ministers, servile courtiers, the liberty of Englishmen, the great charter, the rights for which our fathers bled-Timoleon, Brutus, Hampden, Sydney-they had absolutely nothing to propose which would have been an improvement on our institutions. Instead of directing the public mind to definite reforms which might have completed the work of the Revolution,-which might have brought the legislature into harmony with the nation, and which might have prevented the crown from doing by influence what it could no longer do by prerogative, they excited a vague craving for change, by which they profited for a single moment, and of which, as they well deserved, they were soon the victims.

Among the reforms which the state then required, there were two of paramount importance,-two which would alone have remedied almost every abuse, and without which all other remedies would have been unavailing,-the publicity of parliamentary proceedings, and the abolition of the rotten boroughs. Neither of these was thought of. It seems to us clear that, if these were not adopted, all other measures would have been illusory. Some of the patriots suggested changes which would, beyond all doubt, have increased the existing evils a hundredfold. These men wished to transfer the disposal of employments and the command of the army from the crown to the parliament; and this on the very ground that the parliament had long been a grossly corrupt body. The security against corruption was to be that the members, instead of having a portion of the public plunder doled out to them by a minister, were to help themselves.

The other schemes of which the public mind was full were less dangerous than this. Some of them were in themselves harmless. But none of them would have done much good, and most of them were extravagantly absurd. What they were we may learn from the instructions which many constituent bodies, immediately after the change of administration, sent up to their representatives. A more deplorable collection of follies can hardly be imagined. There is, in the first place, a general cry for Walpole's head. Then there are bitter complaints of the decay of trade-a decay which, in the judgment of these enlightened politicians, was brought about by Walpole and corruption. They would have been nearer to the truth if they had attributed their sufferings to the war into which they had driven Walpole against his better judgment. He had foretold the effects of his unwilling concession. On the day when hostilities against Spain were proclaimed, when the heralds were attended into the city by the chiefs of the opposition, when the prince of Wales himself stopped at Temple Bar to drink success to the English arms, the minister heard all the steeples of the city jingling with a merry peal, and muttered, "They may ring the bells now they will be wringing their hands before long."

Another grievance, for which of course Walpole and corruption were answerable, was the great exportation of English wool. In the judgment of the sagacious electors of several large towns, the remedying of this evil was a matter second only in importance to the hanging of sir Robert. There were also earnest injunctions that the members should vote against standing armies in time of peace,-injunctions which were, to say the least, ridiculously seasonable in the midst of a war which was likely to last, and which did actuat, as long as the parliament. The repeal of the septennial act, as was to pected, was strongly pressed. Nothing was more natural than that the voters Criennial recurrence of their bribes and their ale. We feel firmly septennial act, unaccompanied by a complete elective body, would have been an unmixed rational recommendation which we can find in all the of placemen in parliament should be limited, and allowed to sit there. It is plain, however, that this

root of the evil, and that, if it had been adopted, the consequence would probably have been that secret bribery would have been more practised than ever.

We will give one more instance of the absurd expectations which the declamations of the Opposition had raised in the country. Akenside was one of the fiercest and most uncompromising of the young patriots out of parliament. When he found that the change of administration had produced no change of system, he gave vent to his indignation in the "Epistle to Curio," the best poem that he ever wrote,—a poem, indeed, which seems to indicate that, if he had left lyric composition to Gray and Collins, and had employed his powers in grave and elevated satire, he might have disputed the pre-eminence of Dryden. But, whatever be the literary merits of the epistle, we can say nothing in praise of the political doctrines which it inculcates. The poet in a rapturous apostrophe to the spirits of the great men of antiquity, tells us what he expected from Pulteney, at the moment of the fall of the tyrant.

"See private life by wisest arts reclaimed,

See ardent youth to noblest manners framed,
See us achieve whate'er was sought by you,
If Curio-only Curio-will be true."

It was Pulteney's business, it seems, to abolish faro and masquerades, to stint the young duke of Marlborough to a bottle of brandy a day, and to prevail on lady Vane to be content with three lovers at a time.

Whatever the people wanted, they certainly got nothing. Walpole retired in safety; and the multitude were defrauded of the expected show on Tower hill. The septennial act was not repealed. The placemen were not turned out of the house of commons. Wool, we believe, was still exported. "Private life" afforded as much scandal as if the reign of Walpole and corruption had continued; and "ardent youth fought with watchmen and betted with blacklegs as much as ever.

THE BATTLE OF DETTINGEN, 1743.

SMOLLETT.

(This battle is remarkable as being the last in which a king of England fought in person.)

