Volume 2 — DEATH OF THE QUEEN OF POLAND, &c.

In closing our account of this year’s transactions on the continent, we may observe, that on the sixteenth day of November the queen of Poland died at Berlin of an apoplexy, supposed to be occasioned by the shock she received on hearing that the French were totally defeated at Rosbach. She was a lady of exemplary virtue and piety; whose constitution had been broke by grief and anxiety conceived from the distress of her own family, as well as from the misery to which she saw her people exposed. With respect to the European powers that were not actually engaged as principals in the war, they seemed industriously to avoid every step that might be construed as a deviation from the most scrupulous neutrality. The states-general proceeded with great circumspection, in the middle course between two powerful neighbours, equally jealous and formidable; and the king of Spain was gratified for his forbearance with a convention settled between him and the belligerent powers, implying, that his subjects should per-sue their commerce at sea without molestation, provided they should not transport those articles of merchandise which were deemed contraband by all nations. The operations at sea, during the course of this year, either in Europe or America, were far from being decisive or important. The commerce of Great Britain sustained considerable damage from the activity and success of French privateers, of which a great number had been equipped in the islands of Martinique and Gaudaloupe. The Greenwich ship of war, mounted with fifty guns, and a frigate of twenty, fell into the hands of the enemy, together with a very considerable number of trading vessels. On the other hand, the English cruisers and privateers acquitted themselves with equal vigilance and valour. The duc d’Aquitaine, a large ship of fifty guns, was taken in the month of June by two British ships of war, after a severe engagement; and, about the same time, the Aquilon, of nearly the same force, was driven ashore and destroyed near Brest by the Antelope, one of the British cruisers. A French frigate of twenty-six guns, called the Emeraude, was taken in the channel, after a warm engagement, by an English ship of inferior force, under the command of captain Gilchrist, a gallant and alert officer, who, in the sequel, signalized himself on divers occasions, by very extraordinary acts of valour. All the sea officers seemed to be animated with a noble emulation to distinguish themselves in the service of their country, and the spirit descended even to the captains of privateers, who, instead of imitating the former commanders of that class, in avoiding ships of force, and centering their whole attention in advantageous prizes, now encountered the armed ships of the enemy, and fought with the most obstinate valour in the pursuit of national glory.