ACCOUNT OF PARTIES IN SCOTLAND.

title to the crown, or her exercise of the government, from her actual entry to the same. This, after a long The change of the ministry in Scotland seemed fa- and warm debate, was carried by the concurrence of the vourable to the episcopalians and anti-revolutioners of anti-revolutioners. Then the earl of Hume produced that kingdom. The earls of Marchmont, Melvil, Sel- the draft of a bill for the supply; immediately after it kirk, Leven, and Hyndford, were laid aside; the earl of was read, the marquis of Tweedale made an overture, Seafield was appointed chancellor; the duke of Queens-that, before all other business, the parliament would berry and the lord viscount Tarbat, were declared secre- proceed to make such conditions of government, and taries of state; the marquis of Annandale was made regulations in the constitution of the kingdom, to take president of the council, and the earl of Tullibardin, lord place after the decease of her majesty and the heirs of privy-seal. A new parliament having been summoned, her body, as should be necessary for the preservation of the earl of Seafield employed his influence so success- their religion and liberty. This overture and the bill fully, that a great number of anti-revolutioners were were ordered to lie upon the table; and in the meanreturned as members. The duke of Hamilton had ob- time the commissioner found himself involved in great tained from the queen a letter to the privy-council in perplexity. The duke of Argyle, the marquis of AnnanScotland, in which she expressed her desire that the dale, and the earl of Marchmont, gave him to understand presbyterian clergy should live in brotherly love and in private, that they were resolved to move for an act communion with such dissenting ministers of the re- ratifying the revolution; and for another confirming the formed religion as were in possession of benefices, and presbyterian government; that they would insist upon lived with decency, and submission to the law. The their being discussed before the bill of supply, and that episcopal clergy, encouraged by these expressions in they were certain of carrying the points at which they their favour, drew up an address to the queen, imploring aimed. The commissioner now found himself reduced her protection; and humbly beseeching her to allow to a very disagreeable alternative. There was a necesthose parishes in which there was a majority of episco- sity for relinquishing all hope of a supply, or abandonpal freeholders, to bestow the benefice on ministers of ing the anti-revolutioners, to whom he was connected their principles. This petition was presented by Dr. by promises of concurrence. The whigs were deterSkeen and Dr. Scot, who were introduced by the duke mined to oppose all schemes of supply that should come of Queensberry to her majesty. She assured them of from the cavaliers; and these last resolved to exert her protection and endeavours to supply their necessi- their whole power in preventing the confirmation of the ties; and exhorted them to live in peace and christian | revolution and the presbyterian discipline. He foresaw love with the clergy, who were by law invested with the that on this occasion the whigs would be joined by the church-government in her ancient kingdom of Scotland. duke of Hamilton and his party, so as to preponderate A proclamation of indemnity having been published in against the cavaliers. He endeavoured to cajole both March, a great number of jacobites returned from France parties; but found the task impracticable. He desired and other countries, pretended to have changed their in parliament, that the act for the supply might be read, sentiments, and took the oaths, that they might be quali- promising that they should have full time afterwards to fied to sit in parliament. They formed an accession to deliberate on other subjects. The marquis of Tweedale the strength of the anti-revolutioners and episcopalians, insisted upon his overture; and after warm debates, the who now hoped to out-number the presbyterians, and house resolved to proceed with such acts as might be outweigh their interest. But this confederacy was necessary for securing the religion, liberty, and trade of composed of dissonant parts, from which no harmony the nation, before any bill for supply or other business could be expected. The presbyterians and revolutioners should be discussed. The marquis of Athol offered an were headed by the duke of Argyle. The country party act for the security of the kingdom, in case of her maof malcontents, which took its rise from the disappoint- jesty's decease; but before it was read, the duke of ments of the Darien settlement, acted under the auspices Argyle presented his draft of a bill for ratifying the of the duke of Hamilton and marquis of Tweedale; and revolution, and all the acts following thereupon, An the earl of Hume appeared as chief of the anti-revolu- act for limiting the succession after the death of her tioners. The different parties who now united, pursued majesty, and the heirs of her body, was produced by the most opposite ends. The majority of the country Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun. The earl of Rothes recomparty were friends to the revolution, and sought only mended another, importing, that after her majesty's redress of the grievances which the nation had sustained death, and failing heirs of her body, no person coming in the late reign. The anti-revolutioners considered to the crown of Scotland, being at the same time king the accession and government of king William as an or queen of England, should as king or queen of Scotextraordinary event, which they were willing to forget, land, have power to make peace or war without the conbelieving that all parties were safe under the shelter of sent of parliament. The earl of Marchmont recited the her majesty's general indemnity. The jacobites sub- draft of an act for securing the true protestant religion mitted to the queen, as tutrix or regent for the prince of and presbyterian government; one was also suggested Wales, whom they firmly believed she intended to estab- by sir Patrick Johnston, allowing the importation of lish on the throne. The whigs under Argyle, alarmed wines, and other foreign liquors. All these bills were at the coalition of all their enemies, resolved to procure ordered to lie upon the table. Then the earl of Stratha parliamentary sanction for the revolution. more produced an act for toleration to all protestants in the exercise of religious worship. But against this the general assembly presented a most violent remonstrance; and the promoters of the bill, foreseeing that it would meet with great opposition, allowed it to drop for the present. On the third day of June, the parliament passed the act for preserving the true reformed protestant religion, and confirming presbyterian church government, as agreeable to the word of God, and the only government of Christ's church within the kingdom. The same party enjoyed a further triumph in the success of Argyle's act, for ratifying and perpetuating the first act of king William's parliament; for declaring it high treason to disown the authority of that parliament, or to alter or renovate the claim of right or any article thereof. This last clause was strenuously opposed; but at last the bill passed with the concurrence of all the ministry, except the marquis of Athol and the viscount

