A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy

Part 30

Chapter 303,414 wordsPublic domain

It is necessary to say a few words about the war carried on under Frederick's own eye. The plan of the campaign was much the same as the last. The Russians advanced to gain the Oder, and fought and won the battle of Zullichau over General Wedel, after which they were joined by an Austrian army under Loudon. Against this united force the King advanced, leaving Daun's army already threatening Berlin. He met Saltikow and Loudon at Kunersdorf. The Russian position was forced, seventy cannon taken, and the victory appeared complete, when suddenly Loudon advanced with his troops and altered the fate of the day. In these two last battles the Prussian forces had been weakened by 30,000 men, and the King, feeling certain that he was at the end of his resources, made every arrangement for committing suicide. Unaccountably the enemy did not advance, and he had time to collect a few troops. But fortune was still against him; his general, Fink, with 12,000 men, was surrounded, and had to surrender at Maxen; Dresden had fallen into the hands of Daun. After this reinforcements from the army of Prince Ferdinand enabled the King to continue the campaign, till the extreme cold of winter made it necessary to go into winter quarters. The following year Frederick still made head against his gathering enemies. He was unable indeed to save Berlin from the hands of the Russians, but he rescued Silesia by the victory which he gained over Loudon at Liegnitz, and at his approach the Russians fled from his capital. He then turned his arms against Daun, who was still master of Saxony. The fearful battle of Torgau was fought, where the victory was secured to the Prussians, but at the cost of 14,000 men; the Austrians are said to have lost 20,000. This was the last pitched battle of the war.

[Sidenote: Pre-eminence of Pitt.]

[Sidenote: The King dies. Oct. 25, 1760.]

The constant success of his schemes raised Pitt to the highest eminence of power. His ministry was unopposed. Year by year he was enabled, without difficulty, to carry through the House a subsidy of £670,000 to the Prussian King, and to set his estimates at from twelve to twenty millions, a sum before this unheard of. His power over the House was absolute; members were actually afraid of replying to him, and the only difficulty which met him was the temper of his relative Temple, who insisted upon receiving the Garter, and almost shipwrecked the ministry by his selfish claims. It was at this moment of prosperity that the King suddenly died, and, as had long been expected, a change took place in the counsels of the Sovereign.

GEORGE III.

1760-1820.

Born 1738=Sophia-Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. | -------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | | George Frederick, William Edward = Victoria Ernest Augustus, Adolphus,| IV. Duke of IV. Duke of |of Saxe- King of Duke of Duke of | York. (Duke of Kent. |Coburg. Hanover. Sussex. Cambridge.| d. 1827. Clarence.) d. 1820.| d. 1851. d. 1843. d. 1850. | Victoria. | | --------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | Charlotte=King Augusta. Elizabeth=Frederick Mary=Duke Sophia. Amelia. of Wurtemberg. of of Hesse-Homburg. Gloucester.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

_France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._ Louis XV., 1715. | Francis I., }1745. | Charles III., 1759. Louis XVI., 1774. | Maria Theresa, } | Charles IV., 1788. Republic, 1793. | Joseph II., 1765. | Ferdinand VII., 1808. Napoleon, 1804. | Leopold II., 1790. | Louis XVIII., 1814. | Francis II., 1792. |

| _Prussia._ | Frederick II., 1740. | Frederick William II., 1786. | Frederick William III., 1797.

POPES.--Clement XIII., 1758. Clement XIV., 1769. Pius VI., 1775. Pius VII., 1800.

_First Lords of the Treasury._ _Chancellors of the Exchequer._ Oct. 1760. Newcastle. Oct. 1760. Legge. May 1762. Bute. March 1761. Barrington. April 1763. Grenville. May 1762. Dashwood. July 1765. Rockingham. April 1763. Grenville. July 1766. Grafton. July 1765. Dowdeswell. Sept. 1767. Mansfield. July 1766. C. Townshend. Dec. 1767. Grafton. Sept. 1767. Mansfield. Jan. 1770. North. Dec. 1767. North. March 1782. Rockingham. March 1782. Cavendish. July 1782. Shelburne. July 1782. Pitt. April 1783. Portland. April 1783. Cavendish. Dec. 1783. Pitt. Dec. 1783. Pitt.

_Secretaries of State._ Oct. 1760 { Pitt. { Holderness

March 1761 { Pitt. { Bute.

