RIOTS OCCASIONED BY THE HIGH PRICE OF CORN.
Notwithstanding the large imports of grain from different parts of Europe and America, the artifice of engrossers still kept up the price of corn. So incensed were the populace at the iniquitous combinations entered into to frustrate the endeavours of the legislature, and to oppress the poor, that they rose in a tumultuous manner in several counties, sometimes to the number of five or six thousand, and seized upon the grain brought to market. Nor was it indeed to be wondered at, considering the distress to which many persons were reduced. The difficulty of obtaining the necessaries of life, raised the price of labour at the most unseasonable time, when all manufacturers were overstocked for want of a proper market, which obliged them to dismiss above half the hands before employed. Hence arose the most pitiable condition of several thousands of useful industrious subjects; a calamity attended only with one advantage to the public, namely, the facility with which recruits were raised for his majesty’s service. At last the plentiful crops with which it pleased Providence to bless these kingdoms, the prodigious quantities of corn imported from foreign countries, and the wise measures of the legislature, broke all the villanous schemes set on foot by the forestallers and engrossers, and reduced the price of corn to the usual standard. The public joy on this occasion was greatly augmented by the safe arrival of the fleet from the Leeward islands, consisting of ninety-two sail, and of the Straits fleet, estimated worth three millions sterling, whereby the silk manufacturers in particular were again employed, and their distresses relieved. About the same time the India company was highly elated with the joyful account of the safe arrival and spirited conduct of three of their captains, attacked in their passage homewards by two French men of war, one of sixty-four, the other of twenty-six guns. After a warm engagement, which continued for three hours, they obliged the French ships to sheer of, with scarce any loss on their own side. When the engagement began, the captains had promised a reward of a thousand pounds to the crews, by way of incitement to their valour; and the company doubled the sum, in recompence of their fidelity and courage. His majesty having taken into consideration the incredible damage sustained by the commerce of these kingdoms, for want of proper harbours and forts on the western coast to receive and protect merchantmen, was graciously pleased to order, that a temporary security should be provided for the shipping which might touch at Milford-haven, until the fortifications voted in parliament could be erected. How far his majesty’s directions were complied with, the number of merchant ships taken by the enemy’s privateers upon that coast sufficiently indicated.
OPERATIONS IN AMERICA.
Whatever reasons the government had to expect the Campaign should be vigorously pushed in America, almost every circumstance turned out contrary to expectation. Not all the endeavours of the earl of Loudon to quiet the dissensions among the different provinces, and to establish unanimity and harmony, could prevail. Circumstances required that he should act the part of a mediator, in order to raise the necessary supplies for prosecuting the war, without which it was impossible he could appear in the character of a general. The enemy, in the meantime, were pursuing the blow given at Oswego, and taking advantage of the distraction that appeared in the British councils. By their successes in the preceding campaign, they remained masters of all the lakes. Hence they were furnished with the means of practising on the Indians, in all the different districts, and obliging them, by rewards, promises, and menaces, to act in their favour. Every accession to their strength, was a real diminution of that of the British commander; but then the ignorance or pusillanimity of some of the inferior officers in our back settlements was, in effect, more beneficial to the enemy than all the vigilance and activity of Montcalm. In consequence of the shameful loss of Oswego, they voluntarily abandoned to the mercy of the French general the whole country of the Five Nations, the only body of Indians who had inviolably performed their engagements, or indeed who had preserved any sincere regard for the British government. The communication with these faithful allies was now cut off, by the imprudent demolition of the forts we possessed at the great Carrying-place. A strong fort indeed was built at Winchester, and called fort Loudon, after the commander-in-chief, and four hundred Cherokee Indians joined the English forces at fort Cumberland; but this reinforcement by no means counterbalanced the losses sustained in consequence of our having imprudently stopped up Wood-creek, and filled it with logs. Every person the least acquainted with the country, readily perceived the weakness of these measures, by which our whole frontier was left open and exposed to the irruptions of the savages in the French interest, who would not fail to profit by our blunders, too notorious to escape them. By the removal of these barriers, a path was opened to our fine settlements on those grounds called the German Flats, and along the Mohawk’s river, which the enemy destroyed with fire and sword before the end of the campaign.
LORD LOUDON’S CONDUCT IN AMERICA.