DANGEROUS HEATS IN THE PARLIAMENT.

The parliament being opened on the sixth day of May at Edinburgh, by the duke of Queensberry as commissioner, the queen's letter was read, in which she demanded a supply for the maintenance of the forces, advised them to encourage trade, and exhorted them to proceed with wisdom, prudence, and unanimity. The duke of Hamilton immediately offered the draft of a bill for recognising her majesty's undoubted right and title to the imperial crown of Scotland, according to the declaration of the estates of the kingdom, containing the claim of right. It was immediately received; and at the second reading, the queen's advocate offered an additional clause, denouncing the penalties of treason against any person who should question her majesty's right and

Tarbat, who began at this period to correspond with the opposite party.

THE COMMISSIONER IS ABANDONED BY
THE CAVALIERS.

The cavaliers thinking themselves betrayed by the duke of Queensberry, who had assented to these acts, first expostulated with him on his breach of promise, and then renounced his interest, resolving to separate themselves from the court, and jointly pursue such measures as might be for the interest of their party. But of all the bills that were produced in the course of this remarkable session, that which produced the most violent altercation was the act of security, calculated to abridge the prerogative of the crown, limit the successor, and throw a vast additional power into the hands of the parliament. It was considered paragraph by paragraph; many additions and alterations were proposed, and some adopted; inflammatory speeches were uttered; bitter sarcasms retorted from party to party; and different votes passed on different clauses. At length, in spite of the most obstinate opposition from the ministry and the cavaliers, it was passed by a majority of fifty-nine voices. The commissioner was importuned to give it the royal assent; but declined answering their entreaties till the tenth day of September. Then he made a speech in parliament, giving them to understand that he had received the queen's pleasure, and was empowered to give the royal assent to all the acts voted in this session, except the act for the security of the kingdom. A motion was made to solicit the royal assent in an address to her majesty; but the question being put, it was carried in the negative by a small majority. On the sixth day of the same month, the earl of Marchmont had produced a bill to settle the succession on the house of Hanover. At first the import of it was not known; but when the clerk in reading it mentioned the princess Sophia, the whole house was kindled into a flame. Some proposed that the overture should be burned; others moved that the earl might be sent prisoner to the castle; and a general dissatisfaction appeared in the whole assembly. Not that the majority in parliament were averse to the succession in the house of Hanover; but they resolved to avoid a nomination without stipulating conditions; and they had already provided, in the act of security, that it should be high treason to own any person as king or queen after her majesty's decease, until he or she should take the coronation oath, and accept the terms of the claim of right, and such conditions as should be settled in this or any ensuing parliament.

