538 ([return])
[ Note 4 I, p. 538. The following declaration made to the chiefs of the opposition will render the memory of the late prince of Wales dear to latest posterity:—
His royal highness has authorized lord T. and sir F. D. to give the most positive assurances to the gentlemen in the opposition, of his upright intentions; that he is thoroughly convinced of the distresses and calamities that have befallen, and every day are more likely to befal this country; and therefore invites all well wishers to this country and its constitution to coalesce and unite with him, and upon the following principle only.—
His royal highness promises, and will declare it openly, that it is his intention totally to abolish any distinctions for the future of parties; and as far as lies in his power, and as soon as it does lie in his power, to take away for ever all proscription from any set of men whatever who are friends to the constitution; and therefore will promote for the present, and when it is in his power will immediately grant,—
First, A bill to empower all gentlemen to act as justices of the peace, paying land-tax for £300 per annum in any county where he intends to serve.
Secondly, His royal highness promises, in like manner, to support, and forthwith grant, whenever he shall have it in his power, a bill to create and establish a numerous and effectual militia throughout the kingdom.
Thirdly, His royal highness promises, in like manner, to promote and support, and likewise grant, when it is in his power, a bill to exclude all military officers in the land-service under the degree of colonels of regiments, and in the sea-service under the degree of rear-admirals, from sitting in the house of commons.
Fourthly, His royal highness promises that he will, when in his power, grant inquiries into the great number of abuses in offices, and does not doubt of the assistance of all honest men, to enable him to correct the same for the future.
Fifthly, His royal highness promises, and will openly declare, that he will make no agreement with, or join in the support of, any administration whatever, without previously obtaining the above-mentioned points in behalf of the people, and for the sake of good government. Upon these conditions, and these conditions only, his royal highness thinks he has a right not to doubt of having a most cordial support from all those good men who mean their country and this constitution well, and that they will become his and his family’s friends, and unite with him, to promote the good government of this country, and that they will follow him, upon these principles, both in court and out of court; and if he should live to form an administration, it should be composed, without distinction, of men of dignity, knowledge, and probity. His royal highness further promises to accept of no more, if offered to him, than £800,000 for his civil list, by way of rent-charge.
Answer to the foregoing proposal.
The lords and gentlemen to whom a paper has been communicated, containing his royal highness the prince’s gracious intentions upon several weighty and important points, of the greatest consequence to the honour and interest of his majesty’s government, and absolutely necessary for the restoring and perpetuating the true use and design of parliament, the purity of our excellent constitution, and the happiness and welfare of the whole nation, do therein with the greatest satisfaction observe, and most gratefully acknowledge, the uprightness and generosity of his royal highness’s noble sentiments and resolutions. And therefore beg leave to return their most dutiful and humble thanks for the same: and to assure his royal highness that they will constantly and steadily use their utmost endeavours to support those his wise and salutary purposes, that the throne may be strengthened, religion and morality encouraged, faction and corruption destroyed, the purity and essence of parliament restored, and the happiness and welfare of our constitution preserved.
When the above answer was returned to the prince, there were present, The Duke of B.—The Earl of L.—The Earl of S.—The Earl of T.—The Earl of W.—The Earl of S.—Lord F.—Lord W.—Sir Wat. Wil. Wynne.—Sir John H. C—Sir Walter B.—Sir Robert G.—Mr. F.—Mr. F.—Mr. C.]
547 ([return])
[ Note 4 K, p. 547.
Ultimo die Octobris anno ab incarnationo
MDCCLX.
Auspicatissimo principe Georgio Tertio
Regnnm jam ineunte,
Pontis hujus, in reipublicæ commodum
Urbisque majestatem
(Latè turn flagrante bello)
à S. P. Q. L. suscepti,
Primum lapidem posuit
Thomas Chitty, miles,
Prætor;
Roberto Mylne, architecte
Utque apud posteros extet monumentum
Voluntatis suæ erga virum,
Qui vigore ingenii, animi constantia,
Probitatis et virtutis suæ felici quâdam contagione,
(Favente Deo,
Fautisque Georgii Secundi auspiciis!)
