and Spain immediately left Lisbon. And their departure was soon followed by a joint denunciation of war against Portugal, 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 accordngly sent over to Portugal arms, ammunition, provisions, and near ten thousand land-forces.

By the help of these additional troops, the enterprising 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.(1) 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; 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 landgravate 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, Homberg, and Melsungen; where the British troops under the marquis of Granby acquired signal honour. (2) He reduced Casel, in presence of the three French generals, notwithstanding a defeat which the hereditary prince had suffered from the prince of Condé at Johannesberg; and he was preparing to besiege Ziegenhayn, the last place that remained to the enemy in the landgravate 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 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 mears 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.

(1) Lond. Gazette, passim.

2) Lond. Gazette, June 28, et seq.

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 could only conjecture whether he would pursue or abandon the political system of his predecessor, the eyes of all Europe were anxiously turned towards 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.(1)

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, in hopes "that the allied courts will, on their parts, also prefer the restoration of peace and tranquillity, to the advantages which they might expect from the continuance of hostilities-but which they cannot obtain unless by a continuation of the effusion of human blood!" (2)

This declaration, however, was not made merely from motives of humanity. Besides an extravagant admiration of the character of the king of Prussia, Peter was ambitious of recovering from Denmark the dutchy of Sleswick, to which he had pretensions as duke of Holstein. He therefore ordered a cessation of arms, on receiving an unsatisfactory answer to his memorial from the courts of Vienna and Versailles; and he entered, soon after, into an alliance with the illustrious Frederick, without stipulating any thing in favour of his former confederates. He even joined part of his forces to those of his new ally, in order to drive the Austrians out of Silesia, while he commanded another army to march towards Holstein. Sweden followed the example of Russia in concluding a peace with the court of Berlin.

The king of Prussia did not fail to profit by this great revolution in his favour. That load of power which had so long oppressed him, and against which he had borne up with such unexampled fortitude, being now much lightened, he was again enabled to indulge the ardour of his genius, and to act with vigour against his remaining enemies. His first object was the recovery of Schweidnitz-the next the expulsion of the Austrians out of Silesia. And in the attainment of these important ends, he was greatly assisted by the valour and military skill of his brother, who gained a signal victory over the Austrians and imperialists near Freyberg in Saxony.

In consequence of this victory, prince Henry remained so fully master of Saxony, that the Austrians found it necessary to withdraw a body of troops from their armies in Silesia, in order to prevent his making irruptions into the heart of Bohemia, Mareschal Daun, however, with a large army, still occupied certain eminences in the neighbourhood of Schweidnitz, by which he was enabled to protect that city. The king of Prussia resolved to force him to abandon those posts. And he succeeded; though not by a direct attack, which he found to be impracticable, but by a series of masterly movements, which made the cautious Daun apprehensive for the safety of his principal magazine, and even that his communication with Bohemia might be cut off. He accordingly fell back to the frontiers of Silesia, and left Schweidnitz uncovered.(3)

His Prussian majesty immediately prepared to invest that place with a numerous army. In the mean time, different bodies of his troops, some on

(1) Regulations published by the court of Petersburg.
(3) Prussian and Austrian Accounts compared.

(2) Printed Memorial.

the side of Saxony, others on that of Silesia, penetrated deep into Bohemia; laid many parts of the country under contribution, and spread universal alarm. A body of Russian irregulars also made an irruption into Bohemia, and retaliated on the Austrians those cruel ravages, which, at the instigation of the court of Vienna, the same barbarous enemy had formerly committed on the Prussian dominions.

But the gallant Frederick, while conducting with equal spirit and ability that bold line of operations which unexpected circumstances had enabled him to form, was threatened with a sudden reverse of fortune, in consequence of a new revolution in Russia. Peter III., in his rage for innovation, made more new regulations in a few weeks, than a prudent prince would have hazarded in a long reign. His first measures, as we have seen, were truly laudable, and seemed well calculated to procure him the affections of his people; but being of a rash and irregular turn of mind, he in many instances shocked their prejudices, even while he consulted their interests. He disgusted both the army and the church, the two chief pillars of absolute sway; the former, by the manifest preference which he gave to his Holstein guards, and to all officers of that country; the latter by his contempt of the Greek communion, having been bred a Lutheran, and by certain innovations in regard to images; but more especially by an attempt to moderate the revenues of the clergy, and an order that they should no longer be "distinguished by beards."

