Sulowitz, and attack the enemy's right. This it endeavoured to execute, but in vain. A small number only of the infantry could pass the village; and these galled by the heavy fire of a powerful artillery, being unable to form on the other side, fell back in confusion. Brown was now under the necessity of attempting a retreat; which he conducted in a manner so masterly, that no effort was made to annoy him.

The Austrians, however, though thus compelled to quit the field, were not totally defeated. Mareschal Brown took a new position, a little farther back; the strength of which obliged the victorious Frederic to remain satisfied with the advantage he had gained, and to keep his line behind Lowositz. But while the enemy continued in that position, his Prussian majesty had by no means effected his design. As the victory was incomplete, it was still possible for the Austrian general to attempt the relief of the Saxons. He was now, indeed, as much in a condition to undertake it as before the action, his loss being incomparably inferior to that of the Prussians.

ост. 10.

From this very embarrassing situation the superior talents of the king of Prussia happily extricated him. He sent the prince of Bevern with a large body of horse and foot to Tischiskovitz, as if he had proposed to turn the enemy's left flank, and to hem them in between the Elbe and the Egra. That manœuvre had the desired effect. Afraid of the consequence naturally to be expected from such a motion, mareschal Brown, hastened to repass the Egra, and occupied his old camp at Budyn14.

Thus ended the battle of Lowositz, which began as already observed, at seven o'clock in the morning, and ended at three in the afternoon. The loss on each side was nearly equal, amounting in all to about six thousand killed and wounded. Both parties claimed the victory; but if we judge by effects, the only means of

settling such doubtful questions, the Prussians have an undoubted right to the honour of the day. The Austrians certainly intended to disengage the Saxons, and with that view advanced to Lowositz. The king of Prussia could have no other object immediately in view, but to prevent their executing this design. He accomplished his aim by the battle of Lowositz, and the subsequent movement, which made the Austrians retire behind the Egra. Had the Prussians gained a more complete victory, or the king pursued a bolder line of conduct, they would have been enabled to take up their winter-quarters in Bohemia.

Having failed in this attempt to relieve the Saxons on the left of the Elbe, mareschal Brown resolved to try his fortune on the right. He accordingly passed that river, and advanced to Lichtenhayen. The Saxons also passed the Elbe, near the village of Ebenhert, at the foot of the mountain of Lilienstein, where they found themselves encompassed by inextricable difficulties. The Prussians had taken possession of all the defiles before them; the bridge over the Elbe was broken down behind them; and the Austrian general gave them notice that he could not march to their assistance. They had no choice left, but to perish, or surrender prisoners of war. They embraced the latter alternative; and their electoral prince, Augustus III. king of Poland, who had taken refuge in the castle of Koningstein, was forced to abandon his hereditary dominions, and retire into that kingdom.

The king of Prussia having thus completed one part of his military plan, commanded his army to quit Bohemia, and took up his winter-quarters in Saxony. Now it was that the victorious monarch, in order to justify his rigour toward the unhappy Saxons, on whom he levied heavy contributions, at the same time that he seized the public revenues, made himself master of the archives of Dresden; and even ordered the secret cabinet, in which the papers relative to foreign transactions were kept, to be violently broken open, although the queen of Poland placed herself against the door.

VOL. V.

This

This violence has been generally reprobated, but very unjustly. Though perfectly acquainted with the laws of politeness, and sufficiently disposed to observe them, his Prussian majesty did not allow them to interfere with the rigid maxims, and more important laws of policy. He rightly considered, that the passionate obstinacy of the queen of Poland, in personally opposing the command of the conqueror, deprived her of all the respect that was due to her sacred person; as a princess of her years and experience could not fail to know, that his desire of possessing the papers in question, must increase in proportion to her zeal to protect them. She drew the insult upon herself; and admitting her death, which happened soon after, to have been the consequence of such insult, the king of Prussia was not chargeable with it. Her part was submission.

