160 1761. Fruster. ments of lord Siege of CHAP. the empire in Lower Saxony; and at the same time opened a communication between the army of the allies and of Prussia, On the approach of the allies, the French, notwithstanding their num bers, fled in great consternation; and had not the country, by its defiles and difficulties, favoured their retreat, they might have been entirely destroyed. Prince Ferdinand attacked Fruster, a well fortified town on the river Eder, one of the streams which fall into the Weser. He found the place well prepared; but, He reduces though at first repulsed, he in a few days compelled it to surrender, and there got possession of a large magazine. That Achieve gallant and enterprising officer the marquis of Granby, who had succeeded lord George Sackville in the command of Granby. the English, attacked and stormed several strong forts and castles in the neighbourhood, and the chief magazines of the enemy were either taken or destroyed. Marpurg, upon the river Laun which falls into the Rhine, and Leighayn, were blockaded, but the chief object of the prince was the siege of Cassel, on which the fortune of the campaign must evidently turn; since, if the strongly fortified capital of Hesse were taken, the inferior places would certainly fall. Meanwhile marshal Broglio, the French commander, collected his dispersed troops, and, being re-enforced from France, returned to meet the victorious enemy. The allied army had been divided, in carrying on the different operations; and the hereditary prince having advanced a considerable way before his uncle, was attacked by Broglio and defeated. Prince Ferdinand, finding it necessary to raise the siege and evacuate Hesse, made a very able retreat towards Hanover; and though disapApointed in the hopes that he entertained from his winter campaign, yet his expedition was far from being without effect; for, by seizing and destroying the magazines of the enemy, he prevented them from availing themselves of their successes. Both armies returned to winter quarters, and it was the Broglio re- end of June before they again took the field. Marshal Brog enforced, and enabled lio, being strongly re-enforced, marched from Cassel, and mov to act on the ed towards the Dimet, to join a body of troops in Westphalia offensive. under the prince de Soubise. General Sporcken, who occupied raised. with the Fuldoonste o Not directly, but after its confluence p Grandfather of the present duke of Rutland. q A river on the confines of Westphalla and Hesse, which falls into the Weser. CHAP, II. 1761, Discovering that, the design of the enemy was to attack him, the prince took a very strong position, and also employed effectual measures for securing a retreat, should it be necessary. Broglio, on the 15th of July, made a furious attack, upon the Repulsed marquis of Granby's posts, and after a violent conflict was re- by Granby. pulsed; but the next day the French made a general attack. Prince Ferdinand, though with very inferior numbers, by his skilful disposition, and his readiness in seizing advantages which were afforded him on one side by the tardiness of the French, was, victorious; but the victory was not decisive. Broglio thought it expedient to separate the troops, and sent Soubise westward to besiege Munster, while he himself proceeded towards Hanover and Brunswick; and so secured his communication, that he could easily retreat into Hesse, should that be expedient. Prince Ferdinand, moving eastward to watch the motions of Broglio, sent the hereditary, prince to protect Munster; which purpose he effected so completely, as to prevent Soubise from besieging that city, and compel him to retire. Meanwhile Broglio was making rapid advances in Lower Saxony: on the 5th of October he attack- Various ed the city of Wolfenbuttle, which after a siege of five days success. he took, and proceeded to Brunswick. The hereditary prince, however, being sent by his uncle to the relief of his father's capital, by the skill and activity of his movements compelled the enemy to raise the siege, and also to evacuate Wolfenbuttle: soon after, both armies retired into winter quarters. After all Results of the variety of operations and vicissitudes of fortune, both the canpaign in the French and the allies were nearly in the same situation as westera at the commencement of the campaign. Germany. The king of Prussia in this campaign, contrary to the plan which he had adopted in the former years of the war, and notwithstanding the glorious actions and important achievements of the preceding season, resolved to act upon the defensive. In the east Aware, however, that this resolution would encourage his ene- the king of Prussia acts mies, he skilfully concealed it, by threatening operations which on the dehe did not mean to carry into execution. The plan of his ene- fensive. mies was, that Loudohn, assisted by the Russians, should