fiege would give him fufficient notice, and fufficient leifure to provide for the fafety of that important place, from which after all, he had removed but to a very fmall diftance. Laudohn, who through the whole campaign had watched the king with a moft diligent and penetrating affiduity, and hitherto had found no part open and unguarded, thought in this inftant he perceived an advantage. It was indeed an advantage which would never have appeared as fuch, but to a general as refolute as fagacious. He refolved to attempt this frong place, by a coup de main. On the firft of October at three in the morning, the affault began. An attack was made at the fame time on all the four outworks, which the troops, ordered on this important enterprize, approached with fo much precaution that they were not perceived by the garrifon. They fcaled all the four at the fame time; and the troops which defended them had fcarce time to fire a few cannon fhot. On the fide of the affailants not a gun was difcharged: but in one of thofe out-works the fire of the small arms fet fire to a powder magazine, which blew up, and on this occafion about 300 of the Auftrians, and about the fame number of the Pruffians were killed. As foon as the outworks were carried, they prepared to affault the body of the place, which they entered by burfting open the gates, and at daybreak they found themfelves mafters of the town, after firing a few shot. Five battalions, making about 3000 men, and lieutenant general Zaftrow, governor of the fortrefs, were made prifoners. The conquerors found here a great number of cannon, and a large magazine of meal.

Their lofs in whole of this bold and fortunate undertaking, amounted, by their accounts, to no more than 600 men.

In a manner fo unexpected, and, confidering the nature of the fortifications, fo unprecedented, Schweidnitz fell for a fecond time in this war into the hands of the Auftrians; and that city, which in the year 1758 had coft the Pruffians a blockade of fome months, and a fiege of thirteen days open trenches to recover it, was again loft in a few hours, and with a very inconfiderable damage to those who undertook this daring enterprize.

The king of Pruffia felt this grievous blow to the quick. By their poffeffion of Schweidnitz he faw the Auftrians enabled to winter in Silefia; he faw that, whilft they held this place, he could poffibly make no motion for the relief of any other part of his dominions without expofing Breflau, and along with it the whole of Upper Silefia, to a certain and irrecoverable conqueft. In the firft agitations produced by fo extraordinary and affecting a difafter, he was difpofed to attribute this misfortune to the treachery of the governor, but he was too generous to harbour fuch a fufpicion, for any time, against an officer who had hitherto ferved him with fidelity, and who might have been furprized with an attack of fo uncommon a nature, and which the king himfelf had as little fufpected as the governor. He immediately recovered his tem per, and faid with a fmile, "It is fatal blow; we must endeavour "to remedy it." He wrote to general Zaftrow who commanded there, "We may now fay, what Francis I. "of France wrote to his mother "after the battle of Pavia, We have [D] 2 " lost

a

86

lost all except our honour. As I "cannot comprehend what hath happened to you, I fhall fufpend my judgment; the thing is ve"ry extraordinary."

Schweidnitz was loft fuddenly; but Colberg made a moft obftinate and noble defence. At length, however, the garrifon began to be forely diftreffed for provifions. General Platen quitted the entrenchments, which he had maintained in conjunction with the prince of Wurtenburg, in order to cover the reinforcements, which the numerous and ftrong detachments of the Ruffians, who overfpread the whole country, had hitherto kept at a diftance. But he had the misfortune to meet an infinitely fuperior body of the enemy, to be beaten, and to lofe part of his convoy; and it was with difficulty he efcaped with the remainder to Stetin.

The other (general Knoblock) had established himself at Treptow, which was to ferve as a refting place for the convoys; but as general Platen had been repulfed, in the manner we have juft feen, Romanzow advanced with a large force to Treptow. Knoblock, hopeless of affiftance in a town which had fcarcely any walls, and invefted by a body fo vaftly fuperior, yet made a vigorous and gallant defence for five days; he was at length compelled to furrender himself and his body of about 2000 men prifoners of war.

Thefe fucceffive difafters were occafioned by the neceflity there was for revictualling Colberg, coft what it would, and, for that end, of difperfing the Pruffian troops in the face of a Ruffian army of 50,000 This revictualling in thefe circumftances could not be effected without a fingular piece of good fortune; and, in order to get into

men.

the way of this good fortune, every rifque was to be run.

