the king of Pruffia, "of these remonstrances of the court of Versailles? Conti knows fo well how to detain the principal forces of the queen of Hungary in Germany, that he has repaffed the Rhine, leaving any persons that pleased at liberty to elect an emperor; that Traun has been enabled to detach Grune to Saxony, purposing to follow with the remainder of his troops, if the queen of Hungary thinks fit to employ them against you. I have done great things this campaign. Mention alfo has been made of you: I regret the dangerous fituation in which you are placed, for your attachment to me; but glory is to be acquired only by facrificing yourself for France. Be firm and constant, and fuffer without complaining. Imitate the example of my other allies, whom I have abandoned indeed, but to whom I have given alms when they have loft their possesfions. You, without doubt, will have ability to extricate yourself from thefe embarraffments; but if unfortunately you should be brought to ruin, I will engage that the French academy fhall compofe the funeral oration of your empire." In a letter written with his own hand to the king of France, his Pruffian majefty thus apologises for his defection: "After the letter addreffed to your majefty. in November last, I thought I had a right to expect from your majefty real and effective fuccors. I do not enter into. the reasons which may have induced your majesty to abandon your allies to the caprice of fortune: for this time the valor of my troops has extricated me from the danger in which I found myself involved. Had I been overwhelmed by the number of my enemies, your majefty would have contented yourself with lamenting my fate, and I should have been left deftitute of resource. Your majefty advises me to counsel myfelf: I have done fo, and I find that reafon loudly proclaims the neceffity of putting a speed; termination to a war which at prefent exifts without an object, fince the Auftrians are no longer the invaders of Alface, and an emperor is actually chofen. Reason warns

me

me to watch over my own fafety and to confider the formidable armament preparing by Ruffia on the one fide, and the army of mareschal Traun advancing from the banks of the Rhine on the other. The Auftrians and Saxons have fent their respective minifters to this place to negociate a peace, and I have no other option than to fign it. May I hope for the happiness of being employed by your majesty to mediate a general pacification? The interefts of France cannot be confided to any perfon more attached to your majesty than myself; and I beseech your majesty to believe, that the continuance of your friendship will be always dear and precious to me." France was in reality too deeply engaged in her favorite projects of conqueft in the Low Countries, to entertain any serious intention of granting efficacious affiftance to the king of Pruffia.

Early in the year 1745, marefchal Saxe, accompanied by the king and the dauphin, took the field at the head of an immenfe army, and invested the important city of Tournay. The allies, commanded by the duke of Cumberland, affisted by mareschal Konigseg and the prince of Waldeck, though far inferior in number, determined to make an effort for the relief of the place. On the 11th of May, they advanced with great refolution to the attack of the French army, encamped under cover of the village of Fontenoy, and protected by a prodigious fire from the batteries they had planted on all fides. The enterprise was confidered as a fingular inftance of military rashness. But fuch was the intrepidity displayed by the English and Hanoverian infantry, that the French were driven beyond their lines, and in imminent danger of a defeat; but the Dutch failing in their attempt on the village of Fontenoy, and the English general not making, as it is faid, the proper use of his first fuccefs, by dividing the column of attack after he had broke the centre of the French, marefchal Saxe had time to bring up his corps de referve, and the English found themselves inclofed as it were within a circle of fire, from the redoubts

which they had already paffed, the masked batteries planted on each fide, and the artillery, which, under the direction of marefchal Saxe himself, played upon them with dreadful execution in front. In this fituation, the most heroic efforts were totally unavailing, and the allies were compelled to retreat with the loss of more than ten thousand men, to which that of the French was fuppofed nearly equal; but the extent of the misfortune could be known only by the confequences. Tournay furrendered, after a gallant defence, by an honorable capitulation. Ghent and Bruges were captured by a coup-de-main: Oftend, Dendermond, Newport, and Aeth, were successively reduced; and the allies retired for fafety beyond the canal of Antwerp: and, at the end of the campaign, the king of France entered the city of Paris in triumph,

