repair such damages; it was inhuman to require from them so dread. ful a sacrifice, which would not prevent, but only retard their final subjugation by the French, whose arms, the allies ought to be convinced, by repeated experience, they were not in a condition to resist. Such were the arguments with which the party averse to the Stadt. holder combated the intentions of the coalesced powers; but they were so bent on the execution of this scheme, that they omitted no means to forward its prosecution. The stadtholder himself, in company with the duke of York, repaired to Amsterdam, in order, it was firmly asserted, to influence the delibera. tions that were held on this import. ant subject. Their sudden appear. ance greatly alarmed the patriotic party. They instantly resolved, in defiance of the prohibition, to present a petition to the magis. tracy, against the designs imputed to those two princes; which they stated explicitly to be, the inundation of Holland, and the admission of the English troops into Amsterdam. They remonstrated against both of these designs, with a boldness and energy that plainly evinced, that any attempt to execute them would be attended with danger, and that, in all probability, the petitioners and their adherents had already concerted means to oppose, were endeavours to be used to effect it.

But while they were secretly conscious of their inability to succeed in their designs, they thought it necessary, however, in order to preserve the appearance of autharity, to imprison the petition ers; unwilling at the same time to bear the odium which they knew

must be the consequence of this measure, they attributed it to the British minister. They were too prudent to proceed any farther, and to avoid the disgrace that might attend a fruitless prosecution, the pe. titioners were shortly after liberated from this confinement. But that measure of imprisonment, instead of intimidating the party in opposition to the ruling one, served only to shew how feeble this latter was become, and how little it dared to act against the sense of that powerful majority, which was perpetually increasing, and manifesting without reserve its partiality to the cause of the French, and its impatience to see them masters of Holland.

Immediately after the capture of Nimeguen, it appeared, by the mo tions of the French generals, that the invasion of Holland would not be delayed any longer than every requisite for so great an undertak ing was in the completest readiness. The remains of the allied armies were in no condition to form any obstacle. The British troops, now stationed at Arnheim and its vicinity, were, from incessant fatigue, the inclemency of the season, and the difficulty of procuring supplies, in the most deplorable state of ill health, and almost in want of all necessaries. The French took this opportunity to attempt the passage of the Waal, in rafts constructed for that purpose; but they were repulsed by the British troops in some places, and by the German in others.

It was not till the middle of Dec. that, on the setting in of the hard frost which marked the close of 1794, and the beginning of 1795, they con ceived the design of waiting till the rivers were sufficiently frozen to bear armies with their cannon and

other

other heavy incumbrances. Fatally for the Dutch, the Maes and the Waal were, by the twenty-seventh, become bridges of ice, over which the French transported an immense body of troops, whose operations extended from their right to their left, near forty miles. The allied army was too much reduced, through illness and other causes, to oppose them effectually. They carried all the posts in the isle of Bommel, and forced the lines of Breda, mak. ing sixteen hundred prisoners, and taking one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, with a large quantity of baggage. The French were now masters of the north side of the Waal, and menaced the towns of Culenberg and Gorcum, neither of which was able to stand an attack. It was determined in order to preserve them, to compel the enemy to re-pass the Waal. About eight thousand of the British troops marched against them on the thirtieth of December, under the command of general Dundas. The French were posted at Thuyl; to arrive at which place it was neces. sary to take a road flanked by a umber of batteries, planted on the isle of Bommel, and the place it self was surrounded with a strong abbatis. All these obstacles were surmounted, and notwithstanding their great superiority in numbers, the French were forced from all their posts, and obliged to re-cross the Waal, with a considerable loss

of men and several pieces of cannon. But this advantage, though very honourable to the conduct and bravery of the British officers and soldiers, was of very little service to the common cause. The strength of France was so enormous, that the whole country was overpowered by it, and resistance was evidently im. practicable.

To this forlorn situation of public affairs, other discouragements were added. If reports may be credited, the treatment of the sick and wounded in the British army, at this time, was scandalous in the highest degree. They were totally unprovided with the requisites indispensable in their condition: they had neither medicines nor able surgeons to attend them; and often wanted food, covering, and proper places to receive them. This excited the more complaint and indignation, that it was well known throughout the army, with how much liberality govern ment had provided for all their wants, and that a variety of those comforts, needed by the soldiery, had been supplied by private subscriptions throughout the kingdom. It was notorious, that, whenever an unfortunate man was sent to the hospital, he generally perished through neglect, unskilfulness, or misery. The medical board, as well as the commissaries, whose duty it was to look into those things, became objects of great hatred and indignation.*

In

invasion and conquest. It was an entire discouragement to the adherents of the Stadtholder, and filled the opposite party with the utmost boldness, and a determination to improve the despondency of their adversaries. They met every where in clubs and societies, and watched with anxiety for the critical hour, when they might proceed to active measures, and facilitate the entrance of the French, and the expulsion of their enemies.

