warmed, the artillery was gradually augmented,until it amounted to about five-and-twenty heavy cannon on a side. The allies had originally but one hundred men in this post; but, before the business ended, seventeen complete battalions were engaged, who successively relieved each other, after each detachment had made fifty discharges. The artillery fired at a distance of three hundred paces, and the musquetry at thirty. Besides, the allied troops, as they passed to and from the redoubt, were, for a length of four hundred paces, exposed to all the enemy's cannon, loaded with grape

shot.

The situation of the French was nearly the same. A dreadful fire was supported between these resolute bodies, without a moment's intermission, or the least slackening on one side or the other, for near fifteen hours, from the dawn of day to dark night. Neither side gave way; and this most bloody contest, for a most trifling object in the end, left the allies in the possession of their redoubt, and the French of their mill. The whole compass of military history furnishes no instance of so obstinate a dispute. The allies lost six hundred men, in killed and wounded: towards the close of the day, the dead bodies served to raise a parapet for the redoubt, in the place of that which had been beat to pieces by the cannonade.

The French are thought to have suffered more in this action than the allies. However, though they did not succeed in their attack upon the bridge, they battered at

the same time the castle of Amonebourg with so much fury, that in a short time they effected a breach,

and obliged the garrison to surren der. By this advantage they gained a good deal of ground, and even got on the rear of the allied army. But with this advantage, considerable as it was, they were able to do nothing decisive: they were able neither to raise, nor materially to disturb the siege of Cassel, which went on without interruption; nor were they able to throw the least relief into this place, where their garrison already began to suffer for want of provisions.

This capital of an unfortunate principality, which has so often been taken and retaken during the course of this war, despairing of relief, at length surrendered to the Nov. 1.

victorious arms of the allies, after a siege of fifteen days open trenches. The garrison made an honourable capitulation. And now prince Ferdinand might consider himself as master of Hesse, no place of strength in that country remaining in the enemy's hands, except Ziegenhayn. Advanced as the season was, the prince prepared to lay siege to that fortress; and as he was now able to draw down his whole army into that quarter, there was no question but he would have made himself master of the place without any difficulty. But the signing of the preliminaries Nov. 15, of peace at this time, notified in the two armies, put an happy conclusion to all military operations.

These preliminaries had very little to do towards completing the relief of our allies, except that they set the seal on their good fortune, and prevented their being exposed any longer to the chances of war. This campaign, though it was not distinguished by any great decisive

victory,

victory, was not the less honourable to the commander of the troops. A connected series of judicious and spirited operations produced all the effects which could be proposed from a single and brilliant stroke. At this period, the French, after having for six years exerted almost the whole undivided strength of their monarchy upon this single object, were, in the end, very little more advanced than they were the day they first set their foot in Germany. The possession of three or four poor unimportant places was all they had purchased by many millions of treasure expended, and possibly near two hundred thousand lives thrown away.

The whole body of the allies acquired great and just glory in this war; but the English had all along the post of honour, and obtained the highest reputation. As to their commander, the duke of Brunswick, having begun his operations almost without any army; having continued the war with an army always inferior in numbers; having experienced every variety of fortune; his capacity and his firmness carried him with credit through all, and enabled him to conclude the war with a triumphant superiority. He may now enjoy, in the honourable repose which his exploits have purchased for himself and his country, the best of rewards, the consciousness of public service. Posterity will consider him as the Deliverer of Germany.

The English troops, after so many fatigues and dangers, at length enjoyed the prospect of a speedy return to their country; but a general

damp was cast suddenly on their joy, by the illness of lord Granby; who was attacked by a very dan. gerous and long-continued fever. It is impossible to express the concern of the whole army during this anxious interval, or the joy which enlivened every breast on his recovery. No commander had ever been more distinguished for an enterprizing and generous courage; and none half so much for an unlimited benevolence. The sick and wounded soldier, the officer whose income was unequal to his rank or his necessities, in him found a neverfailing and never-burthensome resource. Whatever could be done to animate the soldiery, to make them cheerful in the service, to alleviate the hardships of war, was exerted beyond what could be thought possible in the limits of a private fortune; and the satisfaction of the receiver went always beyond the actual benefit; because, in his greatest liberality, it was evident that he wished to do a thousand times more. By his whole conduct he inspired foreigners with. a favourable idea of the English nobility. His character is, indeed, such as we are apt in romantic ideas fondly to conceive of our old Eng lish barons. It is with pleasure we attempt, however feebly, to do justice to the merit of those men, living or dead, who, in this me morable war, have contributed to raise this country to a pitch of glory, in which it has not been exceeded by any other in ancient or modern times. Future history will pay them a reward more adequate to their merits.

sion.

WHILST the courts of London

and Versailles were making so considerable a progress towards peace, those of Vienna and Berlin seemed to remit nothing of their ancient animosity. The king of Prussia, deprived of the assistance, but at the same time freed from the hostility of the Russians, directed his whole force and attention towards the single object of driving the Austrians out of Silesia.

Prince Henry, who commanded in Saxony, contented himself with acting upon the defensive. The king in person carried on the siege of Schweidnitz, almost in the presence of marshal Daun, who scarce made any attempt to relieve it. But whatever deficiency there might have been in the spirit of the grand army of the Austrians, it was amply compensated by the obstinate. bravery of the garrison, which resisted all the attacks of the Prussians for near two months from the opening of the trenches. It is said that the attack was conducted, and the defence made, by two engineers, who had written on the subject of the Attack and Defence of Places; and they were now practically engaged to prove the superiority of their several systems.

