a wide and deep ditch cut out of the rock. The Puntal, also surrounded by a ditch, cut in the same manner, was provided with casemates, and every way well calculated for co-operating with the Moro in defence of the harbour. It had likewise some batteries that opened upon the country, and flanked part of the town wall. That wall, which was not in the best repair, twenty-one bastions not in a much better state, a dry ditch of no considerable width, and a covered way almost in ruins, formed the only defence of the city itself. It has therefore been thought, by some military men, that the operations ought to have been begun with the attack of the town by land; especially as it was utterly impracticable to attack it by sea, the entrance of the harbour being not only defended by the forts, but by fourteen Spanish ships of the line; three of which were afterward sunk in the channel, and a boom laid across it. But lord Albemarle thought otherwise, either from his ignorance of the state of the fortifications, or from seeing objects in a different light. The troops were therefore no sooner landed, and a body of the enemy that attempted to oppose their progress dispersed, than he began to form the siege of the Moro, which he considered, and perhaps justly, as the grand object of the armament, as the reduction of it must infallibly be followed by the surrender of the city; whereas if he had attacked the town first, his army might have been so much weakened as to be unable to surmount the vigorous resistance of the fort, defended, not only by the garrison, but by the flower of the inhabitants, zealous to save their own and the public treasure. A post was accordingly seized upon the higher ground, and batteries were erected, though with infinite difficulty.

The hardships which the British troops sustained in this service are altogether incredible. The earth was so thin on the face of the hill, that they could with difficulty cover their approaches; and it being necessary that the cannon and carriages should be dragged, by the soldiers and sailors, up a bold declivity, from a rough and rocky shore, many of the men, in that painful labour, while parched with thirst beneath a burning sun, dropped down dead. At length, every obstacle was surmounted. The batteries, disposed along a ridge on a level with the Moro, were opened with effect. The garrison had been repulsed, with great slaughter, in an attempt to destroy them; and the besiegers flattered themselves with a speedy period to their toils, when their principal battery took fire, and the labour of six hundred men for sixteen days was consumed in a few hours.

This accident was peculiarly discouraging; especially as it happened at a crisis when the hardships of the siege, and the diseases of the climate, had rendered two-thirds of the English army unfit for service. The seamen were not in a much better condition. Yet both soldiers and sailors, animated by that active and persevering courage, which so remarkably distinguishes the natives of Great Britain, applied themselves with vigour to the reparation of damages. Unfortunately, another battery took fire. The besiegers, however, impelled by every motive of glory, interest, and ambition, continued their efforts, with as much ardour as if the siege had been but just begun. At length, after conquering numberless difficulties, they got possession of the covered way. They made a lodgement before the right bastion; and a mine being sprung, which threw down part of the works into the ditch, a breach was left open. Though small, the soldiers were ordered to storm it.

The attempt seemed desperate, as the Spanish garrison was still strong: and the brave defence it had made allowed the besiegers no room to doubt of the vigilance, valour, and resolution of the commanders. But danger itself was only a stimulus to men who had so near a prospect of terminating their dreadful toils. They accordingly prepared themselves for the assault with the utmost alacrity; and mounting the breach under the command of lieutenent Forbes, supported by lieutenant-colonel Stuart, entered the fort with so much order and intrepidity, as entirely disconcerted the garrison. Four hundred of the Spaniards were cut in pieces, or perished in attempting to make their escape by water to the city: the rest threw down their arms and received quarter. The marquis de Gonzalez, the second in command, was

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

No sooner did the Spaniards in the town and Puntal castle 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 aid-de-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 the capitulation. A cessation of hostilities immediately took place; and as soon as 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 majesty.(1) 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, besides an immense quantity of arms, artillery, and military stores.

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 Madras under the direction of rear-admiral Cornish and brigadier-general Draper for the Philippine islands. The chief object of this enterprise was the reduction of the city of Manilla, 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.

The hostile fleet arrived in the bay of Manilla 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 important 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 (1) Letters from the earl of Albemarle and Sir George Pococke, in Lond. Gazette, Sept. 30, 1702. And the chief engineer's Account of the Siege.

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 knawed the bayonets with their teeth when mortally wounded.(1)

Meanwhile, the invaders, in spite of every obstacle, advanced towards the accomplishment of their enterprise. They had silenced the enemy's principal battery, and greatly damaged the fortifications towards 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 with two grand divisions of the same heroic regiment: next came a battalion of seamen; and the East India company's troops closed the rear.(2)

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 dependent on its government, should also be surrendered to his Britannic majesty.(3) The whole range of the Philippines fell with the city of Manilla. 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 astonishment of every honest Englishman, a negotiation with the Bourbon courts had been agreed to by the ministers of his Britannic majesty. And before the event of the expedition against Manilla was known, preliminaries of a treaty of peace were signed at Fontainebleau; 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, deter(1) Draper's Journal of the Siege of Manilla, in Lond. Gazette, April 19, 1763. (2) Lond. Gazette, ubi sup.

