ABSTRACT
Pelham died on March 6, 1754. ‘Now I shall have no more peace,’ exclaimed the King. Pelham was not a great minister, but he had silenced opposition more successfully than any since the Hanoverian accession, and had been a safe guardian of the country’s interests: and never was prudent and conciliatory government more needed. Abroad the outlook was threatening. Since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle desultory fighting with France had never ceased in India, in America, or in the West Indies; while in Europe the Dunkirk dispute still dragged on. Now another great war with her seemed imminent; and it looked as if we should have to engage in it single-handed. The Empress had been estranged since the peace forced upon her in 1748; Frederic of Prussia had fresh grievances against us; and Newcastle’s treaties with electors were as useless as they were expensive. At home the King, then seventy-one, seemed drawing near his end; when he died, bitter contention was almost certain to break out.
