konigstein, which was intrenched, and provided with a numerous train of artillery. Thither the king of Poland repaired with his two sons Xaverius and Charles; but the queen and the rest of the royal family remained at Dresden. Of this capital his Prussian majesty, with the bulk of his army, took possession on the eighth day of September, when he was visited by lord Stormont, the English ambassador at that court, accompanied by count Salmour, a Saxon minister, who, in his master's name, proposed a neutrality. The king of Prussia professed himself extremely well pleased with the proposal; and, as the most convincing proof of his neutrality, desired the king of Poland would separate his army, by ordering his troops to return to their former quarters. His Polish majesty did not like to be so tutored in his own dominions; he depended for his own safety more upon the valour and attachment of his troops thus assembled, than upon the friendship of a prince who had invaded his dominions, and sequestered his revenue, without provocation; and he trusted too much to the situation of his camp at Pirna, which was deemed impregnable. In the meantime, the king of Prussia fixed his headquarters at Seidlitz, about half a German league distant from Pirna, and posted his army in such a manner, as to be able to intercept all convoys of provisions designed for the Saxon camp; his forces extended on the right towards the frontiers of Bohemia, and the vanguard actually seized the passes that lead to the circles of Satzer and Leutmeritz, in that kingdom; while prince Ferdinand of Brunswick marched with a body of troops along the Elbe, and took post at this last place without opposition. At the same time, the king covered his own dominions, by assembling two considerable bodies in Upper and Lower Silesia, which occupied the passes that communicated with the circles of Buntzlau and Koningsgratz. Hostilities were commenced on the thirteenth day of September, by a detachment of Prussian hussars, who attacked an Austrian escort to a convoy of provisions, designed for the Saxon camp; and having routed them, carried off a considerable number of loaded waggons. The magazines at Dresden were filled with an immense quantity of provisions and forage for the Prussian army, and the bakers were ordered to prepare a vast quantity of bread, for which purpose thirty new ovens were erected. When the king of Prussia first arrived at Dresden, he lodged at the house of the countess Moczinska, and gave orders that the queen and royal family of Poland should be treated with all due veneration and respect: [387] [See note 3 C, at the end of this Vol.] even while the Saxon camp was blocked up on every side, he sometimes permitted a waggon, loaded with fresh provisions and game, to pass unmolested, for the use of his Polish majesty.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
PRUSSIANS PENETRATE INTO BOHEMIA.
During these transactions, the greatest part of the Prussian army advanced into Bohemia, under the command of veldt-maresehal Keith,* who reduced the town and palace of Tetchen, took possession of all the passes, and encamped near Aussig, a small town in Bohemia, at no great distance from the imperial army, amounting to fifty thousand men, commanded by count Brown, an officer of Irish extract, who had often distinguished himself in the field by his courage, vigilance, and conduct.
* Brother to the earl mareschal of Scotland, a gentleman who had signalized himself as a general in the Russian army, and was accounted one of the best officers of his time; not more admired for his warlike genius, than amiable in his disposition.
