was actually upon the anvil between his Britannic majesty and the czarina, and he began to be apprehensive of seeing an army of Russians in the Netherlands. His fears from this quarter were not without foundation. In the month of November, the earl of Hyndford, ambassador from the king of Great Britain at the court of Russia, concluded 1 a treaty of subsidy, by which the czarina, engaged to hold in readiness thirty thousand men, and forty galleys, to be employed in the service of the confederates, on the first requisition. The states general acceded to this agreement, and even consented to pay one fourth of the subsidy. His most christian majesty, moved by these considerations, made further advances towards an accommodation both at the Hague and in London; and the contending powers agreed to another congress, which was actually opened in March at Aix-la-Chapelle, where the earl of Sandwich and sir Thomas Robinson assisted as plenipotentiaries from the king of Great Britain.

XXIX. The elections for the new parliament in England had been conducted so as fully to answer the purposes of the duke of Newcastle, and his brother Mr. Pelham, who had for some time wholly engrossed the administration. Both houses were assembled on the tenth day of November, when Mr. Onslow was unanimously reelected speaker of the commons. The session was opened as usual, by a speech from the throne, congratulating them on the signal successes of the British navy, and the happy. alteration in the government of the United Provinces. His majesty gave them to understand, that a congress would speedily be opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, to concert the means for effecting a general pacification; and reminded them that nothing would more conduce to the success of this negotiation than the vigour and unanimity of their proceedings. He received such addresses as the ministers were pleased to dictate. Opposition now languished at their feet. The duke of Bedford was become a courtier, and in a little time appointed secretary of state, in the room of the earl of Chesterfield, who had lately executed that office, which he now resigned; and the earl of Sandwich no longer harangued against the administration. This new house of commons, in imitation of the liberality VOL. III.

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of their predecessors, readily gratified all the requests of the government. They voted forty thousand seamen, forty nine thousand land forces, besides eleven thousand five hundred marines; the subsidies for the queen of Hungary, the czarina, the king of Sardinia, the electors of Mentz and Bavaria, the Hessians, and the duke of Wolfenbuttle: the sum of two hundred thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-nine pounds was granted to the provinces of New England, to reimburse them for the expense of reducing Cape Breton: five hundred thousand pounds were given to his majesty for the vigorous prosecution of the war; and about one hundred and fifty-two thousand pounds to the Scottish claimants in lieu of their jurisdiction. The supplies for the ensuing year fell very little short of nine millions, of which the greater part was raised on a loan by subscription, chargeable on a new subsidy of poundage exacted from all merchandise imported into Great Britain. Immediately after the rebellion was suppressed the legislature had established some regulations in Scotland, which were thought necessary to prevent such commotions for the future. The Highlanders were disarmed, and an act passed, for abolishing their peculiarity of garb, which was supposed to keep up party distinctions, to encourage their martial disposition, and preserve the memory of the exploits achieved by their ancestors. In this session a bill was brought in to inforce the execution of that law, and passed with another act for the more effectual punishment of high treason in the Highlands of Scotland. The practice of insuring French and Spanish ships at London being deemed the sole circumstance that prevented a total stagnation of commerce in those countries, it was prohibited by law under severe penalties; and this step of the British parliament accelerated the conclusion of the treaty. Several other prudent measures were taken in the course of this session, for the benefit of the public; and among these we may reckon an act for encouraging the: manufacture of indigo in the British plantations of North America; an article for which Great Britain used to pay two hundred thousand pounds yearly to the subjects of France. 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 Aixla-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.

§ XXX. 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 Rus sian auxiliaries might have been transported beyond 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 expe ditious 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

* An. 1748.

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 Maestricht 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 footguards were not embarked till the middle of August.

6. XXXI. The different bodies of the confederate forces joined each other, and encamped in the neighbourhood of Ruremond, 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 d'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 hither, 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 mean time sevenand-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 Richelieu, 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 Riviera, 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 reenter the eastern Riviera, 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.