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speakable surprise and chagrin, the monarch foon found himself and his whole army reduced to a very critical fituation, by the fuperior skill and conduct of the mareschal de Noailles, whofe plan of military operation during this campaign, the king of Pruffia tells us, would have done honor to the most renowned captain. This general had, early in the fummer, taken poffeffion of the cities of Spire, Worms, and Oppenheim, and, paffing the Rhine, had encamped on the eaft fide of the river, above Francfort, in a pofition which commanded the navigation of the upper Maine; at the fame time occupying all the adjacent pofts on the Rhine and Maine, so as effectually to bar all accefs with the furrounding country, and to intercept all convoys of provifions or fupply. The king of England, therefore, found himfelf under the neceffity of decamping from Aschaffenburg, and directed his march to Hanau, where he expected to meet large reinforcements. But the marefchal, foreseeing that the allies would not long be able to maintain their pofition, had taken his measures accordingly; and, on approaching the village of Dettengen, his Britannic majesty found the French army drawn up in battle-array, with a view to oppose his farther progress. To so perilous an extremity no king of England, in encountering a foreign enemy, had ever been reduced. In front were the narrow and dangerous defiles of Dettingen, occupied in force by the enemy; on the left flowed the river Maine, on the high oppofite banks of which the French had planted a formidable line of batteries; on the right were mountains and woods, interfected by a morafs; and all retreat was precluded by the vigilance of the French commander, who had taken poffeffion of Aschaffenburg immediately on its being evacuated by the British forces. No event more favorable could be expected than that the whole army must, in a fhort time, furrender themfelves prifoners of war; and the mareschal de Noailles might reasonably presume, that for him was reserved the glory of avenging the fatal catastrophe

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of Poitiers. But the rafh and inexperienced valor of the duc de Grammont blasted these brilliant hopes; advancing through the defiles, contrary to the exprefs orders of the marefchal, who was compelled to move with the whole army in order to fuftain this unfeasonable attack, he offered the enemy battle upon equal terms in the inclosed plain. The French charged with their ufual impetuofity, but were received by the English with cool and determined intrepidity; the earl of Stair making the neceffary previous dispositions :with great military skill. The king himself displayed much perfonal courage, and the French were repulfed with great slaughter, and compelled to repass the Maine with the lofs of 6000 men; though they fuffered no moleftation in their retreat, the king of England purfuing without delay his march to Hanau, impatient to receive his expected supplies and reinforcements. The duke of Cumberland, who fought with great gallantry, was wounded in the action. At Hanau the king was vifited by prince Charles of Lorraine and count Khevenhuller; but no operations of confequence took place during the remainder of this campaign, the original or specific object of which it might baffle the profoundest fagacity to devife. Towards the latter end of the fummer, the allied army paffed the Rhine at Mentz, and the king of England fixed his head-quarters at Worms. Here the advances of the diet, who, folicitous to restore the peace of the empire, wrote letters to the king of England and the states-general, requesting, in concert with themfelves, the mediation of the maritime powers, being previously rejected, a treaty was figned with the queen of Hungary and the king of Sardinia, who engaged to maintain 40,000 infantry and a proportionable corps of cavalry, for the fervice of the queen of Hungary in Italy. The allurements held out to his Sardinian majesty were, an Engli fubfidy of 280,000l. per annum, the transfer of certain diftricts of the Milanese, and the prospect of gaining the marquifate of Finale, her pretenfions to which, by an ar

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ticle of this treaty, her Hungarian majesty most generously affigned over to this monarch; although an actual and unconditional ceffion of that territory to the republic of Genoa, to which it had anciently belonged, though wrefted from her by the violence of the house of Austria, had been made by the late emperor Charles VI. for the fum of 400,000 golden crowns, for which it had been previously mortgaged; and which fum, it is true, her Hungarian majefty now condefcended to grant her royal permiffion to the republic to receive from any power willing and able to repay it.* The republic remonstrated in the strongest

The tenth article of the Treaty of Worms, relating to the ceffion of Finale, is a great hiftorical curiofity, and exhibits the crooked and infidious policy of lord Carteret in a very striking point of view. It is as follows: “As it is of importance to the public cause, that his majesty the king of Sardinia fhould have an immediate communication of his dominions with the fea and with the maritime powers, her majesty the queen of Hungary and Bohemia yields to him all the rights which the may have in any man ner, and úpon any title whatsoever, to the town and marquifate of Finale, which rights the yields and transfers, without any restrictions, to the king, in the fame manner as the does the countries described in the foregoing article; in the juft expectation that the republic of Genoa, will facilitate, as far as shall be neceffary, a difpofition fo indifpenfably requifite for the liberty and fecurity of Italy, in confideration of the sum ruhich shall be found due to the republic, without bis majefly the king of Sardinia, or her majesty the queen of Hungary, being obliged to contribute to the payment of the faid fum: provided always, that the town of Finale be and remain for ever a free-port town, is Leghorn; and that it shall be allowable for his majesty the king of Sardinia to re-establish there the forts which have been demolished, or to caufe others to be built, according as he shall judge convenient." It is evident that lord Carteret, conscious of the nefariousness of this attempt, dared not openly to facrifice the faith and honor of the English nation, which had actually guaranteed, by the fourth article of the Quadruple Alliance, the poffeffion of Finale to the Genoese, by making it a direct party in the tranfaction. It was no doubt the purpose of the English minister to perfuade the parliament of Great Britain to pay the money in question, and to compel the fenate of Genoa to take it. But, if he found the oppofition to this measure too strong, he had this evasion in reserve, that the rights of the queen of Hungary, if invalid in themselves, gave no additional fanction to the claims of the king of Sardinia; that the republic was not obliged to

