THE

ANNUAL REGISTER,

OR A VIEW of the

HISTORY,

POLITICS,

AND

LITERATURE,

For the YEAR 1781.

THIRD EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for J. DODSLEY, in Pall-Mall, 1800.

T. Davifon, Lombard-Street, Fleet-Street,

PREFACE.

HE year of which we treat was fo abundant in military event, that if all other memorials of the fame nature were loft, it might afford no very imperfect tranfcript of the art of modern war in all its forms, whether by fea or by land. Though we are not astonished by the appearance of fuch immenfe armies as have fo often defolated the old world, nor by thofe actions which have in a day decided the fate of nations and empires, we fee as vaft, though less concentrated, operations of war, conducted upon its most scientific principles. When taken in a general view, the combination of its detached parts forms a great whole, whether confidered with refpect to action or confequence. We fee the war rage, nearly at the fame time, in the countries on both fides of the North River, on the Chesapeak, in South Carolina, the Floridas, North Carolina, Virginia, the West Indies, the American and Weft Indian feas. Through this arrangement, in part fortuitous and in part the effect of defign, we are prefented with a number of the beftconducted and fevereft actions recorded in hiftory. We behold, in an unhappy contention between Englishmen, the greatest exertions of military skill, a valour which can never be exceeded, and all the perfection of difcipline exhibited on the one fide, and opposed on the other by an unconquerable refolution and perfeverance, infpired and fupported by the enthusiasm of liberty.