on the coast of Bretagne. The island was defended by strong fortress, constructed by the famous Vauban, near the town of Palais. On the first disembarkment of the troops, they met with a very fevere repulfe, being compelled precipitately to retreat, with the lofs of near 500 men. But the English commanders, General Hodgson and Commodore Keppel, secure of the zeal and ardor of their troops, rendered bold and fanguine by a long continuance of prosperity, determined to make another effort, which was attended with happier success-and a body of marines and grenadiers, making good their landing on the craggy point of Lomeria, sustained their position with wonderful intrepidity against a very superior force, till joined by the remaining troops amounting to eight or ten thoufand men. M. de St. Croix the French commander then recalled his detachments, and prepared for a vigorous defence of the citadel, the avenues to which he had fortified with fix additional redoubts, which, with much effusion of blood, were successively attacked and carried by the English, who now urged, with the most perfevering ardor, the fiege of the citadel. On the 7th of June, a practicable breach being made, and a general affault apprehended on the part of M. de St. Croix, that officer demanded a capitulation, which was granted on the most honorable conditions. Thus, at the expence of two thousand lives, and an enormous fum expended in naval and military preparations, the English achieved the conquest of a barren rock, affording no produce excepting the laurels of victory.

At the termination of the fuccessful campaign of 1759, overtures had been made, agreeably to the intimation in the Speech from the Throne, by the Kings of Great Britain and Pruffia to the Courts of Vienna and Versailles, for a general accommodation of differences, which did not appear wholly unacceptable; and after some communications through the medium of Prince Lewis of Brunswic, refiding at the Hague in quality of Commander in Chief of the Armies of the Republic, and Guardian of the young Stadtholder, it was agreed

to

to open a general congress at Augsburg. Various causes of delay however concurred to prevent the execution of this project*, and the Court of Vienna was not yet prepared to relinquish its claim to Silefia. But the ensuing campaign of 1760 proving very disastrous to France, whose finances were now reduced to a state of the most distressing derangement, the French Ambassador refident at Stockholm delivered a declaration to the Swedish Monarch in February 1761, importing his Sovereign's earnest defire to adopt effectual measures for reftoring the peace of Europe: that in concerting with his Allies a general plan of pacification, he was disposed abundantly to display his moderation whenever Great Britain should be inclined to acquiefce in reasonable terms:-that in confequence of the expences and calamities attendant on the war, he was conftrained to lessen his subsidies; and should the war continue, he could no longer promife an exact compliance with the letter of his engagements. In the month of March, a memorial was transmitted by the hands of Prince Gallitzin, the Russian Ambassador at the Court of London, from the Duc de Choiseul Prime Minister of France, to Mr. Secretary Pitt, signifying the firm determination of His Most Christian Majesty so to act in concert with his Allies at the future Congress, as to demonstrate his fincere disposition to promote the interests of humanity, and restore the peace of Europe. His Most Christian Majesty expressed his defire " that the particular accommodation between France and England should be united with the general pacification of Europe; but as the objects of the war between those two Powers were totally foreign to the disputes in Germany, he thought

it would be previously necessary to agree with his Britanic Majesty upon certain principal points which should form the basis of their particular negotiation." These advances were favorably received, and Mr. Pitt wrote an immediate answer to the Duc de Choiseul, expressing his Britannic Majesty's fincere defire to correspond with the pacific fentiments of the Moft Christian King-and propofing that Ministers duly authorised should be immediately appointed at the respective Courts of Versailles and London, to enter upon this negotiation; and in the month of May Mr. Stanley repaired to Paris on the part of the King of England, and M. Buffy was received in the fame manner from the Court of France, at St. James's. The instructions of M. Bussy were to adhere to the uti poffidetis, as the basis of the negotiation-to demand an explanation of his Britannic Majesty's sentiments touching the dates or æras at which the proposal should take place; and in the conferences which ensued, the French Minifter continued to press the specification of those dates. But the English Minifter evaded the discussion of this point until the surrender of the citadel of Belleifle: and then a declaration was made in explicit terms, that the first of July, the first of September, and the first of November next should be the established æras in Europe, the West Indies, and the East Indies; after which all the conquests made on either side should be mutually restored; that the preliminaries agreed upon between the

