njoyment of that privilege
was suspended since the commencement of the present war; that Dunkirk
should remain fortified on the land side, and towards the sea continue
on the footing of former treaties. All the contracting powers became
guarantees to the king of Prussia for the duchy of Silesia and the
county of Glatz, as he at present possessed them; and they likewise
engaged to secure the empress-queen of Hungary and Bohemia in possession
of her hereditary dominions, according to the pragmatic sanction. The
other articles regulated the forms and times fixed for this mutual
restitution, as well as for the termination of hostilities in different
parts of the world. But the right of English subjects to navigate
in the American seas, without being subject to search, was not once
mentioned, though this claim was the original source of the differences
between Great Britain and Spain; nor were the limits of Acadia
ascertained. This and all other disputes were left to the discussion of
commissaries. We have already observed, that after the troubles of the
empire began, the war was no longer maintained on British principles.
It became a continental contest, and was prosecuted on the side of the
allies without conduct, spirit, or unanimity. In the Netherlands they
were outnumbered, and outwitted by the enemy. They never hazarded a
battle without sustaining a defeat. Their vast armies, paid by Great
Britain, lay inactive, and beheld one fortress reduced after another
until the whole country was subdued; and as their generals fought, their
plenipotentiaries negotiated. At a time when their affairs began to wear
the most promising aspect, when the arrival of the Russian auxiliaries
would have secured an undoubted superiority in the field; when the
British fleets had trampled on the naval power of France and Spain,
intercepted their supplies of treasure, and cut off all their resources
of commerce; the British ministers seemed to treat, without the least
regard to the honour and advantage of their country. They left her
most valuable and necessary rights of trade unowned and undecided; they
subscribed to the insolent demand of sending the nobles of the realm
to grace the court and adorn the triumphs of her enemy; and they tamely
gave up her conquests in North America, of more consequence to her
traffic than all the other dominions for which the powers at war
contended; they gave up the important isle of Cape Breton, in exchange
for