The meritorious and intrepid manner in which you have stepped forth, and
called the public attention to the negociation of the last infamous
peace, deserves the thanks and applause of your country. As an individual
of this country, not wholly unacquainted with some parts of that
negociation, you have my poor thanks: but thanks alone are not sufficient
in such a cause; I should hold myself the basest of Englishmen, if I
did not contribute my mite towards accomplishing a full and impartial
enquiry into the manner in which that important work was conducted. Such
parts of the negociation as have accidentally come to my knowledge, I
shall freely relate. If my account is true, as I have great reason to
believe it is in general, I hope it will warm some virtuous man to stand
up in his place, and call for the papers relating to that negociation.
In a pamphlet, intituled, _The present State of the Nation_, &c. p. 24,
8vo. edit. published last winter, there is this extraordinary passage,
evidently alluding to these papers, which I have often wondered was not
taken notice of; “Whether by the treaty Great Britain obtained all that
she might have obtained, is a question to which those only who were
acquainted with the secrets of the French and Spanish cabinets can give
an answer. _The correspondence relative to that negociation has not been
laid before the public_; for the last parliament approved of the peace
as it was, without thinking it necessary to enquire whether better terms
might not have been had.”
The secret of the negociation, or ultimatum, on the part of England, was
neither in the D. of B. the B. A. at Paris; nor in the late Earl of
Egremont, the _official_ minister at home, who was Secretary of State for
the Southern department; but between Lord Bute and the Sardinian Minister
in London, and the Duc de Choiseul and the Sardinian Minister at Paris.
The fact, of thus committing the management of the most important affairs
of Great Britain to the Ministers of a foreign power, is extraordinary
and alarming, and ought to be considered as highly criminal; especially
when we recollect, that the Sardinian Minister in London, at the time
of his present Majesty’s coronation, signed a protest in favour of the
House of Savoy, which he procured to be legally attested and given in,
in the name of the King his master. He printed, or caused to be printed,
‘the _Genealogie de la Famille Royale d’Angleterre_, by which he hoped,
at a future day, that the ridiculous claims of his master’s family, as
being, although Papists, immediately descended from Henrietta Maria,
the daughter of Charles I. would have prevailed over those of the House
of Brunswick, who are descended from Elizabeth, Electress Palatine, one
degree more remote from the crown, as being the daughter of James I.
He might hope for a general confusion among us; but being born under
arbitrary government, he could not have the least idea of the only
lawful right to the crown of these realms, a parliamentary right. The
contrary doctrine was in Queen Anne’s time expressly declared to be _high
treason_ by a particular statute, the “Act for the better securing her
Majesty’s person and government, and of the succession to the crown of
England in the Protestant line;” ‘_That if any person or persons, from
and after the 25th day of March, 1706, shall maliciously, advisedly and
directly, by writing or printing, declare, maintain, or affirm that the
Kings or Queens of England, with and by the authority of the parliament
of England, are not able to make laws and statutes of sufficient force
and validity to limit and bind the crown of this realm, and the DESCENT,
LIMITATION, INHERITANCE, and government thereof, every such person or
persons shall be guilty of High Treason, and being thereof convicted
and attainted, &c. &c._ Count Viri acted by the express orders of his
Court, in conjunction with the Court of France. In the same manner the
two Courts acted in concert at the beginning of this century, in the
last year of our glorious Deliverer, King William III. Count Maffei, the
Ambassador from Savoy, delivered in the first famous protestation, in the
name of the Duchess of Savoy, against the Hanover succession, at the time
the Duke himself commanded the French army in Italy, with Marshal Catinat
and the Prince of Vaudemont under him, and every action of his life was
dictated by France.’
The present Count V. (who, during his late father’s life time, was known
by the name of M. De Verois) had a pension granted him for his services
in this negociation of 1000l. per ann. on the Irish establishment,
though not in his own name. In the _debates relative to the affairs of
Ireland, in the years 1763 and 1764, &c. inscribed by permission to Lord
Chatham_, we find this fact mentioned, Vol. II. page 475, by Mr. Edmund
Sexton Perry, who thus speaks: “I shall communicate a fact to this House.
There is a pension granted nominally to one George Charles, but really
to Monsieur De Verois, the Sardinian Minister, for negociating the peace
that has just been concluded with the Minister of France. I must confess,
Sir, that, in my opinion, this service deserved no such recompence, at
least on our part. If it is thought a defensible measure, I should be
glad to know, why it was not avowed; and why, if it is proper we should
pay 1000l. a year to Mons. De Verois, we should be made to believe that
we pay it to George Charles.”
Besides the above pension, there was certainly a remittance from France
or Spain, or both, of a considerable sum of money; but for whom it was
designed is not at present so certainly known. However, there is no
doubt that Count V. is thoroughly acquainted with the whole of this
transaction: but now that the affair of the peace begins to be enquired
into, he is preparing to depart the kingdom; and has actually sold his
pension upon the Irish Establishment for 16000l. or thereabouts.
When the D. of B. set out for Paris, which was on the 5th of September,
1762, he had _full powers_ to treat with the French ministry upon the
terms of peace. But when he arrived at Calais, a messenger was dispatched
after him, containing a limitation of those powers. Upon which, he
instantly dispatched the same messenger back to London, declaring (by
letter) he would proceed no further, unless his former instructions were
restored. He waited at Calais for the return of this messenger, who
brought a restoration of his former instructions. However, he submitted,
notwithstanding this affected spirit, to see the conquests of a glorious
war bargained for and surrendered by the two Sardinian ministers. In a
word, the D. made no important figure in the negociation, till an event
turned up, which seemed, by the confusion it occasioned, to be totally
unexpected. This was the capture of the Havannah.
This being only an introductory letter, my next, I hope, will be more
worthy of your attention; at least, it will contain some important
truths. I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
An ENGLISHMAN.