no means fortunate. A formidable armament, equipped with incredible diligence, failed from the harbor of Portfmouth the beginning of September, confifting of eighteen fhips of the line, and a large body of land forces, under the command of fir Edward Hawke and fir John Mordaunt. When Mr. Pitt ordered the fleet to be equipped, and appointed the period for its being at the place of rendezvous, lord Anson said it was impoffible to comply with the requifition but Mr. Pitt, with great warmth, replied, "That it might be done; and if the fhips were not ready at the time specified, he should fignify his neglect to the king, and impeach his lordship in the house of commons." The me nace produced its effect, and on the twenty-third of the fame month, the fleet anchored off the river Charente with a view to attempt the reduction of the city of Rochefort. Many days paffed in founding the river, in reconnoitring the coafts, in removing the troops from the tranfports to the boats, and the boats to the tranfports, and in deliberations upon the intent and practicability of the instructions under which they were to act. At length it was concluded to rifque an attack upon the ifle of Aix, fituated in the mouth of the Charente, and defended by a small fort and garrison; and this fervice, equal in importance to that of picking up fhells on the fhore, being performed, and the works demolished, a council of war was held, in which it was refolved, agreeably to that spirit of quietism by which it has been obferved that councils of war are in general distinguished, to return without delay to England. Great expectations having been entertained of the event of this expedition, the nation was proportionably disappointed, and enraged * 2 D * Lord Clive declared to the parliamentary committee of enquiry, instituted A. D. 1773, "that he never called a council of war but once, which was previous to his paffing the Ganges on his famous expedition to Moorfhedabad; and, if he had then followed the decifion of the council, the com pany had been undone." enraged at its failure: and the public cenfure was directed chiefly, if not folely, against the general, it being admitted that the minifter had left nothing undone to enfure the fuccefs of it, and that the admiral had acted in no respect inconfiftently with his high character for judgment and spirit. It was faid that the inactivity and timidity of fir John Mordaunt were lefs pardonable than the rashness and prefumption of general Braddock, who, if he failed to attain his object, had at leaft fuftained the national reputation by his courage; and fo high did the clamor arife, that it was thought neceffary to inftitute a court-martial for the trial of this commander, by whom he was, to the amazement of the public, unanimoufly acquitted: and the fentence was univerfally contrafted with that of the former court, which had condemned an admiral to death for not doing his utmost ; whereas a general was now acquitted, though it was univerfally acknowledged that he had done nothing. But the failure of the enterprise against Rochefort, however it might excite the chagrin of the public, was of little estimation or importance in the view of the court, when compared with the disasters which had befallen the army of obfervation in Germany. Early in the fpring, 1757, his royal highness the duke of Cumberland had embarked for Hanover, in order to take upon him the command of the confederate troops, now, in confequence of the recent junction of the Pruffians, amounting to about 50,000 men. Marefchal d'Etrées, the French commander, an officer of great ability, advancing from the banks of the Rhine, the paffage of which the king of Prussia in vain urged the duke to defend, the confederate army was compelled to retire beyond the Wefer: and the French general having paffed this river also without oppofition, attacked the duke in his camp at Haftenbeck, July 25; and, while the battle was yet doubtful, the English commander, from a defe, not of courage, but of military skill and judgment, is charged with giving orders for founding a retreat. A redoubt in centre centre of the allied army having been carried by the French, it was instantly retaken fword in hand, by the hereditary prince of Brunswick, "who by this coup d'effai difcovered," fays the king of Pruffia, " that nature had deftined him for a hero." The duke being still preffed by the French army, retreated first to Nienburg, then to Verden, and at length to Stade. The marefchal d'Etrées, regarding with a watchful and penetrating eye the motions of the duke, when urged to embrace a favorable moment of attack, replied, "that there was no occafion for fighting." And, in fact, his royal highness was quickly reduced, as the mareschal forefaw, to a moft diftreffing dilemma. In front his farther march was arrested by the German ocean; on the right and left he was inclosed by the rivers Elbe and Wefer; and the French having taken poffeffion of the paffes as the confederate army receded, the