In the meantime, lord Loudon was taking the most effectual steps to unite the provinces, and raise a force sufficient to strike some decisive blow. The attack on Crown-Point, which had been so long meditated, was laid aside as of less importance than the intended expedition to Louisbourg, now substituted in its place, and undoubtedly a more considerable object in itself. Admiral Holbourn arrived at Halifax, with the squadron and transports under his command, on the ninth day of July; and it was his lordship’s intention to repair thither with all possible diligence, in order to take upon him the command of the expedition; but a variety of accidents interposed. It was with the utmost difficulty he at length assembled a body of six thousand men, with which he instantly began his march to join the troops lately arrived from England. When the junction was effected, the whole forces amounted to twelve thousand men; an army that raised great expectations. Immediately some small vessels were sent out to examine and reconnoitre the condition of the enemy, and the intermediate time was employed in embarking the troops as soon as the transports arrived. The return of the scouts totally altered the face of affairs: they brought the unwelcome news, that M. de Bois de la Mothe, who sailed in the month of May from Brest, with a large fleet of ships of war and transports, was now safe at anchor in the harbour of Louisbourg. Their intelligence AAras supported by the testimony of several deserters; yet still it wanted confirmation, and many persons believed their account of the enemy’s strength greatly magnified. Such advices, however, could not but occasion extraordinary fluctuations in the councils of war at Halifax. Some were for setting aside all thoughts of the expedition for that season; while others, more warm in their dispositions, and sanguine in their expectations, were for prosecuting it with vigour, in spite of all dangers and difficulties. Their disputes were carried on with great vehemence, when a packet bound from Louisbourg for France, was taken by one of the English ships stationed at Newfoundland. She had letters on board, which put the enemy’s superiority beyond all doubt, at least by sea. It clearly appeared, there were at that time in Louisbourg six thousand regular troops, three thousand natives, and one thousand three hundred Indians, with seventeen ships of the line and three frigates moored in the harbour; that the place was well supplied with ammunition, provisions, and every kind of military stores; and that the enemy wished for nothing more than an attack, which it was probable would terminate to the disgrace of the assailants, and ruin of the British affairs in America. The commanders at Halifax were fully apprized of the consequences of an unsuccessful attempt; it was, therefore, almost unanimously resolved to postpone the expedition to some more convenient opportunity, especially as the season was now far advanced, which alone would be sufficient to frustrate their endeavours, and render the enterprise abortive. This resolution seems, indeed, to have been the most eligible in their circumstances, whatever construction might afterwards be given, with intention to prejudice the public against the commander-in-chief.
FORT WILLIAM-HENRY TAKEN by the FRENCH.
Lord Loudon’s departure from New-York, with all the forces he was able to collect, afforded the marquis de Montcalm the fairest occasion of improving the successes of the former campaign. That general had, in the very commencement of the season, made three different attacks on fort William-Henry, in all of which he was repulsed by the vigour and resolution of the garrison. But his disappointment here was balanced by an advantage gained by a party of regulars and Indians at Ticonderoga. Colonel John Parker, with a detachment of near four hundred men, went by water, in whale and bay boats, to attack the enemy’s advanced guard at that place. Landing at night on an island, he sent before dawn three boats to the main land, which the enemy waylaid and took. Having procured the necessary intelligence from the prisoners of the colonel’s designs, they contrived their measures, placed three hundred men in ambush behind the point where he proposed landing, and sent three batteaux to the place of rendezvous. Colonel Parker mistaking these for his own boats, eagerly put to shore, was surrounded by the enemy, reinforced with four hundred men, and attacked with such impetuosity, that, of the whole detachment, only two officers and seventy private men escaped. Flushed with this advantage, animated by the absence of the British commander-in-chief, then at Halifax, and fired with a desire to revenge the disgrace he had lately sustained before fort Henry, Montcalm drew together all his forces, with intention to lay siege to that place. Fort William-Henry stands on the southern coast of Lake George; it was built with a view to protect and cover the frontiers of the English colonies, as well as to command the lake; the fortifications were good, defended by a garrison of near three thousand men, and covered by an army of four thousand, under the conduct of general Webb, posted at no great distance. When the marquis de Montcalm had assembled all the forces at Crown-Point, Ticonderoga, and the adjacent posts, together with a considerable body of Canadians and Indians, amounting in the whole to near ten thousand men, he marched directly to the fort, made his approaches, and began to batter it with a numerous train of artillery. On the very day he invested the place he sent a letter to colonel Monro the governor, telling him, he thought himself obliged, in humanity, to desire he would surrender the fort, and not provoke the great number of savages in the French army by a vain resistance. “A detachment of your garrison has lately,” say she, “experienced their cruelty; I have it yet in my power to restrain them, and oblige them to observe a capitulation, as none of them hitherto are killed. Your persisting in the defence of your fort can only retard its fate a few days, and must of necessity expose an unfortunate garrison, who can possibly receive no relief, considering the precautions taken to prevent it. I demand a decisive answer, for which purpose I have sent the sieur Funtbrane, one of my aids-de-camp. You may credit what he will inform you of, from Montcalm.” General Webb beheld his preparations with an indifference and security bordering on infatuation. It is credibly reported, that he had private-intelligence of all the French general’s designs and motions; yet, either despising his strength, or discrediting the information, he neglected collecting the militia in time; which, in conjunction with his own forces, would probably have obliged Montcalm to relinquish the attempt, or at least have rendered his success very doubtful and hazardous. The enemy meeting with no disturbance from the quarter they most dreaded, prosecuted the siege with vigour, and were warmly received by the garrison, who fired with great spirit till they had burst almost all their cannon, and expended their ammunition. Neither Montcalm’s promises or threats could prevail upon them to surrender, while they were in a condition to defend themselves, or could reasonably expect assistance from general Webb. They even persisted to hold out after prudence dictated they ought to surrender. Colonel Monro was sensible of