His Prussian majesty having left a considerable body of troops for the blockade of Pirna, assumed in person the command of mareschal Keith's corps, and advanced to give battle to the enemy. On the twenty-ninth day of September he formed his troops in two columns, and in the evening arrived with his van at Welmina, from whence he saw the Austrian army posted with his right at Lowoschutz, and its left towards the Egra. Having occupied with six battalions a hollow way, and some rising grounds which commanded the town of Lowoschutz, he remained all night under arms at Welmina; and on the first day of October, early in the morning, formed his whole army in order of battle; the first line, consisting of the infantry, occupying two hills, and a bottom betwixt them; the second line being formed of some battalions, and the third composed of the whole cavalry. The Austrian general had taken possession of Lowoschutz, with a great body of infantry, and placed a battery of cannon in front of the town; he had formed his cavalry chequerwise, in a line between Lowoschutz and the village of Sanschitz; and posted about two thousand Croats and irregulars in the vineyards and avenues on his right. The morning was darkened with a thick fog, which vanished about seven: then the Prussian cavalry advanced to attack the enemy's horse; but received such a fire from the irregulars, posted in vineyards and ditches, as well as from a numerous artillery, that they were obliged to retire for protection to the rear of the Prussian infantry and cannon. There, being formed, and led back to the charge, they made an impression on the Austrian cavalry, and drove the irregulars, and other bodies of infantry, from the ditches, defiles, and vineyards which they possessed; but they suffered so severely in this dangerous service, that the king ordered them to reascend the hill, and take post again behind the infantry, from whence they no more advanced. In the meantime, a furious cannonading was maintained on both sides with considerable effect. At length the left of the Prussian infantry was ordered to attack the town of Lowoschutz in flank; but met with a very warm reception, and in all likelihood would have miscarried, had not veldt-mareschal Keith headed them in person: when he drew his sword, and told them he would lead them on, he was given to understand that all their powder and shot were exhausted: he turned immediately to them with a cheerful countenance, said he was very glad they had no more ammunition, being well assured the enemy could not withstand them at push of bayonet; so saying, he advanced at their head, and driving the Austrians from Lowoschutz, set the suburbs on fire. The infantry had been already obliged to quit the eminence on the right; and now their whole army retired to Budin, on the other side of the Egra. Some prisoners, colours, and pieces of cannon, were taken on both sides; and the loss of each might amount to two thousand five hundred killed and wounded; so that, on the whole, it was a drawn battle, though both generals claimed the victory. The detail of the action, published at Berlin, declares, that the king of Prussia not only gained the battle, but that same day established his head quarters at Lowoschutz; whereas the Austrian gazette affirms, that the mareschal count Brown obliged his Prussian majesty to retire, and remained all night on the field of battle; but next day, finding his troops in want of water, he repaired to the camp of Budin. If the battle was at all decisive, the advantage certainly fell to the Austrians; for his Prussian majesty, who in all probability had hoped to winter at Prague, was obliged by the opposition he met with, to resign his plan, and retreat before winter into the electorate of Saxony.
SAXON ARMY SURRENDERS.
The Prussian army having rejoined that body which had been left to block up the Saxons at Pirna, his Polish majesty and his troops were reduced to such extremity of want, that it became indispensably necessary either to attempt an escape, or surrender to the king of Prussia. The former part of the alternative was chosen, and the plan concerted with count Brown, the Austrian general, who, in order to facilitate the execution, advanced privately with a body of troops to Lichtendorf, near Schandeau; but the junction could not be effected. On the fourteenth day of October the Saxons threw a bridge of boats over the Elbe, near Konigstein, to which castle they removed all their artillery; then striking their tents in the night, passed the river undiscovered by the enemy. They continued to retreat with all possible expedition; but the roads were so bad, they made little progress. Next day, when part of them had advanced about half way up a hill opposite to Konigstein, and the rest were entangled in a narrow plain, where there was no room to act, they perceived that the Prussians were in possession of all the passes, and found themselves surrounded on every side, fainting with hunger and fatigue, and destitute of every convenience. In this deplorable condition they remained, when the king of Poland, from the fortress of Konigstein, sent a letter to his general, the veldt-mareschal count Rutow-ski, vesting him with full and discretionary power to surrender, or take such other measures as he should judge most conducive to the preservation of the officers and soldiers. [388] [See note 3 D, at the end of this Vol.] By this time count Brown had retired to Budin, so that there was no choice left. A capitulation was demanded; but, in effect, the whole Saxon army was obliged to surrender at discretion; and the soldiers were afterwards, by compulsion, incorporated with the troops of Prussia. The king of Poland being thus deprived of his electoral dominions, his troops, arms, artillery, and ammunition, thought it high time to provide for his own safety, and retired with all expedition to Poland. His Prussian majesty cantoned his forces in the neighbourhood of Seidlitz, and along the Elbe towards Dresden. His other army, which had entered Bohemia, under the command of the count de Ichwerin, retired to the confines of the county of Glatz, where they were distributed in quarters of cantonment; so that this short campaign was finished by the beginning of November.
KING OF POLAND'S MEMORIAL TO THE STATES-GENERAL.
