endeavouring to stop the flight of his countrymen; and don Lewis de Velasco, the governor, having collected a small body of resolute soldiers, in an entrenchment around the flag-staff, gloriously fell in defending the ensign of Spain, which no entreaties could induce him to strike.

AUG. 10.

No sooner did the Spaniards in the town and Puntalcastle see the besiegers in the possession of the Moro, than they directed all their fire against that place. Meanwhile the British troops, encouraged by their success, were vigorously employed in remounting the guns of the fort, and in erecting batteries upon an eminence that commanded the city. These batteries being happily completed, and sixty pieces of cannon ready to play upon the Havana, lord Albemarle, willing to prevent an unnecessary carnage, sent his aidde-camp with a flag of truce, to summon the governor to surrender, and make him sensible of the unavoidable destruction that was ready to fall upon the place. The haughty Spaniard replied, that he was under no uneasy apprehensions, and would hold out to the last extremity.

Next morning, however, the batteries were opened with such effect, both against the town and fort, that flags of truce appeared in every quarter of the city about noon, and a deputy was sent to the camp of the besiegers, in order to settle the terms of capitulation. A cessation of hostilities immediately took place; and, as soon as the terms were adjusted, the city of Havana, and a district of one hundred and eighty miles to the westward, included in its government; the Puntal-castle, and the ships in the harbour, were surrendered to his Britannic majesty25. Without violating the articles of capitulation, which secured to the inhabitants their private property, the conquerors found a booty, computed at near three millions sterling, in silver and valuable merchandise, belonging to the catholic king, beside an immense quantity of arms, artillery, and military stores.

25. Letters from the earl of Albemarle and sir George Pococke, in Lond. Gazette, Sept. 30, 1762. And the chief engineer's account of the siege.

This

This single blow, the greatest perhaps ever struck by any nation, was in a manner finally subversive of the power of the house of Bourbon, by cutting off their resources. The marine of France was already ruined; her finances were low. Spain, along with her principal fortress in the West Indies, had lost a large fleet. And the conquest of the Havana not only gave to England the absolute command of the gulf of Mexico, but put her eventually in the possession of the whole American Archipelago. Porto Rico and Hispaniola only remained to the enemy; and those islands, it was well known, being cut off from all communication with Europe, and utterly destitute of necessaries, would have surrendered on the first summons.

The navy of Great-Britain was superior to that of all the other powers of Europe combined. She had the means of supporting it in her immense commerce, which increased with her fleets: and both might be said to embrace the universe. For her conquests, during this season of glory, were not confined to the West Indies The south of Asia also beheld her triumphs.

While the British forces were engaged in the siege of the Havana, an armament sailed from Madrass, under the direction of rear-admiral Cornish and brigadiergeneral Draper, for the Philippine islands. The chief object of this enterprise was the reduction of the city of Manila, the capital of the island of Luconia, the seat of the Spanish government in those islands, and the centre of communication between South-America and the East Indies.

SEPT. 23.

The hostile fleet arrived in the bay of Manila, before the governor had the least intimation of its approach, and even before he was informed of the war with England. He prepared himself, however, for a vigorous defence, and rejected with disdain the repeated summons of the British commanders. Necessary steps were consequently taken for landing the troops, consisting of two thousand and three hundred men. The debarkation was safely effected; an impor

tant

tant post was seized; batteries were erected; and every effort was made to reduce the town by force. But the operations of the besiegers were much retarded by incessant and heavy falls of rain, accompanied with a dreadful tempest, which prevented the fleet from co-operating with the army; and also by the unremitted attacks of the native Indians, a brave and hardy people, who rushed up to the muzzles of the British muskets, in their wild ferocity, and even gnawed the bayonets with their teeth, when mortally wounded26.

ост. 3.

Meanwhile the invaders, in spite of every obstacle, advanced toward the accomplishment of their enterprize. They had silenced the enemy's principal battery, and greatly damaged the fortifications toward the sea; when, as a last effort to raise the siege, a desperate sally was pushed by a large body of Spaniards and Indians. Both however were repulsed, after a sharp and bloody conflict. A practicable breach, in the works, was at length opened; and preparations were made for storming it.