the importance of his charge, and imagined that general Webb, though slow in his motions, would surely make some vigorous efforts either to raise the siege, or force a supply of ammunition, provisions, and other necessaries, into the garrison. At length necessity obliged him, after sustaining a siege from the third to the ninth day of August, to hang out a flag of truce, which was immediately answered by the French commander. Hostages were exchanged, and articles of capitulation signed by both parties. It was stipulated, that the garrison of fort William-Henry, and the troops in the intrenched camp, should march out with their arms, the baggage of the officers and soldiers, and all the usual necessaries of war, escorted by a detachment of French troops, and interpreters attached to the savages; that the gate of the fort should be delivered to the troops of the most christain king, immediately after signing the capitulation; and the retrenched camp, on the departure of the British forces; that the artillery, warlike stores, provisions, and in general every thing, except the effects of soldiers and officers, should, upon honour, be delivered to the French troops; for which purpose it was agreed there should be delivered, with the capitulation, an exact inventory of the stores and other particulars specified; that the garrison of the fort, and the troops in the retrenchment and dependencies, should not serve for the space of eighteen months, from the date of the capitulation, against his most christian majesty, or his allies; that with the capitulation there should be delivered an exact state of the troops, specifying the names of the officers, engineers, artillery-men, commissaries, and all employed; that the officers and soldiers, Canadians, women, and savages, made prisoners by land since the commencement of the war in North America, should be delivered in the space of three months at Carillon; in return for whom an equal number of the garrison of fort William-Henry should be capacitated to serve agreeably to the return given by the English officer, and the receipt of the French commanding officers, of the prisoners so delivered: that an officer should remain as an hostage, till the safe return of the escort sent with the troops of his Britannic majesty; that the sick and wounded, not in a condition to be transported to fort Edward, should remain under the protection of the marquis de Montcalm; who engaged to use them with tenderness and humanity, and to return them as soon as recovered: that provisions for two days should be issued out for the British troops: that in testimony of his esteem and respect for colonel Monro and his garrison, on account of their gallant defence, the marquis do Montcalm should return one cannon, a six-pounder. Whether the marquis de Montcalm was really assiduous to have these articles punctually executed we cannot pretend to determine; but certain it is, they were perfidiously broke in almost every instance. The savages in the French interest either paid no regard to the capitulation, or were permitted, from views of policy, to act the most treacherous, inhuman, and insidiuous part. They fell upon the British troops as they marched out, despoiled them of their few remaining effects, dragged the Indians in the English service out of their ranks, and assassinated them with circumstances of unheard-of barbarity. Some British soldiers, with their wives and children, are said to have been savagely murdered by those brutal Indians, whose ferocity the French commander could not effectually restrain. The greater part of the English garrison, however, arrived at fort Edward, under the protection of the French escort. The enemy demolished the fort, carried off the effects, provisions, artillery, and every thing else left by the garrison, together with the vessels preserved in the lake, and departed, without pursuing their success by any other attempt. Thus ended the third campaign in America, where, with an evident superiority over the enemy, an army of twenty thousand regular troops, a great number of provincial forces, and a prodigious naval power, not less than twenty ships of the line, we abandoned our allies, exposed our people, suffered them to be cruelly massacred in sight of our troops, and relinquished a large and valuable tract of country, to the eternal reproach and disgrace of the British name.
NAVAL TRANSACTIONS IN AMERICA.
As to the naval transactions in this country, though less infamous, they were not less unfortunate. Immediately on lord Loudon’s departure from Halifax, admiral Holbourn, now freed from the care of the transports, set sail for Louisbourg, with fifteen ships of the line, one ship of fifty guns, three small frigates, and a fire-ship. What the object of this cruise might have been can only be conjectured. Some imagine curiosity was the admiral’s sole motive, and the desire of informing himself with certainty of the enemy’s strength, while others persuade themselves that he was in hopes of drawing M. de la Mothe to an engagement, notwithstanding his superiority in number of ships and weight of metal. Be this as it may, the British squadron appeared off Louisbourg on the twentieth day of August, and approaching within two miles of the batteries, saw the French admiral make the signal to unmoor. Mr. Holbourn was greatly inferior in strength, and it is obvious that his design was not to fight the enemy, as he immediately made the best of his way to Halifax. About the middle of September, being reinforced with four ships of the line, he again proceeded to Louisbourg, probably with intention, if possible, to draw the enemy to an engagement; but he found de la Mothe too prudent to hazard an unnecessary battle, the loss of which would have greatly exposed all the French colonies. Here the English squadron continued cruising until the twenty-fifth, when they were overtaken by a terrible storm from the southward. When the hurricane began, the fleet were about forty leagues distant from Louisbourg; but were driven in twelve hours within two miles of the rocks and breakers on that coast, when the wind providentially shifted. The ship Tilbury was wrecked upon the rocks, and half her crew drowned. Eleven ships were dismasted, others threw their guns overboard; and all returned in a very shattered condition to England, at a very unfavourable season of the year. In this manner ended the expedition to Louisbourg, more unfortunate to the nation than the preceding designs upon Rochefort; less disgraceful to the commanders, but equally the occasion of ridicule and triumph to our enemies. Indeed, the unhappy consequences of the political disputes at home, the instability of the administration, and the frequent revolutions in our councils, were strongly manifested by that langour infused into all our military operations, and general unsteadiness in our pursuits. Faction, in the mother-country, produced divisions and misconduct in the colonies. No ambition to signalize themselves appeared among the officers, from the uncertainty whether their services were to be rewarded or condemned. Their attachment to particular persons weakened the love they ought to have entertained for their country in general, and destroyed that spirit of enterprise, that firmness and resolution which constitutes the commander, and without which the best capacity, joined to the most uncorruptible integrity, can effect nothing.