two

Crowns should be conclufive and obligatory, independent of the negotiations of Augsburg for fettling the peace of Germany. After the interchange of many memorials chiefly respecting the compensations to be made for the deviations propofed from the original principle or basis of the uti poffidetis, France profeffed her willingness to cede and guaranty Canada to the Crown of England, on condition of her being admitted to a participation, as formerly, of the cod-fishery on the banks of Newfoundland and infifting also upon the reftitution of the island of Cape Breton, as an equivalent for which France consented to a renewal of the article in the Treaties of

Utrecht

Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle, for the demolition of the harbor and works of Dunkirk that in lieu of the island of Minorca, England should restore Guadaloupe and Marigalante-and that in confideration of the restitution of Belleifle and Senegal, or Goree, France would evacuate her conquests in Germany. Touching the captures made by England at fea previous to the declaration of war, his Moft Christian Majesty declared that " he would gladly submit to the justice of the King of England, and the determination of the English Courts of Judicature-that subjects trading under the faith of treaties, and the protection of the law of nations, ought not to fuffer from the misunderstandings which may arife in the cabinets of Princes, before those misunderstandings are publicly known-that the practice of declaring war was established by the law of nations as essential to the general fafety-that no seizure made or prize taken anterior to fuch declaration could be deemed legal, without violating the most sacred of human inftitutionsthat no fort of affinity subsisted between hostilities committed on the Ohio and ships taken in the West Indies-that such hoftilities might indeed be alledged as just motives for declaring war, but the effects of that declaration ought not to precede the declaration itself-and that it would be the height of injustice thus to involve innocent individuals, ignorant of the disputes of Monarchs, or the affairs of Nations, in the depth of distress and ruin, by the indifcriminate confifcation of their property." Together with this memorial, M. de Buffy delivered to the English Minifter another of a very extraordinary nature, importing that the disputes subsisting between England and Spain gave his Most Christian Majesty cause to apprehend a new war in Europe and America, unless they could be now adjusted that his Catholic Majesty had communicated to the Court of Versailles the chief points of difcuffion, namely, the restitution of fome ships taken in the course of the war under Spanish colours, the liberty claimed by the Spanish nation to fish on the Banks of Newfoundland, and the fettlements made by the English on the Spanish territories in the Bay of Honduras, His most Chrif

tia

tian Majesty therefore paffionately defired that these differences might be amicably terminated, and that the King of Spain should be invited to guaranty the treaty between the two Crowns; because if these differences were the means of kindling a new war, the most Christian King would be obliged to perform his engagements to his Allies. These memorials were accompanied with a third declaration, signifying that the Empress Queen had consented to a separate peace between England and France on these terms only that France should for her benefit keep possession of the Countries conquered in her name, and as her Ally, from the King of Prussia; and that the King of Great Britain should no longer afford assistance either in money or troops to the King of Prussia, in like manner as France should be restricted with respect to the Empress Queen. The indifcretion of these memorials, containing demands thus novel and offenfive, was so flagrant, that many persons scrupled not to brand the entire proceedings of the Court of Versailles with the most insidious duplicity, though it appeared sufficiently evident to the intelligent and impartial, that the impolicy of her conduct arose from her extreme anxiety of peace, and a too fanguine hope that the profpect of an eventual rupture with Spain would induce Great Britain to relax the rigor of her terms. The resentment and indignation of the Court of London at this infidious and unexpected interposition seemed to know no bounds. Mr. Secretary Pitt declared both verbally, and in writing, to M. de Bussy, that the King of Great Britain would not fuffer the disputes with Spain to be mixed, in any shape whatsoever, with the negotiations for peace now depending with France, and that all farther mention of such an idea would be confidered as offensive to his dignity: and the right of France at any time to intermeddle in like discussions between England and Spain, was denied with the most positive disdain. Upon these grounds M. de Buffy was informed, that the King of England had ordered the memorial concerning Spain to be returned as totally inadmiffible; and also the memorial relating to the King of Pruffia as affecting

the