He then went through the points to be ceded in America and Africa; and declared he would not have agreed to any terms approaching to these preliminaries. He inveighed against the bad faith of France, and showed from their losses how much they had lain at our mercy. In the campaign of Crevelt alone they had lost forty thousand men. Every year had cost them twenty thousand more. Would you still treat on the same terms you would have treated, after they had put you to the expense of fourteen additional millions, and after your arms had been crowned with such advantages? It could not be for the sake of Portugal; for you had been told from the throne that a stop had been put to the progress of the Spaniards in that country. We must, say the French, have St. Lucia, for _cela bouche Martinique_; is that a reason to be given to a British Parliament? France should have given you Guadaloupe, or she and Spain, Hispaniola. She had given you more in Canada than she knew you could use, and more than he had contended for; but then she had got the fisheries. On the coast of Bengal we should never have suffered her to come; yet did she affect to cede all her conquests, where she had made _none_; but, alas! no nation had ever lost an opportunity so happy, so almost accomplished, of fixing its ascendant and commerce! He applauded the drawing of the article of Canada, infinitely better executed than he could have done it. Spain, too, he owned, had acknowledged our right of cutting log-wood as fully as he could find any authority in our records to contend for; but the negotiators had not been equally able, in fixing Spain, to acknowledge our right of fishery in Newfoundland. Spain does not renounce her right of fishing there, but desists. For the King of Prussia he was disavowed! given up! sacrificed! so melancholy was the effect of the coldness that was grown between the two crowns! The branches of Bourbon were united; we and our allies disunited! He had seen nothing he envied in French councils till now. They had indulged a noble delicacy of honour, and obtained everything for Spain; nay, had treated Austria with punctilio. We did not so remember those who had served us! The moment the battle of Culloden should be forgotten, this country would be undone! We ought to have made a family compact with the King of Prussia.
Wildlife Report
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume I (of 4) — Part 99
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