1743.

THE KING GOES TO GERMANY.

149

vigorous resistance. All the Bishops opposed it. It was denounced as a sanction to vice as a license granted to the people for poisoning themselves; as "a bait spread over the "pit-falls of debauchery," as an infamous attempt to raise the Revenue at the expense of the health and morals of the people. Lord Hervey, in a dexterous speech, moved that several eminent physicians should be summoned to the Bar, to prove to the House the fatal effects of dram-drinking. But the palm of eloquence on this occasion was undoubtedly borne away by Chesterfield: his two speeches on this question, far better reported than most others of that day, may still attract our admiration, and have seldom been surpassed, as combinations of lively wit and impressive forebodings. Sometimes, comparing the measure to "the tax which "Vespasian laid on spirituous liquors of another kind, that "would not indeed admit of a total prohibition;"** in other passages, again, he thunders against it as the infallible harbinger of national decline, depopulation, and ruin. Yet, notwithstanding his exertions, and those of the Right Reverend Bench, the Bill passed by a great majority.

In this Session an attempt was also made to renew the inquiry into the conduct of Lord Orford, the proposal being brought forward by Mr. Waller, seconded by Sir Watkin Wynn; but it was defeated by large numbers a proof that the current of popular feeling had already turned. The forces voted for the year were 40,000 seamen and 11,000 marines, 16,000 British troops in Flanders, and 23,000 for guards and garrisons at home. The supplies did not fall short of 6,000,0007.***

The King having prorogued the Parliament on the 21st of April, hastened over to his German dominions, accompanied by his son the Duke of Cumberland, and attended

"tion, and passed almost without the formality of a debate." Chesterfield's Speech, February 21. 1743. This is better authority than Tindal's to the contrary.

* Chesterfield's Second Speech, February 24. 1743. ** See Bishop Secker's Diary, February 24. 1743. *** Commons' Journals, November 25. 1742, &c.

by Lord Carteret, as Secretary of State. In the precedingJanuary a strong impulse had been given to the war, on the part of France, by the death of Cardinal Fleury in the ninetieth year of his age. His pacific policy died with him; and the hostilities which he had begun from compulsion were continued and extended from choice. The young King, selfish, indolent, and devoted to pleasure, took no part in public business; but the power of Fleury was shared between Count D'Argenson, Minister of War, an expert diplomatist, and Cardinal Tencin, a subtle insinuating priest, of considerable talents, but fitted for intrigue rather than for government, disgraced by some acts of fraud in early life,* and devoted to the House of Stuart, which had wrought his elevation to the Purple. His sister, Madame de Tencin, a nun who had renounced her convent, was celebrated for her wit and gallantries. Bolingbroke is said to have enjoyed her favours during his embassy at Paris; and at another period she became the mother — it would be most presumptuous to assert by whom - of D'Alembert, the wellknown mathematician and philosophist.

The French Ministers, eager to signalize themselves by a vigorous prosecution of the war, and excited by the unfavourable news that came from Germany, collected a large army under the Mareschal Duke the Noailles, who had been distinguished in the Spanish campaigns, to support their other forces in the Empire. These forces, first commanded by Maillebois, and afterwards by De Broglie, had ceased to threaten Hanover, by their march for the relief of Prague. They had afterwards wintered in Northern Bavaria; and it was through their diversion that the Emperor Charles the Seventh was enabled to re-enter his capital. But in the spring of 1743 he was again defeated by the Austrians, and once more driven from his hereditary states; De Broglie being intent only on his own security, and restrained by his in

* St. Simon, Mém. vol. xx. p. 4. ed. 1829. Tencin resided at Rome in 1740, and is described by President des Brosses in his Travels, vol. ii. p. 79. and 86.

1743.

ADVANCE OF THE FRENCH ARMY.

151

structions from hazarding a battle. The unfortunate Emperor, whose exalted rank served but to sharpen the sting of his calamities, and to make them more conspicuous and deplorable, sought shelter in the free city of Frankfort; a Sovereign without any states to rule, nay, even without any revenues to maintain him. De Broglie, on his part, retreated in confusion from Bavaria, harassed by the Austrian cavalry, and sustaining heavy losses, until, on the banks of the Neckar, he received a reinforcement of 12,000 men from Noailles, and again attempted to keep Prince Charles of Lorraine in check.

