liament was sitting, they added a clause which they hoped the parliament of Ireland would refuse: namely, that no persons in that kingdom should be capable of any employment, or of being in the magistracy of any city, who did not qualify themselves by receiving the sacrament, according to the test act passed in England. Though this was certainly a great hardship on the dissenters, the parliament of Ireland sacrificed this consideration to their common security against the Roman catholics, and accepted the amendment without hesitation. This affair being discussed, the commons of Ireland passed a vote against a book entitled, "Memoirs of the late king James II." as a seditious libel. They ordered it to be burned by the hands of the common hangman; and the bookseller and printer to be prosecuted. When this motion was made, a member informed the house, that in the county of Limerick, the Irish papists had begun to form themselves into bodies; to plunder the protestants of their arms and money; and to maintain a correspondence with the disaffected in England. The house immediately resolved, that the papists of the kingdom still retained hopes of the accession of the person known by the name of the prince of Wales in the lifetime of the late king James, and now by the name of James III. In the midst of this zeal against popery and the pretender, they were suddenly adjourned by the command of the lord lieutenant, and broke up in great animosity against that nobleman.

XXXVI. The attention of the English ministry had been for some time chiefly engrossed by the affairs of the continent. The emperor agreed with the allies, that his son the archduke Charles should assume the title of king of Spain, demand the infanta of Portugal in marriage, and undertake something of importance, with the assistance of the maritime powers. Mr. Methuen, the English minister at Lisbon, had already made some progress in a treaty with his Portuguese majesty; and the court of Vienna promised to send such an army into the field as would in a little time

i They had besides the bills already mentioned, passed an act for an additional excise on beer, ale, and other liquors: another encouraging the importation of iron and staves: a third for preventing popish priests from coming into the kingdom: a fourth securing the liberty of the subject: and for prevention of imprisonment beyond seas, and a fifth for naturalizing all protestant strangers.

drive the elector of Bavaria from his dominions. But they were so dilatory in their preparations, that the French king broke all their measures, by sending powerful reinforcements to the elector, in whose ability and attachment Lewis reposed great confidence. Mareschal Villars, who commanded an army of thirty thousand men at Strasburgh, passed the Rhine, and reduced fort Kehl, the garrison of which was conducted to Philipsburgh. The emperor alarmed at this event, ordered count Schlick to enter Bavaria on the side of Saltsburgh, with a considerable body of forces; and sent another under count Stirum, to invade the same electorate by the way of Newmark, which was surrendered to him, after he had routed a party of Bavarians: the city of Amberg met with the same fate. Meanwhile count Schlick defeated a body of militia that defended the lines of Saltsburgh, and made himself master of Riedt, and several other places. The elector assembling his forces near Brenau, diffused a report that he intended to besiege Passau, to cover which place Schlick advanced with the greatest part of his infantry, leaving behind his cavalry and cannon. The elector having by this feint divided the Imperialists, passed the bridge of Scardingen with tweve thousand men, and, after an obstinate engagement, compelled the Imperialists to abandon the field of battle; then he marched against the Saxon troops which guarded the artillery: aud attacked them with such impetuosity, that they were entirely defeated. In a few days after these actions, he took Newburgh on the Inn by capitulation. He obtained another advantage over an advanced post of the Imperialists near Burgenfelt, commanded by the young prince of Brandenburgh Anspach, who was mortally wounded in the engagement. He advanced to Ratisbon, where the diet of the empire was assembled, and demanded that he should be immediately put in possession of the bridge and the gate of the city. The burghers immediately took to their arms, and planted cannon on the ramparts: but when they saw a battery erected against them, and the elector determined to bombard the place, they thought proper to capitulate, and comply with his demands. He took possession of the town on the eighth day of April, and signed an instrument obliging himself to withdraw his troops, as soon as the emperor

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should ratify the diet's resolution for the neutrality of Ratisbon. Mareschal Villars having received orders to join the elector at all events, and being reinforced by a body of troops under count Tallard, resolved to break through the lines which the prince of Baden had made at Stolhoven. This general had been luckily joined by eight Dutch battalions, and received the French army, though double his number, with such obstinate resolution, that Villars was obliged to retreat with great loss, and directed his route towards Offingen. Nevertheless, he penetrated through the Black Forest, and effected a junction with the elector. Count Stirum endeavoured to join prince Lewis of Baden: but being attacked near Schwemmingen, retired under the cannon of Nortlingen.

