into utter perdition. If they stop now, the nation may recover; but if by such a flattering address we encourage them to go on, it may soon become impossible for them to retreat. For the sake of Europe, therefore, for the sake of my country, I most heartily join in putting a negative upon the question."

After a long debate, the address was carried by a majority of 278 to 149.

THE AUGMENTATION OF THE ARMY. INVASION.

APPREHENSION OF A FRENCH

1755. December. England was at this time thrown into a state of great alarm by the apprehension of a French invasion. Warlike preparations, on a most extensive scale, were carrying on throughout France. The fortifications of Dunkirk were put under repair; an order was issued, requiring all British subjects to quit the French territories; and many English vessels were seized in the different ports of France, and their crews sent to prison. The French subjects were invited to equip privateers; great numbers of artificers and seamen were employed in fitting out a formidable squadron at Brest; large bodies of troops were marched down to the coasts, and a considerable number of transports were being put into a state of preparation.

On the 5th December, the Secretary at War* made a motion in the House of Commons for an army of thirty-four thousand two hundred and sixtythree men, which was an augmentation of fifteen thousand men to the force already subsisting. The motion was seconded by Mr. Pitt; and it will be seen from the following animated speech, how warmly he could support the Ministry when he deemed their plans conducive to the public welfare.

Mr. Pitt observed, "That last year he had pronounced eighteen. thousand men not sufficient. Our whole force was necessary at this dangerous and critical conjuncture. Other efforts were requisite, than sending two miserable battalions as victims to America. Every step since had tended to provoke a war, not to make it- and at last the Crown itself was to be fought for, by an army so ineffective, and so raw! He hoped, by alarming the nation, to make the danger reach the ears of his Majesty, who was likely, after so gracious a reign, to be attacked in his venerable age! to see such a country exposed by the neglect of his Ministers! He could not avoid turning from the venerable age of the King, to his amiable posterity, born among us, yet given up by some unskilful Minister or Ministers! He meaned no invectives; he made no accusation; he spoke from his feeling. He then drew a striking and masterly picture of a French invasion reaching London, and of the horrors ensuing,

Viscount Barrington.

whilst there was a formidable enemy within the capital itself, which was as full of weakness as of multitude; a flagitious rabble, ready for every nefarious action; of the consternation that would spread through the city, when the noble, yet artificial and vulnerable fabric of public credit should crumble in their hands! How would Ministers be able to meet the aspect of so many citizens dismayed! How could men, so guilty, meet their countrymen ! How could a British Parliament assemble without these considerations ! The King's speech of last year had been calculated to lull us into a fallacious dream of repose-or, had his Ministers not had understanding, or foresight, or virtue-he repeated the words that he might not be misquoted, had they had none of the qualifications to prompt them to lay the danger before his Majesty? Was it not a proof of his assertions, that where his Majesty himself had a foresight even of fancied, not threatened, danger, we knew what provision, what vast provision had been made? Did the subjects of the Crown want a feeling which the subjects of the Electorate possessed in so quick a degree? Did he live to see the day, when a British Parliament had felt so inadequately? There were but ten thousand men in this part of the United Kingdom-not more than half would be left to defend the royal family and the metropolis; and half security is full and ample danger. Accursed be the man, and he would have the malediction of his country, who did not do all he could to strengthen the King's hands! He (Mr. Pitt) would have him strengthened by laying open the weakness of his councils. He would substitute reality for incapacity and futility, and for the frivolous love of power. To times of relaxation should be left that fondness for the disposal of places: wisdom ought to meet such rough times as these. It was that little spirit of domination that had caused the decay of this country, that ambition of being the only figure among cyphers: when that image was first used, perhaps, it was prophecy, to day it was history. Two hundred and eighty thousand pounds, the charge of this augmentation, would, last year, have given us security. For that sum, our stocks would fall, and hurry along with them the ruin of this city, vulnerable in proportion to its opulence. In other countries, treasures remain where a city is not sacked. But paper credit may be invaded even in Kent. It is like the sensitive plant, it need not be cropped; extend but your hand, it withers and dies. The danger had been as present last year to any eye made for public councils; for what is the first attribute of a wise Minister, but to leave as little as possible to contingencies? How do thoughtlessness, folly, and ignorance, differ from wisdom and knowledge, but by want of foresight? He would not, like Lord Barrington, recur to the Romans for comparisons; our own days had produced examples as great. In 1746, thirteen regiments, raised by noblemen, who, although they did not leave their ploughs, left their palaces, had saved this country; he believed it. With what scorn, depression, cruelty, as far as contempt is cruelty, were they treated by the hour! With what calumny! He wished the Government would encourage the nobility and gentry to form a militia, as a supplement to the army. He

