feafon, and with difficulties that an European traveller will not easily conceive, to attend, in a poor hut at Chamblee, her husband, upon his fick-bed. In the opening of the campaign of 1777, fhe was reftrained from offering herself to a share of the fatigue and hazard expected before Ticonderoga, by the pofitive injunctions of her husband. The day after the conqueft of that place, he was badly wounded, and the croffed the Lake Champlain to join him. time the action began, the found herself near a fmall uninhabited hut, where the alighted. When it was found the action was becoming general and bloody, the furgeons of the hofpital took poffef fion of the fame place, as the moft convenient for the first care of the wounded. Thus was this lady in hearing of one continued fire of cannon and mufketry for four hours together, with the prefumption, from the post of her husband at the head of the grenadiers, that he was in the moft expofed part of the action. She had three female companions, the Baronefs of Reidefel, and the wives of two British officers, Major Harnage and Lieut. Reynell; but in the event their prefence ferved but little for comfort. Maj. Harnage was foon brought to the furgeons, very badly wounded; and a little time after came intelligence that Lieut. Reynell was fhot dead. Imagination will want no helps to figure the flate of the whole groupe. As foon as he recovered, Lady Harriet proceeded to follow his fortunes through the campaign; and at Fort Edward, or at the next camp, fhe acquired a twowheel tumbril, which had been conftructed by the artificers of the artillery, fomething fimilar to the carriage ufed for the mail upon the great roads of England. Major Ackland commanded the British grenadiers, which were attached to Gen. Frafer's corps, and confequently were always the most advanced poft of the army. Their fituations were oft- From the date of that action to the en fo alert, that no perfon flept out of 7th of October, Lady Harriet, with her their cloaths. In one of thefe fituations ufual ferenity, ftood prepared for new a tent, in which the Major and Lady trials; and it was her lot that their fe Harriet were afleep, fuddenly took fire. verity increafed with their numbers. She An orderly ferjeant of grenadiers, with was again expofed to the hearing of the great hazard of fuffocation, dragged out whole action, and at laft received the the first perfon he caught hold of. It fhock of her individual misfortune, mixproved to be the Major. It happened with the intelligence of the general ed, that in the fame inftant, fhe had, unknowing what he did, and perhaps not perfectly awake, providentially made ber efcape, by creeping under the walls of the back part of the tent. The first object fhe faw, upon the recovery of her fenfes, was the Major on the other fide, and in the fame inftant again in the fire, in fearch of her. ferjeant again faved him, but not without the Major being feverely burnt in his face and different parts of the body. Every thing they had with them in the tent was confumed. The calamity; the troops were defeated; and Major Ackland, desperately wounded, was a prisoner. The day of the 8th was paffed by Lady Harriet and her companions in common anxiety; not a tent nor a fhed being flanding, except what belonged to the hofpital, their refuge was among the wounded and the dying. When the army was upon the point of moving after the halt defcribed, I received a meflage from Lady Harriet, fubmitting to my decifion a proposal, (and expreffing an earnest folicitude to execute it, if not interfering with my defigns), of paffing to the camp of the enemy, and requesting Gen. Gates's permiffion to attend her husband. Though I was ready to believe (for I had experienced) that patience and forfitude, in a fupreme degree, were to be found, as well as every other virtue, un der the most tender forms, I was aftonifhed at this propofal. After fo long an agitation of the fpirits, exhausted not only for want of reft, but abfolutely for want of food, drenched in rains for twelve hours together, that a woman fhould hould be capable of fuch an undertaking, as delivering herfelf to the enemy, probably in the night, and uncertain of what hands fhe might fall into, appeared furt above human nature. The affance I was enabled to give was fmall ineed; I had not even a cup of wine to fr her; but I was told fhe had found, Tom fome kind and fortunate hand, a Ittle rum and dirty water. All I could farish to her was an open boat, and a few lines, written upon dirty and wet par, to Gen. Gates, recommending her iris protection. Mr Brudenell, the chaplain of the artery, readily undertook to accompany ; and with one female fervant, and Major's valet-de-chambre, (who had all which he bad received in the late ca then in his shoulder), fhe rowed wn the river to meet the enemy. But her dutreffes were not yet to end. The ratas advanced before the boat reach dd