ced with a body of 25,000 men, had attacked and forced Reichenberg, where General Count Konigsegg was pofted with 10,000 Auftrians. The action was very obftinate, and lasted near fix hours; fo that it is thought the Pruffians must have loft a great number of men. The lofs on the fide of the Auftrians is com. puted at 2000, killed and wounded. General Count Porporati, and Count Hohenfeldt, of the regiment of Lichtenstein, are killed. Prince Charles Lichtenstein is faid to be dangerously wounded. Gen. Konigsegg retired in good order with the remains of his troops to a poft in the neighbourhood."

Marshal Schwerin began his march on the 18th of April, and entered Bohemia at five different places in fo many columns. His defign was fo well concealed, that the Auftrians had not the leaft mistrust of any thing; and his troops were not difcovered till paft the frontiers. The dangerous defile of Gulden Oelfe, which the Pruffians had never before paffed without the lofs of fome hundreds killed and wounded, was immediately filled with Auftrian pandours to difpute the paffage; but they were no fooner difcovered, than two battalions of dragoons attacked them with their bayonets fixed, and routed them. At Trautenau, two Auftrian generals, with the Princes Xavier and Charles of Saxony, narrowly escaped falling into his hands. A confiderable magazine was feized at Jung Buntzlau, confifting of 40,000 bushels of oats, and above 2000 barrels of meal. A detachment of his army, under the command of Lt-Gen. Winterfeld, having fallen in with the rearguard of that corps which the Prince of Bevern beat near Reichenberg, made many prifoners, and took the baggage of the Generals Pretlack and Lafci, befides the ammunition-waggons and tents belonging to three regiments.

His Pruffian Majefty fent inftructions to all his generals to advance with their different corps into the heart of the kingdom, in order, by the celerity of their march, to confound the difpofitions of his enemies, and prevent their affembling in bodies. These inftructions were ex

ecuted with great diligence. M. Schwe rin joined the Prince of Bevern almoft without lofs, and they marched on together. In the mean time the King's army moved along the Elbe, and, having paffed the Eger, advanced to Budin, from whence the Auftrians, who had a strong camp there, inftantly retreated, and marched to Walwarn, about half-way to Prague. Before the ift of May the armies under his Majelly and M. Schwerin were fo fituated that they could eafily join; fo that a battle appeared inevitable, unless the Auftrians would abandon Prague, the capital of Bohemia, to be befieged.Accordingly a battle foon enfùed; and on the 19th of May, at night, an exprefs arrived at London, from Col. Yorke, the British minifter at the Hague, with the following account of it, as received from Berlin by M. de Hellen, the Pruffian minister at the Hague, which was next day published in a London gazette extraordinary, viz.

"Berlin, May 10. 1757. You have been already apprifed of the rapid progrefs of the King's arms in Bohemia; and I have now the pleasure to inform you of the glorious event with which it has pleased Heaven to crown those first fucceffes in a complete victory obtained by his Majefty near Prague, on the 6th inftant, over the whole combined force of the houfe of Auftria.

"The King having been informed, that Marshal Brown had been reinforced by the army of Moravia, by the remains of the corps which was beat by the Prince of Bevern, and by feveral regiments of the garrison of Prague; and feemed refolved to maintain the poft he had taken on the other fide of the Moldau; his Majefty paffed that river with a small part of his own army, and being joined by that under the command of Marshal Schwerin, determined to attack the enemy, though much fuperior in number of troops, and posted befides in a camp almoft inacceffible, from every advantage of fituation. All thefe obftacles could not check the ardour of the Pruffian officers and men, who vied with each other in paffing defiles, in croffing marfhes,

feizing

feizing the rifing grounds, and clearing ditches, till at length, after a very long and obftinate engagement, and many fignal examples of valour, the enemy was forced to abandon the field of battle, leaving behind them the greateft part of their artillery, all their tents, all their baggage, and, in a word, their whole camp. We have indeed had a very affecting lofs in the person of Marfhal Schwerin, who was unfortunately killed in the beginning of the action; and in the death of feveral others, who have lavished their blood, on this occafion, in the fervice of their country. But, on the other hand, the lofs of the Auftrians has been fo much the greater, not only in the number of their dead and wounded, but alfo in the prodigious number of prifoners which we have taken; infomuch that this battle may be reckoned decifive in every sense, and in all respects. The enemy retired in the greatest confufion, and a part of the left wing fled with the utmost precipita. tion into the city of Prague. The Pruffian troops are still in pursuit of the remains of their army; and we have reafon to hope, that this action will be no lefs glorious in its confequences, than it was in itself.