(3) Ibid.

mined 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. Pitt had originally associated himself with the supposed tory patriots, and first acquired distinction by opposing the corrupt system of sir Robert Walpole, the declared head of the whigs. After the resignation of that minister, he occasionally temporized (though he seems always to have had an eye to the true interests of Great Britain), and was sometimes reputed a whig and sometimes a tory. But during his own administration, he scorned all party distinctions; and the very names of whig and tory were lost in the blaze of his popularity. Reposing on the affections of his country, the strength and the resources of which he better understood than any other man, he employed men of all parties, and found all alike faithful. He raised whole regiments of Highlanders from among the disaffected clans, and gave the command of some of them to officers who had served under the pretender. Their behaviour justified his confidence. They carried victory whithersoever they appeared, and became the most loyal subjects of his Britannic majesty.

This great man would soon have done away all local and party distinctions; and, while assisted by so able a minister, the resolution of the young king, to lend his countenance to the abolition of such distinctions, as a prelude to a more liberal system of policy, was alike generous and prudent. But on the resignation of Mr. secretary Pitt, the duke of Newcastle, first commissioner of the treasury, who had long been considered as the head of the whigs, endeavoured to revive those factious distinctions, in order to ruin the credit of his rival in power, John earl of Bute, a nobleman of worth and probity, as well as learning and talents, but of a dry humour and reserved temper; and who, unhappily for the quiet of the nation, besides being little acquainted with public business, was a reputed tory, a Scotchman, and a Stuart!

The public clamour was accordingly loud against the favourite. But as the duke of Newcastle's faculties, which had never been strong, were now much decayed, and his rival possessed the royal ear, he saw his influence in the cabinet daily decline, notwithstanding his great parliamentary interest, his high office, and his importance as the demagogue of the most powerful party in the kingdom. He had accordingly found it necessary, in the month of May, to resign; and the earl of Bute, in consequence of that resignation, was placed at the head of the treasury.

Many of the duke of Newcastle's friends, persons of rank and eminence, had resigned with him. And the new minister, in order to preserve his situation, judged it prudent to deprive others of their employments, and to fill their places with men attached to his person; among whom, especially in

the inferior departments, were too many of his own countrymen. He also thought it sound policy, in conformity with the system of comprehension that had been embraced, to attempt a coalition with the great body of the tories, or country gentlemen of ancient families, who had uniformly opposed the court during the two preceding reigns, and who were able to yield him effectual support. They readily came into his measures.

The popular clamour, however, continued; and although the friends of Mr. Pitt did not form an actual junction with those of the duke of Newcastle, both parties were alike hostile to the minister. To one or the other of these two parties belonged the whole commercial and moneyed interest. The earl of Bute was, therefore, soon made sensible of the necessity of resigning, or of procuring peace to Europe; as he must expect to encounter innumerable difficulties, in attemping to raise the supplies necessary for the prosecution of the war. From motives of patriotism, as he declared, he chose the latter alternative; and so far as his judgment was swayed by an antipathy against the continental system, he deserves pardon, if not praise. But the great body of the people of England, though not insensible of their burdens, or of the degree of their annual increase, have not yet forgiven him for checking the career of their conquests. They had nothing to fear, and every thing to hope, from a continuance of hostilities.

Fortunately for the British minister, if not for the kingdom, all things were favourable to his views among the hostile powers on the continent. Disappointed in her hopes of immediate advantage from the family compact, the invasion of Portugal, and the resignation of Mr. Pitt, France was now sincerely disposed to peace. Spain, having suffered beyond example, during her short concern in the war, and labouring under the most dreadful apprehensions of future misfortunes, keenly repented of the step she had taken, and wished to recede. Both courts, therefore, saw, with peculiar satisfaction, the progress of the popular discontents in England; and France, in order to profit by them, and recover in the cabinet what she had lost in the field, indicated, through the medium of the king of Sardinia, a desire of negotiating.

The proposal was cordially embraced by the British ministry. And the duke of Bedford was sent over to Paris (after certain discussions), to treat on the part of his Britannic majesty; and the duke de Nivernois to London, on the part of the most Christian king. The negotiation, which was built upon that begun by Mr. Pitt, with too little attention, on the part of Great Britain, to the fortunate change of circumstances in her favour, was accordingly soon finished; as no new demand of any consequence was made, and both parties now agreed to withdraw themselves wholly from the German war, and make restitution of all the places they had taken on the European continent. And the preliminary articles, including the interests of both France and Spain, were signed, as already observed, in the beginning of November.

By those articles it was stipulated, "That France shall cede to Great Britain, Canada in its utmost extent, with the islands of St. John and Cape Breton, and all that part of Louisiana which lies on this side of the Mississippi, except the town of New-Orleans and its territory: that the French shall be permitted to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, under certain limitations; and that the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon shall be ceded to them for the benefit of their fishery, but without the liberty of erecting forts on those islands: that Spain shall relinquish her claim to fish on the banks of Newfoundland; permit the English logwood-cutters to build houses in the bay of Honduras, for the convenience of their trade; evacuate whatever places she may have taken belonging to Portugal; and cede Florida to Great Britain, in consideration of having the Havana, and all that part of the island of Cuba conquered by the British arms, restored to her: that the island of Minorca shall be restored to Great Britain, and the islands of Martinico, Guadaloupe, Goree, and Belleisle to France: that France shall cede to Great Britain the forts and factories she has lost on the river Senegal, the island of Grenada and the Grenadines, and