no minifter fince the Earl of Clarendon in the zenith of his power had poffeffed. He had not, however, as yet attained the fummit of his ambition. The duke of Newcastle still held the high and pre-eminent office of first commiffioner of the treafury, but this poft the FAVORITE now thought he might fafely affume. The duke of Newcastle, therefore, at the latter end of May 1762, the feffion of parliament being nearly closed, received an intimation that his refignation was expected. His grace was informed, that the king purposed, in confideration of his past fervices, to grant him an ample and adequate penfion. But the duke, whose generofity bordered upon negligence and profufion, nobly replied, "that if he could no longer be permitted to serve his country, he was at least determined not to be a burden to it."

The difmiffion of this nobleman, who had been ever diftinguished for the zeal and fidelity of his attachment to the houfe of Hanover, and who had impaired his fortune and devoted his life to the support of that cause in which he had been from his early youth engaged, excited extreme indignation in the breafts of the whole whig party, amongst whom his fteadinefs, affability and difinterestedness made him, notwithstanding the mediocrity of his talents, exceedingly popular. It was thought a complication of levity and ingratitude thus to difcard an old and faithful fervant, who in the course of nature could not be expected long to trouble any competitor; and it discovered fuch an impatience in the new minifter to engrofs an abfolute monopoly of power, as gave countenance to fufpicions of deep and dangerous defigns. The duke, who had been treated with a flattering degree of personal attention, or at least with a refpectful decorum and civility, fo long as his name was deemed neceffary by the projectors of the new fyftem, appeared himfelf highly to refent the rude and compulfive mode of his difmiffion; and he hesitated not again to connect himself with Mr. Pitt, for many years his alternate rival and af

fociate;

fociate; with whom he had never indeed entered into any very cordial alliance, but their mutual animofity against the earl of Bute now formed a new bond of amity and concord between them.

The duke of Devonshire, foon after the removal of the duke of Newcastle, unable to brook the marked and contemptuous neglect which he experienced, refigned indignantly his office of lord chamberlain, and was by the king's own hand ftruck out of the lift of the privy council. The earl of Hardwicke retired in difguft; and the duke of Grafton, lord Ravenfworth, and lord Afhburnham, with several other noblemen of high diftinction, now ranged themselves on the fide of the oppofition. Lord Anson was fucceeded at this period in the admiralty by the earl of Halifax, recently returned from the government of Ireland, in which he was fucceeded by the duke of Northumberland; and Mr George Grenville was advanced to the fecretaryship vacated by the earl of Bute. But in a short time this order of things was reverfed: Lord Halifax took the feals, and Mr. Grenville was placed at the head of the admiralty. No political conflict however could take place before the ensuing winter, and the fummer months passed angry and ineffectual discontent. On the 12th of Auguft*, a day aufpicious to the house of Brunswic, as the era of its acceffion to the throne of Great Britain-aufpicious alfo to the kingdom at large, whilft the principles of liberty civil and religious, on which that acceffion was founded, continue to be the rule of their government-the nation was gladdened by the birth of a prince of Wales, whose aim, whose ftudy, and whofe pride may it be to establish, extend, and improve that free and happy conftitution of which he is the hereditary guardian and defender!

over in

The first and greatest object of the new minifter, now honored, by a flattering affociation with the duke of York

firft

*1762.

firft prince of the blood, with the order of the garter, after his open affumption of the office and authority of premier, was the restoration of peace-a laudable and noble defign, but attended with very confiderable difficulty. The majority of the nation, elated or rather intoxicated with fuccefs, were eager for the continuance of the war, in the fanguine hope of new victories. Already grafping in their golden dreams the treafures of Mexico and Peru, they appeared wholly regardless of the immenfe fums annually added to the national debt, and of the oppreffive taxes neceffarily impofed for difcharging the interest of the fucceffive loans→→→ not reflecting that every rational purpose of the war had been long fince obtained, and that additional conquefts were in fact only additional incumbrances.

Exclufive of this prevailing and popular folly, the premier had given extreme difguft by the general tenor of his conduct, proud, artful, and selfish; and by the indecent and precipitate measures which he adopted to expel all the members of the late administration from their pofts, and to intrude himfelf and his partifans into all the efficient and refponsible offices of government.

A powerful party, compofed of men the most distinguished for rank, influence, and ability, was now formed in oppofition to the minifter; and this oppofition was openly countenanced by the duke of Cumberland, uncle to the king, who had never connected himself with the tory or country party in oppofition to the court in the late reign, and who had imbibed the whig principles and prejudices in their full extent. Upon whatever terms the peace might be concluded, it was not to be imagined that fatisfaction could be given to the political antagonists of the minifter, who would not fail to reprefent it as inadequate to the fucceffes of the war, if not inconfiftent with the intereft, and difgraceful to the reputation, of England.

Thefe confiderations did not however deter the minifter from caufing fecret intimations to be given, that the revival

of

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 ambaffador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the king of Great Britain; and the duke of Bedford, a nobleman diftinguished for honor and probity, and who had fucceffively occupied, the high offices of fecretary of ftate, first lord of the admiralty, lord privy feal, and lord lieutenant of Ireland, was delegated in the fame capacity, invested with the fame diplomatic diftinctions, to the court of France. And the negotiators being actuated by a mutual anxiety for the re-establishment of peace, preliminaries were figned 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 figned, on terms which he represented as very advantageous to England; and he recommended that union at home, which was fo necessary to the adoption of those measures which could alone relieve the nation from the heavy burdens entailed upon it by the prosecution of a long and expensive war." When the addrefs in reply came under the confideration of the house of commons, Mr. Pitt, in a long and elaborate fpeech, expreffed his entire difapprobation of the tenor of the treaty, which he ftigmatized as impolitic, and derogatory to the honor and interefts of the kingdom. He was determined, afflicted as he was with illness, at the hazard of his life, he said, to attend the house that day— to 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 deareft interefts of the nation,

and

and facrificed the public faith by an abandonment of our allies. He was anfwered at large by Mr. Fox, who, although he continued to occupy only the fubordinate poft of Paymaster of the Army, was, at this time, the ableft advocate of Adminiftration in the Houfe of Commons; and after a warm and ample difcuffion, the address, as proposed by the partisans of the court, paffed 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 oppofition, the addrefs paffed in this Houfe alfo by a fimilar majority. And in justice to the Earl of Bute, the impartiality of history will acknowledge that this famous peace, fo much and so long the subject of declamation and invective, was in fact liable to no folid or ferious objection*.

Had the minifter 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 adverfe parties; but his folicitude for the attainment of that great and defirable object did not prevent him from difcerning and adopting the neceffary provifions for fecuring all the effential interefts 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 fituated to the east of the great river Miffifippi, together with Cape Breton, and VOL. I.

E

the

*The most plaufible objection to the treaty was the ceffion of the ifland of St. Lucie to France; the importance of which, from its fituation and excellent harbor, feems indeed to have been better understood by the French than the English negotiators. Mr. Pitt had pofitively refufed, in his negotiation with Mr. Buffy, to cede St. Lucie to France.