NEGOCIATIONS FOR PEACE.
Notwithstanding the uninterrupted success of the British arms, Lord Bute was still anxious for peace. And his views at this time were seconded by the voice of the people, who loudly complained of the increased taxation and the expenses and burdens consequent upon this protracted war. Accordingly, having indirectly sounded some of the French cabinet, Bute engaged the neutral King of Sardinia to propose that it should resume négociations for peace. Both France and Spain, taught experience by their reverses, were eager for such a consummation; and Louis XV. had no sooner received the hint, than he acted upon it with all his heart and soul. Notes were interchanged, and it was agreed that a minister should be appointed on either side forthwith. In compliance with this agreement, the Duke of Bedford went as plenipotentiary and ambassador extraordinary to Paris, and the Duke de Nivernois came over to London in the same capacity. Preliminaries for peace were signed at Fontainbleau, on the third of November, by the ministers of Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal; and the sanction of the British parliament only was wanting to carry them into effect.
The terms of the preliminaries signed at Fontainbleau were as follow:—France consented to restore Minorca; to evacuate Hanover, Cleves, Wesel, Gueldres, the territories of the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Count de la Lippe Bucke-burg, and every place taken from his Prussian majesty. France, also, renounced all pretensions to Nova Scotia, and ceded the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, with the entire province of Canada, including the islands in the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence; that part of Louisiana which is situate east of the Mississippi, and the tract between the Ohio and St. Lawrence, on which French forts had been erected, and which had been the proximate cause of the war. On her part Spain resigned East and West Florida, with all pretensions to fish on the coast of Newfoundland; and conceded the full right of cutting logwood in the Bay of Honduras. France and Spain promised full restitution to Portugal, and the fortifications of Dunkirk were to be demolished, according to the tenor of previous treaties. For these advantages, England agreed to restore Pondicherry, in the East Indies, Goree, in Africa, and Martinique, Guadaloupe, Mari-galante, Desirade, and St. Lucie, in the West Indies, to France, together with Belleisle, in Europe. To Spain she was to give up the Havannah, with all other conquests in Cuba, The conquests England retained, beside those specified in the preliminaries, were Senegal, in Africa, and St. Vincent, Dominique, Tobago, Grenada, and the Grenadines, in the West Indies. On the whole, England would evidently become a great gainer; but the terms gave rise to great contention, and a struggle of party on the meeting of Parliament.