mense prospects of commercial advantage, as well as of future empire; of uniting the wealth of the southern to that of the northren regions of the earth; the spices and fine fabricks of Asia, with the gums and gold-dust of Africa, to the tar, turpentine, rice, indigo, tobacco, and beaver of North-America. Yet were the people of England dissatisfied. They complained of the shameful inactivity of the navy, that nothing had lately been done by sea. And they affirmed, that the final conquest of Canada was the natural consequence of the success of last campaign; that a powerful armament, which had been detained at Portsmouth during the whole summer, with a view of making a diversion in favour of the Hanoverian army, was sufficiently strong to have reduced, in the present distressed circumstances of the inhabitants, not only Martinico, but all the remaining French islands in the West Indies; of more real value to a naval and commercial people than one half of the German empire. The dispute concerning the German war was renewed, and the folly of pursuing it exposed with all the force of reasoning, and all the keenness of satire.

In the midst of these disputes, to which he was far from being inattentive, George II. died, in the seventyseventh year of his age, and the thirty-fourth of his reign. He was suddenly taken ill on the 25th day of October, and expired almost instantly. His character is by no means complicated. Violent in his temper, but humane and candid in his disposition, he conciliated the affection, if he failed to command the respect, of those who were most about his person. If his understanding was not very capacious, his judgment was sound; and if he had little of the munificence of a great monarch, he possessed in perfection the economy of a prudent prince. Nor did that economy, though perhaps too minute for his exalted station, remarkably impair the splendour of his royal dignity, until age rendered state inconvenient to him. His fond attachment to German politics made the early part of his reign unpopular. But the bold spirit with which he resented the insults offered to his crown; the readiness

readiness with which he changed his ministers, in compliance with the wishes of his people; and the brilliant conquests with which the latter years of his reign were adorned, have endeared his memory to the English nation.

"Born

The king of Great-Britain was succeeded, in his regal and electoral dominions, by his grand-son George III. a young prince of an amiable disposition, and of the most unblemished manners. His first speech to his parliament excited the highest hopes of a patriotic reign. "and educated in this country, I glory," said he, 66 in "the name of BRITON!" But before we enter upon the history of the reign of George III. it will be necessary to make a pause, and contemplate the state of Europe at the death of George II.

LETTER XXXV.

STATE OF EUROPE, AND THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR, IN ALL QUARTERS OF THE GLOBE, CARRIED FORWARD FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. TO THE PEACE OF PARIS, IN 1763.

GEORGE III. who succeeded to the crown of Great-Britain in the twenty-third year of his age, was universally allowed to be the arbiter of peace and war, as he was beyond dispute the most powerful monarch in Europe. Supplies, indeed, large beyond all political calculation of what they could possibly raise, had already been granted by his subjects; yet were they still able and willing to raise more, in order to complete the humiliation of his and their enemies. It was however hoped, by the body of the people, that a change of politics would take place; that the young king, from his known and declared attachment to his native country, would no longer suffer the public treasure to be squandered in pensions to foreign princes, under the name of subsidies, to enable them to fight their own battles, nor the blood of the British soldiery spilt to water the forests and fertilize

the

the plains of Germany. But how much soever the youthful sovereign might disapprove of the continental system, he could not immediately adopt new measures, without inflicting a direct censure upon the conduct of his venerable predecessor. Nor could he abruptly desert his German confederates, after the important steps that had been taken in conjunction with them, without impairing the lustre of the British crown, and bringing into question the faith of the nation. He therefore declared in council, that as he ascended the throne in the midst of an expensive but just and necessary war, he would endeavour to prosecute that war in the manner most likely to bring about an honourable and lasting peace, in concert with his allies.

