III. 1762. posts, he conceived the design of falling on them CHAP. by surprise. Confiding in the abilities of General Lee, he sent out a choice detachment, who, under that active officer, fell upon their rear, in the night, and destroyed their magazines. This advantage, Oct. 6. obtained in a critical moment, entailed important advantages. The season was now far advanced : immense rains came on with the approach of winter the roads were destroyed: the country became impracticable. The Spaniards, having seized no advanced posts, and possessing no magazines, retreated to their own frontiers. In this manner Portugal, by the wise conduct of La Lippe, and the valour of the British arms, was saved during this campaign: before another could be commenced the danger of invasion was removed. On the 12th of August, of this year, his royal highness the prince of Wales was born. E 2 09 CHAP. IV. Movements for peace at the courts of St. Petersburg, Vienna, and urin.... The Sardinian monarch made mediator be tween rance and Britain.... Pension to his ambassador. .... Negociators for peace exchanged between the two coun tries.... The duke of Bedford is sent to Paris. ... The duke de Nivernois arrives in London.... Dispatches sent after the duke of Bedford, attempting to limit his full powers of negociating terms.... Preliminaries of peace signed.... Their contents... Parliament meets on the 25th of November.... His majesty's speech.... Mr. Fox heads the supporters of the peace... Mr. Pit's speech against the preliminaries.... Unpopularity of Lord Bute.... His character, public and private.... Names of the leaders of the strong opposition for med against him, called the flag... Mode of defraying the national expence adopted by ministry.... Objections by opposition.... The cyder bill.... Its great unpopularity.... Mr. Hartley's speech against it.... Bon mot of Mr. Pitt: .... Petition of the corporation of London to parliament. Offer and promise of Lord Bute to repeal the act.... Contemptuously rejected.... Address of the corporation to the crown... Discontent of the cyder counties... 1 he bill, however passes.... Virulent libels published.... Ferment of the public mind.... Lord Bute unexpectedly resigns. .. Speculations of different parties upon his resignation... His lordship's account of his own motives.... Illiberal prejudices against him........... George Grenville succeeds Lord Bute in office... Duke of Bedford made president of the council.... Character of Lord Egremont. E S CHAP. IV. 1762 E hostilities were raging in every quarter HILE W of the globe, movements for peace, at first secret, but very soon avowed, were mutually made by the ministers of this country and of France. The British minister has been taxed with opening a clandestine negociation with the court of Petersburg, to the prejudice of our ally the king of Prussia, and to prevent, as was alleged, a separate peace being negociated between the new emperor Peter and his Prussian majesty. Peter communicated the expressions of the British court, which savoured of that intention, to his friend Frederic, and, in spite of all the protestations of Lord Bute, that sovereign never forgave him for the imputed injury. Another application was made to the court of Vienna, soliciting its connection with Britain, which the imperial minister, interpreting to be design of detaching him from France, haughtily disdained. Whatever may have been the nature of those two negociations, a third was opened at the court of Turin, of which the object was decidedly pacific; and the applications for his Sardinian majesty's interference were probably made by both of the belligerent powers. It is certain that the Sardinian monarch must have profited by his office of umpire, since we find by the speech of Edmund (afterwards Lord) Perry, in the parliament of the following year, that his excellency the Sardinian ambassador was gifted with a pension of £1,000 a-year upon the Irish establishment, granted under the name of George Charles, esquire. Before this negociation was publicly avowed, Lord Bute had openly assumed the character of prime minister. As soon as terms of peace were proposed between the courts of France and Britain, in order to give a pledge to cach other of their mutual IV. 1762. sincerity, it was agreed, that this treaty should not CHAP. be negociated, as the former had been, by subordinate persons, but that the two courts should reciprocally send to London and Versailles a person of the first consequence and distinction in either kingdom. Accordingly, the duke of Bedford was sent to negociate on the part of England, and the duke de Nivernois on that of France. The great outlines of the treaty were very soon explained and adjusted the detail of some of the articles took up more time. The duke of Bedford set out for Paris on the 5th of September, with full powers to treat; and, on the 12th of the same month, the duke de Nivernois arrived in England. A few hours after the arrival of the former at Calais he received dispatches from London, by a messenger who had been ordered to overtake him, containing some limitations to his full powers. He immediately sent back the messenger with a letter, insisting upon his former instructions being restored, and, in case of refusal, declaring his resolution to return to England. The cabinet acceded to his demand: but the essential articles of the treaty were supposed to have been made up between the Sardinian ambassador and the British premier, before his grace's departure from London. The preliminaries of peace were signed by the British and French ministers on the 3d of November 1762. In the negociation of the last year it was adopted as a principle, that, in case the treaty should, by any accident, be broken off, all the respective propositions of the two courts were to be considered as retracted, or never made; but articles that are once agreed upon unavoidably stamp their influence on future negociations respecting the same objects. This similarity of the two negociations was, however, more obvious in points of our own interest than in those of our allies. In 1761 Mr. Pitt refused to conclude any treaty that should not include the |