repair fuch damages; it was inhuman to require from them fo dreadful a facrifice, which would not prevent, but only retard their final abjugation by the French, whofe arms, the allies ought to be convinced, by repeated experience, they were not in a condition to resist. Such were the arguments with which the party averfe to the Stadtholder combated the intentions of the coalefced powers; but they were fo bent on the execution of this fcheme, that they omitted no means to forward its profecution. The adtholder himself, in company with the duke of York, repaired to Amierdam, in order, it was firmly arted, to influence the deliberatoos that were held on this important fubject. Their fudden appearance greatly alarmed the patriotic party. They inftantly refolved, in defiance of the prohibition, to prefent a petition to the magifiracy, against the defigns imputed to thofe two princes; which they ftated explicitly to be, the inundation of Holland, and the admillion of the English troops into Amfterdam. They remonftrated against both of thefe defigns, with a boldness and energy that plainly evinced, that any attempt to execute them would be attended with danger, and that, in all probability, the petitioners and their adherents had already concerted means to oppofe, were endeavours to be uled to effect it.

But while they were fecretly confcious of their inability to fucceed in their defigns, they thought it neceflary, however, in order to preferve the appearance of authority, to imprison the petitioners; unwilling at the fame time to bear the odium which they knew

9

muft be the confequence of thi measure, they attributed it to the British minifter. They were too prudent to proceed any farther, and to avoid the difgrace that might attend a fruitless profecution, the petitioners were thortly after liberated from this confinement. But that measure of imprisonment, inftead of intimidating the party in oppofition to the ruling one, ferved only to fhew how feeble this latter was become, and how little it dared to act against the fenfe of that powerful majority, which was perpetually encreafing, and manifefting without referve its partiality to the cause of the French, and its impatience to fee them mafters of Holland.

Immediately after the capture of Nimeguen, it appeared, by the motions of the French generals, that the invafion of Holland would not be delayed any longer than every requifite for fo great an undertaking was in the completeft readinefs. The remains of the allied } armies were in no condition to form any obftacle. The Britifh troops, now ftationed at Arnheim and its vicinity, were, from inceflant fatigue, the inclemency of the feafon, and the difficulty of procuring fupplies, in the moft deplorable state of ill health, and almost in want of all neceffaries. The French took this opportunity to attempt the paffage of the Waal, in rafts conftructed for that purpofe; but they were repulfed by the British troops in fome places, and by the German in others.

It was not till the middle of Dec. that, on the fetting in of the hard froft, which marked the clofe of 1794, and the beginning of 1795, they conceived the defign of waiting till the rivers were fufficiently frozen to bear armies with their cannon and

other

other heavy incumbrances. Fatally for the Dutch, the Maes and the Waal were, by the twenty-feventh, become bridges of ice, over which the French tranfported an immenfe body of troops, whofe operations extended from their right to their left, near forty miles. The allied army was too much reduced, through illnets and other caufes, to oppofe them effectually. They carried all the pofts in the ifle of Bommel, and forced the lines of Breda, making fixteen hundred prifoners, and taking one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, with a large quantity of baggage. The French were now mafters of the north fide of the Waal, and menaced the towns of Culenberg and Gorcum, neither of which was able to stand an attack. It was determined, in order to preferve them, to compel the enemy to re-pafs the Waal. About eight thoufand of the British troops marched against them on the thirtieth of December, under the command of general Dundas. The French were pofted at Thuyl; to arrive at which place it was neceffary to take a road flanked by a number of batteries, planted on the ifle of Bommel, and the place itfelf was furrounded with a fiorng abbatis. All thefe obftacles were furmounted, and notwithstanding their great fuperiority in numbers, the French were forced from all their pofts, and obliged to re-crots the Waal, with a confiderable lofs

of men, and feveral pieces of cannoni. But this advantage, though very honourable to the conduct and bravery of the British officers and foldiers, was of very little fervice to the common caufe. The ftrength of France was fo enormous, that the whole country was overpowered by it, and refiftance was evidently impracticable.

To this forlorn fituation of public affairs, other difcouragements were added. If reports may be credited, the treatment of the fick and wounded in the British army, at this time, was fcandalous in the higheft degree. They were totally unprovided with the requifites indifpenfable in their condition: they had neither medicines nor ab'e furgeons to attend them; and often wanted food, covering, and proper places to receive them. This excited the more complaint and indignation, that it was well known throughout the army, with how much liberality government had provided for all their wants, and that a variety of thofe com→ forts, needed by the foldiery, had been fupplied by private fubfcrip tions throughout the kingdom. It was notorious, that, whenever an unfortunate man was fent to the hofpital, he generally perifhed through neglect, unfkilfulnefs, or mifery. The medical board, as well as the commitaries, whofe duty it was to look into thofe things, became objects of great hatred and indignation.*

In

to be well attested:

invafion and conqueft. It was an entire difcouragement to the adherents of the Stadtholder, and filled the oppofite party with the utmost boldnefs, and a determination to improve the despondency of their adverfaries. They met every where in clubs and focieties, and watched with anxiety for the critical hour, when they might proceed to active menfures, and facilitate the entrance of the French, and the expulfion of their enemies.

