s were thinned by the wasteful expenditure of life;
there was nothing to look forward to, unless the Turk effected a
diversion on the Danube; and Frederic was repeatedly on the point of
taking poison. In 1755 he had written that war must always be
aggressive. Even a successful defence weakens the victor.

The zeal of his only ally was beginning to cool. Pitt had
accomplished more than he intended when he offered his subsidies to
Prussia. Our fleet commanded the ocean. The Mediterranean squadron
had been defeated at Lagos, the Atlantic squadron at Quiberon; Canada
had been conquered, and with Canada, the interior of North America,
with its population of savages and its inexhaustible resources.
Bengal was English, and the rivalry of the French in India had ceased
to be formidable. In four years England had grown into a boundless
empire, offering, what no other war had done, compensation for
expenditure and increase of debt. Trade had learnt to follow the
flag, and Pitt's profusion was not waste. Much of this success was
due to the Prussian Alliance. The vicissitudes of the French army had
hampered the French navy. Frederic, who was several times very near
destruction, had been saved by his ally. He had retained his disputed
province, while England annexed dominions as vast as Europe. His
genius and his power had been made so manifest that he was not again
attacked during the remainder of his reign. England possessed that
which, if it had been duly husbanded and developed, would make her
mistress of the world. The object of each, in concluding their
alliance, had been gained, but there was no proportion between them.
In 1760 Pitt rejected peace with France when it would have damaged his
treaty with Prussia. But when there was no prospect of a final
triumph, and Frederic was only thinking of the terms on which he might
obtain peace, Pitt advised him to negotiate. Then, in the autumn of
1761, under a new king, he was expelled from office. The subsidy
came to an end, and Bute opened negotiations.

Frederic had resolved that he would not wear a diminished crown; that
he would disappear from the scene if he could not preserve by treaty
of peace the full integrity of the monarchy which he no longer hoped
to preserve by war. But he stood alone. The change of reign, the
fall of Pitt, the termination of the subsidy, the pacific disposition
of Bute, somewhat exaggerated by those through whom he heard of it,
weak