twenty-eight sail of the line, six ships of fifty guns, four frigates, and two fireships. And if a misunderstanding had not prevailed between the admirals, the combined fleet must have been utterly ruined.

Matthews, who lay in the bay of Hieres, no sooner perceived the enemy leave the road of Toulon than he weighed anchor, and bore down upon them. They did not decline the combat; and a desperate battle ensued, in which the British admiral behaved with great gallantry. But he was ill supported by his captains, and Lestock, with his whole division, remained all the time at a distance; so that the contest was long doubtful, and the most vigorous exertions only could have saved the ships that were engaged from being taken or destroyed. Victory, however, at last declared in favour of Matthews. The combined fleet, after an action of six hours, was obliged to retreat, with the loss of one ship of the line, named the Poder.(1) The royal Philip, another disabled ship, might also, it is supposed, have been taken, had the English admiral continued the chase; but the orders to guard the coast of Italy being positive, he did not think himself at liberty to neglect that important object, and run the hazard of being drawn down the straits, for the precarious possibility of making a single prize, all the other ships of the enemy sailing too fast to leave him any hope of coming up with them.(2)

The loss of so favourable an opportunity of breaking the naval power of the house of Bourbon occasioned the loudest complaints in England, and the failure of the British fleet to destroy that of the enemy became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. From a committee of the house of commons the matter was referred to a court-martial. Several captains were convicted of misbehaviour, and subjected to different degrees of punishment; but, to the astonishment of the public, admiral Lestock was fully acquitted, and Matthews declared incapable of serving for the future in his majesty's navy!— Though it was evident to every unprejudiced mind, that Lestock, by keeping aloof, when he had it in his power to engage, was not only the cause of the miscarriage complained of, but of exposing the British fleet to the most imminent danger, in order to gratify his vindictive spirit; while Matthews, rushing into the hottest of the enemy's fire, fought like a hero, and discovered a noble zeal for the service of his king and country.(3) Such ridiculous things, as experience has since repeatedly proved, are courts-martial in factious times! Before these judicial proceedings were finished, mutual declarations of war had been issued by the kings of France and England, who thenceforth became in some measure principals in the continental quarrel, the court of Versailles having issued a declaration of war also against her Hungarian majesty. Lewis XV. accused George II. of having violated the neutrality of Hanover, of dissuading the queen of Hungary from coming to an accommodation with the emperor, and of blocking up the ports and disturbing the commerce of France. His Britannic majesty recriminated, by accusing the French king of violating the pragmatic sanction; of attempting to destroy the balance of power in Europe, by dismembering the Austrian succession; of assisting the Spaniards, the avowed enemies of England, both secretly and openly, in contempt of the faith of treaties; of harbouring the pretender, contrary to the most solemn engagements, furnishing him with a fleet and army to invade Great Britain; and of committing actual hostilities on the British fleet in the Mediterranean.(4) Both parties had formed the most sanguine, and not illgrounded, hopes of success: the king of Great Britain on the valour of his troops, the hearty co-operation of the Dutch, and the vigorous exertions of the court of Vienna; the house of Bourbon on the new alliances they were forming in Germany, and the vast preparations they had made for prosecuting the war, both in Italy and the Low Countries.

The campaign in Italy was early begun on the side of Piedmont. Don Philip, being joined by twenty thousand French troops under the prince of Conti, passed the river Var, which descends from the Alps, and falls into the

(1) Smollet, vol. xi. Contin. of Rapin. vol. ix.

(2) See the Defence made by Matthews on his Trial. (3) Compare the Trials of Matthews and Lestock.

(4) Printed Declarations of War.

sea of Genoa a little below the city of Nice. The whole country of Nice submitted. But before the confederates could advance farther, they had to force the Piedmontese intrenchments at Villa Franca, and afterward to reduce the castle of Montauban, situated among rocks, which form a chain of almost inaccessible ramparts. All these difficulties, however, were surmounted by the valour of the French and Spaniards, though not without great loss.(1) Their intention was to penetrate into the dutchy of Milan through the Genoese territories; a measure that would have been attended with the most fatal consequences to the queen of Hungary and the king of Sardinia. Admiral Matthews, who had by this time returned to the coast of Italy, therefore sent a spirited message to the senate of Genoa, declaring, that if the confederate army was suffered to pass through the dominions of the republic, he must consider it as a breach of her neutrality, and would be under the necessity of immediately commencing hostilities against her subjects.

