MADRAS TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.

The naval transactions of this year reflected very little honour on the British nation. Commodore Peyton, who commanded six ships of war in the East Indies, shamefully declined a decisive engagement with a French squadron of inferior force; and abandoned the important settlement of Madras on the coast of Coromandel, which was taken without opposition in the month of September by the French commodore, de la Bourdonnais. Fort St. David, and the other British factories in India, would probably have shared the same fate, had not the enemy’s naval force in that country been shattered and partly destroyed by a terrible tempest. No event of consequence happened in America, though it was a scene that seemed to promise the greatest success to the arms of England. The reduction of Cape Breton had encouraged the ministry to project the conquest of Quebec, the capital of Canada, situated upon the river St. Lawrence. Commissions were sent to the governors of the British colonies in North America, empowering them to raise companies to join the armament from England; and eight thousand troops were actually raised in consequence of these directions; while a powerful squadron and transports, having six regiments on board, were prepared at Portsmouth for this expedition. But their departure was postponed by unaccountable delays, until the season was judged too far advanced to risk the great ships on the boisterous coast of North America. That the armament, however, might not be wholly useless to the nation, it was employed in making a descent upon the coast of Bretagne, on the supposition that Port L’Orient, the repository of all the stores and ships belonging to the French East India company, might be surprised; or, that this invasion would alarm the enemy, and, by making a diversion, facilitate the operations of the Austrian general in Provence.

The naval force intended for this service consisted of sixteen great ships, and eight frigates, besides bomb-ketches and store ships, commanded by Richard Lestock, appointed admiral of the blue division. Six battalions of land troops, with a detachment of matrosses and bombardiers, were embarked in thirty transports, under the conduct of lieutenant-general Sinclair; and the whole fleet set sail from Plymouth on the fourteenth day of September. On the twentieth the troops were landed in Quimperlay-bay, at the distance of ten miles from Port L’Orient. The militia, reinforced by some detachments from different regiments, were assembled to the number of two thousand, and seemed resolved to oppose the disembarkation; but seeing the British troops determined to land at all events, they thought proper to retire. Next day general Sinclair advanced into the country, skirmishing with the enemy in his route; and arriving at the village of Plemure, within half a league from Port L’Orient, summoned that place to surrender. He was visited by a deputation from the town, which offered to admit the British forces, on condition that they should be restrained from pillaging the inhabitants, and touching the magazines; and that they should pay a just price for their provisions. These terms being rejected, the inhabitants prepared for a vigorous defence; and the English general resolved to besiege the place in form, though he had neither time, artillery, nor forces sufficient for such an enterprise. This strange resolution was owing to the declaration of the engineers, who promised to lay the place in ashes in the space of four-and-twenty hours. All his cannon amounted to no more than a few field-pieces; and he was obliged to wait for two iron guns, which the sailors dragged up from the shipping. Had he given the assault on the first night after his arrival, when the town was filled with terror and confusion, and destitute of regular troops, in all probability it would have been easily taken by scalade; but the reduction of it was rendered impracticable by his delay. The ramparts were mounted with cannon from the ships in the harbour; new works were raised with great industry; the garrison was reinforced by several bodies of regular troops; and great numbers were assembling from all parts; so that the British forces were in danger of being surrounded in an enemy’s country. Notwithstanding these discouragements, they opened a small battery against the town, which was set on fire in several places by their bombs and red-hot bullets; they likewise repulsed part of the garrison which had made a sally to destroy their works; but their cannon producing no effect upon the fortifications, the fire from the town daily increasing, the engineers owning they could not perform their promise, and admiral Lestock declaring, in repeated messages, that he could no longer expose the ships on an open coast at such a season of the year, general Sinclair abandoned the siege. Having caused the two iron pieces of cannon and the mortars to be spiked, he retreated in good order to the sea-side, where his troops were re-embarked, having sustained very inconsiderable damage since their first landing. He expected reinforcements from England, and was resolved to wait a little longer for their arrival, in hopes of being able to annoy the enemy more effectually. In the beginning of October, the fleet sailed to Quiberon-bay, where they destroyed the Ardent, a French ship of war of sixty-four guns; and a detachment of the forces being landed, took possession of a fort in the peninsula; while the little islands of Houat and Hey die were reduced by the sailors. In this situation the admiral and general continued till the seventeenth day of the month, when the forts being dismantled, and the troops re-embarked, the fleet sailed from the French coast; the admiral returned to England, and the transports with the soldiers proceeded to Ireland, where they arrived in safety.