ing Holland with annihilation. When the Duke of Cumberland came so hastily up to London from the North, it was with the hope of obtaining the supreme command of the allied armies in Flanders, and of measuring his sword with Marshal Saxe, who was commanding the armies of Louis XV.; but the duke found that that post had been given to Prince Charles of Lorraine, the Queen of Hungary's brother-in-law, without any notification, to George. Cumberland had, therefore, stayed at home to recommend severity against the Scots; and our military achievements abroad were this year confined to a paltry expedition to the coast of Brittany under the command of General St. Clair, Admiral Lestock, and a prostitute, old Lestock's mistress, who went with him in his ship, and who ruled and advised even in matters of war. The strange trio did not take Port L'Orient, but they plundered and burnt a few fishing villages, and returned home without much loss. Some troops, however, were sent back to Holland, and great conquests were spoken of, to be made at some future day over the French in Canada; and Sir John Ligonier and the English cavalry, though they could not prevent the defeat of the allies at the battle of Roucoux, on the Yaar, saved Prince Charles of Lorraine's army from destruction. Our foreign negotiations were as complicated and as unsatisfactory as our campaign was inglorious; but, fortunately, the French were greatly weakened by the death of Philip V. of Spain, which happened in the autumn of 1746, and by the great reverses they sustained in Italy, where the armies of Austria and Sardinia recovered Milan, Parma, and many other places, obtained a great victory over the French and Spaniards near Piacenza, and finally drove the forces of Louis XV. beyond the Alps.

The dissensions in the English cabinet continued on the increase. The discussion of them would occupy volumes, but the great present result was, that Pitt continued to rise--though by slow and uncertain steps-in power and influence; that Lord Harrington was succeeded as one of the secretaries of state by Lord Ches

terfield, who had been for some time governing Ireland as lord-lieutenant, with rare ability and a most rare liberality; and that the Duke of Newcastle and his brother disagreed in many particulars.

A.D. 1747.-To quicken the Austrian sluggishness 100,000l. were added to the Queen of Hungary's subsidy. Lord Sandwich, as ambassador to the States-General, had smoothed some difficulties, and the Duke of Cumberland now repaired to Holland to take the chief command of the allied armies. Between Dutch, Flemish, Bavarians, Austrians, and English, nearly 100,000 men were collected, in the month of March, under our English prince, who, however, soon testified that he was not the general destined to vanquish Marshal Saxe. The latter, from his cantonments, intercepted the duke's provisions and supplies; and when he took the field it was to more certain victory, for Cumberland had put his army into some of the worst positions that could have been chosen; and the allies were thoroughly beaten at Lauffeld, near Maestricht, on the 2nd of July, when the gallant Ligonier, with the British cavalry, again checked the advance of the French, and preserved the allies from destruction. But, generally, the fighting of the British troops, both horse and foot, was as good as Cumberland's generalship was bad. Each reached the extreme. While the Dutch in the centre gave way and fled, and the Austrians on the right would not or could not come into action at all, the British on the left stood the brunt, and strewed the field with 10,000 Frenchmen before they retreated. Saxe himself afterwards confessed to Ligonier, that his victory had cost him in killed and wounded 8000 foot, 1000 horse, and a great many officers. After this battle the French continued to take fortresses with wondrous facility till they sat down before the walls of Bergen-op-Zoom. With the surrender of this famous fortress the campaign in the Low Countries ended, and the armies went into winter-quarters, the French triumphantly, the allies accusing one another. Nor was the war more favourable to the allies on the side of the Alps. Having driven the French out of Italy in the

