rged against the
negociations. The whole tenor of the treaty was denounced by him as
unsound and impolitic, and as derogatory to the honour of England. He
came, he said, at the hazard of his life to the house that day, to lift
up his voice, his hand, and his arm against the preliminary articles of
a treaty which obscured all the glories of the war, surrendered up
the interests of the nation, and sacrificed the public faith by the
abandonment of long-tried and faithful allies. Fox, supported by George
Grenville, replied in a less eloquent; tone, but with more cogent
arguments, and the ministers obtained a large majority. In the house of
lords, Bute undertook the defence of the measure, and in his speech,
the clauses of which fell from his lips like so many minute-guns, he
detailed the rise and progress of the negociations at large, and set
forth the advantages which England would derive from the treaty in
the best manner his talents for oratory--which were very mean--would
permit. He concluded his speech with declaring, that he desired no other
epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb, than that he was the adviser of
such a peace. He was opposed by Lord Temple, and supported by the Earl
of Halifax; and notwithstanding all the arguments of the opposing peers,
the address was carried by a large majority. The treaty was therefore
signed, and commercial communications, which had been stopped during the
war, were reopened with France.

Pitt had declared in his speech, that the desertion of the King of
Prussia, England's most magnanimous ally, was insidious, base, and
treacherous. A glance at the preliminaries will suffice to prove that
Frederick's interests were not forgotten. Frederick, moreover, was now
in a condition to defend himself. At this very time, in fact, he had
induced all the princes and states in Germany to sign a declaration of
neutrality, which led first to a truce between Austria and Prussia,
then to a congress, and finally, in that congress, to a treaty of peace
between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Poland. This treaty was not signed
till the 15th of February, 1763, but its terms were agreed upon before
the close of the present year. Frederick retained Silesia, and all the
territories that belonged to him before the war, and the other powers
were compelled to rest satisfied with their legitimate possessions,
without the slightest reparation for the damages they had endured, and
the sums they had spent, during thi