Imperium Britannicum
In Asia, Africa, et America
Restituit, auxit, et stabilivit;
Necnon patriæ antiquum honorem et auctoritateni
Inter Europæ gentes instauravit;
Gives Londinenses, uno consensu,
Huic ponti inscribi voluerunt nomen
GULIELMI PITT.]
549 ([return])
[ Note 4 L, p. 549. This attempt was conducted in the following manner, having doubtless been concerted with the two-and-twenty hostages who resided in the fort. On the sixteenth day of February, two Indian women appearing at Keowee, on the other side of the river, Mr. Dogharty, one of the officers of the fort, went out to ask them what news. While he was engaged in conversation with these females, the great Indian warrior Ocunnastota joined them, desired he would call the commanding officer, to whom he said he had something to propose. Accordingly, lieutenant Cotymore appearing, accompanied by ensign Bell, Dogharty, and Foster the interpreter, Ocunnastota told him he had something of consequence to impart to the governor, whom he proposed to visit, and desired he might be attended by a white man as a safeguard. The lieutenant assuring him he should have a safeguard, the Indian declared he would then go and catch a horse for him; so saying, he swung a bridle twice over his head, as a signal; and immediately twenty-five or thirty muskets, from different ambuscades, were discharged at the English officers. Mr. Cotymore received a shot in his left breast, and in a few days expired: Mr. Bell was wounded in the calf of the left leg, and the interpreter in the buttock. Ensign Milne, who remained in the fort, was no sooner informed of this treachery, than he ordered the soldiers to shackle the hostages; in the execution of which order one man was killed on the spot, and another wounded in his forehead with a tomahawk; circumstances which, added to the murder of the lieutenant, incensed the garrison to such a degree, that it was judged absolutely necessary to put the hostages to death without further hesitation. In the evening a party of Indians approached the fort, and firing two signal pieces, cried aloud in the Cherokee language—“Fight manfully, and you shall be assisted.” They then began an attack; and continued firing all night upon the fort, without doing the least execution. That a design was concerted between them and the hostages appeared plainly from the nature of the assault; and this suspicion was converted into a certainty next day, when some of the garrison, searching the apartment in which the hostages lay, found a bottle of poison, probably designed to be emptied into the well, and several tomahawks buried in the earth; which weapons had been privately conveyed to them by their friends, who were permitted to visit them without interruption. On the third day of March, the fort of Ninety-six was attacked by two hundred Cherokee Indians with musketry, which had little or no effect; so that they were forced to retire with some loss, and revenged themselves on the open country, burning and ravaging all the houses and plantations belonging to English settlers in this part of the country, and all along the frontiers of Virginia. Not contented with pillaging and destroying the habitations, they wantoned in the most horrible barbarities; and their motions were so secret and sudden, that it was impossible for the inhabitants to know where the storm would burst, or take proper precautions for their own defence; so that a great number of the back settlements were totally abandoned.]
