ar at once,
and have seized the plate fleet. Had George II. still lived, this
judicious course--all boldness is judicious in war, in which there is
nothing so imprudent as prudence--would have been adopted. But that
monarch died on the 25th of October, 1760, and his grandson and
successor, George III., had domestic objects to accomplish with which
the continuance of the war was incompatible. His intention was to make
peace with France, and he must have deemed it the height of folly to
make war on Spain. Pitt, finding his advice disregarded, resigned his
office, much to the joy of most of his colleagues, whom he had treated
as if they had been the lackeys of his lackeys. How they ever got along
with him through one month is among the mysteries of statesmanship.
President Jackson was not the mildest of men, but he was meekness itself
in comparison with the first William Pitt.

But if Pitt was offensive to his colleagues, he was even more offensive
to the enemies of his country. In a few weeks after he left the
Ministry, the justice of his views became clear even to the young King
and to Lord Bute, the latter personage having virtually made himself
Premier. The Spanish Government, in compliance with the terms of the
Family Compact, made war on England, and that country lost most of the
advantages which would have been hers, if the King had been governed by
Pitt's advice. The treasure-ships reached Spain in safety, and their
cargoes furnished the new belligerent with the sinews of war. So far as
they could, the English Ministers resolved to carry on the war with
Spain in conformity with the plan which Pitt had formed. One of his
projects was to send a force to seize the Havana, which, though not the
important place that it now is, in itself, was nevertheless one of the
most valuable of the commmanding points of the Spanish Indies. At that
time the colonial dominion of Spain embraced the greater part of
America, and the Havana was regarded as the key to the Occidental
possessions of Charles III.[5] This key Secretary Pitt had meant to
seize; and his successors, forced to act, availed themselves of the
preparations which he had made. An expedition sailed from Spithead on
the 5th of March, 1762, which was joined by other forces, the whole
number of vessels being almost two hundred, of which about a fifth were
ships of war. The total of the land-forces, including those sent from
North America, was 14,041. The fleet was commande