signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, on Oct. 7, 1748, between Great Britain, France, Holland, Germany, Spain, and Sardinia. But this suspension of hostilities with France was confined to the operations in Europe, and did not extend to those in the East and West Indies. Disputes had arisen respecting the limits of Nova Scotia, which had been assigned to England by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and confirmed at Aix. Great Britain also objected to the erection of a chain of forts by the French along the Ohio, with the purpose of uniting their State of Louisiana with Canada; as also to the French occupation of certain of the West India Isles, which had been left neutral by former agreements. War was again adjudged, May 18, 1756. Minorca, which had been ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht, was captured by the combined fleets of France and Spain, June 28; a loss which so incensed the nation, that Admiral Byng was shot for an error of judgment in declining an engagement with the enemy. But the war was soon after entrusted to the management of Pitt; when a series of brilliant victories ensued, until the taking of Quebec in 1759, followed by the fall of Montreal in the next year, made Canada a British possession.

Meanwhile the jealousies between Austria and Prussia had given rise to the Seven Years' War. By a treaty dated May 1, 1756, France had formed a league with Austria for the partition of Prussia; in which Russia, Saxony and Sweden afterwards joined. Hereupon Great Britain made an alliance with Frederick the Great, in April, 1757. In this year the French invaded Hanover, and forced the Duke of Cumberland to lay down his arms, with his army of 40,000 men; and thus was Hanover for the time lost to the British Crown. But the French were beaten at Minden, Aug. 1, 1759; the Toulon squadron was defeated by Boscawen at Lagos Bay, Aug. 18; and on Nov. 20, Hawke gained a great victory over Conflans with the fleet from Brest, in Quiberon Bay. When the news was brought in,' writes Cowper, 'of Boscawen's success off the coast of Portugal, how did I leap for joy! When Hawke demo

lished Conflans, I was still more transported.' George II, who had ascended the throne four years before Cowper's birth, died Oct. 25, 1760; and was succeeded by his grandson as George III. He made it his boast that he was a Briton born; and at the date of his accession this was no mean boast. Success was crowning our army in all the four quarters of the globe. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America contributed to swell the number of our triumphs. In the eloquent words of Macaulay, 'our enemies soon considered it as a settled thing that they were always to be beaten. Thus victory begot victory, till, at last, wherever the forces of the two nations met, they met with disdainful confidence on one side, and with a craven fear on the other. The wind, from whatever quarter it blew, carried to England tidings of battles won, fortresses taken, provinces added to the empire.' For Pitt was the War Minister; and as such he had made himself 'the idol of England, the terror of France, the admiration of the whole civilized world. . . . His name was mentioned with awe in every palace from Lisbon to Moscow. The House of Commons, the nation, the colonies, our allies, our enemies had their eyes fixed on him alone.' By the Family Compact, concluded Aug. 15, 1761, the princes of the Bourbon House, namely the Kings of France, Spain, and Naples, formed a league offensive and defensive, with the object of counterbalancing the power of England. War was consequently declared against Spain, Jan. 4, 1762; and England had also to support Portugal in her refusal to join the alliance. But though the war was successful at all points, the Earl of Bute, who was now in office, made overtures of peace, through the neutral Court of Sardinia. These were eagerly accepted by France; preliminaries were settled at Fontainbleau; and the peace was signed at Paris, Feb. 10, 1763; thus putting an end to the Seven Years' War.

When France and Spain espoused the cause of the American Republic, the former in 1778 and the latter in 1779, England became again involved in hostilities with those countries, as we shall presently see.

The year 1780

was marked by Rodney's splendid victory over the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Jan. 16. About this time, the neutral nations deemed their commerce impeded, and their honour compromised, by the right of search on which Great Britain had insisted since the war began. In opposition to the principles of our maritime law, and to the decisions of our Admiralty Courts, they contended that a neutral flag should protect the cargoes even of a hostile state. On Feb. 26, 1780, the Empress Catherine issued to the belligerent courts a proclamation, asserting that 'free ships make free goods'; and that blockades, to be acknowledged, must be stringent and effective. This formed the basis of the Armed Neutrality'; an alliance between Russia, Sweden and Denmark, to which Holland and Prussia, and finally Spain and France acceded; and designed to maintain the rights of neutrals, if necessary, by force of arms. Thus were all the powers of Europe ranged in a posture of antagonism, either active or passive, against Britain.

'The standards of all nations were unfurled;

She had one foe, and that one foe the world.'

