their ambassador from London, and made every port and arsenal, throughout the kingdom, ring with the noise of hostile preparation. Neither were the English slack Powerful fleets were sent to sea, which, however, effected nothing; and the channel swarmed with cruisers and privateers, by whom serious havoc was committed on the trade of the enemy. In the more important operations of war, however, the English were, for a time, strikingly unfortunate. Out of four separate expeditions planned by Braddock, and formally approved by the colonial governors, whom he met in council, one only ended with marked success. Braddock, when conducting, in person, a body of two thousand men against Fort du Quesne, was surprised on his march, himself slain, and his army defeated. General Shirley, the second in command, who led a corps against Fort Niagara, was so completely disheartened by Braddock's disaster, that, without so much as coming in contact with the enemy, or ascertaining the means of defence, he returned precipitately to Albany. Scarcely less profitless, though much more honourable to himself, were the operations of general Johnson against Crown Point, to which he never approximated nearer than Fort William Henry, on Lake George. Being attacked here by a superior force, he bravely defended himself; made good his lines, and repulsed the enemy; but he neither followed up his success against the fugitives from the field, nor hazarded the investiture of their fortress. It was, indeed, on the side of Nova Scotia alone, where colonel Monckton conducted a brigade against Fort Beau Séjour, that victory crowned, in any eminent degree, the efforts of the English. Nevertheless, they continued their preparations, both at home and abroad, with unflinching resolution; the king, as usual, being intent on saving Hanover, the people, on securing their own country from invasion, and obtaining an ascendency in the colonies.

My limits will not permit me to give any account of the negotiations and treaties, by which first Hesse Cassel and other minor German states, then Russia, and finally, Prussia, were induced to offer themselves as guarantees for the integrity of the king's continental dominions. Let it suffice to mention that the attitude assumed by the last-mentioned power, and the intimation formally given, that she would not permit any foreign army to disturb the repose of the empire, induced Louis to suspend the preparations which he had already made to carry his arms into the heart of Hanover. Not, however, for one moment, were his exertions intermitted to render his means, both of aggression and defence, complete. From Dunkirk to Toulon, every harbour along the coast sent forth its cruisers, or equipped its squadrons. The latter port, in particular, became the place of rendezvous for a fleet, of which the destination long continued secret; though the assembling of an army in the vicinity, of two-and-twenty thousand men, implied that a plan of more than ordinary magnitude was in agitation. With great skill, Louis caused a rumour to circulate, that he meditated nothing less than an invasion of England itself; and as the English cabinet gave credit to the report, he was left to mature his real project at leisure, while they exhausted their resources in preparing to meet a danger with which, as the event proved, they had never been threatened.

The reader will bear in mind, that almost the only trophies of her military success, in queen Anne's reign, which remained to Great Britain under George the Second, were the rock of Gibraltar, and the scarcely less valued, or, in a military point of view, less important, island of Minorca. Both France and Spain had long envied her these possessions; indeed, the promise of assistance in any effort which she might make to recover them, was, on every occasion, a prin

cipal inducement held out to enlist Spain on the side of France, in her quarrels with Great Britain. The accustomed argument had been used in 1754, without effect; for Spain was not then disposed, nor, indeed, much in a condition, to incur the expenses of a naval war; France, therefore, determined to hazard the attempt alone, and, seeing that Gibraltar lay entirely beyond her reach, she resolved to make a dash at Minorca.

That the cabinet of Versailles made their arrangements with great address, no better proof can be afforded, than that at the very moment when their troops were assembled on a point, distant but a long day's sail from the theatre of their projected operations, neither the English minister, nor the governor of the threatened island, entertained the smallest suspicion that Minorca was in peril. When, therefore, Fort St. Philip became suddenly invested, both by land and sea, not only had no extraordinary preparations been made for a siege, but even the customary garrison was weakened by the absence on leave of upwards of forty of the officers belonging to the regiments which composed it. Among such as did remain at their post, however, there were several brave men, not excluding general Blakeney, whom age had considerably shaken; and hence the resistance offered was, for a while, as spirited and judicious as, under existing circumstances, it could well be.

If the minister had been to blame in failing to provide, as became him, for a post so much exposed, his proceedings, after he learned where the thunder-cloud had burst, were still more deserving of censure. Vague and indefinite directions were forwarded to the governor of Gibraltar, which he either misunderstood, or considered himself bound to disregard; while a squadron, ill-found, inefficiently manned, and, above all, most inadequately commanded, was sent out with supplies

of men and provisions to relieve St. Philip. The officer selected to conduct this enterprise was admiral Byng, a gentleman who had never exhibited proofs of any superior talent or enterprise; and of whom nothing more was known, even in the fleet, than that he was a thorough pedant in his profession. Byng touched at Gibraltar, as his instructions directed; was refused the additional troops for which he applied; wrote to the lords of the admiralty a despatch, which prognosticated failure, and charged the governor, in terms more direct than prudent, with the consequences. It appeared, moreover, that, like other commanders who despair at the outset, Byng took the most effectual means to secure the accomplishment of his own prophecies. Though he saw the English flag still floating on Fort St. Philip, he made not the slightest effort to land a man, or to open any communication, by signal or otherwise, with a garrison, to relieve which was the very object of his mission. Still he did not venture to quit the coast; but, cruising backwards and forwards, tantalized his countrymen with the view of succours, from the proximity of which they were not destined to derive any advantage.

Byng was thus employed, when the French fleet hove in sight; and it was naturally believed among his own officers, that the causes of so much delay were laid bare, and that a brilliant naval action would decide the fate of the island. They who reasoned thus mistook the temper of the chief under whom they served. On both sides the line of battle was formed, and a distant and comparatively harmless cannonade began; but as to close fighting Byng could not sustain that, inasmuch as his ships, being of very unequal powers in sailing, were not, of course, in a condition to be brought with regularity into action. In a word, the French, keeping away under easy sail, were, with all becoming regularity, followed by the English, till both disappeared

from the wondering gaze of general Blakeney and his devoted garrison. The result was, that the enemy's fleet escaped uninjured; that Byng returned to Gibraltar tó refit; and that Fort St. Philip, after its outer defences had fallen by assault, opened its gates on an honourable capitulation.

Nothing could exceed the rage and chagrin of the English people, when the sad news reached them. They would have directed their fury, without doubt, against the government, with which, indeed, a large portion of the blame rested, had there not been cunning enough in that body to transfer all the odium to the admiral. Byng was recalled from his command, placed in close arrest at Greenwich, and detained there just so long as it suited the purposes of his employers; after which he was brought to trial on a double charge of cowardice and disobedience of orders, found guilty, and condemned to be shot. It would be absurd to deny that Byng committed many and gross errors;-errors, however, which were much more those of judgment than of principle,- -or that he merited a share of public censure, which, perhaps, would have been well satisfied by his dismissal from the service. But his fate was at once melancholy and unjust. He was carried to Portsmouth, and there, on the quarter-deck of a king's ship, underwent the sentence of the court which had tried him, on the 14th of March, 1757. In whatever light Byng's execution be regarded, it must be allowed that it produced a beneficial effect on the discipline of the British navy.

ed

Such were the beginnings of a contest which rag with incredible fury during the space of seven years; and of which the operations extended to every part of the world, where the rival flags of England and France had been unfurled. For a while, feeble counsels at home, leading to inadequate exertions abroad, caused the glory of the British arms. to sustain an eclipse.