Oct. 1761 { Egremont. { Bute.

May 1762 { Egremont. { G. Grenville.

Oct. 1762 { Egremont. { Halifax.

Sept. 1763 { Sandwich. { Halifax.

July 1765 { Conway. { Grafton.

May 1766 { Conway. { Richmond.

Aug. 1766 { Conway. { Shelburne.

Dec. 1767 { Weymouth. { Shelburne.

Oct. 1768 { Weymouth. { Rochford.

Dec. 1770 { Sandwich. { Rochford.

1771 { Suffolk. { Rochford.

Oct. 1775 { Suffolk. { Weymouth.

Nov. 1779 { Hillsborough. { Stormont.

March 1782 { Fox. { Shelburne.

July 1782 { T. Townshend. { Grantham.

April 1783 { Fox. { North.

Dec. 1783 { Carmarthen. { Sydney.

[Sidenote: Bute's influence over the young King. 1760.]

[Sidenote: George's view of royalty.]

On the 25th of October news was brought to the Prince of Wales that his grandfather was dead. It was an event which must have been for some time expected, and George III. and his friends were prepared for it. His training had been somewhat peculiar. The Princess of Wales, his mother, had kept him much secluded, and his education had been chiefly withdrawn from the hands of the distinguished men whom the King had given him as governors, and intrusted to sub-preceptors of the Princess's own choosing. Her constant friend and adviser in this and other family matters had been Lord Bute, who had thereby acquired the greatest influence over the young King. It was understood that henceforth his advice would chiefly regulate the policy of the Crown. His influence and that of the teachers he had selected, some of them it is believed nominated by Bolingbroke, had all tended politically in one direction, so much so that complaints had been made, though uselessly, to the late King of the unconstitutional precepts which his heir was being taught. The views with which the young Prince's mind was filled were those which Bolingbroke had developed in "The Patriot King." The beneficent rule of a powerful monarch governing his people by his own will, but for their good, was the ideal he had been taught to set before him. It was pointed out to him that since 1688 the will of the sovereign had been held captive by that great Whig party which had produced the Revolution and secured the Hanoverian succession. And it had been impressed upon him that it was his duty to free the prerogative from this state of servitude, and to annihilate party government by restoring to the Crown its freedom of choice and action. It was with the deliberate intention of carrying out this plan that the King began his reign. Nor was the plan, had it been properly executed, either impossible or unjust. It was felt that the old party divisions were in fact obsolete, that Whig and Tory, in the sense of Hanoverian and Jacobite, were things of the past; and that it was highly detrimental to the public service that able and loyal men should be excluded from all share of the Government because, very frequently on only hereditary grounds, they belonged to a party opposed to the great Whig connection. Yet such had been the case. Parliamentary contests had, till Pitt's accession to power, been nothing but greedy struggles for place and power between two sections of the Whig party which had separated in 1716. Had the King made use of his present popularity, and of that advantage which he possessed over his predecessors in his English birth, to exercise his prerogative of choice in selecting eminent men from all parties for his ministry, and had he taken for his chief minister a man who stood well with the nation, the feeling of the country would almost certainly have gone with him. Unfortunately his somewhat narrow intellect and his restricted education made him unable to take a wide view of his position, filled him with a vehement prejudice against the whole Whig party, and made him rest for support on the personal friendship of a second-rate man, who laboured under the unpopularity attending his Scotch birth and his supposed favour with the Princess of Wales.

The behaviour of the young King was at first all that could be desired. In his family relations indeed he was nearly always respectable. He still further added to his popularity by directing a change in the law with regard to the judges, so that their commissions no longer terminated with the death of the King. They henceforward held their commissions for life, unless deprived of them at the joint petition of the two Houses of Parliament. They were thus rendered absolutely independent of Court favour.

[Sidenote: First signs of change. 1761.]