The king of Poland, in his distress, did not fail to implore the assistance and mediation of neutral powers. His minister at the Hague presented a memorial to the states-general, complaining that the invasion of Saxony was one of those attacks against the law of nations, which from the great respect due to this law, demanded the assistance of every power interested in the preservation of its own liberty and independency. He observed, that from the first glimpse of misunderstanding between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, he had expressly enjoined his ministers at all the courts of Europe to declare, that it was his firm resolution, in the present conjuncture of affairs, to observe the strictest neutrality. He represented that a free and neutral state had been, in the midst of peace, invaded by an enemy, who disguised himself under the mask of friendship, without alleging the least complaint, or any pretension whatsoever; but founding himself solely on his own convenience, made himself master, by armed force, of all the cities and towns of the electorate, dismantling some and fortifying others; that he had disarmed the burghers; carried off the magistrates as hostages for the payment of unjust and enormous contributions of provisions and forage; seized the coffers; confiscated the revenues of the electorate; broke open the arsenals, and transported the arms and artillery to his own town of Magdeburgh; abolished the privy-council, and, instead of the lawful government, established a directory, which acknowledged no other law but his own arbitrary will. He gave them to understand, that all these proceedings were no other than preliminaries to the unheard of treatment which was reserved for a queen, whose virtues ought to have commanded respect, even from her enemies; that, from the hands of that august princess, the archives of the state were forced away by menaces and violences, notwithstanding the security which her majesty had promised herself under the protection of all laws, human and divine; and notwithstanding the repeated assurances given by the king of Prussia, that not only her person, but the place of her residence, should be absolutely safe, and that even the Prussian garrison should be under her direction. He observed, that a prince who declared himself protector of the protestant religion, had begun the war by crushing the very state to which that religion owes its establishment, and the preservation of its most invaluable rights; that he had broken through the most respectable laws which constitute the union of the Germanic body, under colour of a defence which the empire stood in no need of except against himself; that the king of Prussia, while he insists on having entered Saxony as a friend, demands his army, the administration of his dominions, and, in a word, the sacrifice of his whole electorate; and that the Prussian directory, in the declaration of motives, published under the nose of a prince to whom friendship was pretended, thought it superfluous to allege even any pretext, to colour the usurpation of his territories and revenues.—Though this was certainly the case, in his Prussian majesty's first exposition of motives, the omission was afterwards supplied, in a subsequent memorial to the states-general; in which he charged the king of Poland as an accomplice in, if not an accessary to, the treaty of Petersburgh; and even taxed him with having agreed to a partition of some Prussian territories, when they should be conquered. This treaty of partition, however, appears to have been made in time of actual war, before all cause of dispute was removed by the peace of Dresden.
IMPERIAL DECREES PUBLISHED AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
While the Austrian and Prussian armies were in the field, their respective ministers were not idle at Ratisbon, where three imperial decrees were published against his Prussian majesty; the first, summoning that prince to withdraw his troops from the electorate of Saxony; the second, commanding all the vassals of the empire employed by the king of Prussia to quit that service immediately; and the third, forbidding the members of the empire to suffer any levies of soldiers, for the Prussian service, to be raised within their respective jurisdictions. The French minister declared to the diet, that the proceedings of his Prussian majesty having disclosed to the world the project concerted between that prince and tie king of England, to excite in the empire a religious war which might be favourable to their particular views, his most christian majesty, in consequence of his engagement with the empress-queen, and many other princes of the empire, being resolved to succour them in the most efficacious manner, would forthwith send such a number of troops to their aid, as might be thought necessary to preserve the liberty of the Germanic body. On the other hand, the Prussian minister assured the diet, that his master would very soon produce the proofs that were come to his hands of the plan concerted by the courts of Vienna and Dresden, for the subversion of his electoral house, and for imposing upon him a yoke, which seemed to threaten the whole empire.
DECLARATION OF DIFFERENT POWERS.
