of the ineffectual, negotiation of the last year would be not unacceptable; and the king of Sardinia was folicited to offer his mediation for this purpose. The court of Versailles readily embracing the overtures now made by England, the Duc de Nivernois arrived in London, in the month of September, invested with the character of ambafsador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the king of Great Britain; and the duke of Bedford, a nobleman distinguished for honor and probity, and who had fucceffively occupied the high offices of fecretary of state, first lord of the admiralty, lord privy feal, and lord lieutenant of Ireland, was delegated in the fame capacity, invested with the fame diplomatic distinctions, to the court of France. And the negotiators being actuated by a mutual anxiety for the re-establishment of peace, preliminaries were signed and interchanged at Fontainebleau, in the beginning of November 1762, between the minifters of Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal.

On the 25th of November the parliament was convened; and the king, in his speech from the throne, informed the two houses "that the preliminary articles were actually signed, on terms which he represented as very advantageous to England; and he recommended that union at home, which was so necessary to the adoption of those meafures which could alone relieve the nation from the heavy burdens entailed upon it by the profecution of a long and expenfive war." When the address in reply came under the consideration of the house of commons, Mr. Pitt, in a long and elaborate speech, expressed his entire disapprobation of the tenor of the treaty, which he stigmatized as impolitic, and derogatory to the honor and interests of the kingdom. He was determined, afflicted as he was with illness, at the hazard of his life, he faid, to attend the house that dayto raise up his voice, his hand, and his arm against the preliminary articles of a treaty, which obfcured all the glories of the war, furrendered the dearest interests of the nation,

and

and sacrificed the public faith by an abandonment of our allies. He was answered at large by Mr. Fox, who, although he continued to occupy only the fubordinate post of Paymafter of the Army, was, at this time, the ablest advocate of Administration in the House of Commons; and after a warm and ample discussion, the address, as proposed by the partisans of the court, passed the House by a great majority of voices.

In the House of Lords the minister himself vindicated the treaty, with a spirit and energy which was not expected; and he concluded his speech with declaring, "that he wished no other epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb, than that he was the adviser of the peace, on the merits of which their Lordships were then called upon to decide." Notwithstanding the arguments and objections of the peers in opposition, the address passed in this House also by a fimilar majority. And in justice to the Earl of Bute, the impartiality of history will acknowledge that this famous peace, so much and so long the subject of declamation and invective, was in fact liable to no folid or ferious objection*.

Had the minister been as indifferent to the re-establishment of the public tranquillity as his predeceffor Mr. Pitt, it is poffible indeed that fome farther conceffions of very doubtful advantage to England might have been obtained, or rather extorted, from the adverse parties; but his folicitude for the attainment of that great and defirable object did not prevent him from difcerning and adopting the necessary provifions for securing all the essential interests of Great Britain. By this treaty the entire province of Canada was ceded and guarantied to the English, with all that part of Louisiana which is situated to the east of the great river Missisippi, together with Cape Breton, and VOL. I.

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the

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the other islands in the gulph and river of St. Laurence. In the West Indies, the island of Grenada and the Grenadines were ceded to England, in full right; also, of the neutral islands, Dominique, St. Vincent, and Tobago. In Africa, Senegal with its dependencies is guarantied to England. In the East Indies, his most chriftian majesty acknowledges Mahomed Aly Khan, as nabob of the Carnatic; and Salabat Zing, as fubah of the Decan-renouncing all acquifitions made on the coaft of Coromandel fince the year 1749, and engaging not to erect fortifications in any part of the kingdom of Bengal. In Europe, he agrees to reftore Minorca in the fame condition as when conquered by the arms of the most christian king. He consents that the harbor and fortifications of Dunkirk shall be demolished. Finally, he stipulates that the territories belonging to the elector of Hanover, the landgrave of Heffe, &c. now occupied by the armies of France, shall be evacuated, together with the fortresses of Cleves, Wefel, Gueldres, &c. belonging to the king of Pruffia; and the two monarchs of France and England engage not to furnish fuccors of any kind to their respective allies in Germany. The difficult question relative to the validity of the prizes captured before the declaration of war, is pafled over in profound and difcreet filence.

The king of Spain on his part cedes and guaranties in full right to England the eastern and western Floridas, and in general all that Spain possesses on the continent of America, to the east or to the fouth-east of the Miffifippi; in confequence of which important ceffion, in conjunction with that of the eastern part of Louisiana, and the entire province of Canada, an immenfe country, capable of unlimited improvement, and bounded by a line of demarcation the most clear and definite, was gained to the empire of Britain. His catholic majesty also relinquishes for himself and his fuccessors all pretenfions which he may have formed to the right of fishing on the banks of Nefoundland. land. He confirms and establishes for ever the privilege or indulgence enjoyed by the English of cutting logwood on the coaft of Honduras, ftipulating only, that no fortifications shall be erected upon the territorial dominions of Spain. Finally, his catholic majesty engages entirely to evacuate, on the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, all the lands, cities, and castles, belonging to his most faithful majesty, in the same condition they were in when conquered by the arms of Spain.

