to make a speedy peace, they found it impossible. The Family Compact betwixt France and Spain was already signed; and in various quarters of the world Pitt's plans were so far in progress that they must go on. In east and west, his plans for the conquest of Havanna, of the Philippine Isles, and for other objects, were not to be abruptly abandoned; and ministers were compelled to carry out his objects, in many particulars, spite of themselves. The new parliament met on the 3rd of November. George Grenville, the brother of lord Temple, now treasurer of the navy, was the person who had been designed by his party for the speakership, and for which he was well qualified by his habits. He had of late deserted Pitt, his brother-in-law, and become an active supporter of Bute. Bute calculated on him to take the lead, as ministerial member, in the commons, and Sir John Cust, the member for Grantham, was elected speaker in his stead. The king's speech was framed on the old basis of Pitt's policy; it declared that the war should be vigorously prosecuted, and praised the king of Prussia, as our able and magnanimous ally; at the same time that there was the utmost secret aversion to the war, and a settled determination to abandon Frederick. Pitt showed, by the tempered freedom of his remarks, that he was not likely to be at all fettered in the expression of his opinions by his pension. On the other hand, the most ungenerous attacks were made on him, especially by Colonel Barré, a young Irishman of talent, who had solicited from and been refused favours by Pitt, and now poured out on him his vengeful bile. He had only sate two days in the house, when he denounced Pitt as a profligate minister, deserving the execration of mankind; and declared that he had too long been allowed to tear out the bowels of his mother country. Pitt passed the worthless onslaught without notice. The first topic of the royal speech called on the commons to settle the dowry of the queen. The precedent of queen Caroline was adopted, and a hundred thousand pounds a year settled on Charlotte, in case of her surviving the king. When George went to the house of lords to give the royal assent to the act, which was passed accordingly, he brought the queen with him, who sate in a chair at his right hand, and characteristically expressed her thanks by rising and bowing to the king. Royalty could not admit that the handsome settlement came from the nation, but from the king; and therefore the thanks were not given to parliament, but to the crown. And now the unpleasant truth was forced on the attention of ministers, that the war which Pitt declared to be inevitable was so, and that he had recommended the only wise measure. The country was now destined to pay the penalty of their folly and stupidity, in rejecting Pitt's proposal to declare war against Spain at once, and strip her of the means of offence, her treasure ships. Lord Bristol, our ambassador at Madrid, announced to lord Bute, in a despatch of the 2nd of November, that these ships had arrived, and that all the wealth which Spain expected from her American colonies for the next year was safe at home. And he had to add that with this, Wall, the minister, had thrown off the mask, and had assumed the most haughty insolent language towards this country. This was a confession on the part of lord Bristol that he had suffered Wall to throw dust in his eyes till his object was accomplished, and it made patent the fact that Pitt had been too sagacious to be deceived; but that the new ministers, whilst insulting Pitt and forcing him to resign, had been themselves completely duped. Spain now, in the most peremptory terms, demanded redress for all her grievances; and, before the year had closed, the Bute cabinet was compelled to recall lord Bristol from Madrid, and to order Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador in London, to quit the kingdom. On the 4th of January, 1762, declaration of war was issued against Spain. Thus the nation was engaged in the very war which Pitt declared to be unavoidable; but with this difference, through the rejection of his advice, that we had to fight Spain with her treasury full instead of empty, and of her means of war being transferred to us. But such lessons are lost on inferior minds. Neither king nor ministers, seeing the wisdom of Pitt's policy and the folly of their own, were prevented from committing another such absurdity. They abandoned Frederick of Prussia at his greatest need. They refused to vote his usual subsidy. Bute contended that the true policy of this country was to keep clear of continental quarrels—a grand truth, which we have again and again insisted upon in this History—but he did not see that, being deep in such a quarrel, and our ally contending against gigantic odds, it was equally base and dishonourable to abandon him in such circumstances. Engagements may be properly avoided, which, when made, cannot be abruptly torn asunder without disgraceful and even criminal conduct. The consequences of this blind and ungenerous policy were as pregnant with future evil to this country as it was petty in itself. Prussia, indignant at our breach of faith, at our shameful