now created earl of Torrington, having sailed to
Ireland with the combined squadrons of England and Holland, made a
fruitless attempt upon Cork, and lost a great number of seamen by
sickness, which was imputed to bad provisions. The Dartmouth ship of war
fell into the hands of the enemy, who infested the channel with such
a number of armed ships and privateers, that the trade of England
sustained incredible damage.

THE FRENCH WORSTED AT WALCOURT.

The affairs of France wore but a gloomy aspect on the continent, where
all the powers of Europe seemed to have conspired her destruction. King
William had engaged in a new league with the states-general, in which
former treaties of peace and commerce were confirmed. It was stipulated,
that in case the king of Great Britain should be attacked, the Dutch
should assist him with six thousand infantry, and twenty ships of the
line; and that, provided hostilities should be committed against the
states-general, England should supply them with ten thousand infantry,
and twenty ships of war. This treaty was no sooner ratified, than king
William dispatched the lord Churchill, whom he had by this time created
earl of Marlborough, to Holland, in order to command the British
auxiliaries in that service to the number of eleven thousand, the
greater part of which had been in the army of king James when the prince
of Orange landed in England. The earl forthwith joined the Dutch army,
under the command of prince Waldeck, who had fixed his rendezvous in the
county of Liege, with a view to act against the French army commanded by
the mareschal D'Humieres; while the prince of Vaudemont headed a little
army of observation, consisting of Spaniards, Dutch, and Germans, to
watch the motions of Calvo in another part of the Low-Countries. The
city of Liege was compelled to renounce the neutrality, and declare for
the allies. Mareschal D'Humieres attacked the foragers belonging to the
army of the states at Walcourt, in the month of August; an obstinate
engagement ensued, and the French were obliged to retreat in confusion,
with the loss of two thousand men, and some pieces of artillery. The
army of observation levelled part of the French lines on the side of
Courtray, and raised contributions on the territories of the enemy.

SUCCESS OF THE CONFEDERATES IN GERMANY.

The French were almost entire masters of the three ecclesiastical
electorates of Germany. They possessed Mentz, Triers, Bo