The session was closed on the thirteenth day of May, when the king declared to both houses that the preliminaries of a general peace were actually signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, by the ministers of Great Britain, France, and the United Provinces; and that the basis of this accommodation was a general restitution of the conquests which had been made during the war. Immediately after the prorogation of parliament his majesty set out for his German dominions, after having appointed a regency to rule the realm in his absence.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN THE NETHERLANDS.
The articles might have been made much less unfavourable to Great Britain and her allies, had the ministry made a proper use of the treaty with the czarina; and if the confederates had acted with more vigour and expedition in the beginning of the campaign. The Russian auxiliaries might have been transported by sea to Lubeck before the end of the preceding summer’, in their own galleys, which had been lying ready for use since the month of July. Had this expedient been used, the Russian troops would have joined the confederate army before the conclusion of the last campaign. But this easy and expeditious method of conveyance was rejected for a march by land, of incredible length and difficulty, which could not be begun before the month of January, nor accomplished till Midsummer. The operations of the campaign had been concerted at the Hague in January, by the respective ministers of the allies, who resolved to bring an army of one hundred and ninety thousand men into the Netherlands, in order to compel the French to abandon the barrier which they had conquered, The towns of Holland became the scenes of tumult and insurrection. The populace plundered the farmers of the revenue, abolished the taxes, and insulted the magistrates; so that the states-general, seeing their country on the brink of anarchy and confusion, authorized the prince of Orange to make such alterations as he should see convenient. They presented him with a diploma, by which he was constituted hereditary stadtholder and captain-general of Dutch Brabant, Flanders, and the upper quarter of Guelderland; and the East India company appointed him director and governor-general of their commerce and settlements in the Indies. Thus invested with authority unknown to his ancestors, he exerted himself with equal industry and discretion in new modelling, augmenting, and assembling the troops of the republic. The confederates knew that the count de Saxe had a design upon Maestricht: the Austrian general Bathiani made repeated remonstrances to the British ministry, entreating them to take speedy measures for the preservation of that fortress. He, in the month of January, proposed that the duke of Cumberland should cross the sea, and confer with the prince of Orange on this subject; he undertook, at the peril of his head, to cover Maastricht with seventy thousand men, from all attacks of the enemy: but his representations seemed to have made very little impression on those to whom they were addressed. The duke of Cumberland did not depart from England till towards the latter end of February; part of March was elapsed before the transports sailed from the Nore with the additional troops and artillery; and the last drafts from the foot-guards were not embarked till the middle of August.
SIEGE OF MAESTRICHT. FORMS A CESSATION.
The different bodies of the confederate forces joined each other and encamped in the neighbourhood of Euremond, to the number of one hundred and ten thousand men; and the French army invested Maestricht, without opposition, on the third day of April. The garrison consisted of Imperial and Dutch troops, under the conduct of the governor, baron de Aylva, who defended the place with extraordinary skill and resolution. He annoyed the besiegers in repeated sallies; but they were determined to surmount all opposition, and prosecuted their approaches with incredible ardour. They assaulted the covered way, and there effected a lodgement, after an obstinate dispute, in which they lost two thousand of their best troops; but next day they were entirely dislodged by the gallantry of the garrison. These hostilities were suddenly suspended, in consequence of the preliminaries signed at Aix-la-Chapelle. The plenipotentiaries agreed, that, for the glory of his christian majesty’s arms, the town of Maestricht should be surrendered to his general, on condition that it should be restored with all the magazines and artillery. He accordingly took possession of it on the third day of May, when the garrison marched out with all the honours of war; and a cessation of arms immediately ensued. By this time the Russian auxiliaries, to the number of thirty-seven thousand, commanded by prince Repnin, had arrived in Moravia, where they were reviewed by their imperial majesties; then they proceeded to the confines of Franconia, where they were ordered to halt, after they had marched seven hundred miles since the beginning of the year. The French king declared, that should they advance farther, he would demolish the fortifications of Maestricht