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Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!

"'Tis great, 'tis noble, thrones usurp'd to shake,
"And sweet to die for our dear country's sake."

Thus was extinguished a rebellion, which from small beginnings, rose to an alarming height; and, at one time, threatened a revolution in the state. In order more effectually to eradicate the seeds of disloyalty, and break the refractory spirit of the Highlanders, the heads of clans were deprived of their exclusive hereditary jurisdiction, which they had abused; and people of all ranks were prohibited, by act of parliament, from wearing the ancient dress of their country".

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LETTER XXX.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE, FROM THE TREATY OF DRESDEN, IN DECEMBER, 1745, TO THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, IN 1748.

THE treaty of Dresden, and the confirmation of that of Breslaw, by finally detaching the king of Prussia from the house of Bourbon, made a great change in the state of the contending powers, but did not dispose them A.D. 1745. to peace. The king of France, encouraged by his past successes, and by the absence of the British troops, determined to push his conquests in the Low-Countries; and

26. A sentiment so sublime, from the mouth of a man, who had lived in the habitual violation of every moral duty, and whose sole object was selfinterest, forms a severe satire on the common pretensions to patriotism.

27. This act has been since repealed, from a conviction of its inex. pediency. And it is truly extraordinary it should ever have been supposed, that men would become more loyal or submissive because they were compelled to wear breeches.

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the king of Great-Britain, enraged at Lewis for supporting a pretender to his throne, resolved upon vengeance, as soon as the rebellion in Scotland should be finally suppressed. Elated with the exaltation of her husband to the Imperial throne, and having now no enemy to oppose in Germany, the queen of Hungary hoped to be able to give a favourable turn to the war in Italy. She even flattered herself that the circles, or the Germanic body, might be induced to take up arms against France; and that, by the co-operation of England and Holland, all Flanders might be recovered, and the vic torious house of Bourbon yet completely humbled.

A. D. 1746.

Of all the hostile powers, the king of France was first in readiness to carry his designs into execution. Mareschal Saxe, to the astonishment of Europe, and the terror of the confederates, took Brussels, the capital of Brabant, and the residence of the governors of the Austrian Netherlands, in the beginning of February. Lewis XV. joined his victorious army, consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand men, in the month of April, and obliged the allies under Bathiani, to retire first to Antwerp, and afterward to Breda. Antwerp was invested, and reduced in a few days. Nothing could withstand the French artillery directed by Lowendahl, or the army conducted by Saxe. Mons, reckoned one of the strongest towns in the world, held out only a few weeks. St. Guislain, and Charleroy were also obliged to submt; and, by the tenth of July, Lewis saw himself absolute master of Flanders, Brabant and Hainault.

Before this time, prince Charles of Lorrain had assumed the command of the confederate army; which being reinforced with ten thousand Hanoverians, six thousand Hessians, three British regiments, and twentyfive thousand Hungarians under count Palfy, now amounted to eighty-seven thousand men, including the Dutch forces commanded by the prince of Waldeck. Concluding that Namur would be the next object of the French monarch,

TOL. Y.

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the prince of Lorrain marched toward that place, and occupied an advantageous post in the neighbourhood, within sight of the French army, which was encamped at Gemblours. Mareschal Saxe, who greatly surpassed in abilities all the generals of the allies, not judging it pru-. dent to attack them in so strong a situation, attempted by other means, to accomplish the designs of his master. He accordingly reduced Dinant, in the bishopric of Liege, and thereby acquired the command of the navigation of the Maese above Namur; while Lowendahl, by his direction, took Huy, a town and castle of great importance on the same river, and there seized a large magazine belonging to the confederates.

In consequence of the reduction of those two places, the French became masters of the navigation of the Maese; and by cutting off the communication of the confederates with Maestricht, obliged prince Charles, from scarcity of provisions, to quit his post, and abandon Namur to its fate. This place, rendered famous by many sieges, is situated, as I have formerly had occasion to observe, at the conflux of the Sambre and the Maese. The citadel is built upon a steep rock; and twelve other forts, on the ridges of the neighbouring mountains, seem to render it inaccessible to any attack. The garrison consisted of nine thousand Dutch and Austrians, who defended the works with equal skill and resolution; yet so powerful and well-directed was the fire of the French artillery, that the town was forced to surrender on the sixth, and the citadel on the sixteenth day of the siege.

