A.D. 1759.

GENERAL WOLFE'S VICTORY AND DEATH.

585

attempt to dislodge them. When he embarked on Lake Champlain, he was driven back by storms; and then came the winter. Wolfe had returned home in ill-health in 1758. He was then in his thirty-third year. Pitt promoted him to the rank of Major-general, and gave him the command of an expedition to Quebec. This small army of eight thousand men, having accomplished the difficult passage of the St. Lawrence, landed on the isle of Orleans, opposite Quebec, on the 17th of July, 1759. The marquis de Montcalm commanded the French troops in Canada. Montcalm, Wolfe wrote, "has a numerous body of armed men, and the strongest country, perhaps, in the world to rest the defence of the town and colony upon. Wolfe attacked the entrenchments on the 31st of July, without success. The English generals then determined that a corps of about three thousand six hundred men should be conveyed up the St. Lawrence, several miles above Quebec, where they disembarked. At one o'clock in the morning of the 13th of September, the little band were crowded into boats, to float down the broad river, with the flowing tide. They landed at a little inlet about two miles above Quebec, and with the aid of boughs and stumps of trees the men climbed up to the Heights of Abraham, which form a continuation of the steep ridge of rocks on which the city is built. A French picquet fired and fled. The boats went back to bring another detachment. When the day broke a compact army stood on the high ground at the back of Quebec. Wolfe had disposed his little force with admirable judgment. The left wing was commanded by brigadiergeneral Townshend, whilst Wolfe was with the right wing, where the hottest work was expected. He had ordered his men not to fire till the enemy came within forty yards. Montcalm was advancing with French and Canadian regiments intermingled, whilst his Indian allies were detached to outflank the British on their left. Montcalm's troops fired as they advanced, and Wolfe received a shot in his wrist. The volley of the British stopped the advance. Wolfe headed his grenadiers to the charge, when another shot struck him in a vital part. Still he issued his orders and pressed on. A third ball hit him in the breast. He fell, and was carried to the rear. The second in command, general Monckton, had also fallen. General Townshend completed the victory. The brave Montcalın was mortally wounded, and being carried into the city died the next day. Quebec capitulated on the 18th of September. On the 20th of November, Pitt moved that a public monument should be erected to the memory of general Wolfe.

Admiral Hawke having been driven by the equinoctial gales from his blockade of Brest, Conflans, the French admiral, came out with twentyone ships of the line and four frigates. Admiral Duff was off Quiberon Bay with his squadron; and Conflans hoped to attack him before Hawke could come to the rescue. But Hawke did return; and then Conflans hurried to the mouth of the Vilaine-fancying himself secure amidst the rocks and shoals on that shore. Hawke's pilot pointed out the danger of a sea-fight in such a perilous navigation. Lay me alongside the French admiral," was Hawke's reply. The fight went on till night whilst a tempest was raging. When the morning came, two British ships were found to be stranded, but their crews were saved. Four of the French

fleet had been sunk, amongst which was the admiral's ship. Two had struck. The rest had fled up the Vilaine. This final victory put an end to all apprehensions of a descent upon England.

The year 1760 was not a year of excitement to the English people. The defence of the conquests of 1759 required no great exertions. There was little domestic agitation. Parliament had little more to do than to consider the supplies, for which enormous sums were voted. The reign of George II. came suddenly to an end on the 25th of October, the right ventricle of the old man's heart having burst.

CHAPTER XLV.

THE policy systematically acted upon from the day of George III.'s accession was, as set forth by Doddington, "to recover monarchy from the inveterate usurpation of oligarchy;" and, further, to get rid of the necessary result of that domination, which was expressed in the lamentation of George II. to his Chancellor, "Ministers are the king in this country.” These conceptions could not be realised without difficulty and danger. In these early struggles of his reign, the character of the young prince, as his governor, lord Waldegrave, described him in his twenty-first year, comes ont with tolerable clearness :-an intellect not deficient, but not highly cultivated-honesty without frankness-resolution, approaching to obstinacy-indolence, soon overcome by a strong will-violent prejudices, liable to mistake wrong for right-sullen anger-enduring animosity. Lord Waldegrave, in assigning this character to the prince, adds, "Though I have mentioned his good and bad qualities, without flattery, and without aggravation, allowances should still be made, on account of his youth, and his bad education." Walpole says, "His majesty had learned nothing but what a man who knew nothing could teach him." The "man who knew nothing was lord Bute, whose influence had succeeded to the authority of the princess-dowager and the nursery, and by whom, for some time after his accession to the throne, the young king suffered himself to be led. The earl of Bute, the Groom of the Stole, was not only named as a member of the Privy Council, but also of the Cabinet. The earl of Bute prepared his majesty's first address to the Privy Council. Mr. Pitt was indignant at the tone in which the war was mentioned in this address, but, nevertheless, he and the duke of Newcastle continued their alliance as ministers under the new sovereign. When Parliament opened, on the 18th of November, the House of Commons voted a Civil List of £800,000 upon the king surrendering the hereditary revenue. The annual subsidy to the king of Prussia was renewed. Supplies were given to the extent of twenty millions. The enthusiasm with which the king was greeted by his subjects was in striking contrast with the coldness that had attended the appearance in public of George II. The few remaining Jacobites gave up

