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Home Foreign Affairs and the Empire, 1714-1763 Empire, 1714-1763; Part 4 |
Empire, 1714-1763; Part 4Then Carteret became, on Walpole's resignation in 1742, responsible for our foreign policy. A gifted man, with great knowledge of European politics, and with the advantage, rare at that time, of being able to talk fluently in German, he belongs to the small number-perhaps fortunately small-of foreign secretaries who wished Great Britain to play a large part in Continental politics. He succeeded, first, in negotiating a peace between Frederick and Maria Theresa, by which Prussia withdrew from the struggle, and then in combining nearly all the German powers, with the exception of Prussia, against France. An army composed of English and Hanoverians, under the command of Lord Stair and accompanied by George II himself, was directed to evict the French from Germany. But the army soon found itself in an apparently hopeless position at Dettingen, with no food, with the river Main on one flank and impenetrable mountains and forests on the other, whilst its advance and retreat were covered by French forces. Fortunately the French left their strong position, and the British were able to make a decisive charge and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat (George II's horse, frightened by the crackle of musketry, ran away with him at the beginning of the battle; the king, therefore, fought during the remainder of the time on foot, saying that he could trust his legs not to run away with him. He behaved with the utmost bravery, encouraging his soldiers: "Steady, my boys; fire, my brave boys, give them lire; they will soon run.'* In honour of the victory, Handel composed a Te Deum). As a consequence the French troops retired from Germany, and the situation was relieved.The coalition of German powers, however, soon broke up. Prussia again took up arms against Austria, and Carteret, owing to his unpopularity at home, retired from office. Meanwhile, a French force of 80,000 men, under the famous Marshal Saxe, invaded the Austrian Netherlands; and, despite the efforts of the British, it was everywhere victorious. In 1745 the British were defeated at Fontenoy, though the infantry won great glory by a magnificent charge, which was finally checked by the Irish Brigade serving in the French army. In the same year the rising of the Young Pretender led to the withdrawal of the British troops from the Continent. The French proceeded to occupy nearly the whole of the Austrian Netherlands, and when the British returned two years later they met with no success. The war was ended in 1748 by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Maria Theresa was left in possession of the Austrian dominions, including the Austrian Netherlands, though Prussia kept Silesia; otherwise no change of importance took place. The war, however, so far as Great Britain and France were concerned, was not merely European. The French took Madras in India. We took Louisburg, the great port of Cape Breton Island, the Gibraltar, as it has been called, of the New World. These two places were exchanged at the peace. Concerning the right of search, the original cause of the war with Spain, nothing was said at all. |
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