in plain
words that the king would not allow the dispute with Spain to be
blended in any manner whatever in the negotiation, and that any further
attempt to blend them would be considered an affront. He returned the
memorial as "wholly inadmissible".[37] In answer to the French articles
he replied that Canada must be ceded unconditionally, and refused to
surrender Cape Breton or to allow France any part in the fisheries. Both
Pitt and Choiseul held the fisheries question to be of prime importance.
If France were shut out from them, she would, Pitt believed, permanently
be crippled as a maritime power, for apart from the value of the fish
both for victualling ships and in commerce the fisheries were a nursery
for a race of hardy seamen, and Pitt wished to prevent France from ever
restoring either her merchant marine or her naval strength. The second
crucial question in the negotiation concerned our allies. Pitt insisted
that Frederick should receive back the territories conquered from him by
France, and that both England and France should be free to help their
allies. Determined to give France no commercial advantage, he refused to
cede either Senegal or Goree. England must have Minorca, but would agree
to an equal partition of the neutral islands, and would restore Belle
Ile, Guadeloupe, and Mariegalante. He further rejected the date proposed
as a basis for a peace in India.

[Sidenote: _PITT'S ULTIMATUM._]

Pitt kept the negotiation with Bussy in his own hands, and met
opposition in the cabinet with haughty determination. Newcastle and his
party were eager for peace, and, equally with Bussy, complained that the
tone of his despatches was too peremptory. Bute resented what he
described as Pitt's insolence.[38] Nevertheless the king and he
considered the French proposals unsatisfactory and were annoyed by the
memorial concerning the Spanish grievances, but Bute believed that
patient negotiation would induce France to yield all that was in
dispute. Accordingly, to Newcastle's consternation, he supported Pitt's
demands. Pitt's strongest opponent was the Duke of Bedford, who was
urgently summoned to the council by Bute and Newcastle when they wanted
a champion against him. Upright and fairly able, Bedford owed his
political prominence mainly to his rank and vast wealth; he was much
addicted to sport and other pleasures, and allowed himself to be guided
by a gang of greedy adherents of whom Rigby, a coarse and shameless
pl