During that time the British troops also were advancing into Germany, having begun their march from Flanders, at the end of February, under the command of the Earl of Stair. They were joined on their march by some Austrian regiments, headed by the Duke of Aremberg and by the 16,000 Hanoverians in British pay, who had wintered in the Bishoprick of Liege. But so tardy was their march, that it was the middle of May before they crossed the Rhine, and fixed their station at Höchst, between Mayence and Frankfort. Here Lord Stair determined to await the junction of the 6000 Hanoverians in Electoral pay, and also of the same number of Hessian mercenaries, who had been employed in garrisoning the Flemish fortresses, but who were now relieved by an equal body of Dutch troops, and left at liberty to rejoin the main army. Even without any fresh accessions, however, Lord Stair could muster at Höchst nearly 40,000 soldiers, and might easily have seized the Emperor at Frankfort, had not the neutrality of that free city been scrupulously respected by both parties in this contest or, to speak more truly, had not the seizure of the Emperor promised but small advantage.

The Mareschal de Noailles, on his part, whose army, even after the detachment sent to De Broglie, amounted to 60,000 men, likewise passed the Rhine, and approached the Mayn on the southern bank, as the British on the northern. The two camps were no more than four leagues distant from

each other. Yet still, amidst these hostile manifestations, and an impending battle, the two nations nominally remained at peace, and only acted as auxiliaries: there was still a British Resident at Paris, and a French in London. "A ri"diculous situation!" writes Horace Walpole. "We have "the name of war with Spain without the thing, and war with "France without the name!"*

In the manoeuvres that ensued, Lord Stair, whose military genius, never very bright, was rusted with age, appears to have committed blunder upon blunder. Having first determined to await the Hessians and Hanoverians, he suddenly altered his intentions, recalled the detachments which he had sent across the Mayn, and advanced up the course of that river on the right bank, with the view of drawing supplies from Franconia, and of communicating with the Austrian forces. He reached Aschaffenburg on the 16th of June, closely followed and completely out-generalled by Noailles. The French commander took up a strong position near Gross Ostheim, while his detachments occupied the principal fords and passes on both the Upper and Lower Mayn, so that the English found themselves cut off both from their own magazines at Hanau, and from the expected Franconian supplies. Moreover the duties and details of our Commissariat appear in that age to have been ill understood, or grossly neglected. "England, that is famous for negligence," says Marlborough in one of his letters.**

Under these circumstances, when on the 19th King George arrived from Hanover, with Lord Carteret and the Duke of Cumberland, he found affairs in a most critical posture; the soldiers on half rations, the horses pining for want of forage; Stair and Aremberg divided by a violent feud, and the army reduced to 37,000 men, and cooped up in a narrow valley that runs between Mount Spessart and the Mayn, and extends along that river from the town of Aschaf

*To Sir H. Mann, July 19. 1743.

** To Lord Godolphin, September 2. 1702.

1743.

BATTLE OF DETTINGEN.

153

fenburg to the large village of Dettingen*, while in sight appeared a far superior force of French, ably commanded and well supplied, and in confident expectation that the allies must either surrender prisoners of war, or be cut to pieces in their retreat. The expected Hessians and Hanoverians, it appeared, had nearly reached Hanau, but so far from being able to advance and join, were themselves in peril of being taken by the French. Still, under every disadvantage and danger, the soldiers were full of spirits and eager to fight, and the presence of their King became a further incentive to their valour.

After repeated councils of war, the only measure that seemed practicable was to fall back on the magazines and reinforcements at Hanau; and this resolution was hastened by so utter a failure of forage, that, had they remained but two days longer, they must have sacrificed their horses.** The movement, however, was neither safe nor easy in the face of a superior enemy, quick at discerning and powerful to prevent the design. At the first signs of their intended retreat, Noailles immediately altered his own position from their front to their rear, advanced to Seligenstadt, threw two bridges over the Mayn, and sent his nephew, the Duke de Grammont, with 23,000 men, across the river to secure the defile of Dettingen, through which the Allies must march. These troops were accordingly drawn up on very strong ground, while batteries were also raised along the opposite bank of the Mayn, and these precautions were the more dangerous, because in a great measure unknown to the English, who still believed the principal force of Noailles to be on the other side of Aschaffenburg.

Before day-break, on the morning of the 27th of June, the Allies struck their tents and began their march towards

*The distance between Aschaffenburg and Dettingen is one and a half German or about eight English miles. Dettingen was then and is now the post station on the road from Aschaffenburg to Hanau, which is two German miles further.

**"On manquait de fourrages au point qu'on proposa de couper les "jarrets aux chevaux, et on l'aurait fait si on était resté encore deux jours "dans cette position." Voltaire, Siècle de Louis XV. ch. x.