PREF A CE. #HE following is an attempt, to feparate what is fubftantial and material, from what is circumftantial and ufelefs, in hiftory, That of the late war forms the brightest period of any in the British annals; and the author has endeavoured to do it juf tice, by the manner in which he has recorded the feveral tranfactions, and the impartiality he has obferved. As to the firft, it is matter of opinion, and he must stand or fall by the judgment of his readers. His own inten tion acquits him of every charge with regard to the latter. He is fenfible, that in many paffages, he has the prepoffeffions of party to encounter, and the fame must have been his fate, had he adopted different opinions. He disclaims all fyftems in politics, and has been guided in his narrative by matters of fact only. In his reflections and conjectures, where his own lights failed A 2 him him, he had recourfe to those who were moft capable of giving him proper information; and he has the fatisfaction to believe, that when the prejudices of party are buried with their authors, the following pages, whatever defects they may have in point of compofition,, will be acquitted of every imputation of partiality; as rational entertainment, and undeviating candour, have been his only objects. 3 This Review was first published in the Reading Mercury, and parcelled out every week in that paper, till compleated, when the Gentlemen, who had thus read it, thought fo well of the work, that they defired to have it reprinted, in this manner, that they might again purchase it, in a more convenient form. The 'Author thinks himfelf ob liged to thofe Gentlemen, for the good opi nion they entertain of his abilities and impartiality, and hopes their teftimony will in fome measure recommend his labours to the notice of the public, THE ** THE MARTIAL REVIEW: OR, A GENERAL Hiftory of the LATE WARS. HE French, while they pretend to inftruct the reft of mankind in the arts, have learnt the nobleft of them all from Great Britain, I mean that of civil polity, or the art of encreas-> ing national riches, power, and inAuence at home and abroad. She faw all her attempts for univerfal monarchy defeated by the affistance and protection given by England, a commercial nation, to the other ftates of Europe; and therefore judging that commerce was the fource of real power, the applied herfelf to its cultivation. During the long administration of Cardinal Fleury, the French commerce was in credibly extended; but the pride and ambition of the Princes of the Blood, and their great nobility, (the late Marshal de Belleisle in particular) B drove drove that minifter from his pacific plans, and Frances renewed her expenfive operations in a land war on the continent. It appeared, during the course of that war, that Fleury had not taken measures for protecting the commerce which he had fo greatly extended, nor could we have been fenfible of the vaft trade which France then carried on, but from the prodigious toffes it fuftained by our marine. This counterbalanced all the fucceffes of their arms on the continent of Europe; and, at the peace of Aixla-Chapelle, the whole fyftem of continental power was altered. France gave up, or demolifhed, that barrier, which for fo many years might have been termed the cock-pit of Europe, from the many millions of lives facrificed to acquire or d fend it, and fhe agreed to the conferences of Aix-la-Chapelle, merely with the infidious view of gaining leifure for purfuing her com mercial schemes, and retrieving that error, which had proved fo fatal to her during the war, I mean her inability to defend her trade. With those two views that treaty was begun and conducted on the part of France. Her great fcheme was, that nothing definitive fhould be: concluded. She was aware, that our poffeffion of Nova Scotia had been too loofely ftipulated by the treaty of Utrecht, and that it was liable, at leaft, to fome cavils, though nothing can be more certain from the fpirit, and even from the words of that treaty, than that it comprehended all the lands claimed by the English, and that when the treaty of Utrecht was executed, the English, in confequence of that claim, took poffeffion of all Nova Scotia, or Acadia, in prefence of the French commiffaries, as appears by the report on 30th of Auguft, 1714. It It is not our intention to enter here into a mi nute difquifition of the particulars of that conteft, which were afterwards fully difcuffed in the ftate papers. It is fufficient to fay, that the English, by the confeffion of the French themfelves, had an infinite fuperiority in point of argument, notwithstanding the vast disadvantages they were under from their ignorance of the places in queftion, and the arbitrary maps and charts (without the leaft foundation of truth to fupport them) fabricated and produced by their adverfaries. The British plenipotentiaries at Aixla-Chapelle, li.tle dreaming, perhaps, of the confequences, or the importance of the difcuffion, referred the limits of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, to be fettled in conferences between the commiffaries of the two nations at Paris. Our propofed brevity will not admit of particularizing the various fhifts and fhufflings of the French commiflaries, who proceeded on the fame indecifive plan with that of their plenipotentiaries at Aix-laChapelle, that they might amufe Great Britain, while France was encroaching upon her property in North America, and fortifying her encroachments in fuch a manner, as to bid defiance to all` that the negociation could effect. It foon appeared, that they pretended to the poffeffion of all the vaft country between Canada and Louisiana, and were building a chain of forts, to maintain that poffeffion, and to exclude the British traders from all communication with their back fettlements. In fhort, under pretence of having discovered the mouths of the Miffiffippi, they claimed all the country towards New Mexico on the eaft, extending to the Apalachian or Aligany mountains on the weft, Thofe claims were in direct violation of the rights of the crown of Great Britain, whofe fubjects had been the first discoverers |