the remy's outposts, and the centiwould not let it pafs, nor even come Gere. In vain Mr Brudenell offered g of truce, and reprefented the at of the extraordinary paffenger. The Gad, apprehenfive of treachery, and pratious to their orders, threatened to Seinto the boat if it ftirred before dayHer anxiety and fuffering were protracted through feven or eight dark and cold hours; and her reflections that first reception could not give very encouraging ideas of the treatment she was afterwards to expect. But is due juftice, at the clofe of this adVore, to fay, that he was received d accommodated by Gen. Gates with the humanity and refpect that her rack, her merits, and her fortunes deferved. [39.650.] Let fuch as are affected by thefe circunftances of alarm, hardship, and dantr, recollect, that the fubject of them as a woman, of the moft tender and delicate frame, of the gentleft manners, tuated to all the foft elegancies and refined enjoyments that attend high birth and fortune, and far advanced in a state which the tender cares, always due the fex, become indifpenfably necefary. Her mind alone was formed for fuch trials. On the formation of Hills. From Abbé Fortis's Travels into Dalmatia. THE attentive confideration of the internal ftructure of the island [Cherfo] s confirmed me ftill more in the opinion which I had before, through the frequent ufe of obferving the mountains and hills of the continent, concerning the falient and re-entrant angles of Bourquet. A celebrated naturalift has brought them. in vogue on the faith of their author; and many more of leffer fame adopted them as a demonftrated truth. I however conftantly believe, and dare affert, that this fyftem of falient and re-entrant angles cannot be adopted univerfally to the mountains, and much lefs to the feafhore. It is very true, that the correfpondence of the angles is feen very well expreffed in the fides of fome vallies; but there are few vallies among the mountains that do not owe their excavation to the waters of rivers, or torrents, the constant nature of which is to form an angle, or a falient-curvature oppofite to every new corrofion. But where the waters have not been able to work in their ufual way, and where the vallies were formed by little hills, or vulcanic hills produced in various times, and with little order, there no mark of the pretended univerfal correfpondence is feen. To fet fill in a clearer light the error of this hypothefis given out as a conftant obfervation, it is proper to repeat, that the horizontal or inclined ftrata, which are the most common, and nearest to their ancient natural state, correspond together from one chain of hills to another; though they may be divided by very broad vallies, which manifeftly demonftrates an ancient continuity, as well as the diffolution of the large portion of mountain that exifted before thofe great hollows. And hence it may easily be perceived, how little probability there is, that the hills, in their firft foundation, have been formed by the great Architect at corre. fponding angles, leaving, as it were, the dentelli of the ftrata fufpended round the vallies; for according to all appearance it may be reafonably concluded, after the moft diligent obfervations, that no veftige, or clear proof, remains, in our days, of primitive hills, or that may with propriety be called fo. Thofe which we know, are manifeftly produced either by volcano's *, which have burnt in almoft every In the celebrated mountain of Bolea, fi tuated in the Verone fe territory, the co-exiftence of the fea and of ancient volcanos is manifeftly feen. In our times, that is in the beginning of this century, the island or rock every region of our globe; or by the fea, which in paft ages covered it altogether, or alternatively; or by the fea and volcano's at the fame time. And it appears not improbable, that the moft ancient protuberances of our globe were much more vaft and regular, though quite different from the ftructure of those we now fee. Concerning the other ideas of Bourquet, who, after having established obfervations by no means exact, imagined by way of corollaries the paft ftate of the earth, and found the precife time of the deluge, (as if there had been but one), and then pretended to foresee the fubfequent alterations and transformations that are to happen in it, I think it needless to take any further notice. Syftems and theories refemble hitherto, and are like to resemble in time coming, (till a fufficient number of good obfervations are made), unripe fruit, which spoils in a fhort time. That of Bourquet feems to have found more partifans than it deferved, and several of them have gained themselves no honour by adopting it. It was fufficient, indeed, to ftay in their chambers, and to theorife at their cafe on good geographical maps, concerning the truth of the propofition, That the fides of the large vallies, as well as thofe of the Shores