THE SPANISH TROOPS EVACUATE SICILY.
The marquis de Lede immediately retired with his army to Alcamo, from whence he sent his mareschal de camp to count Merci and the English admiral, with overtures for evacuating Sicily. The proposals were not disagreeable to the Germans: but sir George Byng declared that the Spaniards should not quit the island while the war continued, as he foresaw that these troops would be employed against France or England. He agreed however with count Merci, in proposing that if the marquis would surrender Palermo and retire into the middle part of the island, they would consent to an armistice for six weeks, until the sentiments of their different courts should be known. The marquis offered to surrender Palermo, in consideration of a suspension of arms for three months; but, while this negotiation was depending, he received advice from Madrid that a general peace was concluded. Nevertheless, he broke off the treaty in obedience to a secret order for that purpose. The king of Spain hoped to obtain the restitution of St. Sebastian’s, Fontarabia, and other places taken in the course of the war, in exchange for the evacuation of Sicily, Hostilities were continued until the admiral received advice from the earl of Stair, at Paris, that the Spanish ambassador at the Hague had signed the quadruple alliance. By the same courier packets were delivered to the count de Merci and the marquis de Lede, which last gave the admiral and Imperial general to understand that he looked upon the peace as a thing concluded, and was ready to treat for a cessation of hostilities. They insisted on his delivering up Palermo; on the other hand he urged, that, as their masters were in treaty for settling the terms of evacuating Sicily and Sardinia, he did not think himself authorised to agree to a cessation, except on condition that each party should remain on the ground they occupied, and expect further orders from their principals. After a fruitless interview between the three chiefs at the Cassine de Rossignola, the Imperial general resolved to undertake the siege of Palermo; with this view he decamped from Alcamo on the eighteenth day of April, and followed the marquis de Lede, who retreated before him and took possession of the advantageous posts that commanded the passes into the plain of Palermo; but count Merci, with indefatigable diligence, marched over the mountains, while the admiral coasted along shore, attending the motions of the army. The Spanish general perceiving the Germans advancing into the plain, retired under the cannon of Palermo, and fortified his camp with strong entrenchments. On the second day of May the Germans took one of the enemy’s redoubts by surprise, and the marquis de Lede ordered all his forces to be drawn out to retake this fortification: both armies were on the point of engaging, when a courier arrived in a felucca with a packet for the marquis, containing full powers to treat and agree about the evacuation of the island, and the transportation of the army to Spain. He forthwith drew off his army; and sent a trumpet to the general and admiral, with letters, informing them of the orders he had received: commissioners were appointed on each side, the negotiations begun, and the convention signed in a very few days. The Germans were put in possession of Palermo, and the Spanish army marched to Tauromini, from whence they were transported to Barcelona.
PHILIP OBLIGED TO ACCEDE TO THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE.
The admiral continued in the Mediterranean until he had seen the islands of Sicily and Sardinia evacuated by the Spaniards, and the mutual cessions executed between the emperor and the duke of Savoy, in consequence of which four battalions of Piedmontese troops were transported from Palermo to Sardinia, and took possession of Cagliari in the name of their master. In a word, admiral Byng bore such a considerable share in this war of Sicily, that the fate of the island depended wholly on his courage, vigilance, and conduct. When he waited on his majesty at Hanover, he met with a very gracious reception. The king told him he had found out the secret of obliging his enemies as well as his friends; for the court of Spain had mentioned him in the most honourable terms, with respect to his candid and friendly deportment in providing transports and other necessaries for the embarkation of their troops, and in protecting them from oppression. He was appointed treasurer of the navy, and rear-admiral of Great Britain: in a little time the king ennobled him, by the title of viscount Torrington: he was declared a privy-counsellor, and afterwards made knight of the bath at the revival of that order. During these occurrences in the Mediterranean, the duke of Berwick advanced with the French army to the frontiers of Spain, where he took Port-Passage and destroyed six ships of war that were on the stocks; then he reduced Fontarabia and St. Sebastian’s, together with Port Antonio in the bottom of the bay