"'As a counterbalance to this advantage, the Count de Lippe caused Valencia d'Alcantara to be attacked, sword in hand, by the British troops; who carried it, after an obstinate resistance. The loss of the British troops, who had the principal share in this affair, is luckily but inconsiderable: and consists in Lieutenant Burk of Colonel Frederick's, one sergeant and three privates killed;two sergeants, one drummer, 18 privates wounded; 10 horses killed and 2 wounded [loss not at all considerable, in a War of such dimensions!]. The British troops behaved upon this occasion with as much generosity as courage; and it deserves admiration, that, in an affair of this kind, the town and the inhabitants suffered very little; which is owing to the good order Brigadier Burgoyne kept up even in the heat of the action. This success would probably have been attended with more, if circumstances, that could not well be expected, had not retarded the march of sixteen Portuguese battalions, and three regiments of cavalry.' [Old Newspapers (in Gentleman's Magazine for 1762, p, 443).]
"Upon which--upon which, in fact, the War had to end. Rainy weather came, deluges of rain; Burgoyne, with or without the sixteen battalions of Portuguese, kept the grip he had. Valencia d'Alcantara and its Magazine a settled business, roads round gone all to mire,--this Third Division, and with it the 42,000 in general, finding they had nothing to live upon, went their ways again." NOTE, The Burgoyne, who begins in this pretty way at Valencia d'Alcantara, is the same who ended so dismally at Saratoga, within twenty years:--perhaps, with other War-Offices, and training himself in something suitabler than Parliamentary Eloquence, he might have become a kind of General, and have ended far otherwise than there?--"Such was the credit account on Carlos's side: By gratuitous assault on Portugal, which had done him no offence; result zero, and pay your expenses. On the English, or PER CONTRA side, again, there were these three items, two of them specifically on Carlos:
FIRST, Martinique captured from the French this Spring (finished 4th February, 1762): [ Gentleman's Magazine
for 1762, p. 127.]--was to have been done in any case, Guadaloupe and it being both on Pitt's books for some time, and only Guadaloupe yet got. SECONDLY, King Carlos, for Family Compact and fruitless attempt at burglary on an unoffending neighbor, Debtor:
1. To Loss of the Havana (6th June-13th August, 1762), [Ib. pp.
408-459, &c.] which might easily have issued in loss of all his West Indies together, and total abolition of the Pope's meridian in that Western Hemisphere; and 2. To Loss of Manilla, with his Philippine Islands (23d September-6th October, 1762), [ Gentleman's Magazine for 1762, xxxiii.
171-177.] which was abolition of it in the Eastern. After which, happily for Carlos, Peace came,--Peace, and no Pitt to be severe upon his Indies and him. Carlos's War of ten months had stood him uncommonly high."All these things the English Public, considerably sullen about the Cabinet-Council event of October 3d, ascribed to the real owner of them. The Public said: "These are, all of them, Pitt's bolts, not yours,--launched, or lying ready for launching, from that Olympian battery which, in the East and in the West, had already smitten down all Lallys and Montcalms; and had force already massed there, rendering your Havanas and Manillas easy for you. For which, indeed, you do not seem to care much; rather seem to be embarrassed with them, in your eagerness for Peace and a lazy life!"--Manilla was a beautiful work; [A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS QF HISMAJESTY'S FORCES IN THE EXPEDITION TO MANILLA ( London Gazette, April 19th, 1763; Gentleman's Magazine, xxxiii. 171 et seq.). Written by Colonel or BrigadiecGeneral Draper (suggester, contriver and performer of the Enterprise; an excellent Indian Officer, of great merit with his pen as well,--Bully JUNIUS'S Correspondent afterwards).] but the Manilla Ransom; a million sterling, half of it in bills,--which the Spaniards, on no pretext at all but the disagreeableness, refused to pay! Havana, though victorious, cost a good many men:
was thought to be but badly managed. "What to do with it?" said Bute, at the Peace: "Give us Florida in lieu of it",--which proved of little benefit to Bute. Enough, enough of Bute and his performances.
Pitt being gone, Friedrich's English Subsidy lags: this time Friedrich concludes it is cut off;--silent on the subject; no words will express one's thoughts on it. Not till April 9th has poor Mitchell the sad errand of announcing formally That such are our pressures, Portuguese War and other, we cannot afford it farther.
Answered by I know not what kind of glance from Friedrich;answered, I find, by words few or none from the forsaken King:
"Good; that too was wanting," thought the proud soul: "Keep your coin, since you so need it; I have still copper, and my sword!"The alloy this Year became as 3 to 1:--what other remedy?
