WEBVTT NOTE 41. Concluding Peace 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.900 Volume 2, Chapter 41, Concluding Peace 2 00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:13.100 Although the conflict in America was ended by 1760, the war between Britain and France 3 00:00:13.100 --> 00:00:20.140 continued to rage elsewhere. India, the West Indies, where England captured Guadeloupe 4 00:00:20.140 --> 00:00:26.680 and Europe. Through it all, England was driven by the mania of William Pitt for the total 5 00:00:26.680 --> 00:00:33.560 and the Federal Crushing of the French Enemy. By the end of 1759, Guadeloupe had been conquered 6 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:39.400 and New France all but vanquished. Coupled with England's commanding position, however, 7 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:46.760 was the burden of high taxes and of a mounting national debt. Increasingly appalled at the 8 00:00:46.760 --> 00:00:52.960 long and terribly costly war, Newcastle and the Whigs concluded that it was high time 9 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:59.120 Time to Make Peace. Newcastle's cry was typical. I wish to God I could see my way through this 10 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:01.280 mountain of expense. 11 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:07.400 Split war was now began to rage in Great Britain, sponsored by and reflecting the positions 12 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:13.440 of the contending parties. The imperialist war crowd, led by Pitt, his brother-in-law 13 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:19.080 George Grenville, the Duke of Bedford and the young Prince of Wales, and his high Tory 14 00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:24.960 Secretary-Advisor the Earl of Bute panicked at any hint of peace and demanded the retention 15 00:01:24.960 --> 00:01:31.320 of every British conquest, especially of Canada. Some imperialist pamphlets went so far as 16 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:37.880 to urge the conquest of French Louisiana. In the last analysis, however, the imperialists 17 00:01:37.880 --> 00:01:44.240 were willing to concede Guadeloupe in order to keep Canada. Even Pitt's instincts for 18 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:49.740 for keeping any and all conquest were tempered by the fact that his main political and financial 19 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:56.740 supporter was Alderman William Beckford. Beckford, leader of the London merchants and financiers, 20 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:02.480 was one of the richest men in the British Empire, an absentee sugar planter of the West 21 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:09.120 Indies. He opposed incorporating the fertile and efficient French sugar plantations into 22 00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:16.080 to the Empire and thus into its extensive markets. Furthermore, Pitt himself had strong family 23 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:22.040 connections with West Indies planters. To counter the imperialist propaganda, the New 24 00:02:22.040 --> 00:02:28.720 Castle Peace Forces enlisted the services of William Burke, Secretary of the newly conquered 25 00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:34.600 Guadeloupe. Burke rose to the occasion with a trenchant and popular pamphlet published 26 00:02:34.600 --> 00:02:43.880 in January 1760. Burke recalled the original war aim as stated in November 1754, the limited 27 00:02:43.880 --> 00:02:50.640 conquest of the Upper Ohio Valley, east of the Wabash. He suggested a return to these 28 00:02:50.640 --> 00:02:57.160 limited war aims, the retention of only Guadeloupe and the Upper Ohio Valley, and the return 29 00:02:57.160 --> 00:03:04.400 of Canada to France. In this way, proper limits would be established to English conquest and 30 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:10.540 Peace could be concluded quickly and amicably. Several other Whig pamphlets joined Burke 31 00:03:10.540 --> 00:03:18.180 in asking for the return of Canada, one of which was also printed in Boston. The imperialist 32 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:23.440 counterattacked with another flood of pamphlets in February and March, insisting on keeping 33 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:31.580 Canada and hence implicitly on continuing the war indefinitely. The major imperialist 34 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:38.380 The first reply was the influential pamphlet by Benjamin Franklin and Richard Jackson, 35 00:03:38.380 --> 00:03:44.800 The Interest of Great Britain Considered, published in the spring of 1760 and reprinted 36 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:53.520 that year in Boston and Philadelphia. Franklin, agent of the Pennsylvania Legislature in England, 37 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.800 was a friend of Bedford, Halifax and Pitt, but his closest associates were among the 38 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:06.400 The High Tory clique, whose leading luminaries were Lord Bute and the Prince of Wales, all 39 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.660 shared the goal of increased centralized royal control over the American colonies, and Franklin 40 00:04:13.660 --> 00:04:20.100 also aimed at royal replacement of proprietary government in Pennsylvania. 