Since the repulse of the French, on the thirtieth of December, they had been meditating how to reoccupy the positions from which they had been driven. The inferior force that had compelled them to retreat, was a circumstance that had alarmed their commanders: but the distresses attending the British troops, and the daily diminution of their strength, by the sickness prevailing among them, the incommodities arising from scantiness of necessaries, and the excessive rigour of the season, soon dispelled every apprehension that they would, in conjunction with their allies, be able to make a stand, and encouraged the French to renew their attempt to cross the Waal. On

the fourth of January, 1795, some regiments were detached from Pichegru's army, and made good their passage unmolested.

The

truth was, that on surveying the situation of the allied forces, it appeared impracticable to oppose the enemy with any reasonable hope of success, and that an expeditious retreat was necessary to save the remains of the British army. After spiking the heavy cannon, and de

stroying all the ammunition that could be carried away, it retired towards the Leck, on the sixth of January. As soon as this was perceived by the French, they advanced in considerable force, and pressed the British troops so closely, that an engagement ensued, wherein the combatants fought with so much obstinancy on both sides, that they were alternately repulsed, and returned to the charge four times successively. The French at last gave way. Their superiority of strength prevented a pursuit, and the British troops availed themselves of this momentary success, to continue their retreat; but no respite was given to them, by the French: they crossed the Waal, on the tenth, in such force, that it was found impossible to withstand them. General Walmo. den, on whom the command in chief of the British troops and the German subsidiaries had now devolved, was posted between Arnheim and Nimeguen, at the defile of the Greb, in the province of Utrecht*. Hoping to make a capture of the whole, Pichegru, at the head of more than seventy thousand men, attacked them on all sides. After such re

sistance as their inferiority permitted them to make, they were obliged to retire in all directions, with so considerable a loss of their campequipage, that they were compelled to take shelter in open sheds during the following night, from the excessive severity of the weather. Another attack was made by Pichegru, four days after, on some posts that had been taken to secure

the

the retreat of the British troops. These maintained their ground till night, when they retired unpursued. But these occasional instances of courage and conduct could not prevail gainst the immense superiority of strength that continually overwhelmed all resistance. The British army, exclusively of an open and successful enemy in the French, had a concealed one in every Dutch town and village through which they passed. No direct hostilities were committed; but every species of injury and disservice was done, that inveterate malice could suggest. Looking upon the English as the radical cause of the calamities, infflicted on their country by this ruin. ous war, the generality of the Dutch held them in abhorrence, and sought every occasion to add to their present distresses. While the inhabitants of the united provinces man fested so inimical a disposition to his friends, it was in vain the Stadtholder issued proclamations, ex. horting them to rise in a mass, for the protection of their country; they answered him with the bitterest reproaches, and publicly reviled him as the tool of the British govern. ment, and the betrayer of the Dutch nation.

To the shattered remnant of the British army, surrounded in this manner, by open and secret ene. mies, the only resource remaining was, to effect a total retreat from what might be justly considered as a VOL. XXXVII.

hostile country. But this was no longer an eay task in the woeful situation to which it was now reduced, by the base and flagitious neglect of those to whom the care of furnishing it with due requisites had been entrusted. The multitude of inferior agents, appointed for this purpose, had so grossly deceived their employers, that while these imagined that ample provision had been made of every article they had directed, the others had been guilty of either so much remissness or peculation, that the army now laboured under deficiencies of the most heinous nature. The sufferings of the sick and wounded soldiers, in particular, excited the highest commiseration. They were in the midst of this rigorous winter, removed in open waggons, exposed to the weather, and destitute of all comforts and accommodations.Numbers were frozen to death, or perished through want; especially during the march on the sixteenth of January, a day for ever memora ble on account of the hardships and distresses of every kind endured by the British army, in its retreat to the city of Deventer. The recitals of them that have been published convey an idea of every species of misery that human nature can undergo, in one of the most lamentable situations to which men are liable, through the contingencies of war.*

Another column of the British army had evacuated Utrecht in the [E] evening