At this period (1743) the queen of Hungary* seemed to triumph over all her enemies. The French were driven out of Bohemia and part of the Upper Palatinate, and their forces under marshal Broglie were posted on the Danube. Prince Charks of Lorraine, at the head of the Austrian army, entered Bavaria, and in April obtained a victory over a body of Bavarians at Braunau; at the same time three bodies of Croatians, penetrating through the passes of the Tyrolese, ravaged the whole country to the very gates of Munich. The emperor pressed the French general to hazard a battle, but he refused to run the risk, though he had received a strong reinforcement from France. His imperial majesty, thinking himself unsafe in Munich, retired to Augsburg. Marshal Seckendorf retreated with the Bavarian troops to Ingoldstadt, where he was aftewards joined by marshal Broglie, whose troops had in their retreat been pursued, and terribly harassed by the Austrian cavalry and hussars. Prince Charles had opened a free communication with Munich, which now, for the third time, fell into the hands of the queen of Hungary; her arms likewise reduced Friedburg and Landsperg, while prince Charles continued to pursue the French to * Maria Theresa, afterwards empress of Austria, whose cause George II. had espoused.

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Donawert, when they were joined by 12,000 men from the Rhine; Broglie still avoided an engagement, and retreated before the enemy to Heilbronn. The emperor being thus abandoned by his allies, and stripped of all his dominions, repaired to Frankfort, where he lived in indigence and obscurity. He now made advances towards an accommodation with the queen of Hungary; his general, Seckendorf, had an interview with count Kevenhuller at the convent of Lowersconfield, where a convention was signed. This treaty imported that the emperor should remain neuter during the present war, and that his troops should be quartered in Franconia; that the queen of Hungary should keep possession of Bavaria till the peace; that Braunau and Scarding should be delivered up to the Austrians, that the French garrison of Ingoldstadt should be permitted to withdraw, and be replaced by Bavarians, but that the Austrian generals should be put in possession of all the artillery, magazines, and warlike stores belonging to the French, which should be found in the place. The governors of Egra and Ingoldstadt refusing to acquiesce in the capitulation, the Austrians had recourse to the operations of war, and both places were reduced. In Ingoldstadt they found all the emperor's domestic treasures, jewels, plate, pictures, cabinets, and curiosities, with the archives of the house of Bavaria,* the most valuable effects belonging to the nobility of that electorate, a prodigious train of artillery, and a vast quantity of provisions, arms, and ammunition.

The French king, baffled in all the efforts he had hitherto made for the support of the emperor, ordered his minister at Frankfort to deliver a declaration to the diet, professing himself extremely well pleased to hear they intended to interpose their mediation for terminating the war: he said, he was no less satisfied with the treaty of neutrality which the emperor had concluded with the queen of Hungary; an event of which he was no sooner informed than he had ordered his troops to return to the frontiers of his dominions, that the Germanic body might be convinced of his equity and moderation. To this declaration the queen of Hungary answered in a rescript, that the design of France was to embarrass her affairs, and deprive her of the assistance of her allies; that the elector of Bavaria could not be considered as a neutral party in his own cause; that the mediation of the empire could only produce a peace either with or without the concurrence of France; that, in the former case, no solid peace could be expected; in the latter, it was easy to foresee that France would pay no regard to a peace in which she should have no concern. She affirmed that the aim of the French king was solely to gain time to repair his losses, that he might afterwards revive the troubles of the empire. The elector of Mentz, who had favoured the emperor, was now dead; and his successor inclined to the Austrian interest; he allowed this rescript to be entered in the journal of the diet, together with the protests which had been made, when the vote of Bohemia was suppressed in the late election. The emperor complained in a circular letter of this transaction as a stroke levelled at his imperial dignity; and it gave rise to a warm dispute among the members of the Germanic body. Several princes resented this haughty conduct, and began to be alarmed at the success of the house oftria, while others pitied the deplorable situation of the emperor. The kings of Britain and Prussia, as electors of Hanover and Brandenburgh, espoused opposes in this contest; his Prussian majesty protested against the investiture of the claimed by the king of Great Britain; he had an intervi at Anspach; and was said to have privately visited the e The troops which the king of Great Britain had assem began their march for the Rhine in the latter end of Febr encamped near Hoech, on the river Maine, under the comm

*Our readers must remember that the cle of Bavaria had emperor of Germany.

armies for a cause which could only concern the small German electorate. In 1743 the king took the field in person, and on the 16th of June, 1743, was present at the battle of Dettingen, fought against the French, who were defeated. In October of this year the king of England returned to Hanover, and the army separated.

The disputes in parliament, and the loud clamours of the people of England against the taxation for the war, induced the French ministry to believe that the nation was ripe for a revolt, and that it would gladly welcome back its Stuart king. They foresaw that, even if this idea should prove erroneous, a descent on Great Britain would make a considerable diversion on the continent in favour of France, and embarrass king George, who was the chief support of the house of Austria and its allies. Actuated by these motives, they prepared a body of fifteen thousand men to invade England; and in the month of January, 1744, Monsieur de Roqueville sailed from Brest with a strong squadron, and directed his course up the English channel with twenty ships of war. The French fleet was immediately discovered by an English cruiser, which ran into Plymouth to give notice of its approach; and preparations were instantly made everywhere to oppose the invaders. Meanwhile at Boulogne and Dunkirk troops were embarking under the eye of the young pretender, and seven thousand were actually on board. M. de Roqueville sailed up the channel as far as Dungeness, on the coast of Kent, and found himself confronted there by the British fleet, commanded by sir John Morris; but, the tide failing, that English admiral was compelled to anchor while still two leagues from the enemy.

