ject, if the highest ability to serve the state, although inferior to many in rank and fortune, can entitle a subject to that distinction. But a subject, though a good one, may be too great. The king chose to abide by the opinion of the majority of his council. He accepted Mr. Pitt's resignation: settled upon him a pension of three thousand pounds a year, for three lives, and conferred the title of baroness on his lady; he himself declining the honour of nobility, but willing that it should descend to his offspring.

No change in the British ministry ever occasioned so much alarm as the resignation of Mr. Pitt. It seemed equal to a revolution in the government. As the nation, under his administration, had been raised from despondency and disgrace, to the highest degree of glory, triumph, and exultation, the most serious apprehensions were entertained, by the body of the people, that it might again sink into the same state of depression, and be overwhelmed by its numerous enemies, since his all-inspiring genius no longer directed its councils; or that an inglorious peace would be patched up, in order to avert the dangers of a new war.

But this alarm was soon quieted by the vigorous measures of the new ministry, and the address with which their emissaries drew off the veil from the imperfections of the late secretary, whose reputation as a patriot as well as a statesman they endeavoured to destroy. They keenly exposed his inconsistency, and called in question his political sagacity, in so warmly entering into the German contest, against which he had formerly so vehemently and so justly declaimed. They blamed his shameful prodigality, in expending so much of the national treasure in fruitless expeditions to the coast of France, instead of directing them against the remaining French islands in the West Indies; and his inexcusable negligence, in not ordering general Amherst to enter Louisiana, which might easily have been conquered. during the last campaign, without sending any additional force to America. And they maintained, with some appearance of reason, that his resignation discovered more pride than patriotism. But when they attempted to ascribe all the success of his measures to mere chance, and to turn into ridicule his most laudable enterprises, the sentiments of the people revolted against the insult offered to their understanding. And all sincere lovers of their country, whatever might be their opinion of his principles, lamented the loss of so able and popular a minister at so dangerous a crisis; while his friends entered zealously into a vindication of his whole conduct, and severely reprobated the insidious arts of his unworthy colleagues, who had obliged him to quit the helm of state, by thwarting him in his favourite measure, and irritating a temper naturally too hot, and a spirit which they knew could not brook control.

In changing opinion upon farther experience and good grounds, they ingeniously observed, there was no inconsistency; that all men are liable to error and mistake; and that whatever might have been Mr. Pitt's original opinion of the policy of engaging in the German war, the proposal of neutrality in regard to that war, made by France, in the late negotiation, was an irrefragable proof that she did not think herself a gainer by the continental contest, and consequently justified his pursuing it; that the expeditions to the coast of France, though attended with few immediate and positive advantages, had distracted the councils and the measures of the enemy, at the same time that they roused the spirit of the English nation, and had eventually made us victorious in every quarter of the globe; that this spirit, having borne down all resistance in America and the East Indies, was now to have been directed against the remaining French islands in the West Indies, a formidable armament being actually ready to sail for those latitudes; and if Mr. Pitt had been allowed to commence hostilities immediately against Spain, there was the utmost reason to believe, that we should soon have been in possession, not only of Martinico, Hispaniola, and Cuba, but of the mines of Mexico and Peru. In reply, the friends of administration affirmed, that instead of achieving new conquests, he was no longer able to act; that naving exhausted the resources of the kingdom, and drawn upon it new ene

mies, he had deserted his station at the helm, and left the vessel of state to sink or swim amid the storm he had raised.(1)

These disputes, and their anxiously-expected issue, engaged the attention of all Europe. The German allies of Great Britain flattered themselves that the seals would be restored to Mr. Pitt, and expressed their apprehensions of the injury which the common cause might suffer by his resignation; while the Bourbon courts indulged a hope, that his exclusion from the administration would be perpetual, and represented the failure of the late promising negotiation, between France and England, as solely the effect of his arrogance.

The French ministry went yet farther. They industriously circulated the news of a secret treaty between France and Spain, into which they had been driven by the domineering temper of the English secretary. By this alarming intelligence, they presumed that they should be able to frighten the new ministers of George III. into a treaty of peace on their own terms, or at least to deter them from declaring war against Spain, until her preparations were completed, when such a measure would be equally agreeable to the courts of Versailles and Madrid. But they were unacquainted with the character of the men whom they meant to intimidate; so that their vainglorious boasting produced an effect directly opposite to that for which it was intended.