"Such are the first circumstances of this memorable day, which the house of Auftria will long remember, and which will ever be a fignal monument of the intrepidity of the Pruffian troops; and, above all, of the protection with which Heaven continues to blefs the juftice of his Majefty's caufe.

"P. S. of the fame date. We this moment learn further, that the number of cannon taken from the enemy amounts already to 250 pieces; a memorable circumftance, which never happened in any of the former battles gained by his Majefty. The number of prisoners amounts already to 6 or 7000 men, befides thofe that have been made fince, and are ftill making; the whole of the King's army that was engaged being in purfuit of the enemy; who, by the accounts of all the prifoners and deferters, are in the utmoft confternation, and in a defolation not to be defcribed, being in want of every

thing, and scarce having wherewithal to cover themselves, from the total lofs of their equipages. In fhort, all the circumftances confpire in making this the completest and most decifive victory that has happened for many years. According to the report of one of the general officers of the King's army, our lofs is not fo confiderable by far as was at first imagined; and we have the fatisfaction to know with certainty, that the King, and the princes his brothers, are well."

The following has been given as an account of the fame battle, published at Berlin.

"On the 2d of May our vanguard advanced to Weiffenberg, where we faw the enemy retiring to Prague. On the 3d and 4th we took poffeffion of the eminences and vineyards round the town, without meeting with any oppofition. On the 5th a detachment advanced to Seltz, and threw bridges over the Moldau. On the 6th in the morning, the King, at the head of this detachment, joined M. Schwerin's army; and a refolution was taken to attack the enemy that day.

"M. Brown's army was pofted with its left on the hill of Zifka, and its right on an eminence near Sterboholi. It was judged expedient to go round his army; and with that view we filed off to the left by Potfchernitz. M. Brown, affoon as he obferved this motion, filed off to the right, to avoid being flanked. In the mean time we proceeded beyond Bifcowitz, through defiles and moraffes; which forced our foot to feparate; and making their attack affoon as they were formed, with too much precipitation, they were at firft repulfed; and FieldMarfhal Schwerin, the greatest general of the age, was fhot dead, holding in his hand the colours of his regiment, which he had taken up. Our foot, having rallied, fell again upon the right wing of the enemy, and broke it.

"Our cavalry on the left, after three charges, obliged the Auftrian cavalry, on the right of the enemy's army, to fly. Our centre routed the infantry, and pushed quite through the enemy's camp. The left of the Pruffian army then

marched

marched directly towards Michelly, where it was joined by the cavalry, and cut off the Auftrian army, whofe right was running away towards Safszawa. Our troops on the right immediately attacked the left of Gen. Brown, and fucceffively feized on three batteries on different eminences. The cavalry which we had on the right did not engage.

"Prince Henry of Pruffia, and the Duke of Bevern, who performed wonders, made themselves mafters of two batteries.

"Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick having taken the left of the Auftrians in flank, while the King, with his left and a body of cavalry, had gained the Moldau, the Austrian infantry was obliged to throw themselves into Prague, from whence they intended to retire by Konigfall but the corps under M. Keith ftopped their paffage; fo that they are all blocked up there, with the cavalry which retreated with them.

"The number of prifoners we have made furpaffes 4000. We have taken fixty cannon and ten ftandards, and have thirty of the enemy's officers among our prisoners.

"Our lofs amounts to 2500 killed, and the number of our wounded to about 3000. Gen. d'Amftel, the Prince of Holftein-beck, Col. Goltze, Col. Manftein, Lt-Col. Rohe, are killed. The Generals Winterfeld, de la Mothe, Fouque, Hautcharmoy, Blankenfee, and Plettenberg, wounded.

"Col. Putkammer, fent in purfuit of the enemy on the fide of Benifchau, advifes that the Auftrians were entirely broke and difperfed; that they were flying towards Budweis, and that in his purfuit he made a great number of prifoners."

