England, and advanced to within a hundred miles of London, but was then compelled to retreat into Scotland, where, after having defeated the royal forces a second time, his cause was utterly ruined by the decisive battle of Culloden.' (April 1746.) To the disgrace of the English, the surrounding country was given up to pillage and de vastation. After a variety of adventures Charles reached France in safety; but numbers of his unfortunate adherents perished on the scaffold, or by military execution, while multitudes were transported to the American plantations.

IN AMERICA.

x. 1746-7.

9. During the year 1745 the important French fortress of Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton,' was captured by IX. EVENTS the British and their colonial allies, an event which revived the spirits of the English, and roused France to a great vindictive effort for the recovery of Louisburg, and the devastation of the whole American coast from Nova Scotia to Georgia. Accordingly a powerful naval armament was sent out to America in 1746; but it was so enfeebled by storms and shipwrecks, and dispirited by the loss of its commander, that nothing was accomplished by it. 10. During the years 1746 and 1747 hostilities were carried on with various success by the French and the Spaniards on one side, and the English, Dutch, and Austrians, on the other. By sea the French lost almost their last ship; but no important naval battles were fought, as the English navy had scarcely a rival. On the continent, northern Italy and the Netherlands were the chief seats of the war. The French were driven from the former, and the Austrians and their allies from the latter. France made frequent overtures of peace, and in OctoCHAPELLE, ber 1748 the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded between all the belligerents, on the basis of a restitution of all conquests made during the war, and a mutual release of prisoners without ransom. The treaty left unsettled the conflicting claims

XI. TREATY
OF AIX-LA-

1748.

1. Culloden, or Culloden Moor, is a heath in Scotland, four miles east of Inverness, and one hundred and fifteen miles north-west from Edinburgh. The battle of Culloden, fought April 27th, 1746, terminated the attempts of the Stuart family to recover the throne of England. (Map No. XVI.)

2. The island of Cape Breton, called by the French Isle Royale, is on the south-eastern border of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Louisburg, once called the "Gibraltar of America," was a strongly-fortified town, having one of the best harbors in the world. After its capture by general Wolfe in 1758, (see p. 430,) its walls were demolished, and the materials of its buildings were carried away for the construction of Halifax, and other towns on the coast. Only a few fishermen's huts are now found within the environs of the city, and so complete is the ruin that it is with difficulty the outlines of the fortifications, and of the principal buildings, can be traced.

of the English and Spaniards to the trade of the American seas; but France recognized the Hanoverian succession to the English throne, and henceforth abandoned the cause of the Pretender. Neither France nor England obtained any recompense for the enormous expenditure of blood and treasure which the war occasioned; but in one aspect the result was favorable to all parties, as, by preserving the unity of the Austrian dominion, it maintained the due balance of power in continental Europe.

I. EIGHT YEARS OF

FEACE.

Two

IV. THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR:-1756-63.a-1. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle proved to be little better than a suspension of arms. A period of eight years of nominal peace that followed did not produce, in the different States of Europe, the desired feeling of united firmness and security; but all seemed unsettled, and in dread of new commotions. causes, of a nature entirely distinct, united to involve all Christendom in a general war. The first was the long oF ANOTHER standing colonial rivalry between France and England; and the second, the ambition of the Great Frederick of Prussia, and the jealousy with which the court of Austria regarded the increase of the Prussian monarchy.

II. CAUSES

WAR.

The

2. Immediately after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, difficulties arose between France and England respecting their colonial possessions in India. Several years previous to the breaking out of the European war, the forces of the English and French East India companies, having taken part, as auxiliaries, in the wars between the native princes of the country, had been engaged in a course of hostilities at a time when no war existed between the two nations. 3. More serious causes of quarrel arose in North America. French possessed Canada and Louisiana, one commanding the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the other that of the Mississippi; while the intervening territory was occupied by the English colonists. The limits of the American colonial possessions of the two nations had been left undefined at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and hence disputes arose among the colonists, who did not always arrange their controversies by peaceful discussion. The French made settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, claiming the ter

a That part of the war waged in America between France and England is better known in American history as the "French and Indian war." Although hostilities began, in the colonies, in 1754, no formal declaration of war was made by either France or England until the breaking out of the general European war in 1756.

ritory as a part of New Brunswick; while, by extending a frontier line of posts along the Ohio river, they aimed at confining the British colonies to the Atlantic coast, and cutting them off from the rest of the continent. In 1754 the HOSTILITIES English Colonial authorities began hostilities on the

III. BEGIN-
NING OF

IN 1754. Ohio, without waiting for the formality of a declaration of war in the following year the French forts at the head of the Bay of Fundy were reduced by colonel Monckton; but the English general, Braddock, who was sent against Fort Du Quesne, on the Ohio, was defeated with a heavy loss, and his army was saved from total destruction only by the courage and conduct of major Washington, who commanded the provincial troops.