These were high causes of discontent, and threatened the throne with all the violence of civil war. But Peter's misfortunes immediately arose from a matrimonial feud-from the bosom of his own family. He had long slighted his consort, Catharine, of the house of Anhalt Zerbst (a woman of a masculine disposition and sound understanding, by whose counsels he might have profited), and now openly lived with the countess of Woronzoff, niece to the chancellor of that name. To this lady he seemed devoted with so strong a passion, that it was generally believed he had some thoughts of shutting the empress up in a convent, and of raising the countess to the partnership of his throne. The dissatisfied part of the nobility, clergy, and chief officers of the army, taking advantage of that domestic dissension, assembled in the absence of the czar, deposed him formally, and invested Catharine with the imperial ensigns.

The new empress marched at the head of the malecontents in quest of her husband. Peter was solacing himself with his mistress at one of his houses of pleasure, and expressed the utmost surprise at being told the sceptre was departed from him. When convinced of the fatal truth, he attempted to escape to Holstein, but was seized and thrown into prison, where he expired a few days after, of what was called a hemorrhoidal colic, to which he was said to have been subject.(1) His death, by reason of the steps that had preceded it, occasioned no speculation. It was, indeed, an event universally expected. Princes dethroned by their subjects are seldom allowed to languish long in the gloom of a dungeon. The jealousy of the successor or the fears of some principal conspirator, commonly make few their moments of trouble. Catharine II., since so much celebrated for her liberal polity, began her reign with flattering prejudices. Though a foreigner herself, she wisely dismissed all foreigners from her service and confidence. She sent away the Holstein guards, and chose Russians in their stead: she restored to the clergy their revenues; and, what was of no less importance, the privilege of wearing beards. She conferred all the great offices of state on native Russians, and threw herself wholly on the affections of that people to whom she owed her elevation.

The wisdom of this policy was not disputed. But it was feared, by one part of Europe, and hoped by another, that Catharine would introduce a total change of system also in regard to foreign affairs; for the peace and alliance

(1) Manifesto of the empress Catharine II., on her exaltation to the throne of Russia, as independent sovereign, &c.

with the king of Prussia were very unpopular measures in Russia. Every thing, in a word, seemed to threaten the illustrious Frederick with a renewal of his former difficulties and distresses.

Fortunately, however, for that heroic prince, the new empress, independent of personal regard, did not think her situation sufficiently secure to engage in foreign hostilities. She therefore declared to the Prussian minister at the court of Petersburg, "That she was resolved to observe inviolably, in all points, the perpetual peace concluded under the preceding reign; but that she had thought proper nevertheless, to order back to Russia, by the nearest roads, all her troops in Silesia, Prussia, and Pomerania." And although this change from a strict alliance to a mere neutrality made no small difference in the state of the king of Prussia's affairs, yet must it be regarded, all things considered, as an escape scarcely less wonderful than the former; especially as all the important places which the Russians had with so much bloodshed acquired, were faithfully restored to that monarch.

His Prussian majesty, instead of being discouraged by the order sent for the return of the Russians, accordingly acted only with more vigour. He attacked mareschal Daun the day after it arrived, but before the news had reached the Austrian camp, and drove him by terror no less than force of arms, from the heights of Buckersdorff, with considerable loss. He next invested Schweidnitz in person; and obliged that much-contested town, though defended by a garrison of nine thousand men, to surrender after a siege of two months, in spite of the utmost efforts of Laudohn and Daun to obstruct his operations.(1)

No sooner did the warlike king find himself master of Schweidnitz, and eventually of all Silesia, than he began to turn his eye towards Saxony. He reinforced his brother's army in that electorate, and made preparations, which seemed to indicate a design of laying siege to Dresden.

These preparations, and the decisive victory gained by prince Henry over the imperialists and Austrians near Freyberg, induced the court of Vienna to conclude a cessation of hostilities with his Prussian majesty, for Saxony and Silesia. In consequence of this impolitic and partial truce, which provided neither for the safety of the dominions of the house of Austria, nor of those members of the empire that were attached to its interests, one body of the Prussian army broke into Bohemia; advanced nearly to the gates of Prague, and destroyed a valuable magazine; while another fell upon the same country in a different quarter, and laid the greater part of the town of Egra in ashes, by a shower of bombs and red-hot bullets.(2) Some parties penetrated into the heart of Franconia, and even as far as Suabia; ravaging the country, exacting heavy contributions, and spreading ruin and dismay on every side.

