1762.

CONDITIONS OF THE PEACE.

89

point of honour by France, being held for the Empress Queen, as the ally of that sovereign. Minorca and Belleisle were to be exchanged, and the fortifications of Dunkirk reduced, in conformity with the provisions of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Spain was compelled to submit to still deeper humiliation. For a series of years, that court had preferred complaints against Great Britain, founded upon three capital points. The first referred to the captures which had been made by British cruisers. The second to the claim asserted of cutting logwood in Honduras. The third to the right of the Spanish to fish on the banks of Newfoundland. These grievances formed the subject of that famous memorial which De Bussy had ventured to tack on to the manifesto of his own government: and were subsequently made the grounds of the Spanish declaration of war. Every one of these points was now given up. The question as to the captures was referred to the English Court of Admiralty. The right of British subjects to cut logwood at Honduras was recognised and protected. The claim of the Spanish to fish on the banks of Newfoundland was formally abandoned.

Had Pitt remained in power, it is probable that, instead of concluding the peace of Paris, he would have profited by the complete success of his own policy to strike a final and fatal blow at the united House of Bourbon. But there is a point beyond which even triumph and success may be unsafely pushed; and it was better perhaps that Bute should bring a glorious war to an abrupt and undignified termination, than that a minister of surpassing genius and patriotic pride should stimulate his country's appetite for conquest and military fame. The despair too of a great enemy is formidable, and it was as well to stop short of extreme provocation. England might perhaps at that time have retained Belleisle and taken Minorca; kept possession of the

90

GENERAL PEACE.

CH. II.

Havannah, and dissolved the Family Compact. By such a course of proceeding, France might have been insulted and Spain injured, but no permanent benefit could have been secured to the haughty conqueror. On the contrary, the internal resources of those great nations, and the gallant spirit of their people, must at no distant day have led to a renewal of the conflict, when England, no longer possessed of her Chatham to direct her councils and rally her powers, might in her turn have experienced the vicissitudes of human affairs. It was better as it was. The details of the treaty are open to criticism; but it secured to this country everything worth having, or that she was likely to maintain.

A general pacification followed. Austria and Prussia, left alone on the battle-field of Europe, exhausted by seven years of war, deserted by their respective allies, and finding that neither had gained, nor was likely to gain, any advantage over the other, were at last content to cease from strife. The terms were short and simple. Each party consented to withdraw within his own territory, which was to have the same limits as before the war. It would have been well if so much energy and ability as had been displayed on this great theatre had been merely thrown away; or even if the mischief had been confined to the blood and treasure actually expended in the conflict. But profusely as these were lavished, they were the least in the amount of evil inflicted on the human race by this desolating strife. All the nobler ends, nay, even the ordinary purposes of civil government, were neglected or abandoned in the countries, where this glorious game of war was played; the peaceful inhabitants were ruined; in many districts their homes were plundered, dishonoured, and destroyed, and themselves left to perish; the fruits of the earth trampled down, and the soil itself devastated. We are fain to hope that

1762.

GENERAL PEACE.

91

the present generation entertain juster views than the world has hitherto recognised; and that religion and reason may henceforth find themselves adequately reinforced by education and interest in averting, whenever possible, the enormous wickedness and retributive calamities of war.

92

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

CH. III.

PROGRESS

CHAPTER III.

OF COMMERCE-MARRIAGE OF THE KING MEANS EMPLOYED FOR PROCURING A VOTE OF PARLIAMENT IN FAVOUR OF THE TREATY OF PEACE-PROSCRIPTION OF THE WHIGS-WILKES AND THE NORTH BRITON-RESIGNATION OF BUTE-NEGOTIATION WITH PITT-THE BEDFORD ADMINISTRATION-THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

Domestic events.

THE domestic History of England during the administration of Pitt was almost a blank. The nation was absorbed in the prosecution of the war. In Parliament, the rage of faction was hushed, and the House of Commons confined itself mostly to its ancient province of granting aids and subsidies to the Crown. If a member was so venturesome as to utter a word of remonstrance against the prodigious sums he was called upon to vote, the great minister would instantly put him down with a word, or even with a glance.* Sometimes it would please him to come down to the House with demands of unprecedented supplies, himself anticipating opposition by exaggerating their magnitude, and challenging an objector to stand forth' and be branded as an 'Austrian.'

The expenditure was indeed immense, and the daring minister himself had moments of uneasiness and apprehension, when, amidst the excitement of Increase of the military triumphs, he cast his eyes upon the gigantic growth of debt by which they were accompanied. The public debt, at the accession

national debt.

* Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i.

1757-62.

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

93

of George the Second, amounted in round numbers to fifty-two millions. At the conclusion of the peace of Paris, it had reached nearly to one hundred and thirty-nine millions. After deducting about thirtyone millions and a half, the cost of the Spanish war of 1739, which was got up by the patriots for factious purposes, the difference of upwards of fiftyfive millions is to be charged to the Colonial and German wars just terminated.* By far the greater proportion of these sums was raised by way of loan. At the peace of 1763, the floating debt was something under fourteen millions, the greater part of which was funded in the following year.

Many men were appalled at the vast pressure thus accumulated on public credit, and not without reason. No doubt commerce had received an impulse from the war, and conquests might open fresh markets to manufactures; the increase of commerce, however, was in no proportion to the permanent charge upon the national income which the war had created. But if the wealth of the nation did not increase in proportion with her burdens, it was manifest that the latter could not be sustained. It was from the resources of commerce chiefly that this augmentation of wealth must be derived. Corn had been hitherto a considerable article of exportation; but this, the staple produce of the soil, was not increased in proportion to the increase of the population. Manufactures had made but slow progress: and the cotton trade, which now constitutes a full half of the exports of the kingdom, was then comparatively insignificant. The home markets languished for want of internal communication. The wonders of the steam engine were unknown. It was the genius of Hargreaves and Arkwright, Brind

* Hamilton on the National Smith's Wealth of Nations: Art. Debt (3rd edition), p. 100.- Public Debts.