The French king not only exerted himself against the English in America, but even extended his operations to their settlements in Africa, where he sent one of his naval commanders with a small squadron, to reduce. This gentleman, whose name was Kersin, had scoured the coast of Guinea, and made prize of several English trading ships; but his chief aim was to reduce the castle at Cape-coast, of which, had he gained possession, the other subordinate forts would have submitted without opposition. When Mr. Bell, the governor of this castle, received intelligence that M. de Kersin was a few leagues to windward, and certainly intended to attack Cape-coast, his whole garrison did not exceed thirty white men, exclusive of a few mulatto soldiers: his stock of ammunition was reduced to half a barrel of gunpowder; and his fortifications were so crazy and inconsiderable, that, in the opinion of the best engineers, they could not have sustained for twenty minutes the fire of one great ship, had it been properly directed and maintained. In these circumstances, few people would have dreamed of making any preparation for defence; but Mr. Bell entertained other sentiments, and acquitted himself with equal courage and discretion. He forthwith procured a supply of gunpowder, and a reinforcement of about fifty men, from certain trading vessels that happened to be upon that part of the coast. He mounted some spare cannon upon an occasional battery, and assembling a body of twelve hundred negroes, well armed, under the command of their chief, on whose attachment he could depend, and ordered them to take post at the place where he apprehended the enemy would attempt a landing. These precautions were hardly taken, when the French squadron, consisting of two ships of the line and a large frigate, appeared, and in a little time their attack began; but they met with such a warm reception, that in less than two hours they desisted, leaving the castle very little damaged, and immediately made sail for the West Indies, very much to the disappointment and mortification of the Dutch officers belonging to the fort of Elmina, in the same neighbourhood, who made no scruple of expressing their wishes publicly in favour of the French commodore, and at a distance viewed the engagement with the most partial eagerness and impatience. M. de Kersin was generally blamed for his want of conduct and resolution in this attempt; but he is said to have been deceived in his opinion of the real state of Capecoast castle, by the vigorous and resolute exertions of the governor, and was apprehensive of losing a mast in the engagement; a loss which he could not have repaired on the whole coast of Africa. Had the fort of Cape-coast been reduced on this occasion, in all probability every petty republic of the negroes, settled under the protection of the forts on the Gold-coast, would have revolted from the British interest; for while the French squadron, in their progress along-shore, hovered in the offing at Annamaboe, an English settlement a few leauges to leeward of Cape-coast, John Corrantee, the caboceiro, chief magistrate and general of the blacks on that part of the coast, whose adopted son had a few years before been caressed, and even treated as a prince in England, taking it for granted that this enterprise of the French would be attended with success, actually sent some of his dependants, with a present of refreshments for their commodore; the delivery of which, however, was prevented by Mr. Brew, the English chief of the fort, who shattered in pieces the canoe before it could be launched, and threatened with his cannon to level the black town with the dust. The caboceiro, though thus anticipated in his design, resolved to be among the first who should compliment M. de Kersin on his victory at Cape-coast; and, with this view, prepared an embassy or deputation to go there by land; but understanding that the French had failed in their attempt, he shifted his design, without the least hesitation, and despatched the same embassy to Mr. Bell, whom he congratulated on his victory, assuring him he had kept his men ready armed, to march at the first summons to his assistance.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE EAST INDIES.
In the East Indies the scene was changed greatly to the honour and advantage of Great Britain. There the commanders acted with that harmony, spirit, and unanimity becoming Britons, zealous for the credit of their king and the interest of their country. We left admiral Watson and colonel Clive advancing to Calcutta, to revenge the cruel tragedy acted upon their countrymen the preceding year. On the twenty-eighth of December, the fleet proceeded up the river: next day colonel Clive landed, and with the assistance of the squadron, in twenty-four hours made himself master of Busbudgia, a place of great strength, though very ill defended. On the first of January the admiral, with two ships, appeared before the town of Calcutta, and was received by a brisk fire from the batteries. This salute was returned so warmly, that the enemy’s guns were soon silenced, and in less than two hours the place and fort were abandoned. Colonel Clive, on the other side, had invested the town, and made his attack with that vigour and intrepidity peculiar to himself, which greatly contributed to the sudden reduction of the settlement. As soon as the fort was surrendered, the brave and active captain Coote, with his majesty’s troops, took possession, and found ninety-one pieces of cannon, four mortars, abundance of ammunition, stores, and provisions, with every requisite for sustaining an obstinate siege. Thus the English were re-established in the two strongest fortresses in the Ganges, with the inconsiderable loss of nine seamen killed, and three soldiers. A few days after, Hughley, a city of great trade, situated higher up the river, was reduced with as little difficulty, but infinitely greater prejudice to the nabob, as here his storehouses of salt, and vast granaries for the support of his army, were burnt and destroyed. Incensed at the almost instantaneous loss of all his conquests, and demolition of the city of Hughley, the viceroy of Bengal discouraged all advances to an accommodation which was proposed by the admiral and chiefs of the company, and assembled an army of twenty thousand horse and fifteen thousand foot, fully resolved to expel the English out of his dominions, and take ample vengeance for the disgraces he had lately sustained. He was seen marching by the English camp in his way to Calcutta on the second of February, where he encamped, about a mile from the town. Colonel Clive immediately made application to the admiral for a reinforcement; and six hundred men, under the command of captain Warwick, were accordingly drafted from the different ships, and sent to assist his little army. Clive drew out his forces, advanced in three columns towards the enemy, and began the attack so vigorously, that the viceroy retreated, after a feeble resistance, with the loss of a thousand men killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, five hundred horses, great numbers of draft bullocks, and four elephants. Though this advantage was less decisive than could be wished, yet it sufficiently intimidated the nabob into concessions much to the honour and advantage of the company. Admiral Watson gave him to understand in a letter, that this was no more than a specimen of what the British arms, when provoked, could perform. The suba desired the negotiation might be renewed, and in a few days the treaty was concluded. He promised not to disturb the English in any of those privileges or possessions specified in the firm, and granted by the Mogul; that all merchandise belonging to the company should pass and repass, in every part of the province of Bengal, free of duty; that all the English factories seized the preceding year, or since, should be restored, with the money, goods, and effects appertaining; that all damages sustained by the English should be repaired, and their losses repaid: that the English should have liberty to fortify Calcutta in whatever manner they thought proper without interruption: that they should have the liberty of coining all the gold and bullion they imported, which should pass current in the province: that he would remain in strict friendship and alliance with the English, use his utmost endeavours to heal up the late divisions, and restore the former good understanding between them.