About the same time, the Russian resident at the Hague communicated to the states-general a declaration from his mistress, importing, that her imperial majesty having seen a memorial presented at the court of Vienna by the king of Prussia's envoy extraordinary, was thereby convinced that his Prussian majesty's intention was to attack the territories of the empress-queen; in which case, she, the czarina, was inevitably obliged to succour her ally with all her forces; for which end she had ordered all her troops in Livonia to be forthwith assembled on the frontiers, and hold themselves in readiness to march; that, moreover, the Russian admiralty had been enjoined to provide immediately a sufficient number of galleys for transporting a large body of troops to Lubeck. The ministers of the empress-queen, both at the Hague and at London, delivered memorials to the states-general and his Britannic majesty, demanding the succours which these two powers were bound to afford the house of Austria by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; but their high mightinesses kept warily aloof, by dint of evasion, and the king of Great Britain was far otherwise engaged. The invasion of Saxony had well nigh produced tragedies in the royal family of France. The dauphiness, who was far advanced in her pregnancy, no sooner learned the distressful circumstances of her parents, the king and queen of Poland, than she was seized with violent fits, which occasioned a miscarriage, and brought her life into the most imminent danger. The Prussian minister was immediately ordered to quit Versailles; and directions were despatched to the French minister at Berlin, to retire from that court without taking leave. Finally, the emperor of Germany concluded a new convention with the French king, regulating the succours to be derived from that quarter; he claimed, in all the usual forms, the assistance of the Germanic body, as guarantee of the pragmatic sanction and treaty of Dresden; and Sweden was also addressed on the same subject.
HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY'S ANSWER TO THE SAXON MEMORIAL.
The king of Prussia did not passively bear all the imputations that were fixed upon his conduct. His minister at the Hague presented a memorial, in answer to that of the Saxon resident, in which he accused the court of Dresden of having adopted every part of the scheme which his enemies had formed for his destruction. He affirmed that the Saxon ministers had, in all the courts of Europe, played off every engine of unwarrantable politics, in order to pave the way for the execution of their project; that they had endeavoured to give an odious turn to his most innocent actions; that they had spared neither malicious insinuations, nor even the most atrocious calumnies, to alienate all the world from his majesty, and raise up enemies against him everywhere. He said, he had received information that the court of Saxony intended to let his troops pass freely, and afterwards wait for events of which they might avail themselves, either by joining his enemies, or making a diversion in his dominions; that in such a situation he could not avoid having recourse to the only means which were left him for preventing his inevitable ruin, by putting it out of the power of Saxony to increase the number of his enemies. He asserted, that all the measures he had pursued in that electorate were but the Accessary consequences of the first resolution he was forced to take for his own preservation; that he had done nothing but deprived the court of Saxony of the means of hurting him; and this had been done with all possible moderation; that the country enjoyed all the security and all the quiet which could be expected in the very midst of peace, the Prussian troops observing the most exact discipline; that all due respect was shown to the queen of Poland, who had been prevailed upon, by the most suitable representations, to suffer some papers to be taken from the paper office, of which his Prussian majesty already had copies; and thought it necessary, to ascertain the dangerous design of the Saxon ministry against him, to secure the originals; the existence and reality of which might otherwise have been denied. He observed, that every man has a right to prevent the mischief with which he is threatened, and to retort it upon its author; and that neither the constitutions nor the laws of the empire could obstruct the exertion of a right so superior to all others as that of self-preservation and self-defence; especially when the depository of these laws is so closely united to the enemy, as manifestly to abuse his power in her favour.
