1756.] FRENCH AT MINORCA-ADMIRAL BYNG. 213 The Hanoverians and Hessians came, and were encamped in various parts of the kingdom. Yet the common people of England were ready to deserve the eulogium of Brown as to their capacity for fighting. They enlisted freely, when called upon. Hogarth's print of the recruit who wanted to add "a cubit to his stature" is an evidence of this disposition. For half a century Great Britain had held possession of the island of Minorca, which general Stanhope and admiral Leake had conquered during the palmy time of the War of the Succession. Port-Mahon, the best harbour of the Mediterranean, was thought a more important British possession even than Gibraltar. The English ministers had received intimation very early in the spring of 1756, that a formidable expedition was in preparation at Toulon, not provisioned for a long voyage. They shut their eyes to the exposed state of the island that lay within a few days' sail from the shores of Provence. The defence of Port-Mahon was entrusted to a small garrison, commanded by an aged and infirm general. The government was at last alarmed. They dispatched admiral Byng (son of lord Torrington, the admiral Byng of queen Anne's time,) with ten ships, from Spithead, on the 7th of April. On the 10th of April, the French fleet, of twelve ships of the line, sailed from Toulon, with transports, having sixteen thousand troops on board. They were off the coast of Minorca on the 18th, and began to disembark at the port of Ciudadella. The only chance of defence against such an armament was in the strong castle of St. Philip. General Blakeney got together between two and three thousand troops, the officers of the English regiments being, for the most part, absent; and he prepared for resistance. The natural and artificial strength of the fortress prevented the French from proceeding in the siege without much cautious delay. On the 19th of May admiral Byng's fleet, having been joined by two more men-of-war, arrived within view of St. Philip, whilst the batteries of the French were carrying on their fire against the fort, where the flag of England was still flying. Byng, who had touched at Gibraltar, had written home to explain that he could obtain no necessaries at that station; that the place was so neglected that he was unable to clean the foul ships with which he had sailed from England; and that if he had been sent earlier he might have been able to have prevented the landing of the French in Minorca, whereas it was now very doubtful whether any good could arise from an attempt to reinforce the garrison. This was something like an anticipation of failure, with an indication of the neglect which made success difficult. On the 21st of May, De la Galissonnière, the French admiral, bore down upon the British fleet. Byng did not engage with that alacrity which the naval traditions of our country point out as the first duty of an admiral, even with a doubtful advantage. Rear-admiral West, on the contrary, with his portion of the squadron, had attacked with impetuosity, and had driven some of the French vessels out of their line of battle. Byng was scarcely engaged, except at the beginning of the action, when his own ship, being damaged in the rigging, became for a short time unmanageable. He hesitated about advancing, for fear of breaking his line. De la Galissonnière leisurely retired. Byng called a council of war; represented that he was inferior to the enemy in number of men and weight of metal, and proposed to return to Gibraltar. The council agreed to the proposal. The admiral sent home his dispatches; and on the 16th of June, sir Edward Hawke and admiral Saunders were ordered to supersede 214 SURRENDER OF MINORCA-POPULAR RAGE AGAINST BYNG. [1756. Byng and his second in command. The unfortunate admiral was taken home under arrest; and was committed as a prisoner to an apartment in Greenwich Hospital. Admiral West was received with favour at St. James's. After a defence as resolute as it was possible to make against an overwhelming force, St. Philip was surrendered, after an assault on the 27th of June headed by the duke de Richelieu. The garrison marched out with the honours of war, and were conveyed to Gibraltar. A tempest of popular fury had arisen, such as had rarely been witnessed in England. The news of Byng's return to Gibraltar, without having attempted to relieve the garrison in St. Philip, first came to London through the French admiral's dispatch to his government. "It is necessary," says Walpole, "to be well acquainted with the disposition of a free, proud, fickle, and violent people, before one can conceive the indignation occasioned by this intelligence." But when Byng's own dispatch came, in which he assumed the triumphant tone of a man who had done his duty, his effigy was burnt in all the great towns. Every ballad-singer had a ditty in which he was execrated. When he arrived at Portsmouth he was saved with difficulty from being torn in pieces by the 'mob. A chap-book related "A Rueful Story, by a broken-hearted sailor." A coarse print exhibited Byng hanging in chains. A medal was struck, having a figure of the admiral, with the inscription, "Was Minorca sold for French gold ?" Addresses went up to the throne from London, and from almost every county and city, calling for inquiry and signal punishment. To the Address of the City, the king was made to pledge his royal word that he would save no delinquent from justice. Newcastle, "with a volubility of timorous folly, when a deputation from the City had made representations to him against the admiral, blurted out, 'Oh! indeed he shall be tried immediately-he shall be hanged directly.'"