be vested, under the king, with the administration of the government, act as his council, be accountable to parliament, and call it together on extraordinary occa sions. He proposed that the successor should be nominated by the majority; declaring for himself that he would rather concur in nominating the most rigid papist with those conditions, than the truest protestant without them. The motion was seconded by many members; and though postponed for the present, in favour of an act of trade under the consideration of the house, it was afterwards resumed with great warmth. In vain the lord-treasurer represented that no funds were as yet provided for the army, and moved for a reading of the act presented for that purpose; a certain member observed, that this was a very unseasonable juncture to propose a supply, when the house had so much to do for the security of the nation; he said they had very little encouragement to grant supplies when they found themselves frustrated of all their labour and expense for these several months; and when the whole kingdom saw that supplies served for no other use but to gratify the avarice of some insatiable ministers. Mr. Fletcher expatiated upon the good consequences that would arise from the act which he had proposed. The chancellor answered, that such an act was laying a scheme for a commonwealth, and tending to innovate the constitution of a monarchy. The ministry proposed a state of a vote, whether they should first give a reading to Fletcher's act or to the act of subsidy. The country party moved that the question might be, "Overtures for subsidies, or overtures for liberty." Fletcher withdrew his act, rather than people should pervert the meaning of laudable designs. The house resounded with the cry of "Liberty or Subsidy." Bitter invectives were uttered against the ministry. One member said it was now plain the nation was to expect no other return for their expense and toil than that of being loaded with a sub| sidy, and being obliged to bend their necks under the yoke of slavery, which was prepared for them from that throne; another observed, that as their liberties were suppressed, so the privileges of parliament were like to be torn from them; but that he would venture his life in defence of his birthright, and rather die a free man than live a slave. When the vote was demanded, and declined by the commissioner, the earl of Roxburgh declared, that if there was no other way of obtaining so natural and undeniable a privilege of parliament, they would demand it with their swords in their hands. The commissioner, foreseeing this spirit of freedom and contradiction, ordered the foot-guard to be in readiness, and placed a strong guard upon the eastern gate of the city. Notwithstanding these precautions, he ran the risk of being torn to pieces; and, in this apprehension, HE IS IN DANGER OF HIS LIFE. ordered the chancellor to inform the house that the parliament should proceed upon overtures for liberty at Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man of undaunted their next sitting. This promise allayed the ferment courage and inflexible integrity, who professed repub- which had begun to rise. Next day the members prelican principles, and seemed designed by nature as a pared an overture, implying, that the elective members member of some Grecian commonwealth, after having should be chosen for every seat at the Michaelmas head observed that the nation would be enslaved should it courts; that a parliament should be held once in two submit, either willingly or by commission, to the suc- years at least; that the short adjournments de die in cessor of England, without such conditions of govern-diem should be made by the parliaments themselves as ment as should secure them against the influence of an in England; and that no officer in the army, customs, English ministry, offered the draft of an act, importing, or excise, nor any gratuitous pensioner, should sit as an that after the decease of her majesty, without heirs of elective member. The commissioner being apprised of her body, no person being successor to the English their proceedings, called for such acts as he was emthrone should succeed to the crown of Scotland but un-powered to pass, and having given the royal assent to der the following limitations, which, together with the them, prorogued the parliament to the twelfth day of coronation oath and claim of right, they should swear October. [See note X, at the end of this Vol.] Such was to observe: namely, that all offices and places, civil and the issue of this remarkable session of the Scottish parmilitary, as well as pensions, should for the future be liament, in which the duke of Queensberry was abanconferred by a parliament to be chosen at every Michael-doned by the greatest part of the ministry; and such a mas head-court, to sit on the first day of November, and adjourn themselves from time to time till the ensuing Michaelmas; that they should choose their own president; that a committee of six-and-thirty members, chosen out of the whole parliament, without distinction of estates, should, during the intervals of parliament,