41 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:26.540 As the pamphlet war began to brew at the turn of 1760, Franklin had written to his close 42 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:32.540 Lord Cames of his Gushing Enthusiasm for a Grandios British Empire 43 00:04:32.540 --> 00:04:42.540 As a Briton, I have long been of opinion that the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British Empire lie in America. 44 00:04:42.540 --> 00:04:51.540 Cames, the head of the High Tory Scottish faction that was always an Everest subservient to the Crown and the Royal Prerogative, 45 00:04:51.540 --> 00:04:55.540 commissioned Franklin to write his major imperialist pamphlet. 46 00:04:55.540 --> 00:05:07.540 In this work Franklin held out to the British the usual imperialist visions of being a huge naval power and of vast markets for British manufacturers in a British Canada. 47 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:17.540 Himself heavily engaged in speculation in western land, Franklin trumpeted the virtues of cheap virgin land to the British Empire. 48 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:26.540 Grateful for Franklin's allegiance, the Tories were soon to make his son, William, a baronet and a governor of New Jersey. 49 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:33.540 While Oxford University, the intellectual center of the Tories, granted Franklin an honorary degree. 50 00:05:33.540 --> 00:05:43.540 Newcastle and the Whigs had been able in late 1759 to force the reluctant pit into peace negotiations with France. 51 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:50.860 By early 1760, England and France were very close to agreement on a mild peace that would 52 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:57.980 have returned the bulk of Canada and Guadeloupe to French hands, while ceding the Upper Ohio 53 00:05:57.980 --> 00:06:05.540 Valley and Nova Scotia to England and demolishing the French fort at Louisburg. 54 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:12.100 But Pitt was able to sabotage the negotiations and to break them off by April on the flimsy 55 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:17.540 Mises excused that the British ally Prussia was not sufficiently protected in the peace 56 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:25.040 terms, a particularly phony ruse because Prussia itself ardently favored the quick peace. 57 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:30.660 Pitt and the industrialist greatly needed an issue to prevent peace from breaking out. 58 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:35.060 They found it in the series of aggressions and depredations they were conducting against 59 00:06:35.060 --> 00:06:41.160 neutral Spain. Spanish shipping was plundered on the high seas along with ships of other 60 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:18.160 The English log cutters promptly began to violate Spanish goodwill by building forts 61 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:25.560 and claiming sovereignty over the whole region for England. 62 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:32.560 Events took a fateful turn in the fall of 1760. The French surrendered Canada in September, 63 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:38.540 and in the following month King George II died and was succeeded by the Prince of Wales 64 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:46.580 as George III. Since George II had been an ardent supporter of Pitt's imperialist schemes, 65 00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:51.900 Newcastle and his chief follower, the Earl of Hardwick, as well as their fellow Whigs, 66 00:07:51.900 --> 00:07:58.080 saw in both events an opportunity to resume negotiations for peace. The Whigs reopened 67 00:07:58.080 --> 00:08:03.060 the debate on the peace terms in November in a highly influential pamphlet by the wealthy 68 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:11.660 Merchant Israel Modwit, Considerations on the Present German War. Modwit advocated the 69 00:08:11.660 --> 00:08:19.500 old Whig policy of returning Canada, while retaining Guadeloupe and the other Sugar Islands. 