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occasion to shew, in carrying forward the progress of society, where the particulars of the dispute will be mentioned'. Meanwhile the two governments turned on one another a watchful eye; and a long season of tranquillity was expected from the awe with which one half of Europe seemed to inspire the other.

The French ministry had formed the plan of dispossessing the English of their principal settlements both in America and the East-Indies, or at least of considerably extending their own, (as I have already had occasion to hint) when they concluded the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In these ambitious projects they were encouraged by two able and enterprising men, by la Galissoniere, governor of Canada, and M. Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry. But in order to insure success in such distant expeditions, it was necessary for France to restore her marine, and even to raise it, if possible, to a superiority over that of Great-Britain. With this view, prodigious efforts were made: naval stores were imported from all the northern kingdoms; a great number of ships were built at Brest and Toulon; and contracts were entered into with dif ferent companies in Sweden, for building eighteen sail of the line.

But nothing is attended with so much expense as the raising or restoring a navy. The French finances, though recruiting fast, were not equal to the extraordinary drain. Repeated attempts were therefore made, by the leading men in France, to engage the court of Spain, whose American treasures were now got home in safety, to enter into their ambitious views; and proposals for a family-compact, such as has since been formed, were exhibited to the Spanish ministry, in 1753, by the duke de Duras, the French ambassador at the court of Madrid, under the direction of the duke de Noailles.

When the duke de Duras insisted on the importance of an union between the two crowns, he was told that such an

1. See LET. XXXVI.

union was already established by the treaty of Fontainbleau; an irrevocable family-compact, and to perfect which it was only necessary to cut off what related to last war. The duke de Duras was ignorant such a treaty existed, and Saint Contest, the French minister for foreign affairs, seemed inclined to keep him in the dark; but the duke de Noailles furnished him with a copy of it, accompanied with observations, which may be considered as the basis of that formidable family-compact which was afterward concluded. He maintained, that the treaty of Fontainbleau, almost all the articles of which related to the late war, and the execution of which, in many particulars, (such as the recovery of the island of Minorca and the fortress of Gibraltar to Spain) had been rendered impossible by circumstances, was in a manner annulled by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; that a true family-compact, such as it was equally the interest of France and Spain to contract for their mutual advantage, which should have for its objects the securing to two branches of the house of Bourbon on the two thrones, and the preservation of their 'dominions; the glory and greatness of both kingdoms; ought not only to be irrevocable, but independent of time and circumstances; to be affected neither by peace nor war2.

All the French intrigues, however, were defeated by the penetration, vigilance, and address of Mr. Keene, the British minister at Madrid, supported by the credit of the judicious and intelligent Mr. Wall, a gentleman of Irish extraction, who had long resided as Spanish ambassador at the court of London; and by the still more powerful influence of Farinelli, the famous Italian singer, who entirely governed the queen, a princess of Portugal, whose ascendant over her husband was absolute and uncontroulable3,

2. Mem. Politiq. et Militaires, composés sur les Pièces Originales recueilles par Adrien Maurice, duc de Noailles, mareschal de France et ministre d'etat, par M. l'Abbé Millot, tom, iv.

3. Idem. Ibid.

The

The naturally pacific Ferdinand, though well affected toward the elder branch of his family, was thus induced to disregard all the splendid allurements of the court of Versailles, and all insinuations to the disadvantage of that of Great-Britian, as insidious attempts to drag him into a new war. In answer to a memorial presented by the French ambassador, in 1754, on the subject of the family-compact, and accompanied with a letter, in which Louis XV. mentions the patience, beyond measure, with which he had suffered the unjust proceedings of England for four years, the catholic king declared, That he was sensible of the importance of the harmony between the two crowns, and between the two branches of the house of Bourbon; but having always an eye to the general tranquillity of Europe, and the jealousy which a formal compact would excite, he thought it the interest of the two monarchies to avoid such a measure; and that the differences with England would be better composed, through the mediation of the allied powers, than by a threatening league.

1754.

