against Crown Point and Ticonderago; and a third, under brigadier general Forbes, against Fort du Quesne. The fortress of Louisburg, which defended the island of Cape Breton, was very strong both by nature and art; the garrison was numerous, the commander vigilant, and every precaution had been taken to prevent a landing. But the activity of the British surmounted every obstacle; the place was surrendered by capitulation, and its fortifications were demolished. The expedition against Fort du Quesne was equally successful; but that against Crown Point once more miscarried. General Abercromby attacked the French in their entrenchments, was repulsed with great slaughter, and obliged to retire to his camp at Lake George. But, though in this respect the British arms were unsuccessful, yet, upon the whole, the campaign of 1758 was greatly in their favor. The taking of Fort du Quesne served to remove from their colonies the terror of the incursions of the Indians; while it interrupted that correspondence, along a chain of forts, with which the French had environed the British settlements in America. In 1759 it was also resolved to assault the French in several parts of their empire. General Amherst, with a body of 12,000 men, was commanded to attack Crown Point; General Wolfe was to undertake the siege of Quebec; while general Prideaux and Sir William Johnson were to attempt a French fort near the cataracts of Niagara. This last expedition was the first that succeeded. The siege was begun with vigor, and promised an easy conquest; but Prideaux was killed in the trenches by the bursting of a mortar, so that the whole command devolved on general Johnson. A body of French troops attempted to relieve it, but were defeated and dispersed; soon after which the garrison surrendered prisoners of war. On his arrival at the forts of Crown Point and Ticonderago, general Amherst found them deserted and destroyed. There now remained, therefore, but one decisive blow to reduce all North America under the British dominions; and this was the taking of Quebec, the capital of Canada. See QUEBEC. This expedition was commanded by admiral Saunders and general Wolfe. The enterprise was attended with difficulties which appeared insurmountable; but all were overcome by the conduct of Wolfe, and the bravery of his men. He engaged and put to flight the French under Montcalm; but, to the great regret of the nation, was killed in the action. The surrender of Quebec was the consequence of this victory, which was soon followed by the cession of all Canada. The following season, indeed, the French made a vigorous effort to recover the city; but the resolution of governor Murray, and the appearance of a British fleet under the command of lord Colvil, obliged them to abandon the enterprise. The whole province was soon after reduced by general Amherst, and it has since remained annexed to the British empire. About the same time the island of Guadaloupe was reduced by commodore More and general Hopson.

The British affairs in Germany had at the beginning of the war worn a very unfavorable as

pect. The Hanoverians were commanded by the duke of Cumberland, who was greatly outnumbered by the enemy. He was driven beyond the Weser, the passage of which might have been disputed, but the French were suffered to pass it unmolested. The Hanoverians were driven from one part of the country to another, till at length they made a stand near Hastenbeck, where it was hoped the numbers of the enemy would have the least opportunity of being used to advantage. The Hanoverians, however, left the field to the French, after a faint resistance. Their enemies pursued, and the duke retired towards Stade. Here, unable either to escape or advance, he was compelled to sign a capitulation, by which the whole army laid down their arms, and were dispersed into different quarters of cantonment. By this remarkable capitulation, which was called the capitulation of Closter Seven, Hanover was obliged to submit quietly to the French, who were now determined to turn their arms against the king of Prussia. But soon after both sides began to complain that the treaty was not observed. The Hanoverians exclaimed against the rapacity of the French general and the brutality of his soldiers. The French, retorting the charge, accused them of insolence and insurrection; and, being sensible of their own superiority, resolved to bind them strictly to their terms of agreement. The Hanoverians only wished for a pretence to take arms, and a general to head them. Neither was long wanting. The oppressions of the taxgatherers, whom the French had appointed, were considered as so severe, that the army rose to vindicate the freedom of their country, while Ferdinand, prince of Brunswick, put himself at their head. As soon as this was known in Britain large supplies were granted, both for the service of the king of Prussia and to enable the Hanoverian army to act vigorously in conjunction with him. A small body of British forces was sent over to join prince Ferdinand under the duke of Marlborough. After some inconsiderable successes at Crevelt, the duke of Marlborough dying, the command of the British forces devolved on lord George Sackville. A misunderstanding arose, however, between him and prince Ferdinand, which appeared at the battle of Minden that was shortly after fought. George pretended that he did not understand the orders sent him by the prince, and of consequence did not obey them; and, although the allies gained the victory, it would have been more decisive had the British commander obeyed his orders. He was soon after recalled, tried by a court-martial, found guilty of disobedience, and declared incapable of serving in any military command. After this victory it was imagined that one reinforcement more, of British troops, would terminate the war in favor of the allies: and this was quickly sent. The British army in Germany was augmented to upwards of 30,000 men and sanguine hopes of conquest were entertained. These hopes, however, were soon seen to be ill founded. The allies were defeated at Corbach; but retrieved their honor at Exdorf. A victory at Warbourgh followed shortly after, and another at Ziernberg: but they suffered a defeat at Compen; after which both sides re