and Bergen-op-Zoom. This dispute was referred to the plenipotentiaries, who, in the beginning of August, concluded a convention, importing that the Russian troops should return to their own country; and that the French king should disband an equal number of his forces. The season being far advanced, the Russians were provided with winter-quarters in Bohemia and Moravia, where they continued till the spring, when they marched back to Livonia. In the meantime seven-and-thirty thousand French troops were withdrawn from Flanders into Picardy, and the two armies remained quiet till the conclusion of the definitive treaty. The suspension of arms was proclaimed at London, and in all the capitals of the contracting powers; orders were sent to the respective admirals in different parts of the world, to refrain from hostilities; and a communication of trade and intelligence was again opened between the nations which had been at variance. No material transaction distinguished the campaign in Italy. The French and Spanish troops, who had joined the Genoese in the territories of the republic, amounted to thirty thousand men, under the direction of the duke de Richlieu, who was sent from France to assume that command on the death of the duke de Boufflers; while mareschal de Belleisle, at the head of fifty thousand men, covered the western Eiviera, which was threatened with an invasion by forty thousand Austrians and Piedmontese, under general Leutrum. At the same time general Brown, with a more numerous army, prepared to re-enter the eastern Eiviera, and recommence the siege of Genoa. But these intended operations were prevented by an armistice, which took place as soon as the belligerent powers had acceded to the preliminaries.
TRANSACTIONS IN THE EAST AND WEST INDIES.
In the East Indies, rear-admiral Boscawen undertook the siege of Pondicherry, which in the month of August he blocked up by sea with his squadron, and invested by land with a small army of four thousand Europeans, and about two thousand natives of that country. He prosecuted the enterprise with great spirit, and took the fort of Area Coupan, at the distance of three miles from the town; then he made his approaches to the place, against which he opened batteries, while it was bombarded and cannonaded by the shipping. But the fortifications were so strong, the garrison so numerous, and the engineers of the enemy so expert in their profession, that he made very little progress, and sustained considerable damage. At length, his army being diminished by sickness, and the rainy season approaching, he ordered the artillery and stores to be re-embarked; and raising the siege on the sixth day of October, returned to fort St. David, after having lost about a thousand men in this expedition. In the sequel, several ships of his squadron, and above twelve hundred sailors, perished in a hurricane. The naval force of Great Britain was more successful in the West Indies. Bear-admiral Knowles, with a squadron of eight ships, attacked fort Louis, on the South side of Hispaniola, which after a warm action of three hours was surrendered on capitulation, and dismantled. Then he made an abortive attempt upon St. Jago de Cuba, and returned to Jamaica, extremely chagrined at his disappointment, which he imputed to the misconduct of captain Dent, who was tried in England by a court-martial, and honourably acquitted. On the first of October, the same admiral, cruising in the neighbourhood of the Havannah with eight ships of the line, encountered a Spanish squadron of nearly the same strength, under the command of the admirals Beggio and Spinola. The engagement began between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, and continued with intervals till eight in the evening, when the enemy retired to the Havannah, with the loss of two ships; one of which struck to the British admiral, and the other was two days after set on fire by her own commander, that she might not fall into the hands of the English. Mr. Knowles taxed some of his captains with misbehaviour, and they recriminated on his conduct. On their return to England, a court-martial was the consequence of the mutual accusations. Those who adhered to the commander, and the others whom he impeached, were inflamed against each other with the most rancorous resentment. The admiral himself did not escape uncensured; two of his captains were reprimanded; but captain Holmes, who had displayed uncommon courage, was honourably acquitted. Their animosities did not end with the court-martial. A bloodless encounter happened between the admiral and captain Powlet; but captain Innes and captain Clarke, meeting by appointment in Hyde-Park with pistols, the former was mortally wounded, and died next morning; the latter was tried, and condemned for murder, but indulged with his majesty’s pardon. No naval transaction of any consequence happened in the European seas during the course of this summer. In January, indeed, the Magnanime, a French ship of the line, was taken in the channel by two English cruisers, after an obstinate engagement; and the privateers took a considerable number of merchant ships from the enemy.