In such circumstances, it might naturally have been expected, that the governor, instead of longer remaining obstinate, would have offered to capitulate, in order to save the lives and property of the inhabitants. But no proposal to that purpose was presented. General Draper therefore took the most effectual measures for carrying the place by assault. The troops having filed off from their quarters in small bodies, about four o'clock in the morning, advanced to the breach at the signal of a general discharge of artillery and mortars, and under cover of a thick smoke, which was blown full upon the town. Lieutenant Russel led the way, at the head of sixty volunteers, (from the different bodies of which the army was composed) supported by the grenadiers of Draper's regiment, to which he belonged. Colonel Monson and major More followed

ост. 6.

26. Draper's journal of the siege of Manila, in London Gazette, April 19, 1763.

with two grand divisions of the same heroic regiment; next came a battalion of seamen; and the East India company's troops closed the rear27.

All these four bodies behaved with great intrepidity. The Spaniards were instantly driven from their works, and the place was entered with little loss. The governor, who had taken refuge in the citadel, surrendered at discretion, but solicited protection for the citizens; and the humanity and generosity of the British commanders, saved the town from a general and justly merited pillage. A ransom of four millions of dollars was only demanded for this relaxation of the laws of war. But it was stipulated, at the same time, that all the other fortified places in the island of Luconia, and in all the islands dependant on its government, should also be surrendered to his Britannic majesty 28. The whole range of the Philippines fell with the city of Manila.

The British empire had now acquired an extent that astonished the world. Every where victorious, by land. and by sea, in both hemispheres and in all quarters of the globe, it seemed only necessary for England to determine what share of her conquests she chose to retain, and what terms she would impose upon the house of Bourbon; the king of Prussia being now in a condition to make terms for himself, or continue the war without farther subsidies, and the king of Portugal having little to apprehend from Spain in her present disabled state. It was therefore fondly hoped by the patriotic part of the English nation, that the glorious opportunity of finally humbling this haughty family, which had been so shamefully neglected and lost, through the prevalence of tory counsels at the peace of Utrecht, was at last completely recovered; and that the family compact, lately so alarming to Great-Britain, would terminate in the confusion. of her ambitious enemies.

In the midst of our splendid conquests, however, to the surprise of all Europe, and the indignant astonish

27. Lond. Gazette, ubi sup.

28. Id. ibid.

ment

ment of every honest Englishman, a negociation with the Bourbon courts had been agreed to by the ministers of his Britannic majesty. And before the event of the expedition against Manila was known, preliminaries

NOV. 3.

of a treaty of peace were signed at Fontainbleau; which have generally been considered as inadequate to the advantages obtained by the British arms during the war, and which could certainly contribute little to the depression of France or Spain. The cause of a measure. so extraordinary deserves to be traced to its source.

George III. the moment he ascended the throne of Great-Britain, determined to abolish, as far as possible, all those odious party distinctions which had so long divided the kingdom, and to extend the royal favour and confidence equally to the whole body of his subjects. This policy, as time has too fully proved, was more liberal than wise; for although the whigs, who engrossed all the great offices of state during the two preceding reigns, had lost much of their popularity by promoting the influence of the crown, they were still esteemed the true friends of freedom, and the natural supporters of the family of Hanover on the throne of these realms. By them chiefly had been brought about the revolution, and by them the establishment of the Protestant succession.

The tories, indeed, by assuming the character of patriots, had frequently been able, as we have seen, to maintain a formidable opposition. But that opposition was considered, by the more moderate and intelligent whigs, as no more than sufficient to keep alive the spirit of liberty, and preserve the balance of the constitution. The first, and also the second George, therefore, always disregarded the arguments of those courtiers, who endeavoured to prove, that they would more firmly establish their sway, by admitting the tories to an equal share in the administration. They reposed all their confidence in the whigs. The shock of two rebellions, ascribed by many to this narrow policy, induced the princes of the Brunswick line to make no alteration in their plan.

Mr.