His Britannic majesty was resolved that the king of Prussia should have no cause to complain of his indifference, whatever reasons he had to exclaim against the convention of Closter-Seven, which he did not scruple to condemn as a very scandalous capitulation, as much as he disapproved of the conduct, in consequence of which near forty thousand men were so shamefully disarmed, and lost to his cause. Those stipulations also met with a very unfavourable reception in England, where the motions of the allied army, in their retreat before the enemy, were very freely censured, and some great names exposed to the ridicule and contempt of the public. This event, so singular in itself, and so important in its consequences, attracted the attention of the privy-council, where it is said to have been canvassed with great warmth and animosity of altercation. The general complained that he was restricted by peremptory orders from the regency of Hanover; and they were reported to have used recriminations in their defence. In all probability, every circumstance of the dispute was not explained to the satisfaction of all parties, inasmuch as that great commander quitted the harvest of military glory, and, like another Cincinnatus, retired to his plough. The convention of Closter-Seven was equally disagreeable to the courts of London and Versailles. The former saw the electorate of Hanover left, by this capitulation, at the mercy of the enemy, who had taken possession of the whole country, seized the revenues, exacted contributions, and changed the whole form of government, in the name of his most christian majesty; whilst the French army, which had been employed in opposing the Hanoverian, was now at liberty to throw their additional force into the scale against the king of Prussia, who, at that period, seemed to totter on the verge of destruction. On the other hand, the French ministry thought their general had granted too favourable terms to a body of forces, whom he had cooped up in such a manner that, in a little time, they must have surrendered at discretion. They, therefore, determined either to provoke the Hanoverians by ill usage to an infraction of the treaty, or, should that be found impracticable, renounce it as an imperfect convention, established without proper authority. Both expedients were used without reserve. They were no sooner informed of the capitulation, than they refused to acknowledge its validity, except on condition that the Hanoverian troops should formally engage to desist from all service against France and her allies during the present war, and be disarmed on their return to their own country. At the same time her general, who commanded in the electorate, exhausted the country by levying exorbitant contributions, and connived at such outrages as degraded his own dignity, and reflected disgrace on the character of his nation. The court of London, to make a merit of necessity, affected to consider the conventional act as a provisional armistice, to pave the way for a negotiation that might terminate in a general peace, and proposals were offered for that purpose; but the French ministry kept aloof, and seemed resolved that the electorate of Hanover should be annexed to their king’s dominions. At least, they were bent upon keeping it as a precious depositum, which, in the plan of a general pacification, they imagined, would counterbalance any advantage that Great Britain might obtain in other parts of the world. Had they been allowed to keep this deposit, the kingdom of Great Britain would have saved about twenty millions of money, together with the lives of her best soldiers; and Westphalia would have continued to enjoy all the blessings of security and peace. But the king of England’s tenderness for Hanover was one of the chief sources of the misfortunes which befel the electorate. He could not bear the thoughts of seeing it, even for a season, in the hands of the enemy; and his own sentiments in this particular were reinforced by the pressing remonstrances of the Prussian monarch, whom, at this juncture, he thought it dangerous to disoblige. Actuated by these motives, he was pleased to see the articles of the convention so palpably contravened, because the violation unbound his hands, and enabled him, consistently with good faith, to take effectual steps for the assistance of his ally, and the recovery of his own dominions. He, therefore, in quality of elector of Brunswick-Lunen-burgh, published a declaration, observing, “That his royal highness the duke of Cumberland had, on his part, honestly fulfilled all the conditions of the convention; but the duke de Richelieu demanded that the troops should enter into an engagement specified above, and lay down their arms; although it was expressly stipulated in the convention, that they should not be regarded as prisoners of war, under which quality alone they could be disarmed: that the French court pretended to treat the convention as a military regulation only; and, indeed, it was originally nothing more; but as they had expressly disowned its validity, and a negotiation had been actually begun for disarming the auxiliaries, upon certain conditions, though the French general would never answer categorically, but waited always for fresh instructions from Versailles, the nature of that act was totally changed, and what was at first an agreement between general and general, was now become a matter of state between the two courts of London and Versailles: that, however hard the conditions of the convention appeared to be for the troops of Hanover, his Britannic majesty would have acquiesced in them, had not the French glaringly discovered their design of totally ruining his army and his dominions; and, by the most outrageous conduct, freed his Britannic majesty from every obligation under which he had been laid by the contention: that, in the midst of the armistice, the most open hostilities had been committed; the castle of Schartzfels had been forcibly seized and pillaged, and the garrison made prisoners of war; the prisoners made by the French before the convention had not been restored, according to an express article stipulated between the generals, though it had been fulfilled on the part of the electorate, by the immediate release of the French prisoners; the bailies of those districts, from which the French troops were excluded by mutual agreement, had been summoned, on pain of military execution, to appear before the French commissary, and compelled to deliver into his hands the public revenue: the French had appropriated to themselves part of those magazines, which, by express agreement, were destined for the use of the electoral troops; and they had seized the houses, revenue, and corn, belonging to the king of England in the city of Bremen, in violation of their engagement to consider that city as a place absolutely free and neutral. Pie took notice, that they had proceeded to menaces unheard of among civilized people, of burning, sacking, and destroying every thing that fell in their way, should the least hesitation be made in executing the convention according to their interpretation.”