Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/24

10 business, though frank and even jocose in his manner; that he had great influence with the king, even against Madame Pompadour, and that there was disunion in the court, the Dauphin being regarded as favouring the Jesuits, and the Jesuits being charged with being the instigators of Damiens, since so famous as Robert-le-Diable, who stabbed the king in the midst of his guards in 1757.

Choiseul made, certainly, large offers for a peace. It was that each power should retain all such of its conquests as should be in its hands, subject to exchanges and equivalents, in Europe, on the 1st of May next; in America, the West Indies, and Africa, on the 1st of July; and in the East Indies on the 1st of September. This would include Canada, Cape Breton, Guadaloupe, Marigalante, Goree, Pondicherry, &c. Minorca and Gottingen he proposed to retain, as well as Amaboo and Acra, on the African coast, some other places being considered as equivalents. But Pitt had declared that he would never make another peace of Utrecht. He considered that we had France down, and he determined to retain everything of value. He therefore replied that the proper period for the uti possidetis principle of treaty to take place was that on which the treaty was really signed, that it might so happen that it would not be signed at the dates named, and he did this in order to complete a scheme, which he had already nearly accomplished, that of seizing on Belleisle, an island on the coast of France, in the Bay of Biscay, eleven miles long and four wide, high and rocky, containing, however, fertile plains, salt-works, and about five thousand inhabitants, mostly fishermen.

The possession of this island, Pitt knew very well, could be of no farther use to England than as a humiliation to France, and as a set-off for Minorca. He had sent an armament against it, in April, consisting of nine thousand men, under general Hodgson, and several men-of-war under commodore Keppel. A landing was attempted on the 8th of that month, but was unsuccessful, five hundred men being killed in the endeavour. Pitt, by no means discouraged, sent out fresh reinforcements, and orders to persevere. On the 25th a fresh attempt was made in Locmaria Bay, and, notwithstanding the almost inaccessible nature of the rocks, our men forced their way, and besieged the governor, chevalier de St. Croix, in the strong fortress of Palais. St. Croix made a most gallant defence, seized general Crawford and two of his aides-de-camp, in a sally, killed some hundreds of men, and held out till the town was taken by storm, and then retired into the citadel. As the French had no fleet, and therefore no means of sending him succour, he was eventually compelled to capitulate on the 7th of June, on condition that he and his troops should march out with all the honours of war, and be set safely on the French coast.

The news of this loss was speedily followed in Paris by that of the loss of Dominica in the West, and of Pondicherry in the East Indies, as well as by the defeat at Kirch-Denkern.

These reverses were calculated to make France more compliant; yet Pitt was astonished to find, instead of compliance, a great spirit of resistance. Choiseul would by no means admit that Belleisle was an equivalent for Minorca. He demanded Guadaloupe and Belleisle too, simply in lieu of the French conquests in Germany. He now demurred to the surrender of Cape Breton, or in any case to forego the right of fishing along its coasts. He was not content with Amaboo or Acra; he demanded Senegal or Goree. He demurred also to destroy the fortifications of Dunkirk, raised in contempt of the treaty of Utrecht. All captures made at sea previous to the declaration of war must be restored; and in Germany, though he was willing to withdraw the French troops, it was only on condition that the troops commanded by prince Ferdinand should not reinforce the Prussian army.

The secret of this wonderfully augmented boldness of tone on the part of France soon transpired. Choiseul had been endeavouring to secure the alliance of Spain, and saw himself about to succeed. Spain was smarting under many losses and humiliations from the English during the late war. The old question of England interfering with the traffic of the Spanish South American colonies remained, and had excited renewed bitterness by the daring with which the English merchants continued it. English cruisers had frequently, in pursuit of French ships, made free to mistake Spanish ones for French. Whilst England traded in defiance of Spain with her colonies, the English fishing vessels on the coasts of Newfoundland drove away the fishing vessels from the Basque provinces, which claimed a right to fish there by an article of the treaty of Utrecht. Whilst general Wall, the Spanish minister at Madrid, urged these complaints on the earl of Bristol, our ambassador there, and the conde de Fuentes, the Spanish ambassador in London, urged them on Pitt, and found little regard paid to these statements, Choiseul was dextrously inflaming the minds of the Spanish court against England on these grounds. He represented England as the universal tyrant of the seas, and the sworn enemy of every other maritime state. He offered to assist in the recovery of Gibraltar, and to make over Minorca to Spain. By these means he induced Spain to go into what became the celebrated —that is, a compact by which France and Spain bound themselves to mutually succour and support each other; to consider the enemy of either power the enemy of both in all quarters of the world; to give to the subjects of each residing in the dominions of the other all the privileges of native subjects; and to admit the king of Naples, the son of the Spanish king, to this compact, but no prince or potentate whatever, except he were of the house of Bourbon.

This was the sort of result of the succession of a Bourbon to the crown of Spain which had been foreseen from the first, which bad inspired Louis XIV. with the scheme, and which had equally armed England, Holland, and Austria against it. Besides the general compact, there was a particular one, which engaged that, should England and France remain at war on the 1st of May, 1762, Spain should on that day declare war against England, and should at the same time receive possession of Minorca. The existence of these compacts was kept with all possible secrecy; but Mr. Stanley penetrated to a knowledge of them in Paris, and his information was fully confirmed from other sources. The lord marischal, who had received a pardon at the entreaty of the