ch
arose," in Burke's words, "from popularity, and the power which arose
from political connexion"; and the rise of Lord Bute to the post of
First Minister marked the triumph of the king.

[Sidenote: The Peace.]

Bute took office simply as an agent of the king's will; and the first
resolve of George the Third was to end the war. In the spring of 1762
Frederick, who still held his ground stubbornly against fate, was
brought to the brink of ruin by a withdrawal of the English subsidies;
it was in fact only his dogged resolution and a sudden change in the
policy of Russia, which followed on the death of his enemy the Czarina
Elizabeth, that enabled him at last to retire from the struggle in the
Treaty of Hubertsberg without the loss of an inch of territory. George
and Lord Bute had already purchased peace at a very different price.
With a shameless indifference to the national honour they not only
deserted Frederick but they offered to negotiate a peace for him on the
basis of a cession of Silesia to Maria Theresa and East Prussia to the
Czarina. The issue of the strife with Spain saved England from
humiliation such as this. Pitt's policy of instant attack had been
justified by a Spanish declaration of war three weeks after his fall;
and the year 1762 saw triumphs which vindicated his confidence in the
issue of the new struggle. Martinico, the strongest and wealthiest of
the French West Indian possessions, was conquered at the opening of the
year, and its conquest was followed by those of Grenada, St. Lucia, and
St. Vincent. In the summer the reduction of Havana brought with it the
gain of the rich Spanish colony of Cuba. The Philippines, the wealthiest
of the Spanish colonies in the Pacific, yielded to a British fleet. It
was these losses that brought about the Peace of Paris in February 1763.
So eager was Bute to end the war that he bought peace by restoring all
that the last year's triumphs had given him. In Europe he contented
himself with the recovery of Minorca, while he restored Martinico to
France, and Cuba and the Philippines to Spain. The real gains of Britain
were in India and America. In the first the French abandoned all right
to any military settlement. From the second they wholly withdrew. To
England they gave up Canada, Nova Scotia, and Louisiana as far as the
Mississippi, while they resigned the rest of that province to Spain, in
compensation for its surrender of Florida to the British Crown.

[Sidenote