statesmen at Paris.  Mr. Pitt obtained intelligence of this treaty’s existence, though it was “a profound secret,” of course; but then Mr. Pitt always had good intelligence, because he was ready to pay roundly for it, knowing that it was the best article for which a war-minister could lay out his money.  The object of keeping secret an arrangement that depended for its usefulness upon open action was, that time might be gained for the arrival of the Spanish treasure-ships from America.  Mr. Pitt, who was as wise as he was arrogant, was for taking immediate measures against Spain.  He would have declared war at once, and have seized the plate fleet.  Had George II. still lived, this judicious course—­all boldness is judicious in war, in which there is nothing so imprudent as prudence—­would have been adopted.  But that monarch died on the 25th of October, 1760, and his grandson and successor, George III., had domestic objects to accomplish with which the continuance of the war was incompatible.  His intention was to make peace with France, and he must have deemed it the height of folly to make war on Spain.  Pitt, finding his advice disregarded, resigned his office, much to the joy of most of his colleagues, whom he had treated as if they had been the lackeys of his lackeys.  How they ever got along with him through one month is among the mysteries of statesmanship.  President Jackson was not the mildest of men, but he was meekness itself in comparison with the first William Pitt.

But if Pitt was offensive to his colleagues, he was even more offensive to the enemies of his country.  In a few weeks after he left the Ministry, the justice of his views became clear even to the young King and to Lord Bute, the latter personage having virtually made himself Premier.  The Spanish Government, in compliance with the terms of the Family Compact, made war on England, and that country lost most of the advantages which would have been hers, if the King had been governed by Pitt’s advice.  The treasure-ships reached Spain in safety, and their cargoes furnished the new belligerent with the sinews of war.  So far as they could, the English Ministers resolved to carry on the war with Spain in conformity with the plan which Pitt had formed.  One of his projects was to send a force to seize the Havana, which, though not the important place that it now is, in itself, was nevertheless one of the most valuable of the commmanding points of the Spanish Indies.  At that time the colonial dominion of Spain embraced the greater part of America, and the Havana was regarded as the key to the Occidental possessions of Charles III.[5] This key Secretary Pitt had meant to seize; and his successors, forced to act, availed themselves of the preparations which he had made.  An expedition sailed from Spithead on the 5th of March, 1762, which was joined by other forces, the whole number of vessels being almost two hundred, of which about a fifth were ships of war.  The total of the land-forces, including