The greatest story in the world, period 3 (of 3)

by Horace G. Hutchinson

Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle

The result of this various fighting was summed up in the Provisions of the famous Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed at that place in 1748. Maria Theresa was established on the Austrian throne, with the formal assent of the other powers. Her dominion in Northern Italy, including Milan and Tuscany, was confirmed. And the territory of Savoy was extended. In the south, the Bourbon king of the Two Sicilies retained these dominions. Thus, in the main, the position of neither Spain nor of France was greatly affected. We may note that one of the treaty provisions put Genoa under the protection of France. That may seem a detail rather small for attention in so outlined a story as this. It is, however, a detail of which the importance must be realised when we observe that Genoa claimed a sovereignty over the little island of Corsica. Corsica shortly afterwards rebelled against this sovereignty, with the ultimate result that the island was annexed by France in 1755. And in 1769 was born, in Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte.

It was in direct consequence, therefore, of this protectorate of Genoa by France under the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and of France's annexation of Corsica a few years later, that Napoleon was born a French subject. That seemingly accidental circumstance was of some importance in the world's history.

The disposition of the various States in Italy, made by this Peace of 1748, was maintained with little disturbance until the armies of the French Republic, under the leadership of the wonderful Corsican, broke up every European disposition.

If France, in the course of this war over the Austrian succession, had possessed an army free for an attack in any force on England, it might have gone very hardly for our country. The son of James II., known as the Old Pretender (pretender to the Crown of England) was still living at the French Court in 1745; and in that year his son, Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, landed in Scotland, and led that rising which is known from its date as "the Forty-five." With the Highland clans to aid, he gained victories over the English generals sent against him, he conquered practically all Scotland and made his way southward in England as far as Derby.

If he had shown determination, if he had pushed on towards London, it is quite likely that much of the future story of England and of the whole Anglo-Saxon community in the world might have to be written very differently. For England was not warmly devoted to her Hanoverian kings. The Young Pretender might have picked up many more adherents as he went south. Had a French force been poured in to his assistance at this critical moment, it seems to be the opinion of historians that his cause would have been won.

But no French force appeared. Probably France had all her available armies fully engaged. Charles Edward did not show determination. He went back to Edinburgh, and the clans, held together by no central authority, but only by their sympathy with the Scottish royal family of Stuart, dispersed to their Highland homes. For a while the Pretender played the king in Edinburgh, but at length a strong English force under the Duke of Cumberland was sent to Scotland. A decisive engagement was fought on the wild moor of Culloden, near Inverness. It settled for all time the fate of the Stuart dynasty, and set the Hanoverians firmly on the throne of England. The clans which had arisen for the Stuarts in the previous attempt by the Old Pretender in "the Fifteen" had suffered slight punishment at the hands of the victorious English. After "the Forty-five," on the contrary, their punishment was cruelly severe; but it had at least the effect of quelling their spirit so that they did not imperil the peace of the realm again.

Ireland's misfortunes

At the same moment, towards the middle of this eighteenth century, Ireland was in terrible suffering also. In 1739 had happened her worst famine, due to failure of the potatoes on which most of the people depended, almost entirely, for their livelihood. It was estimated that no less than one-fifth of the population actually died, and there can be no doubt that the effect of that starvation on the survivors must have been to weaken the stock for more than one generation.

And we are obliged to confess, with shame, that England's dealing with Ireland during all that half-century was as cruel and selfish as it was stupid and short-sighted. There was a moment when it seems as if the people of the smaller island were anxious for union with the greater; but that union was opposed by a section of the English themselves—especially the powerful section interested in the trade of wool with the continent of Europe. A law passed as far back as the second half of the seventeenth century prohibited the Irish from exporting cattle. Consequently they had largely devoted their excellent pasture to producing sheep, for the wool. The English wool traders wished to keep this profitable commerce to themselves. To attain that selfish end they opposed the proposed union, which presumably would have put the Irish wool producers on the same footing as the English. Further, under William III., they succeeded in passing through Parliament a bill prohibiting the Irish from either making up their home-grown wool or from exporting it.