The two following letters look the likeft to accounts of this action, and its confequences, on the Austrian fide, of any thing we have yet seen.

Egra, May 12. In the battle fought the 6th of this month, where Duke Charles of Lorrain and M. Brown gave fignal proofs of their courage and conduct, our lofs has been very confiderable. But it is very likely that the enemy's lofs is much greater; for we are

confidently told they had 30,000 men killed, wounded, &c. M. Schwerin

and several other Pruffian generals are among the flain. Their regiments of Itzeplitz, Darmstadt, and two other, were thofe that fuffered moft, and were obliged to commit their standards to the cuftody of other regiments. On our fide, it is faid, Gen. Feuerstein is killed, and that M. Brown, and the Generals Luchefi and Lafci, are wounded. Gen. Nadafti is come with 15,000 fresh troops, and with the garrisons of Brinn and Ölmutz; we wait impatiently for an account of what he may have done. It is faid that the regiment of Los Rios, and the others from the Netherlands, are those that suffered moft; and that it is their baggage, and not the baggage of the whole army, that has fallen into the enemy's hands. It is added, that the Pruffians were twice repulfed with great lofs on their part; and that our greatest difadvantage in the battle proceeded from the wind, which blew the powder into the eyes of our troops. Hitherto there is no fuch thing as the furrender or bombardment of Prague; on the contrary, we perceive that the Auftrian army is making difpofitions in the neighbourhood of that city, which plainly give the lie to the falfe accounts of that army's having been routed. Moreover, we know that Duke Charles of Lorrain is at Prague, and that the enemy have taken Pilfen, and fet fire to Rokitzan."

"Vienna, May 11. The account of our defeat on the 6th inftant is confirmed, but no particulars are yet arrived. The weight of the battle fell on our right wing; who, after a very vigorous refiftance, were at laft driven off the field of battle; and the remains of them, which are faid to amount to 10 or 12,000 men, are now affembling at Benischau, under Marthal Pretlack, general of horfe.

The left wing, where Prince Charles was in perfon, is now with his Royal Highness in Prague. Marfhal Daun with his army is at Boemifchbrod, but the Pruffians are fo fpread over the country, that there is no direct communication between Prague and Boemifchbrod."

It is generally thought, that we have not yet got an exact relation of the affair from either fide. Letters from Francfort intimate, that the King of Pruffia, for certain political reafons, chufes at present rather to diminish than magnify the advantage he has gained. Some in the Auftrian intereft have faid, that they had not above 55,000 men at the battle. If fo, where were all the other troops of which they told us their feveral great armies were to confift before the opening of the campaign? or what is become of them fince the action? They do not acquaint us where they now have as many forces as they formerly had above 55,000, though not a man of thefe had cfcaped from the field and its neighbourhood. We have indeed been told, that M. Daun picked up the remains of the right wing, and joined them to about 15,000 men formerly under his command. The whole, however, had not made a great army; for letters even from Vienna acknowledge, that the King of Pruffia having detached only about 30,000 men to offer him battle at Boemifchbrod, he declined it, and retreated to a greater diftance. Some on the Auftrian fide have afferted, that a great many took the opportunity of the battle to defert from the Pruffians to them. It is not probable that very many would take that part, after the action had continued for any confiderable time. On the other hand it has been faid of the Pruffian army, that, notwithstanding its great lofs, it was as ftrong within a few days after as before the battle, by the numbers of Auftrians whom hunger, thirst, and other motives, had prompted to inlift into it. The numbers of Auftrians who threw themselves into Prague after their route have been very differently repre

fented Letters from Vienna call them

between 30 and 40,000, and advices from Francfort raife them to 48,000. With thofe troops almost all the general officers and perfons of diftinction entered that city, and in particular Prince Charles of Lorrain, Marthal Count Brown, the King of Poland's two fons,

Prince Louis of Wurtemberg, the Prince of Modena, the Dukes of Aremberg and Urfel, the Prince of Ligne, and the Marquis of Deynfe. Within a few days after the battle Prague was completely invefted, his Pruffian Majesty commanded on one fide of the river which runs through it, and Marshal Keith on the other. Intrenchments had been thrown up on all the avenues leading to the city, and parties were kept con tinually patrolling about on all fides. The heavy artillery of the Pruffians arrived at that place on the 11th of May, and it was expected their batteries would be ready to play by the 22d and 23d. They write from Vienna, that there is in the city a great quantity of ammunition, flour, wine, beer, butchers meat, and especially falt provifions, fufficient for feveral months. The truth as to that will probably appear ere long. In the mean time almost all the other magazines of provisions and ammunition, which the Auftrians had collected during. the winter, at a vaft expence, serve now for the fubfiftence and defence of thofe very troops against whom they were intended to be employed. We are in formed, that a body of Pruffian huffars had marched into the Upper Palatinate, and were levying contributions in the country belonging to the Elector Palatine.