70 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:27.060 He also boldly recommended a return to the old Walpole-Pellum policy of ceasing to meddle 71 00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:33.160 or intervene in the affairs of Europe or to whip up conflicts against France. 72 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:39.840 Mauduit showed that such a course would be far kinder to England's Prussian ally. 73 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:45.740 The new king promptly added to his cabinet his chief advisor, the Earl of Bute, and Bute 74 00:08:45.740 --> 00:08:50.480 brought in other Tories associated with the royal faction. 75 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:55.740 The ultimate aims of Bute and King George on the one hand and Pitt on the other were 76 00:08:55.740 --> 00:09:02.540 were quite similar, the absolute destruction of the Whig Party and its legacy of liberalism, 77 00:09:02.540 --> 00:09:09.240 and the aggrandizement of royal control over parliament and country. 78 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:15.860 Both factions also agreed on the major imperial war aim of retaining Canada, since both had 79 00:09:15.860 --> 00:09:23.540 been nurtured in the visionary imperial dreams of the old Beckfordite opposition to Walpole. 80 00:09:23.540 --> 00:09:28.940 Here they were joined, of course, by the other imperialist factions, such as those of Bedford 81 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:35.740 and of George Grenville. All these doctrinal positions could join in a systematic policy 82 00:09:35.740 --> 00:09:42.740 of high-Taurism, aggrandizement of strong royal power at home and throughout the empire. 83 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:48.740 Hence, these Tory-minded factions could also readily agree on other programs of the old 84 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:55.820 Anti-wall pole opposition, on the ending of salutary neglect, on the rigorous enforcement 85 00:09:55.820 --> 00:10:03.100 of trade regulations over the colonies, and on a strong central government over America, 86 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:07.180 perhaps to be headed by the pliable Benjamin Franklin. 87 00:10:07.180 --> 00:10:12.460 The imperialists lost little time in mounting a heavy counterattack of pamphlets against 88 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:19.340 Moduit and the Whigs, The Major Rebuttal, Reasons in Support of the War in Germany, 89 00:10:19.340 --> 00:10:27.100 was published in January 1761 by Robert Wood, one of Pitt's chief aides. But the real author 90 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:33.740 behind the scenes was thought to be Pitt himself. Also joining in the pressure to keep Canada 91 00:10:33.740 --> 00:10:40.100 was the alderman Sir William Baker, a leading military contractor and merchant in the American 92 00:10:40.100 --> 00:10:46.540 and Trade, in which he was closely associated with the leading American contractors De Lancie 93 00:10:46.540 --> 00:10:54.780 and Watts. By the spring of 1761, the French declared their willingness to yield far more 94 00:10:54.780 --> 00:11:01.940 than called for by the moderate Whig demands. They would cede to Britain, Canada, the Ohio 95 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:08.980 Valley and even Guadeloupe, provided that France could retain her precious fishing rights 96 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:14.980 in Canadian and Newfoundland waters, with Lewisburg to protect them. 97 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:21.420 But the fishing rights were precisely what Pitt was most eager to gain, one of his prime 98 00:11:21.420 --> 00:11:27.780 objects in the war being an English monopoly of Canadian fishing and the crushing of efficient 99 00:11:27.780 --> 00:11:30.140 French competition. 100 00:11:30.140 --> 00:11:35.260 Pitt delighted in pouring cold water on the Whigs, who were overjoyed at the French peace 101 00:11:35.260 --> 00:11:36.620 offer. 102 00:11:36.620 --> 00:11:42.900 He would, he savagely assured to them, fight for another half dozen years to control Canada 103 00:11:42.900 --> 00:11:45.500 and its fishing. 104 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:50.900 Alderman Baker now returned to the attack, urging not only the retention of Canada and 105 00:11:50.900 --> 00:11:56.780 a monopoly of its fisheries, but also the seizure of French Louisiana. 