July 5. Earl of Shelburne appointed firft Lord of the Treasury, p. 391. 1. Savanna in Georgia evacuated by the British, p. 541. 24. Nine thousand houfes deftroyed by fire at Conftantinople, p. 488.-Aug. 22. A fecond fire, much more dreadful than the first, p. 489. The combined fleets of France and Spain appear in the English Channel, p. 385. Aug 23. Cape-River Fort on the coaft of Honduras taken by storm, p. 660. 24 David Tyrie executed at Portsmouth for conveying intelligence to the French, p. 396. 29. The Royal George, of 100 guns, overfet at Portmouth, when Adm. Kempenfelt, with 400 feamen and officers, and 200 women, were drowned, p. 496. 30. Spanish fort on Black River in Honduras Bay taken by the British, p. 660. During this month the British settlements in Hudson's Bay were deftroyed by the French, p. 659. Sept. 6. Sir James Lowther offers his Majefty a ship of 74 guns, to be built and completely equipped at his own expence, which is accepted of, p. 497. 8. Several Spanish batteries before Gibraltar destroyed by the fire from the garrison, p. 545. 13. The Spaniards and French defeated in their grand attack upon Gibraltar, with the Jofs of a great ammber of men, and ten battering ships, destroyed by red-hot balls fired from the garrifon, p. 601. During this month a Jamaica homeward bound fleet was difperfed by a hurricane off the Banks of Newfoundland, when the Ramillies of 74 guns, and several merchantmen, foundered, p.547. 703. The Centaur of 74 guns, one of Adm. Rodney's prizes, foundered on her paffage from Jamaica to Britain, p. 709. 08. 6. The Hector of 74 guns, one of Adm. Rodney's prizes, foundered near Halifax, 7.707 10. The combined fleet damaged by a storm in Algefiras bay, and the St Miguel, a Spanish 74 gun fhip drove on shore under the guns of Gibraltar, and taken poffeffion of by the garrison, p. 604. 11. Lord Howe arrived off Gibraltar, with a reinforcement of troops, and a great quantity of ammunition, provifions, &c. between this and the 19th, and on the 20th had a partial action off Cape Spartell with the combined fleet, p. 604, S. Nov. 7. Capt. Afgill fet at liberty by order of Congress, p. 697. 23. Mr Secretary Townshend's letter on the approach of a peace, to prevent gambling in the funds, p. 611. 30. Provifional articles of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America figned, p. 612. Dec. 3. Mr Secretary Townshend's letter to the Lord Justice-Clerk, with the account of the provifional articles with America being figned, p. 612. P. col. lin. 447. I. 50. ERRAT A. for 25. read August 30, that being the day on which Lord Au chinleck died. 503. I. 20. for John Earl of Clanricarde, read Henry Earl of Clanricarde, 504. 2. 23. for Edinburgh, Sept. 6. read, Edinburgh, Oct. 6. 615. 2. 2. 5.& 6. from the bottom, for Hell-houfe, read Athby-Hall. 684. I. 23. for [ read [p. 607.] referring to the vote of the proprietors which refcinds the refolution of the directors for recalling Gov. Haftings. To the BINDER. UT off the blue Covers; and place this quarter of a fheet, containing the General Title-page, and Chronological Series of Events, before the Maga zine for January. ANNUAL REGISTER 1780. Retrospective || Memoirs of the late Lord HAWKE 7. view of affairs in 1779. State of the belligerent powers in Germany 1. Pacific views of the Empiefs Queen, feconded by Ruffia and France 3. Treaty of peace concluded 4. Differences between Ruffia and the Porte ib. New convention con cluded 7. PARLIAMENT. Mr Fox's motion for an inquiry into the conduct of the First Lord of the Admiralty 9. Speeches of Capt. J. Luttrell and Lord Mulgrave 11. Papers moved for 12. Inquiry poftponed ib. entered upon ib. Speeches, of Mr Fox 12. Lord Mulgrave 16. Lord Howe 19. Mr Webb 20. Divifion ib. Subftance of ADMIRALTY-PAPERS laid before the Houfe of Commons 20. ANECDOTE, from a Philadelphia newspaper AMERICA. Letter to Lord Stirling, giving an account of an expedition in Canada 27. Troops fent to the fouthern colonies 28. Maj. Craig leaves Wilmington ib. Proclamation by Gen. Leslie ib. Counter proclamations are iffued by the American generals ib. Accounts of the taking of St Eustatius 29. Convoy arrives at Barbadoes 31. State of French fleet at Martinico 32. Adm. Hood arrives in the Weft Indies from America ib Fabricius on the AMERICAN WAR. Letter V. 32. Fictitious penitential LETTER to M. Arnaud 34. Anfwer 35. POETRY. Prologue and Epilogue to the 45. HISTORICAL AFFAIRS. Foreign 46.50. LISTS. Marriages, Births, &c. 54. 