Thefe advantages over Platen and Knoblock raifed the fpirits of the Ruffians, and enabled them to contend with the extreme rigour of the feafon in that northern latitude; they pushed the fiege with redoubled efforts. All hope of a fupply from the land was abfolutely at an end; and though the Ruffian fleet had been by a violent ftorm driven off the coaft, the fuccour from the fea was too precarious to be depended on. In this defperate fituation the prince of Wurtenburg became apprehenfive, left his army, which had been unable to relieve the town, by delaying any longer under its walls would only fhare its fate, and that famine might alfo oblige him to a furrender. He therefore refolved, whift his men retained their vigour, to break through a part of the Ruffian army, and to leave Colberg to make the beft terms its circumftances would admit. This defign he ac-` complished happily, and with little or no lots.

And now Colberg, Dec. 16th. hopelefs of all relief, the garrifon exhaufted, provifion low, the fortifications in many places battered to pieces, after a fiege of near fix months, furrendered to the Ruffians. The governor and the garrifon were made prifoners of war. This place was defended by the gallant Heyde, who to this time, had maintained it fuccefsfully againft all the efforts of the Ruffians during the war; and as he was diftinguifhed by the king his mafter for his merit in the fuccefsful defence of it, he had likewife as full affurances of his favours after having on the late occafion conducted himself with his former bravery, though it was

not

not with the former good for

tune.

The lofs of two fuch places as Schweidnitz, andColberg,at the two extremeties of his dominions, were decifive against the king of Pruffa. It was now impoffible for him to make any movement by which the enemy could not profit to his almost certain deftruction. To form fieges with an army like his, inferior in the field, was impoffible. The Ruffians, by poffeffing Colberg, poffelled every thing. They were mafters of the Paitick; and they now acquired a port by which their armies could be ell provided, without the neceffity of tedious, uncertain, and expenfive convoys from Poland. The road lay almoft open into the heart of Brandenburg. Stetin alone flood in their way; but it was obvious that nothing but the advanced feafon could fave Stetin from the fate of Colberg. Mufcovites, now for the first time, took up their winter quarters in Pomerania.

The

It is remarkable, that this whole year paft without a regular battle between the king of Pruffia and any of his enemies, yet none of the molt

unfortunate of his campaigns had been fo ruinous to him. He had fuffered four terrible defeats, without having ballanced them with a fingle advantage of confequence in the campaign of 1759. Yet in thefe circumftances it is almost incredible how little he really loft. He was able to take the field again the enfuing year in a very refpectable manner, and to make head againft his enemies. In that year he loft a whole army near Landshut; ftill he was far from broken. Afterwards in that fame campaign, he gave his enemies two fignal defeats, and ended his operations advantageoufly, and with great glory. Put in the year of which we now write, without fuffering any confiderable blow in the field, without any striking efforts on any fide, his power has gradually crumbled away. The moft calamitous defeats could not fink him lower. And in the fituation in which he stood after the taking of Colberg, we may fafely fay, that there was fcarcely a poffibility that he could be preferved from deftruction by any thing that lay within the reach of human endeavours.

FTER having been fo long

A detained on the theatre of

war, it is time we fhould return to take a view of the negotiation for putting an end to the miferies it occafioned. In reality the view, even of this frene, was very gloomy and unpromising. The confidence and good humour of the two courts

being fubverted, all that followed was rather an altercation than a treaty. It is true, that papers paft backward and forward; and the pretenfions of each party, the points they agreed to cede, and thofe which they were determined to adhere to, grew more diftinct and explicit. But all that cordiality was

[D] 3

vanished,

vanished, which is fo neceffary towards fmoothing and clearing a road, which a long hoftility had broken up, and fo many intricate topics had contributed to embarrass, Without involving ourfelves in the detail of the feveral memorials which were delivered in, and without referring numerically to the feveral articles, it will be fufficient that we briefly ftate thofe points which were, or feemed to be, in a fair way of adjustment between England and France; and afterwards thofe on which it fhould appear that the negotiation broke off.

After fome difcuffions concerning its proper limits, it was agreed, that all Canada fhould be ceded to the English, This ceffion comprehended, on one fide, all the iflands and countries adjoining to the gulph of St. Lawrence. On the other, it took in all the great lakes, and the whole courfe of the Ohio, to its difcharge into the Millifippi. A territory fufficient for the bafis of a great empire.