Well might the Poet exclaim,

'Poor England! thou art a devoted deer,
Beset with every ill but that of fear;

The nations hunt; all mark thee for a prey;

They swarm around thee, and thou stand'st at bay.' For though a world was up in arms,' yet England

'Endured the brunt, and dared defy them all;'

till even Catherine herself confessed that her Armed Neutrality had proved itself an 'Armed Nullity.' But the protracted struggle in Europe and America caused a strain upon the resources of the country, too severe for her to endure long. The time arrived, when our story became one of 'conquests wrested from us, our enemies hastening to take vengeance for past humiliation, our flag scarcely able to maintain itself in our own seas.' It is true that Rodney won a great victory over Count de Grasse in the West Indies, April 12, 1782; and that Gibraltar was preserved to us by the gallant defence of General Elliott, with repeated

relief from Admirals Darby and Howe, during a siege which lasted from July, 1779, till the last day of the war. But cessation from hostilities had become imperative, and the preliminaries of peace with France and Spain were signed at Versailles, Jan. 20, 1783. What Cowper thought of the matter appears in his letter to Mr. Newton, Feb. 8, 1783: 'Such another peace would ruin us, I suppose, as effectually as a war protracted to the extremest inch of our ability to bear it. I do not think it just that the French should plunder us, and be paid for doing it. We give away all that is demanded, and receive nothing but what was our own before. So far as I see it to be the effect of French knavery and British despondency, I feel it as a disgrace, and grumble at it as a wrong.' And again on Feb. 24: 'I am almost sorry to say that I am reconciled to the peace, though not upon principles of approbation, but necessity. The deplorable condition of the country convinces me, that our only refuge under Heaven was in the treaty with which I quarrelled.'

Cowper, writing in Dec. 1780, tells us of a time

'When Tumult lately burst his prison door,
And set plebeian thousands in a roar;

When the rude rabble's watchword was-Destroy!
And blazing London seemed a second Troy.'

The reference is to the 'No-Popery Riots.' In May, 1778, a Bill was introduced by Sir G. Savile, for the relief of the Roman Catholics from the most galling of their civil disabilities. By an Act of William the Third, 1700, any priest found teaching or officiating was guilty of felony, if a foreigner; or of high treason, if a native of this realm. Any Roman Catholic heir who had been educated abroad forfeited his estates, which thereupon went to the next Protestant heir. A son, or other relative, being a Protestant, had power to take possession of his father's or kinsman's estates, in the lifetime of the rightful owner, if a Romanist. And all Romanists were debarred from acquiring legal property by any other means than by descent. The Relief Bill passed both Houses almost unanimously; but it produced serious popular riots in Edinburgh and Glasgow, in Jan. and Feb.

1779. Lord George Gordon, third son of Cosmo George third Duke of Gordon, was made President of the united Protestant Associations of England and Scotland. He was

born in 1750, and was a godson of King George II; and had entered Parliament as Member for Luggershall in 1774. On Friday, June 2, 1780, he convened a monster meeting of Protestants in St. George's Fields. Having met in numbers variously computed at from 50,000 to 100,000, they marched to the House of Commons; all wearing the blue cockade, and carrying with them the Protestant Petition for the repeal of the obnoxious Bill, with 120,000 signatures. Arrived in Palace Yard, they assaulted the Peers entering the House, and burst into the lobby of the House of Commons, whilst Gordon, seconded by Alderman Bull, was moving that the Petition should be considered forthwith. This motion was rejected by 194 votes against eight; and the Houses adjourned till Tuesday. At night the mob set fire to the chapels of the Sardinian and Bavarian Embassies, and on Monday they destroyed other Chapels and dwelling houses, including that of Sir G. Savile. On the sixth, the House agreed to the consideration of the Petition 'as soon as the tumult should have subsided.' Yet on this evening the rioters burned down the Lord Chief Justice's house in Bloomsbury Square, an act which elicited Cowper's lines 'On the Burning of Lord Mansfield's Library'; they set fire to Newgate, and liberated 300 prisoners from it; and then did the same to the new gaol at Clerkenwell. On Wednesday two ineffectual attempts were made to seize the Bank of England: but the King's Bench, the Marshalsea, and the Fleet were forced open, and their prisoners released; while thirty-six incendiary fires blazed' at one time; the whole day being marked with outrages

'Worse than the deeds of galley-slaves broke loose.' Up to this time, the presence of the soldiery had been worse than useless. It was believed that they could not stir until the Riot Act had been read by the magistrates, at least one hour previously; and these had shewn themselves disposed to