of the fea, correfpond with one another; and I who have taken the trouble to examine many of them, am perfuaded, that neither the fides of the fea-fhores, nor thofe of the large vallies, conftantly correSpond with one another. The strata of the islands of Cherfo and Ofero are very regularly formed. They pafs from one hill to another with a kind of undulation, which probably has been, nay doubtless has been, the work of a vait ocean. The island is too old, and has undergone too great a number of changes, as well as the reft of the globe, for us to form any certain judgement concerning its fuperficies. It is certain, however, that no veftige now remains of the ancient fuperficies, as even the order of the organization is altered in the inof Santerini was raifed out of the bottom of land parts, as well as on the fea-coaft. the fea by a volcano. In the valley of Ron-try, which, perhaps, it has by degrees abandoned and re-inundated already, who knows how often. This kind of prophecy is not founded on ideal chimeras, but on vifible facts, which correspond together, and reciprocally enforce one another from one end of the earth to the other. [22.69.] HI HISTORY 1778 continued. [7.] GERMANY Continued. [7.] pare the way for the fuccefs of propofitions, the court of Vienna wn the following general printo govern the conduct of both s in their mutual tranfactions, as to conciliation, and to equitable dans, viz. That each court should in the other's place; that neibold demand any thing contrary dignity of the other; nor any the fituation was reverfed, which d not think right to be infisted The immediate application of thefe Des was, that if his Prussian Maa a principle of political convewould not oppose the aggrantent of the House of Austria in Bathe latter, on the fame principle, not oppose the aggrandizement of Brandenburg, when a fit opty offered, for re-uniting the Ties of Bareuth and Anfpach in her and to give a permanency to this 3. and to render the motives clear difputable, it was proposed, that talons, and coalitions of interefts, be laid down as the basis of the at convention. propofition seemed to breathe the hich produced the partition of But the cafes and times did not ble each other. The King of Prufdently derived more benefit from aracter of the protector of the of the princes of the Empire, than ay thing to be acquired in virtue offer. He therefore rejected thofe rions, which evidently tended to blishment of fuch an union besofe great powers, founded upon convenience, and mutual aggranas might have been extended tts, to the difmemberment of <tates in Germany, without any , after all, for peace or final intelligence between the powers bad facrificed their neighbours to a and precarious agreement. Unly, however, though the fcheme sed for the prefent, the defign is gly sketched to be worn out of y, and may be too soon adepted Acre practice. Kirg anfwered, that he oppofed Umemberment of Bavaria, only be kooked upon it as totally unjust, rodive of all liberty and fafeLILIL ty in Germany; that he was not a verfe to the aggrandizement of the Houfe of Auftria in juft acquifitions; that it was wrong to blend the prefent difmemberment, which the House of Austria had no right to do, with a diftant, but incontestable acquifition belonging to the Houfe of Brandenburg; and that he could not accept of a treaty, which would overthrow the very butt of bis oppofition, and which stated nothing upon the juft re-establishment of the Palatine House in Bavaria, nor towards the fatisfaction of the Elector of Saxony. Though the court of Vienna abfolutely refused to propofe any conditions that feemed to the King of Prussia more precife or fatisfactory than thofe already laid down, the King, still persevering in his endeavours to prevent a rupture, remitted to that court, May 26. plan of accommodation. By this it was propofed, That, for the fake of peace, the Elector Palatine fhould be engaged to cede to the court of Vienna two great diftricts belonging to Bavaria, which were fituated contiguous to Bohemia and Austria, upon the Danube and Inn; that the Emprefs fhould restore all those territories which her troops occupied in Bava ria; and that, in return for the ceffion made by the Elector, the Emprefs-Queer and the Emperor fhould grant fome renunciations and inveftitures with respect to difputable fiefs and claims in his favour. It was contended, That these propofals exhibited proofs of the greatest equity and moderation, at the fame time that they were highly advantageous to the court of Vienna. That court, it was faid, had no claim on the Elector, as a matter of right, for any thing. The le gal and tranquil ceffion of two extenfive diftricts, which interfered fo much with the dominions of the Houfe of Auftria as to have been the caule of frequent divifions and feuds, and which would have rounded their poffeffions, and defined their limits, by great rivers and