The earl of Egremont, who had succeeded Mr. Pitt as secretary for the southern department, sensible of the necessity of behaving with spirit in the dispute with Spain, or of utterly forfeiting the confidence of the people, had already, with the consent of his colleagues, instructed the British ambassador at Madrid to act with firmness, and now ordered him to require an account of the purport of this vaunted treaty. But all the answer which the earl of Bristol could obtain was, "that his Catholic majesty had judged it expedient to renew his family compact with the most Christian king." And as the nature of the present, or the existence of any preceding compact, was then unknown to the English ministry, and to all foreign nations, our ambassador was directed to demand a satisfactory explanation on the subject, and to signify, that a refusal would be considered as a declaration of war on the part of Spain. The pride of the Spanish nation was roused; and the earl of Bristol was told, "That the spirit of haughtiness which dictated this demand had made the declaration of war, in attacking the king's dignity!" And he was given to understand, that he might return to England when and in what manner he thought proper.

In consequence of this answer, the earl of Bristol immediately quitted Madrid, and the conde de Fuentes left London. Before his departure, however, the Spanish ambassador delivered to the earl of Egremont a paper in the form of a manifesto, apparently calculated to distract the British councils, by fostering the spirit of faction, already too prevalent in the nation. In that paper, after insisting much on the insolence of the late English minister, and the little management with which the court of Madrid had been treated since his resignation, he affirmed, that if the purport of the secret treaty had been desired in a manner less offensive to the dignity of the Catholic king, it might as easily have been obtained as it could have been justified; as it contained merely a reciprocal guarantee of the dominions of the several branches of the house of Bourbon, with this particular restriction (seemingly thrown in to blind the British ministry), that it should extend only to the dominions which shall remain to France after the present war.(2)

But the fundamental articles of the treaty will furnish the best answer to that manifesto, and best explain the nature of the FAMILY COMPACT. By these it was stipulated, That the subjects of the several branches of the house of Bourbon shall be admitted to a mutual naturalization, and to a participation of the same privileges and immunities over all their European dominions, as those enjoyed by natural-born subjects in the countries of their particular sovereigns. The direct trade to America forms the only material exception

to this singular community of interests. Nor is the political union made less intimate than the civil.

The kings of France and Spain agree to look upon every power as their common enemy, which becomes the enemy of either; that war declared against the one shall be regarded as personal by the other; and that, when they happen to be both engaged in a war against the same enemy or enemies, they will wage it jointly with their whole forces, and observe the most perfect concert in their military operations. And they formally stipulate, That they will not make, or even listen to any proposal of peace from their common enemies, but by mutual consent; being resolved, in time of peace as well as of war, "each mutually to consider the interests of the allied crown as its own; to compensate their respective losses and advantages; and to act as if the two monarchies formed only one and the same power." The king of Spain contracts for the king of the Two Sicilies the obligations imposed by this treaty; and the three monarchs engage "to support, on all occasions, the dignity and rights of their royal house, and those of the princes descended from it."(1) To the boundless extent of these political stipulations, there is but one restriction; namely, that Spain shall not be bound to succour France, when she is involved in a war in consequence of her engagements by the treaty of Westphalia, or other alliances with the princes and states of Germany and the North, "unless some maritime power takes part in those wars, or France be attacked by land in her own country."(2) This exception of the maritime powers forms a key to the whole confederacy; as it shows, in the most satisfactory manner, against what power that confederacy is chiefly directed. It points out clearly, though obliquely, to the other powers of Europe, that their connexion with Great Britain is the principal circumstance which is to provoke the enmity of Spain; and to Great Britain, that her humiliation is the grand object of the family compact.

