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present, or induce the
French to relinquish a right of
fishery?’
‘Indeed,’ he pursued, with good judgment and good feeling,
the endeavoring to drive France entirely out of any naval power is fighting against nature, and can tend to no one good to this country; but, on the contrary, must excite all the naval powers in Europe to enter into a confederacy against us, as adopting a system of a monopoly of all naval power, dangerous to the liberties of Europe. . . .
. .In case it shall be decided to carry on the war for another campaign, I,
he added, ‘wash my hands from all the guilt of the blood that may be shed.’
At the king's special request,
Bedford attended the cabinet council of the twentieth of July, to discuss the conditions of peace.
All the rest who were present cowered before
Pitt, in dread lest he should frown.
Bedford ‘was the single man who dared to deliver an opinion contrary to his, though agreeable to every other person's sentiments.’
1 ‘I,’ said
Newcastle, ‘envy him that spirit more than his great fortune and abilities.’
But the union between
France and
Spain was already so far consummated, that, in connection with the
French memorial,
Bussy had on the fifteenth of July presented a note, requiring
England to afford no succour to the king of
Prussia, and a private paper, demanding, on behalf of
Spain, indemnity for seizures, the right to fish at
Newfoundland, and the demolition of the
English settlements in the
Bay of Honduras. ‘These differences, if not adjusted, gave room,’ it was said, ‘to fear a fresh war in
Europe and
America.’