All which several articles were solemnly signed and sealed with the nabob’s own hand.
SEDUCTION OF CHANDERNAGORE.
Such were the terms obtained for the company, by the spirited and gallant conduct of the two English commanders. They had, however, too much discernment to rely on the promises of a barbarian, who had so prefidiously broken former engagements; but they prudently dissembled their sentiments, until they had thoroughly reinstated the affairs of the company, and reduced the French power in this province. In order to adjust the points that required discussion, the select committee for the company’s affairs appointed Mr. Watts, who had been released from his former imprisonment, as their commissary at the court of the suba, to whom he was personally known, as well as to his ministers, among whom he had acquired a considerable influence. Nothing less could have balanced the interest which the French, by their art of intriguing, had raised among the favourites of the viceroy. While Mr. Watts was employed at Muxadavad in counter-working those intrigues, and keeping the suba steady to his engagements, the admiral and Mr. Clive resolved to avail themselves of their armament in attacking the French settlements in Bengal. The chief object of their designs was the reduction of Chandernagore, situated higher up the river than Calcutta, of considerable strength, and the chief in importance of any possessed by that nation in the bay. Colonel Clive being reinforced by three hundred men from Bombay, began his march to Chandernagore, at the head of seven hundred Europeans and one thousand six hundred Indians, where, on his first arrival, he took possession of all the out-posts except one redoubt mounted with eight pieces of cannon, which he left to be silenced by the admiral. On the eighteenth day of March, the admirals Watson and Pocoke arrived within two miles of the French settlement, with the Kent, Tiger, and Salisbury men of war, and found their passage obstructed by booms laid across the river, and several vessels sunk in the channel. These difficulties being removed, they advanced early on the twenty-fourth, and drew up in a line before the fort, which they battered with great fury for three hours; while colonel Clive was making his approaches on the land side, and playing vigorously from the batteries he had raised. Their united efforts soon obliged the enemy to submission. A flag of truce was waved over the walls, and the place surrendered by capitulation. The keys were delivered to captain Latham of the Tiger; and in the afternoon colonel Clive, with the king’s troops, took possession. Thus the reduction of a strong fortress, garrisoned by five hundred Europeans, and one thousand two hundred Indians, defended by one hundred and twenty-three pieces of cannon, and three mortars, well provided with all kinds of stores and necessaries, and of very great importance to the enemy’s commerce in India, was accomplished with a loss not exceeding forty men on the side of the conquerors. By the treaty of capitulation the director; counsellors, and inferior servants of the settlement, were allowed to depart with their wearing apparel: the Jesuits were permitted to take away their church ornaments, and the natives to remain in the full exertion of their liberties; but the garrison were to continue prisoners of war. The goods and money found in the place were considerable; but the principal advantage arose from the ruin of the head settlement of the enemy on the Ganges, which could not but interfere with the English commerce in these parts.
COLONEL CLIVE DEFEATS THE SUBA AT PLAISSEY, &c.