spirit of ferocity and opposition prevailed, as threatened the whole kingdom with civil war and confusion. The queen conferred titles upon those who appeared to have influence in the nation [See note Y, at the end of this Vol.] and attachment to her government, and revived the order of the thistle, which the late king had dropped.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. relief from those their manifold grievances and misfortunes. The commons afterwards voted the necessary supplies, and granted one hundred and fifty thousand pounds to make good the deficiencies of the necessary branches of the establishment

A SEVERE ACT PASSED AGAINST PAPISTS.

They appointed a committee to inspect the public accounts, by which they discovered that above one hundred thousand pounds had been falsely charged as a debt upon the nation. The committee was thanked by the house for having saved this sum, and ordered to examine what persons were concerned in such a misrepresentation, which was generally imputed to those who acted under the duke of Ormond. He himself was a nobleman of honour and generosity, addicted to pleasure, and fond of popular applause; but he was surrounded by people of more sordid principles, who had ingratiated themselves into his confidence by the arts of adulation. The commons voted a provision for the half-pay officers; and abolished pensions to the amount of seventeen thousand pounds a-year, as unnecessary branches of the establishment. They passed an act settling the succession of the crown after the pattern set them by England; but the most important transaction of this session was a severe bill to prevent the growth of popery. It bore a strong affinity to that which had passed three years before in England; but contained more effectual clauses. Among others it enacted, that all estates of papists should be equally divided among the children, notwithstanding any settlement to the contrary, unless the person to whom they might be settled should qualify themselves by taking the oaths, and communicating with the church of England. The bill was not at all agreeable to the ministry in England, who expected large presents from the papists, by whom a considerable sum had been actually raised for this purpose. But as they did not think proper to reject such a bill while the Eng lish parliament was sitting, they added a clause which they hoped the parliament of Ireland would refuse: namely, that no persons in that kingdom should be capable of any employment, or of being in the magis. tracy of any city, who did not qualify themselves by

Ireland was filled with discontent by the behaviour and conduct of the trustees for the forfeited estates. The earl of Rochester had contributed to foment the troubles of the kingdom by encouraging the factions which had been imported from England. The duke of Ormond was received with open arms as heir to the virtues of his ancestors, who had been the bulwarks of the protestant interest in Ireland. He opened the parliament on the twenty-first day of September, with a speech to both houses, in which he told them that his inclination, his interest, and the examples of progenitors, were indispensable obligations upon him to improve every opportunity to the advantage and prosperity of his native country. The commons having chosen Allen Broderick to be their speaker, proceeded to draw up very affectionate addresses to the queen and the lord lieutenant. In that to the queen they complained that their enemies had misrepresented them, as desirous of being independent of the crown of England; they, therefore, to vindicate themselves from such false aspersions, declared and acknowledged that the kingdom of Ireland was annexed and united to the imperial crown of England. In order to express their hatred of the trustees, they resolved, that all the protestant frecholders of that kingdom had been falsely and maliciously misrepresented, traduced, and abused, in a book entitled, "The Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Irish Forfeitures;" and it appearing that Francis Annesley, member of the house, John Trenchard, Henry Langford, and James Hamilton, were authors of that book, they further resolved, that these persons had scandalously and maliciously misrepresented and traduced the protestant freeholders of that kingdom, and endeavoured to create a misunderstanding and jealousy between the people of England and the protestants of Ireland. Annesley was expelled the house, Hamilton was dead, and Trenchard had returned to England. They had finished the inquiry before the meeting of this parliament; and sold at an undervalue the best of the forfeited estates to the sword-blade company of England. This, in a petition to the Irish parliament, prayed that heads of a bill be brought in for enabling them to take conveyance of lands in Ireland; but the parliament was very little dis-receiving the sacrament according to the test act passed posed to confirm the bargains of the trustees, and the petition lay neglected on the table. The house expelled John Asgil, who, as agent to the sword-blade company, had offered to lend money to the public in Ireland, on condition that the parliament would pass an act to confirm the company's purchase of the forfeited estates. His constituents disowned his proposal; and when he was summoned to appear before the house, and answer for his prevarication, he pleaded his privilege as member of the English parliament. The commons, in a representation of the state and grievances of the nation, gave her majesty to understand that the constitution of Ireland had been of late greatly shaken; and their lives, liberties, and estates, called in question, and tried in a manner unknown to their ancestors; that the expense to which they had been unnecessarily exposed by the late trustees for the forfeited estates, in defending their just rights and titles, had exceeded in value the current cash of the kingdom; that their trade was decayed, their money exhausted; and that they were hindered from maintaining their own manufactures; that many protestant families had been constrained to quit the kingdom in order to earn a livelihood in foreign countries; that the want of frequent parliaments in Ireland had encouraged evil-minded men to oppress the subject; that many civil officers had acquired great fortunes in that impoverished country, by the exercise of corruption and oppression; that others, in considerable employments, resided in another kingdom, neglecting personal attendance on their duty, while their offices were ill executed, to the detriment of the public, and the failure of justice. They declared, that it was from her majesty's gracious interposition alone they proposed to themselves