desertion of her in her utmost extremity, refused to assist us when our own colonies of America rebelled against us, and France lent her ready aid to avenge the deprivation of Canada. Then, as we had left Prussia to stand alone, we were left to stand alone, instead of having a stanch, because a grateful, friend in the Prussian king and people. By this same execrable proceeding-for we not only abandoned Frederick, but made overtures to Austria, with which he was engaged in a mortal struggle-we thus threw him into the arms and close alliance of Russia, and were, by this, the indirect means of that guilty confederation by which Poland was afterwards rent in pieces by these powers. "Seldom, indeed," justly observes lord Mahon, "has any minister, with so short a tenure of power, been the cause of so great evils. Within a year and a half he had lost the king his popularity, and the kingdom its allies." One of those allies, Frederick of Prussia, found himself as suddenly furnished with a new friend as he had been abandoned by England. On the 5th of January, 1762, died the czarina Elizabeth. She was succeeded by her nephew, the duke of Holstein, under the title of Peter III. Peter was an enthusiastic admirer of the Prussian king; he was extravagant and incessant in his praises of him. He accepted the commission of a colonel in the Prussian service, wore its uniform, and was bent on clothing his own troops in it. It was clear that he was not quite sane, for he immediately recalled the Russian army which was acting against Frederick, A.D. 1762.] WILKES AND CHURCHILL START INTO NOTICE. hastened to make peace with him, and offered to restore all that had been won from him in the war, even to Prussia Proper, which the Russians had possession of. His example was eagerly seized upon by Sweden, which was tired of the war. Both Russia and Sweden signed treaties of peace with Frederick in May, and Peter went further: he dispatched an army into Silesia, where it had so lately been fighting against him, to fight against Austria. Elated by this extraordinary turn of affairs, the Prussian ambassador renewed his applications for money, urging that, now Russia had joined Frederick, it would be easy to subdue Austria and terminate the war. This was an opportunity for Bute to retrace with credit his steps; but he argued, on the contrary, that, having the aid of Russia, Frederick did not want that of England; and is even accused of endeavouring to persuade Russia to continue its hostilities against Prussia; and thus he totally alienated a power which might have hereafter rendered us essential service, without gaining a single point. A fresh extension of the war, instead of a contraction of it, soon developed itself. We were bound by ancient treaties to assist Portugal in any hostile crisis, and that country was now called upon by France and Spain to renounce our alliance and declare against us. Large bodies of troops were marched to its frontiers to add weight to these demands, but the king of Portugal most honourably refused to break with his old allies, whatever might happen to him. War was instantly declared against him by both Spain and France; troops were marched to invade his territories and unite them to Spain; and king Joseph sent an urgent appeal to London for succour. On the 11th of May the king sent down a royal message to the house of commons, recommending them to take measures for the assistance of Portugal. A vote of a million pounds for that purpose was proposed and carried, but not without opposition from lord George Sackville, who complained of the wonderful expenditure which had taken place in the German wars, and denounced this as excessive. Pitt started up to defend himself against any charge of corruption in the appropriation of the money whilst he was in office, opening his hand, shaking his fingers, and crying, "They are clean! none of it sticks to them!" He reminded them that, had they taken his advice, this Spanish war could hardly have existed; but, he continued, undauntedly, "You who are for continental measures, I am with you; you who are for assisting the king of Portugal, I am with you; and you who are for putting an end to the war, I am with you also; in short, I am the only man to be found that is with you all!" The session was growing to a close, and no vote for the king of Prussia's subsidy was brought forward. The duke of Newcastle, man of mediocre merit as he was, saw further than Bute into the disgraceful nature of thus abandoning a powerful ally at an extremity, as well as the impolicy of converting such a man into a mortal enemy; and, finding all remonstrances vain, resigned. Bute was glad to be rid of him; and Newcastle, finding both his remonstrance and resignation taken very coolly, had the meanness to seek to regain a situation in the cabinet, but without effect, and threw himself into the opposition. 