6SO 



Britain. 



GEORGE II. 

 1T47. 



Naval en- 

 gagements. 



Prospect of 



Treaty of 

 Aix-la- 

 Chap*lle. 

 1H8. 



true, were balanced in some degree by the losses of 

 the French in Italy, where their general, the bro. 

 ther of the Marquis de Belleisle, was slain, and his 

 whole army put to the route in attempting to pene- 

 trate into Piedmont. Nor were the naval successes 

 of Britain discontinued. In April 174.?, a squadron 

 sailed from Brest for America, commanded by Ad- 

 miral La Jonquiere, who were encountered by a su- 

 perior fleet under the English Admirals, Anson and 

 Warren. Six ships of the French line struck their 

 colours, and the greater part of their convoy and 

 frigates were taken. In the mo'nth of October, Ad- 

 miral Hawke, with a superior force, fell in with nine 

 French line of battle ships, seven of which he took, 

 after an obstinate engagement. 



The variety of success served to make all the 

 powers at war heartily desirous of peace. The king 

 of France was sensible that the moment of success 

 was the most advantageous opportunity of proposing 

 terms ; and even expressed his desire of general tran- 

 quillity to Sir John Ligonier, who was made prisoner 

 at the battle of La Feldt. In the new parliament, 

 which met at the end of the year, his Britannic Ma- 

 jesty announced that a congress would be speedily 

 opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, for concerting the means 

 of a general pacification. As the event, however, 

 was uncertain, the subsidies and supplies of parlia- 

 ment were renewed, and an additional subsidy was 

 granted to the Empress of Jlussia, whom England 

 had now to class with the Empress Queen of Hun- 

 gary, the Kings of Denmark, Sweden, Poland, and 

 Sardinia, and a multitude of Germanic sovereigns in 

 her band of mercenaries. But previous to the ter- 

 mination of the session (May 1748), the king in- 

 formed the two houses, that the preliminaries of 

 peace were actually signed, and that the basis of the 

 accommodation was a general restitution of conquests. 

 The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle must undoubtedly, 

 upon the whole, be considered as favourable to the 

 allies. France, for the sacrifice of all her conquests, 

 required no other compensations than the cession of 

 the Duchy of Parma, with its appendages, to the in- 

 fant Don Philip, territories of which that prince was 

 already in possession. By this treaty, England re- 

 signed Cape Breton, to obtain the restitution of Ma- 

 dras. With Spain, England had little occasion to 

 negotiate. In a war of nine years, nothing had been 

 gained or lost, but Portobello, which had been im- 

 mediately evacuated. The original cause of the war 

 seemed in the course of it to be entirely forgotten ; 

 and at the conclusion of the peace, not a sj liable was 

 mentioned respecting the pretended right of search, 

 which had formerly occasioned such loud and indig- 

 nant clamours. The settlement of the boundaries of 

 the French and British empires in America was re- 

 ferred to the decision of commissioners. France re- 

 tained no mark of superiority in this treaty with re- 

 lation to England, excepting the restitution of hos- 

 tages to reside in France, till the reciprocal retention 

 of conquests should be actually made, and the Earls 

 of Sussex and Cathcart were nominated for that pur- 

 f>ose. This afforded the patriots a pretence to ex- 

 claim against the peace as disgraceful to the nation ; 

 but the nation, which had reason to be wearied with 

 the erpences and disasters of the war, were well sa- 



BRITAIN. 



tisfied with the terms of the peace, and it was cele- 

 brated with universal rejoicings. A profound tran- 

 quillity in domestic affairs succeeded the peace of Aix- 

 la-Chapelle, till the death of Mr Pelham in 1754, in 

 the meridian of his life, reputation, and usefulness. 

 He lived and died esteemed and lamented, both by 

 the sovereign and the nation. Mr Legge, a man of 

 honour and capacity, succeeded him as chancellor of 

 the exchequer. The seals being consigned to Sir 

 Thomas Robinson, formerly ambassador at the court 

 of Vienna, a minister of very moderate political at- 

 tainments, the post of first lord of the treasury was 

 occupied by the Dnke of Newcastle. But it soon 

 appeared how unequal were the talents of this no- 

 bleman to sit at the helm of affairs, when deprived 

 of the assistance of Pelham. If we seek for the ori- 

 gin of the war, which, at the distance of some years 

 from the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, was created be- 

 tween France and England, we shall find it kindling 

 up at one and the same time in Europe, Asia, ana 

 America. By the treaty of Utrecht, the English 

 had been acknowledged as the rightful possessors of 

 Nova Scotia, in North America. But the province 

 of Nova Scotia being ceded to England according to 

 the ancient limits of that territory, fruitless and cud- 

 less altercations arose as to the import of this expres- 

 sion, between the commissaries of the two nations, 

 to whom the right of fixing the boundaries of the 

 royal empire was assigned; the English claiming the 

 whole territory as far as the southern bank of the 

 river St Lawrence, and the French admitting their 

 right only to the peninsula of Acadie. 



Another source of dispute, also, sprang up in the 

 same quarter of the world. The French, pretending 

 to have first discovered the mouth of the river Missis- 

 sippi, claimed the whole country towards New Mexi- 

 co, on the east, quite to the Apalachian mountains 

 on the west. On this pretence, a systematic and art- 

 fully contrived plan was formed to connect these 

 widely distant establishments, by the gradual erection 

 of a chain of fortresses, from the lakes Erie and On- 

 tario, along and beyond the Ohio, to the mouth of 

 the Mississippi. In order to assert their claims, as 

 they found many English who had settled beyond 

 these mountains, they dispossessed them of their new 

 settlements, and established forts to command the 

 adjacent country. In this dispute, the native Indians, 

 both from interest and partiality, sided almost uni- 

 versally with the French. 



Negotiations, mutual accusations, and partial hos- 

 tilities, between the two powers, for some time pre- 

 ceded an open declaration of war. At last more im- 

 portant operations commenced. In the year 1755, 

 General Braddock sailed from Cork ; and, on his ar- 

 rival in Virginia, took the command of the forces 

 destined to act against the French on the Ohio. 

 Braddock was courageous, but obstinate, and ac- 

 quainted with regular war ; but attached to the pe- 

 dantry of discipline ; and so deficient in sense, ae to 

 imagine the tactics of Europe strictly practicable 

 among the swamps and forests of America. He 

 treated with disdain the advice of the provincial of- 

 ficers, who best knew the enemy he had to engage ; 

 and took no precaution against the stratagems which 

 he was warned to expect. Having advanced, in 



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