This compact, which seems at length to have produced that intimate union between the French and Spanish monarchies, so much dreaded at the beginning of the present century, on the extinction of the Spanish branch of the house of Austria (and which, as we have seen, it was the object of the partition treaties and the war of the grand alliance to prevent), this compact would of itself have been sufficient, as soon as its true purport was known, to justify Great Britain in declaring war against Spain; a power so intimately connected with her principal enemy, that it was become impossible to distinguish the one from the other. And after the steps that had already been taken, such a measure was now rendered unavoidable. Mutual declarations of war were accordingly issued by the courts of London and Madrid, in the beginning of the year; and the greatest preparations were made by both, for commencing hostilities with vigour and effect.

Never had Great Britain seen herself in so perilous a situation as the present. She was engaged, as a principal, in a war with the whole house of Bourbon; and, as an ally, she had the declining cause of the king of Prussia to support, against the house of Austria, the empress of Russia, the king of Sweden, and the Germanic body. Nor was this all. As the strength of her victorious navy gave her a manifest superiority over the fleets of France and Spain, an expedient was fallen upon to engage her in a new land war; and, by that means, finally to exhaust her resources, and divert her attention from distant conquests or naval enterprises. This expedient was an attack upon the neutral kingdom of Portugal; a great political stroke, which naturally leads us to take a view of the state of that kingdom.

As Portugal, in some measure, owes to England the perfect recovery of her independence, and the family of Braganza their full establishment on the throne of that kingdom, the closest friendship has ever since subsisted between the two crowns. In consequence of this mutual friendship, founded on mutual interest, England gave a preference in her ports to the wines of Portugal above those of other countries: and obtained, in return for such indulgence,

(1) Abstract of the Family Compact published by the court of France.

(2) Ibid.

many exclusive privileges in her trade with that kingdom, of which she was considered to be the guardian. Envious of those commercial advantages, and sensible that England would not tamely relinquish them, whatever might be the disposition of his most faithful majesty, France suggested to Spain the invasion of Portugal, as the most effectual means of distressing their common enemy, if not of extending the dominions of the house of Bourbon.

The conquest of Portugal, indeed, seemed no distant or doubtful event. Sunk in ignorance and indolence, reposing in the protection of England, and fed and adorned with the rich productions of Brazil (where gold and diamonds are found in great abundance, and where the most luxuriant crops of rice and sugar may be raised almost without culture), the Portuguese had laid aside all attention to their internal defence. A long peace had utterly extinguished the martial spirit among them; and notwithstanding the increase of their resources, they had suffered their army insensibly to moulder away. That part of it which remained was without discipline and without officers, and the fortresses on the frontiers were in no state of defence.

Nor were these the only circumstances favourable to the views of the house of Bourbon. Before Portugal had recovered from the shock of the earthquake that laid Lisbon in ruins, it experienced a civil convulsion of the most dangerous kind. This was a conspiracy against the life of Joseph, the reigning sovereign, and the fifth king of the house of Braganza. Less superstitious than most of his predecessors, he had banished the jesuits from his court, because their brethren in Paraguay, where they acted as sovereigns, had opposed the cession of certain territories, which he had exchanged with the king of Spain. He had also spirit and resolution to repress the encroachments of the Portuguese nobles, and to disconcert the ambitious views of the duke d'Aviero, supposed to have a design upon the crown.

This nobleman, enraged at his disappointment in a favourite matrimonial alliance, by which he hoped to extend his political influence, entered into intrigues with the heads of the dissatisfied jesuits; namely, Malagrida, Alexander, and Mathos, formerly confessors to the royal family. They encouraged him in his purpose of destroying the king, and engaged in his conspiracy the Tavora family, the most ancient and powerful in the kingdom, also disgusted with the court. The conspiracy failed, contrary to all human probability; and when it was so near taking effect, that the king was dangerously wounded, by a shot through the back of his carriage in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, on the night of the third of September, 1758. He saved his life by returning to his country-house, instead of proceeding to the capital, in his way to which he would have been attacked by new assassins. (1) The principal conspirators were seized, and executed in the beginning of the year 1759, and the jesuits of all descriptions were banished the kingdom. But the discontents among the nobility remained. The clergy were not in a better humour. The pope had resented the expulsion of the jesuits; and the body of the people, enslaved by the most blind superstition, made light of allegiance to a sovereign at enmity with the holy see.