But the most important step which his Prussian majesty took in his own justification, was that of publishing another memorial, specifying the conduct of the courts of Vienna and Saxony, and their dangerous designs against his person and interest, together with the original documents adduced as proofs of these sinister intentions. As a knowledge of these pieces is requisite to form a distinct idea of the motives which produced the dreadful war upon the continent, it will not be amiss to usher the substance of them to the reader's acquaintance. His Prussian majesty affirms, that to arrive at the source of the vast plan upon which the courts of Vienna and Saxony had been employed against him ever since the peace of Dresden, we must trace it as far back as the war which preceded this peace; that the fond hopes which the two allied courts had conceived upon the success of the campaign in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, gave occasion to a treaty of eventual partition, stipulating that the court of Vienna should possess the duchy of Silesia and the county of Glatz; while the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, should share the duchies of Magdeburgh and Croissen; the circles of Zullichow and Swibus, together with the Prussian part of Lusatia; that after the peace of Dresden, concluded in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, there was no further room for a treaty of this nature; yet the court of Vienna proposed to that of Saxony a new alliance, in which the treaty of eventual partition should be renewed; but this last thought it necessary, in the first place, to give a greater consistency to their plan, by grounding it upon an alliance between the empress-queen and the czarina. Accordingly, these two powers did, in fact, conclude a defensive alliance at Petersburgh in the course of the ensuing year; but the body, or ostensible part of this treaty, was composed merely with a view to conceal from the knowledge of the public six secret articles, the fourth of which was levelled singly against Prussia, according to the exact copy of it which appeared among the documents. In this article, the empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia sets out with a protestation, that she will religiously observe the treaty of Dresden; but explains her real way of thinking upon the subject, a little lower, in the following terms: "If the king of Prussia should be the first to depart from this peace, by attacking either her majesty the empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia, or her majesty the empress of Russia, or even the republic of Poland; in all these cases, the rights of the empress-queen to Silesia and the county of Glatz would again take place, and recover their full effect; the two contracting parties should mutually assist each other with sixty thousand men to achieve these conquests." The king observes upon this article, that every war which can arise between him and Russia, or the republic of Poland, would be looked upon as a manifest infraction of the peace of Dresden, and a revival of the rights of the house of Austria to Silesia; though neither Russia nor the republic of Poland is at all concerned in the treaty of Dresden; and though the latter, with which the king lived in the most intimate friendship, was not even in alliance with the court of Vienna; that, according to the principles of the law of nature, received among all civilized nations, the most the court of Vienna could be authorized to do in such cases, would be to send those succours to her allies which are due to them by treaties, without her having the least pretence on that account, to free herself from the particular engagements subsisting between her and the king: he appealed, therefore, to the judgment of the impartial world, whether in this secret article the contracting powers had kept within the bounds of a defensive alliance; or whether this article did not rather contain a plan of an offensive alliance against the king of Prussia. He affirmed it was obvious, from this article, that the court of Vienna had prepared three pretences for the recovery of Silesia; and that she thought to attain her end, either by provoking the king to commence hostilities against her, or to kindle a war between his majesty and Russia, by her secret intrigues and machinations. He alleged that the court of Saxony, being invited to accede to this alliance, eagerly accepted the invitation; furnished its ministers at Petersburgh with full powers for that purpose; and ordered them to declare that their master was not only ready to accede to the treaty itself, but also to the secret article against Prussia; and to join in the regulations made by the two courts, provided effectual measures should be taken, as well for the security of Saxony, as for its indemnification and recompence, in proportion to the efforts and progress that might be made; that the court of Dresden declared, if upon any fresh attack from the king of Prussia, the empress-queen should, by their assistance, not only reconquer Silesia and the county of Gratz, but also reduce him within narrow bounds, the king of Poland, as elector of Saxony, would abide by the partition formerly stipulated between him and the empress-queen. He also declared that count Loss, the Saxon minister at Vienna, was charged to open a private negotiation for Settling an eventual partition of the conquest which might be made on Prussia, by laying down, as the basis of it, the treaty of Leipsic, signed on the eighteenth day of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five, as would appear by the documents affixed. He owned it had been supposed, through the whole of this negotiation, that the king of Prussia should be the aggressor against the court of Vienna; but he insisted, that even in this case the king of Poland could have no right to make conquests on his Prussian majesty. He likewise acknowledged, that the court of Saxony had not yet acceded in form to the treaty of Petersburgh; but he observed, its allies were given to understand again and again, that it was ready to accede without restriction, whenever this could be done without risk; and the advantages to be gained should be secured in its favour. Circumstances proved by divers authentic documents, particularly by a letter from count Fleming to count de Bruhl, informing him that count Uhlefield had charged him to represent afresh to his court, that they could not take too secure measures against the ambitious views of the king of Prussia; that Saxony in particular ought to be cautious, as being the most exposed; that