other dif tinguished boundaries, in fuch a manner as to prevent all future controverfy on that subject, was a matter of great and permanent advantage to that Houfe. Ou the other fide, nothing was demanded in return, but fome small and inadequate parcels of territories which lay detached from the body of the Auftrian dominions, and fome feudal claims and rights, which, instead of affording any real ad vantag vantage, ferved only as a fource of continual altercation with the neighbouring princes. The court of Vienna not only refufed to listen to these propofitions, but to offer any on her fide, which could in any degree clearly or expressly define her prefent or limit her future claims. Some preliminaries were, however, difpatched to Berlin by Prince Kaunitz, to ferve as the bafis of a new plan of conciliation, and in which the fame undefined prin ciples of reciprocal equity were ftill held cut, or talked of. By one article the court of Berlin was to make no oppofition to any acquifition the court of Vienna might make, or was then actually poffeffed of in Bavaria. By another, the Palatine Houfe fhould be fatisfied by a voluntary exchange, upon agreeable and convenient conditions. The court of Berlin, after expofing, and complaining much of what she called the vague, obfcure, and unfatisfactory nature of thefe overtures, demanded a precife anfwer, and a clear explanation, on certain points, which it ftated; particulary, What the court of Vienna would keep, and what reftore, belonging to Bavaria ? What equivalents and advantages it would give to the Palatine, and to the Elector of Saxony and, Whether it would enter into an arrangement of all the Bavarian fucceffion, relative to the rights of the feveral claimants, with the King, as the friend and ally of thofe princes, as a member of the Empire, and as having, by his other titles, a great right and material intereft in taking part in the just regulation of that fucceffion? This memorial, though accompanied with every verbal reprefentation which apparently could conduce to a friendly arrangement, was but ill received at Vienna, and produced an anfwer, June 24. which, after a total cenfure of the Pruffian propofitions, concluded with a declaration, That if the Vienna propofi tions were not adopted as preliminaries, all friendly arrangements would become impoffible, and all further eclairciffement fuperfluous. An end being thus put to all hopes of accommodation, and the vast armies on both fides only waiting the fignal for action, the King of Pruflia, early in July, published a manifefto, and other documents, ftating the unwarrantable, violent, and unjuft conduct of the court of Vienna, and feverely censuring that of the Emperor, who was bound by his high office to have acted that very which the King had been under a n fity of undertaking, by preventing applying a remedy to all fuch trai tions within that empire over whic was chofen to prefide. In thefe pi after accurately stating all the poin conteft, and the tranfactions on fides, he fhews the neceffity of his ta up arms, and calls upon the states of Empire to fecond his efforts, to fup and defend the natural and much-inj rights of fo many eminent and illu f princes, and in oppofing the all-afpi power and ambition of the House of ftria, which, if fuffered to proceed controuled, would foon fet up cl to other dominions, and proceed to total overthrow of the whole fyfter the German empire. [40. 338.] Whilft a verbal and literary war was thus carried on at Vienna, lin, and Ratisbon, wherein the fub of debate, whether hid in the con fion and darkness of violent and igno ages, involved in the labyrinths of C man jurifprudence, or perplexed by defined rights, doubtful records, fufpicious documents, would have forded room for endless litigation, two great powers who had engaged principals on the oppofite fides of queftion, were more seriously emplo in their preparations for that final ref which only can generally determine f controversies between fuch parties. though it would seem that their fituat and habits in peace approached fo nea to a state of war, that there could be little difficulty in the tranfition; yet wafteful, as well as deftructive is that fatiate monfter, and fo immenfe is provision of every kind necessary to made for the fupport of thofe vaft arm which it is now the fashion to bring i the field, that the greateft treafu joined to the products of the moft fer countries and abundant feafons, cam preclude fome delay and extraordin preparation at the point of approach that awful crifis. The court of Vienna had feemed to pect or intend hoftility from almost moment that declared the Elector of varia's death. The language of war every where held in the Auftrian dor nions, and its expectation thewn, bef the controverfy had 1ifen on either f to fuch a height, as could feem to w ant thofe ftrong indications. Amo other immediate preparations, age We |