r uniting against their own nation,
which it is well known they all love much more than they
love one another? I will venture to say union amongst them
for such a purpose is not merely improbable, it is impossible;"
that is, he prudently adds, without "the most grievous tyranny
and oppression," like the bloody rule of "Alva in the Netherlands."[875]

[Footnote 875: _Interest of Great Britain in regard to her Colonies_
(London, 1760)

Lord Bath argues for retaining Canada in _A Letter addressed
to Two Great Men on the Prospect of Peace_ (1759). He is answered
by another pamphlet called _Remarks on the Letter to Two Great
Men_ (1760). The _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1759 has an ironical
article styled _Reasons for restoring Canada to the French_; and
in 1761 a pamphlet against the restitution appeared under the
title, _Importance of Canada considered in Two Letters to a Noble
Lord_. These are but a part of the writings on the question.]

If Pitt had been in office he would have demanded terms
that must ruin past redemption the maritime and colonial
power of France; but Bute was less exacting. In November
the plenipotentiaries of England, France, and Spain agreed
on preliminaries of peace, in which the following were the
essential points. France ceded to Great Britain Canada and
all her possessions on the North American continent east of
the River Mississippi, except the city of New Orleans and a small
adjacent district. She renounced her claims to Acadia, and gave up
to the conqueror the Island of Cape Breton, with all other islands
in the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. Spain received back Havana,
and paid for it by the cession of Florida, with all her other
possessions east of the Mississippi. France, subject to certain
restrictions, was left free to fish in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and
off a part of the coast of Newfoundland; and the two little islands
of St. Pierre and Miquelon were given her as fishing stations on
condition that she should not fortify or garrison them. In the West
Indies, England restored the captured islands of Guadeloupe, Marigalante,
Desirade, and Martinique, and France ceded Grenada and the Grenadines;
while it was agreed that of the so-called neutral islands, St. Vincent,
Dominica, and Tobago should belong to England, and St. Lucia to France.
In Europe, each side promised to give no more help to its allies in the
German war. France restored Minorca, and England restored Belleisle;
France gav