in England. Though this was certainly a great hardship on the dissenters, the parliament of Ireland sacrificed this consideration to their common security against the Roman catholics, and accepted the amendment without hesitation. This affair being discussed, the commons of Ireland passed a vote against a book entitled, "Memoirs of the late king James II." as a seditious libel. They ordered it to be burned by the hands of the common hangman; and the bookseller and printer to be prosecuted. When this motion was made, a member informed the house that in the county of Limerick the Irish papists had begun to form themselves into bodies, to plunder the protestants of their arms and money; and to maintain a correspondence with the disaffected in England. The house immediately resolved, that the papists of the kingdom still retained hopes of the accession of the person known by the name of the Prince of Wales in the life-time of the late king James, and now by the name of James III. In the midst of this zeal against popery and the pretender, they were suddenly adjourned by the command of the lord-lieutenant, and broke up in great animosity against that nobleman. [See note Z, at the end of this Vol.]

THE ELECTOR TAKES POSSESSION OF
RATISBON.

The attention of the English ministry had been for some time chiefly engrossed by the affairs of the continent. The emperor agreed with the allies that his son the archduke Charles should assume the title of king of Spain, demand the infanta of Portugal in marriage, and undertake something of importance, with the assis

tance of the maritime powers. Mr. Methuen, the Eng- | rendered practicable, the marquis d'Alegre, the goverlish minister at Lisbon, had already made some progress in a treaty with his Portuguese majesty; and the court of Vienna promised to send such an army into the field as would in a little time drive the elector of Bavaria from his dominions. But they were so dilatory in their preperations, that the French king broke all their measures by sending powerful reinforcements to the elector, in whose ability and attachment Louis reposed great confidence. Mareschal Villars, who commanded an army of thirty thousand men at Strasburgh, passed the Rhine and reduced fort Kehl, the garrison of which was conducted to Philipsburgh. The emperor, alarmed at this event, ordered count Schlick to enter Bavaria on the side of Saltsburgh, with a considerable body of forces; and sent another, under count Stirum, to invade the same electorate by the way of Newmark, which was surrendered to him after he had routed a party of Bavarians; the city of Amberg met with the same fate. Meanwhile count Schlick defeated a body of militia that defended the lines of Saltsburgh, and made himself master of Riedt, and several other places. The elector assembling his forces near Brenau, diffused a report that he intended to besiege Passau, to cover which place Schlick advanced with the greatest part of his infantry, leaving behind his cavalry and cannon. The clector having by this feint divided the Imperialists, passed the bridge of Scardingen with twelve thousand men, and, after an obstinate engagement, compelled the Imperialists to abandon the field of battle; then he marched against the Saxon troops which guarded the artillery, and attacked them with such impetuosity that they were entirely defeated. In a few days after these actions, he took Newburgh on the Inn by capitulation. He obtained another advantage over an advanced post of the Imperialists near Burgenfeldt, commanded by the