THE EARL OF HARDWICKE TO MR. PITT.

DEAR SIR,

Wimpole, September 29, 1760.

I TAKE the opportunity of my Lord Anson's return to London, to transmit to your office the draught of your letters to the Earl of Bristol of the 26th instant, together with the inclosures accompanying them, which were brought me on Saturday last by Pritchard the messenger. The copies of the two memorials, delivered on the 9th of this month by the Conde de Fuentes I received several days before, but as they were docketted for my use, I have kept them for consideration.

Permit me to profit of this occasion to acknowledge the great honour you do me by these communications, which I esteem as fresh marks of that confidence whereof I am very proud. I wish it was in my power to make any return which might be agreeable to you, and at the same time useful to his Majesty's service. I own I never was more surprised in my life than at the style and turn of these two extraordinary pieces, so different from what there was reason to expect from the mission of M. de Fuentes; but what could not fail to strike most was, the previous and unprecedented appeal to the court of France, avowed in the memorial relating to the Newfoundland fishery. Nothing could be more wise, nor more agreeable to the King's dignity, than the réponse verbale

which you gave the Spanish ambassador upon that point; the terms whereof are as forcible, and yet as measured, as could possibly be invented, (1) One idea meant to be conveyed by that step, so unusual between friendly courts, I conjecture, was, that France was to be summoned as a witness to overturn our title to that exclusive right, which she pretended to sell to England (if I may so express it) by the treaty of Utrecht.

As to the other memorial, relating to the establishments on the coasts of Honduras, Mosquitos, &c., and the cutting of logwood, I am very glad that this method of a provisional instruction to my Lord Bristol, to confer confidentially with M. Wall, has been fallen upon. At the same time that the manner and turn of that paper disgust and

(1) The following is the passage in Mr. Pitt's réponse verbale to the Count de Fuentes's memorial, to which Lord Hardwicke particularly refers: "Il s'y trouve une circonstance, qui intéresse si fort l'honneur du Roi et la dignité de sa couronne, qu'il m'est indispensable d'en marquer, à la première occasion, à votre Excellence, par ordre du Roi, la surprise et le regret que cela a causé. C'est cet endroit du dit mémoire, où il est dit, Que copie en est communiquée à la cour de France.' Je dois remarquer à votre Excellence, qu'on ignore parfaitement le motif et l'objet d' une communication si extraordinaire, envers un cour en guerre ouverte contre l' Angleterre, et qui d'ailleurs ne peut, en aucun tems, avoir de se mêler des prétensions Espagnoles sur nous pour la pêche de Terre-neuve. Ce qui est très certain est, que la façon de penser de cette puissance ennemie, par rapport au dit objet, ne sauroit jamais ajouter plus de poids auprès de sa Majesté, que ses sentimens d'amitié en donnent aux représentations de sa Majesté Catholique, toutes les fois que la conservation indispensable des droits essentiels de ses sujets le permet à sa Majesté."

offend one, I wish several parts of it were not too well founded upon the merits. In a case so delicate and embarrassing, there could not have been a more prudent and eligible part than such an intermediate step before a definitive answer is given, in order to sound and soften the Spanish minister, and try to find out how deeply these schemes have taken root at that court, and from what motives. A more able letter could not possibly have been drawn for that purpose, nor more judiciously adapted to the end; but I much fear that M. Wall's influence in the court of Madrid is not the same as it has been, and that his having been represented as partial to England will make him cautious and reserved to open himself upon such points. You may recollect that, from the first, I expressed great apprehensions of M. Ensenada's return('); and I think I see marks of

(1) The Marquis d'Ensenada was the implacable enemy of the British nation. In 1754, it had been discovered, chiefly by the sagacity of Sir Benjamin Keene, and imparted to the King of Spain, that the marquis had sent orders to their West Indian governors to fall on our ships, and had lent great sums of the royal treasure to the French East India Company. He was, in consequence, disgraced, and exiled to Granada. Upon the new King's accession, he had been recalled to court. In a private letter, addressed by Lord Kinnoul to Mr. Pitt, and dated Lisbon, May 17, there is the following passage: -"Don Luis D'Acunha told me yesterday, that the circumstances of the liberty given to the Marquis D'Ensenada had been much exaggerated; that the letter handed about at Madrid (supposed to have been written by M. de Squillace), wherein the order is introduced by the King's approbation of Ensenada's former services, was not true, but had been invented for the purpose; that this favour had been procured by the intercession of the Queen-mother;

it in these papers, and his hand is particular in one part, which I am sure cannot have escaped your attention. The enterprize, which was projected in the year 1754, against the English establishments. on the river Wallis, is there represented as proceeding only from the Spanish governors in America, in consequence of their general instructions; whereas, according to my memory, Ensenada had procured the late King Ferdinand's signature to special and particular orders for that purpose, by surprise and imposition, without seeing or opening the contents of them; and this was declared by M. Wall to have been avowed by his late Catholic majesty himself. If my memory does not mislead me, it was one of the crimes for which he was disgraced and exiled; and I can hardly imagine that, if M. Wall had been master of the draught of this memorial, he would have given it such a turn as to make M. Ensenada's apology for him.

I continually hear from my friend the Duke of Newcastle, how harmoniously you go on together; which gives me the greatest pleasure. (') I have

that he did not apprehend that the King of Spain had at present any intention of changing the system of his ministry, though he owned that it is always dangerous to have a man of so intriguing a spirit near the court." In 1766, Ensenada was a second time disgraced, and banished.

(1) "We have little new in England," writes Sir Joseph Yorke to Mr. Mitchell, on the 6th of September; "the best is, that the King is, thank God, perfectly well, and the nation quiet

also heard that you are making a very interesting operation in your family, by inoculating some of your children. I know how affecting a crisis that must be to the mind of so tender a parent, and beg leave to offer my sincerest vows for the happy success of it. I am always, with sentiments of the utmost respect and truth, dear Sir, &c.

HARDWICKE.

THE MARQUIS OF GRANBY TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Warbourg, October 13, 1760.

I HAVE, by his Serene Highness's orders, acquainted Lord Holdernesse with the unfortunate event of the loss of Berlin ('); the garrison of which capitulated on the 9th, and surrendered themselves prisoners of war to Generals Tottleben and Lascy. The Duke of Wirtemberg, with General Hulsen who had joined him, thinking it imprudent to risk an action against so superior a force, as the capital would most probably have been totally ruined, had they lost the day, retreated to Spandau.

and united. Would you believe it! no more noise or stir about elections, than if the parliament was to continue six sessions longer. That is as extraordinary an event, as any of these marvellous times." Mitchell MSS.

(1) The Austrian and Prussian troops entered Berlin on the 9th of October, and quitted it on the 13th; on hearing that the King of Prussia was in full march to the relief of his capital.