BRITAIN. 



Britain. 



C; DECK II. 



Mr Pitt a- 

 gnin"dis- 

 aiissed ; 



biit soon 

 after re- 

 called. 



Affairs in 

 ( Germany. 



Changes 

 among the 

 allied pow- 

 crs. 



s:ve state of quarrel with its lower and baser ingre- 

 dients, the subservient creatures of the court, who 

 had been allowed to remain in it. The favourite 

 project of the king, for strengthening the army in 

 Germany with large reinforcements from England, 

 was not agreeable to the patriotic ministers Pitt and 

 Legge. His majesty, irritated by their opposition, 

 at length resolved upon an effort to relieve himself 

 from their controul ; and in April 1757, they were 

 suddenly dismissed from their offices, the chancellor- 

 ship of the exchequer being consigned, pro temporc, 

 to the chief justice of England. Mr Fox again took 

 the lead in affairs ; but the alarm of the nation at the 

 dismission of the popular ministers was lively and 

 undisguised. Mr Fox, perceiving it impossible to 

 stem the torrent, wisely consulted the monarch to 

 yield to the wishes of the people. And in June Mr 

 Pitt resumed the seals of secretary of state ; Mr 

 Legge and the Duke of Newcastle their former sta- 

 tions at the board of treasury ; Lord Anson was 

 placed at the head of the admiralty ; and Mr Fux 

 himself, acceding to the new order of things, was 

 gratified with the lucrative office of paymaster-gene- 

 ral of the army. 



The recal of Mr Pitt to the helm of affairs, pro- 

 duced, in a few years, the most successful efforts of 

 national vigour that ever were made ; but the tide of 

 did not immediately change. An ineffectual 

 attc.npt was made upon Rochefort by a naval, land, 

 and marine force, under Sir Edward Hawke and Sir 

 John Mordannt, in which the commanders had no 

 other success than that of reducing the little island 

 of Aix, after which they returned immediately to 

 England. But the indignation of the country could 

 attach no blame to the administration that planned 

 this enterprize ; the whole fell upon its immediate 

 conductors. In Germany, affairs were not more for- 

 tunate. There, the Duke of Cumberland, at the 

 h'-:id if 50,000 confederates, was opposed to the 

 Mareschal d'Etrees, the French commander, whom 

 he suffered to cross the Weser without disputing the 

 passage, and before whose forces he ordered his own 

 to retreat, before the battle of Hastenback was irre- 

 trievably lost. Retreating after this engagement, the 

 duke was enclosed between the German Sea, the 

 Elbe, and the Weser ; and in September was obli- 

 ged, at Cloister- Seven, to sign the disgraceful capi- 

 tulation known by that name, by which his Hessians, 

 Hanoverians, and Brunswickers, to 'the number of 

 40,000, were obliged to disarm and disband. 



By this time the King of Britain had thought pro- 

 per to drop the connection of Russia to obtain that 

 of Prussia. From this choice a new combination 

 took place among the European powers, quite oppo- 

 site to the former state of things, and the forces of 

 the different powers were thus drawn out : Britain 

 opposed France in America, Asia, and on the ocean. 

 France attacked Hanover, which the King of Prus- 

 sia undertook to protect, while Britain .furnished 

 troops and money to second his operations. Austria 

 had fixed her aims on the dominions of Prussia, and 

 drew the Elector of Saxony into the same designs. 

 In these views the Austrians were seconded by 

 France, Sweden, and Russia, the last of which 



powers had hopes f acquiring a settlement in the 

 west of Europe. 



The war, however, soon took a brighter tirn. In 

 America, General Amherst concerted with General 

 Abercrombie a spirited and judicious plan uf opi ra- 

 tions for the campaign- of 1758. Conveyed by :he 

 fleet of Admiral Boscawen, he took Louisburg, w th 

 the whole island of Cape Breton, and a fleet of MX 

 French ships that lay anchored in the harbour. Ge- 

 neral Abercrombie, who undertook to reduce all the 

 enemy's forts on- the lakes George and Champlain, 

 was at first dispirited by a repulse which he sustain- 

 ed at Tjconderago ; but detachments of his army, 

 under Colonel Bradstrict and General Forbes, sepa- 

 rately, reduced the forts Frontenac and Du Quesne ; 

 and in October of the same year peace was establish- 

 ed, by a formal treaty, between Great Britain and 

 the Indians inhabiting the rich and fertile plains be- 

 tween the lakes and the Ohio. In the succeeding 

 year, Ticonderago itself surrendered, and fort Nia- 

 gara capitulated to General Johnson. 



But by far the most difficult part of General Am 

 herst's plan, the reduction of Quebec, was intrusted 

 to General Wolfe. In the month of June 1759, the 

 armament, destined for the invasion of Canada, arri 

 ved at the island of Orleans, formed by the branchi s 

 of the river St Lawrence, and extending to the bason 

 of Quebec. On the left of this river were posted 

 10,000 French, under General Muntcalm, who re- 

 pulsed the British in an attempt to pass from the 

 island of Orleans ; bu': the disappointment, though it 

 sunk deep in the haughty spirit of the British com- 

 mander, did not prevent him from trying the only 

 effort that remained to be tried, one transcendently 

 bold and admirably executed. To deceive the ene- 

 my, he moved up the river several leagues beyond 

 the spot fixed on for landing ; but, during the night, 

 he fell down with the stream, in order to protect the 

 disembarking of the troops, which was happily ac- 

 complished in silence and secrecy. The precipi- 

 tous heights of Abraham were next ascended ; and, 

 with infinite labour and difficulty, the troops sus- 

 taining themselves by the rugged projection of the 

 rocks, and by boughs of trees and plants, which 

 sprang from its clefts, gained the summit, and form- 

 ed in order of battle. Montcalm immediately has- 

 tened with his army, from his camp at Montmorenci, 

 and gave battle to the British to save the town. 

 Wolfe, advancing at the head of the grenadier?, was 

 at first slightly wounded in the wrist, by a bull from 

 one of the enemy's marksmen ; he continued, how- 

 ever, to give orders, inattentive to the wound, with a 

 handkerchief wrapt round his wrist, till a second 

 shot pierced his breast. Expiring in the arms of vic- 

 tory, he had but time to learn that the enemy fled. 

 The generals Moncton and Townsend continued the 

 fight, after the fatal wound of their commander! 

 with unabated ardour. The death of Montcalm, 

 the French commander, who also received a mortal 

 wound, was fatal to the enemy. They gave w;iy on 

 all sides. The city of Quebec, though provided 

 with the means of defence, surrendered in consterna- 

 tion, and the shattered remains of the French army 

 retreated to Montreal. The Fresch made a vigorous 



Brits 



Wol 



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Deal 



Woll 



