1746.

21

the French East India company, might be surprised; or, that this invasion would alarm the enemy, and, by making a diversion, facilitate the operations of the Austrian general in Provence.

The

§ XV. The naval force intended for the service consisted of sixteen great ships, and eight frigates, besides bombketches and storeships, commanded by Richard Lestock, appointed admiral of the blue division. Six battalions of land troops, with a detachment of matrosses and bombardiers, were embarked in thirty transports, under the conduct of lieutenant general Sinclair; and the whole fleet set sail for Plymouth on the fourteenth day of September. On the twentieth the troops were landed in Quimperlay bay, at the distance of ten miles from port L'Orient. militia, reinforced by some detachments from different regiments, were assembled to the number of two thousand, and seemed resolved to oppose the disembarkation: but, seeing the British troops determined to land at all events, they thought proper to retire. Next day general Sinclair advanced into the country, skirmishing with the enemy in his route; and arriving at the village of Plemure, within half a league from port L'Orient, summoned that place to surrender. He was visited by a deputation from the town, which offered to admit the British forces, on condition that they should be restrained from pillaging the inhabitants, and touching the magazines; and that they should pay a just price for their provisions. These terms being rejected, the inhabitants prepared for a vigorous defence; and the English general resolved to besiege the place in form, though he had neither time, artillery, nor forces sufficient for such an enterprise. This strange resolution was owing to the declaration of the engineers, who promised to lay the place in ashes in the space of four-and-twenty hours. All his cannon amounted to no more than a few fieldpieces; and he was obliged to wait for two iron guns, which the sailors dragged up from the shipping. Had he given the assault on the first night after his arrival, when the town was filled with terror and confusion, and destitute of regular troops, in all probability it would have been easily taken by scalade but the reduction of it was rendered impracticable by his delay. The ramparts were mounted with can

non from the ships in the harbour: new works were raised with great industry: the garrison was reinforced by several bodies of regular troops; and great numbers were assembling from all parts; so that the British forces were in danger of being surrounded in an enemy's country. Notwithstanding these discouragements, they opened a small battery against the town, which was set on fire in several places by their bombs and red hot bullets: they likewise repulsed part of the garrison which had made a sally to destroy their works: but their cannon producing no effect upon the fortifications, the fire from the town. daily increasing, the engineers owning they could not perform their promise, and admiral Lestock declaring, in repeated messages, that he could no longer expose the ships on an open coast at such a season of the year, general Sinclair abandoned the siege. Having caused the two iron pieces of cannon and the mortars to be spiked, he retreated in good order to the seaside, where his troops were reembarked, having sustained very inconsiderable damage since their first landing. He expected reinforcements from England, and was resolved to wait a little longer for their arrival, in hopes of being able to annoy the enemy more effectually. In the beginning of October the fleet sailed to Quiberon bay, where they destroyed the Ardent, a French ship of war of sixty-four guns and a detachment of the forces being landed, took possession of a fort on the peninsula; while the little islands of Houat and Heydic were reduced by the sailors. In this situation the admiral and general continued till the seventeeth day of the month, when the forts being dismantled, and the troops reembarked, the fleets sailed from the French coast: the admiral returned to England, and the transports with the soldiers proceeded to Ireland, where they arrived in safety.

§ XVI. This expedition, weak and frivolous as it may seem, was resented by the French nation as one of the greatest insults they had ever sustained; and demonstrated the possibility of hurting France in her tenderest parts, by means of an armament of this nature, well timed, and vigorously conducted. Indeed, nothing could be more absurd or precipitate than an attempt to distress the enemy by landing a handful of troops, without draft horses, tents, or

artillery, from a fleet of ships lying on an open beach, exposed to the uncertainty of weather in the most tempestuous season of the year, so as to render the retreat and reembarkation altogether precarious. The British squadrons in the West Indies performed no exploit of consequence in the course of this year. The commerce was but indifferently protected. Commodore Lee, stationed off Martinico, allowed a French fleet of merchant ships, and their convoy, to pass by his squadron unmolested; and commodore Mitchel behaved scandalously in a rencontre with the French squadron, under the conduct of monsieur de Conflans, who in his return to Europe took the Severn, an English ship of fifty guns. The cruisers on all sides, English, French, and Spaniards, were extremely alert; and though the English lost the greater number of ships, this difference was more than overbalanced by the superior value of the prizes taken from the enemy. In the course of this year two-and-twenty Spanish privateers, and sixty-six merchant vessels, including ten register ships, fell into the hands of the British cruisers: from the French they took seven ships of war, ninety privateers, and about three hundred ships of commerce. The new king of Spain' being supposed well affected to the British nation, an effort was made to detach him from the interest of France, by means of the marquis de Tabernega, who had formerly been his favourite, and resided many years as a refugee in England. This nobleman preceeded to Lisbon, where a negotiation was set on foot with the count of Madrid. But his efforts miscarried: and the influence of the queen mother continued to predominate in the Spanish counsels. The states general had for some years endeavoured to promote a pacification by remonstrances, and even entreaties, at the court of Versailles: the French king at length discovered an inclination to peace, and in September a congress was opened at Breda, the capital of Dutch Brabant, where the plenipotentiaries