autumn of the preceding year, the Austrians and Sardinians, assisted by the British fleet, made an invasion of the south of France, and laid siege to Antibes; but they were soon compelled to retreat, were followed by the French, were forced to give up Genoa, and were so irritated by their many failures that they, too, began to quarrel among themselves. A second French force, however, commanded by the brother of Marshal Belleisle, was stopped in the narrow defiles of Savoy as it was attempting to open its way to Susa and Turin, was defeated with great loss, and driven back without its brave commander, who was knocked on the head at the barricades of Exilles. But the English navy did something this summer. Admiral Anson fought a gallant battle off Cape Finisterre, took six ships of the line, several frigates, and the best part of a numerous French convoy ; Admiral Hawke, off Belleisle, captured six ships of the line out of nine; Commodore Fox took forty French ships, richly laden from the West Indies; and other successes were obtained at sea in various parts of the world. The French trade was completely paralysed, and great want, suffering, and dissension were the consequences. Thus, in spite of the successes of Marshal Saxe in the Low Countries, the cabinet of Versailles began to sigh for peace; and the more when they ascertained that Ferdinand VI., the new King of Spain, was determined to conclude a treaty with England with or without France. Mr. Pelham was equally anxious to treat. The able diplomatic pen of Lord Chesterfield was employed by Pelham in drawing up conditions and the outlines of a treaty; communications were made to our allies, the States-General, the King of Sardinia, and the Empress-Queen, who were invited to concur; and an active intercourse was set on foot between Paris and London. It soon appeared, however, that our allies, who had been making war at the expense of English money and English blood, were not over-anxious for peace." But, as it happened,

*

*Louis XV. had observed, after the last campaign in Flanders, that the British not only paid for all, but fought

that without the assistance and the subsidies of England, these potentates were powerless, they, too, were obliged to entertain the proposition and to agree to send ministers to a congress at Aix-la-Chapelle. The King of Prussia was kept quiet by the guarantee of Silesia, which was formally pledged to him by England and Holland.

The new parliament assembled on the 10th of November, soon after George's return from Hanover. The Prince of Wales, who was constantly smarting under the preference shown to his brother the Duke of Cumberfand, and who was as inveterate against the Pelham administration as ever he had been against that of Sir Robert Walpole, had put the whole strength of his party into play at the late general election; but the returns, on the whole, were very favourable to the ministry. Each House was as compliant as possible; the Commons voted above thirteen millions of money almost without opposition; and in the whole course of the session there was not a single division in the House of Lords against any ministerial proposal whatsoever. Yet there was a clause in their lordships' address that was highly honourable to that House. In speaking of the best means of extinguishing the spirit of rebellion and anarchy in the North, Lord Chesterfield had recommended "schools and villages to civilise the Highlands ;"* and the peers, in their address, declared that the diffusion of knowledge among the people would be the best safeguard of their loyalty and tranquillity. But it unfortunately was not deemed essential by either House, by cabinet or by country, to make any proper provision for national education.

A.D. 1748.-The king closed this complacent session on the 13th of May, by announcing the cessation of hostilities and the recent signature of preliminaries of peace. But the cabinet had scarcely been so tranquil as the parliament, and it was growing every day more apparent

for all that the Austrians were benevolent spectators of battles.

*Diary of Hugh Earl of Marchmont, in Marchmont Papers.

that ministerial jealousy, selfishness, and intrigue were becoming more and more fierce and shameless as parliament became more moderate. The voice of faction ceased, the great struggles of parties on broad and opposite principles of government terminated, and were succeeded by private personal contests for power and place, almost without any of the old distinctions of Whig and Tory. The Duke of Newcastle, alarmed at Chesterfield's successes as a diplomatist, and still more at an intimacy which that accomplished and intriguing lord had formed with the king's mistress, the German Lady Yarmouth, resolved to get rid of him at all costs; and Newcastle retained influence enough with the king, who disliked Chesterfield, to make the court so uncomfortable a place for him, that his lordship resigned on the 6th of February. Then there was a fresh cabal to decide who should succeed Chesterfield as secretary of state. The Duke of Newcastle wanted to bring in his friend Lord Sandwich - a very convenient kind of political jobber, whose private morality and public honesty were pretty nearly on a par. At last the Duke of Bedford became joint-secretary of state with Newcastle, who in six days became as jealous of him as he had been of Chesterfield. By a sudden handy-dandy trick Newcastle changed his province and took the secretaryship, which was more immediately concerned with foreign affairs, leaving home concerns to Bedford. In the meanwhile Mr. Pitt continued to rise in consideration, and, as we suspect, began to discover, through the chasms caused by the frequent disagreements between Pelham and his brother the Duke of Newcastle, a rough and tortuous road to the ministerial pinnacle. He was consulted by both the brothers, and put in the always tempting position of an arbiter or mediator in their quarrels. Pitt persevered in the look-out for better things, and supported in the meanwhile every ministerial measure, however opposite it might be to the principles he had formerly proclaimed when in opposition and engaged in hunting down Si Robert Walpole. All this, added to his hot and unguarded expressions in parliament, his towering pride,