Such was the state of the kingdom of Portugal, when the Spanish forces marched towards its defenceless frontiers, and the ministers of France and Spain presented to the court of Lisbon a joint memorial (the first fruits of the family compact), in order to persuade his most faithful majesty to enter into the alliance of the two crowns, and to co-operate in their scheme for the humiliation of Great Britain. In that memorial, they insisted largely on the tyranny exercised by England over all other powers (but especially in maritime affairs), and which the kings of Spain and Portugal were equally commanded, by the ties of blood and their common interest, to oppose. And they concluded with declaring, that as soon as his most faithful majesty had taken his resolution, which they doubted not would prove favourable, their troops were ready to enter Portugal, and garrison the fortresses of that kingdom, in order to avert the danger to which it might otherwise be exposed from the

(1) Account of this Conspiracy, published by the court of Lisbon

naval force of Great Britain. To this extraordinary memorial, the two ministers added, that they were ordered by their courts to demand a categorical answer in four days, and that any farther deliberation would be considered as a negative.

The king of Portugal's situation was now truly critical, and deserving of compassion. If, contrary to the established connexions of his crown, its supposed interests, and in violation of the faith of treaties, he should engage in this proffered alliance, he must expect to see his most valuable settlements, Brazil and Goa, fall a prey to his ancient and injured ally, and Lisbon and Oporto, his chief cities, laid in ashes by the thunder of the English army. Nor was this the worst. Having admitted garrisons into his principal places of strength, the implied condition of his accession to the Bourbon confederacy, he must necessarily lay his account with being reduced to the abject state of a vassal of Spain. If, on the other hand, he should adhere to his engagements, and resolve to maintain his independence, an army of sixty thousand Spaniards was ready to enter his kingdom, and reduce it to the condition of a conquered province.

The firmness of the king of Portugal, on this trying occasion, is highly worthy of admiration. In answer to the insulting proposition of the house of Bourbon, he observed, with judgment and temper, that his alliance with England was ancient, and consequently could give no reasonable offence at the present crisis: that it was purely defensive, and therefore innocent in all respects; that the late sufferings of Portugal disabled her, were she even willing, from taking part in an offensive war; into the calamities of which neither the love he bore to his subjects as a father, nor the duty by which he was bound to them as a king, would suffer him to plunge them. The Bourbon courts denied that this alliance was purely defensive or entirely innocent: and for this astonishing reason, that the defensive alliance is converted into an offensive one, "from the situation of the Portuguese dominions, and the nature of the English power!"-The English fleets, said they, cannot keep the sea in all seasons, nor cruise on the coasts best calculated for cutting off the French and Spanish navigation, without the harbours and the friendly assistance of Portugal. "Nor," added they," could those haughty islanders insult all the maritime powers of Europe, if the riches of Portugal did not pass into their hands." And after endeavouring to awaken the jealousy of his most faithful majesty, by representing his kingdom as under the yoke of England, they insultingly told him, that he ought to be thankful for “the NECESSITY which they had laid upon him to make use of his reason, in order to take the road of his glory, and embrace the common interest !”(1)

Although the king of Portugal was sensible, that the necessity here alluded to was the immediate march of the Spanish army to take possession of his dominions, he was not intimidated from his honourable resolution. The treaties of league and commerce subsisting between Great Britain and Portugal were such, he maintained, as the laws of God, the laws of nature, and the laws of nations have always deemed innocent. And he entreated their most Christian and Catholic majesties to open their eyes to the crying injustice of turning upon Portugal the hostilities kindled against Great Britain; and to consider that they were giving an example which would lead to the utter destruction of mankind; that there was an end of public safety, if neutral powers were to be attacked, because they have entered into defensive alliances with the powers at war; that if their troops should invade his dominions, he would therefore, in vindication of his neutrality, endeavour to repel them with all his forces and those of his allies. And he concluded with declaring, that he would rather see the last tile of his palace fall, and his faithful subjects spill the last drop of their blood, than sacrifice the honour or the independence of his crown, and afford the ambitious princes, in his submission, a pretext for invading the sacred rights of neutrality.(2) In consequence of this magnanimous declaration, the ministers of France

(1) Printed Papers, published by Authority.

2) Ibid.