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

[407] French islands, especially Martinico; and to con-

chap. XVII.} 1761. Sept.

quer Havana. ‘You must take Panama,’¹ he exclaimed, to a general officer. The Philippine islands were next to fall; and the Spanish monopoly in the New World to be broken at one blow and for ever by a ‘general resignation of all Spanish America, in all matters which might be deemed beneficial to Great Britain.’

But humanity had reserved to itself a different mode of extricating Spanish America from colonial monopoly. On the eighteenth day of September, Pitt, joined only by his brother-in-law, the Earl of Temple, submitted to the cabinet his written advice to recall Lord Bristol, the British ambassador, from Madrid. At three several meetings, the question was discussed. ‘From prudence, as well as spirit,’ affirmed the secretary, ‘we ought to secure to ourselves the first blow. If any war can provide its own resources, it must be a war with Spain. Their flota has not arrived; the taking it disables their hands and strengthens ours.’ Bute, speaking the opinion of the king, was the first to oppose the project as rash and ill-advised; Granville wished not to be precipitate; Temple supported Pitt; Newcastle was neuter. During these discussions, all classes of the people of England were gazing at the pageant of the coronation, or relating to each other how the king, kneeling before the altar in Westminster Abbey, with piety formal but sincere, reverently put off his crown, as he received the sacrament from the archbishop. A second meeting of the cabinet was attended by all the ministers; they heard Pitt explain correctly the private