LETTERI.To Dr. MUSGRAVE, ofPlymouth.
SIR,
The meritorious and intrepid manner in which you have stepped forth, and called the public attention to the negociationof the last infamous peace, deserves the thanks and applause of your country. As an individual of this country, not wholly unacquainted with some parts of that negociation, you have my poor thanks: but thanks alone are not sufficient in such a cause; I should hold myself the basest of Englishmen, if I did not contribute my mite towards accomplishing a full and impartial enquiry into the manner in which that important work was conducted. Such parts of the negociation as have accidentally come to my knowledge, I shall freely relate. If my account is true, as I have great reason to believe it is in general, I hope it will warm some virtuous man to stand up in his place, and call for the papers relating to that negociation. In a pamphlet, intituled,The present State of the Nation, &c. p. 24, 8vo. edit. published last winter, there is this extraordinary passage, evidently alluding to these papers, which I have often wondered was not taken notice of; “Whether by the treaty Great Britain obtained all that she might have obtained, is a question to which those only who were acquainted with the secrets of the French and Spanish cabinets can give an answer.The correspondence relative to that negociation has not been laid before the public; for the last parliament approved of the peace as it was, without thinking it necessary to enquire whether better terms might not have been had.”
The secret of the negociation, or ultimatum, on the part of England, was neither inthe D. of B. the B. A. at Paris; nor in the late Earl of Egremont, theofficialminister at home, who was Secretary of State for the Southern department; but between Lord Bute and the Sardinian Minister in London, and the Duc de Choiseul and the Sardinian Minister at Paris.
The fact, of thus committing the management of the most important affairs of Great Britain to the Ministers of a foreign power, is extraordinary and alarming, and ought to be considered as highly criminal; especially when we recollect, that the Sardinian Minister in London, at the time of his present Majesty’s coronation, signed a protest in favour of the House of Savoy, which he procured to be legally attested and given in, in the name of the King his master. He printed, or caused to be printed, ‘theGenealogie de la Famille Royale d’Angleterre, by which he hoped, at a future day, that the ridiculous claims of his master’s family, as being, although Papists, immediately descended from Henrietta Maria, the daughter of Charles I. would have prevailed over those of the House of Brunswick, who are descended from Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, one degree more remote from the crown, as being the daughter of James I. He might hope for a general confusion among us; but being born under arbitrary government, he could not have the least idea of the only lawful right to the crown of these realms, a parliamentaryright. The contrary doctrine was in Queen Anne’s time expressly declared to behigh treasonby a particular statute, the “Act for the better securing her Majesty’s person and government, and of the succession to the crown of England in the Protestant line;” ‘That if any person or persons, from and after the 25th day of March, 1706, shall maliciously, advisedly and directly, by writing or printing, declare, maintain, or affirm that the Kings or Queens of England, with and by the authority of the parliament of England, are not able to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to limit and bind the crown of this realm, and thedescent, limitation, inheritance, and government thereof, every such person or persons shall be guilty of High Treason, and being thereof convicted and attainted, &c. &c.Count Viri acted by the express orders of his Court, in conjunction with the Court of France. In the same manner the two Courts acted in concert at the beginning of this century, in the last year of our glorious Deliverer, King William III. Count Maffei, the Ambassador from Savoy, delivered in the first famous protestation, in the name of the Duchess of Savoy, against the Hanover succession, at the time the Duke himself commanded the French army in Italy, with Marshal Catinat and the Prince of Vaudemont under him, and every action of his life was dictated by France.’
The present Count V. (who, during his late father’s life time, was known by the name of M. De Verois) had a pension granted him for his services in this negociation of 1000l. per ann. on the Irish establishment, though not in his own name. In thedebates relative to the affairs of Ireland, in the years 1763 and 1764, &c. inscribed by permission to Lord Chatham, we find this fact mentioned, Vol. II. page 475, by Mr. Edmund Sexton Perry, who thus speaks: “I shall communicate a fact to this House. There is a pension granted nominally to one George Charles, but really to Monsieur De Verois, the Sardinian Minister, for negociating the peace that has just been concluded with the Minister of France. I must confess, Sir, that, in my opinion, this service deserved no such recompence, at least on our part. If it is thought a defensible measure, I should be glad to know, why it was not avowed; and why, if it is proper we should pay 1000l. a year to Mons. De Verois, we should be made to believe that we pay it to George Charles.”
Besides the above pension, there was certainly a remittance from France or Spain, or both, of a considerable sum of money; but for whom it was designed is not at present so certainly known. However, there is no doubt that Count V. is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of this transaction: but now that the affair of the peace begins tobe enquired into, he is preparing to depart the kingdom; and has actually sold his pension upon the Irish Establishment for 16000l. or thereabouts.
When the D. of B. set out for Paris, which was on the 5th of September, 1762, he hadfull powersto treat with the French ministry upon the terms of peace. But when he arrived at Calais, a messenger was dispatched after him, containing a limitation of those powers. Upon which, he instantly dispatched the same messenger back to London, declaring (by letter) he would proceed no further, unless his former instructions were restored. He waited at Calais for the return of this messenger, who brought a restoration of his former instructions. However, he submitted, notwithstanding this affected spirit, to see the conquests of a glorious war bargained for and surrendered by the two Sardinian ministers. In a word, the D. made no important figure in the negociation, till an event turned up, which seemed, by the confusion it occasioned, to be totally unexpected. This was the capture of the Havannah.
This being only an introductory letter, my next, I hope, will be more worthy of your attention; at least, it will contain some important truths. I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
AnENGLISHMAN.