r In the month of July, Philip king of Spain, dying in the sixty-third year of his age, was succeeded by his eldest son Ferdinand, born of Maria Louisa Gabriela, sister to the late king of Sardinia. He espoused Donna Maria Magdalena, infanta of Portugal, but had no issue. Philip was but two days survived by his daughter, the dauphiness of France. The same month was remarkable for the death of Christiern VI. king of Denmark, succeeded by his son Frederick V. who had married the princess Louisa, youngest daughter to the king of Great Britain.

of the emperor, Great Britain, France, and Holland, were assembled: but the French were so insolent in their demands, that the conferences were soon interrupted.

§ XVII. The parliament of Great Britain meeting in November, the king exhorted them to concert with all possible expedition the proper measures for pursuing the war with vigour, that the confederate army in the Netherlands might be seasonably augmented; he, likewise, gave them to understand, that the funds appropriated for the support of his civil government had for some years past fallen short of the revenue intended and granted by parliament; and said he relied on their known affection to find out some method to make good this deficiency. As all those who had conducted the opposition were now concerned in the administration, little or no objection was made to any demand or proposal of the government and its ministers. The commons having considered the estimates, voted forty thousand seamen for the service of the ensuing year, and about sixty thousand land forces, including eleven thousand five hundred marines. They granted four hundred and thirty-three thousand pounds to the empress queen of Hungary; three hundred thousand pounds to the king of Sardinia; four hundred and ten thousand pounds for the maintenance of eighteen thousand Hanoverian auxiliaries; one hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred and seven pounds for six thousand Hessians; subsidies to the electors of Cologn, Mentz, and Bavaria; and the sum of five hundred thousand pounds to enable his majesty to prosecute the war with advantage. In a word, the supplies amounted to nine millions four hundred twenty-five thousand two hundred and fifty-four pounds; a sum almost incredible, if we consider how the kingdom had been already drained of its treasure. It was raised by the usual taxes, reinforced with new impositions on windows, carriages, and spirituous liquors, a lottery, and a loan from the sinking fund. The new taxes were mortgaged for four millions by transferable annuities, at an interest of four, and a premium of ten per centum. By reflecting on these enormous grants, one would imagine the ministry had been determined to impoverish the nation: but, from the eagerness and expedition with which the people subscribed for the money, one would

conclude that the riches of the kingdom were inexhaustible. It may not be amiss to observe, that the supplies of this year exceeded, by two millions and a half, the greatest annual sum that was raised during the reign of queen Anne, though she maintained as great a number of troops as was now in the pay of Great Britain, and her armies and fleets. acquired every year fresh harvests of glory and advantage: whereas this war had proved an almost uninterrupted series of events big with disaster and dishonour. During

the last two years, the naval expense of England had exceeded that of France about five millions sterling: though her fleets had not obtained one signal advantage over the enemy at sea, nor been able to protect her commerce from their depredations. She was at once a prey to her declared adversaries and professed friends. Before the end of summer she numbered among her mercenaries two empresses, five German princes, and a powerful monarch, whom she hired to assist her in trimming the balance of Europe, in which they themselves were immediately interested, and she had no more than a secondary concern. Had these fruitless subsidies been saved; had the national revenue been applied with economy to national purposes; had it been employed in liquidating gradually the public incumbrances; in augmenting the navy, improving manufactures, encouraging and securing the colonies, and extending trade and navigation; corruption would have become altogether unnecessary, and disaffection would have vanished: the people would have been eased of their burdens, and ceased to complain: commerce would have flourished, and produced such affluence as must have raised Great Britain to the highest pinnacle of maritime power, above all rivalship or competition. She would have been dreaded by her enemies; revered by her neighbours: oppressed nations would have crept under her wings for protection; contending potentates would have appealed to her decision; and she would have shone the universal arbitress of Europe. How different is her present situation! her debts are enormous, her taxes intolerable, her people discontented, and the sinews of her government relaxed. Without conduct, confidence, or concert, she engages in blundering negotiations she involves herself rashly in foreign quarrels, VQL. III

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