Alarmed at this threat, the Genoese, though secretly in the interest of the house of Bourbon, prevailed with Don Philip and the prince of Conti to choose another route. They accordingly defiled off towards Piedmont, by the way of Briançon, and attacked the strong post of Chateau Dauphin, where the king of Sardinia commanded in person. It was carried after a desperate attack, in which the officers and soldiers of the two confederate yet rival nations performed wonders. "We may behave as well as the French," said the count de Campo Santo to the marquis de las Minas, who commanded under Don Philip, "but we cannot behave better.""This has been," says the prince of Conti, in a letter to Lewis XV., "one of the most hot and brilliant actions that ever happened; the troops have shown a courage more than human.(2) The valour and presence of mind of M. de Chevert chiefly decided the advantage. I recommend to you M. de Solemi and the chevalier de Modena. La Carte is killed. Your majesty, who knows the value of friendship, will feel how much I am affected by his loss!"(3) History records with particular pleasure such expressions of generosity and sympathy as do honour to the human character. The appeal of the prince of Conti to the bosom of Lewis XV. is equally elegant and emphatic.

After losing the important pass of Chateau Dauphin, and another called the Barricades, which was carried at the same time, the king of Sardinia, not being in a condition to hazard a battle, drew off his troops and artillery from the frontiers, in order to cover his capital. He took post at Saluzzo, about seventeen miles south of Turin; while the confederates, having made themselves masters of the castle of Demont, situated on a rock in the valley of Stura, and deemed impregnable, invested the strong town of Coni, the possession of which was necessary, to open them a passage into the dutchy of Milan. Meantime, the king of Sardinia, being reinforced by a body of ten thousand Austrians, under Palavicini, resolved to attempt the relief of the place. He accordingly advanced, with a superior force, and attacked the French and Spaniards in their intrenchments. But after an obstinate engagement, in which valour and conduct were equally conspicuous on both sides, he was obliged to retire, with the loss of five thousand men, to his camp in the valley of Murasso. The loss of the confederates was little inferior. And his Sardinian majesty having found means to reinforce the garrison of Coni, and also to convey into the town a supply of provisions, Don Philip and the prince of Conti were obliged to raise the siege, after it had been continued till the end of November, to the almost total ruin of their army. Having destroyed the fortifications of Demont, in their retreat, they repassed the mountains, utterly evacuating Piedmont, and took up their winter-quarters in Dauphiny.(4) But the Spaniards still continued in possession of Savoy, which they fleeced without mercy.

(1) Voltaire. Millot.

(2) They had the boldness to clamber up rocks of an incredible height, mounted with cannon, and to pass through the embrasures, when the guns recoiled.

(3) Voltaire. Millot.

(4) Id. ibid. Smollet. Contin. of Rapin, vol. ix. The last two volumes of this Continuation were written by the late Mr. Guthrie, though they bear the name of Tindal.

VOL. II.-Ee

19

The campaign in the south of Italy was also distinguished by a diversity of fortune. His Sicilian majesty having, in violation of his forced neutrality, joined the Spanish army, under the count de Gages, with twenty-five thousand of his own troops, prince Lobkowitz, the Austrian general, had orders to invade the kingdom of Naples. He accordingly left Monte Rotondo, in the neighbourhood of Rome, where he was encamped, and advanced towards Velitri, near which the confederates were posted. While the two armies lay in sight of each other, prince Lobkowitz sent a strong detachment into the province of Abruzzo, where they distributed a manifesto in the name of her Hungarian majesty, exhorting the inhabitants to throw off the Spanish yoke, and put themselves again under the protection of the house of Austria. That measure, however, was attended with very little success, the Neapolitans showing no inclination to rebel. Lobkowitz therefore collected his forces, and resolved to make an attack upon the head-quarters of the confederates at Velitri. This enterprise he committed to count Brown, an able and active general, whom I shall afterward have occasion frequently to mention; and in order to render the design successful, he amused the enemy with ambiguous motions.

In the mean time, count Brown, at the head of six thousand choice troops, surprised Velitri in the night; and the duke of Modena and the king of the Two Sicilies were in the utmost danger of being made prisoners. They escaped with difficulty to the quarters of count de Gages, who performed, on this occasion, the part of a great captain. He rallied the fugitives, removed the panic which had begun to prevail in the camp, and made a masterly disposition for cutting off the communication of the detachment of the enemy with their main body. Count Brown, therefore, finding himself in danger of being surrounded, and seeing no prospect of assistance, thought proper to attempt a retreat. That he affected with great gallantry, carrying away a prodigious booty.