of Biscay. In this last exploit the French were assisted by a detachment of English seamen, who burned two large ships unfinished, and a great quantity of naval stores. The king of England, with a view to indemnify himself for the expense of the war, projected the conquest of Corunna in Biscay, and of Peru in South America. Four thousand men, commanded by lord Cobham, were embarked at the Isle of Wight, and sailed on the twenty-first day of September, under convoy of five ships of war conducted by admiral Mighels. Instead of making an attempt upon Corunna, they reduced Vigo with very little difficulty; and Point-a-Vedra submitted without resistance: here they found some brass artillery, small arms, and military stores, with which they returned to England. In the meantime captain Johnson, with two English ships of war, destroyed the same number of Spanish ships in the port of Ribadeo, to the eastward of Cape Ortegas, so that the naval power of Spain was totally ruined. The expedition to the West Indies was prevented by the peace. Spain being oppressed on all sides, and utterly exhausted, Philip saw the necessity of a speedy pacification. He now perceived the madness of Alberoni’s ambitious projects. That minister was personally disagreeable to the emperor, the king of England, and the regent of France, who had declared they would hearken to no proposals while he should continue in office: the Spanish monarch, therefore, divested him of his employment, and ordered him to quit the kingdom in three weeks. The marquis de Beretti Landi, minister from the court of Madrid at the Hague, delivered a plan of pacification to the states; hat it was rejected by the allies; and Philip was obliged at last to accede to the quadruple alliance.
BILL FOR SECURING THE DEPENDENCY OF IRELAND UPON THE CROWN.
On the fourteenth day of November, king George returned to England, and on the twenty-third opened the session of parliament with a speech, in which he told them that all Europe, as well as Great Britain, was on the point of being delivered from the calamities of war by the influence of British arms and councils. He exhorted the commons to concert proper means for lessening the debts of the nation, and concluded with a panegyric upon his own government. It must be owned he had acted with equal vigour and deliberation in all the troubles he had encountered since his accession to the throne. The addresses of both houses were as warm as he could desire. They in particular extolled him for having interposed in behalf of the protestants of Hungary, Poland, and Germany, who had been oppressed by the practices of the popish clergy, and presented to him memorials containing a detail of their grievances. He and all the other protestant powers warmly interceded in their favour, but the grievances were not redressed. The peerage bill was now revived by the duke of Buckingham; and, in spite of all opposition, passed through the house of lords. It had been projected by earl Stanhope, and eagerly supported by the earl of Sunderland; therefore, Mr. Robert Walpole attacked it in the house of commons with extraordinary vehemence. Here too it was opposed by a considerable number of whig members; and, after warm debates, rejected by a large majority. The next object that engrossed the attention of the parliament was a bill for better securing the dependency of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain. Maurice Annesley had appealed to the house of peers in England, from a decree of the house of peers in Ireland, which was reversed. The British peers ordered the barons of the exchequer in Ireland to put Mr. Annesley in possession of the lands he had lost by the decree in that kingdom. The barons obeyed this order; and the Irish house of peers passed a vote against them, as having acted in derogation to the king’s prerogative in his high court of parliament in Ireland, as also of the rights and privileges of that kingdom, and of the parliament thereof; they likewise ordered them to be taken into custody of the usher of the black rod: they transmitted a long representation to the king, demonstrating their right to the final judicature of causes: and the duke of Leeds, in the upper house, urged fifteen reasons to support the claim of the Irish peers. Notwithstanding these arguments, the house of lords in England resolved that the barons of the exchequer in Ireland had acted with courage, according to law, in support of his majesty’s prerogative, and with fidelity to the crown of Great Britain. They addressed the king to confer on them some marks of his royal favour, as a recompence for the ill usage they had undergone. Finally, they prepared the bill, by which the Irish house of lords was deprived of all right to pass sentence, affirm, or reverse any judgment or decree, given or made in any court within that kingdom. In the house of commons it was opposed by Mr. Pitt, Mr. Hungerford, lords Molesworth and Tyr-connel; but was carried by the majority, and received the royal assent.