In those predatory expeditions the Prussians are supposed to have levied a sum equivalent to a million sterling, two hundred thousand pounds of which were paid by the industrious and free city of Nuremberg. Many of the princes and states found themselves obliged to sign a neutrality, in order to save their territories from farther ravages; and most others were so disabled by the late defeat in Saxony, or exhausted by the subsequent incursions, that no prospect remained of their being able to furnish, for next campaign, any army under the imperial name and authority.(3) The war, therefore, was seemingly left to be finished as it had been begun, by the single arms of Prussia and Austria.

During these transactions in Germany, so favourable to the allies of his Britannic majesty, the British arms were not inactive. The spirit with which Mr. Pitt had carried on the French war, and the obligation which the new ministers found themselves under of declaring war against Spain, made them sensible of the necessity of showing the people, and convincing their enemies, that neither the vigour of the nation, nor the wisdom of its councils, depended upon a single man. They accordingly made greater and more successful (3) Ibid.

(1) Berlin Gazette, Oct. 13, 1762.

(2) Austrian and Prussian Accounts compared.

efforts than any under his administration, though the supplies fell short of those of last year by one million. Without weakening the army in Westphalia, we have already seen them undertake the defence of Portugal, and defend it effectually. In like manner, without evacuating Belleisle, or abandoning our conquests on the continent of America, they drew troops from both; and in pursuance of that line of policy which they had always recommended, sent out two powerful armaments, for the reduction of the French and Spanish islands in the West Indies.

The first armament, which had been prepared under the administration of Mr. Pitt, was destined against Martinico; the largest and best fortified of the French Windward islands, and the residence of the governor-general. This armament was composed of nine thousand land-forces, headed by general Monckton, and eighteen ships of the line, besides frigates, fireships, and bomb-ketches, under the direction of rear-admiral Rodney.. The fleet came within sight of Martinico on the 7th of January. The troops were disembarked, without the loss of a man, in the neighbourhood of fort Royal, the strongest place in the island; and by gaining, with incredible fortitude, possession of certain eminences, named Tortenson and Garnier, by which it is commanded (and which were then but indifferently fortified, but gallantly defended), the invaders soon made the governor sensible of the necessity of surrendering the citadel, in order to save the town from being laid in ashes.(1)

On the reduction of fort Royal, which capitulated on the 4th of February, M. de la Touche, the governor-general, retired to St. Pierre, a large and populous town on the same side of the island. He there seemed determined to make a last stand; but, through the earnest solicitations of the inhabitants, anxious for the preservation of their property, and envious of the prosperity of the planters of Guadaloupe, under the English government, he was prevailed upon to offer, and obtained terms of capitulation for the whole island, before the place was invested. (2) With Martinico fell Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and every other place belonging to France, or occupied by Frenchmen, though reputed neutral, in the extensive chain of the Caribbee islands.

Before the success of this expedition was known in England, the second and grand armament was ready to sail. Its object was the famous city of Havana, the principal seaport in the island of Cuba, the key of the gulf of Mexico, and the centre of the Spanish trade and navigation in the New World. The conception of the enterprise was great, as it struck immediately at the very basis of the enemy's power: and the armament was equal to its object. It consisted of nineteen ships of the line, eighteen frigates, and about one hundred and fifty transports, with ten thousand land-forces on board.

These troops were to be joined by four thousand men from North America. The command of the fleet was intrusted to admiral Pococke, whom we have seen distinguish himself in the East Indies. The land-forces was under the direction of the earl of Albemarle. And the whole armament, which assembled off the north-west point of Hispaniola, and was conducted, for the sake of expedition (with uncommon seamanship), through the old channel of Bahama, arrived in sight of those dreadful fortifications that were to be stormed, on the 6th of June. (3)

The city of Havana stands near the bottom of a small bay, that forms one of the safest harbours in the world, and which is so capacious, that a thousand ships of the largest size may there commodiously ride at anchor. The entrance into this harbour is by a narrow channel, strongly fortified on each side. The mouth of that channel, when visited by the English fleet under admiral Pococke, was secured by two strong forts; on the east side by one named the Moro, and on the west by another called the Puntal. The Moro had towards the sea two bastions, and on the land side other two, with (1) Lond. Gazette, March 21, 1762. (2) Ibid. April 2, 1762.

(3) Letter from Admiral Pocoke, in London Gazette, Sept. 8, 1762.