15 head of the treasury, and named Grenville secretary of state -a fatal nomination, for Grenville lost America. Lord Barrington, though an adherent of Newcastle, became treasurer of the navy, and Sir Francis Dashwood chancellor of the exchequer. Bute, who, like all weak favourites, had not the sense to perceive that it was necessary to be moderate to acquire permanent power, immediately obtained a vacant garter, and thus parading the royal favours, augmented the rapidly growing unpopularity which his want of sagacity and honourable principle was fast creating. He was beset by legions of libels, which fully exposed his incapacity, and as freely dealt with the connection betwixt himself and the mother of the king. Amongst these libellers now started into notice John Wilkes, a name destined to figure before the public for many long years, and to draw around it the enthusiasm of the people, as the great champion of political liberty. Wilkes was one of those demagogues with a certain amount of talent, and any amount of audacity, who are forced into notoriety by the folly and despotism of governments. He was the son of a dis tiller in Clerkenwell, who had received a classical education, translated parts of Anacreon, and published editions of Theophrastus and Catullus, by which he acquired the acquaintance of Pitt, lord Temple, and other persons of rank and distinction. But his character was by no means of a stamp to recommend him. He was notorious for his excesses and dissipation. He had ill-used and quarrelled with his wife, and separated from her under disgraceful circumstances, being only compelled by law to allow her an annuity. He was at this time member of parliament for Aylesbury, and had just commenced a newspaper called "The North Briton," in opposition to one published in defence of Bute's administration, called "The Briton." Parliament was prorogued on the 2nd of June, and Wilkes's paper appeared immediately, and was excessively abusive, not only of Bute, but of Scotland and Scotchmen generally. Amongst his most active coadjutors was Charles Churchill, the satirist, a man of much caustic vigour, as his works testify, but, like Wilkes, a most dissipated rake, though a clergyman, who, like Wilkes, had also separated from his wife, and lived by satirising the actors, in his "Rosciad;" Dr. Johnson, in "The Ghost;" Hogarth, in an Epistle to that great painter, and by aiming his missives at all sorts of persons and parties. Churchill, by the encouragement of Wilkes, published his "Prophecy of Famine, a Scots' Pastoral," which he inscribed to Wilkes. In this satire he describes Scotland as the most barren and miserable of countries, and in terms which showed that he had never seen it, for he makes its rivers, the most lovely of mountain streams, dull and stagnant :— Where, slowly winding, the dull waters creep, Famine appears to "the poor, mean, despised race of Scotchmen, and tells them to quit an accursed country, where Far as the eye could reach no tree was seen; On Newcastle's resignation Bute placed himself at the She bids them quit this poverty-stricken country, and points them to the rich plains and lucrative offices of England, A barren desert, we shall seize rich plains, The success of these two congenial friends was soon con- On the 12th of August the queen was delivered of a son, the future George IV., the first-born of a family of fifteennine sons and six daughters. Oranienbaum, hastened to the capital, and, availing herself of the general discontent, gathered around her a number of resolute partisans, at the head of whom was Gregory Orloff, her paramour, and his brother Alexis, officers of the guards. The Orloffs gathered a body of the guards around her, to whom they had communicated their plan, and, on the 9th of July, 1762, they declared the emperor deposed. The troops who were called out raised a loud hurrah, supposing his son was about to be proclaimed. But presently a manifesto was read, announcing that the Russian people had deposed Peter as the sworn enemy of the country and the church, and had elected the empress, by the name of Catherine II., as the czarina. Brandy and beer were plentifully given to the soldiers; the priests were sent for to consecrate the empress, which was done by the archbishop of Novogorod. In the course of a forenoon the revolution was complete. The news flew to Oranienbaum, and count Münnich advised Peter to fly instantly to Cronstadt, where he would be secure in the great fortress, and where the fleet would enable him to bring the insurgents in the city to obedience. They were about embarking, when Peter's Holstein guards arrived, and he deemed himself too strong to have any cause of fear. The news that Catherine was approaching with twenty thousand men again alarmed him, and he sailed for Cronstadt, but too late the czarina had won it over. He returned to Oranienbaum, and there weakly gave himself up to his treacherous wife, though Münnich earnestly im Whilst Bute had been depriving Frederick of Prussia of his usual subsidy, a wonderful turn of fortune occurred to that monarch, and liberated him from his difficulties. The admiration of Peter III. of Russia had caused him to send an army of twenty thousand men into Silesia to the aid of Frederick. These were commanded by general Czernicheff, and enabled the Prussian king to assume the aggressive against the Austrians, compelling marshal Daun to take up the very position occupied by Frederick the year before-a strong entrenched camp