CHAPTER IV. WAR WITH SPAIN DECLARED. -LETTER OF DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. PROPOSED ATTACK ON THE HAVANNAH. LETTER TO LORD SIR GEORGE POCOCK. COMMODORE KEPPEL. DE SOLAR- LETTER TO LORD HARDWICKE. — DUKE OF NEWCASTLE LORD BUTE'S SECRET NEGOCIATION WITH TO LORD HARDWICKE. VIENNA. LETTERS FROM THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO LORDS HARDWICKE AND ROCKINGHAM, ON HIS RESIGNATION OF THE OFFICE OF FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY, AND TO THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND WITH HIS ANSWER. On the first day of the new year, the Count de Fuentes quitted England. On the fourth, war was formally proclaimed against Spain. The immediate occasion of these fresh hostilities, was Lord Egremont's vapouring despatch. But the war might probably have been altogether avoided, had Mr. Pitt, while Minister, adopted a more conciliatory tone towards the Court of Versailles. If that statesman would have granted such terms to France as she could have accepted without losing her position in the scale of nations, the famous "Family Compact," the ostensible cause of the rupture, would have been altogether unnecessary. Thus when Pitt, at the meeting of Parliament, claimed credit for his foresight and intelligence, in recommending immediate hostilities, may not the prophet be accused of having had some share in fulfilling his own prediction? 86 LETTER OF DUKE OF NEWCASTLE. [1762. It is due to the Duke of Newcastle, whose memory stands charged with political delinquencies enough, to show that from almost the greatest crime of which a public man can be guilty, that of unnecessarily involving his country in war, he was, in this instance, exempt. His correspondence throughout shows, that he was opposed to the aggressive policy adopted towards Spain. Writing to Lord Hardwicke, on the 10th of January, he says: "Every friend I have dings in my ear, that the whole load of our miserable situation will be laid upon me. My Lord Bute complains that I am laying it all upon him; as long as he is the sole dictator, there it ought to lie. But I never withdraw from what I have advised and think right. To be sure I did, and do, think the Spanish affairs might have been treated in a manner that would have given us a chance to have avoided the war. But that was mere matter of opinion, in which, to be sure, others might, and indeed did, differ without any unkindness or disrespect to me. I have (shown), and shall show, as much desire to carry on this terrible war against Spain with success, as anybody; perhaps having tried a Spanish war with as much zeal, I am sure, as any man, even Mr. Pitt himself can do, and having found little success in it, I may perhaps not be quite so sanguine as others are." Two days after the declaration of war, the Cabinet assembled, to concert measures for the approaching conflict. "At the meeting on Wednesday," writes the Duke of Newcastle, "where there were none but the two Secretaries, the Duke of Devonshire, Lord Anson, Lord Ligonier, Mr. Grenville, and myself, we began with my Lord Anson's project, of attacking the Havannah, and after hearing the facilities, which his Lordship and Lord Ligonier apprehended there were in doing it, we all unanimously advised the undertaking it as certainly a measure of the greatest importance to Spain; and the method proposed by them for it, will cause as little additional expense as a measure of that magnitude and consequence would do." In selecting the Havannah, the centre of the whole trade of the Spanish West Indies, as the point of attack, Ministers sought to avoid a repetition of the errors committed by their predecessors, in the former war with Spain, when operations were directed against so inferior a place as Porto Bello, instead of proceeding at once to Carthagena. The choice of the chief officers of this expedition was assigned to William, Duke of Cumberland. For * Field-Marshal Viscount Ligonier, of Enniskillen, created in 1766 an English Earl. He was a Frenchman by birth, but entered the English service at an early age. "This honest old General," as Chesterfield calls him, served with much distinction under the Duke of Marlborough, and afterwards in the wars of Germany. So brilliant was his conduct at Dettingen, that George the Second invested him with the order of the Bath on the field of battle. Ligonier was a thoroughly amiable man, and was both a favourite in the camp and the Court. He died in 1770, at the advanced age of ninety-two, retaining the gaiety of his nation to the last. 88 EARL OF ALBEMARLE. [1762. although the Whig predilections of the hero of Culloden prevented much intimacy between him and George the Third, yet the young King appears to have looked up to his uncle as a great military authority, and to have consulted him on all matters connected with his profession. On this occasion, the Duke nominated to the chief command of the army, Lord Albemarle. Associated with Lord Albemarle, were his two brothers. To Augustus Keppel, the elder, who bore the distinguishing pendant of commodore, were assigned the active naval operations of the siege, while upon William, devolved the storming of the Moro, the fort upon which the city of the Havannah mainly depended for its defence. George Keppel, third Earl of Albemarle, was at this time a Lieutenant-General, a Privy Councillor, Governor of Jersey, and Colonel of the King's Own Dragoon Guards. From the age of sixteen he had been in the household of the Duke of Cumberland; and up to the period of his nomination, his Royal Highness's inseparable companion, whether in peace or war. After the battle of Culloden, Lord Albemarle, or, as he then was, Lord Bury, brought the intelligence of the victory to George the Second, who made him a present of a sword and five hundred guineas, and appointed him his aide-de-camp. He was very near, however, being disqualified for ever as a messenger of triumph, for on the morning of the action, "a poor mountaineer approached the lines of the English, demanded quarter, and was sent to the rear. As he lounged backwards and for wards through the lines, apparently very indifferent to what was going on, and even paying no attention to the ridicule with which the soldiers greeted his uncouth appearance, Lord Bury, aide-de-camp to the Duke, happened to pass, in the discharge of his duties, when all at once the Highlander seized one of the soldiers' muskets, and discharged it at that officer; receiving next moment, with perfect indifference, and as a matter of course, the shot with which another soldier immediately terminated his existence. He had intended to shoot the Duke of Cumberland, but fired prematurely, and without effect, at an inferior officer, whose gaudy apparel seemed, in his simple eyes, to indicate the highest rank." * Augustus Keppel, the next brother, entered the navy at ten years of age, "went foreign" immediately, and continued afloat, with little intermission, until he hoisted his flag. After three years' cruise in the Mediterranean, as a midshipman, he returned home, in time to accompany Anson on his famous voyage round the world. He had the peak of his cap shot off at Payta, and was promoted to his lieutenancy for his gallantry in the capture of the Acapulco galleon. "On the 30th of November (1743), I went," writes Augustus Keppel, "up in the cutter to Wampo, and so to Canton, to attend the Commodore to the ViceKing of Canton.” † On the 30th of November, 1843, being, to a day, one Chambers's Hist. of the Rebellion, ii. 90–1. + Keppel's Life of Viscount Keppel, i. 68. |