KING OF GREAT BRITAIN FORMS AN ARMY IN FLANDERS.

The king of Great Britain resolved to make a powerful diversion in
the Netherlands, and in the month of April, ordered sixteen thousand
effective men to be embarked for that country; but as this step was
taken without any previous concert with the states-general, the earl
of Stair, destined to the command of the forces in Flanders, was in the
meantime appointed ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to their
high mightinesses, in order to persuade them to co-operate vigorously in
the plan which his Britannic majesty had formed; a plan by which Great
Britain was engaged as a principal in a foreign dispute, and entailed
upon herself the whole burden of an expensive war, big with ruin and
disgrace. England, from being the umpire, was now become a party in all
continental quarrels; and, instead of trimming the balance of Europe,
lavished away her blood and treasure in supporting the interest and
allies of a puny electorate in the north of Germany. The king of
Prussia had been at variance with the elector of Hanover. The duchy of
Mecklenburgh was the avowed subject of dispute; but his Prussian majesty
is said to have had other more provoking causes of complaint, which
however he did not think proper to divulge. The king of Great Britain
found it convenient to accommodate these differences. In the course of
this summer the two powers concluded a convention, in consequence of
which the troops of Hanover evacuated Mecklenburgh, and three regiments
of Brandenburgh took possession of those bailiwicks that were mortgaged
to the king of Prussia. The elector of Hanover being now secured from
danger, sixteen thousand troops of that country, together with the six
thousand auxiliary Hessians, began their march for the Netherlands; and
about the middle of October arrived in the neighbourhood of Brussels,
where they encamped. The earl of Stair repaired to Ghent, where the
British forces were quartered: a body of Austrians was assembled; and
though the season was far advanced, he seemed determined upon
some expedition; but all of a sudden the troops were sent into
winter-quarters. The Austrians retired to Luxembourg; the English and
Hessians remained in Flanders; and the Hanoverians marched into the
county of Liege, without paying any regard to the bishop's protestation.

PROGRESS OF THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The states-general had made a considerable augmentation of