In return for these great and important cessions, Great Britain engages to restore to France, in Europe, the island of Belleifle-in Africa, the island of Goree-in the Weft Indies, the islands of Guadaloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucie-in the East Indies, Pondicherri and Chandernagore. The right of France to fish on the banks of Newfoundland is recognized, and the small islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon are ceded as a shelter for the fishermen. The fortrefs of the Havannah, and the other acquisitions of England, without referve, including the recent and as yet unafcertained conquest of the Manillas, are restored to Spain.

A great obstacle to the conclusion of the treaty had been removed by the alteration which had taken place in the politics of England respecting the king of Pruffia, and in the beneficial change in the situation of that monarch, who had now concluded a peace with Russia and Sweden, and to whom notice had been already given, that the annual fubfidy treaty would be no more renewed. The territories of Pruffia occupied by the French being evacuated, that monarch had, however, upon the face of the treaty of Fontainebleau, no just ground of complaint, his native force being equal to his own defence against the House of Austria; or, if it were not, England was under no obligation farther to exhaust her treasures in order to defend him. Both parties being however weary of a war which had been

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been so long continued with alternate loss and advantage, they foon came to terms of accommodation*.

Although

* If, however, the teftimony of the king of Prussia may be confided in, that monarch had great reason to complain of what he styles the " odious" conduct of the English court, from the æra that lord Bute's influence began to predominate. It must indeed be acknowledged, that England by her alliance with Pruffia was placed in circumstances so embarraffing, that it was very difficult, or, to speak the truth, wholly impracticable, at once to confult the interests and to maintain the honor of the kingdom. To continue the war for the fole purpose of compelling France to RESTORE Cleves, Wesel, and Gueldres, to the king of Pruffia-a condition to which France, equally perplexed by her engagements with the court of Vienna, could not without extreme disgrace fubmit-would, on the part of England, have been carrying the point of honor to a degree of romantic extravagance. On the other hand, entirely to abandon the interests of the king of Prussia with the cold unfeeling apathy of Lord Bute, which the warmth of resentment expressed in the remonstrances of the court of Berlin seems at length to have converted into absolute malignity, can never be réconciled to our ideas of good faith, and much less to any fentiment of national dignity and generofity.

The king of Prussia, in evident allusion and intentional contrast to the character of the reigning monarch, says of the late king George II." Il termina for regne glorieux par une mort douce et prompte. Ce prince, entr'autres bonnes qualités, avoit une fermeté héroique, qui faisoit que ses alliés pouvoient prendre une confiance entière en sa perfonne." Speaking of the state of affairs on the consequent acceffion of the new monarch, he says, "Deux hommes se trouvoient à la tête de ce gouvernement. L'un étoit PITT; il avoit l'ame élevée, un efprit capable de grands projets, de la fermeté dans l'exécution, un attachement inflexible à ses opinions, parcequ'il les croyoit avantageuses à sa patrie, qu'il aimoit. L'autre c'étoit BUTE; il avoit été gouverneur du roi. Plus ambitieux qu'habile, il vouloit dominer à l'ombre de l'autorité fouveraine." After Mr. Pitt, finding the abfolute afcendant acquired by his antagonist, had retired from court, to use the expreffion of the royal historian, "plein d'indignation," the minifter Bute not only refused to renew the subsidy, but actually made propofitions to the emperor Peter the third, through the medium of prince Gallitzin, to prevent his concluding a feparate peace with Prussia. The emperor sent a copy of Prince Gallitzin's dispatch to the king of Prussia, in order that he might he apprized of the treachery of the English court. Lord Bute also made secret ad vances to the court of Vienna, offering very liberally the spoils of Pruffia to the empress queen, in case she was disposed to come to an accommodation; but prince Kaunitz, in the name of the empress, declared, "that she would accept of no peace of which England was the mediatrix," The English minister had, as the king of Praffia afirms, no fcruple to permit France to keep poffeffion of the countries of Cleves, Wefel, and Gueldres, though it was at length agreed that they should be evacuated; after which, as lord Bute hefitated not to express himself in the houfe of peers, "they were to be fcrambled for." And on the signing of the preliminaries, large bodies of Austrians and Pruffians were actually beginning their march to the Westphalian frontier, in order to dispute the posseffion. But France, alarmed at the idea of a war in the Low Countries, thought proper to affent to the restoration of these territories, on condition that Pruffia should agree to figma treaty of neutrality for the Netherlands. But, before this neutrality could take effect, the treaty of Hubertsburg was concluded. The change of ministers and counsels which took place at the acceffron of the present king, excited scarcely less astonishment abroad than the dismission of the famous Whig Administration of Queen Anne half a century before.

Wide Œuvres du Roi de Pruffe.