We hear that the 6000 men with whom the Duke of Wurtemberg was to furnish the Emprefs-Queen, have abfolutely refufed to ferve against the King of Pruffia.

We fhall now give fome account of what has been paffing in the neighbourhood of the Lower Rhine.Before his Britannic Majefty, as Elector of Hanover, would let his troops take the field, he published the following declaration, to fet forth his motives.

effectual, he made it his study to hinder the war from spreading; and the peace of his German dominions in particular, and that of the empire in general, from being involved in difturbances in the motives whereof they had no concern.

For these reasons, and in confideration of the great probability, in the autumn of 1755, that the crown of France, in refentment of thofe differences, meditated an attack upon the King's German dominions, his Majefty, in the beginning of the following year, concluded a treaty with the King of Pruffia, the intention whereof was to compel that crown to drop its defigns, which it was natural to expect would be the confequence. And another war having, contrary to his Majesty's expectation, broke out foon after in the heart of Germany, his Majefty has carefully avoided taking any part in it.

It is impoffible for the impartial world, after confidering his Britannic Majesty's conduct on this occafion, which manifeftly tended only to the aforefaid ends, not to see the injuftice of the motives and pretexts which the court of France would alledge to justify their invafion of the electoral territories of Brunswick, which are under the protection of the empire.

If they build their pretext on the war that has broke out between England and France, it is evident that this war, both in its rife and object, are entirely foreign to his Majefty, as Elector, and to his German territories.

As to the fecond war, namely, that which hath been lighted up in Germany, the crown of France, as guarantee of the peace of Weftphalia, hath not, on one hand, the leaft pretext to act against the aforesaid states, whilft they cannot convict his Majesty of any contravention of the faid peace; and, on the other hand, France cannot, as the ally and auxiliary of the Emprefs Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, act against a member of the empire, who is not at war, nor hath the leaft difference with her Imperial and Royal Majefty.

Whereas, nevertheless, a numerous French army hath entered the empire VOL. XIX.

by Weftphalia, which, after putting a garrifon in the imperial city of Cologne, is advancing towards the electoral dominions of Brunswick, hath already penetrated into the bishoprick of Munfter, and there exacted contributions; by which their views and defigns against the faid electoral dominions of Brunfwick are clearly manifefted his Britannic Majefty, as Elector of BrunswickLunenburg, fees himself unwillingly reduced to the indifpenfable neceffity of affembling an army, and ordering it to march, in order to divert, with the affiftance of the Moft High, all violence, injuftice, and ufurpation, from his own dominions, and those of his neighbours. In order to prevent any perfons from being deceived by a groundless fufpicion, his Majefty would not omit this opportunity of declaring, in the face of the whole empire, "That he is very far from defigning to act offenfively againft any of his co-eftates in the empire, or even against the crown of France: and that by the armament and march of his forces, to which step he has been forced, he seeks only to divert, as has been faid, with the divine bleffing, all invasion, violence, and hostility; and to do in that event, as a principal member of the empire, what is juft in the fight of God and man, what he owes to the fafety of the country that God hath intrusted to him."

and

He refts affured, that no perfon will mifconftrue or misinterpret the juftice of this felf-defence to which he is forced': in particular, he trufts to the amicable confidence of his co-eftates in the empire, that they will not counteract his views, which are favourable to themfelves, and tend to remove war and its calamities from their frontiers; but that they will rather concur with and promote them: that, knowing that his Majefty's forces will obferve the most rigorous difcipline, they will in return give them proofs of their good-will, particularly by fupplying them, for ready money, with what provifions and forage they may ftand in need of: and, in fine, that they will not furnish to the adverse party the fmalleft thing that may be prejudicial

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