Since the repulfe of the French, on the thirtieth of December, they had been meditating how to reoccupy the pofitious from which they had been driven. The inferior force, that had compelled them to retreat, was a circumftance that had alarmed their commanders: but the diftrefles attending the British troops, and the daily diminution of their strength, by the fickness prevailing among them, the incommodities arifing from fcantinefs of neceffaries, and the exceffive rigeur of the feafon, foon difpelled every apprehenfion that they would, in conjunction with their allies, be able to make a ftand, and encouraged the French to renew their attempt to cross the Waal. On the fourth of January, 1795, fome regiments were detached from Pichegru's army, and made good their paffage unmolefted. The truth was, that on furveying the fituation of the allied forces, it appeared impracticable to oppofe the enemy with any reasonable hope of fuccels, and that an expeditious retreat was necefiary to fave the remains of the British army. After fpiking the heavy cannon, and de

froying all the ammunition that could be carried away, it retired towards the Le, on the fixth of January. As foon as this was perceived by the French, they advanced in confiderable force, and preffed the British troops fo closely, that an engagement enfued, wherein the combatants fought with fo much obftinacy on both fides, that they were alternately repulfed, and returned to the charge four times fucceffively. The French at laft gave way. Their fuperiority of ftrength prevented a purfuit, and the British troops availed themfelves of this momentary fuccels, to continue their retreat; but no refpite was given to them, by the French: they croffed the Waal, on the tenth, in fuch force, that it was found impoffible to withstand them. General Walmoden, on whom the command in chief of the British troops, and the German fubfidaries had now devolved, was pofted between Arnheim and Nimeguen, at the defile of the Greb, in the province of Utrecht.* Hoping to make a capture of the whole, Pichegru, at, the head of more than leventy thoufand men, attacked them on all fides. After fuch refiftance as their inferiority permitted them to make, they were obliged to retire in all directions, with fo confiderable a lofs of their camp] equipage, that they were compelled to take fhelter in open fheds during the following night, from the exceffive feverity of the weather. Another attack was made by Pichegru, four days after, on fome pofts that had been taken, to fecure

the

the retreat of the British troops. Thele maintained their ground till night, when they retired unpurfued. But these occafional inftances of courage and conduct could not preail against the immenfe fuperiority of ftrength that continually overwhelined all refiftance. The British army, exclufively of an open and faccefsful enemy in the French, had a concealed one in every Dutch town and village through which they paffed. No direct hoftilities were committed; but every fpecies of injury and differvice was done, that inveterate malice could fuggeft. Loking upon the English as the radical caule of the calamities, inflicted on their country by this ruin03 war, the generality of the Dutch held them in abhorrence, and fought every occafion to add to their prefent diftreffes. While the inhabitants of the united provinces manifested so inimical a difpofition to his friends, it was in vain the Stadtholder iffued proclamations, exhorting them to rife in a mafs, for the protection of their country: they anfwered him with the bittereft reproaches, and publicly reviled him as the tool of the British government, and the betrayer of the Dutch nation.

To the fhattered remnant of the British army, furrounded in this manner, by open and fecret enemies, the only refource remaining was, to effect a total retreat from what might be juftly confidered as a VOL. XXXVII.

hofile country. But this was no longer an eafy tafk in the woeful fituation to which it was now reduced, by the bafe and flagitious neglect of thofe to whom the care of furnishing it with due requifites had been entrufted. The multitude of inferior agents, appointed for this purpofe, had fo groffly deceived their employers, that while thefe imagined that ample provifion had been made of every article they had directed, the others had been guilty of either fo much remiffness or peculation, that the army now laboured under deficiencies of the moft heinous nature. The fufferings of the fick and wounded foldiers, in particular, excited the highest commiferation. They were in the midst of this rigorous winter, removed in open waggons, expofed to the weather, and destitute of all comforts and accommodations.Numbers were frozen to death, or perifhed through want; efpecially during the march on the fixteenth of January, a day for ever memorable on account of the hardfhips and diftreffes of every kind endured by the British army, in its retreat to the city of Deventer. The recitals of them that have been published convey an idea of every fpecies of mifery that human nature can undergo, in one of the moft lamentable fituations to which men are liable, through the contingencies of war. *

Another column of the British army had evacuated Utrecht in the [E] evening

fhrub