M. de Roqueville called a council of war, and determined to avoid the engagement, as the English force was superior to his own. At sunset, therefore, the French weighed anchor and sailed away, favoured by a very hard gale of wind from the north-east, which carried them down the channel with wonderful celerity. This storm, which saved their fleet probably from defeat and destruction, also preserved England from invasion; for a great number of their transports were driven ashore and destroyed by it, and the rest were so damaged they could not speedily be repaired. England ruled the narrow seas, and invasion was impossible. The French generals returned to Paris, and the expedition was relinquished. The French pushed on the war vigorously, however, on the continent. They besieged Friburgh, and invested Tournay. The allies, commanded by the duke of Cumberland, king George's second son, determined to hazard a battle in order to relieve the latter city. They marched against the French, and took a position in sight of them. The enemy was well posted on an eminence which had the village of St. Antoine on the right, a wood on the left, and the town of Fontenoy before them.

At two o'clock in the morning the English began the attack, and pressing forward bore down all opposition for an hour: but count Saxe, the French commander, who was confined to his tent very ill, caused himself to be carried in a litter through the posts, and so inspirited and encouraged his soldiers that they rallied, and restored the fortune of the day. The allies were defeated, and left 12,000 men on the field; the French purchasing their victory at as great a loss.

In 1745 a nearer trouble even than the bad success on the continent disturbed and alarmed the country. Prince Charles Edward Stuart landed in Scotland; was joined by the highland clans; defeated the king's general, sir John Cope, and actually penetrated into England as far as Manchester. Here he was joined by 200 English Jacobites under general Townly. From thence he marched to Derby, being there within a hundred miles of the capital. Had he pressed onwards, success might have crowned his undertaking, but the discontents in his army fought for king George better than his generals had done. The Highland chiefs were unanimous

only in one thing, that was in demanding a return to their own country, and the prince with bitter regret had to yield to their wishes. Meantime the duke of Cumberland had been recalled from Flanders, and was sent against the Scots with an army of 14,000 men. They might have disputed his advance at the river Spey, but they did not; they were torn asunder by continual disputes and jealousies, and consequently did nothing.

They resolved, however, at last to wait for the English at Culloden.

Here, after

a sharp contest, the prince was entirely and irretrievably defeated. The French troops with him did not fire a shot during the battle, but stood inactive and surrendered themselves prisoners of war when the fight was ended. The prince fled. Those who fell only wounded were put to death on the field, no quarter being given, by the duke's orders, and the wounded, the unarmed and defenceless—many were only spectators of the fight-thus perished. The conquerors practised the most terrible cruelties afterwards, and the duke gained from that day the title of "the butcher of Culloden."

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Prince Charles, after incredible hardships and difficulties, escaped to France. price of £30,000 had been put upon his head, but the poor highlanders were incapable of being tempted to betray him.

The scaffold and the gibbet awaited his adherents in England and Scotland. Seventeen officers of his army were hung, drawn, and quartered on Kennington common, near London, nine at Carlisle, eleven at York. A few obtained pardon; the common soldiers were transported as slaves to the North American plantations. The earl of Kilmarnock and lord Balmerino were beheaded on Tower hill. Lord Cromartie was pardoned.

All sides engaged in the continental war now finding themselves growing feeble without gaining any advantage, a congress was held at Aix la Chapelle, which terminated in a peace disgraceful to England. It was stipulated that the king of Great Britain should, after the ratification of the treaty, send two persons of rank to France as hostages, to be detained till the restitution was made of Cape Breton, and all the conquests which England had made during the war. No mention was made of the searching English vessels which had brought on the war; the limits of the English possessions in North America were not defined, nor did the nation receive any equivalent for the forts they were made to restore. Peace was thus shamefully secured in Europe; but in the East and West Indies war still went on between the hereditary foes.

In 1750 the war was revived in North America. The French in the island of Nova Scotia were jealous of their neighbours, the English colonists, and fomented suspicions and jealousies against them amongst the native Red Indians. Soon after another cause of dissension arose. The French pretending to have been the first discoverers of the mouth of the Mississippi, claimed the whole adjacent country; drove out the English who had settled beyond the Appalachian mountains, and erected forts to command the country.

The ministry sent out four expeditions in aid of the colonists. Of these, one under general Monckton was successful, general Johnson also was victorious; but Shirley lost the season by delay, and general Braddock was utterly defeated and slain at Fort du Quesne.

In Europe the French took possession of Minorca after a siege which admiral Byng failed to raise; for which failure he suffered death at Portsmouth, being tried, condemned, and shot for cowardice.

In the east, however, the great Englishman Clive displayed the most wonderful courage and conduct, and founded for England her eastern empire, dispossessing the French of most of their possessions there.