In drawing this line of divifion, another queftion arofe concerning the bounds of Louifiana: and the ftate of the intermediate Indian nations between the lakes and the Milifippi, who inhabit, or are rather fcattered over an immenfe country, that lies along the back of our colonies all the way from Penfylvania to Georgia. It was therefore very proper that fomething definitive thould be fettled on this article, as it might otherwife cally be made produtive of a new war. England propofed, that all thofe nations fhould continue, as the contended they had heretofore been, under the protection of Great Britain, without faying any thing precife as to the dominion of the foil.

France controverted this propofition: fhe on her part propofed to divide thefe nations; that thofe to the northward of the line drawn to afcertain the limits of Canada fhould be independent, under the protection of England, but that thofe who were to the fouthward, fhould enjoy the fame independence, under the protection of France, Nothing was perfectly fettled in relation to this point; but it does not feem as if there could have been any material difagreement upon it, had the other matters in debate been adjusted to their mutual fatisfaction.

The African conteft feemed to have been attended with ftill lefs difficulty. The French confented to give up both Senegal' and Goree, provided Anamaboo and Acra were guarantied to them.

The momentous queftion of the fishery was likewife determined. The French gave up their claim to Cape Breton and St. John's, and were fatisfied to receive the little ifland of St. Pierre, on the coast of Newfoundland; but even this they were to receive on conditions fufficiently humiliating. They were to erect no fort of fortification, nor to keep up any military establishment there. An English commiffary was to refide on the ifland, in order to fee that thefe ftipulations were adhered to. As to the reft, the French were to have the fame privileges on the coaft of Newfoundland, checked with the fame reftrictions, which before the war they had enjoyed under the 15th article of the treaty of Utrecht. In conformity to another article of that treaty, and in compenfation for the privilege of the fishery, they confented that Dunkirk should be demolished.

Сода

Concerning the island of Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Minorca, and Belleifle, no great controverfy had fubfifted from the beginning. It had all along been agreed, that thefe conquests fhould be reciprocally reftored. Neither did the French fcruple to adopt our propofal concerning the affairs of the Eaft Indies, nor to make fatisfactory declarations concerning Oftend and Nieuport.

So mary delicate and interefting points were fettled, that it does not at first appear what it was that could have retarded the peace. A difcuffion of the feparate interefts of two powers only that are in earneft to agree, may be fettled without any very confiderable difficulty. The hard and almoft inextricable part of the knot, is that wherein the crofs concerns and interefts of allies intervene. There were two points upon which, if we may form a judgment from appearances, this negotiation unfortunately broke off. The firft was upon the manner in which England and France might be at liberty to aflift their respective allies; and on the reftitution of Wefel, Gueldres, and fuch other places, as the French had conquered from his Pruffian maiefty.

On the first member of this princiral point, the repeated propofals of France for a neutrality in Germany had been uniformly and pofitive lyrejected by our administration. They confidered this as fo many attacks upon national integrity. This fcheme therefore not being admitted, they would or could come to no agreement, and fcarcely to an intelligible explanation either of the mode or the quantity of the aftance which they thould be at li

berty mutually to impart to their German allies, or of the place in which fuch fuccours fhould be employed. As to Wefel and Gueldres, the French obftinately refufed to reftore thofe places. They declared that fuch a ceffion would be

directly against the faith by which they were bound to the emprefs queen of Hungary, for whom they infifted that thefe places had been conquered, and in whofe name alone they were governed, though they had been reduced by the French arms, and were at that moment held by French garrifons.

As to the fecond point, namely, the reftitution of the captures made previous to the declaration of war, the negotiating powers were equally pofitive, the one to demand, the other to refufe it. The English argued, that this claim had no fort of foundation in the law of nations, neither was it grounded in any particular convention. That the right of all hoftile operations refults, not from a formal declaration of war, but from the hoftilities which the aggreffor has firft offered; that the contrary of this propofition is at leaft extremely conteftible; and fince it can by no means be clearly eftablifhed, it follows, that the detainment of those captures muft be confidered, on the fide of England, as part of the uti possidetis, originally propofed as the bafis of this treaty.

France, on the other hand, feemed as fully convinced of the juftice of her pretenfions, and the deemed the arguments with which the fupported them to be fo unanswerable, that the offered to fubmit them to the juftice of the English tribunals. They urged that this claim of reflitution was founded on the law of