for the defence of Schweidnitz.plored him to flee to Frederick of Prussia. Frederick and the Russian general were on the point of making a joint attack on this camp, when, on the 19th of July, Czernicheff waited on the Prussian king with astounding tidings. There had been a revolution in Russia. Peter III. was murdered; his wife Catherine had usurped the throne, and had recalled the Russian army. This revolution, so fatal to the hopes of Frederick, had been in a great measure produced by Peter's absurd passion for everything connected with Frederick. Peter had not contented himself with making peace with him, and sending forces to help him; he endeavoured to introduce Prussian regulations and fashions into both the state and army. He ordered the much more graceful Russian uniform to be set aside, and the stiff and formal one of Prussia to be adopted; he affected Frederick's contempt for religion, and attempted innovations in the church-amongst other things compelling the clergy to shave off their beards. But there were other causes than his Prussian mania which excited the resentment of his subjects. Like George of England with Hanover, he regarded himself with more complacency as duke of Holstein than as emperor of Russia. He prepared to make war on Denmark for its treatment of Holstein, and, what eventually became the most fatal to him, he quarrelled with and slighted his wife, a princess of the German house of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and gave himself up to the society of his mistress, a niece of the chancellor Woronzow, and a sister of the princess Deschkow. The czarina Catherine was not a woman to brook indignity. She was a person of the most determined character, the most powerful passions, which converted her afterwards into a modern Messalina. She suddenly left the emperor with his mistress at his country palace of Peterhof, at Catherine shut him up in a country house at Robshak, and a week afterwards he was murdered by one or both of the Orloffs, the court giving out that he died of hæmorrhoidal colic. Such sudden deaths are frequent amongst Russian monarchs. Peter had, amongst the generous things which, with all his eccentricity, he did, taken out of prison the boy Ivan, whom the czarina Anna had appointed her heir, but whom the czarina Elizabeth had set aside. Catherine again seized and shut him up in prison, where he also was afterwards murdered. In the original manifesto issued by Catherine, Frederick of Prussia was declared to be "the worst enemy of Russia." The order by Peter to evacuate Prussia as foes and to assist Frederick was countermanded; but, on examining Peter's papers, a letter of Frederick's was discovered, advising the czar to more prudent conduct, and to a more honourable treatment of his wife. This greatly mollified the disposition of Catherine towards Frederick, and she contented herself alone with the recall of the forces, but without violating the peace. Confounded as Frederick was by this change of affairs, he prevailed on Czernicheff to keep secret the imperial order for three days, whilst he attacked Daun's outposts on the heights of Burkersdorf and Leutmannersdorf, which he drove in with brilliant success, taking a great number of prisoners, and seventeen pieces of cannon. This affair is frequently called the battle of Reichenbach. Czernicheff contributed essentially to the victory, though he did not fight; for his troops, being drawn out as spectators, kept a great body of Daun's men in inaction, watching them. On the following day Czernicheff took a friendly leave of Frederick, who presented him with valuable presents, and he commenced his march homewards. On the 8th of August Frederick sat down before Schweid nitz, which cost him much trouble, expense, and bloodshed before it surrendered, on the 9th of October. In Saxony, meantime, the king's brother had defeated at Freyberg the united forces of Austria and the empire, and thus terminated the campaign which had been altogether disastrous to Maria Theresa, though at its commencement Frederick had appeared in the last extremity. Ferdinand of Brunswick maintained the struggle manfully in Westphalia, notwithstanding the change of policy in England tended to cast a damp on the war. Still, the pay for the army had not been withdrawn, as Frederick's subsidy had, and Ferdinand exerted himself with his usual spirit. He had still to contend with two French armies. The one before commanded by Broglie was now commanded by D'Estrées; the other, as before, by prince Soubise. Prince Xavier commanded a separate detachment, and the prince of Condé headed a reserve on the Lower Rhine. Ferdinand attacked the enemy on the 24th of June at Wilhelmsthal, and drove them to Cassel, with a loss of four thousand men. Towards the end of July he defeated, by the help of lord Granby, prince Xavier at Lüttemberg, and finally took Göttingen and Cassel. Ferdinand's success was complete; but, on the other hand, his nephew, the hereditary prince, was defeated by Condé, at Johannisberg, with heavy loss. England, as Pitt had foreseen, was now called on to defend her ancient ally from the attacks of Spain, and the renewed attack of France. The kings