Meanwhile the confederate army, which was encamped in the neighbourhood of Maestricht, being reinforced by some Bavarian and British battalions under sir John Ligonier, prince Charles resolved to give battle to the main body of the enemy, while weakened by the detachment that conducted the siege of Namur. With this view he passed the Maese, and advanced toward the

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French camp; but found mareschal Saxe so advantageously posted at Tongres, that he judged it prudent to march back to Maestricht. He was severely harassed in his retreat. The confederates, however, behaved with great spirit, and at last even repulsed their pursuers.

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But the enterprising Saxe, having soon after formed a junction with the troops that had reduced Namur, passed the Jaar at the head of the whole French army; and the allies, sensible that he meant to attack them, took possession of the Villages of Leirs, Warem, and Roucoux. They drew up their forces in order of battle, and made every preparation for receiving him. At break of day the French army advanced in three columns, and about noon a terrible cannonading began. By two o'clock the prince of Waldeck, who commanded on the left of the confederates, and against whom the enemy chiefly directed their force, was compelled to give way. The three villages were attacked, at the same time, by fifty-five battalions, in brigades. As soon as one brigade was repulsed, another advanced; so that the confederates, fatigued with continual fighting, and being, by an unaccountable neglect, in a great measure destitute of artillery, while the French played upon them with above an hundred pieces of cannon, were at last obliged to abandon the villages, and retreat toward Maestricht. They lost five thousand men; and the French, who did not attempt to pursue them, near ten thousand. With this battle, in which the Austrians had little share, and which was attended with no important consequences, the operations of the campaign in the Low-Countries ended. Both armies dissatisfied with the issue of the action, as if ashamed of such an idle waste of blood, went soon after into winter-quarters.

Happily for the allies, the house of Bourbon was less successful this summer in Italy, though artful measures had been taken during the winter, to acquire an absolute superiority over the house of Austria in that country;

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where Don Philip and Maillebois, who had carried every thing before them the preceding campaign, were still at the head of powerful armies. Lewis XV. was no sooner informed of the election of the king of Prussia, than he made, without consulting the court of Madrid, advan tageous proposals to the king of Sardinia; and these proposals were accepted, and a cessation of hostilities signed'. But Lewis had soon reason to repent his rashness. The king, or rather queen of Spain, who was still at the head of the administration, enraged at any dismemberment of the possessions intended for the Infant Don Philip, reproached the king of France with a breach of the treaty of Fontainbleau, and although matters were afterward adjusted between the two courts, and the treaty with the king of Sardinia, though so far advanced, broken off, their interests suffered severely by this misunderstanding, which produced a temporary jealousy between the French and Spanish armies. An almost total inaction was the consequence; and that inaction gave rise to new jealousies, and mutual accusations, which led to the greatest misfortunes.

Meanwhile the king of Sardinia, the most politic prince of his time, having in vain solicited the signing of the definitive treaty with France, made himself master of

1. This treaty, which secured to Don Philip, beside Parma and Placentia, a share in the Duchy of Milan and all Cremona, had for its chief object, on the part of the king of Sardinia, the independency of Italy. It therefore provided that no Italian state should be united to the crown of France, Spain, or the Imperial crown. (Mem. de Noailles, tom. iv.) Such a policy was perfectly sound, and consistent with the character and situation of the king of Sardinia as one of the Italian princes, but treacherous as one of the confederate and subsidiary powers. Yet has the fidelity of his Sardinian majesty been universally extolled, because this treaty, to which he positively acceded, and other secret negociations and intrigues in which he was engaged, and which were defeated by accidental circumstances, have hitherto remained in a great measure unknown. So precari. ous a thing is human virtue! and so little connection often have the seemingly meritorious actions of men with the sentiments of honour, or th real motives that influence their conduct.

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