Lord

tired into winter quarters. On the 25th of October, 1760, king George II. died. He had risen at his usual hour, and observed to his attendants that, as the weather was fine, he would take a walk in the gardens of Kensington, where he then resided. In a few minutes after, being left alone, he was heard to fall down upon the floor; and, the noise bringing his attendants into the room, he desired, with a faint voice, that the princess Amelia might be sent for; but, before she could reach the apartment, he expired, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and thirty-third of his reign. An attempt was made to bleed him, but without effect; and the surgeons afterwards, upon opening him, discovered that the right ventricle of the heart was ruptured, and a great quantity of blood discharged through the aper

ture.

6. Great Britain under the reign of George III. until the revolt of the American Colonies. Our late excellent sovereign, George III., ascended the throne amidst the greatest successes both by sea and land. At this time, indeed, the efforts of Britain, in every quarter of the globe, were truly astonishing. The king of Prussia received a subsidy; a large body of English forces commanded the extensive peninsula of India; another army of 20,000 men confirmed their conquests in North America; 30,000 men were employed in Germany; and many more were dispersed in garrisons in different parts of the world but all this was surpassed by the good fortune of our naval force, which carried command wherever it came, and had totally annihilated the French maritime power.

When the young king met his parliament, which was opened November 18th, 1760, he confirmed the hopes of his allies, and gave assurances of his intentions to prosecute the war with vigor. By this time, however, the people were in some measure weary of conquests in Germany, from which they could never hope for any solid advantage. For some time, however, no change took place in the method of carrying on the war. But in 1761, proposals of peace being made between the belligerent powers, Mr. Stanley was sent to Paris to negociate a peace, and Mr. Bussey to London; but the French court, hoping to draw Spain into a confederacy, was not sincere in its professions, and the treaty came to nothing. An enterprise was projected at this time against the island of Belle-isle, near the coast of France, which was conducted by commodore Keppel and general Hodgson. See BELLE-ISLE. The place was taken, with the loss of 1800 men killed and wounded; and, though it was a conquest of no great moment, the rejoicings on account of it were great. In Germany the campaign was unsuccessful on the part of the allies. At first, indeed, they drove the French out of the territory of Hesse, and laid siege to the city of Cassel; but, being defeated at Stangerod, they were forced to raise the siege, retire behind the Dymel, and again abandon Hesse. Here they were followed and attacked by the French; who, though defeated in that attempt, were with difficulty prevented from making themselves masters of Munster and Brunswick. All this time an appearance of ne

gociation had been carried on; until the French, at last, having brought their designs with the court of Spain to an issue, Mr. Bussey delivered to Mr. Pitt a memorial, signifying that, in order to establish the peace on a lasting foundation, the king of Spain might be induced to guarantee the treaty: and, to prevent the differences which then subsisted between Britain and Spain from producing a fresh war in Europe, he proposed that, in this negociation, the three points which had been disputed between the crowns of England and Spain might be finally settled:-1. The restitution of some captures made upon the Spanish flag; 2. The privilege of the Spanish nation to fish upon the banks of Newfoundland; 3. The demolition of the English settlements made in the bay of Honduras. Mr. Pitt in reply, however, declared that it would be considered as an affront to the dignity of his master, and incompatible with the sincerity of negociation, to make any farther mention of such a proposal; and, being now thoroughly convinced of the sinister designs of Spain, he proposed immediately to declare war against that kingdom. On this proposal being rejected, he resigned: after which he was created earl of Chatham, and had a pension of £3000 per annum settled upon him for three lives.