Three thousand of the Spaniards and Neapolitans are said to have been killed in this nocturnal encounter, and eight hundred were taken, together with many standards, colours, and other military trophies. The Austrians lost only about six hundred men; but the failure of the enterprise, and the heats of autumn, proved fatal to their hopes. Prince Lobkowitz, seeing his army daily mouldering away, without the possibility of being recruited, decamped from Fiola; and passing the Tyber at the Ponte Molle, anciently known by the name of Pons Milvius, which he had just time to break down behind him when the enemy's vanguard appeared, he crossed the mountains of Gubio, and arrived, by the way of Viterbo, in the Bolognese territory, where he went into winter-quarters.(1)

The queen of Hungary and her allies were not more successful in Germany and the Low Countries. But, considering the unexpected confederacy that was formed against them, and the inferiority of their generals, they had little reason to complain of fortune. The negotiations at Frankfort being brought to an issue, a treaty was there concluded, through the influence of France, between the emperor and the king of Prussia, the king of Sweden, as landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the elector Palatine. The declared object of this treaty was to restore the imperial dignity and the tranquillity of Germany; the contracting powers engaging, either to persuade or oblige the queen of Hungary to acknowledge the title of Charles VII., to give up the archives of the empire, still in her possession, and evacuate Bavaria; the emperor's claims on the Austrian succession to be settled by a friendly compromise, or juridical decision. So far the confederacy seemed laudable. But by a separate article, which breathed a very different spirit, the king of Prussia engaged to put the emperor in possession of Bohemia, and to guarantee to him Upper Austria, as soon as conquered, on condition that he should give up to his Prussian majesty the town and circle of Koningsgratz, in its whole extent, with all the country situated between the frontiers of Silesia and the

(1) Voltaire. Millot. Smollet. Contin. of Rapin, vol. ix.

river Elbe, and from the town and circle of Koningsgratz to the confines of Saxony. The king of Prussia, however, by previous agreement, and a sepa rate treaty with the court of Versailles, was not obliged to take up arms, until he should see France act with vigour.(1)

In order to procure the ready co-operation of this politie, ambitious, and powerful prince, Lewis XV. put himself at the head of his army in Flanders, consisting of a hundred and twenty thousand men, as early as the season would permit, and invested Menin. The duke de Noailles and the celebrated count Saxe, now a mareschal of France, commanded under him, and carried every thing before them. Menin surrendered in seven days. Ypres, Fort Knocke, and Furnes were reduced with almost equal facility. And the king of France entered Dunkirk in triumph, while the allied army, to the number of seventy thousand men, unable to obstruct his progress, continued posted behind the Scheldt.

But Lewis XV. was soon obliged to quit this scene of conquest, and hasten to the defence of his own dominions. Having received intelligence that prince Charles of Lorrain had passed the Rhine, and entered Alsace at the head of sixty thousand Austrians, he despatched the duke de Noailles, with forty thousand choice troops, to join the mareschal de Coigni, who commanded in that province, while he himself followed with a farther reinforcement; leaving mareschal Saxe, with the remainder of his army, to oppose the allies in Flanders.(2) And the masterly movements of that consummate general, together with the want of concert between the Austrian and English commanders, d'Aremberg and Wade, prevented them from gaining any advantage during the campaign, though now greatly superior in force.

Before the duke de Noailles could form a junction with Coigni, the prince of Lorrain had taken Weissenburg, and laid all lower Alsace under contribution. At Metz the king of France was seized with a fever, which threatened his life, and retarded the operations of his generals. Meanwhile, prince Charles, having got information that the king of Prussia had entered Bohemia, repassed the Rhine in sight of a superior army, and hastened to the relief of that kingdom. Lewis XV., after his recovery, laid siege to Friburg; and the reduction of this important place, by the famous engineer count Lowendahl, who had entered into the French service, concluded the business of the campaign on the side of Alsace.

The king of Prussia, on taking up arms, published a manifesto, in which he declared, that he could no longer remain an idle spectator of the troubles of Germany, but found himself obliged to make use of force, to restore the power of the laws, and the authority of the emperor; that he desired nothing for himself, had no particular quarrel with the queen of Hungary, and had only entered into the war as an auxiliary, in order to assert the liberties of the Germanic body; that the emperor had offered to relinquish his claims on the Austrian succession, provided his hereditary dominions were restored to him; and that the queen of Hungary had rejected this and all other equitable proposals.

