force of his adversaries was in front, between him and Albany, he hoped, by advancing on them, to reduce them to the necessity of fighting, or of retreating into New England. After the evacuation of Ticonderoga, the Americans had fallen back from one place to another, till they at last reached Vanshaick's island. Soon after the retreating system was adopted, congress recalled their general officers, and put General Gates at the head of their northern army. His arrival gave fresh vigour to the exertions of the inhabitants. The militia collected in great numbers to his standard, and soon began to be animated with the hope of capturing the whole British army. When the necessary stores for thirty days' subsistence had been brought forward from Lake George, Burgoyne gave up all communication with the magazines in the rear, and on the 13th of September crossed Hudson's river. The rapid advance of Burgoyne, and especially his passage of the North river, added much to the impracticability of his future retreat, and in conjunction with subsequent events, made the total ruin of his army in a great degree unavoidable. General Burgoyne, after crossing the Hudson, advanced along its side, and in four days encamped on the heights, about two miles from General Gates' camp, which was three miles above Stillwater. The Americans came out to meet the advancing British, and engaged them with firmness and resolution. The attack began a little before mid-day, on the 19th of September, between the scouting parties of the two armies. The commanders on both sides reinforced their respective parties. The conflict was only partial for an hour and a half; but after a short pause it became general, and continued for three hours without intermission. Few actions have been characterised by more obstinacy in attack or defence; the British repeatedly tried the bayonet, but without their usual success in the use of that weapon. At length night put an end to the effusion of blood. This hard-fought battle decided nothing; but nevertheless was followed by important consequences. The Indian auxiliaries, disappointed of the plunder they expected, and beholding nothing before them but hardships and danger, began to desert in the season when their aid would have been most useful. Very little more perseverance was exhibited by the Canadians and other British provincials: they also abandoned the British standard, when they found that, instead of a flying and dispirited enemy, they had a numerous and resolute force opposed to them. These desertions were not the only disappointment which General Burgoyne experienced. From the commencement of the expedition, he had promised himself a strong reinforcement from that part of the British army which was stationed at New York; he depended on its being able to force its way to Albany, and to join him there, or in the vicinity. This co-operation, though attempted, failed in the execution, while the expectation of it contributed to involve him in difficulties to which he would not have otherwise been exposed. While Burgoyne was pushing on towards Albany, an unsuccessful attempt to relieve him was made by the British commander in New York. For this purpose, Sir Henry Clinton conducted an expedition up Hudson's river, of about 3000 men, accompanied by a suitable naval force; after making many feints he landed at Stoney Point, marched over the mountains to Fort Montgomery, and attacked the different redoubts. The reduction of this post furnished the British with an opportunity for opening a pass age up the North river; but instead of proceeding forward to Burgoyne's encampment, or even to Albany, they spent several days in laying waste the adjacent country. They might, in all probability, by pushing forward about 136 miles in six days, have brought Gates' army between two fires, at least twenty-four hours before Burgoyne's necessity compelled his submission to articles of capitulation. Why they neglected this opportunity has never yet been satisfactorily explained. Gates had posted 1400 men on the heights opposite the fords of Saratoga, 2000 more in the rear to prevent a retreat to Fort Edward, and 1500 at a ford higher up. Burgoyne, receiving intelligence of these movements, concluded, especially from the last, that Gates meant to turn his right. To avoid being hemmed in, he resolved on an immediate retreat to Saratoga. On his arrival at Saratoga, he found that the Americans had posted a considerable force on the opposite heights to impede his passage at that ford. The only practicable route which now remained, was by a night-march to Fort Edward. But before this attempt could be made, scouts returned with intelligence, that the Americans were intrenched opposite to the fords on the Hudson river, over which it was proposed to pass, and that they were also in force on the high ground between Fort Edward and Fort George. Their position extended nearly round the British, and was by the nature of the ground in a great measure secure from attack. The British were now invested by an army nearly three times its number, without a possibility of retreat or of replenishing its stock of provisions. In the mean time the American army was hourly increasing. Volunteers came in from all quarters, eager to share in the glory of destroying or capturing their enemies. The 13th of October at length arrived; but as no prospect of assistance appeared, and their provisions were nearly expended, General Burgoyne called a council of war, which comprehended both the field-officers and captains. Their unanimous