undertake a war of sieges in Silesia; that Romanzow should carry on the war on the side of Prussia and Pomerania, and, assisted by the Russian and Swedish fleets, besiege Kolberg; while marshal Daun commanded an army in Saxony, which was to serve as a magazine for re-enforcing the other armies, and co-operating either with Loudohn or Broglio, or causing a diversion in favour of Romanzow. After a long siege, the Russians and Swedes captured Kolberg. The king himself undertook the defence of Silesia against the Russians and Austrians; and the chief display of his military skill was in the encampment that he formed, which defied the attack and prevented the progress of the enemy during the greater part of 1761. CHAP. the campaign. In September he destroyed the Russian magazines; and, had not his own provisions failed, would have prevented any important blow from being struck in Silesia; but on the 29th of September, being obliged to leave his strong post, general Loudohn attacked and surprised Schweidnitz, which closed the campaign in Silesia. By this loss, added to the capture of Kolberg, the campaign of 1761 was on the whole disastrous to Prussia. Negotia tions for peace. " The British minister was now engaged in a business which in its consequence gave occasion to very great changes in the state; this was a negotiation for peace. In winter 1760, France began to see that her hopes from successes in Germany were by no means likely to be realized; that Britain, invigora ted by Pitt, continued with unrelaxed efforts to support her allies on the continent; and that Frederick still baffled, and was likely to baffle, all the force of his enemies. Her revenue, which had principally supported the expense of the war, was exhausted by enormous expenses, and her ambition was humbled by discomfiture and disaster, which had made the war so general. Expressing her wishes for peace, therefore, she now seemed to be in earnest. Her allies were aware, that if she withdrew from the confederacy, it would be unsafe for them to continue hostilities. Sweden, the subsidiary of France, was informed by the court of Versailles, that the state of the French finances did not permit the longer continuance of the subsidy; and the courts of Petersburg, Vienna, Sweden, and Poland, concurred in overtures for a negotiation. On the 25th of March 1761, declarations to that effect were signed by the ministers of the five powers at Paris, and on the 31st of the same month delivered at London. A declaration of the same import, by the kings of Britain and Prussia, was dated on the 3d of April; and Augsburg was by both parties fixed on as the "most commodious situation for a congress. As the number of the parties concerned, and the variety and complication of their interests, must render the negotiation intricate, it was unanimously agreed by the parties, that neutral powers should Views and be admitted to the convention. To simplify as much as posinterests of sible the views and objects of the different parties, it was found the parties. most expedient to recur to the origin of the war, in which their respective purposes had been first manifested, and by the events of which they had since been jointly or severally affected. Many as were the relations and consequences which the war in its progress involved, yet, on tracing them to their sources, they were found to originate in two objects totally unconnected; namely, the limits of the French and English territories in North America, and of the dominions of the king of Prussia in Germany and Poland. It was agreed, that the adjustment of German differences should be the business of the * • See Gillies's Frederick, p. 353. general congress at Augsburg; and that a separate negotia- CHAP. tion should be opened at London and Paris, for the arrangement of such concerns as belonged exclusively to Great Britain and France. .1761. France. To this negociation, as pertaining more immediately and di- Overtures rectly to our subject, we shall pay the first and principal atten- between tion. Ministers were reciprocally sent; Mr. Stanley to Paris Britain and on the part of England, M. Bussy to London on the part of France; and the negotiation now appeared to be in the fairest train. France, which had proposed the separate treaty with England, thereby offered a dereliction of any hopes that she might have derived from the state of affairs in Germany. It was now obvious, that in order to obtain peace, she must make very humiliating concessions. Her proper quarrel was, by this arrangement, separated from the general cause; and she must expect very disadvantageous conditions, as in her proper quarrel she had suffered grievious disasters. When in such a situation she desired a separate peace, it might have been very naturally imagined that she was sincere; and not only by superficial politicians, but by men of information and experience, she was