A.D. 1761.

MARRIAGE OF GEORGE THE THIRD.

587

their hatred to the House of Hanover, and flocked to St. James's. This happy calm was not to last long. Bute and Doddington were soon intriguing against the king's ministers. Amongst the weapons which this pair devised to damage Pitt in popular estimation, they "agreed upon getting runners," hawkers of pamphlets and bills. Doddington says also, "We wished to have some coffee-house spies, but I do not know how to contrive it." The king's name was used as an authoritative recommendation. Within a week after the accession, Walpole wrote, "The favourite took it up in high style." Three months later, the favourite could even venture to proclaim the policy of the new reign, in an insolent message to Pitt.

On the 3rd of March, the king went to Parliament to recommend further provision for securing the judges in the enjoyment of their offices, during their good behaviour, notwithstanding any demise of the Crown. This measure was merely supplementary to an Act of the reign of William III. On the 21st of March, the Parliament was dissolved by proclamation. Previous to the close of the Session, the Speaker Onslow, who had filled the chair for thirty-three years, announced his intention of retiring. He received a pension of £3000. There were changes in the ministry. Legge ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. Holderness was removed from his office of one of the Secretaries of State. The earl of Bute was appointed in his place. That change was made without the knowledge of Pitt, the other Secretary, who still directed the conduct of foreign affairs, and of the war. In the General Election for the new parliament, venality was carried further than ever. Bribery took the approved form of selling a pair of jack-boots for thirty guineas, and a pair of wash-leather breeches for fifty pounds.

The intended marriage of the king to the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was announced in an Extraordinary Gazette of the 8th of July. The mother of the king, and lord Bute, are held to have turned him aside from the beautiful object of his love, Lady Sarah Lennox, to accept this bride chosen from a petty German court. On the 8th of September, the princess arrived at St. James's, and the marriage was celebrated that afternoon. Of the queen, as she appeared on her bridal night, Walpole says, "she looks very sensible, cheerful, and is remarkably genteel." Her good sense and cheerfulness appear to have been the characteristics of queen Charlotte through her long and anxious life.

At the beginning of 1761, the duke de Choiseul, who conducted the foreign affairs of France, had proposed a general negotiation for peace, and plenipotentiaries had been named by England and Prussia to treat at a congress at Augsburg. But the duke also suggested a previous negotiation between France and England. M. de Bussy arrived in London as the French minister; and Mr. Hans Stanley was sent to Paris as the English negotiator. The basis of pacification proposed was the uti possidetis-the continued possession of whatever territory each of the contracting powers might hold upon a day named; or an equivalent to such possession. The instructions which Mr. Stanley received were, that he should contend that the uti possidetis should date from the day when the treaty was signed. Pitt was looking to further conquests, which would give England a claim for larger equivalents, and he did not hesitate to send an expedition of

