Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/42

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ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

ed without fighting. The Ruf- fians vidlorious, and flying as if they had been vanqui(hed. A con- federacy, rot of fmaller potentates to humble one great power, but of five the greatest powers on earth to

reduce one fmall potentate : all the force of thefe powers exerted and baffled. It happened as we have related ; and it is not the hiftory of a century, but of a fingle cam- paign.

CHAP. VII.

Preparations for an expedithn to Lcuijlcurg. Laid afide. Fort William-, Henry taken. Exploits of Admiral IVntJon and ColotteJ. Cliue in India. Chandenagcre a French fort taken. Victory ever the Nabob. Nabob taken and beheaded. Renjolulion in Bengal. Treaty ad'vantageous to the Eaji-India company. Admiral Watfon dies.

TT 7 iTH regard to the part we y V had in the tranfaclions of this year, though it was not fo full of ftriking events, nor does it af- ford fuch a fplendid fubjeft for nar- rative, yet it is interelling to an Englifh reader, and may perhaps prove more inftrudive; as it fhews us in fo ftrong a light, the miferable confequences of our political divi- lions, which produced a general un- fteadinefs in all our purfuits, and infufed a languor and inaflivity into all our military operations. For, whilft our commanders abroad knew not who were to reward their fer- vices, or punilh their neglefts, and were not affured in what light even the beft of their adlions would be confidered (having reafon to ap- prehend that they might not be judged of as they were in themfelves, but as their appearances might an- fwer the end of fome ruling fadion;) they naturally wanted that firmnefs and that enterprizing refolution, without which the belt capacity, and intendons the mofl honeft, can do nothing in war. The attach- ment of moll men to their parties, weakened their afFeclion to thtir country. It has been imagined that minifters did not always wilh fuccefs even to their own fchemes,

left obnoxious men Ihould acquire credit by the execution of them ; as it was fufpefted that officers even at the expence of their own reputation, did not exert their faculties to the utmoft, left a difagreeable minifterial fyilem ftiould eftablilh the credit of its councils by the vigour of their operations. For my own part, I think that thefe refinements, in which there is often as much malice difcovercd as penetration, have car- ried the matter infinitely too far. But certain it is, that the fpirit of perfonal parties and attachments, never carried to greater lengths than at that time, proved of very bad confequcnce, if it h^d no other effcft than to raife and to give a co- lour to fuch fufpicions as we have juft mentioned. Whatever was ihe caufe,it is moft certain, that our fuc- cefs in America this year, no more anfwered to the greatnefs of our preparations and our hopes than it did in the two preceding.

The attack upon Crown Point, which had been a principal objedl of our attention in the beginning, feemed at this' time to be laid afide; and an expedition to Louift)Ourg, undoubtedly a more confiderable objedl in itfelf, fapplied its place. Lord Loudon was to command the

land