550 ([return])
[ Note 4 M, p. 550. The garrison of Quebec, during the winter, repaired above five hundred houses which had been damaged by the English cannon, built eight redoubts of wood, raised foot-banks along the ramparts, opened embrasures, mounted artillery, blocked up all the avenues of the suburbs with a stockade, removed eleven months’ provisions into the highest parts of the city, and formed a magazine of four thousand fascines. Two hundred men were posted at Saint Foix, and twice the number at Lorette. Several hundred men marched to Saint Augustin, brought off the enemy’s advanced guard, with a great number of cattle, and disarmed the inhabitants. By these precautions the motions of the French were observed, the avenues of Quebec were covered, and their dominions secured over eleven parishes, which furnished them with some fresh provisions, and other necessaries for subsistence. Sixteen thousand cords of wood being wanted for the hospitals, guards, and quarters, and the method of transporting it from the isle of Orleans being found slow and difficult, on account of the floating ice in the river, a sufficient number of hand-sledges were made, and two hundred wood-fellers set at work in the forest of Saint Foix, where plenty of fuel was obtained, and brought into the several regiments by the men that were not upon duty. A detachment of two hundred men being sent to the other side of the river, disarmed the inhabitants, and compelled them to take the oath of allegiance: by this step the English became masters of the southern side of St. Laurence, and were supplied with good quantities of fresh provision. The advanced posts of the enemy were established at Point au Tremble, Saint Augustin, and Le Calvaire; the main body of their army quartered between Trois Rivieres and Jaques Quartier. Their general, having formed the design of attacking Quebec in the winter, began to provide snow-shoes or rackets, scaling-ladders, and fascines, and make all the necessary preparations for that enterprise. He took possession of Point Levi, where he formed a magazine of provisions; great part of which, however, fell into the hands of the English; for, as soon as the river was frozen over, brigadier Murray despatched thither two hundred men; at whose approach the enemy abandoned their magazine, and retreated with great precipitation. Here the detachment took post in a church until they could build two wooden redoubts, and mount them with artillery. In the meantime, the enemy returning with a greater force to recover the post, some battalions, with the light infantry, marched over the ice, in order to cut off their communication; but they fled with great confusion, and afterwards took post at Saint Michael, at a considerable distance farther down the river. They now resolved to postpone the siege of Quebec, that they might carry it on in a more regular manner. They began to rig their ships, repair their small craft, build galleys, cast bombs and bullets, and prepare fascines and gabions; while brigadier Murray employed his men in making preparations for a vigorous defence. He sent out a detachment, who surprised the enemy’s posts at Saint Augustin, Maison Brûlée, and Le Calvaire, where they took ninety prisoners. He afterwards ordered the light infantry to possess and fortify Cape Bouge, to prevent the enemy’s landing at that place, as well as to be nearer at hand to observe their motions; but when the frost broke up, so that their ships could fall down the river, they landed at Saint Augustin; and the English posts were abandoned one after another, the detachments retiring without loss into the city.]
558 ([return])
[ Note 4 N, p. 558. A translation of the Declaration delivered by the Austrian minister residing at the Hague, to his serene highness Prince Louis of Brunswick, in answer to that which his highness had delivered on the part of his Britannic Majesty and the King of Prussia, on the 25th of November, 1759, to the ministers of the belligerent powers.
“Their Britannic and Prussian majesties having thought proper to make known, by the declaration delivered, on their part, at the Hague, the 25th of November last past, to the ambassadors and ministers of the courts of Vienna, Petersburgh, and Versailles, residing there:
“‘That being sincerely desirous of contributing to the re-establishment of the public tranquillity, they were ready to send plenipotentiaries to the place that shall be judged the most convenient, in order to treat there of this important object with those which the belligerent parties shall think proper to authorize on their side for attaining so salutary an end:’
“Her majesty the empress queen of Hungary and Bohemia, her majesty the empress of all the Russias, and his majesty the most Christian king, equally animated by the desire of contributing to the re-establishment of the public tranquillity, on a solid and equitable footing, declare in return,—
“That his majesty the Catholic king having been pleased to offer his mediation in the war which had subsisted for some years between France and England; and this war having besides nothing in common with that which the two empresses, with their allies, have likewise carried on for some years against the king of Prussia;
“His most Christian majesty is ready to treat of his particular peace with England, through the good offices of his Catholic majesty, whose mediation he has a pleasure in accepting;
“As to the war which regards directly his Prussian majesty, their majesties, the empress queen of Hungary and Bohemia, the empress of all the Russias, and the most Christian king, are disposed to agree to the appointing the congress proposed. But as, by virtue of their treaties, they cannot enter into any engagement relating to peace but in conjunction with their allies, it will be necessary, in order that they may be enabled to explain themselves definitively upon that subject, that their Britannic and Prussian majesties should previously be pleased to cause their invitation to a congress to be made to all the powers that are directly engaged in war against the king of Prussia; and namely, to his majesty the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, as likewise to his majesty the king of Sweden, who ought specifically to be invited to the future congress.”]