BOOK law of Scotland, is banishment, under which term XIX. transportation to a specific place, which is ob1793. viously a sentence of a severer nature,,could not be included. As the forms of procedure in the criminal courts of that kingdom are extremely arbitrary, and the evidence admitted in them to the last degree vague and slight, the punishment annexed ought at least to be mild and moderate: but admitting the charges against the present delinquents to have been fully proven, the sentence passed upon them was so disproportionate to their guilt, that the whole transaction was calculated to excite, and in fact it did excite, general indignation and horror, not in Britain only, but throughout Europe. "The trial of the Scotish advocate T. Muir," says a respect→ able German writer, "who, for various endeavours to effect a reform of the parliament of his country, was condemned to be transported to Botany-Bay, must excite in the breast of every German an esteem for his native land. We here see a man sent to Botany-Bay on account of an accusation to which a German court of justice would have been ashamed to listen*." The military operations of the autumnal months of the campaign remain to be narrated. In a session of the French Convention, * ALTONA Journal, A. D. 1794, No 3. XIX. held August 16th, the energetic and fertile BOOK genius of Barrere conceived the sublime project of exciting the whole people of France to rise 1793. en masse to expel the invaders from their territory and by the unremitted exertions of the Committee of Public Safety, this plan, in appearance so chimerical, was regularly digested, and the new levies were organized with singular dispatch and ability. York totally Dunkirk. On the 25th of August the duke of York, with Duke of his army, arrived before Dunkirk, after waiting defeated at long for the train of artillery from England necessary for the siege. During the delay a secret correspondence, carried on by the duke with general O'Moran, governor of the place, was discovered; O'Moran was dismissed, and afterwards suffered for his treachery; and the garrison was augmented by a reinforcement of 12000 veteran troops. The design was therefore hopeless. The works were, however, carried on, though with trivial effect, till the 6th of September, on which day the covering army, commanded by the Hanoverian field-marshal Freytag, was unexpectedly attacked and totally routed by a large body of troops suddenly collected by general Houchard; the marshal himself, and prince Adolphus, son of the king of England, were taken prisoners, though afterwards rescued. A grand sortie was at the same executions rals Houch ard and Custine. BOOK time attempted by the garrison with completeXIX. success, and the duke of York was compelled on 1793. the 7th to raise the siege with the greatest precipitation. The fine train of heavy artillery from England was only landed to be lost; no less than 114 pieces falling into the hands of Barbarous the enemy, The French government, however, of the gene- far from being satisfied with what was effected, charged the general, M. Houchard, with culpable negligence, in not cutting off the retreat of the English army altogether, as it was generally allowed he might with much facility have done and being denounced by the Jacobin party, he suffered by the severe sentence of the Revolutionary Tribunal. What was still more extraordinary, general Custine, who had signalized himself by very brilliant exploits during the former and the present campaign on the banks of the Rhine, met with the same cruel fate for not attempting, by some grand and decisive effort, the relief of Valenciennes. The world stood amazed at these instances of republican ferocity; and it was imagined by those who were ignorant of the springs by which human-nature is actuated, that no general of talents would be found to assume in future the command of the French armies: but events soon demonstrated the grossness of this mistake. of this mistake. In fact, when so much was exacted, none but those who felt the XIX. consciousness of superior genius, combined with BOOK heroic courage, could venture to undertake so perilous a trust. 1793. Cobourg to pass the The French army of the North now took a Prince of strong position, under general Jourdain, the compelled successor of Houchard and Custine, near the Sambre. town of Maubeuge, in the blockade of which the allies were engaged with their whole re-collected force under the prince of Cobourg. On the 15th of October the enemy made a grand attack upon the army of the prince with such vigour and effect as to compel that able commander to abandon his chain of posts and repass the Sambre. General Jourdain was by this means at liberty to send detachments, in various directions, to maritime Flanders, where they took possession, with little resistance, of Werwick, Werwick, Menin, and Furnes. They then proceeded to Furnes, capNieuport, which was saved only by having re- French. course to the desperate expedient of an inundation; and Ostend itself was thought not free from danger. Menin, and tured by the on the Early in the month of September, Landau Operations had been invested by the combined powers; Rhine. but that important fortress being covered and protected by the French army posted, under general Isembert, at Weissemburgh on the Lauter, general Wurmser, the Austrian commander, on the 13th of October made a grand XIX. 1793. BOOK attack upon the lines, which were carried, with the towns of Lauterburg and Weissemburg, after a comparatively feeble resistance. The French retreated with precipitation, and the forts of Haguenau and Vauban were successively reduced by general Wurmser. In the beginning of November the Conventional commissioners, St. Just and Le Bas, arrived for the purpose of encouraging and re-organizing the troops. They ordered immense reinforcements from the neighbouring departments; and to afford a third example of what they styled salutary severity, general Isembert, charged with treachery in the affair of Weissemburg, was sentenced to be shot at the head of the army. General Hoche, who, as commander of the army of the Moselle, had checked the progress made by the duke of Brunswic, after an advantage gained by the Prussians at Pirmasens, now advanced to sustain the army of the Rhine under general Pichegru ; and these two heroes, who were opposed by the equal bravery and skill of the veteran Wurmser, Retreat of performed in conjunction prodigies of valor. the Austrian At length the Austrian commander, overpowered armies. by superior force, was compelled slowly and and Prussian reluctantly to relinquish his conquests; and, after a continued series of the most obstinate conflicts, the Republican army, on the 27th of December, entered Weissemburg in triumph, |