Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/547

A.D. 1747.] addressing an English soldier who had been made prisoner, said, "If there had been fifty thousand such men as you, we should have found it difficult to conquer." "There were men enough like me," said the soldier, "but we wanted one like marshal Saxe."

Saxe followed up his advantage by dispatching Löwendahl against Bergen-op-Zoom, the key of Holland, and the masterpiece of the celebrated engineer, Cohorn. This was not only amazingly strong in its fortifications, but had a powerful garrison, and was covered by an entrenched camp of twelve thousand men. The trenches were opened in the middle of July, and might have defied all the efforts of the French, had not baron Cronstrom, the commander, a man of eighty, suffered them to take it by surprise on the 15th of September. The French had led a vast number of men before this place, and its surrender ended the campaign. The English and Dutch took up their winter quarters at Breda, and Cumberland wrote home urgently for fresh reinforcements for the next spring. Pelham replied that it was easier to ask for them than to find them; that the king had engaged thirty thousand, but it was doubtful whether they would appear; that he had applied also to the Danes, but it yet remained to see with what effect. After all, if they got troops, how were they to get the money to pay for them?

Most unexpectedly, however, the French were as desirous of peace as the allies ought to have been. At sea and in Italy they had not been so successful as in Flanders. Admiral Anson had defeated them off Cape Finisterre, and taken his ships of the line, several frigates, and a great part of a numerous convoy; admiral Hawke, off Belleisle, had taken six other ships of the line; and commodore Fox took forty French merchantmen, richly laden, on their way from the West Indies. In fact, in all quarters of the world our fleet had the advantage, and had made such havoc with the French commerce, as reduced the mercantile community to great distress.

In Italy they had been as unfortunate as they had been fortunate in Flanders. In November of 1746 the Austrians and Sardinians, assisted by a British fleet, had entered Provence and bombarded Antibes. They were recalled, however, by the news that the Genoese had revolted, and thrown off the Austrian yoke. In their retreat they were harassed by marshal de Belieisle, laid siege to Genoa in vain, and began to quarrel amongst themselves. The French, to complete their discomfiture, attempted to march another army into Italy under the brother of Belleisle; but they were stopped in the Pass of Exilles, and defeated with the loss of four thousand men and of their commander, the chevalier de Belleisle.

There were great discontent and suffering in France, and marshal Saxe, through general Ligonier, made proposals for peace. He declared himself broken in health, and longing for repose; that the whole French people hated him, and that, if he suffered a single reverse, his very life was not safe; that the king was as desirous of peace as he was: he stated, therefore, that the king of France was ready to give up all his conquests in Flanders except Furnes, and that he would give up that on condition that England did not insist on the demolition of the fortificatious of Dunkirk. He claimed nothing anywhere else except the restoration of Cape Breton, and this only in exchange for Madras, which the French had lately taken from the English. Genoa, he proposed, should be made independent, the duke of Modena restored to his dominions, and Spain be included in the treaty.

The news of these overtures gave great delight in England, but the king and Cumberland were bent on continuing the war. Pelham and Chesterfield advocated acceptance of the terms, but Newcastle sided with the king, to gain favour with him. As such terms, however, could not with decency be bluntly rejected, Cumberland solicited and obtained the post of negotiator in the matter for England; but the ministers, desirous of peace, foreseeing that the wishes or the hasty temper of Cumberland would soon ruin every chance of accomplishing a treaty, the earl of Sandwich was sent over to act as assistant to the duke, which meant, to overrule, if possible, the mischief he would be sure to make. Sandwich accordingly hastened over to Holland, and had a secret interview with the marquis de Puisieulx, the French minister for foreign affairs, and, after much dodging on the part of the marquis, he managed to have the discussion removed from military negotiators to a congress at Aix-la-Chapelle.

But the wishes of Cumberland and the king were only too well seconded by the continental powers. They had, for the most part, been making war through the money and blood of England, and, so long as they had an object to gain, cared nothing how much of both these were spent on their behalf. Austria, not satisfied with the restoration of Flanders, was averse to the idea of ceding anything to Don Philip in Italy. Sardinia was equally averse to admit the independence of Genoa, and however much the Dutch might long for peace, the prince of Nassau, like Cumberland, was anxious for martial fame. Russia would be no party to any treaty which did not guarantee to it Silesia, which England and Holland had formally pledged to it. Cumberland, and his interested backers, Maria Theresa, Sardinia, and the rest, contrived to protract the negotiations, whilst military preparations for another campaign were zealously pushed forwards.

Parliament opened on the 10th of November, soon after George's return from Hanover. Ministers had found great difficulty in coming to an agreement on the royal speech. Some were for the peace, some against it, and with the latter was the king. The prevalent feeling was obvious in the speech, when it did come to be spoken. It passed lightly over our defeats in Flanders, and dwelt on our naval victories. It referred to the negotiations for a peace, but at the same time demanded no less than thirteen millions — a war supply which a few years ago would have greatly astonished the nation. This last sum was voted with scarcely any dissent. In the lords' address Chesterfield managed to introduce a clause which was most honourable to him, but found no response in the royal breast, and little in those of the peers at large. It was to establish schools and villages in the Highlands to civilise the inhabitants, declaring that "the diffusion of knowledge amongst the people would be the best safeguard of their loyalty and tranquillity." It was a sentiment far before the time—one