231 
MEMOIRS 
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 
THE BROME-W ALTON - FAMILY. 
BY 
MAJOR AND QUARTERMASTER R. H. MURDOCH, R.A. 
(Assistant-Superintendent of Records). 
(Continued from No. 1, Vol. XXI., p. 39.) 
Chapter V. 
The Seven Years War. 
Per Mare, (per Terr am. 
In the wars of the Austrian and Spanish Successions, France and 
England had crossed swords, not as principals but as auxiliaries or 
ff cats-paws” of the continental Powers—a role beneath the dignity or 
genius of either of these first-class neighbouring nations : yet, the long 
years of European peace which followed, and the powerful stimulus 
imparted to commercial and international reciprocities, rapidly subdued 
race animosities and began to set up (among the travelled, the com¬ 
mercial community, and even in the army) a mutual constraint towards 
solidarity—engendering on our side a very considerable Gallican senti¬ 
ment towards our brave and sprightly rivals, even to affectation of the 
language, dress, manners, and alas! the morals of the French 1 —so 
that, as with Ireland of to-day, only a channel tunnel was needed to 
draw nigh peoples estranged by separation. 
In the year 1755, however—fatal to the peace of the world,—a 
splenetic fit of jealousy or ambition impelled the French Court to tread 
upon the tail of the British Lion, in America, East and West Indies, 
Africa, Hanover, and to threaten, also, an invasion of our own shores, 
with the fatuous idea of reducing Britain to play second fiddle to France 
in the European concert. 
By the treaties of peace concluded at Breslau, 1742, and at Dresden, 
1745, Maria Theresa of Austria ceded to Frederick II. of Prussia six 
principalities of Silesia and the county of Glatz. The loss of these fine 
1 “Modern Europe” (Russell), Vol. II., p. 436. “Gentleman’s Magazine,” 1751-8, “Estimate 
of the Manners and Principles of the Times,” 1757, Vol. II. “Annual Register,” 1758, p. 373 
(“ Remonstrance of the Mob against the Importation of French Words, &c.”). Our present mili¬ 
tary French terms date from this period. 
5. vol. XXI. 
31 
