1 have flourished in his reign, yet he neither promoted it by his influence nor his example. His frugality bordered upon avarice, and he hoarded not for his subjects, but himself. He was remarkable for no one great virtue, and was known to practise several of the meaner vices." Which of these two characters are true, or whether they may not in part be both so, I will not pretend to decide. If his favourites are numerous, so are those who oppose them; let posterity, therefore, decide the contest. CHAPTER XXXVI. GEORGE III. A. D. 1760. GEORGE the Second was succeeded by his grandson king George the Third, whose father never ascended the throne, having died while he was only prince of Wales. His majesty's first care, after his accession, was to assemble the parliament, which met in November, and settled the annual sum of 800,000l. upon the king for the support of his household, and of the honour and dignity of his crown, or, as it is usually. called, the civil list. The whole supply, for the service of the ensuing year, amounted to 19,616,1191. 19s. 94d. an immense sum, which none but a commercial-nation could raise, but which yet perhaps was not greater than was absolutely necessary for carrying on the various operations of the very extensive war in which we were then engaged. As his majesty could not espouse a Roman Catholic, he was precluded from intermarrying into any of the great families of Europe; he therefore chose a wife from the house of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, the head of a small but sovereign state in the north-west of Germany; and the nuptials were celebrated on the eighth of September; and on the twenty-second of the same month the ceremony of the coronation was performed with great pomp and magnificence in Westminster-abbey. A. D. 1761. This year was not distinguished by any capital military operation in Europe. In the East-Indies the nabob of Bengal was deposed, and his son-in-law advanced in his room. That country, like all other barbarous countries, is subject to sudden revolutions, for which perhaps it is not more remarkable than for the acts of cruelty, pe culation, and oppression, that are there practised by the Europeans. Mr. Pitt, who, though never very acceptable to the late king, had conducted the war with a spirit and success not exceeded, and perhaps never equalled, by any former minister, was no less distinguished for his sagacity and penetration in diving into the designs and intrigues of the enemy. He had for some time observed, with the highest indignation, the extreme partiality of the Spaniards towards the French, notwithstanding their professions of neutrality, he now discovered by means of his spies in foreign courts, that they had entered into a treaty (known by the name of the Family Compact) with that ambitious people; and he was firmly convinced, that it would not be long before they declared war in form against England. Moved by these considerations, he proposed, that a fleet should be immediately dispatched into the Mediterranean, to intercept the Spanish flota, or strike some other blow of importance, in case the ministry of Spain refused to give instant satisfaction to the court of Great-Britain. This proposal was strongly opposed by the other members of the cabinet, either from a conviction of its impropriety, or perhaps in order to get rid of a minister, who, by means of his popularity, and the success of his schemes, had acquired an ascendancy in parliament, and even in the council, that, in some measure, annihilated the hereditary influence of all the oldest, most wealthy, and most powerful families in the kingdom. In a word, it was disapproved by every member of the cabinet, Mr. Pitt, and earl Temple excepted; upon which these two ministers resigned their places; the former, as secretary of state; and the latter, as lord privyscal. That Mr. Pitt however might not be suffered to retire from the public service without some mark of royal as well național gratitude, a pension of 3000l. a year, was settled upon him for three lives; and at the same time a title was conferred upon his lady, who was created baroness Chatham. The experience of a few months served to shew that Mr. Pitt's suspicions were too well founded: for when the earl of Bristol, the British ambassador at Madrid, endeavoured to procure a sight of the family-compact, and to sound the sentiments of the Spanish ministry with regard to their intention of taking part with France in the present war, he received nothing but evasive answers, or flat refusals to all his demands. He therefore left Madrid without taking leave; and as the hostile designs of Spain were now no longer doubtful, war was, in a little time, declared against that nation. The old parliament was now dissolved, and a new one summoned, one of the first acts of which was to settle an annuity of 100,000l. together with the palace of Somersethouse, (afterwards exchanged for Buckingham-house) and the lodge and lands of Richmond old park, upon the queen during her life, in case she should survive his majesty. The supply for the ensuing year fell short of that of the current one by somewhat more than a million. It A. D. 1762. Till the resignation of Mr. Pitt, no material change had been made in the ministry during the present reign. continued nearly the same as it was at the death of the late king, with this only difference, that lord Bute (who was supposed to be a particular favourite of his majesty) had been introduced into the cabinet, and appointed secretary of state in the room of the earl of Holdernesse. A more im. portant alteration, however, now took place in it. An opinion had been long entertained, at least it was very industriously propagated by certain persons, that the Pelham family had been as complete masters of the cabinet during the latter years of king George the Second's reign, as ever the Marlborough family was during