+ The fate of the unhappy man was not determined until the spring of the following year. In closing the Session of Parliament on the 27th of May, the king announced that the injuries his subjects had sustained from the French having been followed by the invasion of Minorca, which had been guaranteed to the British crown by all the great powers of Europe, he had formally declared war against France. Important changes had taken place since, in the previous summer, the king had negotiated for a subsidy to Russia, to protect his Hanoverian possessions against the probable attacks of Prussia. George II. and Frederick II. were not exactly fitted for any cordial friendship. They had been fighting on opposite sides for eight years in the war of the Austrian Succession. George took the side of Maria Theresa, and—to use the words of Mr. Carlyle "needed to begin by assuring his parliament and newspapers, profoundly dark on the matter, that Frederick was a robber and villain for taking the other side." Frederick cared little for what parliaments or newspapers might say of him. Perhaps to those who have followed his last historian in tracing the origin of the claims upon Silesia, he may be thought to have had justice upon his side-that sort of justice which encourages sovereigns to imperil the happiness of millions for the assertion of personal rights. The war of the Succession came to an end, and Frederick got Silesia "Memoirs of the Reign of George II.," vol. ii. p. 215. +Ibid., p. 230. 1756.] COMMENCEMENT OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 215 guaranteed to him. Beyond the public differences of George and Frederick, the Prussian king had indulged his unhappy talent of sarcasm; and his sharp sayings about his Britannic majesty were not easily to be forgiven. But the time was come when they became politically necessary to each other. A treaty was concluded at Westminster, on the 16th January, 1756, by which the king of Great Britain and the king of Prussia, fearing that the peace of Europe might be disturbed in consequence of the disputes in America, entered upon a convention of neutrality, by which they were each bound not to suffer any foreign troops to enter Germany, and their several dominions were reciprocally guaranteed. The scheme of subsidising Russia was thus renounced. Some old money differences were at the same time adjusted. This treaty was not submitted to Parliament till the close of 1756. In the meantime the terrible contest known as the Seven Years' War had commenced. The loss of Silesia was the one great grief of Maria Theresa. From the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle her dominant thought, which almost became a ruling passion, was the hope of its recovery. If France could be induced to take part with Austria,—if each could forget the hatreds of two centuries,Prussia would return to her old insignificance in the affairs of Europe. The ridicule which king George felt it politic to overlook in his satirical nephew, rankled in the heart of the real ruler of France, Madame de Pompadour. Louis XV. had himself writhed under this hornet's sting. The profligate Bourbon resolved to make common cause with Maria Theresa. The Czarina Elizabeth of Russia joined the coalition, with a similar sense of personal affronts. Augustus, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, and the king of Sweden, entered into the same concert. The king of Prussia saw that his enemies were gathering on every side, and that his sole friend was England. Frederick, at the commencement of the Seven Years' War, was in his forty-fourth year. He had enjoyed ten years of repose since the peace of Dresden in 1746, during which period, by his wisdom as a financier, and his strictness as a military disciplinarian, he was prepared to go to war with a full treasury and a well trained army. His will was law amongst his five millions of subjects; and, except in his military code, he was a merciful and just despot. Arbitrary sovereigns, with eager troops waiting upon their nod, are not retarded in their movements by the hesitations of counsellors, or the scruples of parliaments. Sir Andrew Mitchell, the English envoy at Berlin, was endeavouring to dissuade Frederick from immediate hostilities. "What, sir!" exclaimed the king. "What do you see in my face? Was my nose made, do you think, to receive fillips ?" Frederick had demanded an explanation of her views from the empress of Austria, and had received no specific answer. He would not receive an answer, he had said, "in the style of an oracle." He was perfectly informed of the confederacy against himself, and he resolved to anticipate its hostile movements. Towards the end of August, he whispered Mitchell, who was at a court supper, to come to him at three o'clock the next morning. Frederick carried the envoy to his camp, and told him, "there were a hundred thousand men setting out that instant, they knew not whither; and bade him write to his master, that he was going to defend his majesty's dominions and his own." To the most "Frederick the Great and his Times," edited by Thomas Campbell, vol. ii. p. 426. + Walpole "Memoirs of George II.," vol. ii. p. 240 216 SUCCESSES OF FREDERICK OF PRUSSIA-PRINCE OF WALES. [1756. feeble of his antagonists, the elector of Saxony and king of Poland, Frederick allowed no breathing time. He was in possession of Dresden on the 10th of September. The Saxon army was in the fortified camp of Pirna,—a position which Frederick deemed impregnable, and therefore was contented to blockade it. He called himself Protector of Saxony, but in truth was its conqueror. Yet, although helping himself to the military stores of the arsenals, and dealing with public money as if it were his own, he exhibited one species of moderation which the conqueror of the next great period of European warfare had the self-denial to imitate at Dresden, whatever was his plunder of other cities. Frederick visited the famous picture-gallery. The director of the gallery trembled, as he saw the master of the capital, and of all its treasures, pause before some of the great works of art which were the pride of the electorate. In his imagination, the Madonna di San Sisto of Raffaelle, the