opinion was, that their present situation justified a capitulation on honourable terms. A messenger was therefore despatched to General Gates, who, in the first instance, demanded that the royal armyshould surrender prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should ground their arms. Burgoyne replied, "This article is inadmissible in every extremity; sooner than this army will consent to ground their arms in their encampment, they will rush on the enemy, determined to take no quarter." After various messages a convention was settled in the following terms: The troops under General Burgoyne to march out of their camp with the honours of war, and the artillery of the intrenchments, to the verge of the river, where the arms and artillery are to be left. cers. The arms to be piled by word of command from their own offiA free passage to be granted to the army under Lieutenantgeneral Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest, and the port of Boston to be assigned for the entry of the transports to receive the troops whenever General Howe shall so order. The army under Lieutenant-general Burgoyne to march to Massachusetts bay by the easiest route, and to be quartered in, near, or as convenient as possible, to Boston. The troops to be provided with provision by General Gates' orders, at the same rate of rations as the troops of his own army. All officers to retain their carriages, bat-horses, and no baggage to be molested or searched. The officers are not, as far as circumstances will admit, to be separated from their men. The officers to be quartered according to their rank. All corps whatever of Lieutenant-general Burgoyne's army to be included in the above articles. All Canadians, and persons belonging to the Canadian establishment, and other followers of the army, to be permitted to return to Canada, to be conducted to the first British post on Lake George, and to be supplied with provisions as the other troops, and to be bound by the same condition of not serving during the present contest. Passports to be granted to three officers to carry despatches to Sir William Howe, Sir Guy Carleton, and to Great Britain. The officers to be admitted on their parole, and to be permitted to wear their side arms." By this convention 5,790 men surrendered prisoners. The sick and wounded left in camp, when the British retreated to Saratoga, together with the numbers of the British, German, and Canadian troops, who were killed, wounded, or taken, and who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, were reckoned to be 4,689. The whole royal force, exclusive of Indians, was probably about 10,000. The stores which the Americans acquired were very considerable. In a short time after the convention was signed, Gates moved forward to stop the devastations of the British on the North river; but on hearing of the fate of Burgoyne, Vaughan and Wallace retired to New York. About the same time the British, which had been left in the rear of the royal army, destroyed their cannon, and abandoning Ticonderoga, retreated to Canada.1 On Burgoyne's return to England he frequently, but in vain, applied for a court-martial to investigate and pronounce upon his conduct at Saratoga; but the question of his surrender was brought in different shapes before parliament. On the day after Chatham had pronounced his eloquent reprobation of the system of employing the Indians as auxiliaries in the American struggle, the intelligence was received of Burgoyne's surrender. Chatham seized the crisis to move "that an address be presented to his majesty, to cause the proper officers to lay before the house copies of all orders and instructions to General Burgoyne, relative to the late expedition from Canada." Holding up a paper in view of the house, his lordship said that he had the king's speech in his hand, and a deep sense of the public calamity in his heart. That speech, he said, contained a most unfaithful picture of the state of public affairs; it had a specious outside, was full of hopes, while every thing within was full of danger. A system destructive of all faith and confidence had been introduced, his lordship affirmed, within the last fifteen years at St James's, by which pliable men, not capable men, had been raised to the highest posts of government. A few obscure persons had obtained an ascendancy where no man should have a personal ascendancy, and by the most insidious means the nation had been betrayed into a war of which they now reaped the bitter fruits. The spirit of delusion, his lordship said, had gone forth; ministers had imposed on the people; parliament had been induced to sanctify the imposition; a visionary phantom of revenue had been conjured up for the basest of purposes, but it was now for ever vanished. His lordship said, that the abilities of General Burgoyne were confessed, his 1 Abridged from Miller's History. personal bravery not surpassed, his zeal in the service unquestionable. He had experienced no pestilence, nor suffered any of the accidents which sometimes supersede the wisest and most spirited exertions of human industry. What then is the cause of his misfortune?