ch, could it have been foreknown, would perhaps have for
ever precluded from the succession that illustrious family to which
the nation owed such numberless blessings, such continued felicity. The
motion however passed, though not without further opposition; and the
house resolved, that three hundred thousand pounds should be granted to
his majesty, to enable him effectually to support the queen of Hungary.
Towards the expense of this year, a million was deducted from the
sinking fund; and the land-tax continued at four shillings in the
pound. The preparations for this war had already cost five millions. The
session was closed on the twenty-fifth day of April, when the king took
his leave of this parliament with warm expressions of tenderness and
satisfaction. Henry Bromley, Stephen Fox, and John Howe, three members
of the lower house who had signalized themselves in defence of the
minister, were now ennobled, and created barons of Montford, Ilchester,
and Chedworth. A camp was formed near Colchester; and the king having
appointed a regency, set out in May for his German dominions.*

* Sir William Wyndham died the preceding year, deeply
regretted as an orator, a patriot, and a man, the constant
assertor of British liberty, and one of the chief ornaments
of the English nation.--In the course of the same year,
general Oglethorpe, governor of Georgia, had, with some
succours obtained from the colony of Carolina, and a small
squadron of king's ships, made an attempt upon Fort Angus-
tine, the capital of Spanish Florida; and actually reduced
some small forts in the neighbourhood of the place; but the
Carolinians withdrawing in disgust, dissensions prevailing
among the sea officers, the hurricane months approaching,
and the enemy having received a supply and reinforcement, he
abandoned the enterprise, and returned to Georgia.

CHAPTER IV.

_The Army under lord Cathcart and Sir Chaloner Ogle proceeds
to the West Indies..... Nature of the Climate on the Spanish
Main..... Admiral Vernon sails to Carthagena..... Attack of
Tort Lasar..... Expedition to Cuba..... Rupture between the
Queen of Hungary and the king of Prussia..... Battle of
Molwitz..... The king of Great Britain concludes a Treaty of
Neutrality with Franco for the Electorate of Hanover..... A
Body of French Forces join the Elector of Bavaria..... He is