a part of that of queen Anne. A resolution, it is said, was therefore taken to get rid of the Pelhams and all their connections. The duke of Newcastle was made so uneasy in his situation, that he resigned his post of first lord of the Treasury, and was succeeded by the earl of Bute. This gave occasion to a most furious paper war between the friends and adherents of those two noblemen, and naturally tended to revive in the kingdom the spirit of party. The duke of Newcastle, it must be owned, was not a man of great abilities, though his brother, Henry Pelham, undoubtedly was. But even the duke, with all the defects in his character, was perhaps not ill-qualified to be a popular minister in a free country. He was open, liberal, disinterested, hospitable, splendid and magnificent in his style of living. Instead of amassing places and pensions for himself and his family, he laid out his own patrimony in sup porting what he considered as the honour of the king and the dignity of the nation; and when, upon his retiring from of fiee in somewhat narrow and reduced circumstances, he was offered a pension, he nobly replied, that after having spent a princely fortune in the service of his country, rather than become a burden to it at last, he would make his old duchess a washerwoman. Lord Bute, on the other hand, was certainly a man of ability, and we believe eyen of virtue; but perhaps he was deficient in that easiness of address and those engaging man ners, without which no minister can ever expect to be long popular in England. As he was a man of taste and learning, had he continued groom of the stole, which place he held at the time of his majesty's accession, he might easily have passed for the Mæcenas of the age. Every favour, which the king might have bestowed upon men of letters, would have been considered as originating from his advice, and owing to his recommendation; whereas by plunging into politics, for which he was but ill qualified, he at once diminished for a while the popularity of his sovereign, and perplexed the councils of his country. with the same The war, however, was still caried on spirit and success as formerly. Two expeditions were undertaken against the Spanish settlements; the one against the Havannah, in the gulph of Mexico, the other against Manilla, in the East-Indies; and both of them proved successful. The plunder found in the first amounted to three millions sterling; the latter was ransomed for one million, which was never paid. The king of Prussia, then our principal, and indeed almost our only ally, had performed such prodigies of valour in the course of this war, as will transmit his name to posterity as one of the greatest heroes that ever lived. For some time past, however, he had been surrounded and assailed by such a number of powerful and inveterate foes, that he seemed almost to be tottering on the very brink of ruin, when he was unexpectedly and almost miraculously, saved by one of those sudden revolutions of fortune that sometimes take place in all countries, and are often attended with consequences that no human sagacity could have foreseen, nor any human power have possibly brought about. Elizabeth, the empress of Russia, dying, was succeeded by her nephew, Peter the Third, who not only concluded a peace with the king of Prussia, but joining his arms to those of that monarch, began to act hostilely against his former allies. By this step, however, and some others, he rendered himself so unpopular with his subjects that, after wearing the crown for the space of six months, he was deposed, and soon after died in prison of the disease, it is thought, which terminates the lives of most dethroned monarchs. His consort and successor, Catherine, departed so far from the plan of her husband as to withdraw her forces from those of the king of Prussia; but she did not think proper to renew hostilities against him. Being thus freed from one of his most formidable enemies, he was the more capable of coping with the rest. This was one of the most glorious and successful wars for Great-Britain that had ever been carried on in any age, or by any nation. In the space of seven years, she had made herself mistress of the whole continent of North America: she had conquered twenty-five islands, all of them remarkable for their magnitude, their produce, or the importance of their situation: she had won, by sea and land, twelve great battles; she had reduced nine fortified cities and towns, and near forty forts and castles; she had destroyed or taken above an hundred ships of war from her enemies; and acquired, as is supposed, about twelve millions in plunder. Uncommon, however, as were her successes, she was far from being averse to a peace. The grand object for which the war had been originally undertaken, the security of our American colonies, was now fully accomplished. Her supplies of money, however great, were by no means equal to her expences; and she began to feel a sensible deficiency in her supplies of men, which were not procured but with some difficulty, and at a heavy charge. The other belligerent powers, for more solid and substantial reasons, were still more inclined to peace. The navy of France was almost annihilated; and her dominions were exhausted of men and money. Spain had nothing to hope, but every thing to fear from a continuance of the war; and Portugal, who had lately been drawn into the quarrel, and attacked by the Bourbon family, was in a still worse condition. All parties, therefore, concurring in these pacific sentiments, conferences for a peace were opened at Paris; and, after some negociations, it was finally concluded on the 10th day of February. Great-Britain received Florida in exchange for the Havannah. She retained Canada, Cape Breton, Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, the Grenades, and Senegal on the coast of Africa: but she restored all her A. D. 1763. |