4. These colonial difficulties were the prominent causes of enmity between France and England; but such were now the bonds of interest and alliance that united the different European States, that the quarrel betwixt any two led almost inevitably to a general war. A cause of war entirely distinct from the foregoing was found in the relations existing between Prussia and Austria. Maria Theresa was still dissatisfied with the loss of Silesia, and Frederick, too clearsighted not to see that a third struggle with her was inevitable, abandoned the lukewarm aid of France, and formed an alliance with England, (Jan. 1756,) an event which altogether changed the exist ing relations between the different States of Europe. Prussia was thus separated from her old ally France, and England from Austria, while France and Austria, nations that had been enemies for three hundred years, found themselves placed in so close political proximity that an alliance between them became indispensable to the safety of each. Augustus III., king of Poland and also elector of Saxony, allied himself with Austria for the purpose of ruining Prussia; the empress Elizabeth of Russia, entertaining a personal hatred of Frederick, who had made her the object of his political satires, joined the coalition against him, while the latter could regard Sweden in no other light than that of an enemy in the event of a general war.

IV. EUROPEAN ALLIANCE.

5. Thus Austria, Russia, France, Sweden, and Poland, had all united against one of the smaller kingdoms, which was deprived of all foreign resources, with the exception of England; and the latter, in a continental war, could give her ally but little effective aid. Austria looked with confidence upon the recovery of Silesia; the partition of Prussia was already planned, and the days of the Prus

sian monarchy appeared to be already numbered; but in this most unequal contest the superiority of Frederick as a general, and the discipline of his troops, enabled Prussia to come out of the war with increased power and glory.

1756.

6. Frederick, without waiting for the storm that was about to burst upon him, marched forth to meet it, to the surprise V. FIRST of his enemies, who were scarcely aware that he was CAMPAIGN OF arming. In the month of August, 1756, he entered FREDERICK, Saxony at the head of seventy thousand men, blockaded the Saxon army, and cut off its supplies, defeated an army of Austrians that advanced to the relief of their allies, and finally compelled the Saxon forces, now reduced to fourteen thousand men, to surrender themselves prisoners, (Oct. 1756,) many of whom he forced to enter the Prussian service. Thus the result of the first campaign of Frederick was the conquest of all Saxony.

7. It was not till the month of May and June 1756, that England and France issued their declarations of war against each other, although hostilities had for some time previously been carried on be tween their colonies. France commenced the war by an expedition against the island of Minorca, then in possession of the English; and that important fortress surrendered, although admiral Byng had been sent out with a squadron for the relief of the place. In America the English had planned, early in the season, the reduction of Crown Point, Niagara, and Fort Du Quesne, but not a single object of the campaign was either accomplished or attempted.

VI. 1757.

8. At the beginning of the campaign of 1757 it was estimated that the armies of the enemies of Frederick, on foot, and preparing to march against him, exceeded seven hundred thousand men, while the force which he and his English allies could bring into the field amounted to but little more than one third of that number. Frederick, having succeeded in deceiving the Aus trians as to his real intentions, began the campaign by invading Bohemia, where, at the head of sixty-eight thousand men, he fought and won the celebrated and sanguinary battle of Prague, (May 6,) against an army of seventy-five thousand Austrians. Dearly, however, was the victory purchased, as twelve thousand five hundred Prussians lay dead or wounded on the field of battle. Seeking to follow up his advantage, in the following month Frederick experienced a severe check, being defeated by the greatly superior force

of marshal Daun at Kolin,' in consequence of which the Prussians were forced to raise the siege of Prague, and evacuate Bohemia. The Austrians and their allies, after this unexpected victory, resumed operations with increased activity: a Russian army of one hundred and twenty thousand men invaded Prussia on the east; seventeen thousand Swedes entered Pomerania; and two powerful French armies crossed the Rhine to attack the English and Hanoverian allies of Prussia commanded by the duke of Cumberland. The latter, being defeated, was compelled to sign a disgraceful convention by which his army of thirty-eight thousand men was reduced to a state of inactivity.

9. The loss of his English allies at this juncture was a most griev ous blow to the king of Prussia. While he held the Austrians at bay in Lusatia, Saxony, whence the Prussians drew their supplies, was opened to the French; the Russians were advancing from the east, and already the Swedes were near the gates of Berlin, when the sudden recall of the Russian army, owing to the serious illness of the Russian empress, illumined the troubled path of Frederick with a glimmering of hope, which promised to lead him on to better fortune. After having in vain tried to give battle to the Austrians, he suddenly broke up his camp, and by rapid marches advanced into Saxony, to drive the French out of that country.

10. Early in November, Frederick, at the head of only twenty thousand men, came up with the enemy, whose united forces amounted to seventy thousand. After some manoeuvring he threw his little army into the low village of Rossback,' the heights around which, covered with batteries, served at once to defend his position, and conceal his movements. Here the French and their allies, anticipating a certain victory, determined to surround him, and thus, by making him prisoner, at once put an end to the war. To accomplish this object they advanced by forced marches, with sound of trumpet; anxious to see if Frederick would have the courage to make a stand

1. Kolin is a small town of Bohemia, thirty-seven miles a little south of east from Prague. The battle of Kolin, fought June 18th, 1757, was the first which Frederick lost in the Seven Years' War. (Map No. XVII.)

2. Berlin, the capital of the Prussian States, and the ordinary residence of the monarch, is on the river Spree, a branch of the Elbe, in the province of Brandenburg, one hundred and sixty miles south-east from Hamburg. Berlin is one of the finest cities in Europe, and is called the Athens of the north of Germany. (Map No. XVII.)

3. Rossback is near the western bank of the river Saale, in Prussian Saxony, about twenty miles south-west from Leipsic, and consequently near the battle-fields of Leipsic, Jena, and Lutzen. The banks of the Saale are fully immortalized by carnage. (Map No. XVII.)