Election of the DUKE of BAVARIA to the IMPERIAL Throne, то тНЕ End of the CAMPAIGN in M DCC XLII. SECOND DIVISION. Naval War in EUROPE and AMERICA, In M DCC XLII. FIRST DIVISION. CHAPTER I. The Revolution in the BRITISH A Ministry. GS Great Britain is the principal CHAP. influences the other engines; it will be neceffary to obferve, how far the occult fprings of this machine has hitherto affected the general fyftem, and how much retarded the velocity, or accelerated the flowness of the scale. SOON after the conclufion of the Hanoverian treaty of neutrality, his Britannic majefty left his German dominions, and embarking at Helvoetfluys on the 18th of October, landed the next day at Aldborough in Suffolk, and on the day following PART following arrived at St James's; on which occaIII. fion, he foon afterwards received the congratula tions of the nobility, and the lord mayor and al1741. dermen of the city of London. AFTER the British troops had quitted Carthagena, the miniftry refolved to send another body of forces to augment the army in America: accordingly four regiments of marines were raised, and fet fail from Cork in Ireland, on the 8th of November, in forty transports, convoyed by four men of war and four bomb-ketches, to reinforce the army in Cuba; but, in the fame manner as the former, thefe forces were detained too long, and fet out greatly too late, for contributing to any material fervice in America. BEFORE the diffolution of the laft-parliament, the ministerial party had a great fuperiority in the house of commons; but on the new election, the general part of the nation, incensed by the pacific conduct of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minifter, were very ftrenuous in chufing members of another inclination; whereby the oppofition, that had long existed to fubvert the minif try, now effectually fucceeded: for 181 new members were returned, who had no feat in the laft parliament; of the voters against the convention 152 were re-chofen; of the voters for it, 169; and it foon afterwards appeared that, by their numbers among the new members, the oppofition had a majority of seventeen, exclusive of double returns. On the Ift of December the new parliament met at Westminster, and unanimously chose the Right Honourable Arthur Onflow, Efq; for their fpeaker; which important office he had discharg ed with great honour and reputation in the two laft preceeding parliaments. On the 4th his ma jesty jesty came to the house of peers, and, having fig CHAP. nified his approbation of the fpeaker of the house I, of commons, opened the feffions with a fpeech, importing, "That it was a great fatisfaction to 1741. "him to meet his parliament at a time, when, by "by means of the new elections, he might have "an opportunity of knowing the fenfe and dif "pofition of his people in general from their "reprefentatives, chofen, during a feafon which "had been attended with great variety of inci "dents of the highest confequence and expecta❝tion, and during the courfe of the Spanish war "a war, in itself juft, and neceffarily entered into "by the repeated advice of both houses of par"liament, and particularly recommended to " him to be carried on in America; which had ' been his principal care. His majefty remark"ed upon the impending danger that threaten"ed Europe, and more immediately fuch parts "of the continent, as fhould refift the formida "ble powers which were confederated for the sub"verfion, or reduction, of the house of Austria ; "and that if other powers, who were under the "like engagements with his majesty, had an "fwered the juft expectations they had fo fo lemnly given, the fupport of the common "caufe had been attended with lefs difficulty. "He informed them, that he had, purfuant to "the advice of his parliament, ever fince the "death of the late emperor, exerted himself in "the fupport of the house of Austria: that he "had endeavoured, by the most proper and "early applications, to induce other powers, "that were equally engaged with his majesty, "and united by common intereft, to concert "fuch measures, as fo important and critical a conjuncture required; and where an accomVOL. I. " moda Xx |