106 00:11:56.780 --> 00:12:03.620 By the end of June, a new division had emerged in the cabinet, King George, Bute, Pitt, and 107 00:12:03.620 --> 00:12:09.980 Pitt's faithful brother-in-law, Earl Temple, united on a minimum of peace terms the Ohio 108 00:12:09.980 --> 00:12:17.780 Valley, Canada, Lewisburg and the fishing monopoly. The Whigs, Newcastle and Hardwick 109 00:12:17.780 --> 00:12:23.980 were surprisingly now joined by Bedford and John Carteret, who realized that France would 110 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:30.780 fight to the death for her fishing rights. In reply to the generous French peace offer, 111 00:12:30.780 --> 00:12:44.780 It, bolstered by his wide support, fired an ultimatum. Surrender Canada, Lewisburg, the fisheries and French conquest in Germany in return for keeping Guadeloupe. 112 00:12:44.780 --> 00:12:54.780 Furthermore, none of Spain's grievances against England was to be satisfied, and Pitt disdainfully broke off all negotiations with Spain. 113 00:12:54.780 --> 00:13:07.780 Its ships plundered, its fishing rights banned, and its Honduran territory seized by contemptuous Britain, Spain grew desperate and sought aid from France. 114 00:13:07.780 --> 00:13:19.780 Both Spain and France grew still more anxious at a new highly touted scheme of Bute and George Grenville, Pitt's brother-in-law, to conquer French Louisiana, 115 00:13:19.780 --> 00:13:27.580 A scheme that led to the transfer of General Amherst forces from Canada to Charleston, South 116 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:31.780 Carolina in the spring of 1761. 117 00:13:31.780 --> 00:13:37.460 Butte and Grenville were heavily influenced in behalf of this plan by a manuscript of 118 00:13:37.460 --> 00:13:42.020 Henry McCullough, a British official in North Carolina. 119 00:13:42.020 --> 00:13:49.540 McCullough, an active speculator in Trans-Carolina lands, had for years hawked a French threat 120 00:13:49.540 --> 00:13:56.360 to America and advocated a strong centralized government over the colonies. Now McCulloch 121 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:03.520 called for a grab of Louisiana and its valued lands and furs. A debate now ensued on the 122 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:10.200 meaning of what had been included in the surrender of Canada at Montreal. Pitt insisted that 123 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:16.900 Canada also included all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. France, however, pointed 124 00:14:16.900 --> 00:14:22.900 The Surrender did not include the Illinois Wabash area in the southeast. 125 00:14:22.900 --> 00:14:29.900 Thus Pitt, too, had escalated English demands by claiming all of eastern Louisiana from the French. 126 00:14:29.900 --> 00:14:36.900 To appease Pitt's paranoia, France had refrained from forming an alliance with Spain. 127 00:14:36.900 --> 00:14:40.900 But now the two harassed countries began to draw together. 128 00:14:40.900 --> 00:14:46.560 together, it was cleared that Pitt would only issue outrageous demands rather than negotiate 129 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:53.060 for peace. In desperation, France and Spain agreed in late August that the latter would 130 00:14:53.060 --> 00:15:01.580 enter the war should England permit or prolong the conflict. The maniacal Pitt, sending plots, 131 00:15:01.580 --> 00:15:08.660 now broke off negotiations after France had again refused to accept his ultimatum. Pitt 132 00:15:08.660 --> 00:15:14.300 carried the day by threatening to resign if peace negotiations continued. 133 00:15:14.300 --> 00:15:19.980 Britain now faced the problem of Spain's entry into the war. Open were two courses. 134 00:15:19.980 --> 00:15:27.680 One, to resume peace negotiations, which would keep Spain out of the war. Two, now demanded 135 00:15:27.680 --> 00:15:36.080 by Pitt, to launch aggressive war upon Spain. Indeed, Pitt, in mid-September 1761, urged 136 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:42.080 an all-out surprise attack on the Spanish fleet, a violation of international law that 137 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:47.540 would further alienate all European powers from Great Britain. 138 00:15:47.540 --> 00:15:53.260 In all of his recent aggressive designs, Pitt had been able to carry the day over Bedford 139 00:15:53.260 --> 00:16:00.320 and the Whigs by maintaining the support of the Earl of Bute. But now Bute, while favoring 140 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:07.320 American aggression against Spain disagreed on the timing. He wished to wait and prepare 141 00:16:07.800 --> 00:16:14.800 the public and first end the war on the continent of Europe. Backed by King George, Bute refused 142 00:16:15.680 --> 00:16:21.600 to bow to Pitt's threats to resign if Spain were not attacked. Pitt and Earl Temple were 143 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:28.600 therefore allowed to resign on October 2nd. Britain's fanatical war leader was now out 144 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:33.600 was now out of power, but William Pitt was hardly in disgrace. 