Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

MR. JENKINSON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

May 13, 1758.

DEAR SIR,-We received yesterday the melancholy account that the Prince' had taken fire at sea, and that the ship, with above half the crew, were burnt; but that Admiral Broderick, who was on board her, and the Captain, were among the saved.

We also received yesterday an account that De la Clue was got back to Toulon, and that they are going to disarm those ships.

We have at present nothing very particular from the Continent, but that the King of Prussia continued still advancing in Moravia. I have, &c., &c.

CHAS. JENKINSON.

COUNTESS TEMPLE TO EARL TEMPLE.

May 13 (1758).

I AM heartily glad to hear you are so well, though I am in low spirits myself, for our poor little friend, Ben Bathurst's son, who I am afraid is no more. Broderick's ship by some accident took fire, and it was with great difficulty he saved himself.

I desired Lady Hester Pitt to get me what information she could, as soon as I heard of this accident, and I have sent you the note she sent me last night. The King has expressed great concern at it; he has been ill

1 The Prince George had about 780 souls on board, of which it was true that more than half were drowned, and the ship burned to the water's edge.

1 The French Admiral.

of a cold and kept his bed, but is better again. I was at Leicester House last Thursday: I met with great civility from the Princess, and she said many kind things of you, which always pleases me best.

I am sorry to hear you have company; as you have so many things to do, and so little time, I believe have spared it.

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

you could

am, your most affectionate little Wife,

A. TEMPLE.

MR. JAMES GRENVILLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

Friday, June 9, 1758.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-Though I have desired Mr. Elliot to write the particulars of the good news which arrived very late last night, I cannot help felicitating you upon the landing of our troops in Cancale Bay.

The troops were detained unluckily two days by a calm between the Islands, and though this must have taken off part of the surprise, and have given notice, yet no troops were got to oppose the landing.

Probably Lord Anson has alarmed the coast towards Brest. The passage of the Rhine is said to have been the finest operation that ever was executed. Cancale Bay is seven miles from St. Maloes.

MR. JAMES GRENVILLE TO MR. GRENVILLE.

(June, 1758).

LAST night the express arrived about 12 o'clock from St. Malo. The troops reimbarked on the 12th without loss.

They found the place stronger fortified than they expected the ground all round very much cut and difficult. Some prisoners gave intelligence of a body of forces not far from them, which as they said might amount to about ten thousand men. Several difficulties and circumstances relative to the securing a retreat prevented, it is said, the army from being able to march and meet them in a collected body; and upon the whole view of things, it was judged right to reimbark, which was executed with great order and safety.

One man only was shot by the enemy, two by our own people for marauding.

This is the amount of the loss on our side. All the enemies' shipping in the harbour are burnt and destroyed, amounting to one hundred vessels of all sorts, among which one 50-gun ship, I forget which, one or two 36-guns, and some privateers. This was performed by the light horse and volunteers, supported by a brigade under the command of General Waldegrave'. The troops are not returned yet.

Friday, 2 o'clock.

MR. JENKINSON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

London, June 13, 1758.

DEAR SIR,-Though we have at present no public news to send you, I cannot help filling a page or two with the account of a very extraordinary trial which happened yesterday, I mean that of Dr. Hensey1. He

1 Younger brother of James, Earl of Waldegrave; he succeeded to the title in 1763, and died in 1784.

2 Florence Hensey, Doctor of Medicine. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but afterwards reprieved, and in a few months pardoned.

was convicted on the clearest evidence which the case would admit of (and which could only be circumstantial) of having carried on a correspondence with the enemy; he himself first applied to France to be employed in this way, and all the wages they gave him was about 100%. a year; there was found among his papers the very instructions the enemy had given him on the nature of his correspondence, several of their letters to him scolding him for not sending good intelligence, and the various directions he was to make use of.

One letter was found that ordered him to write in lemon juice between the lines of an ordinary letter; and even these letters had been discovered at the Post Office by holding them to the fire, and yet after all this the French were so dissatisfied with his correspondence, that they reduced his annuity to 50l. a year, and (they sconced him a guinea for every post-day that they did not hear from him; and yet after all this hard treatment, he says in one of his letters, that he would do them this service, though they paid him nothing, as he did it out of principle and love of the cause. This poor wretch received a good education in Louis XIV.'s College at Paris, and afterwards took a degree at Leyden, and by some of his letters appears to have been a man of sense.

I congratutate you on the unexpected success of our little expedition to Africa, and I hope we shall soon hear of St. Malo's being in our possesion.

I

go
out of town for a few days on Thursday, I will
you with another letter as soon as I come back.
CHAS. JENKINSON.

trouble

I have, &c., &c.

THE REV. MR. COTTON TO MR. GRENVILLE.

From on Board the Princess Amelia,

at Anchor in Gabreuse Bay, June 20, 1758.

SIR,-I might justly be deemed ungrateful if I neglected any opportunity to acquaint you with the various occurrences of a public nature since I sailed from England for Halifax, where I arrived the 8th of May, and by the 28th we were joined by all the troops and ships of war (except the Vanguard), and had the good fortune to meet General Amherst, in the Dublin, going in as we came out of Halifax harbour, who immediately went on board the Admiral's' ship, and proceeded with us, and by the 2nd instant we came to an anchor in this bay, and the day following all the transports (except two or three) came to an anchor, and the necessary disposition for landing the troops was made on the 5th and 6th; but the thick fog and great surf prevented from accomplishing the design; but on the 8th the troops were again in the boats by three o'clock in the morn, and at sunrise our frigates were hauled in nigh the shore to cover the landing, on which the enemy began with throwing shells, and our frigates commenced their

1 Mr. Cotton was at this time Chaplain on board the Princess Amelia: an appointment for which he was probably indebted to Mr. Grenville.

2 Admiral Boscawen, and General Amherst, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty sail, and fourteen thousand men, had appeared before Louisbourg on the second of June, and, by the end of July, made themselves masters of the place. Boscawen's rough courage was fully known before: Amherst was a cool sensible man, whose conduct, now first experienced in command, shone to great advantage, and the activity of spirit in Wolfe, who accompanied him, contributed signally to the reduction of the place.-Walpole's Memoirs of George the Second, vol. iii. p. 134.

« ZurückWeiter »