Soon after this, however, the new administration found it necessary to declare war against Spain. This involved our ally, Portugal; the French and Spaniards resolving to attack that kingdom, which was then in no capacity to defend itself. Joseph, the Portuguese monarch, was, by the most haughty memorials, commanded to accede to the confederacy against Britain, and threatened with the vengeance of France and Spain in case of refusal. In vain he promised to observe a strict neutrality, and urged the obligations he was under to the king of Britain; this moderate and reasonable reply only drew on more haughty and insulting answers. This prince, however, continued to reject their proposals in the most resolute manner; and concluded his final declaration by observing that it would affect him less, though reduced to the last extremity, of which the great Judge is the sole arbiter, to let the last tile of his palace fall, and to see his faithful subjects spill the last drop of their blood, than to sacrifice the honor of his crown, and to submit, by such extraordinary means, to become an unheard of example to all pacific powers.' As the design of the courts of France and Spain, in making war with Portugal, was professedly to deprive Great Britain of the military and commercial use of the ports of that kingdom, their principal efforts were directed against the two great ports of Oporto and Lisbon. With this view three inroads were made into that country, one to the north, another more to the south, and the third in the middle provinces. The first body of troops was commanded by the marquis of Savria; and entered the north-east angle of Portugal, marching towards Miranda; where, a powdermagazine having been blown up by accident, the Spaniards entered on the 9th of May by the breaches made by the explosion. Thence they marched to Braganza, which surrendered six days after Miranda. Moncorvo was taken in like manner :

every thing was clear before them to the banks of the Douro; and they became masters of almost the whole extensive province of Tralos Montes. Oporto was now considered as lost, and the admiralty prepared transports to carry off the effects of the British merchants. On the banks of the Douro, however, the career of the enemy was stopped. The peasants, animated and guided by some British officers, seized a difficult pass, and drove the enemy back to Moncorvo. The second body of Spaniards entered the province of Beira, at the villages called Val de Mulo and Val de Coelha, and laid siege to Almeida, the strongest and best provided place on the frontiers of Portugal. This place was defended with sufficient resolution; but was obliged to surrender on the 25th of August. The Spaniards then over-ran the whole territory of Castel Branco, a principal district of Beira, making their way southward to the banks of the Tagus. During their whole progress, and indeed during the whole of the campaign, the allied troops of Great Britain and Portugal had nothing that could be called an army in the field. All that could be done was by the defence of passes, and skirmishes. The third Spanish army had assembled on the frontiers of Estremadura, with a design to invade the province of Alentejo. To prevent this, brigadier general Burgoyne was despatched to attack an advanced body on the frontiers, in the town of Valentia de Alcantara. On the 27th of August the town was surprised; the Spanish general taken, who was intended to command in the invasion, together with one colonel, two captains, and seventeen subaltern officers; one of the best regiments in the Spanish service was also entirely destroyed. Colonel Lee harassed their subsequent attempts in this directions: until, the season being far advanced, immense quantities of rain fell; the roads were destroyed, and the Spaniards, having seized no advanced posts, where they could maintain themselves, and being unprovided with magazines, every where fell back into Spain.

