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power safer in the hands of a native of distinction, than in those of any agent or agents of any foreigner whatever.

The nobility and gentry of these realms may be said to be in a conspiracy against themselves, while they neglect to explode that vulgar error which sends our Princes in quest of foreigners for wives, in whom their private happiness is as little consulted as the public welfare: and in which alliances we sometimes import not the best, but the worst blood on the continent.

There was likewise a third circumstance this year, which originated in the anxiety for peace, manifested by the Chief of the faction, who had obtained the King's ear, and to whom he had given his confidence. The French ministry were not unacquainted with the secret influence of Lord Bute, from the first moment of the King's accession: but they reckoned too precipitately and too largely on his power; which they measured by their knowledge of his inclination. Under this impression of opinion, the French minister, the Duke de Choiseul, proposed to Mr. Pitt a negotiation for peace, upon plausible pretences. All the papers concerning this negotiation, the reader will find in the Appendix, marked H. Mr. Bussy, the French minisVOL. I.

T

ter, arrived in London in May 1761, and Mr. Stanley, the British minister, arrived at Paris in the same month. This negotiation continued until August, at which time the court of France had prevailed on the King of Spain to join them in the war. Mr. Pitt had suspected for some time that this junction was in contemplation; and upon the delivery of a Memorial by M. Bussy, on the interests of Spain (when there was a Spanish minister at our court), he was confirmed in his suspicions. He saw that a war with Spain was inevitable: and he immediately made preparations for it. He had ordered an attack to be made on the French island of Martinico, and the other islands belonging to that power in the West Indies. And it was now his resolution to hasten those measures, and to send the fleet and army, as soon as those islands were reduced, against the Havannah, the key of the Spanish West Indies; and also to reinforce the army with the troops from North America, where the services were completed.

Martinico, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent, were taken by his order. The French power in the East Indies was totally destroyed; and Belleisle, on the coast of France, was taken.

There was a very unaccountable negligence

in equipping the expedition against the Havannah, under the subsequent administration, who could not avoid attempting this conquest, because the plan of it was left to them by Mr. Pitt. After taking the last of the French islands in the West Indies the victorious troops remained idle a considerable time. Had they been sent immediately against the Havannah, as Mr. Pitt intended, the Spaniards would have been attacked before they were prepared, and the place would have been taken before the unhealthy season commenced. The misfortune was, that though the ministry sent only four ships from England, to join the armament Mr. Pitt had assembled in the West Indies; yet these ships did not sail from England until the month of March 1762; at which time, according to Mr. Pitt's plan, they would have been before the Havannah; for Martinico surrendered on the 12th of February. Our great loss of men at the Havannah was more owing to the unhealthy season, than to the resistance of the enemy*.

* There was a suspicion, and it seems to have been founded on neither ordinary nor weak probability, that the ministry would have rejoiced at a defeat before the Havannah. The officers were appointed upon the recommendation of the Duke of Cumberland, who was not less obnoxious to the faction, called the King's friends, than Mr. Pitt himself. Every thing was delayed, and every thing was sent too late; but the ardour and spirit of the army and navy

CHAP. XX.

State of France.-Mr. Pitt opposed in his design to send some ships to Newfoundland.-That place taken. Retaken.—Mr. Pitt opposed in his design to attack the Spanish Flota.-Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple opposed in their advice to recall Lord Bristol from Madrid.-Three councils upon it.Mr. Pitt and Lord Temple resign.-Design against Panama and Manilla.-Assertions of Lord Temple and Lord Bute.-The Gazette account of Mr. Pitt's resignation.-Virulence and rancour of the King's party to Mr. Pitt.-His Letter to the City of London-All the Spanish Treasure arrived in Spain.-Explanatory Note.Mr. Pitt greatly applauded in the City of London.-War declared against Spain.-Epitome of Mr. Pitt's administration.

FRA

RANCE at this time was reduced to the lowest state of distress and despondency. All her colonies were in the hands of Great Britain. Her arms

thwarted the design. The advices of this important conquest arrived in England when the negotiation for peace was nearly finished; the negotiation was prolonged by it, because the ministers were obliged to increase in their demands! a matter that was quite opposite to their private wishes; which were to obtain peace immediately upon any terms, in order to secure their places.

The

had been discomfited in every quarter. payment of her public bills was stopped; and she might literally be called a bankrupt nation. She was reduced to a more distressed and humbled condition by the three years administration of Mr. Pitt, than by the ten years war of the Duke of Marlborough*. Her navy was ruined: She had not at this time ten ships of the line fit for service; yet with these her ministers resolved to make their last effort.

1

France had never been so much pressed by England, as she was during Mr. Pitt's administration. An Englishman might, at this period, with some propriety ask, Where were now her 450,000 fighting men, which her ministers boasted of in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth? And where her sailors, who in the same reign fought on board one hundred ships of war? It may be answered, that we had thousands of her sailors in prison, and that her number of land forces was diminished one half. So reduced was her navy in November 1759, it is well known she was obliged to force the peasants into that service; and it is well known that, however decreased her armies might be, compared with the flourishing times of Louis the Fourteenth, still it was with the greatest difficulty the government could pay and provide for those armies ; and had they resolved upon an augmentation of them, their revenues would have failed to support them, and what is more, the augmentation itself was impracticable. The dregs of the people, and the lower artificers, were already swept away by the recruiting serjeant; and the fields were in a manner abandoned.Whoever travelled through France at that juncture, might see the women not only drive, but hold the plough. And in some provinces it was no uncommon spectacle to behold two women yoked with one cow drawing the plough.