young prince of Brandenburgh Anspach, who was mortally wounded in the engagement. He advanced to Ratisbon, where the dict of the empire was assembled, and demanded that he should be immediately put in possession of the bridge and gate of the city. The burghers immediately took to their arms, and planted cannon on the ramparts; but when they saw a battery erected against them, and the elector determined to bombard the place, they thought proper to capitulate, and comply with his demands. He took possession of the town on the eighth day of April, and signed an instrument obliging himself to withdraw his troops as soon as the emperor should ratify the diet's resolution for the neutrality of Ratisbon. Mareschal Villars having received orders to join the elector at all events, and being reinforced by a body of troops under count Tallard, resolved to break through the lines which the prince of Baden had made at Stolhoffen. This general had been luckily joined by eight Dutch battalions, and received the French army, though double his number, with such obstinate resolution, that Villars was obliged to retreat with great loss, and directed his route towards Offingen. Nevertheless he penetrated through the Black Forest, and effected a junction with the elector. Count Stirum endeavoured to join prince Louis of Baden; but being attacked near Schwemmingen, retired under the cannon of Nortlingen.

nor, ordered a parley to be beat; hostages were immediately exchanged; on the sixteenth the capitulation was signed; and in three days the garrison evacuated the place in order to be conducted to Luxembourg. During the siege of Bonne, the mareschals Boufflers and Villeroy advanced with an army of forty thousand men towards Tongeren, and the confederate army, commanded by M. d'Auverquerque, was obliged at their approach to retreat under the cannon of Maestricht. The enemy having taken possession of Tongeren, made a motion against the confederate army, which they found already drawn up in order of battle, and so advantageously posted, that, notwithstanding their great superiority in point of number, they would not hazard an attack, but retired to the ground from whence they had advanced. Immediately after the reduction of Bonne, the duke of Marlborough, who had been present at the siege, returned to the confederate army in the Netherlands, now amounting to one hundred and thirty squadrons, and fifty-nine battalions. On the twenty-fifth day of May, the duke having passed the river Jecker in order to give battle to the enemy, they marched with precipitation to Boekwren, and abandoned Tongeren, after having blown up the walls of the place with gunpowder. The duke continued to follow them to Thys, where he encamped, while they retreated to Hannye, retiring as he advanced. Then he resolved to force their lines: this service was effectually performed by Cochorn, at the point of Callo, and by baron Spaar, in the county of Waes, near Stoken. The duke had formed the design of reducing Antwerp, which was garrisoned by Spanish troops under the command of the marquis de Bedmar. He intended with the grand army to attack the enemy's lines on the side of Louvaine and Mechlin: he detached Cahorn with his flying camp on the right of the Scheldt towards Dutch Flanders, to amuse the marquis de Bedmar on that side; and he ordered the baron Opdam, with twelve thousand men, to take post between Eckeren and Capelle, near Antwerp, that he might act against that part of the lines which was guarded by the Spanish forces.

- BATTLE OF ECKEREN.

