Rhine by the recovery of Silesia, but to reward the Saxons for their seasonable help by giving them part of the Prussian dominions. In the beginning of the year 1745, died the Emperor Charles of Bavaria; the treaty of Francfort was consequently at an end; and the King of Prussia, being no longer able to maintain the character of auxiliary to the emperor, and having avowed no other reason for the war, might have honourably withdrawn his forces, and on his own principles have complied with terms of peace; but no terms were offered him; the queen pursued him with the utmost ardour of hostility, and the French left him to his own conduct and his own destiny. His Bohemian conquests were already lost; and he was now chased back into Silesia, where, at the beginning of the year, the war continued in an equilibration by alternate losses and advantages. In April, the Elector of Bavaria seeing his dominions over-run by the Austrians, and receiving very little succour from the French, made a peace with the Queen of Hungary upon easy conditions, and the Austrians had more troops to employ against Prussia. The But the revolutions of war will not suffer human presumption to remain long unchecked. peace with Bavaria was scarcely concluded when the battle of Fontenoy was lost, and all the allies of Austria called upon her to exert her utmost power for the preservation of the Low Countries; and, a few days after the loss at Fontenoy, the first battle between the Prussians and the combined army of Austrians and Saxons was fought at Niedburg, in Silesia. The particulars of this battle were variously re ported by the different parties, and published in the journals of that time; to transcribe them would be tedious and useless, because accounts of battles are not easily understood, and because there are no means of determining to which of the relations credit should be given. It is sufficient that they all end in claiming or allowing a complete victory to the King of Prussia, who gained all the Austrian artillery, killed four thousand, took seven thousand prisoners, with the loss, according to the Prussian narrative, of only sixteen hundred men. He now advanced again into Bohemia, where, however, he made no great progress. The Queen of Hungary, though defeated, was not subdued. She poured in her troops from all parts to the reinforcement of Prince Charles, and determined to continue the struggle with all her power. The king saw that Bohemia was an unpleasing and inconvenient theatre of war, in which he should be ruined by a miscarriage, and should get little by a victory. Saxony was left defenceless, and, if it was conquered, might be plundered. He therefore published a declaration against the Elector of Saxony, and, without waiting for reply, invaded his dominions. This invasion produced another battle at Standentz, which ended, as the former, to the advantage of the Prussians. The Austrians had some advantage in the beginning; and their irregular troops, who are always daring, and are always ravenous, broke into the Prussian camp, and carried away the military chest. But this was easily repaired by the spoils of Saxony. The Queen of Hungary was still inflexible, and hoped that fortune would at last change. She recruited once more her army, and prepared to in vade the territories of Brandenburg; but the King of Prussia's activity prevented all her designs. One part of his forces seized Leipsic, and the other once more defeated the Saxons; the King of Poland fled from his dominions, Prince Charles retired into Bohemia. The King of Prussia entered Dresden as a conqueror, exacted very severe contributious from the whole country, and the Austrians and Saxons were at last compelled to receive from him such a peace as he would grant. He imposed no severe conditions except the payment of the contributions, made no new claim of dominions, and, with the Elector Palatine, acknowledged the Duke of Tuscany for emperor. The lives of princes, like the histories of nations, have their periods. We shall here suspend our narrative of the King of Prussia, who was now at the height of human greatness, giving laws to his enemies, and courted by all the powers of Europe. BROWNE. seems THOUGH the writer of the following ESSAYS to have had the fortune, common among men of letters, of raising little curiosity after his private life, and has, therefore, few memorials preserved of his felicities and misfortunes; yet, because an edition of a posthumous work appears imperfect and neglected, without some account of the author, it * "Christian Morals," first printed in 1756. H. was thought necessary to attempt the gratification of that curiosity which naturally inquires by what peculiarities of nature or fortune eminent men have been distinguished, how uncommon attainments have been gained, and what influence learning had on its possessors, or virtue on its teachers. SIR THOMAS BROWNE was born at London, in the parish of St. Michael, in Cheapside, on the 19th of October, 1605*. His father was a merchant, of an ancient family at Upton, in Cheshire. Of the name or family of his mother I find no account. Of his childhood or youth there is little known, except that he lost his father very early; that he was, according to the common fate of orphans, defrauded by one of his guardians; and that he was placed for his education at the school of Winchester. His mother, having taken three thousand pounds as the third part of her husband's property, left her son, by consequence, six thousand, a large fortune for a man destined to learning at that time, when commerce had not yet filled the nation with nominal riches. But it happened to him, as to many others, to be made poor by opulence; for his mother soon married Sir Thomas Dutton, probably by the inducement of her fortune; and he was left to the rapacity of his guardian, deprived now of both his parents, and therefore helpless and unprotected. He was removed in the beginning of the year *Life of Sir Thomas Browne, prefixed to the Antiquities of Norwich. +Whitefoot's character of Sir Thomas Browne, in a marginal Life of Sir Thomas Browne. note. 1623, from Winchester to Oxford*, and entered a gentleman-commoner of Broadgate-Hall, which was soon afterwards endowed, and took the name of Pembroke-college, from the Earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the University. He was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, January 31, 1626-7; being, as Wood remarks, the first man of eminence graduated from the new college, to which the zeal or gratitude of those that love it most can wish little better than that it may long proceed as it began. Having afterwards taken his degree of Master of Arts, he turned his studies to physick, and practised it for some time in Oxfordshire; but soon afterwards, either induced by curiosity, or invited by promises, he quitted his settlement, and accompanied his father-in-law, who had some employment in Ireland, in a visitation of the forts and castles, which the state of Ireland then made necessary. He that has once prevailed on himself to break his connections of acquaintance, and begin a wandering life, very easily continues it. Ireland had, at that time, very little to offer to the observation of a man of letters: he, therefore, passed into France and Italy; made some stay at Montpellier and Padua, which were then the cebrated schools of physick; and returning home through Holland, procured himself to be created doctor of physick at Leyden. When he began his travels, or when he concluded them, there is no certain account; nor do there *Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses. † Wood. |