of Prussia; finally, an Austrian army, by a rapid march, arrived at the very gates of Berlin, and laid that city under contribution.

An expedition, planned by Mr. Pitt soon after his restoration to power, was defeated by the weakness and indecision of the officers intrusted with its execution. The object of attack was the French port and arsenal of Rochefort, which would have fallen an easy prey, had it been assailed when first the fleet arrived before the place. But the time which ought to have been employed in action was wasted in deliberations, and the expedition returned ingloriously home. The conduct of British affairs in America was equally disastrous; an armament was sent against Louisbourg, but it returned without having made any effort to effect its object; while the French, under the marquis de Montcalm, captured the strong fort William Henry, the bulwark of our northern frontier, without meeting the slightest interruption from a British force posted in its immediate neighborhood.

These disasters would have proved fatal to the new ministry, had it not been generally understood that the officers, whose cowardice or incapacity had led to such inglorious results, were the choice of their predecessors, and were maintained in their posts by court favor. This conviction proved favorable to Mr. Pitt, the king was compelled to grant full powers to his ministers, and the secret intrigues by which the cabinet was controlled were rendered powerless for a season. An unexpected change of fortune on the continent brightened the prospects of the British and Prussians toward the close of the year. Frederic, hough his dominions were invaded by three hostile armies, never lost courage; though his army did not exceed half the number of his enemies, he resolved to give battle to the united forces of the French and Austrians (Nov. 5). Frederic, by a series of judicious movements, led his enemies to believe that he dreaded an engagement; confident of victory, they hasted to force him to action, near the village of Rosbach. They advanced so precipitately, that their lines were thrown into disorder; and before they could remedy the error, they were broken by the headlong charge of the Prussian horse. Every effort made by generals of the combined army to retrieve the fortunes of the day was anticipated by the genius of Frederic; they were forced to retreat in great confusion, having lost nearly nine thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, while the total loss of the Prussians did not exceed five hundred.

From this field Frederic hasted to another scarcely less glorious. The Austrians and Hungarians, under Prince Charles of Lorraine, entered Silesia, captured the important fortress of Schweidnitz, drove the prince of Bevern from his intrenchments, and made themselves masters of the greater part of the province. Frederic, by a rapid march, formed a junction with the relics of the prince of Bevern's army, and thus reinforced, attacked the Austrians at Lissa (Dec. 5). Pretending to direct all his force against the Austrian right, Frederic suddenly poured his chief strength against their left wing, which was speedily broken; Prince Charles attempted to restore the courage of his flying soldiers by sending reinforcements from the centre and right, but these fresh troops were unable to form under the heavy fire of the Prussians, and thus the Austrian battalions were defeated one after another. Night

alone prevented the total ruin of the vanquished army. About five thousand men were killed and wounded on each side; but within a week after the battle the Prussians pressing vigorously the pursuit of their retiring foes, captured twenty thousand prisoners, three thousand wagons, and two hundred pieces of cannon. The Austrians abandoned

all Silesia except the town of Schweidnitz, which surrendered in the following spring. The effects of the victories of Rosbach and Lissa were felt throughout Europe; the French had flagrantly violated the convention of Closterseven; it was now disavowed by the British and Hanoverians (A. D. 1758). Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick was chosen by George II. to command his electoral forces, and this able general in a short time not only recovered Hanover, but drove his adversaries across the Rhine. Mr Pitt changed his policy, and consented to reinforce Prince Ferdinand with a body of British troops, while liberal supplies were voted to subsidize the German princes. The campaign was honorable to Prince Ferdinand's abilities, but its most important result was the diversion it made in favor of the king of Prussia, by compelling the French to employ their chief force on the Rhine.

Frederic in this campaign endured several vicissitudes of fortune. Having taken Schweidnitz, he unexpectedly entered Moravia, which had hitherto escaped from the ravages of war, laid that fine province under contribution, and even menaced Vienna. He failed, however, at the siege of Olmutz, but he effected a retreat as honorable as a victory, and suddenly directed his march against the Russians, whose ravages in Brandenburgh were shocking to humanity. He gained a complete victory over the invaders at Zomdorff, and then, without resting a moment, hasted to relieve his brother Henry, who was almost surrounded with enemies in Saxony. Count Daun, the commander of the imperialists, was a worthy rival of Frederic; he surprised and routed the Prussian right wing at Hochkirchen; but the judicious measures of the king saved the rest of his army, and Daun was unable to pursue his advantages. Indeed so little was Frederic affected by the reverse, that he drove the Austrians a second time from Silesia, and then returning, compelled Daun to raise the sieges of Dresden and Leipsic, and even retreat into Bohemia.

