the loss of Florida, France
ceded to her Louisiana; a Spanish governor arrived there in 1766, but
though Spain had posts and settlements in the province, she can scarcely
be said to have ever had any effective hold upon it.

It was a glorious peace for Great Britain; it marks a signal epoch in
her imperial history. But it was not so advantageous as she had a right
to expect. Financially peace was desirable, for the national debt of
Great Britain and Ireland, which before the war stood, as has already
been stated, at L72,505,572, had risen to L132,716,049, but her
resources were by no means exhausted; she could have continued the war
without distress. It is fairly certain that better terms might have been
obtained if the government had carried on the negotiations in a
different spirit. Martinique, specially valuable to a maritime power,
was surrendered without compensation; Manila was simply thrown away
through careless haste; Goree, on which the French slave trade depended,
might easily have been retained. Grenville protested against the
surrender of Guadeloupe, and it was decided on when he was too ill to
attend the council. Florida was a poor exchange for Havana, the richest
of our conquests. Whether Pitt's policy of obtaining commercial
monopolies by force of arms was economically sound, and whether the
restoration of the French navy would have been impeded so materially by
exclusion from the fishery as he believed, are questions on which we
need not dwell here. The treaty must be judged according to the beliefs
of the time. As it ceded valuable conquests without adequate
compensation, and encouraged France again to enter on a naval and
commercial policy by restoring to her Goree, colonies in the West
Indies, and her factories in India, and by granting her a share in the
fisheries, it was justly condemned as unsatisfactory. As regards the
continental war, the change in Frederick's position was sufficient
reason for our withdrawal from a quarrel which did not concern us. Yet
he had some cause of complaint, for though the treaty provided that the
French should evacuate his territories, it did not provide that the
territories should be handed over to him. He gained possession of them
without difficulty, but for that he owed no thanks to England. He
believed that he had been betrayed and deserted, and adopted an
unfriendly attitude, which was a hindrance to England's foreign policy
in later years.

At home the peace w