The six months which elapsed before the dissolution of Parliament passed without any great changes, although there was no lack of indication of what was coming. The King's name was constantly put forward. Newcastle, who had kept all patronage in his hands, found places filled without his knowledge, and complained that he was met with the uniform answer that it was the King's desire; and Bute openly rebuked Lord Anson for filling the Admiralty boroughs without consulting the King. With the dissolution of Parliament the changes in the ministry began. Legge gave place at the Exchequer to Lord Barrington; Charles Townshend became Secretary at War, and Dashwood, another follower of Bute's, took the place that Townshend vacated, while four days afterwards (March 25th) Bute was appointed one of the Secretaries of State in the place of Lord Holderness, who had been removed and handsomely compensated. The admission of Bute to the ministry could hardly fail to produce the dismissal of Pitt, for on the great question of the day they were in direct antagonism. Bute, in pursuance of his policy of opposition to all that the Whigs had done, was determined if possible to break off the English connection with the Continent; and, unable to see the difference between buying troops from a Prince of Hesse and assisting the greatest monarch of the time in a war from which England was reaping nothing but benefit, he intended to refuse the payment of the King of Prussia's subsidy, and was strongly bent upon peace.

[Sidenote: The campaign of 1761 produces a desire for peace.]

Frederick's own campaign of 1760 had closed, as has been already said, with the dreadful battle of Torgau, and the same year Prince Ferdinand had held the French in check, worsting them at Warburg, but had been unable to keep them out of Göttingen and Cassel; and the hereditary Prince of Brunswick, detached to the siege of Wesel, had been defeated at Kloster-Campen. In 1761 the campaign was continued, and the Duke of Broglie was driven back to the Maine and beaten at Langen-Saltza. But Prince Ferdinand was not strong enough to keep what he had regained. The French again advanced, and in June the Prince of Soubise joined the Duke de Broglie, and they together moved forward to the Lippe. They were defeated at Kirch-Denkern, but the effect of the victory was small, and both armies closed the year in much the same position as they began it. These campaigns, resulting in little but loss of life, and the exertions which they entailed, and which had brought France to the verge of bankruptcy, had become intolerable; and early in the year De Choiseul had induced both Austria and Russia to consent to negotiations at Augsburg. But as the connection of England with the continental question was accidental, and her quarrel with France quite separate from it, it was thought expedient that a separate arrangement should be made between the two countries. For this purpose M. de Bussy was in June sent to England and Mr. Hans Stanley to Paris.

[Sidenote: Separate negotiations between France and England. June 1761.]

[Sidenote: Pitt opposes peace.]

[Sidenote: Suspecting the existence of the Family Compact.]

[Sidenote: Pitt resigns. Oct. 5, 1761.]

The terms offered by the French were not unreasonable. The difficulties lay in Pitt's views as to the rights of England, which were undoubtedly very high. He had, as he said that he was able to do, raised England from her degradation. He had done this by means of a successful war, and had no mind to lose his work or to consent to what would be but a mere cessation of hostilities. He would have, he said, no new Peace of Utrecht. Choiseul's first offer (on the 26th of March) was, that each of the belligerents should keep what they held in Europe on the 1st of May, in West India and Africa on the 1st of July, and in India on the 1st of September. Pitt refused this, insisting that the date fixed in all cases should be that of the signature of the treaty. He was hoping in fact that fresh victories would improve his position; nor was he disappointed. Before the end of July Belleisle, an island which must be considered an integral part of France, Dominique in the West Indies, and Pondicherry in the East, were added to our conquests. The territorial arrangements were for the most part easily settled; but three demands of the French Pitt obstinately refused to grant. These were the restoration of one of her African settlements and Belleisle in exchange for portions of Germany then in her possession--these Pitt demanded without exchange; secondly, compensation for prizes taken before the declaration of war, and lastly, the withdrawal of all English troops from Germany. As the first of these demands was not unreasonable, as the second was obviously just, and the third belonged, and could probably have been transferred, to the general Congress, Pitt would scarcely have refused them had he not seen reason for believing that the propositions of the French were hollow. The fact is, he was already beginning to suspect, and more than suspect, the existence of a treaty inimical to English interests between France and Spain. Ever since the accession of Charles III. to the Spanish throne, in the year 1759, the two Courts had been gradually approaching one another; and the policy which Marlborough's wars had been designed to check was gradually winning its object. In July De Bussy, on presenting the draft of the proposed treaty, appended to it certain claims on the part of Spain, desiring that these might be settled at the same time as the French claims. Pitt was naturally indignant at this, and haughtily replied, that France was "not at any time to presume a right of intermeddling in such disputes between Great Britain and Spain." The Spanish minister, General Wall, owned that he was cognizant of the measure, but expressed peaceful wishes with regard to England. However, though Bristol, the English minister at Madrid, had been so completely deceived that he continued to assert the friendly disposition of the Spanish Court, the correctness of Pitt's surmises became evident, when in August the arrangement known as the Family Compact was signed. By this treaty the Bourbon houses of Spain and France contracted a close and perpetual alliance. Besides France and Spain the Bourbon Princes of Naples and Parma were to be admitted to it. There was a secret clause binding Spain to declare war on England if peace was not made before May 1762. The knowledge of this treaty induced Pitt not only to break off negotiations, but to determine upon war with Spain, for which he immediately made preparations, planning a great expedition against Havannah in the West and Manilla in the East Indies. With his usual haughtiness, he urged these measures upon the Council, but Temple alone supported him. He indignantly declared that he would not be responsible for measures he did not manage, and on the 5th of October resigned. Thus terminated that splendid administration which had raised England from the depths of degradation to a position of first-rate importance in Europe.

