ATTACK ON MINORCA.
In Europe the Spaniards not only continued the siege of Gibraltar, but also undertook the reduction of Minorca. This island had recently been offered to the Empress of Russia, as a bait to secure her friendship to Great Britain, and to induce her to become mediatrix for a peace, on the basis of the last treaty of Fontainbleau. At first the lure seemed to be acceptable, and Potemkin, the minister of Catherine, was anxious to obtain the acquisition; but subsequently the empress seemed to think that the British empire must soon become dismembered, when probably she might obtain more; and she therefore declined accepting it under the conditions offered. This secret negociation became known to Florida Blanca, the Spanish minister, and it became a pressing motive for an attack on Minorca. Accordingly, having obtained the consent of the court of Versailles to co-operate, this became one of the principal objects of Spanish ambition. An expedition was fitted out with great skill and caution, and the Duke of Crillon was appointed to the command. The united fleets of France and Spain sailed out of Cadiz Bay on the 22nd of July, and while the mass of the force stretched out into the ocean as if with the intention of making a descent upon England, 8000 land troops were transported through the straits to Minorca. A landing was effected on the 19th of August, and General Murray, with his weak garrison of two British and Hanoverian regiments, retired into Fort St. Philip, the principal defence of the island. Crillon commenced operations by an act which would have made the blood of his brave ancestor boil within his veins: he offered General Murray a bribe of £100,000 sterling, and rank and employment in the French or Spanish service, if he would surrender and save him the trouble of a siege or blockade! This offer was indignantly refused, and Crillon then laid siege to Fort St. Philip. Yet, though he was reinforced in the course of the autumn by 4000 French troops, with good artillery and engineer officers, with more ordnance and other requisites for the siege, and though disease thinned the originally weak ranks of the besieged, at the close of the year the fort still remained in the hands of the British.