The French generals, in order to frustrate the scheme of Marlborough, resolved to cut off the retreat of Opdam. Boufflers, with a detachment of twenty thousand men from Villeroy's army, surprised him at Eckeren, where the Dutch were put in disorder; and Opdam, believing all was lost, fled to Breda. Nevertheless, the troops rallying under general Schlangenburg, maintained their ground with the most obstinate valour till night, when the enemy was obliged to retire, and left the communication free with fort Lillo, to which place the confederates marched without further molestation, having lost about fifteen hundred men in the engagement. The damage sustained by the French was more considerable. They were frustrated in their design, and had actually abandoned the field of battle; yet Louis ordered Te Deum to be sung for the victory; nevertheless Boufflers was censured for his conduct on this occasion, and in a little time totally disgraced. Opdam presented a justification of his conduct to the states-general; but by this oversight he forfeited the fruits of a long service, during which he had exhibited repeated proofs of courage, The confederates were more successful on the Lower zeal, and capacity. The states honoured Schlangenburg Rhine and in the Netherlands. The duke of Marl-with a letter of thanks for the valour and skill he had borough crossed the sea in the beginning of April, and manifested in this engagement; but in a little time assembling the allied army, resolved that the campaign they dismissed him from his employment on account of should be begun with the siege of Bonne, which was his having given umbrage to the duke of Marlborough, accordingly invested on the twenty-fourth day of April. by censuring his grace for exposing such a small numThree different attacks were carried on against this ber of men to this disaster. After this action, Villeroy, place: one by the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel; who lay encamped near Saint Job, declared he waited another by the celebrated Cochorn; and a third by lieu- for the duke of Marlborough, who forthwith advanced to tenant-general Fagel. The garrison defended them- Hoggstraat, with a view to give him battle; but at his selves vigorously till the fourteenth day of May, when approach the French general, setting fire to his camp, the fort having been taken by assault, and the breaches retired within his lines with great precipitation. Then

THE ALLIES REDUCE BONNE.

the duke invested Huy, the garrison of which, after a vigorous defence, surrendered themselves prisoners of war on the twenty-seventh day of August. At a council of war held in the camp of the confederates, the duke proposed to attack the enemies' lines between the Mehaigne and Leuwe, and was seconded by the Danish, Hanoverian, and Hessian generals; but the scheme was opposed by the Dutch officers, and the deputies of the states, who alleged that the success was dubious, and the consequences of forcing the lines would be inconsiderable; they therefore recommended the siege of Limburgh, by the reduction of which they would acquire a whole province, and cover their own country, as well as Juliers and Gueldres, from the designs of the enemy. The siege of Limburgh was accordingly undertaken. The trenches were opened on the five-andtwentieth day of September, and in two days the place was surrendered; the garrison remaining prisoners of war. By this conquest the allies secured the country of Liege, and the electorate of Cologn, from the incursions of the enemy; before the end of the year they remained masters of the whole Spanish Guelderland, by the reduction of Gueldres, which surrendered on the seventeenth day of September, after having been long blockaded, bombarded, and reduced to a heap of ashes, by the Prussian general Lottum. Such was the campaign in the Netherlands, which in all probability would have produced events of greater importance, had not the duke of Marlborough been restricted by the deputies of the states-general, who began to be influenced by the intrigues of the Louvestein faction, ever averse to a single dictator.

PRINCE OF HESSE DEFEATED BY THE

FRENCH.

from the Netherlands for the relief of the place, joined the count of Nassau-Weilbourg, general of the Palatine forces, near Spires, where they resolved to attack the French in their lines. But by this time Mons. Pracontal, with ten thousand men, had joined Tallard, and enabled him to strike a stroke which proved decisive. He suddenly quitted his lines, and surprised the prince at Spirebach, where the French obtained a complete victory after a very obstinate and bloody engagement, in which the prince of Hesse distinguished himself by uncommon marks of courage and presence of mind. Three horses were successively killed under him, and he slew a French officer with his own hand. After incredible efforts, he was fain to retreat with the loss of some thousands. The French paid dear for their victory, Pracontal having been slain in the action. Nevertheless they resumed the siege, and the place was surrendered by capitulation. The campaign in Germany was finished by the reduction of Augsburg by the elector of Bavaria, who took it in the month of December, and agreed to its being secured by a French garrison.

TREATY BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND

THE DUKE OF SAVOY.