wanted to call this country out of that enervated state, that twenty thousand men from France could shake it. The maxims of our Government were degenerated, not our natives. He wished to see that breed restored, which, under our old principles, had carried our glory so high! What would the age think they deserved, who, after Washington was defeated, and our forts taken; who, after connivance, if not collusion, had advised his Majesty to trust to so slender a force? On cool reflection, what would they deserve? He did not call for the sagacity of a Burleigh or a Richelieu to have foreseen all that must happen-that may happen in two months. He had no vindictive purpose, nor wanted to see penal judgments on their heads. Our calamities were more owing to the weakness of their heads than of their hearts."*

There was no division.

THE PRELIMINARY TREATY OF PEACE WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 1762. In the summer of the year 1762, overtures for peace between England and France were made by the mediation of the King of Sardinia; and on the 3rd of November, the preliminary treaty was signed. By this celebrated treaty of peace, France ceded to the English, in Europe, the Island of Minorca; in Africa, Senegal; in the West, Cape Breton, with the other islands in the gulf and river of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia, all Canada, and the islands of Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago. France consented also to evacuate the conquests she had made in the Prussian territory, and to keep the fortifications of Dunkirk in the state agreed upon by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. England, on the other hand, restored to the French, in Europe, the Island of Belle Isle; in Asia, all the conquests we had made; in Africa, the Island of Goree; in the West Indies, the Islands of Martinique, Guadaloupe, Mariegalante, Desirada, and St. Lucia. The French were permitted, under certain restrictions, to fish on the banks of Newfoundland; the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon were granted to them as a shelter for their fishermen, but without permission to raise fortifications; and the Mississippi was fixed on as the boundary between the other possessions of the two nations in North America-every thing on the left or eastern bank of that river being given up to England, with the exception only of the town of New Orleans, which was reserved to France.

With regard to Spain, she stipulated to restore to Portugal any places she might have taken from that country, either in Europe or America; to cede to the English the province of Florida, with the fort of St. Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola, as well as whatever Spain possessed on the continent

* Lord Orford's Memoirs of the last Ten Years of the Reign of George II. vol. i. p. 437, et seq.

+ See the Preliminary Treaty, Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 1241, et seq.

of North America to the east or south-east of the Mississippi, with the right of cutting logwood in the Bay of Honduras. Spain also consented to relinquish her claim to fish on the banks of Newfoundland. On the part of Great Britain, the Havannah and its dependencies were restored to Spain.

Parliament met on the 25th of November, 1762. On the 29th, the preliminary articles of peace with France and Spain were laid before both Houses; and on the 9th of December they were taken into consideration. Mr. Fox now moved the Commons' address to the Crown, approving the terms of the peace.

Although Mr. Pitt had been for some time confined to his bed by a severe fit of the gout, he came down to the House of Commons and spoke for nearly three hours in the debate. His speech was in answer to Mr. Fox, who made the motion.

