2-32 ENGLAND. 



at Rochefort under general sir John Mordaunt, who was to command 

 the land troops. Nothing could be more promising than the disposi- 

 tions for this expedition. It sailed on the 8th of September 1757; 

 but admiral Hawke brought both the sea and land forces back on the 

 6th of October, to St. Helen's, without any attempt having been made 

 to land on the coast of France. 



The French having attacked the electorate of Hanover with a most 

 powerful army, the English parliament voted large supplies of men 

 and money in defence of the electoral dominions. The duke of (Cum- 

 berland had been sent thither to command an army of observation, 

 but was so powerfully pressed by a superior army, that he found him- 

 self obliged to lay down his arms ; and the French, under the duke 

 of Richelieu, took possession of that electorate and its capital. At 

 this time, a scarcity, next to a famine, raged in England ; and the 

 Hessian troops, who, With the Hanoverians, had been sent to defend 

 the kingdom from an invasion threatened by the French, remained 

 still in England. So many difficulties concurring, in 1758 a treaty of 

 mutual defence was agreed to between his majesty and the king of 

 Prussia : in consequence of which, the parliament voted 670,000/. to 

 his Prussian majesty ; and also large sums, amounting in the whole 

 to nearly two millions a year, for the payment of 50,000 of the troops 

 of Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Saxe-Gotha, Wolfenbuttle, and Bucke- 

 burg. 



George II, with the consent of his Prussian majesty, declaring that 

 the French had violated the convention concluded between them and 

 the duke of Cumberland at Closterseven, ordered his Hanoverian 

 subjects to resume their arms, under prince Ferdinand of Bruns- 

 wick, a Prussian general, who instantly drove the French out of Ha- 

 nover : and the duke of Marlborough, after the English had repeat- 

 edly insulted the French coasts by destroying their stores and ship- 

 ping at St. Malo and Cherbourg, marched into Germany, and joined 

 prince Ferdinand with 12,000 British troops, which were afterwards 

 increased to 25,000. The English every where performed wonders* 

 and were every where victorious : but nothing decisive followed ; and 

 the enemy opened every campaign with advantage. Even the battle 

 of Minden, the most glorious perhaps in the English annals, in which 

 about 7000 English defeated 80,000 of the French regular troops, 

 contributed nothing to the conclusion of the war, or towards weaken- 

 ing the French in Germany. 



The English affairs this year proved equally fortunate in the East. 

 Indies, where admiral Pococke gained considerable advantages over 

 the French fleet; and general Lally, having besieged Madras, was 

 obliged to raise the siege, and retire with precipitation, leaving be- 

 hind him forty pieces of cannon. 



The year 1759 was introduced by the taking of the island of Go- 

 ree, on the coast of Africa, by commodore Keppel. Three great 

 expeditions had been planned for this year in America, and all of 

 them proved successful. One of them was against the French islands 

 in the West Indies, where Guadaloupe was reduced. The second 

 expedition was against Quebec, the capital of Canada. The command 

 was given, by the minister's advice, to general Wolfe, a young offi- 

 cer of a truly military genius. Wolfe was opposed, with far superior 

 force, by Montcalme, the best and most successful general the French 

 had. Though the situation of the country which Wolfe was to attack, 

 and the works the French threw up to prevent a descent of the Eng- 