Withdrawing his heart wholly from ambition, the Spanish monarch therefore placed all his glory in reviving commerce, and encouraging arts and manufactures, too long neglected among his subjects. He disgraced the marquis de la Encenada, his prime minister, for endeavouring, in conjunction with Elizabeth Farnese, the queen-dowager, to alter his measures; and Wall being placed at the head of the administration, the same wise and pacific measures were pursued during the subsequent part of the reign of Ferdinand VI.

The disgrace of Encenada, which happened when all things seemed ripe for a perpetual league between France and Spain, gave a fatal blow to the projects of the court of Versailles. But the French ministry had already gone too far, to be tamely forgiven by Great-Britain. They were sensible of it; and as their navy was not yet in full force, they attempted, though too late, to disarm

4. Noailles, ubi supra.

resentment,

resentment, and conciliate favour, by an hypocritical appearance of moderation. Their views were obvious to all Europe. And when they found they could no longer deceive, or sooth the court of London, they attempted to intimidate it, by threatening the German dominions of George II. in hopes that the apprehension of this danger would make their encroachments in America be winked at, until they were in a condition to avow their purpose. But before we enter upon that subject, a variety of others must be discussed. A view must be taken of the state of the settlements of the rival powers in both extremities of the globe.

Though Madras was restored to the English East-India company, and Louisbourg to the French monarchy, agreeable to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, hostilities between the subjects of France and England could never be said properly to have ceased, either in North-America or the East-Indies. The taking of those two important places, and the ineffectual attempts to recover them, had irritated the spirit of the two nations. And plans were laid by each, as we have seen, during the latter years of the war, for the conquest of the principal settlements belonging to the other, both in the East-Indies and in NorthAmerica. But those plans proved abortive. And all such ambitious projects seem to have been relinquished on the part of Great-Britain, at the peace; for, although she gave up Louisbourg with reluctance, that reluctance proceeded less from any purpose of extending her possessions in North-America, than from an apprehension of the injuries and inconveniences to which it would again expose her colonies, in case of a new war. The views of France were very different, when she, with no less reluctance, estored Madras to the English East-India company.

M. Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, having gallantly defended that place against the British armament under' Boscawen, in 1748, immediately conceived the great idea of advancing the interests of the French East-India company, by acquiring for France large territorial possessions in the south of Asia; and even of making himself master, by

VOL. V.

EC

by degrees, of the whole peninsula, of India Proper. On the two sides of that vast peninsula, which projects out into the sea to the extent of a thousand miles, and occupies the immense space between the widely separated mouths of the Indus and the Ganges, the European companies have established many factories. The west side is called Malabar, and the east the Coromandel coast. This extensive and fertile territory chiefly belongs to the great mogul. But the successors of Aurengzebe (the last of the descendants of Tamerlane, the illustrious Tartar conqueror of Indostan, who maintained with vigour supreme dominion in the East) had sunk into a state of indolence and effiminacy; and since the irruption of the famous Kouli Khan, in 1738, had possessed so little authority, that all the great officers of the crown were become in a manner independent princes. The subahs, or Mahometan viceroys of provinces; the nabobs, or governors of inferior districts; and even the rajas, or tributary Indian princes, now began to consider themselves as absolute sovereigns; paying to the mogul emperors any homage they thought proper, and frequently making war on one another.

The better to carry his grand scheme into execution, Dupleix formed the project of making subahs and nabobs; and even of becoming a nabob himself. In this project he was encouraged by his own situation and the circumstances of the times. The late war had brought a number of French troops to Pondicherry, and the state of affairs in India was highly propitious to his views.

The subahship of the Decan, which extends from Cape Comorin almost to the Ganges, having become vacant in 1748, and being claimed by different competitors, Dupleix and his associates, after a series of bold enterprises and singular events, in which the intrepidity of the French, the abject condition of the natives, the weakness and corruption of the court of Delhi, were equally conspicuous, disposed of it in 1750, in favour of Murzafa Jing, grandson of the late subah. Murzafa, who had gallantly dis

puted

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