The enterprising spirit of Mr. Pitt, freed from the trammels which secret intrigues had formed, diffused itself through the British empire, and particularly animated the officers of the army and navy. Several French ships-of-war were captured by the British; an armament, destined for North America, was dispersed and driven on shore by Sir Edward Hawke, whose fleet rode triumphant in the channel. From apathy and despair the nation passed at once to the opposite extreme of overweening confidence. It was resolved to carry the war into France itself, and two successive expeditions were sent against the French coast. As might reasonably have been anticipated, these armaments produced no important result; the only consequence arising from such a waste of blood and treasure, was the destruction of Cherbourg, a triumph dearly purchased by the subsequent loss of some of the best of the troops in the hurried embarkation.

But in North America, where the British arms had been tarnished by delay, disaster, and disgrace, the removal of the earl of Loudon

from the command, led to a complete change in the fortune of the war. His successor, General Abercrombie, planned three simultaneous expedition, two of which produced triumphant results. General Amherst laid siege to Louisbourg, and aided by the talents of Brigadier Wolfe, who was fast rising into eminence, forced that important garrison to surrender. This was followed by the entire reduction of the island of Cape Breton, and the inferior stations which the French occupied in the gulf of St. Lawrence. Brigadier Forbes was sent against Fort du Quesne, which the French abandoned at his approach, and fled down the Mississippi. Abercrombie marched in person against Ticonderoga, which he found better fortified than he had anticipated, and after a useless manifestation of desperate valor, he was forced to retire with considerable loss. The French were, at the same time, deprived of all their settlements on the coast of Africa; but the count de Lally not only preserved their East Indian possessions, but wrested from the English, Fort St. David and Cuddalore.

Great anxiety was felt at the opening of the next campaign (A. D. 1759). Early in the year, the Prussians destroyed the Russian magazines in Poland, laid Bohemia under contribution, and reduced the imperial armies to inactivity. But Prince Ferdinand was unable to prevent the French from sending succors to the Austrians; and his ill-success once more exposed Hanover to an invasion. Had Ferdinand wavered, the British and Hanoverians might have been forced to a second convention as disgraceful as Closterseven, but his courage rose with the crisis, he engaged the French at Minden, and gained a complete victory. Minden, indeed, would have been as illustrious and decisive a battle as Blenheim, but for the unaccountable conduct of Lord George Sackville, who commanded the cavalry, and either misunderstood or disobeyed the order to charge the discomfited French. There had been some previous disputes between the prince and Lord George; they threw the blame mutually on each other, but which ever was in fault, it is certain that on this occasion the best opportunity that could have been desired for humbling the power of France was irretrievably lost.

The victory of the British, at Minden, was more than counterbalanced by the defeat of the Prussians by the united forces of Austria and Russia, at Cunersdorff. But the heroic Frederic soon retrieved this disaster, and he would probably have triumphed in his turn, had he not exposed a large division of his troops in the defiles of Bohemia, which was surrounded and taken by Count Daun. Still the only permanent acquisition that the Austrians made was Dresden, for Frederic's vigor and rapidity of movement rendered even their victories fruitless.

This indecisive campaign greatly diminished the ardor of the English for their ally, the king of Prussia, while their victories in North America and the West Indies, directed their attention to their colonial interests. Immediately after the conquest of Louisbourg, which was justly considered the key of Canada, an expedition was planned against Quebec. The colonists were prepared to submit to a change of masters by the politic protection granted to the French settlers in Gaudaloupe, which had been subdued early in the year (A. D. 1758); and by the guarantee given to the inhabitants for the enjoyment of religious freedom. When General Wolfe, therefore, proceeded up the St. Lawrence, he did not

town.

encounter any serious opposition from the Canadians, who seemed to view the struggle with indifference. While Wolfe advanced toward Quebec, General Amherst conquered Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and Sir William Johnson gained possession of the important fortress of Niagara. But Amherst, as had been originally intended, was unable to form a junction with General Wolfe, who was thus employed in a hazardous enterprise, with very inadequate means. Though he almost despaired of success, Wolfe resolved to persevere; he adopted the daring plan of landing at night under the Heights of Abraham, leading his men up the steep, and securing this position, which commanded the The stream was rapid, the landing-place narrow, and the precipices formidable even by day, but the soldiers, animated by their heroic commander, triumphed over these difficulties; and when morning dawned, the marquis de Montcalm was astonished to learn that the British army occupied those heights which he had deemed inaccessible. A battle was now inevitable, and both generals prepared for the contest with equal courage. The battle was brief but fierce; the scale of victory was just beginning to turn in favor of the British, when Wolfe fell mortally wounded. This loss only roused the English regiments to fresh exertion, their bayonets broke the French lines, and a body of Highlanders, charging with their broad swords, completed the confusion. The French fled in disorder; the intelligence was brought to Wolfe, he collected his breath to exclaim, " I die happy!" and instantly expired (September 13).