of Spain had long desired to absorb Portugal, and embody it permanently as a part of their own country. Supported by France, which promised to give her faithful aid in the enterprise, Spain now called on Emanuel Joseph, the king of Portugal, to renounce the English alliance. Spain and France designated the English as the common enemies of all maritime states; insisted that he should order all English merchants to quit his kingdom, and all English ships his ports. Under pretence of defending him against the vengeance of England, they offered to garrison his ports and fortresses with French and Spanish soldiers. The king of Portugal could regard this proposal as nothing less than an attempt to seize his kingdom, under the show of protecting it. He had strictly maintained the neutrality with these nations, and he now refused to comply with this imperious demand. Four days only were allowed for his answer, and, on receiving his decided negative, the Spanish and French ambassadors quitted Lisbon, and the Spanish troops on the frontiers began their march for the invasion. 17 finances were in the most deplorable condition; the army, such as it was, did not exceed twenty thousand; the fortresses were in ruins; the army did not possess a single commander of note; and the fleet numbered only six ships of the line, and a few frigates. The conde de Oeyras, afterwards the celebrated marquis de Pombal, was beginning, but only beginning, to institute the necessary reforms. Spain, therefore, calculated on making an easy prey of the country; but, fortunately for Portugal, Spain itself was in little better condition. Lord Tyrawley, who was then in Portugal, wrote to Mr. Pitt that, such was the condition of the two countries, an army on the frontiers between them might take its choice whether it would march to Lisbon or Madrid. Still more fortunate was it for Portugal that she possessed the alliance of England, which was at this very time attacking the Spanish colonies both east and west, and capturing her treasure ships on the home-bound voyage. The Spaniards, with twenty thousand men, under the marquis of Saria, entered the Tras os Montes, and took the towns of Miranda, Braganza, and Chaves, with Torre de Moncorvo. Another party of Spaniards penetrated south of Douro into Beira, and took Almeida. They were, however, bravely resisted by the peasantry, who withstood them more effectually than the regular troops, being commanded by some British officers. These peasants they hanged and shot whenever they fell into their hands; and their incensed comrades committed, in return, the most merciless barbarities on their prisoners. The Portuguese were soon relieved from the unequal strife by the landing of eight thousand British soldiers, commanded by lord Tyrawley, with the earl of Loudon, lord George Lennox, general Townshend, brigadiers Crawford and Burgoyne, under him. Tyrawley soon resigned, being heartily disgusted with the people and the service, and lord Loudon succeeded him. The Portuguese army was intrusted to count la Lippe, who had been master of artillery to prince Ferdinand, in Germany. Lippe showed an activity worthy of the school he had studied in. He collected his forces at Puente de Marcello to prevent the advance of the Spaniards north of the Douro, and he dispatched brigadier Burgoyne to make a diversion by falling on Valentia D'Alcantara. Burgoyne executed this commission admirably. He struck through the mountains by Castel da Vida; and, after a forced march of five days, through a most rugged and difficult country, carried Valencia D'Alcantara by a coup-dePortugal was in the worst possible condition to resist an main, securing a great quantity of arms, ammunition, and enemy. The earthquake in 1755, and a conspiracy in 1758, stores, and taking prisoner a Spanish general, with all his had reduced the country to a much feebler condition than staff. He also levied considerable sums on the town, and usual. The king was a lawless debauchee, and the con- made his retreat as successfully. This brilliant movement spiracy had been excited by his licentious conduct. He confounded the plans of the Spaniards, but did not prevent had dishonoured the marchioness of Tavora, and the duchess the count D'Aranda taking Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, of Aveiro and her daughter. He had narrowly escaped with D'Aranda then marched for Castel Branco, and succeeded his life in one of these scandalous adventures, and he had in crossing the Tagus, at Villa Velha, in spite of a force sanguinarily avenged the conspiracy of the houses of Aveiro under count St. Jago. Meantime, Burgoyne, who was and Tavora, by beheading the chiefs of these houses, who posted at Niza, threw a detachment across the Tagus, had sought to punish the outrage committed against them, under colonel Lee, on a dark night, whilst he himself and by burning the Jesuit, Malagrida, at the stake. occupied the attention of the Spaniards by feigning to attack them in front from Niza. Lee's detachment thus came suddenly on the rear of the Spaniards, surprised and Besides the disaffection arising from these causes, the country was suffering from the want of government. The |