—Such were the professed considerations that determined his Britannic majesty to renounce the agreement which they had violated, and have recourse to arms for the relief of his subjects and allies. It was in consequence of this determination that he conferred the command of his electoral army on prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, brother to the duke of that name, who had distinguished himself in the Prussian army by his great military talents, and was, by blood and inclination, as well as interest, supposed warmly attached to his Britannic majesty. The truth is, the king of Prussia recommended him to this command, because he knew he could depend upon his concurring with all his measures, in conducting the operations of the British army. The duke de Richelieu was no sooner informed of these particulars, than he sent a letter to prince Ferdinand, specifying, “That although for some days he had perceived the Hanoverian troops in motion, in order to form themselves into a body, he could not imagine the object of these movements was to infringe the convention of neutrality which had been established between the duke of Cumberland and himself, as French general; that he was blinded so far by his confidence in the good faith of the elector of Hanover, who had signed that convention, as to believe the troops were assembled for no other purpose than to be distributed into winter-quarters, which had been assigned them by the agreement; but his eyes were at last opened by repeated advices which he had received from all quarters, importing, that the Hanoverians intended to infringe those articles which ought to be sacred and inviolable; he affirmed, the king his master was still willing to give fresh proofs of his moderation, and his desire to spare the effusion of human blood: with that view he declared to his serene highness, in the name of his most christian majesty, that he persisted in his resolution of fulfilling exactly all the points of the convention, provided that they should be equally observed by the Hanoverian army; but he could not help apprising his serene highness, that if this army should take any equivocal step, and, still more, should it commit any act of hostility, he would then push matters to the last extremity, looking upon himself as authorized so to do by the rules of war: that he would set fire to all palaces, houses, and gardens; sack all the towns and villages, without sparing the most inconsiderable cottage, and subject the country to all the horrors of war and devastation. He conjured his serene highness to reflect on these particulars, and begged he would not lay him under the necessity of taking steps so contrary to his own personal character, as well as to the natural humanity of the French nation.” To this letter, which was seconded by the count de Lynar, the Danish ambassador, who had mediated the convention, prince Ferdinand returned a very laconic answer, intimating, that he would give the duke de Richelieu his answer in person at the head of his army. At this particular juncture, the French general was disposed to abide by the original articles of the convention, rather than draw upon himself the hostilities of an army which he knew to be brave, resolute, and well appointed, and which he saw at present animated with an eager desire of wiping out the disgrace they had sustained by the capitulation, as well as of relieving their country from the grievous oppression wider which it groaned.
PROGRESS OF THE HANOVERIAN ARMY.
About the latter end of November, the Hanoverian army was wholly assembled at Stade, under the auspices of prince Ferdinand, who resolved without delay to drive the French from the electorate, whither they now began their march. Part of the enemy’s rear, consisting of two thousand men, was, in their march back to Zell, attacked in the bailiwick of Ebstorff, and entirely defeated by general Schuylenbourg; and, in a few days after this action, another happened upon the river Aller, between two considerable bodies of each army, in which the Hanoverians, commanded by general Zastrow, remained masters of the field. These petty advantages served to encourage the allies, and put them in possession of Lunen-burgh, Zell, and part of the Brunswick dominions, which the enemy were obliged to abandon. The operations of prince Ferdinand, however, were retarded by the resolution and obstinate perseverance of the French officer who commanded the garrison of Harbourg. When the Hanoverian troops made themselves masters of the town, he retired into the castle, which he held out against a considerable detachment of the allied army, by whom it was invested; at length, however, the fortifications being entirely demolished, he surrendered upon capitulation. On the sixth day of December, prince Ferdinand began his march towards Zell, where the French army had taken post, under the command of the duke de Richelieu, who, at the approach of the Hanoverians, called in his advanced parties, abandoned several magazines, burned all the farm-houses and buildings belonging to the sheep-walks of his Britannic majesty, without paying the least regard to the representations made by prince Ferdinand on this subject; reduced the suburbs of Zell to ashes, after having allowed his men to plunder the houses, and even set fire to the orphan hospital, in which a great number of helpless children are said to have perished. One cannot, without horror, reflect upon such brutal acts of inhumanity. The French troops on divers occasions, and in different parts of the empire, acted tragedies of the same nature, which are not easily reconcileable to the character of a nation famed for sentiment and civility. The Hanoverians having advanced within a league of Zell, the two armies began to cannonade each other; the French troops, posted on the right of the Aller, burned their magazines, and retired into the town, where they were so strongly intrenched, that prince Ferdinand could not attempt the river, the passes of which were strongly guarded by the enemy. At the same time, his troops were exposed to great hardships from the severity of the weather; he, therefore, retreated to Ultzen and Lunenburgh, where his army was put into winter-quarters, and executed several small enterprises by detachment, while the French general fixed his headquarters in the city of Hanover, his cantonments extending as far as Zell, in the neighbourhood of which many sharp skirmishes were fought from the out-parties with various success. Their imperial majesties were no sooner apprized of these transactions, which they considered as infractions of the convention, than they sent an intimation to the baron de Steinberg, minister from the king of Great Britain as elector of Hanover, that he should appear no more at court, or confer with their ministers; and that his residing at Vienna, as he might easily conceive, could not be very agreeable: in consequence of which message he retired, after having obtained the necessary passports for his departure. The chagrin occasioned at the court of Vienna by the Hanoverian army’s having recourse to their arms again, was, in some measure, alleviated by the certain tidings received from Petersburgh, that the czarina had signed her accession in form to the treaty between the courts of Vienna, Versailles, and Stockholm.
DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF POLAND, &c.
In closing our account of this year’s transactions on the continent, we may observe, that on the sixteenth day of November the queen of Poland died at Berlin of an apoplexy, supposed to be occasioned by the shock she received on hearing that the French were totally defeated at Rosbach. She was a lady of exemplary virtue and piety; whose constitution had been broke by grief and anxiety conceived from the distress of her own family, as well as from the misery to which she saw her people exposed. With respect to the European powers that were not actually engaged as principals in the war, they seemed industriously to avoid every step that might be construed as a deviation from the most scrupulous neutrality. The states-general proceeded with great circumspection, in the middle course between two powerful neighbours, equally jealous and formidable; and the king of Spain was gratified for his forbearance with a convention settled between him and the belligerent powers, implying, that his subjects should per-sue their commerce at sea without molestation, provided they should not transport those articles of merchandise which were deemed contraband by all nations. The operations at sea, during the course of this year, either in Europe or America, were far from being decisive or important. The commerce of Great Britain sustained considerable damage from the activity and success of French privateers, of which a great number had been equipped in the islands of Martinique and Gaudaloupe. The Greenwich ship of war, mounted with fifty guns, and a frigate of twenty, fell into the hands of the enemy, together with a very considerable number of trading vessels. On the other hand, the English cruisers and privateers acquitted themselves with equal vigilance and valour. The duc d’Aquitaine, a large ship of fifty guns, was taken in the month of June by two British ships of war, after a severe engagement; and, about the same time, the Aquilon, of nearly the same force, was driven ashore and destroyed near Brest by the Antelope, one of the British cruisers. A French frigate of twenty-six guns, called the Emeraude, was taken in the channel, after a warm engagement, by an English ship of inferior force, under the command of captain Gilchrist, a gallant and alert officer, who, in the sequel, signalized himself on divers occasions, by very extraordinary acts of valour. All the sea officers seemed to be animated with a noble emulation to distinguish themselves in the service of their country, and the spirit descended even to the captains of privateers, who, instead of imitating the former commanders of that class, in avoiding ships of force, and centering their whole attention in advantageous prizes, now encountered the armed ships of the enemy, and fought with the most obstinate valour in the pursuit of national glory.
FATE OF CAPTAIN DEATH.
Perhaps history cannot afford a more remarkable instance of desperate courage than that which was exerted in December of the preceding year, by the officers and crew of an English privateer, named the Terrible, under the command of captain William Death, equipped with twenty-six carriage guns, and manned with two hundred sailors. On the twenty-third day of the month he engaged and made prize of a large French ship from St. Domingo, after an obstinate battle, in which he lost his own brother and sixteen seamen; then he secured with forty men his prize, which contained a valuable cargo, and directed his course to England; but in a few days he had the misfortune to fall in with the Vengeance, a privateer of St. Maloes, carrying thirty-six large cannon, with a complement of three hundred and sixty men. Their first step was to attack the prize, which was easily retaken; then the two ships bore down upon the Terrible, whose main-mast was shot away by the first broadside. Notwithstanding this disaster, the Terrible maintained such a furious engagement against both as can hardly be paralleled in the annals of Britain. The French commander and his second was killed, with two-thirds of his company; but the gallant Captain Death, with the greater part of his officers, and almost his whole crew, having met with the same fate, his ship was boarded by the enemy, who found no more than twenty-six persons alive, sixteen of whom were mutilated by the loss of leg or arm, and the other ten grievously wounded. The ship itself was so shattered, that it could scarce be kept above water, and the whole exhibited a scene of blood, horror, and desolation. The victor itself lay like a wreck on the surface; and in this condition made shift, with great difficulty, to tow the Terrible* into St. Maloes, where she was not beheld without astonishment and terror.