The English take Martinico and Granada
from the French, and the city of Havannah, in the island of Cuba, from the Spaniards. This induces both powers to think of peace, for which a negociation was set on foot; and the negociators on all sides having adjusted the points in dispute between Great Britain and Portugal on the one side, and France and Spain on the other, a definitive treaty was signed at Paris on the 10th of Feb. 1763; by which peace was once more restored to Europe.
By this glorious war, England acquired the large and extensive province of Canada, East and West Florida, in America, together with several large and valuable islands in the West Indies; among which is the island of Granada, one of the most extensive and important colonies belonging to the empire. This island, which produces pine-apples, oranges, citrons, and all the most delicious tropical fruits, is beautifully interspersed with an infinite variety of rivers, which, with the warmth and salubrity of the climate, render it the most pleasing situation between the tropics
; it is the residence of a number of rich planters and merchants, who have acquired large fortunes therein, and live in the greatest splendour and hospitality. It is not improperly called the Princess of the isles of the Western world.
From the year 1763 to 1774, England felt all the blessings of peace;
agriculture and commerce were improved and extended; the polite arts, such as painting and sculpture, were patronized by his Majesty, and a royal academy instituted for the purpose, in the year 1768. We might call this the Augustine age; and Great-Britain promised to its posterity universal empire. But the colonies of North America revolted from their allegiance to Great-Britain in the year 1775, and formed a congress, under the title The Congress of the Thirteen United Provinces, which assumed all the powers of government; in the following year it declared the States of America independent of the crown and parliament of Great-Britain. The government of France assisted them against the forces of this nation both by sea and land; and Spain also declared war against this country, as a diversion to its arms in favour of America. Holland also became
a party in the cause, to humble a nation which had arrived to such a pitch of greatness; and the general struggle at last terminated in the peace of 1783, in which the government of Great-Britain acknowledged the Americans to be independent; in consequence, the provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia only remain to us, of all our immense possessions on the continent of America.
This country, in the year 1787, began to arm in favour of the Prince Stadtholder of the Seven United Provinces, who had been driven from his palace by a French party; but that business was terminated by their submission to the Duke of Brunswick, who entered Holland, and restored the former government. The Spaniards dispossessing our settlers at Nootka Sound, in 1790, was made the pretext for equipping a formidable armament; and though the difference with the Spaniards was speedily settled by negociation [sic], the jealousy entertained of the French Anarchists occasioned our Government to keep the country in armed preparation; till the indignation universally excited by the decapitation of the unfortunate French King, and the invasion of Holland by the armies of the French Republic, caused us to enter into that war, whose wide-extended fluence has deluged the continent of Europe with blood, tumbled the papal throne in ruins, dethroned the Kings of Naples and Sardinia, the former of whom is however yet struggling for his rights, annihilated the ancient Republics
of Venice, Genoa, &c. &c. extinguished the authority of the House of Orange in Holland, endangered the very existence of the House of Austria and the Germanic Empire, and by the invasion of the Egypt and Syria, has even alarmed the Sultan of the Turks for the safety of his capital, whilst the hardy bands of Russia have been called forth into action both to defend her former inveterate foes, and to wrest the classic ground of Italy from the gripe [sic] of the modern Vandals, the French! Yet amid all this carnage, the horrors of the war, if we except the enormous expenditure attending it, have scarcely been felt in this country; two attempts of invasion by the enemy have been frustrated; the captured fleets of France, Spain, and Holland, have been triumphantly brought into our harbours; our own Colonies and distant settlements have been secured, many of the most important of those of the enemy have been taken; and the India Company has established its power, by the complete conquest of the kingdom of Mysore, Tippoo Sultaun having fallen in defending his palace at Seringapatam. But it is a remarkable feature in this war, that after so sanguinary a contest for seven years, Peace appears, at the close of the year 1799, more distant than it did at its commencement.