Before the arrival of prince Charles, the Prussian monarch had made himself master of Prague, Tabor, and all Bohemia to the east of the Moldaw. But these conquests were of short duration. Augustus III. king of Poland and elector of Saxony, animated by a British subsidy, ordered sixteen thousand men to join the prince of Lorrain. He was also joined by a large body of Hungarians, zealous in the cause of their sovereign, Maria Theresa, who had acquired by her popular manner,(3) as well as her indulgences both civil and religious, an extraordinary interest in their affections; so that the king of Prussia, unable to withstand so great a force, was obliged to evacuate Bohemia, and retire with precipitation into Silesia. He was pursued thither by prince Charles; and the rigour of the season only, perhaps, prevented the

(2) Id. ibid.

(1) Mem. de Noailles, tom. iv. (3) To old count Palfy, chief palatine of Hungary, who had, on this occasion, caused the red standard of the kingdom to be displayed, as a signal for every man who could bear arms to turn out, she wrote the

recovery of that valuable province. The Prussians, in their retreat, lost above thirty thousand men, with all their heavy baggage, artillery, and wagons, loaded with provisions and plunder.

While the high-minded Frederick III. was experiencing this sudden reverse of fortune, the dejected fugitive, Charles VII., got once more possession of his capital. Seckendorff, the imperial general, having been joined by a body of French troops, had driven the Austrians out of Bavaria. But the retreat of the Prussians, and the rapid progress of the prince of Lorrain, filled the emperor with new apprehensions: and he was in danger of being a third time chased from his dominions, when death came to his relief, and freed him from a complication of bodily ills, aggravated by the anguish of a wounded spirit. His son, Maximilian Joseph, being only seventeen years of age, could not become a candidate for the imperial throne. He, therefore, very wisely concluded, through the mediation of his Britannic majesty, notwithstanding all the intrigues of France, a treaty of peace with the queen of Hungary, who had again invaded Bavaria, and was ready to strip him of his whole electorate. By this treaty, Maria Theresa agreed to recognise the imperial dignity, as having been vested in the person of Charles VII., and to put his son in possession of all his hereditary dominions. On the other hand, the young elector renounced all claim to any part of the Austrian succession; consented to guarantee the pragmatic sanction, engaged to give his vote for the grand-duke at the ensuing election of an emperor, and to dismiss the auxiliary troops in his service.(1)

This treaty, it was confidently expected, would prove a prelude to a general pacification, as the cause of the war in Germany no longer existed; and the treaty of Frankfort, the avowed purpose of which was the support of the imperial dignity, had now no object. The queen of Hungary, to procure peace, and the vote of Brandenburg for her husband, would readily have agreed to confirm the treaty of Breslaw; and the king of Prussia, after his severe losses, could have required nothing more for himself than the undisputed possession of Silesia. But the court of France, which had begun the war out of policy, instigated and pensioned by that of Spain, resolved to continue it from passion; and his Britannic majesty was too intimately connected with the queen of Hungary, as well as too highly interested in preserving the balance of Europe, to desert his allies at such a crisis.

The marquis d'Argenson, the French minister for war, who had at this time great influence in the cabinet, declared that France, having undertaken to give a head to the Germanic body, ought to hazard the last soldier, rather than suffer the grand-duke to be elected emperor. The court of Versailles accordingly made an offer of the imperial crown to Augustus III., king of Poland and elector of Saxony: but he, sensible that it was not in their gift, very prudently refused it, unless it could be procured without violence; and renewed his engagements with the courts of London and Vienna. The French ministry, however, persisted in their resolution of opposing the elec tion of the grand-duke, and of continuing the war with vigour in Germany and the Low Countries, in order to facilitate the operations of the combined forces of the house of Bourbon in Italy; where Elizabeth Farnese, who still directed all the measures of the court of Madrid, was determined, cost what it might, to establish a sovereignty for her second son, Don Philip, at the expense of Maria Theresa. (2) And the suc

following letter, accompanied with a present of her own horse, richly caparisoned, a gold-hilted sword ornamented with diamonds, and a ring of great value: "Father Palfy!

"I send you this horse, worthy of being mounted only by the most zealous of my faithful subjects. Receive, at the same time, this sword, to defend me against mine enemies; and accept of this ring, as a mark of my affection for you. "MARIA THERESA."

(1) See the Treaty in Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's Hist. of England, vol. xi. (2) See Mem. Politiq. et Militaires, &c. composés originales recueillies, par ADRIEN MAURICE, duc de NOAILLES, Mareschal de France et Ministre d'Etat, par M. l'Abbé Millot. It is not a little remarkable, that the same abbé, in his Elemens d'Hist. Gen., ascribes the continuance of the war, after the death of