145 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:39.600 It was Bute's intention to reinstate Pitt, in a less powerful post, of course, as soon 146 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:43.760 as he had managed to make war upon Spain. 147 00:16:43.760 --> 00:16:49.720 Then their common aim to aggrandize the royal prerogative and to destroy the liberal Whig 148 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:53.920 Party could proceed undisturbed. 149 00:16:53.920 --> 00:17:00.040 In the meanwhile, as a token of his esteem, Bute lavished parishes and pensions on Pitt 150 00:17:00.040 --> 00:17:06.480 and his family. He also pursued a subtle form of pittite policy without the great man's 151 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:13.880 personal participation. England was to have pittism without Pitt. 152 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:18.760 It is impossible to penetrate the tangled thicket of British politics in the eighteenth 153 00:17:18.760 --> 00:17:28.760 Without grasping the crucial and fateful role played by William Pitt, soon to be made the first Earl of Chatham. 154 00:17:28.760 --> 00:17:44.760 From the time that he emerged on the political scene in the late 1730s, Pitt was the decisive force in destroying the Whig equilibrium that had been established by Robert Walpole in the early decades of the century. 155 00:17:44.760 --> 00:17:52.760 The liberal Whig principles of peace, low taxes, and minimal government, supported by merchants 156 00:17:52.760 --> 00:18:01.760 and masses as against statist Tory prerogative, were shattered almost single-handedly by Pitt. 157 00:18:01.760 --> 00:18:08.000 Pitt was able to win over for the Tory objectives of imperial aggression in the royal prerogative 158 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.480 both the masses and the leading merchants and financiers. 159 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:19.080 The former were carried away by chauvinist demagogy and war hysteria induced by Pitt's 160 00:18:19.080 --> 00:18:25.520 charismatic oratory. The latter were joyous at the advantages to be reaped by imperial 161 00:18:25.520 --> 00:18:31.820 plunder and the privileges of monopoly. In this way, Pitt was able to shatter the great 162 00:18:31.820 --> 00:18:38.200 Whig coalition of merchant and populace, to involve England in too long, costly, impoverishing 163 00:18:38.200 --> 00:19:07.440 George III's predecessors had not been particularly concerned with exerting the royal prerogative. 164 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:13.440 George III and the first two Georges were largely concerned with continental politics, 165 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:20.440 and the last two with their Hanoverian home. The Georges indeed generally spent at least 166 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:28.040 half of each year in their beloved Hanover. But George III was determined to play a direct 167 00:19:28.040 --> 00:19:34.760 and decisive role in government. He was inspired to break the wigs and exercise his dominance 168 00:19:34.760 --> 00:19:36.760 The Theory of Money and Credit 169 00:20:04.760 --> 00:20:14.760 of the Patriot King, smashing all political parties independent of his will and ruling the nation without check or limit. 170 00:20:14.760 --> 00:20:23.760 With Pitt out of the cabinet, his brother-in-law, George Grenville, who remained in the cabinet, became leader of the House of Commons. 171 00:20:23.760 --> 00:20:30.760 Grenville's brother-in-law, the Earl of Ergmont, became Secretary of State for the Southern Department. 172 00:20:30.760 --> 00:20:36.520 The great political struggle now centered on the projected war against Spain, with Bute 173 00:20:36.520 --> 00:20:42.880 preparing for it and Newcastle opposed and calling for quick general peace. In plotting 174 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:49.600 a war against Spain, Bute was more than fully backed by Grenville and Ergmont, while Newcastle 175 00:20:49.600 --> 00:20:55.840 was supported by the Whigs and by Bedford. With Pitt out of the cabinet, his brother-in-law, 176 00:20:55.840 --> 00:21:01.920 George Grenville, who remained in the cabinet, became leader of the House of Commons. Grenville's 177 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:08.320 brother-in-law, the Earl of Egremont, became Secretary of State for the Southern Department. 