memorial, the two ministers added, that they were ordered by their courts to demand a categorical answer in four days, and that any farther deliberation would be considered as a negative.

The king of Portugal's situation was now truly critical, and deserving of compassion. If, contrary to the established connections of his crown, its supposed interests, and in violation of the faith of treaties, he should engage in this proffered alliance, he must expect to see his most valuable settlements, Brazil and Goa, fall a prey to his ancient and injured ally, and Lisbon and Oporto, his chief cities, laid in ashes by the thunder of the English navy. Nor was this the worst. Having admitted garrisons into his principal places of strength, the implied condition of his accession to the Bourbon confederacy, he must necessarily lay his account with being reduced to the abject state of a vassal of Spain. If, on the other hand, he should adhere to his engagements, and resolve to maintain his independency, an army of sixty thousand Spaniards was ready to enter his kingdom, and reduce it to the condition of a conquered province.

The firmness of the king of Portugal, on this trying occasion, is highly worthy of admiration. In answer to the insulting proposition of the house of Bourbon, he observed, with judgment and temper, that his alliance with England was ancient, and consequently could give no reasonable offence at the present crisis: that it was purely defensive, and therefore innocent in all respects; that the late sufferings of Portugal disabled her, were she even willing, from taking part in an offensive war; into the calamities of which neither the love he bore to his subjects as a father, nor the duty by which he was bound to them as a king, would suffer him to plunge them. The Bourbon courts denied that this alliance was purely defensive, or entirely innocent: and for this astonishing reason, that the defensive alliance is converted into an offensive one," from the situation of the

Portuguese

Portuguese dominions, and the nature of the English power!"-The English fleets, said they, cannot keep the sea in all seasons, nor cruize on the coasts best calculated for cutting off the French and Spanish navigation, without the harbours and the friendly assistance of Portugal. "Nor," added they, "could those haughty "islanders insult all the maritime powers of Europe, if "the riches of Portugal did not pass into their hands." And after endeavouring to awaken the jealousy of his most faithful majesty, by representing his kingdom as under the yoke of England, they insultingly told him, that he ought to be thankful for "the NECESSITY which they had laid upon him to make use of his reason, in “order to take the road of his glory, and embrace the "common interest"?"

66

Although the king of Portugal was sensible, that the necessity here alluded to was the immediate march of the Spanish army to take possession of his dominions, he was not intimidated from his honourable resolution. The treaties of league and commerce, subsisting between Great-Britain and Portugal, were such, he maintained, as the laws of God, the laws of nature, and the laws of nations, have always deemed innocent. And he entreated their most christian and catholic majesties to open their eyes to the crying injustice of turning upon Portugal the hostilities kindled against Great-Britain; and to consider that they were giving an example which would lead to the utter destruction of mankind; that there was an end of public safety, if neutral powers were to be attacked, because they have entered into defensive alliance with the powers at war; that if their troops should invade his dominions, he would therefore, in vindication of his neutrality, endeavour to repel them with all his forces and those of his allies. And he concluded with declaring, that he would rather see the last tile of his palace fall, and his faithful subjects spill the last drop of their blood, than sacrifice the honour or the indepen

11. Printed papers, published by authority

dency

dency of his crown, and afford to ambitious princes, in his submission, a pretext for invading the sacred rights of neutrality12.

In consequence of this magnanimous declaration, the ministers of France and Spain immediately left Lisbon. And their departure was soon followed

by a joint denunciation of war against Por- APRIL 27. tugal, in the name of their most christian and catholic majesties. His Britannic majesty could not view with indifference the danger of his faithful ally, who depended upon him for support, nor prudently avoid acting with vigour in his defence. He accordingly sent over to Portugal arms, ammunition, provisions, and near ten thousand land-forces.