-Want of wisdom in our councils, want of ability in our ministers. His lordship said, the plan of penetrating into the colonies from Canada was a most wild, uncombined, and mad project; and the mode of carrying on the war was the most bloody, barbarous, and ferocious, recorded in the annals of history. The arms of Britain had been sullied and tarnished by blending the scalping-knife and tomahawk with the sword and firelock. Such a mode of warfare was a contamination which all the waters of the Hudson and the Delaware would never wash away. It was impossible for America to forget or forgive so horrid an injury. General Burgoyne was for some time in disgrace at court, particularly after his refusal to return to America in 1779; but he was ultimately restored to his rank in the army, and appointed head of the army in Ireland. He died in 1792. He was a man of considerable literary talent, and wrote some pieces for the stage. William Murray, Earl of Mansfield. BORN A. D. 1705.-DIED A. D. 1793. WILLIAM MURRAY, first earl of Mansfield, was the fourth son of David, earl of Stormont,' by Margery, daughter of Scot of Scotstarvet. He was born on the 2d of March, 1705, at Perth in Scotland.2 His residence in Scotland, however, was but of short duration, he having been brought to London at the age of three years. He was first sent to Westminster school. At the age of fourteen he was admitted of that seminary as king's scholar. "During the time of his being at school," says one who was contemporary with him, "he gave early proofs of his uncommon abilities, not so much in his poetry as in his other exercises, and particularly in his declamations, which were sure tokens and prognostics of that eloquence which grew up to such maturity and perfection at the bar, and in both houses of parliament." the election in May, 1723, he stood first on the Oxford exhibition list. He was entered of Christ's church in June that year. In the year 1727 he had taken the degree of B. A., and on the death of George I. was among those of the university who composed verses on that event On the 26th of June, 1730, he took the degree of M. A., and probably soon afterwards left the university. Before he devoted himself At In the memorial printed in The Secret History of Colonel Hooke's Negotiations in Scotland in favour of the Pretender, in 1707,' 8vo. 1760, this nobleman is thus described:" Lord Stormont is turned of forty, and he is of the house of Murray. He is rich and powerful on the frontiers of England, and in the middle of Scotland. He is a man of great resolution, strict probity, and uncommon presence of mind." It appears also from the same memorial, that he had considerable weight with the malcontents in his native kingdom. Sir "The registry of his admission into Christ's college places his birth at Bath. William Blackstone once mentioned this circumstance to Lord Mansfield, who said the mistake perhaps originated from the broad pronunciation of the person who gave in his name to the registrar. to business, he made the tour of Europe. On his return he became a member of the society of Lincoln's inn, and was in due time called to the bar. The fortune of our young lawyer at this period was rather slender; but he soon supplied any deficiency in that respect by his application and abilities. He does not appear to have proceeded in his profession in the way then usually adopted of labouring in the chambers of a special pleader, but started at once into practice at the bar, and very early acquired the notice of the chancellor and the judges, as well as the confidence of the inferior practitioners. The graces of his elocution, however, hurt him with a certain class of stupid people who would not believe that such bright talents could associate with the more solid attainments of the law, or that a man of genius and vivacity could be a profound lawyer. Pope, in allusion to this silly prejudice, writes: "The Temple late two brother-sergeants saw, Who deem'd each other oracles of law; With equal talents these congenial souls, One lull'd the Exchequer, and one stunn'd the Rolls; And shook his head at Murray as a wit." It is remarkable that this prejudice accompanied Lord Mansfield to the end of his judicial life, in spite of the daily proofs he gave in the court of king's bench and in the house of lords, of his profound knowledge of the abstrusest points of jurisprudence. Even Lord Chesterfield seems to have fallen into this unfounded opinion. In a letter to his son, dated February 12th, 1754, he says: "The present solicitor-general, Murray, has less law than many lawyers; but he has more practice than any, merely upon account of his eloquence, of which he has a never-failing stream." The friendship which subsisted between Pope and our young lawyer also fostered this notion. That great poet entertained a particular affection for Murray, and was ever eager to show him marks of his regard. Bishop Warburton says, "Mr Pope had all the warmth of affection for this great lawyer, and indeed no man ever more deserved to have a poet for his friend. In the obtaining of which as neither vanity, party, nor fear had a share, so he supported his title to it by all the offices of a generous and true friendship." Ruffhead also declares that Pope had at one time an intention of leaving his house at Twickenham to his friend Murray, whose growing fame and rising station-which would render him superior to such a mansion-alone prevented him from carrying it into execution. In the fourth book of The Dunciad,' Pope says, speaking of those whose poetical pursuits were diverted by law or politics: 6 "How sweet an Ovid, Murray, was our boast! How many Martials were in Pulteney lost!" And in his imitation of the first ode of the fourth book of Horace, he compliments him in the following lines addressed to Venus: "To number five direct your doves, These spread round Murray all your blooming loves. The number of Lord Mansfield's chambers in Lincoln's inn. |