Success had hitherto attended all the operations of the British commanders, because they were concerted with foresight and unanimity; and executed with that vigour and spirit which deservedly raised them high in the esteem of their country. They reduced the nabob to reasonable terms of accommodation before they alarmed the French; and now the power of the latter was destroyed, they entered upon measures to oblige the treacherous viceroy to a strict performance of the treaty he had so lately signed. However specious his promises were, they found him extremely dilatory in the execution of several articles of the treaty, which, in effect, was the same to the English commerce as if none had been concluded. The company’s goods were loaded with high duties, and several other infractions of the peace committed, upon such frivolous pretences, as evidently demonstrated that he sought to come to an open rupture as soon as his projects were ripe for execution. In a word, he discovered all along a manifest partiality to the French, whose emissaries cajoled him with promises that he should be joined by such a body of their European troops, under M. de Bussy, as would enable him to crush the power of the English, whom they had taught him to fear and to hate. As recommencing hostilities against so powerful a prince was in itself dangerous, and if possible to be avoided, the affair was laid before the council of Culcutta, and canvassed with all the circumspection and caution that a measure required, on which depended the fate of the whole trade of Bengal. Mr. Watts, from time to time, sent them intelligence of every transaction in the suba’s cabinet; and although that prince publicly declared he would cause him to be impaled as soon as the English troops should be put in motion within the kingdom of Bengal, he bravely sacrificed his own safety to the interest of the company, and exhorted them to proceed with vigour in their military operations. During these deliberations a most fortunate incident occurred, that soon determined the council to come to an open rupture. The leading persons in the viceroy’s court found themselves oppressed by his haughtiness and insolence. The same spirit of discontent appeared among the principal officers of his army; they were well acquainted with his prefidy, saw his preparations for war, and were sensible that the peace of the country could never be restored, unless either the English were expelled, or the nabob deposed. In consequence, a plan was concerted for divesting him of all his power; and the conspiracy was conducted by Jaffier Ali Khan, his prime minister and chief commander, a nobleman of great influence and authority in the province. The project was communicated by Ali Khan to Mr. Watts, and so improved by the address of that gentleman, as in a manner to ensure success. A treaty was actually concluded between this Meer Jaffier Ali Khan and the English company; and a plan concerted with this nobleman and the other malcontents for their defection from the viceroy. These previous measures being-taken, colonel Clive was ordered to take the field with his little army. Admiral Watson undertook the defence of Chandernagore, and the garrison was detached to reinforce the colonel, together with fifty seamen to be employed as gunners, and in directing the artillery. Then Mr. Watts, deceiving the suba’s spies by whom he was surrounded, withdrew himself from Muxadavad, and reached the English camp in safety. On the nineteenth of June a detachment was sent to attack Cutwa fort and town, situated on that branch of the river forming the island of Cassimbuzzar. This place surrendered at the first summons; and here the colonel halted with the army for three days, expecting advices from Ali Khan. Disappointed of the hoped for intelligence, he crossed the river, and marched to Plaissey, where he encamped. On the twenty-third, at day break, the suba advanced to attack him, at the head of fifteen thousand horse, and near thirty thousand infantry, with about forty pieces of heavy cannon, conducted and managed by French gunners, on whose courage and dexterity he placed great dependence. They began to cannonade the English camp about six in the morning; but a severe shower falling at noon they withdrew their artillery. Colonel Clive seized this opportunity to take possession of a tank and two other posts of consequence, which they in vain endeavored to retake. Then he stormed an angle of their camp, covered with a double breastwork, together with an eminence which they occupied. At the beginning of this attack, some of their chiefs being slain, the men were so dispirited, that they soon gave way; but still Meer Jaffier Ali Khan, who commanded their left wing, forbore declaring himself openly. After a short contest the enemy were put to flight, the nabob’s camp, baggage, and fifty pieces of cannon taken, and a most complete victory obtained. The colonel, pursuing his advantage, marched to Muxadavad, the capital of the province, and was there joined by Ali Khan and the malcontents. It was before concerted that this nobleman should be invested with the dignity of nabob; accordingly, the colonel proceeded solemnly to depose Surajah Dowlat, and, with the same ceremony, to substitute Ali Khan in his room, who was publicly acknowledged by the people as suba, or viceroy, of the provinces of Bengal, Banar, and Orixa. Soon after, the late viceroy was taken, and put to death by his successor, who readily complied with all the conditions of his elevation. He conferred on his allies very liberal rewards, and granted the company such extraordinary privileges, as fully demonstrated how justly he merited their assistance. By this alliance, and the reduction of Chandernagore, the French were entirely excluded the commerce of Bengal and its dependencies; the trade of the English company was restored, and increased beyond their most sanguine hopes; a new ally was acquired, whose interest obliged him to remain firm to his engagements: a vast sum was paid to the company and the sufferers at Calcutta, to indemnify them for their losses: the soldiers and seamen were gratified with six hundred thousand pounds, as a reward for the courage and intrepidity they exerted; and a variety of other advantages gained, which it would be unnecessary to enumerate. In a word, in the space of fourteen days a great revolution was effected, and the government of a vast country superior in wealth, fertility, extent, and number of inhabitants to most European kingdoms, transferred by a handful of troops, conducted by an officer untutored in the art of war, and a general rather by intuition, than instruction and experience. But the public joy at these signal successes was considerably diminished by the death of admiral Watson, and the loss of Vizagapatam, an English settlement on the Coromandel coast. The admiral fell a victim to the unwholesomeness of the climate, on the sixteenth of August, universally esteemed and regretted; and the factory and fort at Vizagapatam were surrendered to the French, a few days after colonel Clive had defeated the nabob.
ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE KING OF FRANCE.