duke had no option remaining but to fubmit to terms of capitulation, which were figned, under the mediation of Denmark, in the month of September, 1757, at Cloister-Seven, by which the electorate of Hanover was left in the hands of the French; and the whole confederate army, amounting to about 40,000 Heffians, Hanoverians, and Brunfwickers, were difarmed and difbanded the king of Pruffia having previously withdrawn his troops, from the apprehension of this catastrophe. On his return to England, the duke of Cumberland not receiving thofe marks of gratitude and acknowlegment which he thought due to his eminent services, refigned all his military employments in high difguft, and henceforth took no farther public part in any civil or military tranfaction. The inglorious convention of Cloifter-Seven feemed as it were the crisis of the war; and England was now reduced to that extreme point of depreffion from which fhe was deftined, in gradual retroceffion, to attain to a height of elevation unknown to the most brilliant æras of her former history. After the unfuccefsful campaign of 1757 in America, the earl of Loudon returned to England, leaving the chief command in the hands of general Abercrombie, from whom it quickly devolved to major-general, now lord Amherst, who, on the arrival of admiral Bofcawen from England, early in the year 1758, with very powerful reinforcements, concerted with general Abercrombie a plan of spirited and active operations for the enfuing campaign. The troops now affembled, both regulars and provincials, amounted to no less than fifty thousand men, a military force to which the new world had feen nothing comparable; and much too great to be employed on any single object. The garrison of Louisburg being greatly reduced in confequence of the perfect fecurity it was fuppofed to enjoy after the abandonment of the expedition of the last fummer, it was refolved to renew the attempt. And general Amherst, with twelve thousand men, being convoyed with the fleet, under admiral Bofcawen, anchored June 2, in fight of the for tress, which in a few days was formally invested. The approaches were made with great fkill and circumfpection; and the chevalier Drucourt, the governor, feeing no profpect of relief, affented to a capitulation on the twentyfeventh of July. Exclufive of the city of Louisburg and the whole island of Cape Breton, fix fhips of the line and five frigates, which were ftationed in the harbor for the protection of the place, were either destroyed or taken by the English. General Abercrombie himself undertook, at the head of a ftill greater force, to reduce the French forts on the lakes George and Champlain. The firft attempted was Ticonderago; a fortress which commands the communication between the two lakes, furrounded on three fides with water, and, in front, fecured by a morafs, and farther defended, upon this emergency, with a breaft-work, entrenchments, and abbatis. The general, however, determined upon an affault; but met with a fevere repulfe, and was compelled to retreat with the lofs of 1,800 men; with which difafter he was fo much difpirited, that he immedi ately reimbarked his troops, though ftill much fuperior in force to the enemy, and returned to the camp at Lake George, from whence he had taken his departure. An event, ftill the subject of tender recollection and regret in America, took place on this occafion in the death of lord Howe, a young nobleman who combined the most amiable manners with the most shining talents and the most heroic courage. His memory was honored by a vote of the affembly of Massachusetts for the erection of a superb cenotaph, at the expenfe of the province, amongst the heroes and patriots of Britain, in the collegiate church of Westminster. A confiderable corps, however, detached by general Abercrombie, under colonel Bradstreet, against Fort Frontenac, fituated on the northern bank of the river St. Laurence, at the precife point of its departure from Lake Ontario, reduced this important poft with little lofs. And brigadier Forbes, who was deftined to command the expedition against Fort du Quefne, on the Ohio, finding it, on his arrival, dismantled and abandoned, immediately repaired and garrifoned the fort, changing its name, in compliment to the minister, to Pittsburgh. And, in October, peace was established by a formal treaty between Great Britain and the Indian nations inhabiting the rich and fertile plains between the lakes and the Ohio. At the grand conference which preceded this treaty, the following oration, not unworthy of hiftoric notice, was addreffed to the Englifh commißioners by one of the Sachems, delegated to conduct this negotiation on the part of the Indians: "Brethren-I have raised my voice, and all the Indians have heard me as far as the Twightwees, and have regarded my voice, and are now come to this place. Brethren, the cause why the Indians of Ohio left you was owing to yourselves. The governor of Virginia fettled in our lands, and difregarded |