By the help of these additional troops, the enterpris ing valour of the British officers, and the skilful conduct of the count de la Lippe, (a German general that had acted with ability under prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and now commanded the Portuguese army) the Spaniards, who had passed the mountains in three divisions; taken several places, and confidently hoped soon to become masters of the whole kingdom, found themselves under the necessity of abandoning their conquests, and evacuating Portugal before the close of the campaign'3. In this service, brigadier-general Burgoyne, who commanded the British troops, bore a distinguished part.

Nor did the attention of Great-Britain to the safety of Portugal diminish her exertions or her success in Westphalia. There the French had resolved to make the most powerful efforts, while the Spaniards, in order to divide our strength, should enter the dominions of his most faithful majesty. Their plan of operations was nearly the same as formerly, but they had changed their generals. Broglio was disgraced through the intrigues. of the prince de Soubise, who now commanded the army on the Weser, in conjunction with mareschal d'Etrees;

12. Ibid.

13. Lond. Gazette, passim.

and

and that on the Lower-Rhine was committed to the direction of the prince of Condé.

The disposition of the allies was not more varied. The hereditary prince was posted in the bishoprick of Munster, with a strong detachment, to observe the motions of the prince of Condé; and prince Ferdinand lay behind the Dymel, with the main body, in order to oppose the progress of the grand French army; to prevent it from entering the electorate of Hanover, and, if possible, to recover the landgraviate of Hesse.

The first service prince Ferdinand performed effectually. He obliged the enemy to abandon Gottingen, the only place which they possessed in the dominions of his Britannic majesty, and which they had fortified at great expense. He gained several advantages over them; particularly in the actions at Graebenstein, Homburg, and Melsungen; where the British troops, under the marquis of Granby, acquired signal honour. He reduced Cassel, in presence of the three French generals, notwithstanding a defeat which the hereditary prince had suffered from the prince of Condé at Johanesberg; and he was preparing to besiege Zeigenhayn, the last place that remained to the enemy in the landgraviate of Hesse, when he received intelligence of the cessation of hostilities.

While prince Ferdinand was thus exerting himself in Westphalia, with a degree of spirit which made his enemies insinuate, that he had hitherto protracted the war, in order to enjoy its emoluments, the fortune of the king of Prussia wore a variety of appearances, in consequence of certain great and singular revolutions in the affairs of the North.

At the close of last campaign, we have seen the Austrians in possession of Schweidnitz, the key of Silesia, and the Russians masters of Colberg, and wintering in Pomerania; so that the dominions of his Prussian majesty, whose forces were much cut down, lay entirely at

14. Lond. Gazette, June 28, et seq.

the

the mercy of his enemies, who were now in a situation to begin their operations more early than formerly, as well as to sustain them with more vigour and concert. A complete victory, an event by no means probable, did not seem sufficient to save him from utter ruin; when the tremendous storm, ready to burst upon his head, was happily dissipated, by one of those sudden and extraordinary changes in human affairs, which instantly decide the fate of nations; outstrip all human foresight, and confound the reasonings of the wisest politicians.

Elizabeth, empress of Russia, second daughter of Peter the great, having died in the beginning of the year, was succeeded in the august throne by her nephew, the duke of Holstein, under the name of Peter III. As they who were most intimately acquainted with the sentiments of the new Czar only could conjecture, whether he would pursue or abandon the political system of his predecessor, the eyes of all Europe were anxiously turned toward the court of Petersburg, in order to observe the direction of his early councils. He began his reign with regulating, on the most generous principles, his interior government. He freed the nobility and gentry from all slavish vassalage, and put them on a footing with those of the same rank in other European countries. He abolished the private chancery, a kind of state inquisition: he recalled many unhappy exiles from Siberia; and extending his benign polity to his subjects of all conditions, he lessened the taxes upon certain necessaries of life, to the great relief of the poor's.

The same mild spirit, which dictated the civil regulations of this prince, seemed to extend itself to his foreign politics. He ordered a memorial to be delivered, in the month of February, to the ministers of his allies, in which he declared, that in order to procure the re-establishment of peace, he was ready to sacrifice all the conquests made by the arms of Russia during the war;

15. Regulations published by the court of Petersburgh.