The glorious death of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham was followed by the surrender of Montreal and the brilliant victory of Plassey in India by Clive over the French. Pitt assured his countrymen that “they should not be losers” (in giving pecuniary assistance to Frederick the Great) “and that he would conquer America for them in Germany.”
This proved true. In 1762 the fall of the French Colonial Empire occurred, and England obtained Canada and India.
This wonderful statesman[36] undoubtedly made England the first country in the world.
“A height of prosperity and glory unknown to any former age,”[37] was reached in England during the administration of Chatham. Now the tide of fortune began to run against England.
The passing of the famous Stamp Act, and many other “repeated injuries and usurpations,”[38] made the relations between England and the American Colonies virtually hostile. At last the Colonies revolted, and it gave Spain and France the long-wished-for opportunity of taking revenge upon England. France and Spain formed the third _pacte de famille_, and assisted the insurgent Colonies, and the independence of the United States was acknowledged in 1783.
In 1789 the French Revolution broke out, and the first effect felt in England was the breaking-up of the Whig party.
In 1792 Austria and Prussia invaded France in order to put down the Republicans in that country. In retaliation France determined to declare war against all countries governed by kings, which principle she established by the “Decree of November 19th,” and in 1793 she declared war against England and Holland.
The younger Pitt had now come to the front. He was an economist and advocated a peace policy. In the spring of 1792 he reduced the navy and confidently looked forward to at least fifteen years of peace. There is no doubt that if France had remained quiet his hopes would have proved correct, and that the west bank of the Rhine would now be under French rule.
But France was eager to revenge past injuries put upon her by England; and, as if in answer to her desires, the second Alexander the Great appeared in Napoleon, and began “alarming the Old World with his dazzling schemes of aggrandizement.”
Against England his whole energies were directed. “Let us be masters,” said he, “of the Channel for six hours and we are masters of the world.”[39] In 1798, he captured Malta, occupied Egypt, and undertook a campaign in Syria, as a furtherance to his desires of obtaining India, at the same time retaining his ideas with regard to England. Malta to Egypt, Egypt to India, India to England.