The marquis de Montcalm fell in the same field; he was not inferior to his rival in skill and bravery, nor did he meet death with less intrepidity. When told, after the battle, that his wounds were mortal, he exclaimed, "So much the better: I shall not live to witness the surrender of Quebec." Five days after the battle, that city opened its gates to a British garrison, and this was soon followed by the complete subjugation of the Canadas, which have ever since remained subject to the crown of Great Britain.

The success of the English in the East Indies was scarcely less decisive than in America. Lally, the French general, possessed more courage than prudence; he engaged in enterprises beyond his means, and especially wasted his limited resources in a vain attack on Madras. Colonel Coote, the commander of the English forces, was inferior to his adversaries in numerical strength, but he enjoyed ampler pecuniary resources, and was far superior to Lally, both as a general and a stateman. Coote and Lally came to an engagement at Wandewash (Jan. 21, 1760), in which the French were completely overthrown, and their fluence in the Carnatic destroyed. During the campaign, Admiral Pococke defeated a French fleet off the coast of Ceylon; the English, in consequence, became masters of the Indian seas, and began to form reasonable expectations of driving their rivals from Hindústan. A Dutch armament arrived in Bengal, under suspicious circumstances, but Clive ordered that it should be immediately attacked by land and sea;* the

* Clive was engaged in a rubber of whist, when an express from Colonel Forde brought him intelligence of the advance of the Dutch. He replied by the following pencil-note, on a slip of paper torn from the colonel's letter: "Dear FordeFight them immediately, and I'll send you an order of council to-morrow.

Dutch were forced to surrender, and ample apologies were made by the authorities of Holland for this infraction of treaties.

The French court threatened to take revenge for the destruction of Cherbourg, by invading Great Britain and Ireland; but the ports were so strictly blockaded by the English squadrons, that no vessel could venture to appear in the channel. Admiral Boscawen pursued a squadron from Toulon, that tried to slip unnoticed through the straits of Gibraltar, overtook it off Cape Lagos, on the coast of Portugal (August 18), destroyed two ships-of-the-line, and captured two more. A still more important triumph was obtained by Sir Edward Hawke, between Belleisle and Quiberon (November 20). Conflans, the French admiral, taking advantage of the gales that drove the blockading squadrons off the coast, put to sea, but was soon overtaken by Hawke. Conflans, unwilling to hazard a battle, sought shelter among the rocks and shallows of his own coast. Hawke unhesitatingly encountered the perils of a stormy sea and a lee shore; he gained a decisive victory, destroying four ships-of-the-line, and compelling another to strike her colors. A tempestuous night alone saved the French fleet from destruction. Though this victory delivered the English from all fears of the invasion, some alarm was excited by the enterprises of Commodore Thurot, who sailed from Dunkirk with five frigates, and hovered round the coasts of North Britain. Having failed to make any impression on Scotland, he entered the Irish sea, and landing at Carrickfergus, stormed and pillaged that town.* Having heard the news of Conflans' defeat, he steered homeward, but was swiftly pursued by a squadron under Commodore Elliot, and overtaken near the Isle of Man (February 28, 1760). After a fierce engagement, Thurot was killed, and all his vessels forced to surrender.

Vigorous preparations were made by all parties for the maintenance of the war in Germany, although the people of England had become weary of continental connexions, and the French finances had fallen into a state of lamentable disorder (â. D. 1760). The conduct of the people of France to their sovereign was, indeed, truly generous; the principal nobility and gentry sent their plate to the treasury to be coined for the public service; an army of nearly one hundred thousand men was assembled in Westphalia, under the duke de Broglio, while an inferior army was formed upon the Rhine, under Count St. Germain. Prince Ferdinand could not have coped with such an overwhelming force, had not the French generals quarrelled with each other. Several battles were fought, but they were all more or less indecisive; and rarely has there been a campaign in which such numerous and wellappointed armies were opposed that produced so few memorable

events.

The king of Prussia resolved to act on the defensive in Saxony, while his brother Henry opposed the Russians and Austrians in Silesia.

An interesting example of humanity softened the horrors of war during the attack on Carrickfergus. While the French and the garrison were engaged in the streets, a beautiful child, unconscious of its danger, ran between both parties. A French grenadier, moved with compassion, threw down his musket, rushed into the midst of the fire, took up the child, and having placed it in safety, returned to his companions, who with loud shouts applauded the heroic deed.