Prince Ferdinand this summer had to contend with numerous armies of the French. De Broglie marched from Frankfort into Hesse with a hundred thousand men. On the 10th of July they met the hereditary Prince of Brunswick at Corbach, and defeated him, though he gained a decided advantage over them a few days after at Emsdorf, taking the commander of the division and five battalions prisoners. This was followed by Ferdinand himself, who was at Warburg, where he took ten pieces of artillery, killed one thousand five hundred of the French, and drove them into the Dimel, where many were drowned. The British cavalry had the greatest share in this victory. In fact, the Marquis of Granby led them on all occasions with such spirit and bravery, that Ferdinand placed them continually in the post of danger, where of course they suffered more severely than the other troops.
Notwithstanding these checks at Emsdorf and Warburg, the French obtained possession of Göttingen and Cassel. Ferdinand attempted, but in vain, to dislodge them from Göttingen, and the hereditary Prince, attempting to surprise the Marquis de Castries at Wesel, was repulsed with a loss of one thousand two hundred men at Closter-Campen, near that town, and was compelled to retreat. This closed the campaign, and the French took up their winter quarters at Göttingen and Cassel.
Whilst these things were happening, and but two days before the mail arrived bringing the news of the defeat at Closter-Campen, George II. died. He had, till within the last two years, enjoyed robust health. He had then a severe attack of gout, and from that time his eyes and hearing had failed. On the morning of the 25th of October he rose at his usual hour of six, drank his chocolate, inquired how the wind was, being anxious for the arrival of the mails, and then suddenly fell, uttered a groan, and expired. He was seventy-seven years of age.
[Illustration: MARTELLO TOWER ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM, QUEBEC.]
[Illustration: GEORGE WHITEFIELD PREACHING. (_See p._ 143.)]
PROGRESS OF THE NATION FROM THE REVOLUTION TO 1760.
The Church after the Revolution--The Non-Jurors--The Act of Toleration--Comprehension Bill--Laxity of Religion--The Wesleys and Whitefield--Foundation of Methodism--Extension of the Movement--Literature--Survivors of the Stuart Period--Prose Writers: Bishop Burnet--Philosophers: Locke--Bishop Berkeley, etc.--Novelists: Fielding, Richardson, Smollett, and Sterne--Dr. Davenant--Bentley--Swift--Addison--Addison and Steele--Bolingbroke--Daniel Defoe--Lady Mary Wortley Montagu--Poets: Pope--His Prose Writings--Gay, Prior, Young, etc.--James Thomson, Allan Ramsay, Gray, and Minor Lights--Dramatists--Physical Science: Astronomers--Mathematicians--Electricians--Chemists--Medical Discoverers--Music: Purcell--Italian Music--Handel--Church Music--The Academy of Ancient Music and other Societies--Architecture--Wren and his Buildings--St. Paul's--His Churches and Palaces--Vanbrugh--Gibbs--Hawksmoor--Minor Architects--Painting and Sculpture: Lely and Kneller--Other Foreign Painters and Decorators--Thornhill--Other English Artists--Hogarth and his Works--Exhibition of British Artists--Sculptors--Shipping, Colonies, Commerce, and Manufactures--Increase of Canals--Woollen and Silk Trades--Irish Linens--Lace--Iron, Copper, and other Industries--Increase of the large Towns.