Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/395

No. 128] We have had 3 officers killed ; 2 officers and 2 cadets wounded. Such a victory, so entirely unexpected, seeing the inequality of the forces, is the fruit of Mr Dumas' experience, and of the activity and valor of the officers under his command.



128. "The Empire is no more" (1757) BY SECRETARY WILLIAM PITT

T is judged the most compendious and sure method of opening and conveying to your excellency with due clearness and precision, the scope and end of the measure in question, to refer you to the minute itself, in extenso, unanimously approved by all his Majesty's servants consulted in his most secret affairs, and containing the sum and substance, as well as the grounds, of the King s royal intention in this violent and dangerous crisis, which minute is conceived in the following words, viz. —

"Their lordships, having taken into consideration the formidable progress of the arms of France, and the danger to Great Britain and her allies resulting from a total subversion of the system of Europe, and more especially from the most pernicious extension of the influence of France, by the fatal admission of French garrisons into Ostend and Nieuport, their lordships are most humbly of opinion, that nothing can so effectually tend, in the present unhappy circumstances, to the restoration of Europe in general, and in particular to the successful prosecution of the present just and necessary war, until a peace can be made on safe and honourable terms, as a more intimate union with the crown of Spain. In this necessary view their lordships most humbly submit their opinion to your Majesty's great wisdom — that overtures of a negociation should be set on foot with that court, in order to engage Spain, if possible, to join their arms to those of your Majesty, for the obtaining a lust and honourable peace, and mainly for recovering and restoring to