Excerpt from The Popular History of England, Vol. 6

Dread of invasion. - Defence of the country by foreign troops. - French fleet at Minorca. - Admiral Byng. - Surrender of St. Philip, in Minorca. - Popular rage against Byng. - Commencement of the Seven Years" War. - Successes of Frederick of Prussia. - Household of George, prince of Wales. - Changes of Ministry. - Newcastle retires. - Administration of the duke of Devonshire and Mr. Pitt. - Altered tone of the king"s speech. - Militia Bill. - Foreign troops sent home. - Subsidy to the king of Prussia. - Trial of Byng. - His execution. - Pitt and Legge dismissed from their employments. - National feeling. - Coalition of Newcastle and Pitt. - Affairs of India. - Black Hole at Calcutta. - Surajah Dowlah occupies Calcutta. - It is re-taken by Clive and Watson. - The battle of Plassey. - Sarajah Dowlah deposed and killed. - Meer Jaffier Subahdar of Bengal. - Establishment of the British ascendancy in India.

In a fortnight after his dismissal from office, Pitt, from his place in parliament, sent forth a voice whose echoes would be heard throughout the land. The nation was dreading a French invasion - sullenly trembling at the possible consequences of an assault upon the capital, and without confidence in the government to which the public defence was entrusted. Pitt seconded the motion of the Secretary of War, for an army of thirty-four thousand men, being an increase of fifteen thousand. He had wanted even a larger increase in the previous year. The king"s speech of the preceding Session had lulled the nation into a fallacious dream of repose. "He wanted to call this country out of that enervate state, that twenty thousand men from France could shake it. The maxims of our government were degenerated, not our natives." An opinion had gone forth, which in 1757 was embodied in a book of extraordinary popularity, alluded to by Cowper: -

" The inestimable Estimate of Brown

Rose like a paper-kite, and charm"d the town."

The nation was told, "We are rolling to the brink of a precipice that must destroy us."

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