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Home Foreign Affairs and the Empire, 1714-1763 Empire, 1714-1763; Part 9 |
Empire, 1714-1763; Part 9In America, the British lost Oswego and Fort William Henry, and an intended attack on Louisburg came to nothing. In Germany, the Duke of Cumberland, George II’s son, who had been sent to protect Hanover and to cover the western frontier of Prussia from a French invasion, was defeated at Hastenbeck, and forced to sign the convention of Kloster-seven, by which he agreed to evacuate the country (1757) (George II was very angry as a consequence, and on Cumberland's return to London only gave him an interview of four minutes, telling him that "he had ruined his country and spoiled everything". At cards that evening, when the duke entered the room, the king said openly: "Here is my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself!"). Only two wonderful victories won by our ally, King Frederick of Prussia, over the French at Rossbach and over the Austrians at Leuthen saved the situation.The last five years of the war (1758-63) are, on the other hand, years of almost untarnished glory. Midway in the year 1757 William Pitt formed a coalition ministry with the Duke of Newcastle, Pitt had all the qualities necessary for a great war minister. He combined supreme self-confidence with a power of inspiring others. "I believe", he said of himself, " I can save this country and that no one else can." "No one", said an officer, "can enter his closet without coming out of it a braver man". He had the capacity for selecting good men; no doubt he appointed some bad officers, but Hawke and Wolfe and Ferdinand of Brunswick are great names which attest his judgment Above all, he had not only the genius of conceiving great and sound strategical designs, but also the capacity, with infinite patience and thoroughness, to plan their execution. No doubt he was arrogant and overbearing. He threatened to impeach one colleague who opposed him, and another complained that his language was of a kind seldom heard west of Constantinople. But these very qualities enabled him to become the only genuine war minister Great Britain has had since the development of cabinet government, a minister possessing the almost undisputed control of the army and the navy as well as of the diplomacy of the country. For his ally Pitt had Frederick, King of Prussia, and it was through the combination of these great men that the foundations of the modern Empire of Great Britain and of the modern Kingdom of Prussia were securely laid. Pitt's strategy was briefly as follows. Assistance must be given to the King of Prussia Even the generalship of Frederick the Great would not have enabled Prussia to withstand alone the combined forces of Austria, France, and Russia. Moreover, it was part of Pitt's policy to absorb French energies as far as possible in Europe. "We shall win Canada," Pitt said, "on the banks of the Elbe." Consequently he not only paid subsidies to Frederick of Prussia, but also maintained in Germany an army partly British and partly Hanoverian under Ferdinand of Brunswick to protect Hanover and the western flank of Prussia from the French. In addition, he attacked various places on the French coast. These attacks, though not very successful (An opponent of Pitt's spoke of them sneeringly "as breaking windows with guineas", and they were undoubtedly expensive), kept the French nation in a continual state of alarm, and led, according to Pitt's information, to some thirty thousand French troops being employed in defensive work at home instead of aggressive operations elsewhere. In the West Indies and in the East Pitts object was, at first, to protect British commerce, and later, to extend British possessions. His chief energies, however, were concentrated on the conquest of Canada; it was there we were to make the first bid for victory whilst the French wasted their efforts on the Continent. |
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