ATTACK AND SURRENDER OF AIX.

While the above ships, with the addition of the Royal William, were attending the French ship of war safe into the river Garonne, the remainder of the fleet was beating to windward off the isle of Oleron; and the commander-in-chief publishing orders and regulations which did credit to his judgment, and would have been highly useful, had there ever been occasion to put them in execution. On the twenty-third the van of the fleet, led by captain Howe in the Magnanime, stood towards Aix, a small island situated in the mouth of the river Charente, leading up to Rochefort, the fortifications half finished, and mounted with about thirty cannon and mortars, the garrison composed of six hundred men, and the whole island about five miles in circumference. As the Magnanime approached, the enemy fired briskly upon her; but captain Howe, regardless of their faint endeavours, kept on his course without flinching, dropping his anchors close to the walls, and poured in so incessant a fire as soon silenced their artillery. It was, however, near an hour before the fort struck, when some forces were landed to take possession of so important a conquest, with orders to demolish the fortifications, the care of which was intrusted to vice-admiral Knowles.

Inconsiderable as this success might appear, it greatly elated the troops, and was deemed a happy omen of further advantages; but, instead of embarking the troops that night, as was universally expected, several successive days were spent in councils of war, soundings of the coast, and deliberations whether the king’s express orders were practicable, or to be complied with. Eight days were elapsed since the first appearance of the fleet on the coast, and the alarm was given to the enemy. Sir Edward Hawke, indeed, proposed laying a sixty gun ship against Fouras, and battering that fort, which it was thought would help to secure the landing of the troops, and facilitate the enterprise on Rochefort. This a French pilot on board, Thierry, undertook; but after a ship had been lighted for the purpose, vice-admiral Knowles reported, that a bomb-ketch had run a-ground at above the distance of two miles from the fort; upon which the project of battering or bombarding the fort was abandoned. The admiral likewise proposed to bombard Koch elle; but this overture was over-ruled, for reasons which we need not mention. It was at length determined, in a council of war held on the eighth, to make a descent, and attack the forts leading to and upon the mouth of the river Charente. An order, in consequence of this resolution, was immediately issued for the troops to be ready to embark from the transports in the boats precisely at twelve o’clock at night. Accordingly the boats were prepared and filled with the men at the time appointed, and now they remained beating against each other, and the sides of the ships, for the space of four hours, while the council were determining whether, after all the trouble given, they should land; when at length an order was published for the troops to return to their respective transports, and all thoughts of a descent, to appearance, were wholly abandoned. The succeeding days were employed in blowing up and demolishing the fortifications of Aix; after which, the land officers, in a council of war, took the final resolution of returning to England without any further attempts, fully satisfied they had done all in their power to execute the designs of the ministry, and choosing rather to oppose the frowns of an angry sovereign, the murmurs of an incensed nation, and the contempt of mankind, than fight a handful of dastardly militia. Such was the issue of an expedition that raised the expectations of all Europe, threw the coasts of France into the utmost confusion, and cost the people of England little less than a million of money.