The emperor's affairs at this juncture wore a very unpromising aspect. The Hungarians were fleeced and barbarously oppressed by those to whom he intrusted the government of their country. They derived courage from despair. They seized this opportunity, when the emperor's forces were divided, and his councils distracted, to exert themselves in defence of their liberties. They ran to arms under the auspices of prince Ragotzki. They demanded that their grievances should be redressed, and their privileges restored. Their resentment was kept up by the emissaries of France and Bavaria, The French king redoubled his efforts in Germany. who likewise encouraged them to persevere in their The duke de Vendome was ordered to march from the revolt, by repeated promises of protection and assistance. Milanese to Tyrol, and there join the elector of Bavaria, The emperor's prospect, however, was soon mended by who had already made himself master of Inspruck. But two incidents of very great consequence to his interest. the boors rising in arms, drove him out of the country The duke of Savoy foreseeing how much he should be before he could be joined by the French general, who exposed to the mercy of the French king, should that was therefore obliged to return to the Milanese. The monarch become master of the Milanese, engaged in a Imperialists in Italy were so ill supplied by the court of secret negotiation with the emperor, which, notwithVienna, that they could not pretend to act offensively. standing all his caution, was discovered by the court of The French invested Ostiglia, which, however, they Versailles. Louis immediately ordered the duke of Vencould not reduce; but the fortress of Barsillo, in the dome to disarm the troops of Savoy that were in his duchy of Reggio, capitulating after a long blockade, army, to the number of two-and-twenty thousand men; they took possession of the duke of Modena's country. to insist upon the duke's putting him in possession of The elector of Bavaria rejoining Villars, resolved to at- four considerable fortresses; and demand that the num tack count Stirum, whom prince Louis of Baden had ber of his troops should be reduced to the establishment detached from his army. With this view they passed stipulated in the treaty of 1696. The duke, exasper. the Danube at Donawert, and discharged six guns as a ated at these insults, ordered the French ambassador, signal for the marquis D'Usson, whom they had left in and several officers of the same nation, to be arrested. the camp at Lavingen, to fall upon the rear of the im- Louis endeavoured to intimidate him by a menacing perialists, while they should charge them in front. letter, in which he gave him to understand that since Stirum no sooner perceived the signal than he guessed neither religion, honour, interest, nor alliances, had the intention of the enemy, and instantly resolved to been able to influence his conduct, the duke de Vendome attack D'Usson before the elector and the mareschal should make known the intentions of the French monshould advance. He accordingly charged him at the arch, and allow him four-and-twenty hours to deliberate head of some select squadrons with such impetuosity, on the measures he should pursue. This letter was that the French cavalry were totally defeated; and all answered by a manifesto: in the meantime the duke his infantry would have been killed and taken, had not concluded a treaty with the court of Vienna; acknowthe elector and Villars come up in time to turn the fate ledged the archduke Charles as king of Spain; and sent of the day. The action continued from six in the morn- envoys to England and Holland. Queen Anne, knowing till four in the afternoon, when Stirum, being over- ing his importance as well as his selfish disposition, powered by numbers, was obliged to retreat to Norlin- assured him of her friendship and assistance; and both gen, with the loss of twelve thousand men, and all his she and the states sent ambassadors to Turin. He was baggage and artillery. In the meantime the duke of immediately joined by a body of imperial horse under Burgundy, assisted by Tallard, undertook the siege of Visconti, and afterwards by count Staremberg, at the Old Brisac, with a prodigious train of artillery. The head of fifteen thousand men, with whom that general place was very strongly fortified, though the garrison marched from the Modenese in the worst season of the was small and ill provided with necessaries. In four-year, through an enemy's country, and roads that were teen days the governor surrendered the place, and was condemned to lose his head for having made such a slender defence. The duke of Burgundy returned in triumph to Versailles, and Tallard was ordered to invest Landau. The prince of Hesse-Cassel being detached

deemed impassable. In vain the French forces harassed him in his march, and even surrounded him in many different places on the route: he surmounted all these difficulties with incredible courage and perseverance, and joined the duke of Savoy at Canelli, so as to secure