178 00:21:08.320 --> 00:21:13.360 The great political struggle now centered on the projected war against Spain, with Bute 179 00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:20.160 preparing for it and Newcastle opposed and calling for a quick general peace. In plotting 180 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:25.720 During war against Spain, Bute was more than fully backed by Grenville and Egremont, while 181 00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:33.320 Newcastle was supported by the Whigs and by Bedford. To force Spain into war, Egremont, 182 00:21:33.320 --> 00:21:39.960 buttressed by Bute and Grenville, sent a series of arrogant and insulting ultimatums to Spain 183 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:47.160 in the fall of 1761. Spain was ordered to agree to the forfeit of its violated rights, 184 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:53.200 to the lack of any satisfaction of its grievances, and to renounce any use of force in protecting 185 00:21:53.200 --> 00:22:00.880 her rights, else England would go to war with Spain in retaliation for its silent aggression. 186 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:06.680 Newcastle, Bedford and the Whigs tried desperately to launch negotiations and avert war, but 187 00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:14.520 England simply fell upon Spain in January 1762, despite opposition to the last by Newcastle, 188 00:22:14.520 --> 00:22:16.240 Hardwick and Bedford. 189 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:23.240 In the meantime, Pitt's acceptance of handsome pensions and perquisites had vastly alienated 190 00:22:23.240 --> 00:22:29.300 his support among the masses, who had thought him their champion and had valued his much-paraded 191 00:22:29.300 --> 00:22:33.100 honesty and incorruptibility. 192 00:22:33.100 --> 00:22:38.780 To divert the attention of the masses from the mud on his halo, Pitt and Temple used 193 00:22:38.780 --> 00:22:45.100 Alderman Beckford's warmongering newspaper, The Monitor, to urge aggression and all-out 194 00:22:45.100 --> 00:22:51.260 War on France and Spain, and for keeping Canada and its fishing rights, a campaign that served 195 00:22:51.260 --> 00:22:57.180 to push Pitt's successors more forcefully into the attack on Spain. 196 00:22:57.180 --> 00:23:05.020 The Spanish problem precipitated another pamphlet war toward the end of 1761. Israel, Mauduit, 197 00:23:05.020 --> 00:23:10.820 now an agent of the Massachusetts Assembly, again called for peace and for keeping Guadalupe 198 00:23:10.820 --> 00:23:17.640 rather than Canada. On the other hand, Bute's agent Charles Jenkinson and Grenville's agent 199 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:24.000 Alexander Wedderburn launched a newspaper and pamphlet campaign for attacking Spain 200 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:30.540 and keeping Canada and included hints of attempts to conquer Louisiana and perhaps continue on 201 00:23:30.540 --> 00:23:38.540 to Cuba and the silver mines of Mexico. Newcastle was horrified at Grenville's plans to seize 202 00:23:38.540 --> 00:23:46.500 Spanish America. I see things every day worse and worse. This itch after expeditions will 203 00:23:46.500 --> 00:23:53.900 exhaust our treasure. What will become of this poor country? God only knows. I never 204 00:23:53.900 --> 00:24:01.440 saw this nation so near its ruin as at present. Peace is the only remedy. 205 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:07.460 At the end of February, the English conquered the French West Indian Sugar Island of Martinique 206 00:24:07.460 --> 00:24:12.340 and this acquisition again spurred discussion of peace terms. 207 00:24:12.340 --> 00:24:17.660 The French are all the more eager to yield Canada, but not its fishing rights, provided 208 00:24:17.660 --> 00:24:21.000 that the West Indies were restored. 209 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:27.140 But the British war leaders Grenville and Aigremont insisted on Louisiana as well. 210 00:24:27.140 --> 00:24:33.740 Finally, at the end of May, Newcastle, isolated in the cabinet and seeing the war expand, 211 00:24:33.740 --> 00:24:36.740 resigned his post as Prime Minister. 212 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:42.100 These fellow Whigs, Hardwick and Devonshire, resigning as well. 213 00:24:42.100 --> 00:24:48.540 In contrast to Pitt, Newcastle refused a placatory pension from the Crown. 214 00:24:48.540 --> 00:24:51.820 Bute had at last achieved his aim of ousting Newcastle. 215 00:24:51.820 --> 00:24:56.380 Bute, Grenville and their friends now advanced in their official post. 216 00:24:56.380 --> 00:25:02.260 The Whigs were now completely out of the government for the first time in forty years. 