Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
To add to the fame of Frederick, news arrived that Marshal Lewald, with
twenty thousand Prussians, had beaten the great horde of Russians at
Jägerndorf, and driven them out of Prussia, with the single exception
of Memel; that Lewald and Manteuffel had swept the Swedes out of
Pomerania, taking three thousand prisoners; and that Prince Henry of
Prussia and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, to whom Frederick, at the
urgent request of England, had entrusted the command of the Hanoverian
and Hessian troops which Cumberland had abandoned, had, with these
very troops, driven the French from Lüneburg, Zell, and Hanover. These
troops, it is true, were bound by the Convention of Closter-Seven
not to fight again during the war; but the generals pleaded that the
cruelties and rapacity of the French in Hanover were such as set aside
all compacts.
Pitt, though he remained determined against our continuing to send
soldiers to Germany, was so elated at the success of Frederick that,
on the meeting of Parliament, on the 1st of December, he supported
the vote of six hundred and seventy thousand pounds as a subsidy to
Prussia, George having entered into a new convention with Frederick
to defend his Electorate. Pitt, on the same occasion, pronounced a
glowing eulogium on Clive's proceedings in India. This great Minister
had, in fact, formed the most extensive designs for the colonial
aggrandisement of England, and the repulse of France in those quarters.
At his suggestion, Lord Loudon had been sent to North America, and
as he had failed to render any service, General Abercrombie had gone
out to supersede him. Pitt already, however, had his eye on a young
officer, Wolfe, whom he deemed the true hero for that service; whilst,
on the opposite side of the globe, he was watching the proceedings
of another young officer with immense pleasure--namely, Clive. These
two remarkable men, under the fostering genius of Pitt, were destined
to destroy the ascendency of France in those regions, and to lay
the foundations of British power on a scale of splendour beyond all
previous conception.
[Illustration: LORD CLIVE. (_After the Portrait by Gainsborough._)]
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