it was of the highest importance to strengthen their old engagements, upon the footing proposed by the late count de Harrach, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five; a step which might be taken on occasion of his Polish majesty's accession to the treaty of Petersburgh. The answer of count Bruhl to this despatch imported, that the king of Poland was not averse to treat in the utmost secrecy with the court of Vienna about succours, by private and confidential declarations relating to the fourth secret article of the treaty of Petersburgh, on condition of reasonable terms and advantages, which in this case ought to be granted to his majesty. He quoted other despatches to prove the unwillingness of his Polish majesty to declare himself until the king of Prussia should be attacked, and his forces divided; and that this scruple was admitted by the allies of Saxony. From these premises he deduced this inference, that the court of Dresden, without having acceded in form to the treaty of Petersburgh, was not less an accomplice in the dangerous designs which the court of Vienna had grounded upon this treaty; and that having been dispensed with from a formal concurrence, it had only waited for that moment when it might, without running any great risk, conquer in effect, and share the spoils of its neighbour. In expectation of this period, he said, the Austrian and Saxon ministers laboured in concert and underhand with the more ardour to bring the casus faederus into existence; for it being laid down as a principle in the treaty, that any war whatever between him and Russia would authorise the empress-queen to take Silesia, there was nothing more to be done but to kindle such a war; for which purpose no method was found more proper than that of embroiling the king with the empress of Russia; and to provoke that princess with all sorts of false insinuations, impostures, and the most atrocious calumnies, in laying to his majesty's charge a variety of designs, sometimes against Russia, and even the person of the czarina; sometimes views upon Poland, and sometimes intrigues in Sweden. By these and other such contrivances, he affirmed they had kindled the animosity of the empress to such a degree, that in a council held in the month of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-three, she had resolved to attack the king of Prussia, without any further discussion, whether he should fall upon any of the allies of Russia, or one of them should begin with him; a resolution which for that time was frustrated by their want of seamen and magazines; but the preparations were continued under pretence of keeping themselves in a condition to fulfil their engagements, contracted in the last subsidiary convention with England; and when all were finished, the storm would fall on the king of Prussia.
This is the substance of that famous memorial published by his Prussian majesty, to which the justifying pieces or authentic documents were annexed; and to which a circumstantial answer was exhibited by the partisans of her imperial majesty. Specious reasons may, doubtless, be adduced on either side of almost any dispute, by writers of ingenuity; but, in examining this contest, it must be allowed that both sides adopted illicit practices. The empress-queen and the elector of Saxony had certainly a right to form defensive treaties for their own preservation; and without all doubt, it was their interest and their duty to secure themselves from the enterprises of such a formidable neighbour; but at the same time, the contracting parties seem to have carried their views much farther than defensive measures. Perhaps the court of Vienna considered the cession of Silesia as a circumstance altogether compulsive, and therefore not binding against the rights of natural equity. She did not at all doubt that the king of Prussia would be tempted by his ambition and great warlike power, to take some step which might be justly interpreted into an infraction of the treaty of Dresden; and in that case she was determined to avail herself of the confederacy she had formed, that she might retrieve the countries she had lost by the unfortunate events of the last war, as well as bridle the dangerous power and disposition of the Prussian monarch; and in all probability the king of Poland, over and above the same consideration, was desirous of some indemnification for the last irruption into his electoral dominions, and the great sums he had paid for the subsequent peace. Whether they were authorised by the law of nature and nations to make reprisals by an actual partition of the countries they might conquer, supposing him to be the aggressor, we shall not pretend to determine; but it does not at all appear, that his Prussian majesty's danger was such as entitled him to take those violent steps which he now attempted to justify. By this time the flame of war was kindled up to a blaze that soon filled the empire with ruin and desolation; and the king of Prussia had drawn upon himself the resentment of the three greatest powers of Europe, who laid aside their former animosities, and every consideration of that balance which it had cost such blood and treasure to preserve, in order to conspire his destruction. The king himself could not but foresee this confederacy, and know the power it might exert; but probably he confided so much in the number, the valour, and discipline of his troops; in the skill of his officers; in his own conduct and activity; that he hoped to crush the house of Austria by one rapid endeavour at the latter end of the season, or at least establish himself in Bohemia, before her allies could move to her assistance. In this hope, however, he was disappointed by the vigilance of the Austrian councils. He found the empress-queen in a condition to make head against him in every avenue to her dominions; and in a fair way of being assisted by the circles of the empire. He saw himself threatened with the vengeance of the Russian empress, and the sword of France gleaming over his head, without any prospect of assistance but that which he might derive from his alliance with Great Britain. Thus the king of England exchanged the alliance of Russia, who was his subsidiary, and the friendship of the empress queen, his old and natural ally, for a new connexion with his Prussian majesty, who could neither act as an auxiliary to Great Britain, nor as a protector to Hanover; and for this connexion, the advantage of which was merely negative, such a price was paid by England as had never been given by any other potentate of Europe, even for services of the greatest importance.