Notte of Correggio, were destined to be packed off to Berlin. "Sir," said Frederick to the director, "I suppose I may be permitted to have copies." The king of Prussia was not so moderate or courteous when his greater interests were concerned. It was important that he should obtain possession of the State Papers which would prove the designs of the confederacy against him. Augustus was at the camp of Pirna. Maria Josepha of Austria, his consort, was at Dresden. The spirited lady refused to give them up, except by force; and, according to some accounts, sat upon the trunk in which they were contained, which had been carried to her bedchamber; according to other accounts, placed her back against the door of the muniment-room in which they were. The Prussian commandant of Dresden did obtain them by force. The discourtesy was long remembered to Frederick's disadvantage; but, by the publication of these papers, he showed to Europe that in striking the first blow against the coalesced powers he was justified by the necessity of self-preservation. The military operations which followed secured to him Saxony. An Austrian army, commanded by marshal Browne, was advancing from Bohemia. Frederick left the camp of Pirna to be dealt with by prince Ferdinand; and, with a force of twenty-five thousand men, defeated the Austrian army of forty thousand, in the plain of Losowitz. This battle, which was most severely contested, took place on the 1st of October. Frederick returned to Dresden. The Saxon army in Pirna, strictly blockaded, had only the prospect of famine or of surrender. They surrendered unconditionally. Some of these seventeen thousand men were compelled, and some were persuaded, to enter into the Prussian service. The elector retired to Warsaw; and Frederick went into winter quarters in the capital of the country that had, in a few months, been reduced to the condition of an enslaved province. On the 4th of June, 1756, George, prince of Wales, completed his eighteenth year, the period determined by the Regency Act as that of his majority in case his grandfather had been dead. The king wished to give the prince a separate establishment, with an allowance of 40,000l. a year, thus removing him from the control of the Princess Dowager. The young prince entreated the king not to separate him from his mother, although he was deeply grateful for the proposed royal bounty. They were both anxious that lord Bute should be Groom of the Stole in the new Household. Lord Waldegrave relates that he was present at a Cabinet Council, for the con 1756.] CHANGES OF MINISTRY-DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE AND MR. PITT. 217 66 sideration of this appointment; when the Chancellor, lord Hardwicke, said he would not give credit to some very extraordinary reports; but that many sober and respectable persons would think it indecent." * The court scandal, which Walpole dwells upon with peculiar gusto, continued some time after prince George came to the throne, and was one of the misfortunes of the early part of his reign. Bute, in spite of the "extraordinary reports" -which are now held by most unprejudiced inquirers to have had their origin in party virulence and vulgar credulity-was appointed to the office in the Household, very reluctantly on the part of the king. In this influential position, the favourite of the heir apparent, he had considerable participation in the politics of the time. One curious example of the mode in which lord Bute kept the future before the view of great parliamentary leaders, may be seen in a passage of a letter to Mr. Pitt, during that first short time of his power, which we shall have presently to notice: "I am certain the firm support and countenance of him who is some day to reap the fruits of my friend's unwearied endeavours for the public safety, would make him perfectly easy under the frowns of prejudiced, deluded, fluctuating men." + Mr. Fox had held the seals of Secretary of State about ten months, during which period a heavy burden of obloquy had to be borne by the ministry. In October, 1756, he resigned his office. He probably was justified in abandoning his colleagues to the approaching censures of parliament in regard to measures of which he had been allowed no direction. The popular indignation about the loss of Minorca was taking a new direction. In September, "the whole city of Westminster was disturbed by the song of a hundred ballad-singers, the burthen of which was, 'to the block with Newcastle, and the yard-arm with Byng.'" In October, "Poor Byng is the phrase in every mouth, and then comes the hackneyed simile of the Scapegoat." § The resignation of the Secretary of State was a sudden blow to Newcastle, "who meant that Fox should have continued in a responsible office; with a double portion of dangers and abuse, but without any share of power." The prime minister was left without any support in the House of Commons. Murray, the Attorney-General, insisted upon being appointed Lord Chief Justice, a vacancy having occurred by the death of Sir Dudley Ryder. Newcastle offered the great lawyer the choice of sinecures of fabulous amount-a pension-any terms, if he would remain in the House of Commons. Murray was immoveable, and, to the enduring advantage of the nation, became Chief Justice, and lord Mansfield. Pitt stood alone, without a rival,-"no orator to oppose him, who had courage even to look him in the face." Newcastle, in his extremity, induced the king to consent that an overture should be made to the awful Commoner. Pitt refused to treat, saying that "a plain man, unpractised in the policy of a court, could never be the associate of so experienced a minister.” ** The unhappy duke went about imploring this nobleman and that commoner to take the seals. "No man would stand in the gap," says Waldegrave. At last Newcastle T "Memoirs," p. 67. "Chatham Correspondence," March 2, 1757, vol. i. p. 223. Ibid. ** * Ibid., p. 83. |