A. D. 1757.

In the papers seized, the learned and enlightened Frederic, whose sensibility of heart, perhaps, has not always equalled his liberality of mind, found abundant proofs of the conspiracy formed against him by the courts of Vienna and Petersburg, and of the share which the court of Dresden had taken in that conspiracy. From these papers, which the king of Prussia published in his own vindication, it appeared, that, although the king of Poland did not chuse to insert at first, in his accession to the confederacy, the words reciprocal engagement of assisting one another with all their forces, that he was willing, nevertheless, to come to an understanding, for the partition of the dominions of the house of Brandenburg, by private and confidential declarations, and just conditions and advantages; that it was resolved, in the grand council of Moscow, to attack the king of Prussia, without any ulterior discussion, not only in case of his attacking any of the allies of Russia, but also if he should be attacked by any of the allies of the Czarina"; that it had been concerted

15. Letter from the count de Bruhl, the Saxon minister, to count Fleming, the Imperial minister, dated Dresden, March 3, 1753.

16. Letter from the Sieur Funck, the Russian minister, to the count de Bruhl, dated Petersburg, October 20 755.

between

between the two Imperial courts of Petersburg and Vienna, that the latter, the better to mask the true reasons of arming, should do it under the pretext of keeping herself in a condition to fulfil her engagements with England, in case of need; and when all the preparations were finished, then to fall suddenly upon the King of Prussia17.

Though the king of Prussia was not so successful as might have been expected, considering his superior military talents, the number and discipline of his troops, and the unprepared state of his enemies, who did not propose to begin their operations till the next campaign 18, the progress of his arms gave great joy to the British court, while it filled the nation with shame and confusion by turning their eyes on their own disasters; on the supposed misconduct of the ministry, the losses in America, and the miscarriage of the unhappy Byng, whom the voice of the people had already devoted to destruction for his pusillanimity. Willing to remove as far as possible, all grounds of dissatisfaction, his Britannic majesty changed his ministers; and, in a noble speech from the throne, expressed his confidence, That, under the guidance of divine Providence, the union, fortitude, and affection of his people would enable him to surmount all difficulties, and vindicate the dignity of his crown against the ancient enemy of England.

At the head of the new administration was placed William Pitt, the most popular man in the kingdom, who accepted the office of secretary of state for the southern department, in the room of Mr. Fox. Mr. Legge, another popular commoner, was made chancellor of the exchequer; and the duke of Devonshire succeeded the duke of Newcastle, at the head of the treasury.

17. Letter from count Fleming to count de Bruhl, dated Vienna, June 9, 1756.

18. Letter from count Fleming to count de Bruhl, dated Vienna, July 28, 1756.

The

The first measures of the patriotic minister do equal honour to his head and heart. He procured an order for sending home the foreign troops: he encouraged the framing of a bill, which immediately passed into a law, for establishing a national militia, upon the footing on which it now stands, as our only constitutional defence, and he complied with the wishes of the people, in bringing on the trial of admiral Byng, and promoting an inquiry into the conduct of the former ministry.

JAN. 28.

Byng was accordingly tried, by a court-martial, on board the St. George, in Portsmouth harbour, and sentenced to be shot; he having, in the opinion of his judges, fallen under that part of the twelfth article of war, which prescribes death to any commander, "who shall not, during the time of action, do his utmost, "from whatever motive or cause, negligence, cowardice, "or disaffection, to distress the enemy," And they were farther unanimously of opinion, that beside failing in his duty, by keeping back, during the engagement between the English and French fleets, and consequently not using his utmost endeavour "to take, seize, and destroy "the ships of the French king, that he did not exert his "utmost power for the relief of St. Philip's castle." But they recommended him to mercy, as the article of war, on which they decided made no allowance for an error in judgment. His majesty laid the sentence before the twelve judges, who confirmed it.

Meanwhile a violent clamour, on account of this judgment, was raised by admiral Byng's friends, who severely arraigned the proceedings against him, and ascribed his miscarriage solely to the ignorance and im providence of the late corrupt administration. The people, though enraged at Byng, for his dastardly behaviour, joined in the cry against the discarded ministers. And addresses were presented from all parts of the kingdom, requesting that a strict inquiry might be made into their conduct, from the time they received the first intelligence

of