was frightened, bullied, and betrayed into it. The consequence of this situation was that no plan was laid, no preparations whatever thought of.
"The Duke of Newcastle in Council proposed seizing the French men-of-war. Lord Granville laughed at that, and was the cause of seizing the merchant-men upon the principle of common sense, 'If you hit, hit hard,' which measure, suggested by Lord Granville who could not be considered as more than a looker-on in Council, saved us from Ruin.
"The French had no idea of war. I have the best authority for being certain that it was not wished or expected by the French. The Court, the nobility, the people all disliked it. I had several long conversations with Cardinal Bernis about it at Rome in 1771, since it has become matter of history, and with various other persons intimately informed of what passed at that time in both countries. M. de Mirepoix, their Ambassador, was completely deceived, perhaps not intentionally, by the Duke of Newcastle. Lord Albemarle died in the crisis; his corpse was insulted upon account of his debts, or on account of his dying scandalously indebted with nothing to pay.[1]
"The French Ministry and Court were in confusion, the King determined to have no Prime Minister, indifferent as to every thing else which fell under the influence of Madame de Pompadour. She brought Cardinal Bernis forward, whom the King found with her in such a manner as to alarm the Abbé for his person, instead of which he made him Minister. The Cardinal told me at Rome in 1771, that the cabals ran so high against him at Court that the only struggle there was how to give the most certain intelligence to England of the design against Minorca,[2] on purpose that it might fail, which carried them so far that he told me he was at last persuaded that we must believe it was given out so publickly on purpose to deceive.