nine thousand men to attack the fortresses of Belle-Ile, an island near the mouth of the Loire, on the west coast of France, where a few thousand fishermen obtained a precarious livelihood. There was a great sacrifice of life; and it was two months before the garrison of Palais capitulated. About the same period the West Indian island of Dominica had been captured; and the French dominion in the East Indies had been finally destroyed by the surrender of Pondicherry. These successes gave some additional force to Pitt's demands. He required that Minorca should be restored in exchange for Belle-Ile. He demanded other concessions, which France was unwilling to yield. He insisted that in making a separate peace with France, England should not be restrained from lending her aid to the king of Prussia. Frederick was truly in a condition to require her aid. The Austrians were in possession of the most important posts in Silesia. In Pomerania the Russians had overpowered his commanders. All his resources were fast failing, except his own indomitable energy. The British, the Hanoverians, and the Prussians had been fighting together as allies, in the campaign of 1761. The events of that campaign left the war without any decisive results; but the skill of prince Ferdinand, and the valour of the British under the marquis of Granby and general Conway, were signally displayed through a series of difficult operations, and especially in the battle of Kirch-Denkern on the 15th of July. As the negotiations advanced between Great Britain and France, the demands of the duke de Choiseul were enlarged and his attitude became more firm. M. de Bussy delivered the ultimatum of his court on the 5th of August. On the 15th, the duke de Choiseul and the marquis of Grimaldi, the Spanish ambassador at the court of France, signed the treaty known as "The Family Compact;" by which the two branches of the House of Bourbon agreed to consider the enemy of either as the enemy of both; to guarantee each other's territories; to give each other mutual succours by sea and land. Pitt obtained early and precise information upon the subject of this ominous alliance. He broke off the negotiations with France, and submitted his advice "to a trembling council for an immediate declaration of a war with Spain." He thus declared himself: "This was the time for humbling the whole House of Bourbon; if this opportunity were let slip, it might never be recovered; and if he could not prevail in this instance, he was resolved that this was the last time he should sit in that council." Temple was the only minister who stood by Pitt, who had to succumb, or to quit office. On the 5th of October, he resigned the seals of Secretary of State, and Temple followed him in his retirement. The immediate popularity of the great minister was seriously damaged by his acceptance of a pension of £3000 a-year, and of a peerage for his wife, who was created Baroness Chatham. Pitt, for a little while, became the object of lampoons and caricatures, ascribed to persons "in the interest or pay of Bute." But the multitude did not long frown upon their favourite. On the 9th of November, he went to the Lord Mayor's dinner at the Mansion House, amidst " an universal huzza." Lady Chatham recorded that her husband in this display acted against his better judgment.

When the new Parliament met, on the 3rd of November, the king's

A. D. 1761.

ACQUISITION OF COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.

589

speech promised a vigorous prosecution of the war. Lord Egremont had been appointed Secretary of State in the place of Pitt. George Grenville became leader of the House of Commons, holding the office of Treasurer of the Navy. Pitt continued boldly to maintain the necessity of prosecuting the German war. Grenville, who had supported Pitt's German policy during his tenure of office, now openly opposed it. Attack upon attack was made upon the ex-minister; but he preserved a wonderful calmness. On the 2nd of January, 1762, the king declared in Council his resolution of making war on Spain. The ministers, who had driven out Mr. Pitt rather than embrace this necessary measure, were reduced to adopt it at the expense of vindicating him and condemning themselves." The ministers adopted the war-policy of Pitt with regard to Spain, but they alienated for ever the king of Prussia, by meanly evading the annual grant of the subsidy which Pitt had engaged to obtain from Parliament during the continuance of the war.

When the king announced the war with Spain at the opening of Parlia ment on the 19th of January, hostilities had already commenced. Pitt had arranged an expedition against the French island of Martinique before he quitted office; and he had intended that the same expedition should proceed against the Havannah, in the event of a rupture with Spain. Admiral Rodney commanded a fleet, carrying twelve thousand men, under the command of general Monckton. They disembarked at a creek in Martinique on the 7th of January; reduced several strong posts; and the island was speedily surrendered, although some of its works had been deemed impregnable. Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent were as quickly taken. All men gave Pitt the credit of this triumph. On the 5th of March an expedition sailed from Portsmouth; under admiral sir George Pocock, with land forces commanded by the earl of Albemarle. At Martinique, they were joined by a portion of the forces that had effected the conquest of that island. The British naval force consisted of nineteen ships of the line, with smaller vessels; the transports carried ten thousand troops. The Havannah, which had been strongly fortified, was finally taken; but with a tremendous sacrifice of life. To complete the triumphant operations which Pitt had devised, the Philippine islands were captured by an expedition sent out from Madras.

On the 25th of November, the Session of Parliament was opened with an elaborate speech from the throne, in which the king announced that, through the late glorious exertions of national strength, his enemies had been brought to consent to terms of peace. The preliminaries of this peace had been signed at Fontainebleau on the 3rd of November. In his anxiety for an immediate pacification, lord Bute would have given up Havannah and Manilla, without any equivalent. His colleagues differed from him; and Florida, then a very useless possession, was at length accepted, and the great Indian colonies of Spain were restored. The other acquisitions of Great Britain were, -the whole of the French provinces in North America; the West India islands of Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Grenada; Minorca restored in exchange for Belle-Ile. Spain gave up

* Walpole.