56. T ANNUAL REGISTER for 1780. [Published in the end of January 1782 ] HISTORY. Retrospective view of affairs in 1779. HE little effect produced by the contention of the greateft leaders, and of the greatest armies in the world, during the campaign of 1778, in Bohemia, if not entirely fufficient to produce an actual defire of peace on both fides, could not, however, fail to induce a kind of languor and wearifomenefs, and in fome confi. derable degree to wear away that quick relish, and keen appetite for war, which great and untried force and talents, acting under the fanguine hopes of yet unfoiled VOL. XLIV. ambition, are fo eminently calculated to excite. We have heretofore fhewn, that this was not fo much a war of choice, as of prudence, forefight, and political neceffity, on the fide of the King of Pruffia. He made no claims; he had no imme. diate object of enlarging his dominions in view; nor if he had, was the present state of public affairs in any degree favourable to fuch a defign. Neither his time of life, his great experience in war, nor the full knowledge he had of the power and ability of his adverfary, were at all calculated to excite a spirit of enterprise. On the contrary, the defire of fettling, improving, and confolidating with his ancient people and dominions, the new fubjects and acquifitions he had gained A on the fide of Poland, together with that ftill stronger wish, of tranfmitting a peaceable poffeffion, and undiminished force, to his fucceffor, were objects which tended powerfully to difpofe him to the prefervation, fo far as it could be properly and wifely done, of the public tranquillity. But no motives, however cogent, could juftify to him, in a political view, the admitting of any confiderable addition of ftrength and dominion to the power of the houfe of Auftria; more efpecially, when this addition was to eftablish a precedent of innovation and difmemberment, which might in time be equally extended to all the other ftates that compofe the Germanic body. Upon the whole, it would almoft feem, as if fortune, who had fo often wonderfully befriended that hero, and whofe apparent defertions of him in cafes of great danger, (which were no lefs confpicuous than her favours), always tended ultimately to the increase of his fame, was now anxious to affix a new ftamp to the renown of her old favourite; and of clofing his great military actions by a war, in which he was to appear, rather as the generous protector of the rights and liberties of the Germanic body at large, than as acting at all under the influence of any partial policy. ly baffled all the efforts made by the King of Pruffia for gaining his favourite point of a general action, and defeated his views of obtaining any fure hold in the country, tended more remotely to that effect. Such a view of the circumstances of the campaign, could afford no great encouragement to an obftinate perseverance in the contest. A defenfive war, however ably conducted, or however abounding with negative fuccefs, could by no means, whether in point of honour or effect, answer the purposes for which it was undertaken; and the prospects of changing its nature were confined indeed. On the other fide, the paft compaign had afforded a full conviction to the Emperor (à prince prepared for war beyond almost any other, by the fine ftate of his armies, and the refources of his own indefatigable and refolute spirit) of the immenfe difficulty of making any fucceffful impreffion upon fuch an adversary as the King of Pruffia. With fo vaft a force, and affifted by fuch confummate commanders, he could only act upon the defenfive; and could not prevent his own dominions from being rendered the theatre, and being confequently fubjected to all the calamities of war. It was true indeed, and no fmall matter of boaft in fuch a conteft, that he had suffered neither defeat nor difgrace; that the enemy had been obliged to abandon Bohemia, notwithstanding their utmost endeavours to establish a secure footing there during the winter; and likewife, that the loffes on both fides were pretty equally balanced. But then it was obvious, that the feafon was the immediate caufe which compelled the enemy to retreat from Bohemia; however, the good difpofitions made by the Emperor, which equal However numerous or cogent the caufes and motives we have affigned, or others of a fimilar nature, might have been on either fide, for the difcontinuance of an unprofitable war, they would have been found unable to fubdue the strong paffions by which they were oppofed, if another, of greater power than the whole taken together, had not, happily for Germany, and perhaps for no small part of the rest of Europe, fupervened in reftoring the public tranquillity. The late illuftrious Maria Therefa, along with her other eminent virtues and great qualities, poffeffed at all times, however counteracted by the operation of a high and powerful ambition, a mind ftrongly impreffed with an awful fenfe of religion. This difpofition, which naturally increafed with years, was farther ftrengthened by the melancholy arifing from the early lofs of a husband whom fhe tenderly loved; and was latterly finally confirmed, by the happy fettlement of her numerous offspring, which freeing the mind from care and folicitude, tended equally to wean it from the affairs of the world, The event of the late ftruggle with the King of Pruffia, notwithstanding