ged, and no other seems so probable, was, that they refused to renew
their treaties with England upon any terms, all that can be said is,
that they were guilty of flagrant ingratitude, as they had both received
a subsidy from this kingdom for many years in time of peace, when
they neither were nor could be of any service to the interest of Great
Britain.

NEWS OF THE CAPTURE OF THE ALCIDE AND LYS REACHES ENGLAND.

On the fifteenth of July, an express arrived from admiral Boscawen, with
an account of his having taken the two French ships of war, the Alcide
and the Lys. This was certainly contrary to the expectation of the court
of France; for had they apprehended any such attack, they would not have
ordered Mr. Macnamara to return to Brest with the chief part of their
squadron; nor was it perhaps less contrary to the expectation of some
of our own ministry; but as matters had been carried so far, it was then
too late to retreat; and, therefore, orders were soon after given to
all our ships of war to make reprisals upon the French, by taking their
ships wherever they should meet them. Sir Edward Hawke sailed from
Portsmouth on the twenty-first of July, with eighteen ships of war,
to watch the return of the French fleet from America; which, however,
escaped him, and arrived at Brest on the third day of September.
Commodore Frankland sailed from Spithead for the West Indies on the
thirteenth of August, with four ships of war, furnished with orders to
commit hostilities, as well as to protect our trade and sugar-islands
from any insult that the French might offer; and the duke de Mirepoix,
their ambassador at the court of London, set out for Paris on the
twenty-second of July, without taking leave.

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

THE KING RETURNS FROM HANOVER, AND CONCLUDES A TREATY WITH RUSSIA.

A war being thus in some measure begun, his majesty thought proper,
perhaps for that reason, to return to his British dominions sooner than
usual; for he left Hanover on the eighth of September, and arrived on
the fifteenth at Kensington, where the treaty of alliance between him
and the empress of Russia, which he had begun during his absence, was
concluded on the thirtieth of the same month. By this treaty her Russian
majesty engaged to hold in readiness in Livonia, upon the frontiers of
Lithuania, a body of troops consisting of forty thousand infantry, with
the necessary artillery, and fifteen thousand cavalry; and also o