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The rule of the exclusively Whig party in England was over at last. Ever since the House of Hanover had come to the throne, this party of the aristocracy had governed. Under King George II, it had sunk from mediocrity to incompetency. The Duke of Newcastle, its prime minister, had been such for thirty years, in all of which period he is said to have "learned nothing and achieved nothing."

For years England and France had been at war. Sometimes the issues were obscured, but, to the observant eye, it had been apparent for some years that the contests were really for supremacy in America and India, in both of which countries England and France were attempting to build up empires.

Since 1748, when the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle between England, France and Holland, was signed, British prestige had been on the wane. By the terms of this treaty, conquests all over the world were mutually restored. The treaty settled nothing. To Englishmen and provincials alike, it was a galling piece of stupidity. The causes for dissatisfaction continuing, in 1755 war again broke out between England and France. The same political party remained in power in England and the same policy of imbecility was being pursued. In America, Braddock's army was annihilated by a handful of Canadian militia and a few hundred Indians. In the Mediterranean, the French outwitted the English Admiral Bing, and captured the Island of Minorca. In Hanover, the Duke of Cumberland, the son of the King of England, surrendered an army of thirty thousand men to the French. In distant India, Calcutta had fallen and the tragedy of the Black Hole had sent a thrill of resentment through the country; the French and the natives had almost extinguished English power. Over a