Pitt
spurned the idea with fierce contempt. "Time enough to treat
of all that, sir, when the Tower of London is taken sword in
hand."[865] He bore his part with the ability that never failed him,
and with a supreme arrogance that rose to a climax in his
demand that the fortress of Dunkirk should be demolished, not
because it was any longer dangerous to England, but because
the nation would regard its destruction "as an eternal monument
of the yoke imposed on France."[866]
[Footnote 863:
Flassan, _Diplomatie Francaise_, V. 376 (Paris, 1809).]
[Footnote 864: See the proposals in Entick, V. 161.]
[Footnote 865:
Beatson, _Military Memoirs_, II. 434. _The Count de Fuentes
to the Earl of Egremont, 25 Dec. 1761_, in Entick, V. 264.]
[Footnote 866:
On this negotiation, see _Memoire historique sur la Negociation
de la France et de l'Angleterre_ (Paris, 1761), a French Government
publication containing papers on both sides. The British
Ministry also published such documents as they saw fit, under the
title of _Papers relating to the Rupture with Spain_. Compare
Adolphus, _George III._, I. 31-39.]
Choiseul replied with counter-propositions less humiliating
to his nation. When the question of accepting or rejecting
them came before the Ministry, the views of Pitt prevailed
by a majority of one, and, to the disappointment of Bute and
the King, the conferences were broken off. Choiseul, launched
again on the billows of a disastrous war, had seen and provided
against the event.
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