217 00:25:02.260 --> 00:25:08.380 The French were now willing to cede eastern Louisiana, east of the Mississippi, in return 218 00:25:08.380 --> 00:25:15.540 for the West Indian Islands. But the English leaders had the war bit in their teeth. Grenville, 219 00:25:15.540 --> 00:25:23.820 Egremont, Cotterett and even Bedford were insisting on all of Louisiana. Oddly, Bute was now leaning 220 00:25:23.820 --> 00:25:30.500 toward the French peace terms. Bereft of allies in concluding peace, Bute began to long for 221 00:25:30.500 --> 00:25:36.100 and the return of the Whigs, but the Whigs were too out of sympathy with the whole policy 222 00:25:36.100 --> 00:25:42.720 of conquest to come to his aid. In August the British conquered Havana and the war crowd's 223 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:49.620 appetite was whetted still more. Bedford and Halifax called for Florida and Grenville looked 224 00:25:49.620 --> 00:25:56.540 to the conquest of all of Spanish America. Butte, however, was now determined on peace 225 00:25:56.540 --> 00:26:01.800 and brought the pliable Henry Fox to leadership of the House of Commons in order to drive 226 00:26:01.800 --> 00:26:09.480 through a peace treaty. In return, Fox would be given a peerage. At the same time, Egremont 227 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:15.440 and Grenville were downgraded in the cabinet. Butte and Bedford finally managed to conclude 228 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:24.940 a preliminary peace on November 3rd. England would receive Canada. Lewisburg and all of 229 00:26:24.940 --> 00:26:30.860 of North America East of the Mississippi, including Florida, as well as three of the 230 00:26:30.860 --> 00:26:34.700 minor West Indian Islands. 231 00:26:34.700 --> 00:26:40.500 France retained Guadeloupe and Martinique, as well as its precious fishing rights off 232 00:26:40.500 --> 00:26:47.140 Canada and Newfoundland, and it transferred New Orleans and western Louisiana to Spain 233 00:26:47.140 --> 00:26:51.420 in compensation for the Spanish loss of Florida. 234 00:26:51.420 --> 00:26:57.100 Cuba was returned to Spain, but Spain lost its fishing rights in exchange for the liquidation 235 00:26:57.100 --> 00:27:04.100 of English forts in Honduras. Fox skillfully drove the peace terms through Commons in December, 236 00:27:04.820 --> 00:27:11.820 and the final peace treaty was signed in Paris in February 1763. The long war with France 237 00:27:13.180 --> 00:27:20.180 was finally over, and France was now completely removed from the North American continent. 238 00:27:20.180 --> 00:27:28.180 As peace finally drew near, British politics centered all the more insistently on the peace terms. 239 00:27:28.180 --> 00:27:39.180 In 1757, Parliament, by an oversight, had failed to continue the high tax on newspapers that it had deliberately imposed in 1711, 240 00:27:39.180 --> 00:27:44.180 to prevent the growth of a popular, hence an opposition, press. 241 00:27:44.180 --> 00:27:51.220 As a result, the press was able to grow and be supported by a wide circulation. 242 00:27:51.220 --> 00:27:57.820 The ouster of Newcastle and the Whigs led the Bute Ministry, represented by Wedderburn, 243 00:27:57.820 --> 00:28:04.900 to establish the Britain as its mouthpiece at the end of May 1762. 244 00:28:04.900 --> 00:28:12.300 Earl Temple, as a counter, set up the oppositionist North Britain in early June, edited by a 245 00:28:12.300 --> 00:28:19.080 A long-time follower of his, John Wilkes. Wilkes, a country squire hailing from a non-conformist 246 00:28:19.080 --> 00:28:28.080 merchant family, was high sheriff of Buckinghamshire. Pitt opposed the new venture as too inflammatory. 247 00:28:28.080 --> 00:28:34.580 To Pitt, all such political writing would be productive of mischief. Wilkes' audacity 248 00:28:34.580 --> 00:28:41.220 in editing the North Britain only confirmed Pitt's hostility. Even Wilkes' friend in 249 00:28:41.220 --> 00:28:46.180 In backer, Temple was generally cool to his bold policy. 250 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:51.220 Temple peppered Wilkes with criticism and advice to temper his opposition, to eschew 251 00:28:51.220 --> 00:28:59.300 personal attacks, in short to sail with the new current and partake of the court favor. 252 00:28:59.300 --> 00:29:04.660 By mid-October, Temple was writing harshly to his sister, the future wife of Pitt, Mr. 253 00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:11.180 Pitt and I disapprove of this paper war and the daily abominations which are published, 254 00:29:11.180 --> 00:29:16.780 So because Wilkes professes himself a friend of mine, I am ever represented infamously 255 00:29:16.780 --> 00:29:22.260 as a patron of what I disapprove and wish I could have put an end to. 256 00:29:22.260 --> 00:29:28.140 But Wilkes, on the other hand, quickly drew the support of Newcastle and the Whigs, since 257 00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:32.400 Wilkes ardently championed the opposition cause. 258 00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:38.400 As the peace treaty became imminent, two contrasting groups made clear their opposition. 