George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[406] and Spain, they were received with disdainful indif-

chap. XVII.} 1761. Sept.

ference. A smile of irony, and a few broken words, were his only answer; and when the negotiation was broken off, Pitt said plainly, that his own demands throughout had been made in earnest. ‘If I had been the master,’ he added, ‘I should not have gone so far; the propositions which France finds too severe, would have appeared too favorable to a great part of the English nation.’¹

A war with Spain could no longer be avoided by England. To the proposal for ‘the regulation of the privilege of cutting logwood by the subjects of Great Britain,’ the Catholic King replied through Wall, his minister, by a despatch which reached England on the thirteenth of September. ‘The evacuation of the logwood establishments is offered, if his Catholic Majesty will assure to the English the logwood! He who avows that he has entered another man's house to seize his jewels says, I will go out of your house, if you will first give me what I am come to seize.’ Pitt's anger was inflamed at the comparison of England with house-breakers and robbers; and his vehement will became ‘more overbearing and impracticable’ than ever. He exulted in the prospect of benefits to be derived to his country, and glory to be acquired for his own name, in every zone and throughout the globe. With one hand he prepared to ‘smite the whole family of Bourbons, and wield in the other the democracy of England.’² His eye penetrated futurity; the vastest schemes flashed before his mind,—to change the destinies of continents, and mould the fortunes of the world. He resolved to seize the remaining