[Sidenote: Bute virtual minister.]

[Sidenote: War with Spain. 1762.]

Bute was at once practically supreme in the Council, although he had yet to rid himself of Newcastle. He was afraid of Pitt's popularity, and did his best to injure him by persuading him to accept a pension, and the title of Lady Chatham for his wife, hoping by that means to make it appear that Pitt was not hostile to his Government, or at all events to wreck his popularity, which rested largely on the public belief in his disinterestedness. Lord Egremont became Secretary in his place. Before the year was over Pitt's wisdom was vindicated. The change of ministry in England and the safe arrival of the treasure-ships, which Pitt would have forestalled, changed the tone of the Spanish Government, and even the pacific Bute found it necessary to declare war in January 1762. Already the impossibility of Bute's peaceful view was demonstrated, but he none the less prevented the payment of the Prussian subsidy; although this looked very like a breach of faith, it could be urged in extenuation that Frederick's need was much lessened by the death of the Czarina and the accession of Peter III., a devoted friend and admirer of the Prussian King. Bute's policy was indeed so completely opposed to that of his predecessors, that there is reason to believe that he even used his influence to induce Russia to withdraw from its new alliance. This change of policy afforded Newcastle, who was conscious that he was sooner or later to be got rid of, an opportunity of leaving the ministry with dignity. On his resignation Bute at once named himself Prime Minister, and proceeded to carry out, in some points at least, his favourite principles. These were peace at almost any price, and the abandonment of continental connections, the increase and restoration of the power of the Crown, and Government without bribery. But these aspirations degenerated in practice into a war, which was successful owing to his predecessor's arrangements, a vindictive assault upon the Whig party, and the most shameless corruption ever practised in England. The expeditions which Pitt had planned were carried out. Martinique, held to be impregnable, and with it Granada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent, were captured by a squadron under Rodney, and this was but a stepping-stone to the capture of the still greater prize--Havannah. The expedition against the Philippine Islands was equally successful.

[Sidenote: Terms of the peace. Nov. 3, 1762.]

[Sidenote: Close of the Seven Years' War.]

But Bute, in his eagerness for peace, did not even wait to hear the result of the expeditions, but at once reopened peace negotiations with France. Left to himself, he would have taken no account of the last great conquests. Councillors less anxious for peace succeeded in getting them exchanged for Florida. In November the peace was signed. The conditions were much the same as those of the preceding year. America passed wholly to the English, the French keeping the rights of fishing round Newfoundland. England kept Tobago, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Granada, but restored Martinique and St. Lucia. Minorca and Belleisle were to be exchanged. The French evacuated their conquests in Germany, but on the other hand--and this was a concession Pitt had refused--Goree was restored to France, and the English army was withdrawn from Germany. In India the French were to have no military establishment, but their factories were restored. All claims on the part of Spain were entirely rejected. On the whole, the peace, though it did not destroy the House of Bourbon, as Pitt would have wished, probably gave England as much as she had a right to expect. The conclusion of the treaty was rendered easier by Frederick's continued successes in Germany. Although the Czarina Catherine, who had succeeded Peter, had reverted to the old policy of Russia, and withdrawn her troops from Frederick's assistance, he had been able to retain his superiority throughout the campaign. Prince Ferdinand had gained fresh successes in Westphalia, and had taken Cassel from the French; while Prince Henry, the King's brother, had won a victory at Freiberg, which closed the Seven Years' War.

[Sidenote: Attack on the Whigs. Feb. 10, 1763.]

[Sidenote: Bute resigns. April 8, 1763.]

[Sidenote: He names Grenville as his successor.]