259 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:45.320 The Whigs who continued to oppose the terms of undue conquest in North America and Pitt, 260 00:29:45.320 --> 00:29:50.160 who opposed peace per se as too soft on the French. 261 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:55.760 The most important Whig statement was a new edition of William Burke's Examination of 262 00:29:55.760 --> 00:30:02.160 the Commercial Principles, again calling for yielding Canada and the North American lands 263 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:05.320 and to retain the Sugar Islands. 264 00:30:05.320 --> 00:30:12.760 Also influential was the similar Letter to the City of London by George Heathcote M.P., 265 00:30:12.760 --> 00:30:19.200 a radical Whig or Commonwealth man. Temple's papers, taking a continued pit or Whig tone 266 00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:24.260 in opposition to the peace terms, drew down the wrath of the government, which prepared 267 00:30:24.260 --> 00:30:31.000 a general warrant in early November against both the Monitor and the North Britain. In 268 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:37.000 In the February 1763 issue of the North Britain, which took essentially the Newcastle Whig 269 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:42.680 line on the peace treaty, John Wilkes had denounced the ceding of the Sugar Islands 270 00:30:42.680 --> 00:30:51.000 in the West Indies instead of the vast, expensively maintained tracts in Canada and Florida. 271 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:58.440 Henry Fox's shrewd management of the peace treaty, however, made this suppression unnecessary, 272 00:30:58.440 --> 00:31:01.800 and the General Warrant remained unused. 273 00:31:01.800 --> 00:31:07.460 William Pitt, in his speech on the Treaty, raved and ranted of the absolute necessity 274 00:31:07.460 --> 00:31:13.580 of the destruction of France, and for that purpose of retaining the fishing monopoly. 275 00:31:13.580 --> 00:31:19.600 By placing his opposition in these war-mad terms, Pitt drove many of the Whigs into lukewarm 276 00:31:19.600 --> 00:31:21.640 support of the Treaty. 277 00:31:21.640 --> 00:31:27.260 At the end of December, in the massacre of the Pelham Innocents, Fox engineered the 278 00:31:27.260 --> 00:31:34.740 The ouster of all the Whigs holding public office for daring to oppose the peace terms. 279 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:41.000 Newcastle had always been friendly to opposition expressed by popular mobs, and he now spurred 280 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:46.620 of vigorous Whig opposition to the increasingly Tory rule. 281 00:31:46.620 --> 00:31:52.300 John Wilkes wrote enthusiastically in the North Britain of December 25 that every friend 282 00:31:52.300 --> 00:31:58.460 of Liberty and of Revolution Principles had been dismissed, and they must from now on 283 00:31:58.460 --> 00:32:01.180 depend on the people. 284 00:32:01.180 --> 00:32:07.300 In a six-part critique of Toryism and Tory rule, Wilkes thundered that the Tory faction 285 00:32:07.300 --> 00:32:13.780 is triumphant and the most slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance is 286 00:32:13.780 --> 00:32:21.940 preached up by every pamphleteer and insisted upon by an all-grasping minister. 287 00:32:21.940 --> 00:32:28.940 The Whig Party was now at a fateful crossroads. It either had to go into vigorous, liberal 288 00:32:28.940 --> 00:32:36.180 opposition to the administration, or, in effect, had to abandon all of its Whig principles 289 00:32:36.180 --> 00:32:43.380 and crawl back into government office. The Whig Party was now at a fateful crossroads. 290 00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:50.380 It either had to go into vigorous, liberal opposition to the administration, or, in effect, 291 00:32:50.380 --> 00:32:57.380 had to abandon all of its Whig principles and crawl back into government office. 292 00:32:57.560 --> 00:33:04.560 The Whigs polarized. Hardwick, the York family, and Newcastle's nephew Charles Townshend, 293 00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:11.100 along with other conservatives, refused to form a vigorous opposition. Whereas the more 294 00:33:11.100 --> 00:33:17.300 radical and principled Whigs, especially the Whig youth, headed by the Marquis of Rockingham, 295 00:33:17.300 --> 00:33:30.300 The Federal Reserve formed an opposition club with the rather worried blessing of the aging Newcastle, but the reconstituted Whig Club suffered gravely from the lack of a strong leader in the House of Commons. 296 00:33:31.300 --> 00:33:43.300 For its part, the administration felt it necessary to push aggressive expansion and rule in the new American lands in order to justify its own peace terms.