{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}
DISPUTES BETWEEN THE PARLIAMENT OF PARIS AND THE CLERGY.
About the latter end of November, the Saxon minister at Ratisbon delivered to the diet a new and ample memorial, explaining the lamentable state of that electorate, and imploring afresh the assistance of the empire. The king of Prussia had also addressed a letter to the diet, demanding succour of the several states, agreeable to their guarantees of the treaties of Westphalia and Dresden; but the minister of Mentz, as director of the diet, having refused to lay it before that assembly, the minister of Brandenburgh ordered it to be printed, and sent to his court for further instructions. In the meantime his Prussian majesty thought proper to intimate to the king and senate of Poland, that should the Russian troops be permitted to march through that kingdom, they might expect to see their country made a scene of war and desolation. In France, the prospect of a general and sanguinary war did not at all allay the disturbance which sprang from the dissension between the clergy and parliament, touching the bull Unigenitus. The king being again brought over to the ecclesiastical side of the dispute, received a brief from the pope, laying it down as a fundamental article, that whosoever refuses to submit to the bull Unigenitus, is in the way of damnation; and certain cases are specified, in which the sacraments are to be denied. The parliament of Paris, considering this brief or bull as a direct attack upon the rights of the Gallican church, issued an arret or decree, suppressing the said bull; reserving to themselves the right of providing against the inconveniences with which it might be attended, as well as the privilege to maintain in their full force the prerogatives of the crown, the power and jurisdiction of the bishops, the liberties of the Gallican church, and the customs of the realm. The king, dissatisfied with their interposition, declared his design to hold a bed of justice in person at the palace. Accordingly, on the twelfth day of November, the whole body of his guards, amounting to ten thousand men, took post in the city of Paris; and next day the king repaired with the usual ceremony to the palace, where the bed of justice was held: among other regulations, an edict was issued for suppressing the fourth and fifth chambers of inquests, the members of which had remarkably distinguished themselves by their opposition to the bull Unigenitus.
DEARTH OF CORN IN ENGLAND.
In England, the dearth of corn, arising in a great measure from the iniquitous practice of engrossing, was so severely felt by the common people, that insurrections were raised in Shropshire and Warwickshire by the populace, in conjunction with the colliers, who seized by violence all the provisions they could find; pillaging without distinction the millers, farmers, grocers, and butchers, until they were dispersed by the gentlemen of the country, at the head of their tenants and dependants. Disorders of the same nature were excited by the colliers on the forest of Dean, and those employed in the works in Cumberland. The corporations, noblemen, and gentlemen, in different parts of the kingdom, exerted themselves for the relief of the poor, who were greatly distressed; and a grand council being assembled at St. James' on the same subject, a proclamation was published, for putting the laws in speedy and effectual execution against the forestallers and engrossers of corn.
The fear of an invasion having now subsided, and Hanover being supposed in greater danger than Great Britain, the auxiliaries of that electorate were transported from England to their own country. At the latter end of the season, when the weather became severe, the inn-keepers of England refused to admit the Hessian soldiers into winter-quarters, as no provision had been made for that purpose by act of parliament; so that they were obliged to hut their camp, and remain in the open fields till January; but the rigour of this uncomfortable situation was softened by the hand of generous charity, which liberally supplied them with all manner of refreshment, and other conveniences; a humane interposition, which rescued the national character from the imputation of cruelty and ingratitude. |
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