Most Gracious Sovereign,
With reverential awe and gratitude to the Supreme Giver of all victory, we, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of your City of London, in Common Council assembled, humbly approach your Royal Presence, to express our joy and exultation on the entire reduction of the important island of Belle-Isle, by the conduct, intrepidity, and perseverance of your Majesty's land and naval forces:—a conquest which, after more than one fruitless attempt in former times, seems to have been reserved by Divine Providence to grace the auspicious beginning of your Majesty's reign, and confirms our hopes of a long continuance of wise, steady, and successful measures.
A blow so humiliating to the pride and power of France, cannot but impress that haughty nation with a due sense of the superiority of a Patriot King ruling over a free, brave, and united people, and will, we trust, convince them of the danger of delaying to accept such terms of peace as Your Majesty's equity, wisdom, and moderation shall think fit to prescribe.
What therefore have we more to wish, but that Your Majesty may long, very long, continue the guardian and protector of the religious, civil, and commercial rights of Great Britain and her Colonies; and that Your Majesty's wisdom may ever be seconded by equally faithful and spirited councils; and your commands executed with no less ardour, emulation, and success.
On our part, permit us humbly to assure Your Majesty, that your faithful citizens of London will, with unwearied zeal and cheerfulness, contribute to support a vigorous prosecution of this just and necessary war; until Your Majesty, having sufficiently vindicated the honor of your Crown, and secured the trade, navigation, and possessions of your subjects, shall enjoy the blessing and the glory of giving repose to Europe, of wholly attending to and promoting the virtue and happiness of your people, and of cultivating all the softer arts of peace.
Signed by Order of the Court,
James Hodges.
[10] Minorca, an island in the Mediterranean, on the eastern coast of Spain, is about thirty miles in length and twelve in breadth, and is chiefly valuable for the excellent harbour of Port Mahon. In September, 1708, Minorca was taken by Admiral Leake and a land force under Lieut.-General Stanhope, after a siege of about three weeks. The island was ceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht, and remained in its possession until 1756, when, in April of that year, it was besieged by the French, under Marshal the Duke de Richelieu. After a brave defence by the Governor, General Blakeney, the garrison surrendered, and in consideration of their gallantry were permitted to march out with all the honours of war. At the peace of Fontainebleau, in 1763, Minorca was restored to the English in exchange for Belle-Isle. In February, 1782, the garrison, under the Governor, Lieut.-General the Honorable James Murray, after suffering severely from sickness, surrendered to the Duke de Crillon, the Commander-in-Chief of the combined French and Spanish forces, and Minorca was retained by Spain by the treaty of peace of 1783. Minorca again surrendered to a British force under General the Honorable Charles Stuart, on the 15th of November, 1798; and at the peace of Amiens, in 1802, Minorca was restored to the Spaniards, under whose sway it remains at the present period.
[11] The Concan is the territory situated between the range of hills which bounds the Deccan on the west and the sea-coast, and is now under the Bombay Government.
[12] Now Lieut.-General Samuel Huskinson.