g, without any visible means of redress, are
such advantages as, if properly attended to, cannot fail of wholly
effecting their ruin in that as well as in every other part of India"
(Letter of Clive to Pitt, Calcutta, January 7, 1759; Gleig's Life of
Lord Clive). It will be remembered that the control and use of Bengal,
upon which Clive here counts, had only lately been acquired by the
English; in the days of Dupleix they did not possess them. As will be
seen later, Clive's predictions in this letter were wholly fulfilled.

[92] Lapeyrouse-Bonfils: Hist. de la Marine Francaise.

CHAPTER VIII.

SEVEN YEARS' WAR, 1756-1763.--ENGLAND'S OVERWHELMING POWER AND
CONQUESTS ON THE SEAS, IN NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, AND EAST AND
WEST INDIES.--SEA BATTLES: BYNG OFF MINORCA; HAWKE AND CONFLANS;
POCOCK AND D'ACHE IN EAST INDIES.

The urgency with which peace was desired by the principal parties to
the War of the Austrian Succession may perhaps be inferred from the
neglect to settle definitely and conclusively many of the questions
outstanding between them, and notably the very disputes about which
the war between England and Spain began. It seems as though the powers
feared to treat thoroughly matters that contained the germs of future
quarrels, lest the discussion should prolong the war that then
existed. England made peace because the fall of Holland was otherwise
inevitable, not because she had enforced, or surrendered, her claims
of 1739 against Spain. The right of uninterrupted navigation in West
Indian seas, free from any search, was left undetermined, as were
other kindred matters. Not only so, but the boundaries between the
English and French colonies in the valley of the Ohio, toward Canada,
and on the land side of the Nova Scotian peninsula, remained as vague
as they had before been. It was plain that peace could not last; and
by it, if she had saved Holland, England surrendered the control of
the sea which she had won. The true character of the strife, shrouded
for a moment by the continental war, was revealed by the so-called
peace; though formally allayed, the contention continued in every part
of the world.

In India, Dupleix, no longer able to attack the English openly, sought
to undermine their power by the line of policy already described.
Mingling adroitly in the quarrels of surrounding princes, and
advancing his own power while so doing, he attained by rapid steps to
the political contro