Concl

However this may be, Schweidnitz cost the king of Prussia a great deal of time, many laborious_efforts, 'and a number of men. The brave garrison, to the number of eight thousand men, were O&. 9. at length obliged to surrender prisoners of war. Their ill fortune pursued them everywhere. A great part of this body of gallant prisoners were drowned at the mouth of the Oder, on their passage to their intended confinement at Ko. nigsberg; only nine men of the whole number escaping.

The king of Prussia, now master of Schweidnitz, and consequently of Silesia, turned his attention to Saxony, where he considerably reinforced his brother's army, and made preparations which indicated a design of laying siege to Dresden.

In Saxony also the Austrians began to exert themselves with great spirit; and made some progress under the generals Stolberg and Haddick. They obtained considerable advantages, in several encounters, over the army of prince Henry; and even pushed them back to Freyberg; the possession of which place they prepared to dispute with the Prussians.

But here fortune, which has sel

dom

dom proved long constant to their arms, entirely forsook them. The united army of Imperialists and Austrians was attacked by Oct. 29. prince Henry (who took advantage of the absence of general Haddick) in the neighbourhood of Freyberg, and totally routed. Great numbers were slain. The Prussians took near two thousand prisoners, among whom were about two hundred and forty officers of all ranks, thirty pieces of cannon, and several standards. The victory was complete, and, as far as regarded the event of the campaign, decisive.

The Austrians attributed this defeat to the treachery of one of their superior officers, who was soon after taken into custody. But whilst they were inquiring into the cause of their disaster, and preparing to punish the author of it, the Prussians were pushing the advantages which their victory afforded them with all imaginable alacrity. And this they were enabled to do with the greatest effect, by means of a partial cessation of hostilities, which the Austrians were so imprudent as to conclude with the king of Prussia for Silesia and the electoral Saxony only, without foreseeing the danger, or providing for the safety, either of their own immediate dominions, or of those members of the empire which were the most attached to their interests, and which were now exposed to the attempts of a bold, rapacious, and exasperated enemy.

One body of the Prussian army broke into Bohemia, pushed on almost to the gates of Prague, and destroyed a capital magazine. Another fell upon the same country on another quarter, and laid the town of Egra almost in ashes, by a bom

bardment and a cannonade of redhot bullets. Some extended themselves all over Saxony; others penetrated into the farthest parts of Franconia, and even as far as Suabia, ravaging the country, exacting the most exorbitant contributions, and spreading dismay and confusion upon every side. The diet of the empire sitting at Ratisbon,did not think themselves in safety, but were beginning to fly, and preparing to remove their records.

The free city of Nuremburg, so famous for the ingenious industry and pacific disposition of its inhabitants, suffered the most by this invasion; having been obliged to pay contribution to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds of our money. It has been supposed, that in this expedition the Prussians raised a sum equal to the annual subsidy which had formerly been paid by Great Britain to their sovereign. Many of the states found themselves obliged to sign a neutrality, in order to save their territories from farther ravages,

And now, a great part of the empire being already included in the peace between Great Britain and France, and the rest, tied down by this neutrality, entirely disabled by the late defeat, or exhausted by the subsequent incursions, were no longer in a condition to fur nish an army under the imperial name and authority. After the whole alliance had been thus gradually dissolved, the affair was, at length, left to be decided, as it was begun, by the single arms of Austria and Prussia; so that there was great reason to hope, as the war in Germany had succeeded immediately to the rupture between Great Britain and France, the peace between [E] 3

these

these powers would also lead to the speedy pacification of the empire. The preliminaries had been signed by the British and French minis ters at Fontainbleau, on the third of November; and it is necessary, for the completion of our design, that we should here give some account of the definitive treaty which was built upon them.

The reader will recollect that, in the negotiation of 1761, it was laid down as a principle by the two courts, that their respective propositions, in case the treaty should by any accident be broken off, were to be considered as retracted or never made. At that time we remarked, that these propositions would probably have their influence, notwithstanding this provision; because, as we then observed, things once settled and agreed to, unavoidably stamp their own impression upon any future negotiations relative to the same subject. It happened very nearly, as was then foreseen; for, as far as we can judge, the negotiation did not set out upon any new or peculiar principle of its own, but seemed to assume as a basis those points which were nearest to an adjustment in the preceding treaty; and to commence where that transaction concluded.

The spirit of the two negotiations, so far as regarded the peculiar interest of Great Britain, seems to have been perfectly similar. There was scarcely any other difference than that Great Britain, in consequence of her successes since that time, acquired more than she then demanded; but still the general idea on which she acquired, was nearly or altogether the same. But with regard to some of our allies, the principle was greatly varied;

and we imagine that this change was sufficiently justified by the alteration which happened in the affairs of Germany during the interval between the two treaties. Those who conducted the negotiation in 1761, were steady in rejecting every proposition in which they were not left at liberty to aid the king of Prussia with the whole force of Great Britain; those who concluded the peace in 1762, paid less attention to the interests, though they did not wholly negle the safety of that monarch. the beginning of the year, and before they had entered into this negotiation, they refused to renew that article of the annual treaty, by. which our court had engaged to conclude no peace without the king of Prussia; though at the same time they declared themselves willing to assist him with the usual subsidy. He on his part refused the subsidy unconnected with that article. Some coldness grew between the two courts from this time forward.

At

The adjustment of affairs in the empire, seemed to form no material impediment to the progress of the treaty. Both parties readily agreed to withdraw themselves totally from the German war +. They thought, and rightly, that nothing could tend so much to give peace to their respective allies, as mutually to withdraw their assistance from them; and to stop that current of English and French money, which, as long as it ran into Germany, would be sure to feed a perpetual war in that country.

Circumstanced as affairs then were, this conduct on our side was as defensible as the condu&t which we held in 1761. At that time the affairs of the king of Prussia were at

the