Towards the latter end of the fummer, the French court, defirous of causing an effectual diverfion to the English army in Flanders, incited the fon of the chevalier de St. George, usually styled the pretender, a young man of a fanguine and adventurous difpofition, to risk an invasion of Great Britain, then almost deftitute of troops, and in a state of great apparent diffatisfaction with the government. It is not ne ceffary to enter into a very circumftantial narrative of this bold but abortive attempt. Prince Charles, as he was called by his adherents, landed in the Western Iflands of Scotland in the month of August, the king of England being then at Hanover. The lords of the regency treated the first intelligence of his arrival as an idle tale; but, on receiving farther and undoubted information that he had collected a confiderable force, and was advancing fouthward, they iffued proclamation, offering a reward of thirty thousand pounds for his apprehension, and dispatched a messenger to the continent to haften the return of his majefty, making, at the same time, a requifition of fix thousand auxiliaries, which the Dutch were by treaty under obligation to furnish; and feveral British regiments were also recalled from the Netherlands.

T

Netherlands. Inftructions were fent to the lords lieutenants throughout the kingdom to array the militia in their feveral counties, and commiffions were iffued to levy new regiments for the speedy and effectual fuppreffion of this rebellion. Many different corps of volunteers were incorporated; addreffes were prefented from all parts, teftifying the utmoft abhorrence of this attempt to fubvert the government; and, notwithstanding the previous symptoms of discontent, the whole kingdom seemed united as one man in the moment of danger, in fupport of the national religion, laws, and conftitution. Sir John Cope, commander in chief of the forces in North Britain, advanced at the head of what troops he could collect to Inverness, in order to oppose the farther progrefs of this adventurer, who, in the mean time, marched by another route to the capital, which furrendering to him without refiftance September 16, 1745, he caufed his father to be proclaimed king of Great Britain at the high crofs of Edinburgh, declaring himfelf, at the same time, regent of his dominions, and fixing his head-quarters at the palace of Holyrood-house, the royal refidence of his ancestors. On receiving this intelligence, fir John Cope haftened back to Edinburgh; and, on the twentieth of September, he encamped with his army, confifting of about three thoufand regular troops, near the village of Prefton-pans, in the environs of the capital. Early the next morning, he was attacked, fword in hand, by the prince regent, at the head of about an equal number of Highlanders, who, in less than ten minutes, entirely broke the king's troops, unaccustomed to their ferocious and terrific mode of fighting. Sir John Cope was heavily cenfured for his prefumption and ignorance on this occafion. Colonel Gardiner, an officer of diftinguished merit, and himself a native of Scotland, remonftrating with him on the impropriety of the difpofition he had made, was treated with neglect and rudenefs, and predicted a total defeat, which, however, he difdained to furvive, falling gloriously,

covered

covered with wounds, in the midst of the enemy, and in fight of his own manfion. In consequence of this victory, the pretended prince regent faw himself abfolute master of Scotland, a few fortreffes excepted. He received large supplies from France, and was joined by the lords Kilmarnock, Cromarty, Balmerino, and many other persons of rank and diftinction; and the enterprise, romantic as it originally appeared, began to wear a serious afpect. The Campbells, the Monroes, the Macdonalds, and other loyal clans, affembled, however, in arms, in defence of the government, under the earl of Loudon. An army was collected in England under general Wade, who received orders to march to the north, and proceeded as far as Newcastle. The prince pretender, however, refolving to try his fortune in the south, took the route of Carlisle, which furrendered to him in November. Another army under fir John Ligonier, was now forming in Staffordshire: notwithstanding which, the prince determined to proceed, hoping for a co-operation from a body of French forces on the fouthern coaft, and not doubting but he should be joined by great numbers of the English malcontents in his progrefs through the kingdom. In this expectation, however, he was grievoufly disappointed; at Manchefter, only, he was received with any demonstrations of joy. Croffing the Mersey at Stockport, he advanced through Macclesfield and Congleton to Derby, which was the extreme point of his progrefs; for, understanding that the king had determined to take the field in perfon, and to fet up the standard of England on Finchley-common-the earl of Stair, field-marefchal of Great Britain, being, at this momentous crifis, again received into favor and confidence, and appointed general of the royal army-he took a fudden refolution, though he had actually advanced within a few days march of the metropolis, to provide for his fafety by a retreat. This amounted plainly to a virtual relinquishment of his object, which, indeed, could only be accomplished