er, that he might
negotiate with the several princes and states of Italy, as he should
see occasion. The son likewise carried the king's royal grant to
the officers and seamen, of all the prizes they had taken from the
Spaniards. Notwithstanding this victory, the Spanish army carried on
the siege of the citadel of Messina with such vigour, that the governor
surrendered the place by capitulation on the twenty-ninth day of
September. A treaty was now concluded at Vienna between the emperor
and the duke of Savoy. They agreed to form an army for the conquest of
Sardinia in behalf of the duke; and in the meantime this prince engaged
to evacuate Sicily; but until his troops could be conveyed from that
island, he consented that they should co-operate with the Germans
against the common enemy. Admiral Byng continued to assist the
Imperialists in Sicily during the best part of the winter, by scouring
the seas of the Spaniards, and keeping the communication open between
the German forces and the Calabrian shore, from whence they were
supplied with provisions. He acted in this service with equal conduct,
courage, resolution, and activity. He conferred with the viceroy of
Naples and the other Imperial generals, about the operations of the
ensuing campaign, and count Hamilton was despatched to Vienna to lay
before the emperor the result of their deliberations; then the admiral
set sail for Mahon, where the ships might be refitted and put in a
condition to take the sea in the spring.

REMONSTRANCES OF THE SPANISH MINISTRY.

The destruction of the Spanish fleet was a subject that employed the
deliberations and conjectures of all the politicians in Europe. Spain
exclaimed against the conduct of England, as inconsistent with the
rules of good faith, for the observation of which she had always been
so famous. The marquis de Monteleone wrote a letter to Mr. secretary
Craggs, in which he expostulated with him upon such an unprecedented
outrage. Cardinal Alberoni, in a letter to that minister, inveighed
against it as a base unworthy action. He said the neutrality of Italy
was a weak pretence, since every body knew that neutrality had long been
at an end; and that the prince's guarantees of the treaty of Utrecht
were entirely discharged from their engagements, not only by the
scandalous infringements committed by the Austrians in the evacuation
of Catalonia and Majorca; but also because the guarantee was no longer
binding than till a