§ XXXVII. The confederates were more successful on the lower Rhine and in the Netherlands. The duke of Marlborough crossed the sea in the beginning of April; and assembling the allied army, resolved that the campaign should be begun with the siege of Bonne, which was accordingly invested on the twenty-fourth day of April. Three different attacks were carried on against this place; one by the hereditary prince of Hesse Cassel; another by the celebrated Coehorn; and a third by lieutenant general Fagel. The garrison defended themselves vigorously till the fourteenth day of May, when the fort having been taken by assault, and the breaches rendered practicable, the marquis d'Alegre, the governor, ordered a parley to be beat: hostages were immediately exchanged; on the sixteenth the capitulation was signed; and in three days the garrison evacuated the place, in order to be conducted to Luxemburgh. During the siege of Bonne, the mareschals Boufflers and Villeroy advanced with an army of forty thousand men towards Tongeren, and the confederate army, commanded by M. d'Auverquerque was obliged at their approach to retreat under the cannon of Maestricht. The enemy having taken possession of Tongeren, made a motion against the confederate army, which they found already drawn up in order of battle, and so advantageously posted, that notwithstanding their great superiority in point of number, they would not hazard an attack; but retired to the ground from whence they had advanced. Immediately

after the reduction of Bonne, the duke of Marlborough, who had been present at the siege, returned to the confederate army in the Netherlands, now amounting to one hundred and thirty squadrons, and fifty-nine battalions. On the twenty-fifth day of May, the duke having passed the river Jecker, in order to give battle to the enemy, they marched with precipitation to Bockwern, and abandoned Tongeren, after having blown up the walls of the place with gunpowder. The duke continued to follow them to Thys, where he encamped, while they retreated to Hannye, retiring as he advanced. Then he resolved to force their lines; this service was effectually performed by Coehorn, at the point of Callo, and by baron Spaar, in the county of Waes, near Stoken. The duke had formed the design of reducing Antwerp, which was garrisoned by Spanish troops, under the command of the marquis de Bedmar. He intended

with the grand army to attack the enemy's lines on the side of Louvaine and Mechlin: he detached Coehorn with his flying camp to the right of the Scheldt, towards Dutch Flanders, to amuse the marquis de Bedmar on that side; and he ordered the baron Opdam, with twelve thousand men, to take post between Eckeren and Capelle, near Antwerp, that he might act against that part of the lines which was guarded by the Spanish forces.

§ XXXVIII. The French generals, in order to frustrate the scheme of Marlborough, resolved to cut off the retreat of Opdam. Boufflers with a detachment of twenty thousand men from Villeroy's army surprised him at Eckeren, where the Dutch were put in disorder; and Opdam, believing all was lost, fled to Breda. Nevertheless, the troops rallying under general Schlangenburgh, maintained their ground with the most obstinate valour, till night, when the enemy was obliged to retire, and left the communication free with fort Lillo, to which place the confederates marched without further molestation, having lost about fifteen hundred men in the engagement. The damage sustained by the French was more considerable. They were frustrated in their design, and had actually abandoned the field of battle yet Lewis ordered Te Deum to be sung for the victory: nevertheless, Boufflers was censured for his conduct on this occasion, and in a little time, totally disgraced.

Opdam presented a justification of his conduct to the states general: but by this oversight he forfeited the fruits of a long service, during which he had exhibited repeated proofs of courage, zeal, and capacity. The states honoured Schlangenburgh with a letter of thanks for the valour and skill he had manifested in this engagement: but in a little time they dismissed him from his employment, on account of his having given umbrage to the duke of Marlborough, by censuring his grace for exposing such a small number of men to this disaster. After this action, Villeroy, who lay encamped near St. Job: declared he would wait for the duke of Marlborough, who forthwith advanced to Hoggstraat, with a view to give him battle: but, at his approach, the French general, setting fire to his camp, retired within his lines with great precipitation. Then the duke invested Huy, the garrison of which, after a vigorous defence, surrendered themselves prisoners of war, on the twenty-seventh day of August. At a council of war held in the camp of the confederates, the duke proposed to attack the enemies' lines between the Mehaigne and Leuwe, and was seconded by the Danish, Hanoverian and Hessian generals: but the scheme was opposed by the Dutch officers, and the deputies of the States, who alleged that the success was dubious, and the consequences of forcing the lines would be inconsiderable they, therefore recommended the siege of Limburgh, by the reduction of which they would acquire a whole province, and cover their own country, as well as Juliers Gueldres, from the designs of the enemy. The siege of Limburgh was accordingly undertaken. The trenches were opened on the five-and-twentieth day of September, and in two days the place was surrendered; the garrison remaining prisoners of war. By this conquest the allies secured the country of Liege, and the electorate of Cologn, from the incursions of the enemy: before the end of the year, they remained masters of the whole Spanish Guelderland, by the reduction of Gueldres, which surrendered on the seventeenth day of September, after having been long blockaded, bombarded, and reduced to a heap of ashes, by the Prussian general, Lottum. Such was the campaign in the Netherlands, which in all probability would have produced events of greater importance, had not the duke of Marlborough