"Mr. Pitt began with lamenting his ill state of health, which had confined him to his chamber; but although he was at this instant suffering under the most excruciating torture, yet he determined, at the hazard of his life, to attend this day, to raise up his voice, his hand, and his arm, against the preliminary articles of a treaty that obscured all the glories of the war, surrendered the dearest interests of the nation, and sacrificed the public faith, by an abandonment of our allies. He owned that the terms upon which he had consented to conclude a peace had not been satisfactory to all persons; it was impossible to reconcile every interest; but he had not," he said, "for the mere attainment of peace, made a sacrifice of any conquest; he had neither broken the national faith, nor betrayed the allies of the Crown. He was ready to enter into a discussion of the merits of the peace he had offered, comparatively with the present preliminaries. He called for the most. able casuist amongst the Minister's friends, who, he saw, were all mustered and marshalled for duty, to refute him; they had a most gallant appearance, and there was no doubt of the victory on the main question. If the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox), who took the lead in this debate, would risk the argument of comparison, he would join issue with him, even under all the disadvantages of his present situation. His motive was to stop the torrent of misrepresentation which was poisoning the virtue of the country."

No answer being made, Mr. Pitt proceeded :

"He perceived that the right honourable gentleman and his friends were prepared for only the present question. He would, therefore, take a view of the articles as they appeared upon the paper on the table.”

Mr. Pitt now found himself so weak, and suffering from such acute pain, that he was allowed the indulgence, hitherto unprecedented, of delivering his sentiments sitting. Up to this time he had been supported by two friends.

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"The first important article," continued Mr. Pitt, was the fishery. The terms in which this article was written, appeared to him to give to France a

grant of the whole fishery. There was an absolute, unconditional surrender of the Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which, if France continued to be as attentive to her own interest as we have hitherto found her, would enable her to recover her marine. He considered this to be a most dangerous article to the maritime strength and future power of Great Britain. In the negotiation he had with M. de Bussy,* he had acquiesced in the cession of St. Pierre only; after having, he said, several times in vain contended for the whole exclusive fishery; but he was overruled-he repeated he was overruled-not by the foreign enemy, but by another enemy. After many struggles, he obtained four limitations to the Island of St. Pierre; they were indispensable conditions, but they were omitted in the present treaty. If they were necessary in the surrender of one island, they were doubly necessary in the surrender of two. In the volumes of abuse which had been so plentifully bestowed upon him, by the writers who were paid and patronized by those who held great employments in the State, the cession of St. Pierre only had been condemned in terms of acrimony. He had been reminded that the Earl of Oxford was impeached for allowing the French liberty to fish and dry fish on Newfoundland. He admitted the fact. But that impeachment was a scandalous measure—was disapproved by every impartial person. In one article (the seventeenth), the Minister is accused of having advised the destructive expedition against Canada. Why was that expedition called destructive? Because it was not successful. Thus have events been considered by Parliament as standards of political judgment. Had the expedition to Canada, under General Wolfe, been unsuccessful, there is no doubt it would also have been called destructive, and some of the gentlemen now in office would this day have been calling for vengeance upon the Minister's head.

"Of Dunkirk he said but little. The French were more favoured in this article of the present preliminaries than they had been by any former treaty. He had made the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle his guide on this point; but in the present treaty, even that requisition was disregarded.

"Of the dereliction of North America by the French he entirely approved.

* In March, 1761, negotiations for peace were opened between England and France, Mr. Stanley having been despatched to Paris, and the Count de Bussy to London, to arrange the preliminaries. While the negotiations were pending, France proposed that Spain should guarantee the projected treaty, and that the differences existing between the latter country and England, both of which then preserved amicable relations with each other, should be adjusted by it. Mr. Pitt, however, declared that he would not suffer the irregularity of a belligerent power introducing into a negotiation for the termination of its own hostilities proposals for the adjustment of disputes between nations at peace, and returned the memorial relating to Spain as inadmissible. An explanation was tendered on the part of the French Ministers, and apparently accepted; but Mr. Pitt, hearing of the conclusion of the Family Compact between France and Spain, broke off the negotiations.-See the papers relating to this negotiation, Parl. Hist. vol. xv. p. 1018, et seq.

† See Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 114.