CHAPTER XIII.

Mr. Pitt and Mr. Legge taken into the Administration.....
Obliged to resign..... Restored to their Employments.....
Coalition of Parties..... Descent on the Coast of France
meditated..... Command of the Fleet given to Sir Edward
Hawke, and of the Land-Forces to Sir John. Mordaunt.....
Fleet sails September 8..... Admiral Knowles sent to take
Aix..... Attack and Surrender of Aix..... A Descent resolved
on..... The Fleet returns to Spithead..... His Majesty
appoints a Board of Inquiry into the Reasons of the Fleet’s
Return..... Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry..... Its
Report..... Sir John Mordaunt tried by a Court-Martial, and
acquitted..... Fleets sent to the East and West Indies.....
Success of the English Privateers..... Riots occasioned by
the Price  of  Corn..... Operations   in America..... Lord
Loudon’s  Conduct  in America..... Fort William-Henry taken
by the French..... Naval Transactions in America.....
Attempt of M. de Kersin on Cape Coast Castle in Africa.....
State of Affairs in the East Indies..... Calcutta
recovered..... The Suba’s Camp forced, and a new Treaty
concluded with him..... Reduction, of Chandernagore.....
Colonel Clive defeats the Suba at Plaissey, who is
afterwards deposed and put to Death..... King of France
assassinated..... Tortures inflicted on the Assassin.....
Changes in the French Ministry..... State of the Confederacy
against the King of Prussia..... Precautions taken by his
Prussian Majesty..... Skirmishes between the Prussians and
Austrians..... Neutrality of the Emperor, and Behaviour of the
Dutch..... The French take Possession of several Towns in
the Low Countries belonging to the King of Prussia.....
Declaration of the Czarina against the King of Prussia.....
Factions in Poland..... Fruitless Endeavours of the English
to restore the Tranquillity of Germany..... King of Prussia
enters Bohemia..... Prince of Bevern defeats the Austrians
at Richenberg..... King of Prussia obtains a complete
Victory over the Austrians near Prague..... Mareschal
Schwerin killed..... Prague invested..... and bombarded.....
Brave defence of the Besieged..... Count Daun takes the Command
of the Austrian Army..... His Character..... King of Prussia
defeated at Kolin..... He raises the Siege of Prague, and
quits Bohemia..... Preparations for the Defence of
Hanover..... The allied Army assembles under the Duke of
Cumberland..... Skirmishes with the French..... Duke of
Cumberland passes the Weser..... The French follow him, and
take Minden and Emden, and lay Hanover under
Contribution..... Battle of Hastenbeck..... The French take
Hamelen..... Duke de Richelieu supersedes Mareschal d’Etrées
in the Command of the French Army..... The French take
Possession of Hanover and Hesse-Cassel..... and reduce
Verden and Bremen..... Duke of Cumberland signs the
Convention of Closter-Seven

1757