." In truth, from the point of view of sea power and
of the national jealousies which the spirit of that age sanctioned,
these words, though illiberal, were strictly justifiable. The
restoration to France of her colonies in the West Indies and her
stations in India, together with the valuable right of fishery in her
former American possessions, put before her the possibility and the
inducement to restore her shipping, her commerce, and her navy, and
thus tended to recall her from the path of continental ambition which
had been so fatal to her interests, and in the same proportion
favorable to the unprecedented growth of England's power upon the
ocean. The opposition, and indeed some of the ministry, also thought
that so commanding and important a position as Havana was poorly paid
for by the cession of the yet desolate and unproductive region called
Florida. Porto Rico was suggested, Florida accepted. There were other
minor points of difference, into which it is unnecessary to enter. It
could scarcely be denied that with the commanding military control of
the sea held by England, grasping as she now did so many important
positions, with her navy overwhelmingly superior in numbers, and her
commerce and internal condition very thriving, more rigorous terms
might easily have been exacted and would have been prudent. The
ministry defended their eagerness and spirit of concession on the
ground of the enormous growth of the debt, which then amounted to
L122,000,000, a sum in every point of view much greater then than now;
but while this draft upon the future was fully justified by the
success of the war, it also imperatively demanded that the utmost
advantages which the military situation made attainable should be
exacted. This the ministry failed to do. As regards the debt, it is
well observed by a French writer that "in this war, and for years
afterward, England had in view nothing less than the conquest of
America and the progress of her East India Company. By these two
countries her manufactures and commerce acquired more than sufficient
outlets, and repaid her for the numerous sacrifices she had made.
Seeing the maritime decay of Europe,--its commerce annihilated, its
manufactures so little advanced,--how could the English nation feel
afraid of a future which offered so vast a perspective?" Unfortunately
the nation needed an exponent in the government; and its chosen
mouthpiece, the only man, perhaps, able to rise to the