bemarle, _Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham_, i., 61-64.

[27] _Secret Memoranda_, C. V., Add. MS. 32,919, f. 285; see also ff.
314, 400, 402 _sq._, 477 _sq._, and 32,920, f. 66.

[28] Dodington's _Diary_, p. 416.

[29] Newcastle to Hardwicke, Feb. 10, 1761, Add. MS. 32,919, f. 43.

[30] Burke, "_On American Taxation_," Works, iii., 214.

[31] Burke, "_On American Taxation_," _Works_, iii., 197.

[32] Memoranda, Add. MS. 32,920, f. 65.

[33] Newcastle to Devonshire, July 11, 1761, Add. MS. 32,925, f. 10; see
also ff. 155-56, 185, 235, Add. MS. 32,926, ff. 189-93, 284, 352.

[34] _Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox_, i., 13, ed. Lady
Ilchester.

CHAPTER II.

THE PEACE OF PARIS.

By the beginning of 1761 France was anxious for peace, and in concert
with her allies, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Poland, invited Great
Britain and Prussia to negotiate, and suggested that a congress should
meet at Augsburg. England and Prussia assented, and plenipotentiaries
were appointed. In England the prospect of a peace was hailed with
satisfaction, and the funds rose 4 per cent. The congress never met, but
the plan was not abandoned for some months; and Choiseul, the minister
of Louis XV., sent a memorial to England proposing that, as difficulties
would arise at the congress if the questions in dispute between England
and France were debated along with the affairs of their respective
allies, the two courts should enter on a separate negotiation. He
offered to treat on the basis of _uti possidetis_, that is, that the
possessions of both countries should be acknowledged as regards the
conquests made by the one from the other, and that certain dates in the
current year should be fixed upon as those on which the conquests should
be ascertained. The offer was large; for at that time England had
conquered from France Cape Breton, Canada, Guadeloupe, Mariegalante,
Goree, and Senegal, and had also gained great advantages in India,
though the fall of Pondicherry was not yet known; while France had only
conquered Minorca from England. She had also, it will be remembered,
gained insecure possession of Hesse, Hanau, and Gottingen. England
agreed to a separate negotiation on the basis of _uti possidetis_, but
Pitt would not commit himself as to the dates, for he was preparing the
expedition against Belle Ile, and intended that England should not lose
the advantage whi