the immenfe affiftance the then received, and which fhe could not hope now to receive, must have added great force to thefe motives. She could not wish to end her life in the midst of such a war. It was aċcordingly much against the inclination of that great Princess, that the present war was undertaken; and she is faid to have fubmitted with the greateft reluctance, to the opinion of her council, and the defire of the Emperor, on that point. Foralthough that Prince could only derive his means of action through the power of his mother; yet it would have been a matter of exceeding difficulty to her, directly to thwart the opinion and inclina tions of a fon, who was in the highest degree deservedly dear to her, who was to be her fole and immediate fucceffor, and who scarcely stood higher in her affection than in her efteem. It was probably this reluctance to the war, on the fide of the Emprefs-Queen, which produced those various appearances of Auc tuation in the councils, or of irresolution and indecifion in the conduct, of the court of Vienna, of which we have formerly taken notice. [vol. 42.] The ineffectiveness of the campaign, the equal fortune of the war, and the ceffation of action occafioned by the winter, ferved, all together, to produce a state of temper and difpofition, which was far more favourable to the pacific views and wishes of the Emprefs, than that which had hitherto prevailed. She perceived, and feized the opportunity; and immediately applying her powerful influence to remove the obftacles which stood in the way of an accommodation on the one fide, had foon the fatisfaction of difcovering that her views were well feconded, by the temperate difpofition which prevailed on the other. It is, however, to be observed, that the mediation of the court of Verfailles, and the powerful interposition of the court of Peterburg, contributed effentially to further the work of peace. France was bound, by the treaty of 1756, to affift the court of Vienna with a confiderable body of forces, in case of a war in Germany; and the had been called upon early in the present conteft to fulfil that engagement. The court of Verfailles was likewife difpofed to wish well to the houfe of Auftria from private motives; as well as to cultivate and cement the new friendship and alliance from public. But France being likewife a guarantee of the treaty of Weftphalia, her old engagements militated totally with her new in the prefent inftance; the being thereby bound to refift all fuch infractions and invafions of the rights of the Germanic body, as those which fhe was now called upon by the court of Vienna to fupport. She must therefore, in any fituation in which he was not difpofed to become an abfolute party in the conteft, wish to be relieved from this dilemma. But her war with England, and her views with respect to America, operated more forcibly upon her conduct on this occafion than any German treaties or connections. In the contemplation and pursuit of these grand and capital objects, the neceffity of keeping her force whole, her attention undivided, and of reftoring peace upon the continent, were all equally obvious, and were all mutually dependent. No wisdom could forefee, or venture to prefcribe, what unexpected connections and alliances might spring up, and what new collifions of interefts might take place, under a further progrefs of the war. France could not recollect the ruin brought upon her in the late war, with- ́ out thuddering at the thoughts of Germany. It is not then to be wondered, that he was equally fincere and zealous in her endeavours to restore tranquillity on the continent. The court of Petersburg had from the beginning fhewn and expreffed the strongeft difapprobation of the conduct, and paid no favourable attention to the claims, of that of Vienna; and had early avowed a full intention of effectually fupporting the rights of the Germanic body; at the fame time that preparations were actually made for the march of a large body of Ruffian troops. Her powerful interpofition, through the medium of her minifter Prince Repnin, had no small effect in facilitating the negotiations for peace. Under fuch circumstances, and the offices of fuch mediators, little doubt was to be entertained of the event. Whether it proceeded from a view of giving weight to their claims in the expected treaty, or from any jealousy in point of arms or honour, which might have lain behind from the preceding compaign, however it was, the Auftrians attacked with extraordinary vigour, and with no small degree of fuccefs, feveral of the Pruffian pofts on the fide of Silefia and the county of Glatz, foon after the commencement of the year. The liveliness of thefe infults did not induce the King to any eagerness of retaliation. Points of honour of that nature weighed but little with him. He forefaw that an accommodation would take place; and be knew that no advantages which could now be gained