No less successful were the British arms in America and the East Indies. From the French were taken the islands of Martinico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Granada; from the Spaniards the strong fortress of Havannah, in Cuba. By the acquisition of the first mentioned islands, the British became the sole and undisturbed possessors of all the Carribees; and that chain of innumerable islands which extend from the eastern point of Hispaniola to the continent of South America. The conquest of the Havannah cost a number of brave men, but more were destroyed by the climate than the enemy. Nine of the enemy's men of war, with four frigates, were taken here; three of their capital ships were sunk in the harbour at the beginning of the siege, and two more on the stocks, in great forwardness, were destroyed. In money and valuable merchandise, the plunder did not fall short of £3,000,000 sterling. To this success in the western part of the world may be added the capture of the Spanish register-ship, called Hermione, supposed to be worth £1,000,000 sterling, by the Active and Favorite, king's ships. This happened on the 21st of May, 1762, just as she

was entering one of the ports of Old Spain. In the East Indies an expedition was undertaken against the Philippine Islands, which was committed to colonel Draper, who arrived for this purpose at Madras in the end of June 1762. The seventy-ninth regiment was the only regular corps that could be spared for this service. Every thing was conducted with the greatest celerity and judgment. The British forces landed on Manilla on the 24th of Sept.; on the 6th of October the governor surrendered at discretion; and soon after the galleon bound from Manilla to Acapulco, laden with rich merchandise to the value of more than half a million, was taken by the Argo and Panther frigates. By the conquest of Manilla, fourteen considerable islands fell into the hands of the British; which, from their extent, fertility, and convenience of commerce, furnished the materials of a great kingdom. By this acquisition, also, joined to our former successes, we secured all the avenues of the Spanish trade, and interrupted all communication between the parts of their vast but unconnected empire. The conquest of the Havannah had cut off in a great measure the intercourse of their wealthy continental colonies with Europe: the reduction of the Philippines excluded them from Asia; while the plunder taken was far more than sufficient to indemnify the charges of the expeditions. All this time the war in Germany had been prosecuted with the utmost vigor; the allies under prince Ferdinand had continued to give the highest proofs of their valor, but no decisive advantage could be obtained against the French. It was, therefore, no longer the interest of Britain to continue a destructive war; and the French and Spaniards were desirous of a peace which was at length concluded at Paris on the 10th of February, 1763. The terms granted the enemy were but too favorable. The principal were, That the French king should relinquish all claims to Nova Scotia; that he should likewise give up all Canada; and that, for the future, the boundary betwixt the British and French dominions in America should be fixed by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Ibberville; and thence by a line along the middle of this river, and the lakes Manrepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea. The islands of St. Pierre, Miquelon, Martinico, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Desirade, St. Lucia, and Belle-isle, were restored to France; Minorca, Granada, and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago, were ceded to Britain. In Africa, the island of Goree was restored to France; and the river Senegal, with all its forts and dependencies ceded to Great Britain. In the East Indies, all the forts and factories taken from the French were restored. In Europe, the fortifications of Dunkirk were to be destroyed; and all the countries, fortresses, &c., belonging to the elector of Hanover, the duke of Brunswick, and the count of La Lippe Buckeburg, restored. With regard to Spain, the British fortifications on the Bay of Honduras were to be demolished; and the Spaniards were to desist from their claim of a right to fish on the Newfoundland bank. The Havannah was restored; in consequence of which, Florida, St.