A. D. 1761.

This declaration quieted the throbbing hearts of those allies; and the liberal supplies granted by the British parliament, for supporting the war during the ensuing campaign (which amounted nearly to the immense sum of twenty millions sterling), astonished all Europe, and made the courts of Vienna and Versailles sensible of the necessity of proposing terms of peace. The dominions of the house of Austria were much wasted; the king of Prussia was in a better situation than at the opening of the former campaign; the army under prince Ferdinand amounted to eighty thousand men, every way well appointed; the Russians and Swedes seemed tired of a war in which they had acquired neither honour nor advantage; the elector of Saxony was still in as distressed circumstances as ever, and his Polish subjects obstinately refused to interpose in his behalf. France declared her inability to discharge her pecuniary engagements to her allies. Her finances were low; her navy was ruined; her affairs in America and the East Indies were irretrievable; and her West India islands, she was sensible, must surrender to the first English armament that should appear upon their coasts. Acongress was accordingly summoned to meet at Augsburg, in the beginning of April, for settling the disputes among the German powers; while the ministers of France

and

and England were appointed to negociate at London and Paris, in order to adjust the differences between the two

crowns.

The congress at Augsburg never took place. But the negociation between France and England was formally opened by M. Bussy at London, and Mr. Stanley at Paris; and was continued during the whole spring and summer, though seemingly with little sincerity on either side. Things were not yet ripe for a general pacification, and a particular treaty could not be concluded between the two crowns, without sacrifices of interest and fidelity, which neither was willing to make. Both were sensible of this; yet both professed a strong desire of putting a stop to the effusion of blood, and both had strong reasons for such professions.

The British minister found such professions necessary, in order to reconcile the minds of the people to the farther prosecution of the German war, against which they began to revolt. And as he knew he durst not propose to give up the conquests acquired by the British arms, in Africa, America, the East or West Indies, to procure favourable terms for the German allies of his master, he on that side planted the bar of honour, which was to obstruct the progress of the negociation, and finally to break it off; unless their affairs should take a more advantageous turn, and enable him to reconcile the interests of the king of Prussia with the engagements of his Britannic majesty. The French ministers, in like manner, accommodated themselves to their circumstances. While they made the most humiliating concessions, in order to awaken in the neutral powers a jealousy of the encroaching spirit of Great-Britain, they insisted on certain stipulations, which they had reason to believe would not be, admitted, and artfully attempted to involve the interests of France with those of Spain. But the cause of the failure of this famous negociation will best be understood by particulars.

The councils of Madrid were now under French influence. The pacific Ferdinand VI. having breathed his last on the 10th of August, 1759, was succeeded in the

throne

throne of Spain, by his brother, don Carlos king of Naples and Sicily. On this event, by an article in the treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle, don Philip should have ascended the throne of the Two Sicilies, and Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, have reverted to the house of Austria; saving certain provisions, made by the same treaty, in favour of the king of Sardinia. But as don Carlos, now Charles III. of Spain, had never acceded to that treaty, he left the crown of the Two Sicilies, by will, to his third son, don Ferdinand, the second being judged unfit for government, and the eldest designed for the Spanish succession. Don Philip acquiesced in this disposition; and the court of Vienna, through the mediation of France permitted him to remain in possession of the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, without putting in any claim to those territories. The king of Sardinia was quietted with

money.

These good offices, added to the ties of blood, could not fail to have some effect upon the mind of his catholic majesty; and although he had hitherto observed a pretty exact neutrality, had been liberal in his professions of friendship to Great-Britain, France did not despair of being able to draw him into her views. She was sensible he could not behold with indifference the humiliation of the elder branch of the house of Bourbon, or the rapid progress of the British arms in America. The last more

especially excited his jealousy.

The Spanish empire in America, if that of France should be annihilated, Charles III. foresaw must in a manner lie at the mercy of England, as no power would remain, in case of a contest betweeen the two crowns, able to hold the balance in the new world. This reasonable jealousy, roused in the course of the negociation, by the intrigues of the court of Versailles, and blown into a flame by the arrogance of the British minister, induced the Spanish monarch to seek refuge in that grand FAMILY COMPACT, so long and so ardently desired by France; an ambitious league, which has already

been