would tell in the account upon that fettlement; whilft a number of brave men would be gly loft without object or equivalent. An armistice on all fides was, however, published on the 10th of March 1779, before the feafon could have admitted the doing of any thing effential, if fuch had even been the intention. A 2 The The congrefs which was to preferve Germany from the most alarming and dangerous war to which it could have been exposed, was held at Tefchen in Auftrian Silefia, a town and district which the Emperor had generously confented to conftitute into a duchy, under the title of Saxe-Tefchen, in favour of Prince Albert of Saxony, upon his marriage with an Arch-duchefs in 1765. At that place, the garrifon being previously withdrawn, the Imperial and Pruffian minifters, with those of all the princes engaged or interested in the prefent conteft, as well as of the two mediating powers, were affembled immediately after the publication of the armiftice. And fo happy were the difpofi. tions which now prevailed among the contending parties, and fo efficacious the endeavours of the mediators, that the peace was finally concluded on the 13th of May. ther advantage in lieu of its claims, tha the promise of some new privilege with re fpect to appeals. Upon the whole, few treaties of peace have been conducted upon more equítable principles than those which seem to have prevailed in the prefent. The territory acquired by the house of Auftria is, not inconfiderable, being about feventy English miles in length, and something from about half to a third of that extent in breadth. This acquifition lies between the Danube, the river Inu; the Saltza, and the borders of Auftria, including the towns of Scharding, Ried, Altheim, Braunau, Burghausen, Fryburg, and fome others; forming, all together, a strong barrier, and a fixed unequivocal boundary, the limits of which are decifively marked out by those great rivers, between that arch-duchy and the prefent dominions of Bavaria. This acceflion of territory the court of Vienna feems, however, to have purchased at fomething about a fair price, partly to be paid in money, and partly by a renunciation of old, vexatious, and otherwise inextinguishable claims, which, however in general unproductive, would for ever have kept open a fource of litigation," trouble, mischief, and war, To which may be added, that the establishment of a fixed and permanent barrier and boun- ' dary between the two states, seems to be a measure fraught with greater advantage to the Elector of Bavaria, as the weaker prince, than to the Arch-duke of Auftria, who is fo abundantly his fuperior in ftrength. It may likewise be farther obferved, that several parts of the ceded territory were what may be called debateable land; the titles being difputed, oppofite claims laid, and they having been heretofore, at different times, objects of great conteft. By this treaty, the late convention between the court of Vienna and the Elector Palatine was totally annulled, and the former reftored all the places and districts which had been feized in Bavaria, excepting only the territory appertaining to the regency of Burghaufen, which was ceded to the Houfe of Austria, as an equivalent or indemnification for her clains and pretenfions. That court likewife gave up to the Elector Palatine all the fiefs which had been poffeffed by the late Elector of Bavaria; and agreed allo to pay to the court of Saxony, as an indemnification for the allodial eftates, and other claims on that fide, the fum of fix millions of florins, (amounting to fomething near 600,000 1. Sterling), to be paid in the courfe of twelve years, without intereft, by ftipulated half-yearly payments. Some ceffions were likewife made: by the Elector, in favour of the houfe of Saxony, and fome equivalent fatisfaction promifed by the Emperor to the Duke of Deux Ponts, on his fucceffion to the double electorate. All former treaties between the court of Vienna and the King of Pruffia were renewed and confirmed; and the right of the King to fucceed to the margraviates in the remote younger branches of his own family, upon the failure of iffue in the immediate poffeffors, (a right which had been only called in question through the vexation of the late conteft), was now fully acknowledged and established. The ducal houfe of Mecklenburg was put off without any o Such was the early and happy termination of the German. war; a war of the greatest expectation, not more from the great power than from the great abilities of the principal parties. Many circumftances attending the late war and peace between Ruffia and the Porte, could not fail to fow the feeds of future difcontent, jealousy, ill-will, and litigation, between the parties. Extraordinary fuccefs and triumph on the one fide, with an equal degree of lofs and difgrace on the other, are little calcula ted to promote any intercourse of friendfhip, or cordiality of fentiment, among men; |