We now turn our eyes to the continent of Europe, where we see the beginning of the year marked with a striking instance of the dreadful effects of frantic enthusiasm. France had long enjoyed a monarch, easy, complying, good-natured, and averse to all that wore the appearance of business or of war. Contented with the pleasures of indolence, he sought no greatness beyond what he enjoyed, nor pursued any ambitious aim through the dictates of his own disposition. Of all men on earth such a prince had the greatest reason to expect an exemption from plots against his person, and cabals among his subjects; yet was an attempt made upon his life by a man, who though placed in the lowest sphere of fortune, had resolution to face the greatest dangers, and enthusiasm sufficient to sustain, without shrinking, all the tortures which the cruelty of man could invent, or his crimes render necessary. The name of this fanatic was Robert Francis Damien, born in the suburb of St. Catharine, in the city of Arras. He had lived in the service of several families, whence he was generally dismissed on account of the impatience, the melancholy, and sullenness of his disposition. So humble was the station of a person, who was resolved to step forth from obscurity, and, by one desperate effort, draw upon himself the attention of all Europe. On the fifth day of January, as the king was stepping into his coach to return to Trianon, whence he had that day come to Versailles, Damien, mingling among his attendants, stabbed him with a knife on the right side, between the fourth and fifth ribs. His majesty applying his hand immediately to his side, cried out, “I am wounded! Seize him; but do not hurt him.” Happily the wound was not dangerous; as the knife taking an oblique direction, missed the vital parts. As for the assassin, he made no attempts to escape; but suffering himself quietly to be seized, was conveyed to the guard-room, where, being interrogated if he committed the horrid action, he boldly answered in the affirmative. A process against him was instantly commenced at Versailles: many persons, supposed accessaries to the design upon the king’s life, were sent to the Bastile; the assassin himself was put to the torture, and the most excruciating torments were applied, with intention to extort a confession of the reasons that could induce him to so execrable an attempt upon his sovereign. Incisions were made into the muscular parts of his legs, arms, and thighs, into which boiling oil was poured. Every refinement on cruelty, that human invention could suggest, was practised without effect; nothing could overcome his obstinacy; and his silence was construed into a presumption, that he must have accomplices in the plot. To render his punishment more public and conspicuous, he was removed to Paris, there to undergo a repetition of all his former tortures, with such additional circumstances as the most fertile and cruel dispositions could devise for increasing his misery and torment. Being conducted to the Concergerie, an iron bed, which likewise served for a chair, was prepared for him, and to this he was fastened with chains. The torture was again applied, and a physician ordered to attend, to see what degree of pain he could support. Nothing, however, material was extorted; for what he one moment confessed, he recanted the next. It is not within our province, and we consider it as a felicity, to relate all the circumstances of this cruel and tragical event. Sufficient it is, that, after suffering the most exquisite torments that human nature could invent, or man support, his judges thought proper to terminate his misery by a death shocking to imagination, and shameful to humanity. On the twenty-eighth day of March he was conducted, amidst a vast concourse of the populace, to the Grève, the common place of execution, stripped naked, and fastened to the scaffold by iron gyves. One of his hands was then burnt in liquid flaming sulphur; his thighs, legs, and arms, were torn with red hot pincers; boiling oil, melted lead, resin, and sulphur, were poured into the wounds; tight ligatures tied round his limbs to prepare him for dismemberment; young and vigorous horses applied to the draft, and the unhappy criminal pulled, with all their force, to the utmost extension of his sinews, for the space of an hour; during all which time he preserved his senses and constancy. At length the physician and surgeon attending declared, it would be impossible to accomplish the dismemberment, unless the tendons were separated; upon which orders were given to the executioner to cut the sinews at the joints of the arms and legs. The horses drew afresh; a thigh and an arm were separated, and, after several pulls, the unfortunate wretch expired under the extremity of pain. His body and limbs were reduced to ashes under the scaffold; his father, wife, daughter, and family banished the kingdom for ever; the name of Damien effaced and obliterated, and the innocent involved in the punishment of the guilty. Thus ended the procedure against Damien and his family, in a manner not very favourable to the avowed clemency of Louis, or the acknowledged humanity of the French nation. It appeared from undoubted evidence, that the attempt on the king’s life was the result of insanity, and a disturbed imagination. Several instances of a disordered mind had before been observed in his conduct, and the detestation justly due to the enormity of his crime ought now to have been absorbed in the consideration of his misfortune, the greatest that can befal human nature.
CHANGES IN THE FRENCH MINISTRY.
Another remarkable event in France, in the beginning of this year, was the change in the ministry of that nation, by the removal of M. de Machault, keeper of the seals, from the post of secretary of state for the marine; and of M. d’Argenson from that of secretary at war. Their dismission was sudden and unexpected; nor was any particular reason assigned for this very unexpected alteration. The French king, to show the queen of Hungary how judiciously she had acted in forming an alliance with the house of Bourbon, raised two great armies; the first of which, composed of near eighty thousand men, the flower of the French troops, with a large train of artillery, was commanded by M. d’Etrées, a general of great reputation; under whom served M. de Contades, M. Chevert, and the count de Saint Germain, all officers of high character. This formidable army passed the Rhine early in the spring, and marched by Westphalia, in order to invade the king of Prussia’s dominions, in quality of allies to the empress-queen, and guardians of the liberties of the empire. But their real view was to invade Hanover, a scheme which they knew would make a powerful diversion of the British force from the prosecution of the war in other parts of the world, where the strength of France could not be fully exerted, and where their most valuable interests were at stake. They flattered themselves, moreover, that the same blow, by which they hoped to crush the king of Prussia, might likewise force his Britannic majesty into some concessions with regard to America. The other army of the French, commanded by the prince de Soubise, was destined to strengthen the imperial army of execution, consisting of twenty-five thousand men, beside six thousand Bavarians, and four thousand Wirtembergers. But before these troops, under Soubise, passed the Rhine, they made themselves masters of several places belonging to the king of Prussia, upon the borders of the low Countries;* whilst a detachment from d’Etrées’s army seized upon the town of Embden, and whatever else belonged to the same monarch in East Friesland.