really conceived to be in earnest. France was, how ever, playing a game artful in its design, but shallow in its poli ey. The court of Spain, she hoped, would not look with indifference on the humiliation of the principal branch of the house of Bourbon. Charles, she well knew, was originally far from being so favourably disposed to England, as his predecessor had been. The great successes of the English, on an element and in quarters in which they might be eventually dangerous to Spain, had added jealousy to original displeasure. The more advantageous and imperious the terms demanded by Britain should be, the more would the resentment and jealousy of Spain be inflamed, and the more easily would that power be induced to take a part in the war. On the side of England there was sincerity in the negotiation, but there were circumstances which obstructed a peace. France was a country whose ambition had always displayed itself toward her neighbours, and more especially towards Britain, whenever she had power to give it effect in the present contest, she had been evidently the aggressor. Our ambitious rival having commenced an unjust war, and being totally vanquished, and almost prostrato at our feet; this was conceived to be the time for reducing her to a state which would long disable her for future aggression. Such was the general opinion of the people, and such also was the opinion of the principal minister. tures. The negotiation however opened, on the ground of uti possi- Principle detis; that is, that the two parties should remain in possession of the over of reciprocal conquest, and that whatever cessions were made, should be granted for an equivalent. As no cessation of arms had hitherto taken place, and as the war might make a daily alteration in the fortune of the contracting powers, it was ne CHAP. II. 1761. Propositions of France. cessary to fix upon some epoch to which this possessory article should refer. The French proposed, that the situation in which they should stand on the first of May 1761 in Europe, on the first of July in the West Indies and Africa, and on the first of September in the East Indies, should be the basis of the treaty proposed to be negotiated between the two powers; but they declared their willingness to fix upon other epochs, if these proved not to be agreeable. The British minister, at first, refused to admit any epochs, but those that referred to the day of signing the treaty of peace. To this the French replied, that unless a certain period of the war was fixed, it would be impossible to ascertain the nature and value of the possessions which might be relinquished; and they declared that, unless specified epochs were fixed, the negotiations must be at an end. The English minister at length saw the propriety of the measure, but before he would treat definitively on that point, he proposed two preliminary conditions: first, that every thing adjusted between the two crowns concerning their particular war, should be made final and conclusive, independent of the fate of the negotiation at Augsburg: secondly, that the definitive treaty of peace between Britain and France, or preliminary articles to that effect, should be signed and ratified between the date of that memorial and the first of the following August. If these con ditions were accepted, Britain agreed to name as determined epochs, the first of July for Europe, the first of September for Africa and America, and the first of November for the East Indies. France, having consulted with her principal ally, consented to the independence of the treaty on the negotiation at Augsburg, provided nothing should be stipulated to the prejudice of the house of Austria. To the second article, and to the proposed epochs, she also agreed. The general principle, and the terms of its application, being ascertained, they came next to particular stipulations. The great objects in the negotiation were six: 1st, the limits of the two crowns in North America: 2d, the conquests of Great Britain in the West Indies, together with the neutral islands there: 3d, our conquests in Africa and India: 4th, the adjustment of the particular affairs between the English and French in Germany: 5th, the conduct which the two crowns were to adopt, with regard to their respective allies in Germany: 6th, the restitution of the captures made by Eng land previous to the declaration of war. France proposed to cede Canada; stipulating, that whatever French colonists should so choose, might remove with their effects, and that those who remained should be allowed the free and public exercise of the catholic religion. She required the restitution of Cape Breton, and a confirmation of the privilege of fishing on the coast of Newfoundland. In the West Indies-of the neutral islands, she proposed to relinquish Tobago to England, but that Dominica, Annual Register for 1761, p. 38; und Magazines for ditto. |