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strongest manner. against a treaty so injurious to her rights; protesting also, in a memorial presented to the imperial diet, against this transaction, and claiming the protection of that auguft body; Finale being an ancient and acknowledged, fief of the empire. But lord Carteret, who had, accompanied the king of England to Germany, and negociated this affair in perfon, treated the embassy of the republic with the most marked and infufferable contempt, though the queen of Hungary herself hefitated to infift upon the validity of her claim. In confequence of this abominable injustice, the fenate of Genoa concluded a treaty of alliance, offenfive and defenfive, with Spain, at Aranjuez, the following year-provoking, by this means, the impla cable refentment of the houfe of Auftria, which appeared to deem the abfolute annihilation of the republic fcarcely an adequate atonement for such an act of prefumption. In September, the allies, now encamped at Spire, were joined by 20,000 Dutch auxiliaries; the states-general, notwithftanding the folicitations and menaces of France, being at

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confent to the redemption of the mortgage, nor was Great Britain under any obligation to offer it. Thus a flagitious scheme was formed, which might be easily abandoned if found impracticable in the execution. A negociation at the close of the fummer was carried on with the emperor, and articles of accommodation actually agreed upon, with the reluctant concurrence of the queen of Hungary, by which the hereditary dominions of the emperor were to be restored, on condition of a renunciation of his claims on the Auftrian fucceffion. By a feparate article of the treaty, the fum of fix millions of florins was, by a temporary affignment on certais lands, allotted to the emperor for the support of the imperial dignity, all deficiencies in the payment of which were to be made good by the king of England. Lord Carteret, however, refolving not to take upon himself the fole responsibility of this article, delayed the signing of the treaty till a meffenger was dispatched to the regency in London, requiring their affent to it. But, to the furprise and chagrin both of the king and the emperor, the regency fent word, "that they were of opinion, it was better, till the accomplishment of a general peace, to leave the burden of supporting his imperial majesty on the court of France, who would foon be tired of the expenfe." The negociation, therefore, proved ultimately abortive.

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laft prevailed upon openly to declare themselves in favor of the queen of Hungary. Marefchal Noailles having retired into Alface, the allies, as if now pleased and proud to march about, made various random and fruitless incurfions, and demolished the entrenchments already abandoned by the French on the banks of the Queich; after which they separated into winter-quarters. Prince Charles of Lorraine alfo, being foiled in his attempts to penetrate into France on the fide of Alface, by the marefchal' de Coigné, marched back to the Palatinate; and the campaign closed with no decifive advantage on either fide. But lord Stair, the English commander in chief, immediately on the termination of it, threw up his commission in high disgust ;* determined not to lend the authority of his name to military operations, in the concerting and directing of which he had, by his own declaration, fo little fhare. This celebrated nobleman was one of the most remarkable, and, in all refpects, one of the most accomplished perfonages of his time. He had, early in life, diftinguifhed himself by his zeal in support of the Revolution, to the principles of which he continued ever fteadily attached. Devoting himself to a military life, his valor and condu&t were conspicuously dif played in the wars of the Revolution and Succeffion; and his knowledge and addrefs being no lefs eminent than his courage, he was employed in various political negociations, refiding several years in a diplomatic capacity at the courts

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"Pour le convaincre," fays the king of Pruffia, “du peu de fuite qu'il y a dans les actions des hommes, il n'y a qu'à faire l'analyse de cette campagne. On affemble une armée fur le Mein, fans pourvoir à fes fubfiftantes: la faim et la furprise obligent les Alliés à fe battre; ils fons vainqueurs des François; ils paffent le Rhin, ils vont à Worms; le Speyerbach les arrête, fans qu'ils trouvent des expédiens pour en déposter les ennemis ; ils avantest enfin fur le Speyerbach que M. de Noailles les abandonne, et ils ne reçoivent les fecours des Hollandois que pour prendre des quartiers d'hiver dans le Brabant et dans la Weftphalie. Après quoi le roi George prit le chemin de Londres, pour y faire à fon parlement, dans une haranguç pompeuse, le recit de fes exploits." Oeuvres de Frederic II.

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