* The king of Prussia had withdrawn his garrison from Cleves, not without suspicion of having purposely left this door open to the enemy, that their irruption into Germany might hasten the resolutions of the British ministry.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
STATE OF THE CONFEDERACY.
At the close of the last campaign, the king of Prussia, having gained a petty advantage over the Imperialists under the command of mareschal Brown, and incorporated into his own troops a great part of the Saxon army taken prisoners at Pima, as was observed before, retired into winter-quarters, until the season should permit him to improve these advantages. His majesty and mareschal Keith wintered in Saxony, having their cantonments between Pirna and the frontier along the Elbe; and mareschal Schwerin, returning into Silesia, took up his quarters in the country of Glatz. In the meantime, the empress-queen, finding the force which she had sent out against the king of Prussia, was not sufficient to prevent his designs, made the necessary requisitions to her allies, for the auxiliaries they had engaged to furnish. In consequence of these requisitions, the czarina, true to her engagements, despatched above an hundred thousand of her troops, who began their march in the month of November, and proceeded to the borders of Lithuania, with design particularly to invade Ducal Prussia, whilst a strong fleet was equipped in the Baltic, to aid the operations of this numerous army. The Austrian army, assembled in Bohemia, amounted to upwards of fourscore thousand men, commanded by prince Charles of Lorraine and mareschal Brown. The Swedes had not yet openly declared themselves; but it was well known, that though their king was allied in blood and inclination to his Prussian majesty, yet the jealousy which the senate of Sweden entertained of their sovereign, and the hope of recovering their ancient possessions in Pomerania, by means of the present troubles, together with their old attachment to France, newly cemented by intrigues and subsidies, would certainly induce them to join the general confederacy. The duke of Mecklenburgh took the same party, and agreed to join the Swedish army, when it should be assembled, with six thousand men. Besides all these preparations against the king of Prussia, he was, in his quality of elector of Brandenburgh, put under the ban of the empire by the Aulic council; declared deprived of all his rights, privileges, and prerogatives; his fiefs were escheated into the exchequer of the empire; and all the circles accordingly ordered to furnish their respective contingencies for putting this sentence in execution.
In this dangerous situation, thus menaced on all sides, and seemingly on the very brink of inevitable destruction, the Prussian monarch owed his preservation to his own courage and activity. The Russians, knowing that the country they were to pass through in their way to Lithuania would not be able to subsist their prodigious numbers, had taken care to furnish themselves with provisions for their march, depending upon the resources they expected to find in Lithuania after their arrival in that country. These provisions were exhausted by the time they reached the borders of that province, where they found themselves suddenly and unexpectedly destitute of subsistence, either to return back or to proceed forward. The king of Prussia had, with great prudence and foresight, secured plenty to himself, and distress and famine to his enemies, by buying up all the corn and forage of the country which these last were entering. Notwithstanding these precautions, his Prussian majesty, to guard as much as could be against every possible event, sent a great number of gunners and matrasses from Pomerania to Memel, with three regiments of his troops, to reinforce the garrison of that place. He visited all the posts which his troops possessed in Silesia, and gave the necessary orders for their security. He repaired to Neiss, where he settled with mareschal Schwerin the general plan of the operations of the approaching campaign. There it was agreed, that the mareschal’s army in Silesia, which consisted of fifty thousand men, should have in constant view the motions of the royal army, by which its own were to be regulated, that they might both act in concert, as circumstances should require. At the same time, other armies were assembled by the king of Prussia in Lusatia and Voigt-land; twenty thousand men were collected at Zwickaw, on the frontiers of Bohemia, towards Egra, under the command of prince Maurice of Anhault-Dessau; and sixty thousand chosen troops began their march towards Great Seidlitz, where their head quarters were settled. In the meanwhile, the Austrian troops began to form on the frontiers of Saxony, where some of their detachments appeared, to watch the motions of the Prussians, who still continued to pursue their operations with great activity and resolution. All possible care was taken by the Prussians at Dresden to secure a retreat in case of a defeat. As only one regiment of Prussians could be spared to remain there in garrison, the burghers were disarmed, their arms deposited in the arsenal, and a detachment was posted at Konigstein, to oblige that fortress to observe a strict neutrality. All correspondence with the enemy was strictly prohibited; and it having been discovered that the countess of Ogilvie, one of the queen’s maids of honour, had disobeyed his majesty’s commands, she was arrested; but on the queen’s intercession afterwards released. The countess of Bruhl, lady of the Saxon prime minister, was also arrested by his Prussian majesty’s order; and on her making light of her confinement, and resolving to see company, she was ordered to quit the court, and retire from Saxony. M. Henwin, the French minister, was told that his presence was unnecessary at Dresden; and on his replying, that his master had commanded him to stay, he was again desired to depart; on which he thought proper to obey. The count de Wackerbath, minister of the cabinet, and grand master of the household to the prince royal of Poland, was arrested, and conducted to Custrin, by the express command of his majesty. The king of Prussia, having thrown two bridges over the Elbe, early in the spring, ordered the several districts of the electorate of Saxony to supply him with a great number of waggons, each drawn by four horses. The circles of Misnia and Leipsic were enjoined to furnish four hundred each, and the other circles in proportion.