mmander returned to
Barbadoes, having no power to commit hostilities. These tidings, with a
copy of the French governor's ordonnance, were no sooner transmitted
to the ministry than they despatched a courier to the English envoy
at Paris, with directions to make representations to the court of
Versailles on this subject. The ministry of France, knowing they were
in no condition to support the consequences of an immediate rupture, and
understanding how much the merchants and people of Great Britain were
alarmed and incensed at their attempts to possess these islands, thought
proper to disown the proceedings of the marquis de Caylus, and to grant
the satisfaction that was demanded, by sending him orders to discontinue
the settlement, and evacuate the island of Tobago. At the same time,
however, that the court of Versailles made this sacrifice for the
satisfaction of England, the marquis de Puysieux, the French minister,
observed to the English resident, that France was undoubtedly in
possession of that island towards the middle of the last century. He
ought in candour to have added, that although Louis XIV. made a conquest
of this island from the Hollanders, during his war with that republic,
it was restored to them by the treaty of Nimeguen; and since that time
France could not have the least shadow of a claim to number it among her
settlements. It was before this answer could be obtained from the court
of Versailles that the motion, of which we have already taken notice,
was made in the house of commons, relating to the subject of the
neutral islands; a motion discouraged by the court, and defeated by the
majority.

REJOICINGS FOR THE PEACE.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was celebrated by fireworks, illuminations,
and rejoicings, in which the English, French, and Dutch, seemed to
display a spirit of emulation in point of taste and magnificence; and,
in all probability, these three powers were sincerely pleased at
the cessation of the war. England enjoyed a respite from intolerable
supplies, exorbitant insurance, and interrupted commerce; Holland was
delivered from the brink of a French invasion; and France had obtained
a breathing time for re-establishing her naval power, for exerting
that spirit of intrigue, by dint of which she hath often embroiled her
neighbours, and for executing plans of insensible encroachment, which
might prove more advantageous than the progress of open hostilities. In
the affair of Toba