Augustine, and the bay of Pensacola, were ceded to Britain, and the Spaniards were to make peace with Portugal; all other countries not particularly mentioned were to be restored to their respective owners at the beginning of the war. The conclusion of the war did not by any means tend to heal those domestic divisions, which had arisen on the resignation of Mr. Pitt; on the contrary, it furnished abundant matter of complaint for the discontented party. At the time the treaty was under consideration, however, only some faint attempts were made to oppose it; but it soon appeared, that, though this opposition had proved so feeble, the spirit of the party was far from being exhausted. The state of affairs at that time indeed greatly favored the views of those who opposed the ministry. A long and expensive war had drained the national treasure, and greatly increased the public debt. Heavy taxes had already been imposed, and it was still as necessary to keep up these, and even to impose new ones, as if the war had not ceased. Thus the bulk of the nation, who imagined that conquest and riches ought to go hand in hand, were easily induced to believe that administration arbitrary and oppressive, which continued to load them with fresh taxes, after such great successes as had attended the British arms. It must be owned, that the new administration were not sufficiently wary in this respect. Among other methods of raising the supplies for 1763, they had thought proper to lay a duty of 4s. per hogshead upon cyder, payable by the maker, and to be collected in the same manner as other excise imposts. The other articles of supply furnished also matter of declamation for the members in opposition; but this inflamed the popular fury to a great degree, and made them readily imbibe as truth whatever was thrown out by the minority. Besides the usual statements, that it was oppressive, unconstitutional, and injurious to the land-holder and farmer, the smallness of the sum to be raised by it was now urged. This was said to indicate, that the supplying the wants of government could not be the sole motive for imposing such a duty. The city of London, therefore, instructed their representatives to oppose the passing of the bill with all possible vigor, and sent in petitions against it to each branch of the legislature; a measure till that time totally unprecedented: two protests were also entered against it in the house of lords; in short, all England was thrown into a ferment on the subject. Virulent libels, the audacity of which far exceeded any thing known in former times, now made their appearance: and such was the general intemperance in this respect, that it would be difficult to determine which side paid least regard to any kind of decency or decorum. In the midst of this general ferment, the earl of Bute unexpectedly resigned his place of first lord of the treasury.

The popular resentment against government was not, however, in the least abated by lord Bute's resignation. His lordship, though withdrawn from the ostensible administration of affairs, was still considered as principal director of the cabinet; and this opinion gained the more ground, as none of the popular leaders were ad

mitted, nor any other change made in the conduct of administration. Not that moderate men could find any reasonable objection to those who filled the great offices of state. Mr. Gren ville, who succeeded the earl of Bute in the treasury, was a man of acknowledged integrity, understanding, and experience. Lord Holland was universally considered as an able statesman, and lord Egremont, the third secretary, though he had not been long in office, conciliated the esteem of all parties. The other departments were filled in a similar manner; yet the discontents and public clamors were not diminished. It was still insisted that a secret cabinet of the king's friends, as they were called, controlled every thing: and that, according to the spirit of the constitution, the crown should be directed in the choice of its ministers by motives of national utility, not by private friendship. When ministers found themselves recommended to the royal favor, and as it were presented to their places by the esteem of the people, they would be studious it was said, to deserve and secure themselves ir. it; and that upon these (which were called the principles of whigs) the government had been honorably conducted since the revolution. The disposition to libel and invective, in the mean time, exceeded all bounds. The peace, the Scots and Scottified administration, afforded such suv jects of abuse to the patriots, real and pretended, that ministry resolved at last to make an example of one of them. The paper called the North Briton, in language much superior to any other political work of the time, except Junius's Letters, had abused the king, the ministry, and the Scots in an extravagant manner. One particular paper, No. XLV., was deemed by those in power to be actionable, and John Wilkes, Esq. M. P. for Aylesbury, was supposed to be the author. A secretary of state's warrant was therefore issued for apprehending the author, publishers, &c., of this performance, but without mentioning Wilkes's name. Three messengers accordingly entered his house on the night of the 29th of April, 1763, with an intention to seize him. He objected, however, to the legality of the warrant, because his name was not mentioned in it, and to the lateness of the hour; and they thought proper to retire for the night. Next morning he was apprehended with some violence, and taken before the secretaries of state for examination. On the first intimation of Mr. Wilkes's being in custody, application was made for a writ of habeas corpus. In the interim his papers were seized, and, after it was ascertained that the writ was obtained, he was committed to the tower. Here not only his friends, but several noblemen and gentlemen of the first distinction, were denied access; nor was even his own brother allowed to see him. On the 3d of May he was brought before the court of common pleas, where he made a most patriotic speech, setting forth the love he had for his majesty, the bad conduct of ministry, with his own particular grievances; and that he had been treated worse than a Scotch rebel.' His case being argued by several eminent lawyers, he was remanded to the tower for three days; after which he was ordered to be finally brought up. Next day lord Temple re